Look—my first installment of Confessional Friday! Abuncha people I know play this game and I wanted to join in soooo…welcome to this week’s deepest, darkest secrets…
1. We watched Lifetime’s “Drew Peterson: Untouchable” on Sunday instead of football. Tyler would probably lie to your face before admitting this. But it’s true.
2. I got hot pants y’all!!
No, they were not purchased in 1994, I do not Jazzercise, and I did not sing, “I’m so excited” with Jessie Spano at the Max. These were in fact purchased on Wednesday. I was looking for some running pants that I could wear on my lazy days to work that a} weren’t yoga pants {already own} or b} weren’t running tights {inappropriate}. I didn’t think the side ornamentation was a big deal when I bought them, but I was painfully aware of those neon orange lightening bolts all morning at work.
3. I started a new workout regimen…
Perhaps you too have pinned these on Pinterest. There is no. way. in h-e-double-hockey-sticks that THAT burns 100 calories. HOWEVER, if you’re too lazy to go to the gym and you perform this routine during every commercial break across two hours, you will have some very sore pecs the next day. I think I did 100 push-ups Wednesday night… Better than nothing, right?
So…that’s all for my first week in Confessional Friday! I’ll have to take better notes next week… For now, the wine is opened, the pizza is here, and we just ordered “50/50.” I heart Joseph Gordon-Levitt…
Happy Friday and HAPPY WEEKEND!!
{FAIL! I just realized A Blonde Ambition didn’t post a Confessional Friday this week for me to link to. Ha—who needs her?! Better luck next week…}
So, one of the best gifts I got this Christmas was from my mom—she is the best gift buyer. I didn’t ask for it, didn’t need it, probably wouldn’t have bought it for myself… But it’s SO fun and I’m so glad I have it!
It’s the Bella Pie Maker sold at William-Sonoma. It makes cute, little mini-pies in 10 minutes or less. I tried it out for the first time last week and here it comes… My official endorsement.
It was Sunday night and I was looking for an easy dinner option… And while I do enjoy the baking process, that night I was looking for something fast and easy. So I grabbed a box of pie crust, a can of mixed veggies, a can of cream of chicken soup, and some chicken breast.
This is what it looked like… Gross, right? Don’t worry, it gets better.
Using the pie cutters that come with the pie maker, I cut out eight circles from the pie crust {The ones that go on the bottom are larger than the ones on top—you have to roll it out a bit flatter, but you can get 8 circles from the crust. I too was surprised…}.
After laying the bottom crusts on their slots, I spooned in the chicken mixture, laid the top crusts on top, and sealed the lid shut
The pie maker is about the size of an old school waffle iron, and like a waffle iron there’s no timer or on/off switch. You plug it in and let it heat up until the light turns green.
The ones on the left clearly baked correctly…the ones on the right were a bit of a flop. Bad case of user error—I didn’t spoon enough filling into those, so the tops didn’t touch the ceiling of the pie maker. The user guide warned me…
So I did this and hoped gravity would help me out…
Which it did. It worked well enough because dinner was great—mini pot pies served over rice, baked in 8 minutes! They were so good! And we may or may not have made pies for dessert…
They were good but they didn’t quite look like this… I guess I’ll just have to keep trying!
In terms of portion, one pie is a generous serving for a dessert because they’re fairly deep. Dinner is a little trickier—one wasn’t quite enough for me, but two was a little too much {though two is probably perfect for a dude.}…so of course, I ate both of mine.
All in all, this is very much a gadget—not a necessity, just something fun for the kitchen to mix up your baking! {And it’s currently on sale at William-Sonoma…} Maybe I’ll try to get creative and make something cute and fun like this…
“Is this some new effort to be ‘authentic’?” my sister asked me on the phone today—referring to my recent absence. Ha! I wish. I’ve just been a little…. lazy. The post-holiday lull in life and social activities has sucked me right in… Tyler’s job has slowed down, my job is regularly regular, and we’ve done no major traveling for three weeks, so we’re just hanging out and getting fat! We haven’t been total bums though…
We DID venture to Annapolis last weekend. It’s an easy 30 miles up the road, but I’ve lived here for nearly six years and had never been! We have friends who bought an adorable row house just a few blocks off of the water, so we had a great excuse to finally visit. It was cold but the weather just added to the charm of the city. It felt a lot like Boston, just on a smaller scale.
The start of an easy drive…
{Aren’t you impressed with my amazing cellphone pics? I know, me too.}
Maryland Ave was lined with adorable home décor, antique, and monogram shops. I was in heaven.
So makeable, right??
We didn’t go into the Naval Academy but it was fun to see the midshipmen walking around town in their uniforms. In such a picturesque place, the men in uniform walking around just made me feel like I was in a movie. It was all just a little too perfect.
We walked everywhere—we enjoyed lunch at Pusser’s, dinner & wine at Red Red Wine, and lots of window shopping in between. Back at the house we sat around the fire pit with wine and hot chocolate while Brad & Tyler relived their college glory days until our feet froze. It was such a fun weekend—we’re lucky to have fun, hospitable friends with great taste in real estate!
In other news… I finally updated my Etsy shop again! My plan was to start slowly by just adding coasters, but I got 10 orders in one week. Sooooo…there goes that plan. The customers have great taste though—check out some of the colors they’ve picked!
I’m also adding new trellis designs this month—I think they’ll be really cute. Keep your eyes peeled!
In more exciting news…our friends Jamie & Michael welcomed their bouncin’ baby boy {Ryder} a few weeks ago. We made the exclusive hospital invite list, but we were able to spend some real time with them last week when we took them dinner. It was so fun to see them in their home as a family of three—we are so happy for them in this sweet time.
I mean, seriously? Check out those dimples.
We hope some of that magic baby juice rubs off on us!
And in the last piece of excitement…winter has finally arrived! We finally got our first snow a few weeks ago. The temperatures have been so up and down this “winter” {seems like it’s been that way everywhere} and I have really been annoyed—not just that it hadn’t snowed, but the temperatures keep getting into the 60s! Yuck. The first snow came on two Mondays ago. It took a long time before it finally stuck, but it snowed non-stop for a good 10 or 12 hours…it was so beautiful to watch from the windows.
And it was so nice to come to this…finally!
{Just in case you’re judging…the garland is our neighbor’s and she hasn’t taken it down. I don’t really mind though! {And you shouldn’t judge.}}
We got more snow this past weekend, so…I’ll probably talk more about snow this week. Because I love snow. Snowy, snow snow….
But anyway, that’s about it! Just living a low key life for the last few weeks… I’ve been thinking a lot about marriage and money and pie, though, so hopefully I’ll tell you about that soon.
I realized today I’m on a current kick where I say “super” and “crazy” a. lot. Especially “crazy town.” I’m really liking that one a lot lately.
I think it’s hilarious when people say “bananas” instead of “crazy” {Like, “It’s bananas in there!”}. And I hereby resolve to use it more. So that people will think I’m funny.
I also say “no worries” about 27 times a day. But that’s good because it just means I’m laid back, right?
Tyler and I call each other “babe” more than we use each other’s real names by a ratio of something like 99:1.
Whenever we say “I’m just kidding,” we always follow it up with “Puddin’.” As in, “I’m just kiddin’…Puddin’.”
Like any good southerner, I use “fixin'” all the time because it’s totally a legit word.
I call it a “cuss word,” not a “swear word” and if I say one, it’s usually “dammit.” But I try not to.
And I call every boy patient of mine “dude” way more than their moms probably want me to.
So that’s what I say… What do YOU say?
{100 points if you can name this movie: “I say…that what YOU say…is what I say.”}
Last night, for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, I sat down and read blogs. I also pinned ORIGINAL items on Pinterest that I found all by myself. For a good hour or two.
And it was heavenly.
I think when Tyler went to bed first, he was afraid I’d be down here all night. I wasn’t. I just needed to sit down and read my favorite blogs. I’ve skimmed here and there but I don’t think I’ve truly been caught up on people since the summer.
And I realized how much I missed it.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Pinterest. I adore it. I’m addicted. I get annoyed when I check it on my phone and people aren’t pinning enough, so the same stuff that I looked at two hours ago is still there. Pin, people, pin!! {But then I’m a total hypocrite because someone will pin like 8,000 pins in 15 minutes and it fills up my pin feed, or whatever you call it, and it’s usually on a topic I’m not remotely interested in, like 17th century portraits of Chinese emperors, and I’m like, “Stop pinning dammit! Don’t you have anything better to do??” Anyone else suffer from this?} Anyway, it’s a wonderful concept. But I’ve also noticed that I read blogs less because of it. It’s like a shortcut. Why read all of the housing blogs when you can skim Pinterest without reading a thing, and only if you like the image do you go farther to the words?
But the words are the best part.
Especially if you’re reading Edie’s. I think I was an occasional reader of her blog until last Christmas when her house burned down. And then I was sucked in. I kept reading and reading and reading. I so admired her response. And now I love her. I read her posts and I want to be her. She has such wisdom, she is smart {like, really smart. like doctor smart, plus she reads like an English lit major}, I think she’s funny, she is a crazy good communicator, and she has fantastic taste. I love her blog because she writes about faith…and then she’ll show some crazy cool design boards and pictures of her house…and then she writes funny stuff about her refrigerator…and then shares pictures of a barn dance with her kids...and then she’s self-deprecating in a charming kind of way, not in an oh-I-really-think-I’m-perfect-but-I-should-say-I’m-not-so-people-will-tell-me-I-am kind of way. I don’t love her because I think she’s perfect, I love her because I think she’s authentic and what she writes really resonates with me.
{I’m using the world “love” loosely here y’all—I love her as much as I can love a stranger who I’ve never met, but think she’s really cool and wish she’d take me under her wing and mentor me if we lived on the same street… Y’know? That kind of love.}
And then after reading Edie’s blog, I hopped on over to Nester, who’s co-hosting a series on building up your blog. Today’s topic was on authenticity which included nuggets of insight and information from popular bloggers on how to be more sincere and authentic on your blog.
And I loved reading it.
And I was inspired.
And I was convicted.
Because I don’t feel like I’ve been authentic. I don’t think I’ve been disingenuous, but I haven’t really made myself vulnerable in any way or posted about anything of depth. To be honest, I was just so busy over the last two months, I posted to get a post up. And while I’m not a professional blogger and don’t have sponsors and all that jazz, I like to keep my little corner maintained. So it was all kind of obligatory.
But those posts were boring and I knew it.
So here’s to great bloggers and authenticity. I need to read more of everything to make my little space more interesting. Less Pinterest, more scripture. Less Bachelor {or not}, more books. Less surface, more of me.
Hey dudes—Happy New Year and all that! I know I haven’t posted since Christmas but we didn’t take the laptop with us on our tour of the lower United States trip and I had to do the last two posts from my iPhone {yes, that one—the one with all the pictures…don’t even get me started on the faultiness of the Blogger app}. I was afraid that Tyler’s grandparents were going to think I had anti-social/addiction issues with my phone…or that I don’t like them…or that my marriage was trouble... Point: it took a super long time sitting in the corner by myself to get that post up.
ANYWAY. Here’s a little recap of our Christmas in DC and our trips to Nebraska and Georgia. {I will try very hard to include more pictures than words…}
Before heading west to mayhem, we had a little date night to ourselves. We saw Sherlock Holmes and walked and shopped in Georgetown before hitting Serendipity 3 for truffle mac & cheese and frozen hot chocolate. It was divine.
A few days later, we flew to Omaha. We popped in to visit a few friends before heading to Tyler’s grandparent’s place—we landed in Nebraska at 3pm and by 8 o’clock we were in our fourth city! Typically there’s snow on the ground and the lake is frozen but this year was unseasonably warm... So no snow. Bummer.
We spent great time with Tyler’s entire family on the 24th…which included lots of soup, a Dirty Santa, and a regular gift exchange. There were 26 of us so it was crazy town in that basement.
And then had a low key Christmas morning after the rest of the family dispersed…
Christmas morning in PJs with Grant… I think I mentioned kidnapping him several times.
It’s just not Christmas morning without breakfast casseroles… So I made three the night before.
On the 26th, we drove to Randy’s {B-I-L} family farm in Newman Grove. Tyler & the gang shot skeet… I played with babies.
That night we did a fondue. {And then we hopped in the station wagon and went to see Grease…And the next morning we all got up and voted for Carter!} I’m kidding—it was fun!
Kara & I also built a gingerbread house with the boys that night—it wasn’t perfect but it was one of my favorite parts of the trip!
On the 27th we hopped on a plane to Atlanta. Most of the big festivities were done by the time we got there so I don’t have a ton of pictures of the family—just a whole lot of Halley! Tyler & I begrudgingly baby-sat one morning when my sister had to work. We were a little tired so we let her watch “Tangled” three times in a row. “HORSEY MOVIE!!!”
The child that never sits still will sit entranced for a good hour when this is on… {but she still has to kick her feet}.
One night we went out for Mexican and on our way out, a train was passing behind the restaurant…
“Train!Train!Train!Train!”
Mom & I hit up Ballard Backdoor on Thursday—the Ballard Design outlet in Atlanta… I don’t make it there every time I’m in Atlanta, but I try to get there as much as I can. I think this can now be considered a Christmas tradition…
Homegirl wracked. up. I bought a ton of curtain panels and shower curtains for $10 and $15 {normally listed for $100+ each} for spring Etsy pillows. I also grabbed a few burlap pillow cases, Christmas ribbon, and a pillow for myself. I love that place…
Tyler’s lucky we flew because this hutch—the top portion you see was $50. Fifty. Dollars. It retails for $700. There are so many things I’d do with that if I had the space…
Forsyth Fabrics is in the immediate vicinity of Ballard… They kicked me out for drooling all over everything.
{I am obsessed with this fabric…}
That night we double dated with my cousin & his wife at Buckhead Diner—we took no pictures of humans. Just the blue cheese chips we had as an appetizer…
To die for.
And that was it! My grandmother is a champ and underwent a knee replacement while we were there so we invaded her space for a bit before we left town. All in all, it was a great trip—some parts were crazy and overwhelming but we also took in our fair share of movies and took crazy long naps. It’s just not Christmas without family and we were so lucky to spend so much time with both sides.
It was perfect until I got in a fight with Halley on our way out of town…
