My Cat

This is how he sits next to me in the recliner...no need to say more

Great Bath Concoction

Who doesn't love a great bath?  Here's a few things I used tonight

1. Beer
2. Sour Patch Kids
3. Magazine
4. Bath Oil
5. Adele's 21 in the background playing

Song of the Week

Lana Del Rey's "Born to Die" from her upcoming album.  This girl's got something definitely interesting going on

Revamped Guest Bedroom

When I bought my home 2 years ago the guest bedroom was a baby's room.  After 2 years I finally got down to updating the bedroom.  I switched the bright green walls to a light blue, pulled out all the trim and replaced with white trim, made hand-painted mustache pillowcases, an iron-on "poor man's" headboard, and brought in an antique sewing machine from when I was little.

Here's the before:

And after:

This is a great example of my decorating style, odd ball unique mixed with old school classic.

Finally Decorating the Kitchen

I've lived in my house for a few years but have been hesitant to hang things on the wall.  I finally gave in and decided to add some flavor finally.  I went with some discounted plates I found at Urbanoutfitters and Anthropologie.  You just need some plate hangers from your local hardware store (around $2.99 a piece) and a fairly simple project.

Before:

After:

Chocolate Coffee Drink

Sometimes I don't want to run to Starbucks and spend the $ to get a yummy frozen coffee drink.  Here's a simple recipe that I use to squash the cravings.  Most of the measurements are estimates, which yes I know is annoying, but it is really what you like.

What you need: 1/2 tray ice cubes, 2 tablespoons instant coffee grounds, 2 big squeezes of chocolate syrup, 1/2 can sweetened condensed milk, 1/2 cup water.

Throw all in a blender and then taste test, add more chocolate syrup for flavor.  When done, through in a cup and enjoy!

Holiday Starbucks Joy

Carmel Brulee Late or Peppermint Mocha, either one plus this red cup makes me oh so happy!

Leftover Feta

How can you not love feta?  I had some leftover from a feta/egg/green onion (amazing combination) meal and knew I had to use it up and not waste a morsel.  What's a girl to do? Well make some mashed potatoes (I use the 90 cal 3-minute ready kind) and through that amazing cheese on top and enjoy!

Christmas Lights FAIL :(

Got brand new lights, strung them up, left the house and came back four hours later to burnt out lights  :(

Rejoice! New Black Keys!!!!

Love this band so much, can't find great music like this around too much any more.  They just released their new album this week.

And here's a couple pictures from when I saw them this past summer, gave a great show no doubt!

Chocolate Covered Oreos

Here's a little treat that I made for Thanksgiving and was demanded for Christmas, chocolate covered oreos.

Here's what you need: Oreo's (stating the obvious), 1 bag chocolate chips, and some Crisco.

Microwave the entire bag of chocolate chips and 1 tablespoon Crisco for 1 minute, stir them and then microwave at 20 second intervals until completely melted.

Once ready I made a little assembly line, Oreo's - Melted Chocolate - Wax paper lined pan

Dip the Ore's into the chocolate and stir around with a spoon, pick up (I use 2 spoons to not get my hands messy) then lay on the wax paper.  Once your all finished placed the pan in the fridge for 20-30 minutes for the chocolate to set.  

Now your all done and can enjoy, or you can add a little more decoration.  Following the melting instructions above, I melted white chocolate and placed it in a ziplock bag, then cut the tip of one of the corners and then squeezed out some decorations!  Place back in the fridge for a few minutes to let the new chocolate set, then pull out.

Through in a cute tin and you got some scrumption cookies!

Painted Vase

A little spray paint goes a long way.  I got a few clear vases of flowers when I underwent surgery and instead of keep the clear vases (not really my style) I picked up some Krylon indoor/outdoor spray pain in white and just sprayed away!

Holiday Sparkles!!

It's a funny thing, as a kid/teenager I NEVER wore nailpolish, I just couldn't stand it.  Now as an adult, I can't go without it, even if it's just clear polish.  You could say I'm a nailpolish junkie.  Sephora for Opi just came out with a new color/topcoat for the holidays and it's right up my alley!

For the base coat I used Rimmel's 850 Hard Edge color (I love Rimmel for affordable color's and good quality.  If you scan your local paper you can't usual find $1 off coupons and then sales at local drugstores to get them on the pretty cheap).  Then I topped my nails of with Sephora by O.P.I.'s Don't Be Eggnog-ious.  It's a limited edition holiday color for $9.50.

It's gives off great sparkle and makes an outfit a little more interesting :)

Cute Housewarming Gift - Scrabble Coasters!

Here's a great idea for a friend who loves Scrabble, Scrabble Coasters!

Deer Tick - Ashamed

Love this band and this song, their new records comes out next week!

Rachel Zoe Vest

Let me just state, I love Rachel Zoe.  I think her styling is fabulous and now she has moved into making clothes.  

I've been envying this vest for a long time and as a "post-surgery" gift to myself, I got it!  The quality is great and it feels very luxurious for being fake fur, the only problem is that it's consistently sold out in my size, so I had to go up a size, but that's probably more the Rachel Zoe look anyways!

From Mailbox to Entertainment Center

I found 2 of these shelves ready for the dump, they were originally used as mailbox holders for a new condominium site.  Once the owners put the permanent mailboxes up, they were going to get rid of them.  Thankfully I convinced them to let me have them and I painted them first brown, then white.  My father then created me 2 more and then a custom one for the cd's. 

Originally I had these stand vertical and hold books, but once I moved into my new house there was a nook that these fit perfectly into horizontally and fit my rather large DVD collection (and some of my books)

Can sometimes find a great treasure in the trash!

Travel & Blankets!

I love to travel and have been lucky to do some in my time.  I've only been international once (Italy! and a tarmac in Paris), but here's a (faraway) picture of all the places I've been in the good old USA!  I hope to get to the middle of the map sometime soon and you can spot the road trip route the family took as a kid

I have this weird obsession with blankets, I'm one of those people that loves to be cold with four or five blankets on top of her.  I think the love comes from my grandmother making me Afghan blankets, I was never able to pick up that skill, but I am able to quilt.

The top blanket below is one of my grandmother's and then bottom two are ones that I made years ago

Concert Memories

I've tried to save all the tickets stubs from the concerts and sporting events I've grown up going to, but have lost a few among the years.  Right now I have them all up on a corkboard, I used to be able to see pictures I took in the background but now it's fully covered.  You can even make out my 1st concert ticket from 1992! And yes, my music taste varies and I love Bon Jovi, who doesn't?

Yummy Italian

I'm still laid up from back surgery so cooking has been a bit of a no-go for me.  Last night I ordered from my favorite local Italian Restaurant Di Carlo's and luckily they offer delivery service.

I got a Caprese Salad, which the picture doesn't show, but it does come with balsamic vinaigrette sauce.  Caprese salads are one of my favorite things, mozzarella is just too good for words

I then tried Manicotti for the first time and it was equally delicious

And what's great about Di Carlo's is that the prices are reasonable and the food quantities are so large that you get 2-3 meals out of 1 order, can't be that!

My current favorite song

It's only 100 CD's......

As a baby shower party favor I offered to make a personalized CD for each guest.  Who knew the guest list would be almost a 100 people?! (97 if we're being exact)

Took a little longer then what a thought but here are some of the finished products

Early Christmas Gift!!!

I asked for a pretty specific Christmas gift this year, a microwave to go over my stove.  I don't have any venting in my home (it was built in the 1950s), this means that every time I cook I need to open windows and turn off all the smoke detectors.  The open windows in a Wisconsin winter is not to great let me tell you.  So I really wanted microwave to 1. help with the venting and 2. save counterspace (I have so little).

Christmas may be 2 months away, but lucky me, I got it early!

Thimbleberry Jam!

My father gave me this Thimbleberry Jam from Copper World and just raved about it.  I've always just been a grape jelly kind of woman, but I gave this stuff and try and I must admit, it is delicious....a must try. It comes from Michigan's Upper Peninsula area called Keweenaw Peninsula I believe.

Here's the link to where you can check this stuff out more:  www.calumetcopper.com

Flowers Always Brighten the Day

It always makes you feel better when someone goes out of their way to send you something so beautiful.  What made this even more special, the flowers were delivered to the wrong address and the good Samaritan found my address and delivered them to me.  Made for a sweet night.

Music I'm Lovin

Who You Are by Jessie J

Nobody's Perfect by Jessie J

Civilian by Wye Oak

Tiny Little Robot by Cage the Elephant

Fresh Blood by Eels

Back Surgery

Let me start this post by letting you know I'm a bit drugged right now and this post may not make since so much because of this, but here we go....

I've been off for a few days do to lovely back surgery.  I had a herniated disc that I had to have dealt with, and anybody who's had back problems can know how terrible it can be.  For the last week I couldn't even walk without assistance, but now after having the surgery so much better.  There is still the obvious pain from someone having cut into your muscles and playing with your spine, but such a big relief.   Totally recovering will take probably 3 months or so, but considering I've been sick since December 21, 2010, I think i can make it a few more months.

I made my dad take some awesome pictures while in the hospital to remind me anytime I'm in pain, that I was in the hospital before and it was much worse. I'll try to get some pictures up in a bit.

Until then, more rest and I'll be modeling the always fashionable support socks for circulation and a back brace, at least it's black and maybe a little slimming :)

Just watch...

Rough Morning

So this is were I started out my morning, I will say I'm completely lucky that I don't have cancer and that I was seeing a hematologist/oncologist which works in this wing at the hospital.  This is most certainly not a fun way to start the day and I said a little prayer for all those a saw there today.  Was definitely grateful that although I'm facing surgery in a few days, it could be worse

Race for the Cure

On Sunday, September 25, 2011, Downtown Milwaukee hosted the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure to raise money for breast cancer research.  This is an incredibly important topic for all women and for men as well.  This was the first time I participated in the event, and I was glad I did.  I raced in honor of two family members who have fought the disease, one has beat it twice and the other lost her battle her second time around.

You can find more information about the annual event here: http://www.komenmilwaukee.org/

Here are some pictures of the event!

Survivors releasing their balloons

Start of the race! I was on the walking side

Yes, it took 1 hr 15 minutes for 5k, but I have 2 herniated discs!

Beautiful Pink Fountain

Go Brewers!

Nothing like a classic American game of baseball.  I won two ticket's to the Milwaukee Brewers v. Florida Marlins

It was a great game with great food and came out with a Brewer's win!  I forgot to take pic's of the yummy chicken and fruit I had (plus pretzels and cheese and maybe some cookies? Girls got to have some fun!).  Now on to the postseason, the first series sold out fast, but hopefully they win and I can make it to the next set of games!

Chocolate Pie...mmmmmmm

I came across this recipe for a healthy version of Chocolate Pie found here

http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com

I must say I was scared at the thought of using Tofu.  I tried it once and was not a fan, but thought of giving it another go.  After much searching in the supermarket, I finally found it in the organic produce section.

This recipe ended up being ridiculously easy and incredibly delicious.  Instead of making one pie, I made mini's!  Much easier to pass around to friends without the hassle of cutting and making a mess.

This will surely be a repeated recipe in my household and has turned my mind to the positive on Tofu

Music I'm Lovin

I love music and that's an understatement, here's what I'm listening to right now


Listen To Your Love by Mona

Love More by Sharon Van Etten

Low Rising by The Swell Season

What the Water Gave Me by Florence + The Machine

True Love Way by Kings of Leon

Stuffed Peppers

Here's my 1st attempt in cooking and eating stuffed peppers.  I used the recipe found here Stuffed Peppers My Way and am very pleased with the results.

This was also my first time even cooking rice, it took a while to even locate the Arborio Rice in the supermarket, but once I got started, things moved quickly.

The filling is so flavorful I have made it since, just to eat without the peppers even!  the only suggestion I would make is just a tad less Italian Seasoning and salt.  I'm definitely eager to look for a meat filled stuffed peppers recipe now

Tomato Romp

I've wanted to do the Tomato Romp for three years now and have always had something come up, but not this year! The Tomato Romp happens on Milwaukee's East Side and is a day full of Bloody Mary's and Tomato throwing.  I got down there around 1 pm and was only able to make it through 8 of the 13 bars serving Bloody Mary's and chasers.  All the Bloody Mary's, with strong exception to 1, were good, and by the end I was a wee bit happy to say the least.  I will definitely be participating in this great event next year.
http://www.theeastside.org/