Wednesday's Wearings, #9

Howdy, howdy, howdy.... Hope everyone is getting back into the swing of things with school starting. I have a fear ours may crash this weekend, two were asleep on the couch this morn when I walked in to send them out the door, awesome.

So my series with my partner in crime,

What makes you be you, and dress the way that you do?

may be lacking a bit this week for many reasons...

1. Tired

2. I don't like the dress, the shoulders are pointy as if I should be on Star Trek, hence the layering, and it doesn't fall right, but this is what happens when you always run late....no outfit changes.

3. Tired

4. Keurig has come to a standstill. It just stares at me like 'what? what do you want me to do?', which results in taking us back to numbers 1 & 3.

5. My hands aren't working very well. When I paint or re-do a piece of furniture, usually my hands swell after I finish. Not this time. Within hours of the first day I could tell they were not wanting to cooperate. NOT. GOOD.

So last night, while tearing apart a chair and painting it, I couldn't even keep the trigger pressed down long enough to paint it. Glad my left hand could help to pick up the slack on this one.

6. Doggone tired....just plain ol' tired. Which is why I picked this outfit...already had the pics....sorry people. Again, refer back to 1, 3, & 4.

7. It is so stinking hot here, I couldn't stand the though of jeans

8. It is 1:30 in the a.m. My brain tends to go to auto pilot around 12:58 in the a.m. so I am probably babbling.

I had said on a previous post how orange wasn't really my color. Who knew I hand ANOTHER orange striped dress in my closet I had totally forgotten about? What are the odds...

(dress:Blue Sky , shrug:Daytrip, shoes:TOMS, glasses:Fossil, earrings:Michelle, headband:Local Boutique, cuff:Target)

Head on over to Oak House 5, maybe her coffee maker is working a tad better than mine :)

To many more,
A

Let it Begin

Well, it's finally 'official'...

summatime, as we know it, is over...

and as of today, everyone, for us, is back at school

and it is eerily quite....

And I'm actually sad. Usually I am pretty happy just to get back into a routine. I don't know why I am not too happy to get back into it, maybe it's because they actually all started sleeping in? I don't know. But I am super sad to see this one go today...

This is the last year before she is 'really' in school, and it is breaking my heart to see her go. Funny, never thought I would be like this, but she is my little sidekick, my home depot buddy and target know-it-all, and has been for almost five years, while the older two run around. She starts back to school today, pre-k, and can hardly wait...she even laid out her clothes and shoes last night and I just wanted to put them up so she couldn't go, :/....bleh, evidently I need more projects than what I have, to keep my mind distracted!

Here's to a great school year, that hopefully won't fly by too fast

To many more,
A

Music Mondays, Fall Out Boy, Patrick Stump

I have been a long time fan of Fall Out Boy....amazing lyrics, the instrumental rocks, and the vocals can't compare to anything else. I could seriously listen to Patrick sing all day long, even if it was just from the phone book...I seriously miss them

Golden

Dance, Dance

Since then, they have taken a so-called 'break', and this morning, on the way to drop off everyone at school, I head Patrick on the radio talking about his new album 'Soul Punk' and sang an acoustic version of 'This City'.....sounds different than FOB but the acoustic was quit lovely, if I must say myself :)

To many more,
A

Features, Etsy & Bicycles

Yes....somehow they all go together, well for me anyways because they are all things that make my heart flutter, besides stress and caffeine.

Late last night, while I was struggling to keep my eyes open, I was trying to finish putting up all of the, bunches and bunches, of hair clips on Etsy. Lets just say I got started and not say how many times the wrong picture loaded. Anyways, I got these little lovelies up...

Head on over to Etsy and hopefully will have all of them up, mayyyyybe....

While I was waiting on pics to load, I was going through comments and saw one from Natalie at Beach House in the City. She was going to feature my Entry Way Chairs, awesomeness! You must head over to her blog, it is uber awesome and I am excited that she found me and featured my chairs. So a big thank you goes out to Natalie, you and your blog rock!

And finally, I'm sure you are wondering what bicycles has to do with all of this. Well, not a whole lot, except that on one of the many blogs I follow, A Cup of Jo, she recently posted a bicycle wedding that I was looking at while waiting for pics to load, again...

Yup, you read that right. How cool is this?

I was truly smitten with all of these pics. Head over to Joanna Goddard's blog and check the rest of their story out,....love, love, love...

To many more,
A

Steak Stroganoff with Parslied Noodles & Lemon Frappe'

We aren't at home very much, at night time, anymore. And I'm getting to where I really miss it, either school stuff, sports, music, work/meetings, etc. steps in and before long, you can't remember the last time you sat down for dinner, and not just at chick-fil-a.

So before school started back, the 12 year old kept asking to me to let her make supper. So I told her she could help me and we would make it before the nine month craziness, that we call the school year, begins.

She was in charge of the Parslied Noodles, and I did the rest.

Steak Stroganoff with Parslied Noodles

1 medium onion, thinly sliced and separated into rings

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

4 (4-ounce) cubed steaks

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 (4-ounce) can mushroom stems and pieces, undrained

1/2 cup sour cream

Parslied Noodles (see below)

Cook onion in 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat 5 minutes or until onion is tender, stirring often. Remove onion and set aside.

Combine flour and salt; dredge steaks in flour mixture. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in skillet; add steaks. Cover and cook over medium heat 4 minutes on each side or until done. Remove steaks, and keep warm. Add onion and mushrooms to pan drippings; cook until thoroughly heated. Remove from heat, and stir in sour cream.

Arrange steaks over Parslied Noodles, and spoon sauce over steaks.

Yield: 4 servings

I find it easier to hold on to the onion and slice the rings, if you peel back and use it to hold while slicing...

First place I think I messed up...no lid, kind of dry. Guess I was too focused on the heat and taking pics, whoops...

And again on the heat, guess it was too hot. And since I didn't use the lid, there wasn't really any drippings left. So it was more of a paste and not a sauce, booooo....

Oh well, it was still yummy..... Even the kid who doesn't like mushrooms, managed to eat it, awesomeness...

And always love me some roasted asparagus...

Parslied Noodles (if you don't have time for this, just buy a pkg of egg noodles and cook according to pkg directions)

4 cups water

2 teaspoons salt

4 ounces wide egg noodles, uncooked

1 tablespoon butter or margarine

1 tablespoon chopped fresh or 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes

Combine water and salt; bring to a boil. Add noodles, and cook 7 to 9 minutes, stirring occasionally; drain. Combine noodles, butter, and parsley.

Yeild: 4 servings

And viola....

And for dessert:

Lemon Frappe'

1 (6-ounce) can frozen lemonade concentrate, undiluted

1/2 cup cold water

1 pint lemon sherbet or vanilla ice cream*

1 (12-ounce) can ginger ale

Combine first 3 ingredients in container of an electric blender; cover and process until smooth, stopping one to scrape down sides. Pour into a serving pitcher; add ginger ale.. Serve Immediately.

Yield: 4 cups

(there was 6 if us, so I doubled all of this, and it made 7 or so cups)

*Plenty of lemon favor prevails if you use vanilla ice cream in this slushy dessert. Every time I have made it, I cannot find lemon sherbet and get the ice cream. Everyone loves it. It is super sweet and almost can't imagine adding more lemon to it, by using the sherbet.

Mine was a tad runnier than usual, the lemonade and ice cream hadn't completely frozen back from when I brought them home from the store...

Why yes, I do have numb-chuck skills...

For some it was perfect...

Others, I guess it must have been a tad sour...

To many more,
A

Wednesday's Wearings, #8

Annnnnd we are back.

From summer vacay, that is. Almost.....still have one at home that will start back this next week, sniff sniff. Yup, I'm actually a tad bit sad. Why, you might ask? They were ALL, for the first time in 12 1/2 years, starting to sleep in, sigh....

So I am trying to get caught up on everything, blog included, and am loving this weeks:

What makes you you, and dress the way you do?

I realize this is not everyones style. In fact, it took me a bit to get used to wearing skinny jeans, but now it's almost all that I wear, depending on what shoes I want to put on. Sometimes it doesn't help when the Mister says he feels like he is with a Jonas Bros, awesome....so NOT what I am aiming for, but I really love wearing them. And this weeks is right up my alley.

(top:F21, jeans:7 For All Mankind, shoes:TOMS, glasses:Fossil, hair clip & earrings:Local Boutique, bracelet:John Hardy)

Hope everyone has a fabulous Wednesday. As for me and the mini me, I promised we would stay at home so she can play and I can work on getting these lil' gals up on Etsy

And work on making this into something lovely for hair, to also put up on Etsy, and maybe myself!

Be sure to hop on over to Oak House 5, and see what Kelly is up to.

To many more,
A

Music Mondays, Talihina Sky, Kings of Leon

Back to school, back to school....I would of definitely considered homeschooling at 6:15 this morning, but it MADE me get most of my stuff finished up last night, early enough so I could sit down with the Mister and watch a bit of the good 'ol tele, while folding laundry of course. And I was SO excited to watch this, after waiting for a while for it to come on.

I know I have talked about Kings of Leon and how much I adore their music, BUT last night we watch the documentary, Talihina Sky, on their background told through home videos, interviews and documentary footage from inside the studio and on tour.

I LOVE watching things like this, an inside look on peoples lives that you would normally never know about. All of the 'characters' (family) you are introduced to, gives you a totally different view of the group...it's very eye opening. I loved watching everything on their religious background (they were raised Pentecostal, their dad being a preacher), and how Caleb stayed up all night and thought he was going to hell for getting and signing a record contract.

Quite interesting, especially after reading about their recent Dallas concert a few weeks back.

Here is the trailer for the documentary (this clip is NOT censored, TVMA)

The entire show ran right under 90 minutes, and we both really enjoyed it. If you have extra time and are interested in KOL, it is a good watch.

To many more,
A

Spice of Life

In case I haven't stated it enough on the blog, we move, a LOT. So I have several areas that I am still working on in this house, that have been 'in progress' for a while. Guess I finally got bored enough to begin to finish them up.

In the last house, I had a cabinet devoted to spices....yup, an ENTIRE cabinet that I had designed myself specifically for spices. I guess whoever designed this house must of known I would pack my spices in a Direct TV box, so there would be no need for one....uh huh, yeah right.

So, this is how they have been for the last little bit. It's always a fun game to see which bottle is going to fall down on you when you open the door. That is, it was all fun and games, till my Pottery & Barn salt and pepper shakers broke....Game On Mr. House Builder.....

I ran across these little doodads at Ikea (my FAV store), and asked a couple friends to snatch them the next time they headed this way. So they did and I was super excited to get started...

I am almost positive this is meant to hang knives on, it is super duper magnetic...

And this is just a round magnetic board...

Both were, as always from Ikea, insanely cheap. We installed them and I ran to World Market and grabbed some little magnetic containers for the spices. I picked up stainless, but when I went back, they had red, dern.... Oh well, I am really digging the stainless. I made up labels for everything. I was going to print off, but it was so much faster to write with a small sharpie, even though I HATE my hand writing....

I finished up combining all of the double and triple spices we had and organized, labeled and tossed old ones. I really, really tried to not be too OCD, but I had to put ALL the salts and all the peppers together. (I promise I didn't try to make a pattern on the round, black board....it just happened....)

Pros: Super easy to take the lid off and scoop out

Cons: Super easy to take the lid off and dump out...these are definitely NOT intended for kids, or when your brain is not fully intact

To many more,
A