Truth be told, last Thursday (believe it was actually Friday I stumbled on it), I had a lot of fun doing this. While I mimiced the style that Jenna had last time, my husband helped me throwing out these seven categories this morning before he headed off to work. So I figured I'd see what came of doing it 'freestyle'.
onwards to...
« WATCHED »
Digimon...Digital Monsters...
can you sense the flat pitch of my voice when I said that?
Yes my husband decided we must watch 'a piece of his childhood' last night. I tried. Truly, I did. But after a certain point I just said 'this doesn't make any sense' and went to sleep. If this earns me the bad wife award, well then, so be it.
« ATE »
It's gonna be a bagel with cream cheese here in a minute.
{My tummy's grumbling as I post}
« MADE »
That was my tarts :)
Here if you want to see more about them.
« HELPED SOMEONE WITH »
Oh that was last night when I helped my mother in law with her excel spreadsheet charty business. My husband was the one who actually figured out the exact place, but I was almost there, and plus he'd never have helped if I hadn't sat down. Hehe.
« STARTED »
A coupon/organizational plan for our shopping.
We're trying to actively save some money for some big purchases coming up in our future,
and since I currently don't work
I felt this was a way I could contribute.
So I've already apologized in advance
for whatever Nazi-ish tendencies I might develop over our spending.
But I'm hoping it'll work out great!
« PLAYED »
I think I tried to start up Skyrim for a while. It obviously didn't do it for me for the time being, as I'm only pretty sure and not entirely. hehe.
« WROTE »
I wrote a small little thank you note to Courtney when I shipped her her Walla Wallat prize from my giveaway. ^^
So now, be gone! With all of you! Go check out other's linking up as well as Jenna herself and maybe even participate yourself this week!
So I believe through twitter, I stumbled upon the Edit Me Challenge. I believe it was through following Hollie, as she's a guest judge this week in the challenge!
But anywho,
it appears to be a photo editing challenge.
Given a base image,
edit it,
share your steps.
And voila!
link up.
So I decided to give it a go. Frankly because, well, I enjoy working in photoshop, and let's see what kind of fun I could have with it!
Okay, so steps.
{all done in photoshop}
Boosted the saturation on the shoes and dress.
Negated the saturation on the rest of the picture.
Added a soft focus action.
Sharpened the image a bit.
Gave it a vignette blur.
added lyrics from Abba's "Slipping through my Fingers"
So we'll see how this goes, see if it gets a bit of enjoyment for someone out there. :)
Okay so perhaps not (technically).
In reality, my mother and I opened a bottle of wine and looked through old memories.
Including, but not limited to, fifty year old hair and my baby teeth.
(Still shuddering over those)
A box filled with nostalgia.
Memories from clear to my great grandmother,
trinkets, things I'd never even truly heard of.
Also baby propaganda from the fifties.
You know, all those little fifties adverts that the internet loves to make fun of now?
These were originals!
It made us chuckle.
"Always make sure to close your pins, that way if junior swallows it, no harm will be done."
First and foremost, this post is dedicated to my grandma.
We lost her nearly three years ago.
I still miss her.
Wasn't she a looker?
Second and lastmost before we go exploring...
I apologize for the pictures.
I didn't have my glasses.
I'd had two glasses of wine.
Directly overhead lights on granite does not equal great pictures.
These were my grandma's baby shoes.
(They still have a bronzed pair somewhere. A few I'm told)
These were baby shoes with buttons. Real live buttons and not just mock buttons.
Can you imagine getting a wriggly baby into these things?
I can hardly imagine why we put shoes on em in the first year anyway.
They never stay on.
Apparently you had to have a little crochet hook looking tool to do this easily.
This apparently is how we used to dole out prescriptions.
I just found it so quaint and cute.
(Child lock, not always there)
Fun fact: this was from when my mom nearly broke her spine jumping off a cliff.
Another fact,
My mom's name isn't Candice.
{Hehe}
This has apparently traveled a few generations.
Was my grandma's, my mom's, and mine.
(That's me in the picture)
It's a baby ring.
First question of my mind?
Why would we put a ring on a baby?
Don't they constantly stick their hands all up in their mouths?
By proof, obviously I never swallowed it.
These are the last bits I just wanted to show because they were cute or interesting.
From the top, left to right.
A turquoise detachable watch band
A pearl collar women would attach to their shirts as an accessory instead of a necklace.
"The story of Jesus in words of one syllable"
(No joke, the whole book, all in one syllable words)
A hat pin (for ladies)
A silver mustache comb and case.
Lastly, this was something I found really special and the origin of this post was to share this piece.
This belonged to my great grandma, Agnes.
It was basically an autograph book for your school friends at the end of the year.
{Pre yearbook I suppose}
It was writ between the years of 1908 - 1914.
And the inscriptions, when you think they're graduation wishes...
Are a little morbid sometimes. (You'll see what I mean)
But all the handwriting was entirely beautiful,
Neat cursive, written with calligraphy-like pens.
I just wanted to share with you, with myself,
A place for these writings of people that are almost positively all passed away.
A small remembrance for the children of Deep Creek.
To Agnes..
Many kindly thoughts of thee
In my heart shall-dwell,
O'er life's rugged-away,
I wish you well.
Miss Agnes,
When the golden sun is setting,
And your mind from sin is free,
And of absent friends you are thinking,
just stop and think of me.
Dear Agnes,
Remember me early,
Remember me late,
Remember me at the golden gate.
Dear Agnes,
We tread through fields of speckled flowers,
As if we did not know,
Our father made them beautiful,
Because he loves us so.
From her sister...
Dear Agnes,
Roses are red,
And violets are blue.
Like maple sugar,
I love you.
Friend Agnes:
When hills and vales divide us,
and you I cannot see.
Just take a pen and paper,
and write a line to me.
My Dearest Agnes:
This world that we're a living in,
Is mighty hard to beat,
We get a thorn with every rose,
But ain't the roses are sweet.
Dear Friend,
Forget me not,
Forget me never,
Till the golden sun is set forever.
My dearest Agnes:
When you get married,
And your husband is cross,
just use the toe of your shoe
and show him the door.
Dearest Agnes -
This world is hard to beat,
But if you want to beat this world
you must call on me.
Dear Agnes:
When the golden sun is setting,
And your heart from care is free,
And of others you are thinking,
will you sometimes think of me.
Dear Agnes,
Remember me when far away,
Remember me when near,
Remember me when in my grave,
And shed for me one tear.
Dear Agnes:-
I wish you wealth,
I wish you health,
I wish you gold in store.
I wish you heaven
after death,
What could I wish you more?
Dear sister,
When your work on life is o'er
And death has closed your eyes,
May the angel softly guide you,
To the home be'ond the skys.
Dear Agnes
May the friends around you twine like bugs on a 'tater vine.
Dear Agnes,
Within this book so pure and white,
Let none but friends presume to write.
And may each line in friendship given,
Direct the readers thoughts to heaven.
From her brother--
Dear Agnes:
My years be made of sunny days,
And life's own skies be blue.
And may your Birthday ever see
your dearest dreams come true.
When the leaves of this album
is torn with age.
May your name be written,
in the book of gold.
Bare with me, it appears I'm having a rather nice epiphany today...
source
I'm a fairly young woman. I realize this. I'm only 23, and I've only just begun my life as a wife and as a home maker. But at the same time, I feel like our society lately, especially in my age bracket, it seems there's always this undeniable pressure to always be pushing forwards. To be getting on with your life. To grow up. To make money and get that dream job. To start your family, to have everything that you ever wanted because god forbid you wait until you're thirty to get started.
So even though I'd really like to just sit back and enjoy what I have in my life now, it feels like sometimes I'm being ushered along. I feel as if I have numerous influences at my back rushing me forwards, shooing me along, telling me not to stop now there's so much more I should be accomplishing. How can you be happy /just/ being a stay at home wife? You don't even have kids to take care of yet. You should be doing more for yourself.
Is it just me that, while reading that, you imagine Alice from Alice in Wonderland (the original, not the tim burton style) being ushered out of the garden by the flowers. Yeah? Okay well let's keep going.
Careful Alice, those elitist bastards turn on you in just a few moments..
Most days I'm happy enough to just live my life, to enjoy my time with my husband, the patron saint of my life because well, otherwise I severely doubt I'd have one. But there's just days where I feel like it's not good enough to be what I am. Where I am. I feel sometimes like that's part of the reason I craft, is that it's in effort to show people 'hey look, I don't have a job, but I'm still contributing in some fashion, right?'
Next Point..
I've decided that I need some new fresh blood in my blogging atmosphere. I love reading crafting blogs, and it's originally what I set out for mine to be. And while I still believe that a large portion of it is indeed dedicated to such things, I know it's also turned into a personal place for me to explore my thoughts as well as connect with other people I'd never dreamed I'd meet.
But at the same time, I think that us, as bloggers, always tend to clear coat things. Shelack that baby up so no one sees the mistakes underneath. I love sitting and reading abotu all the wonderful things people make, all the joyful times they have with their children, all the incredible experiences they're having. (I also tend to have the habit of reading blogs about women who are in different phases in their lives. Meaning wiser and older. Because when they were my age of course they had much more interesting stuff going on (refer to point one in this complex) ).
But sometimes I wish, just for a little while, I could find some places where I felt I could personally relate on my not so fantastic days. (At least that was where I started out), but low and behold, look what the hell I found.
Plus Size Bloggers.
Seriously. Where the hell have I been never to have stumbled across these lovely beautiful fantastically bold women before?
If you've seen any of the rare instances that I post photos, you'll know I tend to run on the curvier side.
And honestly, most days, I'm perfectly fine with it.
My husband loves my body, and I think that's enough.
(Again..most days...)
I'm already quite thankful I've joined twitter if only for this aspect. Since I seem to keep running across them!
It started with Katie
through which I found Amber.
Which in turn (I believe) sparked Chastity,
which led to Gabi!
And I've only been on twitter for a few days!
These girls have left me feeling inspired. They make me remember all the times that I'm truly okay with myself. That I feel pretty and lovely and more than just okay in the morning. They make me confident in knowing that I can be that beautiful. I look forwards to reading their blogs, perhaps getting to know them further, as well as taking more inspiration from them.
Also, I can't wait to have a bit of spending money, because Simply Me seems like a simply awesome website. A place of swimwear that I'm looking at and thinking 'wow..I might actually be able to wear that', as well as the all important 'well I'll be damned, that might be able to hold my boobs'.
Please don't ask me to recount the numerous times I've accidentally flashed people because my swim suits just weren't up to the DD/DDD standards.
And lastly...
It's okay to share my feelings. It's okay to have those feelings. I tend to keep a lot bottled up because I know that most of the time I'm a little bit...
in your face.
I tend to share what's on my sleeve quite a bit,
and that usually comes in the form of dry humor not everyone understands.
I can also be extremely spastic and loud and overwhelming.
As well as incredibly anxious and unreasonable in others.
So I try to keep the rest of it tucked away so people only have to deal with so much.
But I'm trying to make myself understand I'm not just something to have to be dealt with. My feelings have valid points and are acceptable to have. It's a big thing for me, and some days I get it, some days I don't. Such is life I suppose.
Well, I think I've shared all I came to share today about what I've been deciding. I'm sure if I think of anything else, I'll let you know. :)
When you give a moose a muffin...
Now we've all heard of that book, right?
Well, apparently when you give a girl a Sweet Genius marathon, she decides she must have tarts.
(At least this girl)
So today I'm going to share with you how I made mine!
We all have that cook book laying around, don't we? (Do correct me if I'm wrong) That one we bought on a whim at some point because it looked like it was just what we needed, and yet there it sits on our book shelves, never touched, hardly opened, and definitely never actually made anything from. Well! Last night was a chance for me to get out there and use that cook book!
This cook book, for me, happens to be Gale Gand's short + sweet: quick desserts with eight ingredients or less. Handy right?
Let me lay the recipe on ya before we continue:
• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
• 1 tsp rum
• 1 sheet of frozen puff pastry, thawed
• 1 can pineapple rings
• marachino cherries, halved
Super simple right? Now, I also used this custard recipe for half of my tarts.
Onwards!
1. To make the filling, whip the cream cheese in a mixer until light and fluffy. Whip in the confectioners' sugar and rum. Refrigerate.
This is also the time I made my custard. Do indeed stir the whole time. Your arm may get tired (mine did). It's a fairly simple thing this custard, and it turned out pretty tasty. I was also proud because I'd never even contemplated making a custard before. Just kind of dove in and prayed I could do it. That's the great thing about my style of baking. I don't really wonder if I can do something, I just get it in my head, and decide to try it. Most days it turns out fairly well!
2. To make the tart shells, dust a work surface lightly with flour and roll over the puff pastry with a rolling pin, pressing lightly to make it a little thinner. You want to end up with a roughly 9x 9-inch square. Refrigerate for about 20 minutes. (makes the dough less stretchy, easier to cut)
3. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Using the tip of a very sharp knife, cut the pastry into 3-inch squares. Fold each square in half diagonally, making a triangle, and cut a band around the edge, 1/4 inch wide, as though you are trying to cut a 1/4 inch frame around the pastry square-- but do not detach the center. Leave the center square connected at the corners.
Lucky for me, my puff pastry came in about a 9x9 inch square. I didn't have to do much rolling. Also the little lines of it folded into thirds made slicing it up a breeze.
4. Unfold the square on the prepared pan. Paint the edges with water. Fold back the corners of the frame over each other, attaching each corner to the opposite side. Prick the bottom of the tarts and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 425 degrees. Bake the tarts in the top third of the oven until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool on the pan. If the centers puffed during the baking, press them down to deflate.
I cooked mine for 12 minutes and they were gorgeous. They did puff up a bit and you just give em a little press with your fingertip and voila, perfect little cavity for filling. I was actually surprised how well these turned out, given that I struggled a little with the whole pretty little folding (Mostly due to my lack of great knives).
6. Once the tart shells have cooled, and when you are ready to serve, spoon the cream cheese mixture into the centers. Top with sections of pineapple and place half a cherry at opposite corners.
Follow the same procedure with your custard if you have it ;)
And there you are! The recipe says the tarts should be served within 4 hours. Ours were really fantastic. I'm actually almost sad we didn't make more of the pineapple kind, but my husband wasn't sold on them before I started making them, so he requested a chocolate alternative. (He's not a big cream cheese fan, *GASP*)
But once he actually tried them, he fell in love with the pineapple ones. I had to fight for my two! But all in all, the project turned out really fun and really pretty. I was actually quite proud of how nice they looked.
If you have any questions/feedback, I'd love to hear from you! Hopefully these inspire someone else out there. (Leave me a link to see!) Also, I'll probably be entering these into some of my link ups I haven't been particular active in lately (oops), so don't forget to check those out as well!
Well I sure do! I've been working on a new blog layout for spring/summer!
Be honest, what do y'all think? I personally am in absolute love with it. It's so nice and fresh and clean and bright!
I researched a bit of what colors are trending right now since I wanted something current, as well as snagged bits and pieces of inspiration from other places I'd seen. That and I saw so many bloggers updating theirs, I just got that creative itch to do mine all over again.
I spent a lot of time on this one. A large part of that was on my banner to get those little buttons in there, but I managed it!
I asked my husband if I should update my blog, and he replies 'No, why would you do that?'. I was mildly disheartened at first, but he continued speaking, 'Of course, this coming from the guy who'd do it once and never touch it again'. Well that was all the approval I needed! haha.
Well so far so good, and I hope that everybody enjoys it! If you're looking for an update of your own, don't hesitate to get in touch with me. I'd love to help you, and (Pssst) I do it for free!
1035kwhite [at] gmail [dot] com
OH P.S!
I finally took the 'twitter plunge'. Gah. I was really putting it off. I'm still not sure how much I'll /actually/ use it. But well, I figured I'd give it a go. Just another way to get the name out there right? So I'm hoping. That and we all know what a giveaway-aholic I am (if you don't you must be new), so this is just another way to enter!
My point being, come follow me? @LilHMHW
Wondering about the tagline? Well there's really an simple odd explanation for this. Truly. I sing 'I love you a bushel and a peck' to my husband all the time. (Don't even get me started on the conversation we had the first time I sang it, since he thought I was nuts). I mostly do it because I remember my mom and my grandpa singing it to me, and it always made me smile. Regardless, the other day, we were texting and 'showing off our love' to each other. So when he began texting that, I countered with 'i love you a bushel and a pound of plutonium'. He replied, 'Wow... that's a lot...'. Mission accomplished.
You know when you're looking through your blog roll, not really intent on finding anything just yet, but maybe some inspiration for something to post on? Yeah I do that all the time. Today I found yet another little link up business, and well, those that I can do and participate in with others and not have to actually do a physical project, well just .. call me your girl! (Damn that sentence just kept running on and no big finish even).
Well originally through I found this at The Sasse Life, but through her I got to find a new blog to stalk visit, The Life of the Wife. She seems pretty swanky so far, and well, she's the creator behind 'The Last Thing', which in a roundabout way of saying, is what I'm doin here today. (Apparently work outs make me incredibly circular in my thinking).
SO! Without further adieu....
P.S. yes I stole the formatting. It was cute and figured I'd try something fun
The Last Thing I...
{Motivation Edition}
Worked-Out On:
Me and the hubs did this today. Hour worth of work out with the big JM, and you definitely feel it.
Wanted to Buy When I Get My Legs TONED:
I love the color of these. Plus well, I like shorts though don't have many of them. I don't mind my legs, but I'm also rather short and it's hard to find ones that look right.
Bought That Was Healthy:
Is it the most jaw droppingly healthy thing out there? No. But it's good for us. We're just startin' out on this healthy business train.
Bought That Was
Not-So
Healthy:
OH how I love it *sigh* I had me a chicken nugget craving on our way home from the in-laws and I just could not resist. That and the large salt loaded fries. Yum.
Pinned for Motivation:
I couldn't help it, this always makes me smile.
Got that motivated me:
That look on my husband's face when we are in the middle of working out. I work out better when he's with me because I know I'm his motivation. We'd both rather be sitting on the couch, doing nothing, but if I can get us started, I know that we'll both be happier for it. (that and some unmentionable flexibility in another area...)
So a big thank you to Jenna, the Wife, for giving me something to steal and do my own thing with. Because well, let's face it, we all know I like the lists and things that I can gain motivation from! Don't hesitate to go join up too, will be super fun!
