Gonna have a good time

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Because I know A LOT of people celebrating a birthday today, many of them related to me, I started today off by sharing this video on Facebook:

Got myself a birthday pedicure (no, I’m not posting new pics), and indulged in some fresh-cut fries at Five Guys.

Later, after Rand gets home, we’ll be going out for Korean bbq (YUM).

I think I’m going to spend a bit of quality time with my birthday present (which yes, I did get early) before then:
my ukulele

(That’s the pic I took in the store, which is better than the one I took at home. Isn’t it pretty?) I’m still mainly practicing the same 3 chords, and trying to work a couple of new ones in. I’m currently not very good at moving my fingers smoothly to or from G. I’m trying to make sure I pick it up and play with it for at least 10-15 minutes every day (more if I feel like it/if my fingers don’t hurt too much). Wish me luck!

 

Meet Seanan

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I know many of you don’t need to be introduced to my dear friend Seanan McGuire, but for those of you who do…I’d like to spend some time telling you how awesome she is.

Seanan threatens to eat me

(Seanan will occasionally try to eat your face. Do not be alarmed.)

Continue reading →

Things I need to do today

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1. Fill out/finish applications for substitute teaching.

 

(at least for now)

2. Do a piece of calligraphy.

3. Do something with the basil and mint I harvested yesterday.

Nope. Oops.

4. Go to the post office.

5. Laundry.

6. DIY pedicure.

I’ll be back later with an update!

 

Recipe: breakfast “cookies”

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Untitled

I came across this recipe (most likely on Pinterest), and I decided to give it some tweaks…it has quickly become one of my favorite things.

The original recipe has no sugar, as it uses mashed bananas. I eat bananas, but I don’t really enjoy banana bread, so I decided to replace them. As such, I did add a bit of sugar. I’m sure you could use your sweetener of choice (or none, if you prefer).

1 1/2 cups regular rolled oats
1/3 cup brown sugar (I like dark brown)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
a healthy amount of ginger, cloves, and nutmeg (to taste)
1/4 cup of ground flaxseed
1/2 cup mixed nuts, finely chopped (I used sunflower seeds and pecans)
1 cup dried fruit (I used 1/2 chopped apple bits, and 1/2 craisins)

*the original recipe called for a cup of coconut flakes. I don’t care for coconut, so I just left it out and tossed in a little extra of each ingredient. I also added a few scoops of protein powder.

2 eggs
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
around 6 tablespoons nut butter (I used natural almond and peanut. also, this measurement is not very precise.)
1/4 cup coconut oil (original recipe uses canola. there are lots of possibilities here)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350. Mix dry ingredients together. Combine wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Pour over dry ingredients and mix until well combined.

To bake these, I lined a regular-size muffin tin with cupcake liners and scooped in the batter evenly. Since these are thicker than the “cookies” in the original recipe, I bake for about 25 minutes. Of course, that may vary depending on your oven.

I used this chart to determine what to replace the bananas with. (I put the eggs in since I am not a vegan, and I have trouble getting enough protein.)

New T-shirts on the way!

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Thanks to a Crowd Savings deal, I got two of the above t-shirts from BustedTees (Lone Pine Mall and Noah’s Arcade) for $10 plus shipping. Woo!

A few of my favorite posts

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This is something I’ve meant to do for a long time now…a collection of some of my favorite posts from over the years. I’ll include some of my wedding blog posts too!

We are…heartbroken (Nov. 15, 2011)

What’s in a name? (Nov. 28, 2007)

Like a horse and carriage (Feb. 15, 2006)

Friday ponderings (Jan. 21, 2005)

You can learn how to be you in time (Dec. 9, 2004)

That’s it for now…possibly to be amended later.

Things to do

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I wanted to make myself a public list of things I would like to do/accomplish in the next year of my life:

1. Write

At the very least, I owe my good friend Eden a short story. (from that “pay it forward” handmade thing on facebook…she specifically requested a story. hee)

I’d also like to maybe do some songwriting…many, many years ago, I was writing song lyrics. I don’t write music, though, so they just sat there. Oddly enough, I now know someone (well, LOTS of someones, actually, but I LIVE WITH one of them) who does…so, I’m thinking maybe I should revisit that creative outlet!

2. Sing better

I’m not a terrible singer, but yo, I’m sometimes a little pitchy, dawg. I want to work on that, and get more confident. If anyone has any tips or advice, please feel free to share!

3. Learn an instrument?

Uh, yeah. But what? I have no idea. Rand has mentioned the ukelele a couple of times. Now, by no means am I talking about becoming technically proficient at anything, but I think learning a few songs on some instrument might be a reasonable goal.

4. Learn some ASL

This is something I’ve been wanting to do for years and years and years. Again, if anyone has suggestions of resources (videos? YouTube?), send ’em my way!

That’s probably enough for now…I thought maybe putting it out there into the world would help. I’ll keep you all updated. 😉

Musical nostalgia

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So, I’ve been feeling all music-nostalgic lately. Every few days, I seem to be buying some new-old music for my collection and adding it to my iPod.

This is my current favorite old-new purchase:

Now that We Found Love

I’ve also picked up:

  • Strike it Up (Black Box)
  • Poison (Bell Biv Devoe)
  • Motownphilly (Boyz II Men)
  • Connected (Stereo MCs)
  • Unbelievable (EMF)
  • Rump Shaker (Wreckz-n-Effect)
  • Inside Out (Eve 6…one of these things is not like the others…)

I also purchased a Salt-n-Pepa greatest hits CD.

Then today, I saw this posted on a friend’s facebook. (sorry, I tried to embed the videos, but they didn’t cooperate…)

I’m going to be indulging my musical nostalgia a bit more in the coming months, as All Things Jennifer has put me in charge of the soundtrack for some of her pre-wedding festivities. YAY! (I’ve already started making a playlist…)

Confession

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Sometimes I think about doing something like Kelly’s “Ask Me Anything,” but Im sort of afraid no one will actually, y’know, ask me anything.

Anyway…just one thing before I sign off, for anyone who didn’t see it on facebook already…it’s my grandpa’s 90th birthday today! Happy birthday, grandpa!

me & grandpa again

(That pic is from his 85th…I can’t believe that was 5 years ago!)

Roaring 20s fashion

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Just fyi, this post is going to be full of images. 

So, in a few weeks, I and the rest of All Things Jennifer’s Ladies in Red will be celebrating her upcoming nuptials at a Roaring 20s themed bridal shower.

This post is going to be mostly about the clothes. Specifically, mine. 😉

I bought this dress on ebay:

Then I bought this hat (can’t seem to grab the image…sorry!) which I thought would be perfect, but I feel like it looks weird on my head. Maybe I’ll post a photo of that for reference later.

And then there’s this one. I love this, but I’m not sure the brown would look right with the dress:

Then I thought I should have a pair of appropriate shoes…I found this shoe, which is something I might actually wear:

The only place I can find it in anywhere near my size is on ebay, and I’m still worried it’s a half-size too big.

Then there are these, from Target:

Cheap and cute…and assuming they fit, something I will definitely wear.

And then, of course, I’ll add some beads and whatnot…I guess I’m looking for opinions on hats and shoes, if you would be so kind as to share them with me.

Happy Friday!