As I mentioned in my last post, I had originally intended this blog to be something that I worked on a couple days a week or even daily, but it turns out that with everything going on and with all of my efforts to get out and have adventures I've been having a hard time finding the time to sit down and write. When I bemoaned my failure as a blogger last week because I only wrote one weekly blog post, my wonderful boyfriend helped me to get a new perspective on the situation. Most podcasts do weekly shows and people love them, so why not a blog? While I felt like I had taken the easy way out last week with my weekly recap, The Boy loved it because it reminded him of his favorite podcasts where they do a weekly show that is divided into weekly segments. As he put it, it's more exciting that way because you listen to the show (or in this case read the blog) and you get familiar with the weekly segments and you learn your favorites and each week it gives you something to look forward to and get excited about...
So...my new blog philosophy...I'll have my adventures and enjoy them (and hopefully get better at taking pictures) and then I'll do a weekly blog post to keep you guys updated! Because I'm a rule-aholic though, I'm making a new rule that there is no weekly update rule....that is to say, if i want to do a blog post in the middle of the week, I can...
Here are my ideas for my weekly segments (let me know what you think):
The Weekend - A segment just about the crazy wonderful weekend Adventures I have with my family and friends
Monday Manicure -My weekly artistic pursuit of the perfect manicure (or pedicure...don't want the toes feeling left out)
The Tuesday Experiment - Arts, crafts, cooking, maybe some science experiments in there if I feel like it...whatever inspires me that week - I'll try to bring you some good DIYs
Wonderful Wednesdays - Covering two of my efforts to bring a little more energy into my life - taking the time to socialize with friends and making the time for exercise
Think Tank Thursdays - Since Thursdays are my errand running night, I had originally designated this night as a night for Finances and Facials, which I still fully intend to do, but since this tends to be such a busy night I thought this would be a good section for musings, book reviews, and sharing any other random thoughts that run through my head.
As I mentioned above, I love making up idealistic rules for how things should go...so here's another rule about rules...the sections that I just listed are more like guidelines...I can write whatever I want in any section under any day! Sorry if it's confusing...being in my head often is...welcome!
I hope you are all as excited about this new blog style experiment as I am,
So without further ado...here's my weekly update:
The Weekend - The Farm Adventure
Monday Manicure - Manicure of the Week and Baking Soda Adventures Part II
The Tuesday Experiment -The Best Chocolate Pound Cake Ever
Wonderful Wednesdays - A Birthday Tribute to My Favorite Boy
Think Tank Thursdays - The Ten Year Reunion
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The Weekend - The Farm Adventure
Before I start talking about my weekend adventure at The Farm, there were a couple of other notable occurrences this weekend that I thought I should share. First, The Boy and I spent a lovely weekend relaxing at his apartment and decided to make a big plate of one of our favorite not so healthy lunches...nachos! This recipe is one that we ended up making up a few years ago as the result of a bit of a misunderstanding...I had a three layer nacho cheese dip in mind that I wanted to make and he had a more traditional nacho recipe in mind that he wanted to make and we each thought the other understood our recipe perfectly. So basically we got home with a mishmash of ingredients which we combined to make the perfect nacho recipe which we've been using ever since. Now, this is a pretty complicated recipe so pay attention!
Butterball Nachos
Ingredients:
1/3 to 1/2 bag Tortilla chips (get the round ones...they're the best! and I recommend Mission brand)
1 can Hormel Chili (No Beans!) - Other types of hotdog chili work well too, but I recommend getting a brand that you've tried before because some of them are a little bit bbq-y and that can get gross with nachos after a while
1 ripe avocado
1 can large black olives, pitted (or you can get sliced)
1/2 bag Mexican shredded cheese
a large microwave safe plate, or a cookie sheet for making them in the oven (in which case double everything)
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| This is the good stuff! |
Step 1: Get a large microwave safe plate (or a cookie sheet if you want to make it for a party (set oven to 350)) and line it with a layer of chips.Then open your can of chili and start spooning it on. It’s OK to just plop it on in spoonfuls, it doesn’t have to be pretty. It will still turn out delicious.
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| Step 1 - Chips and Chili |
Step 2: Add your cheese. Make sure you sprinkle on plenty of cheese. This is where you want to try to cover all of the chips evenly.
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| Step 2 - Add Cheese |
Step 3: Repeat steps one and two to add another layer to your nachos (or two more layers…your call)
Step 4: Microwave on high for 1 minute. When you open the microwave you want the cheese to be all melty and delicious. If 1 minute doesn’t work in your microwave then add another 30 seconds, but don’t microwave it too long, you don’t want the cheese to burn. (If you’re doing this on a cookie sheet, put the nachos in the oven for 5 minutes and then check.)
Step 5: Add your toppings. For ours we sliced our avocado into cubes and added a generous layer of avocado cubes, jalapeno slices, and olives. (We’ve also tried pineapple chunks before for a little variety which was pretty good if you’re in the mood for something out of the ordinary). Make sure you save about half of your toppings (or 2/3 if you’re doing 3 layers).
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| Finished Product - Yum! |
Step 6: *This is an important one!* Eat layer one of the nachos, and then add more toppings! There was a reason why you saved your toppings and that reason is that after eating about half of the nachos you’re going to run out of toppings. This is when you stop whatever you’re doing and for goodness sakes go add those toppings! While running out of toppings is not a complete disaster (your nachos will still be delicious) having enough toppings just takes these nachos to a whole new level of deliciousness.
Second, I got a really bad headache this weekend so I decided to take a nap to see if that would help (it did, thanks for asking) and my wonderful boyfriend surprised me by making me a delicious Indian curry dinner while I slept. I should have taken a picture, but I was too hungry. And another fun surprise was that I woke up with a cat on my lap and The Boy took some funny pictures.
Second, I got a really bad headache this weekend so I decided to take a nap to see if that would help (it did, thanks for asking) and my wonderful boyfriend surprised me by making me a delicious Indian curry dinner while I slept. I should have taken a picture, but I was too hungry. And another fun surprise was that I woke up with a cat on my lap and The Boy took some funny pictures.
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| My Little Fuzzy Protector - "Nothing to see here. Move along." |
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| kitty cat bonding |
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| father daughter bonding time |
Ok…here’s what you’ve been waiting for…The Farm
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| A Special Piece of Farm History - My Boy's Papa's (grandfather not father) Favorite Hat left at the Farm, his favorite place, in remembrance. |
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| View of the Farm from the House |
I’ve alluded to this in past posts (I think) but The Boy’s family has a family farm that’s been passed down for generations. While it is a working farm and there is a tenant who lives there year round and tends to the crops, its primary purpose for the family is as a quiet retreat for bonding and hunting. It’s always fun to hear stories about The Boy going to the farm as a kid and bonding with his father, uncles, cousins and friends. It serves as a special place for the men of the family (and women) to bond and pass down their wisdom to the next generation. The house is a cute little old farm house that has been transformed by generations of men into a miniature hunting lodge. Both upstairs bedrooms are filled with bunks and bunks line the back wall of the dining room for large hunting parties. The bedroom closets are filled with camo clothing that all of the men of the family just keep at the farm. The large pantry in the kitchen has been turned into a storage room for boots and waders. The living room has an enormous picture window that looks out on the fields and the river complete with binoculars for watching the local wildlife. The shelf by the couch is filled with action movies and videos on hunting and fishing with names like “Dogs, Ducks, and Decoys”, and the old fashioned wood stove keeps the house warm in the winter.
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| The Wood-burning Stove |
When The Boy and I first started dating we went down to the farm with his dad for a weekend. We climbed trees, made a bonfire on the beach, and filled empty water bottles with water to put out in the field for targets so The Boy could teach me how to shoot a rifle. While we were getting ready to go to the farm this past weekend I was thinking back about the last time we went to the farm and realized that that was almost four years ago! Time flies when you’re having fun!
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| I can't believe this was almost 4 years ago! |
This past weekend we went down to the farm again which turned into a bit of an adventure just driving down…we made pit stops at every Wall-Mart along the way looking for clay pigeons and ammunition, and we even stopped at a tiny hippie store along the highway to pick up a birthday present a friend of The Boy’s stepmother who has a birthday coming up. The hippie store was so cute and fun! I indulged and got myself a little present…it was calling to me!
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| My New Leather Hippie Cuff Bracelet |
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| Doing the Hippie Dance Outside the Hippie Store : ) |
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| Heading to the Farm! My Boy and his dog, trying out the new hearing protection he got |
We finally made it down to the farm in the afternoon and the men set up the clay pigeon launcher (I’m sure there is a correct name for this but I don’t really know).
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| Arriving at The Farm |
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| The Farm from the driveway. |
The Boy and his dad both took turns taking aim and displaying their skills. My boy even got two clay pigeons launched at once with a pump! It was pretty impressive! I tried once but it was too much recoil for me.
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| My boy taking aim at one of the clay pigeons. |
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| A hunting dog happy as can be in his natural environment |
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| The men talking tactics - "yeah I'm thinking we should shoot the clay pigeon" "yeah me too" (just kidding) |
After that we set up some old water bottles in one of the fields and an old paper target and had some target practice with the rifles. These ones I could actually shoot!
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| I forgot to mention that it's very important to wear proper hearing protection! |
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| Taking Aim |
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| Can you guess which one is mine? I'll give you a hint - it's inside the second smallest diamond |
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| A gopher trail at the farm...completely blew my mind. I thought these only happened in Winnie the Pooh! |
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| First Flowers of the Spring! |
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| High Tide on the River |
So after the dark brown nail polish I used a couple weeks ago my finger nails were a little bit stained…as in they had a bit of weird orangey tint to them that wasn’t attractive. Because I was lazy last week and I was painting them a solid turquoise I didn’t bother to try to do anything about it, but this week I knew I wanted to use more of a translucent base color so something had to be done. I’d seen on Pinterest a while ago that a paste made out of hydrogen peroxide and baking soda will take off nail polish stains.
So…here it goes…
You’ll need baking soda and hydrogen peroxide, a small bowl, and a spoon.
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| What you'll need: Baking soda & hydrogen peroxide |
The Pinterest recipe was two parts baking soda to one part hydrogen peroxide, but I tried this a little while ago and it didn’t really work so I figured I’d try it my own way. I made more of a soup. I didn’t really measure but the proportions were probably more like two parts hydrogen peroxide to one part baking soda.
Then I just submerged my finger nails (after taking off the nail polish) and waited for about ten minutes.
After a few minutes the baking soda settled to the bottom of the bowl so it looked kinda crazy with the bubbling hydrogen peroxide. Also, if you have any paper cuts it will sting very very slightly but its ok because hydrogen peroxide kills germs, so it’s actually good for your cuts!
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| Weird and fizzy! |
And here are the results. It wasn’t the brilliant dazzling white that all of the Pinterest pictures showed, but the stains were lighter. Does anyone know how to make this work any better?
For this week’s manicure I decided to do something a little different. I really liked the multicolor look I did a couple weeks ago so I decided to go with some of the same colors and do a little bit of a different multicolor look. What do you think?
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| Pale pink base coat with colored triangles |
This Tuesday experiment is a short one...I forgot to take pictures. Since The Boy is not a big fan of traditional birthday cake, I went on a mission a couple years ago to find the perfect birthday baked good to make him. Since he prefers plain cake without frosting, my first thought was pound cake and this is the recipe I found. It is the best pound cake I've ever had. It will keep for a couple weeks without going stale if you wrap it in plastic wrap in the fridge and if you microwave a piece for about ten seconds it tastes like a dense warm chocolate bar! Yum! This is our new tradition for The Boy's birthday.
Just a heads up, this recipe makes about three pounds of pound cake (I put it on a scale last year because I was curious).
Twentyfour years ago today my best friend was born...I've seen the baby pictures...so cute! And four years ago today I was having my heart melted by the amazingly gentle, unconditionally loving friendship of the boy who ultimately stole my heart. I'd just like to say Thank You right now to the parents of that little boy for raising such an amazing man. Since I've known him I can't imaging living my life without him.
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| My Boy with his older brother and his cousin on his 4th birthday (or was it his 5th?) - he hasn't changed a bit |
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| My Boy (on the right) and his older brother - I think this makes my point |
So today I just wanted to say, Happy Birthday, Love! You always know how to make me laugh and make me smile.Your crazy goofy energy makes us all just love you so much more - After 24 years you've still got it!
So, for The Boy’s birthday I had the brilliant idea (and by that I mean that he mentioned it to me months ago) to get tickets to the Finch 10 year anniversary of their first cd reunion tour! The concert was Thursday night (hence me talking about it in my Thursday post), so the night after The Boy’s birthday so it was perfect timing for a birthday present! For those of you who are not familiar with this band, basically what happened was that they had two CDs in the early 2000s that were popular among the crowd that listened to that type of music (Hardcore Emo Rock maybe?…not so good at categories) and they really pioneered the genre, but after a few years they had different interests and they broke up. This past year they came to the decision to get back together for one show in CA just to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of their first CD. The show sold out in less than 30 min! Since it was so popular they decided to add a couple more shows and it turned into a tour...we got lucky enough to have a show play moderately near where we live and the day after My Boy's birthday...talk about meant to be!
Unfortunately I don't have pictures from the show because I was scared to get my phone out because I didn't want to loose it if the crowd got rowdy or I suddenly had to throw my hands up to avoid getting kicked by a crowd surfer (only happened twice thank goodness). But it was amazing! The venue we went to was tiny...probably like 150 people, maybe less and we were front row - literally leaning on the fence they had up to keep people away from the stage.
The opening bands were both pretty good. I actually like one of them a lot - The Almost. Finch was awesome! They sounded just like the CD. It's amazing that after ten years and being broken up for so long they were able to come back and do such a great concert! And they seemed like they were having an awesome time!
It was a funny crowd though. Since the band was mainly popular ten years ago, the crowd was all in their mid twenties to early thirties, so a little older than most concerts that I've been to (although I'm a little older now too so I guess I shouldn't be talking). It was funny to go to a concert where most of the people were wearing these...
Unfortunately I don't have pictures from the show because I was scared to get my phone out because I didn't want to loose it if the crowd got rowdy or I suddenly had to throw my hands up to avoid getting kicked by a crowd surfer (only happened twice thank goodness). But it was amazing! The venue we went to was tiny...probably like 150 people, maybe less and we were front row - literally leaning on the fence they had up to keep people away from the stage.
The opening bands were both pretty good. I actually like one of them a lot - The Almost. Finch was awesome! They sounded just like the CD. It's amazing that after ten years and being broken up for so long they were able to come back and do such a great concert! And they seemed like they were having an awesome time!
It was a funny crowd though. Since the band was mainly popular ten years ago, the crowd was all in their mid twenties to early thirties, so a little older than most concerts that I've been to (although I'm a little older now too so I guess I shouldn't be talking). It was funny to go to a concert where most of the people were wearing these...
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| Wrist band for everyone over 21 |
...instead of black "X" in sharpie on their hands. Also it was funny going to a concert where the only people younger than you were the first opening band.
We got some awesome T-Shirts though!
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| Now that's a happy boy! - Mission Accomplished!
Happy Birthday Lovie!
Random Thoughts of the Week:
Am I a Marianne trying too hard to be an Eleanor?
It has been brought to my attention that on occasion I have the attention span of a farfalle (which if you don't know is a particularly cute pasta)...I actually love this description of myself because its a weirdly flattering (they are shaped like bows after all and I love bows)way to describe how easily I get distracted when I have too many exciting ideas in my head (for example when I take hours to write one blog post I keep going off on exciting tangents and have to stop to research things. If I ever start another blog I might have to work this into the title..."Pay Attention, the Farfalle is Speaking"..."Musings of a Farfalle"...."A Farfalle's Attention Span"...what were we talking about?
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Love your posts!! Just nominated you for a Liebster Award- read here to find out more!
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