A List of Three

I'm thinking this might turn into a little segment " A List of Three" where we list three things on various topics. Today's list of Three contains: "Three Things That We Wish We Did in High School"
So in no particular order and a bit of explination here we go:

Michelle's Three Things that She Wishes She Did In High School

1. Tipped the edges of my hair pink. Just like Gwen Stefani. I didn't do it for 2 reasons. First) Since I'm a brunette I knew that I would need to bleach my hair and then dye it the hot pink color. Back then I hadn't done anything to my hair (chemically) and still haven't to this day. I wasn't sure if I wanted to break that running streak of "virgin hair". Second) I knew that my Mom would freak out and I think that I wanted to win a different argument at the time . I know that I could still do this now, but I think that as a 28 year old with tipped pink hair I would get a much different reaction than if I had been 18 doing it.

2. Gone to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Here's the thing, I know that I could still do this now, but I know that Ryan wouldn't go with me and being older (married, a mom, etc) I don't think that would find it as "exciting" as I would back in high school. Plus I think I would understand alot more now than I would then. I think sometimes it's a lot more enjoyable to watch a highly suggestive movie in your innocence (you don't catch too much and you don't care).

3. Sluffed a class. Sluffed, skipped, "forgot", whatever you call it  - I never did it. Well one time I "did", but I had a note from the teacher....that doesn't really count. It seems like skipping class is such a "high school experience" that I never...experienced. Kinda wish that I had done it just so I could say that I could. But you would have had to sluffed with me and I don't know where we would have gone, but I wouldn't want to do it alone!

Well, we kind of sluffed.  Remember when we decided to get McDonald's and ate it while watching I Love Lucy at your house?  We ended up being late to AP English and told Mr. Tucker we were studying American culture or something like that.

Okay, here it goes:

Nan's Three Things That She Wishes She Did in High School

1. Been in a play or musical. This is one thing that I think about all the time and really, really wish I had done.  I love theater.  I couldn't have been Dolly Levi (not quite as talented as the person who got that role), but I can hold my own on stage, or at least I used to be able to.  I wish I'd told my boss to just deal with me being gone for rehearsal and that I hadn't been so intimidated by the drama teacher.  I wish I'd just gone for it!

2. Bought and worn a pair of leather pants.  Crazy?  Maybe.  I tried them on all the time at that store with the name I can't remember (you know which one I'm talking about, though).  I was so skinny back then, and they always looked dang cute.  Too shy then, but I should have done it!!

3. Broken up with the boyfriend. *Sigh.*  You HAD to know this was going to be on there.  Did I like him?  Yes.  Was he a nice guy?  Yes.  Should we have dated for two years?  NO.  It wasn't fair to either of us.  If I could go back, I would have more fun just being a teenager, rather than trying to act like an adult in a serious relationship.  I'm sure he'd say the same.

So what about the rest of you?  What do you wish you'd done in high school?

It's Too Late Now....

Well Nan, we missed our chance. Part of me wants to cry - the nostalgic part - the part where we were 13 years old and hammering our French teacher for any and all information she had on the royal family. There was alot of planning and preparation on our part for one of us to someday meet and catch the eye of Prince William. We read alot of magazines, made alot of traveling plans and tried on alot of dresses (tee hee).
I have to admit that looking at him now......I think we made the right decision....he looks like Prince Charles (blech)
Good Luck Kate!!! It will be quite a wedding to follow!

The nostalgic part of me feels the same way, so I'm glad I'm not alone!  It's kind of hard to believe that he's marrying someone who isn't either of us; I wonder if he felt the same way when we got married to our men.  (I doubt it...lol.)  I'm excited to follow the wedding details and see what her dress looks like.  I wish Kate the best -- she may have the royal prince, but I think we both scored even better Prince Charmings!

Peanut Butter Dip

I got the recipe for this dip from my sister in law Shelley. She made this dip for a family gathering and it went over so well that she made it again for another family dinner...I think it will be a tradition. This dip is so EASY and sooooooo good. It's great for apples, crackers, brownies, cookies, celery or eating it straight off the spoon is perfectly fine!
Are ya ready? Here you go:

1 pkg (8 oz) Cream Cheese

1 C. Peanut Butter

1 C. Brown Sugar

1/4 C. Milk

Mix together and enjoy!!

(my friend Candace thought that it would be good for truffle centers....peanut butter & chocolate..MMmmmmmmm)

Home Sweet Home

Mr. W and I are in the process of selling our house.  This is a really bittersweet thing for us; we are incredibly excited about his new job and the opportunity to move somewhere we've never been, but at the same time, we are so sad to leave our home.  We bought our house in 2005 and have spent the last five years making it a home.  I think the room I love the most is my kitchen.  Our house has had several owners, some of whom had very questionable taste.  When we bought our house, the kitchen looked like this:

(Most of the upstairs was painted that same gag-inducing shade of pink)

After closing on our house, we spent six weeks fixing it up.  In the kitchen, we repainted the walls, replaced the floor, refinished the cupboards, and bought appliances.  Now it looks like this:

(The sign about the stove is a quote from Jane Austen.

It says "There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort") 

Do you see why I love my kitchen?!?  I had wanted a blue kitchen for a long time, and I am thrilled with the way it turned out.  It makes me so happy, and I love spending time in it.  I will definitely miss this room the most; in fact, I've already asked Mr. W if we can paint our next kitchen blue, too. :)  What's your favorite room in your house?

I love your kitchen too!! That blue color is so romantic! I vote you use the same color in your new kitchen...maybe start a trend. Can I tell you how hard it was to choose a favorite room?? I have a few, but after our talk I decided on my kitchen too. Something that Mr. S & I love to do is cook together. Before we bought this house we stayed in apartments that had very little counter space, so when we looked at this house and were told they had just remodled the kitchen - it was a HUGE selling point for us. To do this post I have come to find out that it's hard to take a picture of my kitchen, I'm thinking since it's long and narrow...it's hard to get a good angle so this is the best I can do:

It was originally painted regular ole white, but I wanted a RED kitchen. I learned alot about red paint. I thought I didn't want a red that had blue undertones in it, but after trying a piece of paint "Red Bell Pepper" and saw how orange it looked I changed my mind about blue undertones. This color is called "Va Va Voom",when I first started painting I just kept praying "please don't look as trashy as your name!", but I am really happy with the results. Tip for all of you who have textured walls 1. My condolances (my whole house is textured and I hate it) 2. There are special brushes that evenly coat a textured wall, I didn't use them and wished that I had. 

What is your favorite room?

Easy Skirt -- No Pattern!

I found this fabulous fabric at Jo-Ann's over the weekend; it has a burnt orange background with a cream flower print and is perfect for fall.  It was in the clearance section for $3/yard and there was only a yard left, so I snatched it up.  I had intended to make the 20 Minute Skirt using the tutorial at Grosgrain, but one of the sealed edges on my fabric had printing on it, so it wasn't going to work.  I decided to make a basic gathered skirt instead.  It was so easy and took me about an hour (it would have been less if my machine hadn't jammed so much).  Best of all, I didn't even need a pattern!  I don't have a step-by-step tutorial for it, but it's really simple.

Please excuse the blinding whiteness of my legs :)

After washing and ironing my fabric, I hemmed the bottom.  I used the raw edges for the top and bottom of the skirt and the sealed edges for the side seam; the fabric was 45 inches wide, so it was able to wrap around me and still have a little bit of fullness.  I held up the hemmed fabric to my body and decided how long I wanted the skirt to be, then marked where I wanted the waist to sit; I cut the fabric about an inch above this point.  I folded the top over and made a casing for my 1/4-inch elastic, and then wrapped the elastic around my waist to see how much I needed; I subtracted about 4 inches from that so that the skirt would be sure to fit snugly at the waist and not fall off.  I threaded the elastic through and stitched it in place at both ends of the casing.  The last step was to fold the skirt in half with right sides together, sew the side seam, and press it.  Voila!  A quick and easy skirt for $3!

Apple Cider Doughnuts

I found this recipe in my Food Network Magazine and fell in love - who couldn't love a doughnut? I immediately put it on my mental To Cook list and got around to it this year (yep, it took me a year to get to this recipe!).  My advice: Make them now while you are still young and can enjoy the apple-cinnamon goodness!

Ingredients:

2 Red apples

2 1/2 C. Apple Cider

3 1/2 C. Flour, extra for dusting

4 teaspoons of Baking Powder

1/4 tsp. Baking Soda

3 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon

1 tsp. Salt

1/4 tsp ground Nutmeg

1 2/3 C. Sugar

3 TBS Vegetable shortening

1 Large Egg plus 1 Egg Yolk

1/4 C. Buttermilk

1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

1/4 C. Confectioners Sugar

Vegetable oil for frying



 1. Core and coarsely chop the apples (do not peel). Combine with 1 1/2 C. Cider in a medium saucepan over medium heat; cover and let cook until softened, about  8 minutes. Uncover & continue cooking until the apples are tender & the cider is almost completely reduced, about 5 minutes. Puree with an immersion blender or food processor until smooth. Measure the sauce; you should have one cup. (Boil to reduce further, if necessary.) Let cool slightly.  If you want to skip this step just get 1 cup of apple sauce!

 2. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, salt & nutmeg (I didn't have nutmeg so I used apple pie spice) in a medium bowl. Beat 2/3 cup sugar & the shortening in another bowl with a mixer on medium speed until sandy. Beat in the egg & yolk, then gradually mix in the applesauce, scraping the bowl. Beat in half of the flour mixture, then the buttermilk (Don't have buttermilk on hand? Just put a teaspoon of vinegar in 1 cup of milk and let sit for a few minutes -presto! buttermilk) & vanilla, and then the remaining flour mixture. Mix to make a sticky dough; Do Not Over Mix!

 3. Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured sheet of parchment paper (Parchment paper is VERY different from Wax Paper which is what I used - Don't Use it! The dough will stick & when you try to get it off it peels the paper with it. You really do need parchment paper!) and pat into a 7 by 11 inch rectangle, about 1/2 inch thick. The dough is VERY sticky. I lightly dusted my hands with flour and it helped in patting this down. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight. This is when I learned that doughnuts are not a one evening process - plan on the whole weekend when you make these babies.

4. To make the glaze: simmer the remaining 1 cup cider in a small sauce pan over medium heat until reduced to 1/4 cup. This is when I learned there is a difference between apple cider and apple juice (which I used). If you use apple juice plan on letting it simmer for AWHILE there is a lot of juice that needs to be reduced. Whisk in the confectioner's sugar until smooth and glossy, then set aside. Mix the remaining 1 C. sugar and 2 tsp Cinnamon in a shallow bowl; set aside for the topping.

5. Heat 2 inches of vegetable oil in a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat until a deep-fry thermometer registers

350 degrees.  I have made doughnuts before and when I did I used a candy thermometer and left it in the oil and then wondered what that redish liquid floating in the oil was (it had popped) don't leave your candy thermometer in there and don't use silicone tools (I melted one the last time I made doughnuts too!) Line a baking sheet with paper towels. Cut the chilled dough into 12 rounds, using a floured 2 1/2 - 3 inch biscuit cutter (or use a doughnut cutter) or you can do what I did found a mason jar with the mouth 3 inches wide and a small cookie cutter, I chose a maple leaf shape, you really can't tell, to make the hole in the middle. Slip 2 or 3 doughnuts at a time into the hot oil and fry until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes per side, adjusting the heat as needed. Transfer to the paper towels to drain.

 6. Dip one side of each doughnut in the cider glaze, letting the excess drip off; In the pictures you see my fingers, after getting burned from the hot glaze I switched to tongs....much nicer!

 7. EAT! EAT! EAT! EAT! EAT! feel a bit guilty and then EAT some more! I {heart} this recipe because it makes the perfect sized doughnut batch. Enough to eat some and share some (ya gotta share!) I'm glad I finally got around to making this recipe, but I think I'll let PW continue the tradition of pictures every step of the way - I just want to make it and eat it!!

 Happy Doughnut Making! & HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Young one

Welcome to our new friends on facebook & following us here! We are happy to have you.
So, this conversation was prompted by my purchase of these:

 My adorable little witch clips that I bought at our childrens store here in town - how could I resist!?! And if I take a fine tip sharpie to them and draw glasses on, they would look just like me! My friend that works there kinda teased me a bit for getting these and it made me think, not only about some of the T-shirts that I have from middle school (do you remember my lobster bake T-shirt? Yeah still around), but if this is the only youth oriented item I have purchased....which made me remember this -

My High School Musical shirt I bought on my way to taking some girls to camp. I am not ashamed of my love of HSM or the fact that I know many of the songs by heart, but there aren't many places (other than girls camp or for pj's) that a 28 year old could get away with wearing this in public. Unless I become a Harajuku girl and I could walk the streets of Japan dressed up like live doll.
So, my purchase:
A. Totally fine wear them everyday
B. A little young, but fine in the right circumstances
C. I hope you bought those for your nieces

Have you bought anything a little "younger" or what do you still have in your closet?

For the record, I think those clips are super cute.  Draw on glasses!  And since they're hair accessories and relatively small, I think you could get away with wearing them every day.

One of the first things I thought of in the "young" clothing category was a Curious George T-shirt I had in middle school -- do you remember that?  I think I found it at Big Lots, and it was one of those shirts where you got to color it.  So I colored it and wore it, even though it was little too juvenile (and probably way too tight!).  I don't have that shirt anymore, but I still have clothes from middle and high school and I still actually wear them on a regular basis, too.  I have a flowered skirt that I got in 9th grade, a black skirt from high school, a shirt from high school, and a couple of other things.  Let's not forget the girls' camp sweatshirt that I got when I was 11 and still wear around the house when it's cold.  I still periodically wear a beaded necklace that Anne gave me for Christmas in 8th or 9th grade, too.  One of my favorite pieces of jewelry is a silver necklace, which I wore for a picture that was taken when I was three.  It was really long on me then, but now it's the perfect length.

One of the "youngest" type things that I do is I still put my hair in pigtails.  I don't know if you remember, but I went through quite a pigtail stage in middle school.  Even though most pigtail-wearers seem to be under the age of 5, I still love pigtails at 27.  They're cute, quick, and easy to do with my bobbed haircut.

I think it's important to dress your age to a certain extent, but you also need to have some fun and whimsy in your wardrobe, too!  Even Audrey Hepburn wore a few things that made other people shake theirs heads, but she loved them. :)

What about the rest of you?  Are witch hair clips and pigtails too childish for grown women, or do you think they're still perfectly acceptable?  What kinds of things are still in your closet?