This is what I looked like in eighth grade.
Yes, those are boys Vans.
& this is what I listened to… a lot.
Enjoy. I hope this brings back lots of happy, ultra embarrassing memories.
Monday’s Middle School Mashup
Sugar-free Broccoli Salad
I don’t mess around when I say Jessica’s mom inspires me in the kitchen. I tried this broccoli/sunflower seed/raisin salad over at her house several years ago and I have been making it for my family ever since. Every once in a while my dad will come home from the grocery store saying something along the lines of, “So.. I bought the ingredients for broccoli salad… *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge* Thought you might want to make it..”
This is the basic Broccoli Salad recipe, but I substituted apple cider vinegar for white wine and granulated Splenda for sugar.
I know it sounds super weird dressing a salad with sweet mayonnaise, but don’t be fooled by the weirdness. It’s actually really perfectly complemented by the fixin’s in the salad (also I used about 2 more tablespoons of “sugar” than the recipe called for because it didn’t seem sweet enough, so be sure to experiment a bit).
This is really one of my very favorite side dishes to make and devour. It’s really pretty easy to throw together and it tastes amazing. It’s best to let it sit in the fridge for several hours before serving, but in this particular case it’s a good thing I just had to eat it right away considering an hour later my dad would knock it out of the fridge and straight onto the floor. Bum-merrr.
Song of the day by Sublime with Rome:
Customized Russian Dolls
I don’t know about you guys, but I often have a problem figuring out what to get my parents for Christmas. This may or may not have to do with the fact that for most of my life they have been the ones giving me Christmas shopping money.. but regardless, they’re a difficult breed to shop for. One thing I have learned over the years is that you can hardly go wrong when you make your parents (or other sentimental family members for that matter) homemade gifts.
A couple years ago while shopping around Hobby Lobby (I am obsessed with that store, I could spend hours and many, many dollars there) I came across blank Russian Dolls. My mom has always had a couple cute little sets of stackable dolls around our house, but I had never seen customizable ones. The excitement went into overload when I realized there were exactly the amount of dolls as there were family members (not including in-laws, but still!!).
I traced out little cartoon faces for my parents, sisters, brother and myself and tried my best to incorporate their favorite colors, distinguishing characteristics, symbols that represent them, etc. I painted them (somewhat sloppily) with acrylics, outlined with Sharpie and sprayed with clear lacquer.
My mom seemed pretty stoked to open up this bad boy on Christmas morning. I think homemade gifts are so fun.
Have you ever made a family-customized gift for Christmas?
Friday’s Letters Part II
Dear Boyfriend, Thank you so much for my Christmas Kindle, delicious-smelling candles and for making the coolest Christmas tree I’ve ever seen with me. I am going to miss you while you’re off making snow angels in Ohio without me, but I’ll be turning the thermostat down to 60 and pretending like it’s cold here in Florida too.
Like the ornament I made you above says, love you! – Bay
Dear Betty (The Trailblazer), I realize you are a sensitive woman car in need of tender love and care, but your blatant disregard of how much gas is in my gas tank has been a pain in my butt for quite some time now and today this game ends. You are one expensive broad. Now, if you’d kindly allow the cd player to work again (without making me sell my organs on the black market) I’d greatly appreciate it. – Kens
Dear Eggnog Cookies, You are delicious. I already ate three of you. Woops. – Big Mack
Dear Blog Readers, Don’t worry. I will teach you how to make them too. – MacKensie
Dear Ziggy, I know you’re bored when I sit around blogging and what not, but that is no reason to chew up my favorite tassel-y winter hat! Rude! – Yo Mama
Dear Big Sis (Brit), I like crafting with you and all, but you don’t have to be so much better at making ornaments than I am. Stop being so artsy. – MacKie
Dear Gym, I have been neglecting you. My bad. I need you more now than ever (see Eggnog cookies letter). – Big Mack
Dear Left Knee, You still suck. It’s time to run. – Kens
Dear Music, Seriously, where would I be without you? Probably in a ditch somewhere eating worms. -Mack
Dear Short Hair, I’m sorry that I consistently try to spike you into a mohawk every time I take a bath or shower. Maybe if you would just cooperate for once, I wouldn’t keep trying. No, I take that back, I’d probably just do it more. – MacKensie
Modified Huevos Rancheros
Several days ago while I was reading all my favorite blogs, I came across a sweet potato skillet recipe from Eat, Live, Run that looked SO good that I had to make it immediately. I didn’t even think I was that hungry until I laid my eyes on this feast. I knew I would love it, and I found red potatoes (instead of sweet potatoes) in my kitchen, so I got to work.
It took a really long time to get these potatoes to the right mushy consistency, so if you try this with red potatoes I suggest being patient or turning the heat way up for a little while (the original recipe calls for only 20 minutes of simmering). The coolest part of this process was that I learned something new. I know I may seem like a domestic goddess (insert scoff here) but the truth is I just started cooking semi-regularly this past summer (when I no longer had classes to go to). Basically I had no idea what a broiler was and I thought we didn’t have one, so I was pretty concerned that I was going to have to dirty another pan just to fry the eggs.
Turns out the oven works as a broiler too (hand meet forehead). Good to know. So after cracking the eggs on top of my tater concoction, I stuck it in the ‘broiler’ (aka oven after pressing the broil button..) for 3 minutes and they were perfectly fried!
I seriously think this was one of my best cooking products ever. I totally loved it and it was very filling. I ate it for breakfast and lunch for about two days afterward. Thank you Eat, Live, Run for providing me with my new favorite breakfast/lunch/dinner.
As far as working out goes, I have totally been avoiding the gym. I don’t know what my deal is. So instead I have been walking on my parents’ treadmill barefoot a lot, which was doctor recommended. My first ever book bought for my Kindle (Austin bought it because he said giving a Kindle without a book is like giving a wallet without money, which I also didn’t realize was unacceptable, but I’m not complaining!) was “Born To Run” and I’m really hoping it will help me understand my running injuries, but if not it’s still super interesting so far. Plus I feel super cool reading anything on my kindle. I can turn the page and hold it with one hand. How cool?!
Also, I’ve come to the realization that Just Dance for Wii is onehellofa workout. I did the “Just Sweat” version yesterday for about 35 minutes and I was dripping with sweat. Way more fun than going to gym, if you ask me. Hopefully I will start hitting the gym more too, but for now Just Dance I will (I said that in a Yoda voice, but you don’t have to..)!
Song of the day by Guster!
Austin and I Celebrate Christmas Charlie Brown Style
I totally bummed this idea off of Kristen from Confessions of a Graphic Design Student, but in my defense, it was an awesome idea.
Austin’s apartment was lacking in the Christmas department, I’m talkin’ zero decorations or indication that we’re experiencing the holiday season at all whatsoever. So, when we celebrated our Christmas together the other night (he’s going to Ohio to have a white Christmas this year) we needed a tree. The only problem? The trees down the street were way out of our budget (I’m still an unemployed bum, remember?), so we got to work on our very own Charlie Brown twig tree (after watching Holiday Inn and exchanging gifts, of course!).
Ziggy was in Twiggy heaven, and so were Austin’s roommates’ crazy cats.
I made this “tree” topper from the packaging surrounding my Christmas present from Austin, a Kindle!!!
I am SO excited (in case you couldn’t tell by my excessive exclamation points). I got him that super stylish running watch pictured above. And as far as my outfit (& my parents’ tree) go..
Sweater: Forever 21
Tank: Walmart(?)
Belt: Target
Stockings: ?!
Necklace: Brighton (gift from Austin a while ago!)
Bracelet: Grandmother’s
Boots: Steve Madden (I wear them always.)
“You DO think I’m beautiful don’t you Charlie Brown?
You didn’t answer me right away. You had to think about it first, didn’t you? If you really had thought I was beautiful, you would’ve spoken right up. I know when I’ve been insulted. I KNOW WHEN I’VE BEEN INSULTED.”
“Good grief.”
–A Charlie Brown Christmas
What I Wore Wednesday
Jacket: Billabong
Scarf: Target
Shirt: Ross
Undershirt: ??
Tights: Target
Boots: Uggs (Sorry, I’m not sorry)
Shades: Target
This was a fun outfit for the ever-confusing-slash-frustrating weather of Florida, aka shivering like a chihuahua on ice in the shade and sweating like an obese man on a treadmill in the sun. The jacket and scarf were only slightly necessary, but I thought they were a nice touch. And seriously, I think I will wear these boots until they fall apart. I bought them for my family’s trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming about three years ago (where it was approximately 9 degrees), so they have in fact seen snow (and ridden on a snowmobile! Yes, be jealous), although I still do wear them in Florida & get weird looks for it all the time — and my boyfriend thinks it’s hilaaarious to call them my Ugg-ly boots. Whatevs, I guess I’ll forgive him because he got me a KINDLE for Christmas!!! More on that later.
Song of the day by The Killers:
Gingerbread House Decorating
Sunday my family and I did my very favorite Christmas tradition: decorating gingerbread houses. This is my house from all angles (with a little artistic license with the dining room snowfall). Austin made Sumo Santa and I definitely broke the whole no-sugar-diet-thing (there were 568 bowls of pure sugar calling my name, I couldn’t help it).
It was amazing, I pulled in to my driveway from my Orlando trip to see the cars of everyone in my family, including my brother and sister-in-law who live in Orlando.
There was a fire in the fireplace, lactose-free eggnog, awesome Christmas tunes, Gingerbead tea (which is amazing, by the way) and we even watched the claymation Rudolph movie. As several family members expressed throughout the day, it truly felt like Christmas.
My siblings and I
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend just like I did!
Cardinals
This weekend I was lucky enough to get to visit some of my best friends in Orlando. These are three beautiful ladies that I met freshman year of college when we all joined the Delta Zeta sorority. Basically it was love at first sight.
Aubrey (second from the left) offered to give Emma (far right) and I a ride to the new member retreat — aka scared freshmen Delta Zetas chillin’ in the woods hoping to make friends with their new found sisters. After giggling all the way there and getting very lost despite our British GPS Navigator, we met Liz (second from right) when we were assigned to the Cardinal cabin (each one was named after a different type of bird, I have no idea why).
I knew we would be friends at that point, but it was the many games of “Never Have I Ever,” “Truth or Dare” and silliness around the campfire while learning the creed that really sealed the deal.
Our very first social was Good vs. Evil themed
Now we really are sisters. We plan our weddings, Lamaze classes and futures in general around each other. We still call ourselves the Cardinals and are just waiting for the right time to whip out a straight up Ya Ya Sisterhood fireside dance, and best of all, we are always there for each other. As cheesy as it sounds, I know I can count on these ladies. Whether it’s helping each other cope with a bad break up, or planning a badass bachelorette party, we got it covered.
The Song of the day is the new Fun. song by the cast of Glee (I was beyond excited when I saw this episode.)
Happy Birthday Andy!
Eleven years ago Friday, I was called out of my sixth grade science class and told that my big sister was going into labor and I was finally going to meet my brand new baby nephew. Needless to say, I was ecstatic.
My parents came and picked me up from school (the tiniest private school you’ve ever seen) and I proudly strutted around the hospital with my Princess Leia buns decorated in the ever-stylish glittery butterfly clips (probably with spring loaded wings).
I was the coolest kid in class, obviously, because I was the only sixth grader with a nephew. Also, I got to leave class early, so extra cool points accumulated.
Finally this screaming baby was born and now, eleven years later, Andy is a fifth grader who picks me up, carries me around the house, wears my shoes (which are too small for him now), plays Mario Galaxy with me, runs 5ks and even goes to rock concerts, just like his Aunt Mackie.
In celebration of this awesome day, I made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing (and a vegan treat that I’ll describe later!) and got Andy man Just Dance 3, and dance we did.
And as far as the outfit goes…
Wrap Skirt: Gifted from a friend in Mexico
Tee: Old Navy
Necklace: Lucky
Earrings: Grandmother’s
Boots: Steve Madden
Happy Birthday, Andy!
