One to Nothin'

Grinch Skellington and the Spiders from Mars

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I have officially received confirmation that this homemade advent calendar is safely in the possession of my  friend in North Carolina (it was sent to the wrong address and took some serious ninja skillz to retrieve it from the wrong destination). Austin and I totally winged it and made this bad boy (full of inside jokes, clearly) from scratch in order to send some Christmas cheer to our homeboy in the Marines. Check out 5OhWifey‘s blog to see how we did it here.

More details from my epic weekend to come, including: My nephew’s 11th birthday, Gainesville fun, Cardinal reunion in Orlando and gingerbread house making!

I hope you’re all enjoying your weekend!



Cookie Redemption

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A couple weeks ago I had a major cookie fail. Apparently I added way too much salt and/or baking soda and they ended up tasting like dry, crumbly, sea salt and sand cookies. Not my kind of cookie.. So this time I was determined to make a moist, awesome, dairy-free, sugar-free chocolate chip cookie. Sounds easy enough, right..?

In case you were confused, yes, that middle photo does in fact say 1 T Mayo. I know it sounds gross, but here’s the thing. I was already in the middle of making the cookies when I realized there wasn’t a single egg in the fridge, so I did some Google research and decided that since mayo is made of eggs… tomayto, tomahto. In other words, I was too lazy to go to the store. It definitely didn’t leave any traces of mayo taste in the finished product, so it was good enough for me.
I threw the dough balls in a 325 degree oven for 12 minutes and they were sooo much better than the first batch. I definitely recommend these bad boys.
This song of the day is by Lissie, who is AMAZING, covering Kid Cudi’s “Pursuit of Happiness.” It is slightly life-changing.

Locks of Love

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(Yep, this is what the mane looks like air-dried without any products in it)

Yesterday I did something uncharacteristically impulsive. While embracing the warm fuzzies that come along with helping others (which are generally heightened during the holidays probably due to the sweet Salvation Army bell ringers), I chopped off 17 inches of my hair for Locks of Love.

Locks of Love is a non-profit organization that provides realistic wigs for financially disadvantaged children under the age of 21. These children, who have lost hair due to various illnesses, receive the hair pieces free of charge. In other words, I’m super stoked that I am able to help with something as little and seemingly insignificant as my hair.
Now it’s time to start growing it out so I can donate it again.

The Big Ticket What I Wore Wednesday Style

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Dress: Billabong
Boots: Steve Madden
Socks: Target
Necklace 1: Lucky
Necklace 2: Gift
Earrings: Homemade
Today I am linking up with The Pleated Poppy for What I Wore Wednesday (But I really wore it Sunday). This is my ‘indie’ style that always seems to really show through when I go to concerts. I definitely tend to dress for the occasion.
Emma totally does too. Then we decided to add to the indie-vibe by getting feather hair extensions.
Mine like to hide in my vast amounts of dark hair, but I love, love, love them. They are just as wavy as my hair is now. They fit right in with the rest of the strands.
pleated poppy
Today I am also guest posting over at 5OhWifey, so you should definitely go check her blog out! And if you’re visiting from her blog, thank you! Please sit down, relax and enjoy my blog! 
Now for the song of the day:

The Big Ticket Part II

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You guys, I am not exaggerating when I say that X102.9’s Big Ticket Concert was the best concert festival I have I ever been to. Emma (pictured above) agreed. It was absolutely amazing. I’m talkin’ easy parking, hardly any lines, fairly cheap tickets, awesome venue, free Monster energy drinks, tons of fun people, ROCKIN’ bands and zero line to get out of the parking lot. These are things I didn’t realize could even happen at a big concert like this. Here’s the lineup as we saw it through the lens of my little point & shoot camera.
It was a blast & I’m so thankful to have been able to experience it. More details to come.
Song of the day:
(These guys are from my hometown!!)

Homemade Jewelry

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I’ve been a major homebody lately. I made these pairs of earrings the other night while waiting for the salt dough ornaments to dry and I spent all Friday night redesigning the blog (what do you think?) while watching Gnomeo And Juliet, which is so cute.
I even got a little crazy a did my nails, sloppily. Nothing a shower can’t fix.
I actually did hit the gym yesterday for the first time in forever and I am so very sore. Jessica went with me and we did 40 minutes on the EFX (random, hardcore style) and lifted weights (arms, legs and abs). It was painful. I feel so weak.
I miss running so much.

After my physical therapy appointment on Thursday (which marked two weeks of massage, ultrasound and chiropractic therapy) the doc decided I need to get an MRI to see what’s going on with the tracking of my knee since I’m still having pain (it’s been almost 4 months now!). We’ll see how that goes.
The good news, however, is tomorrow I am going to the BIG TICKET CONCERT!!! Check out the lineup:
Bubba Burger Main Stage
9:50 Sublime with Rome
8:25 A Day To Remember
6:30 Taking Back Sunday
5:20 Manchester Orchestra
4:10 Switchfoot
3:00 Young The Giant
1:50 Joy Formidable
12:40 Fun
11:40 Don’t Sigh Daisy
JagerMeister stage
7:35 Everlast
7:20 Hard Target with Special Guest
5:55 Surfer Blood
4:45 Middle Class Rut
3:35 Grouplove
2:25 Sleeper Agent
1:15 Drive A
12:10 Joe Everitt
JaxLive.com stage
11:30 – T Minus 9
12:30 – Get Out Driver
1:40 – Waylay
2:50 – Mindslip
4:00 – Bleeding In Stereo
5:10 – Son Of A Bad Man
6:30 – Opiate Eyes
7:50 – Greenhouse Lounge

I AM SO EXCITED!

Butternut Squash & Quinoa Salad

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I have made a wonderful discovery, folks. This “discovery” is a result of my own ignorance, but it is wonderful just the same. While talking with a fellow lactose intolerant friend the other day, I learned that feta cheese is made from sheep’s milk. In other words, it doesn’t contain lactose like cow’s milk does.
Hallelujah! (<– best song ever.)
I have been eating massive amounts of it ever since and it passes lactose intolerance the test (for me, anyway). I made up a red quinoa and roasted butternut squash salad topped with feta cheese last night, and it is so good.
I learned how to roast veggies from the Hungry Hungry Hippie (an awesome blogger!) and I’m pretty sure I’m going to do this all the time now. Roasted butternut squash is fabulous.
(And it looks like boobies)
I cut the squash up, lathered it in some olive oil and cooked it for 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven. While it roasted away, I got to work on the red quinoa — 1 cup quinoa with 2 cups water.
Then I added these ingredients in large quantities.

It was delicious, if I do say so myself. And it makes at least four servings, so it lasts a while. I am most likely going to be putting feta cheese on everything from now on, so be warned. (Sharp cheddar cheese too, it also doesn’t have any lactose in it. Shibby!)

I’m still waiting on the salt dough ornaments to finish drying. They’re having a rough time (probably because I didn’t quite have enough salt at the time), but I’ll keep you all posted. Also, please excuse any weirdness in my blog design in the near future. I am attempting to play around with the layout, but I am fairly html illiterate… we’ll see how it goes.

Now introducing my ‘Song of the Day’ feature. I hope to share with you guys one of my favorite old/new/random songs I happen to be diggin’ on each day. Enjoy!

Salt Dough Ornaments

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Yesterday I felt really Christmassy. It got cold last night (for Florida, anyway) and so I decided it was time to stop thinking about all the awesome Christmas tree ornaments (and all the other projects floating around my head for that matter) I want to make someday, and just make them already!
I got the idea to make salt dough ornaments from The Cheese Thief (who has super creative ideas on her blog every day). I just rolled out the dough, got creative and let it dry over night (also I used whole wheat flour so it looks like sand, which I thought was pretty cool).
I’ll show off the rest of them once they have completely dried and I can add cute ribbons to them. While I had my craft supplies out, I also got to making some of my own jewelry (which is definitely a newer concept for me), so I’ll be sharing that later on as well.
While feeling Christmassy yesterday I came across a pre-made play list on Rhapsody (which is awesome, by the way) called “An Indie Winter Wonderland” which I promptly listened to & discovered this song by Zooey Deschanel’s band She And Him:
Afterward, I listened to the rest of She And Him’s Christmas album and I love it. Also, I got to listen to Justin Bieber’s brand new Christmas album without the embarrassment of actually spending money on it. Oh, the power of Rhapsody.
I made these vegan chocolate chip cookies last night. They look good, right?
They weren’t. But I thought I’d share them anyway since they still look pretty decent. Apparently I put too much salt and/or baking soda. Failure.
Happy December!!

Vegan Butternut Squash Soup (Spicy)

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Remember back when I told you about Jessica’s mom’s world-famous soups? Well, with the leftover Thanksgiving decorations (aka phallic gourds) I attempted to recreate the Butternut Squash soup that I fell in love with. Turns out Mrs. J’s recipe was off the top of her head and fairly simple, but considering I don’t have the magic soup touch, I decided to combine it with a couple other recipes I found online as well (since I don’t trust my judgement when it comes to measuring out spices). The first step, however, was cutting open & baking the squash.
It smelled just like watermelon when I first cut it open. I was so pleasantly surprised!
I set the oven to 375, filled the pan with water and baked the squash for about 30 to 35 minutes. The recipe called for 40 minutes, but considering what happened last time I tried to bake gourds.. I decided to play it safe.
According to this vegan butternut squash soup recipe, you only use 1/8 teaspoon of each of these spices.. but that’s no fun. So I probably tripled or quadrupled the amounts of each spice. I like to live on the edge..
After mixing this bad boy up, bringing it to a boil and letting it simmer down (now) for a while, I transferred it in sections to the blender (I don’t have a food processor), added green onions and chowed down.
I thought it was delicious. Austin? Not so much. So if you try this recipe out, make sure to let me know how you like it. I found that I needed to add a lot of salt, but once you do, it’s pretty tasty. 
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