azaleas

One thing I do miss about Mobile is the azaleas. I've seen a few here and there in Biloxi, but not nearly as beautiful as these in front of my parent's old house (that's them in the photo). There's a reason Mobile is also known as Azalea City, and why we have the Azalea Trail run every year.

edit.

I'm really bad about updating on consistent basis. It's a lot easier to blog when you have stuff going on I guess. The biggest spurts of me actively blogging are usually during times when I'm really depressed about something, single (and therefore have more free time alone), or an issue has surfaced that I'm passionate about.

I feel that lately I've not been myself when I blog.

Every time I re-read a post, it just doesn't seem like me! Agh! Ha. It's like I put on a cheery attitude to blog, when, IRL, I am totally sarcastic and Daria-esque. So, that being said, I think I'm going to update my blog a bit more (since I have this problem where I have to change the way things look like... I dunno, every month or so? Like today, I rearranged my desk at work.) and finally start blogging from, uh, my heart? Maybe my true self? Something like that. I'm sure you get the point.

Recap: blog re-design coming soon (probably tonight), new post with photos (maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow), and more blogging a la the real me!

p.s.
I update my tumblr and twitter on a much more frequent basis, so followwwww

st. patrick's day

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone! I hope you all remembered to wear green! It was so funny — everyone who got in the elevator at work this morning was wearing green! I love when everyone gets into the spirit of holidays and such.




dress/ring: forever 21
cardigan/belt: target
scarf/tights: modcloth
flats: urban outfitters



Not much planned for this weekend, and I'm actually pretty excited about that! My parents and my lil' brother are coming to visit tomorrow and we're all going out to eat somewhere. Saturday, we might be going to Chris' cousin's wedding, if we ever find out where it is! I'd love to fit in a movie somewhere this weekend. We're going to finish up the 30 Day Shred on Saturday, take a full day of rest on Sunday and then I'm starting a new workout routine. I seem to be rambling along. I guess I'm just tired!



In honor St. Patrick's Day, along with wearing green, I also made Vegetable Shepherd's Pie! Wow. It was so good! And we have leftovers for later, which makes me more excited :]

wedding of a friend

This past Saturday, Chris and I went to a wedding for my coworker/friend, Dara! Her theme was vintage/tiffany blue/blush pink, it was gorgeous! She and her hubby got married at this beautiful southern-style mansion with huge columns, chandeliers, and the like. The wedding was outdoors, right at sunset, and the reception moved inside where there was so much delicious food!
(excuse the unimaginative scenery, we were running late!)



It was a real challenge finding a dress for this wedding because I wanted to match her theme and I didn't have anything already in my closet. After a failed attempt at ordering a dress from ModCloth, I finally found this lacey one at a boutique in Mobile! I was hesitant to buy it, since I guess it's not really Kosher to wear white to a wedding, but this dress was closer to a beige and the more I wore it, the more pink it actually looked!






dress: polish boutique
cardigan: tj maxx
tights/gold rings/white rose earrings: forever 21
shoes: tj maxx
necklace: gift
headband/belt: urban outfitters
purse: gift
black ring/silver ring: hand-me-down




I took pictures that night with my Instagram app and they turned out so good!






Oh yea, you can really tell the difference in my hair color from the pictures we took Saturday! It's not a huge difference, but my color is little more lively and uniform now.

itunes tuesday vol.1

So I've decided to try something new! I opened up my itunes, let it create a playlist using Genius, and then added whatever songs popped up to this playlist! I love love love music, and I love getting new music and sharing my music with others, so I hope you enjoy!

grey & yellow

I really hate daylight savings time. I can just never get over the fact when I'm lying in bed, after my alarm has gone off for the first time and think about how last week at this time I had another hour to sleep! Ugh! Daylight savings should have it's own holiday! I so could've used another day off to get used to the time change.





Right now, Chris and I are watching the last episode of season 2 of the UK version of Skins. I was really liking this show but the second season is such a tear-jerker! Ugh... it's almost too depressing to watch!




cardigan, belt: target
dress: lotus boutique
boots, headband, ring: forever 21
cameo: antique'd




There's some belly-stuffing peanut butter oatmeal in the oven right now, and I can't wait until tomorrow morning to have some for breakfast! Sorry I didn't take photos of the process, but it was really too simple to even bother! It smells so good though, and I'm pretty sure you can't go wrong with oatmeal and peanut butter.

The boy and I are going to do the shred level 3... it's our last week!

owls

I have a soft spot for owls. I have lots of little owl necklaces and rings and such. And I happen to be wearing two of my favorite owl accessories! I should probably stop buying owl things, or soon that'll be all I own! And actually, a lot of the owl things I have are gifts. Gifts from enablers! Haha, jk. I love my owl stuffs!



Today at work was rough! My partner-in-crime is getting married on Saturday, so she has off tomorrow to get ready and that leaves me all by my lonesome in our office. And that means we had to crank out everything due today AND tomorrow... or at least most of it, so I wouldn't be left with too much to do. We spent all day printing signs, mounting, laminating, cutting, delivering, designing... phew! I'm just glad today's over, and tomorrow should be a breeze, with nothing but a little delivering and some design work to do.






shirt, skirt, ring: forever 21
cardigan: gap
tights: urban outfitters
boots: target
necklace: buffalo exchange




After work tomorrow, Chris and I are heading to Mobile for Art Walk to see a few of our pieces hanging at the Mobile Arts Council. It's Wacom tablet drawings we did for our illustration class that we both took together about a year ago. So Chris' is awesome, and mine... well. Honestly though, I'm looking forward more to the free wine/snacks, other peoples' art, and seeing old friends! And then Saturday is my friend/co-worker's wedding! Her theme is vintage/lace/etc. and I can't wait to see how it turns out! I know it's going to be beautiful.



I dyed my hair tonight! It looks about what it did the last time I dyed it this color. It's darker, and a very subtle red. It looks so pretty in the sun! I'll probably be taking the camera to Art Walk tomorrow night... hopefully I'll get some pictures showing off the new hue! (doesn't the girl on the box look like Alanis Morissette?!)

Have a happy Friday!

stripes & lace

I was so excited about today's outfit! For three reasons, actually: it was magically cold this morning so I got to whip out some tights; I wore my new heels; and I wore my new cardigan! I was so thrilled to see the temperature at 40° when I woke up! I really love chilly weather, and even though it was beautiful and warm outside this past weekend, I was a little sad that (I thought) I wasn't going to see cold weather again until December!






dress: urban outfitters
tights, gold rings: forever 21
shoes, cardigan: tj maxx
necklace: modcloth
flower ring: antique




Did I mention how much a love these heels? I was originally drooling over these heels from modcloth, but $65 +shipping was a little steep for me at the moment. Sooo I told myself that I would go shopping locally this weekend, and if I didn't find any similar, I would bite the bullet and get them. And wouldn't you know, I went into TJ Maxx to get some housewares and other junk and decided to browse the shoe isle when I found these! They were only $35! I was so excited! I then walked around and found this cardigan, along with a really pretty champagne-color silky-looking tiered skirt.




All that successful shopping at TJ Maxx followed an equally successful trip to the antique store where I found a Kodak Instamatic camera and a book of photos from LA crime scenes! The Instamatic even had a roll of film in it! Never used! It's probably expired, but I figured, what the heck, I'll use it up anyway.

Mardi Gras is tomorrow in my neck of the woods, but since the boyfriend has to work (sucks!) I'm going to Mobile for my day off. Although, I'm probably going to go shopping for a dress to wear to a friend's wedding on Saturday and hang out with my mom rather than go to the parades. Anyhow, happy Mardi Gras!

banana mini cupcakes

Chris and I went to a little Mardi Gras party where he works today and we were supposed to bring food to share, so I made these cupcakes! They're a banana cake with cream cheese frosting topped with walnuts. I made this as a sheet cake once before and it was incredibly good, so I thought they'd make perfect mini cupcakes. I adapted the recipe from here. I made a few changes that I'll explain later!



I used my cute little nesting doll measuring cups that Chris got me!


To start, mash the bananas in a bowl with lemon juice and set them aside






Then mix flour, baking soda, and salt together and set it aside. Here, I used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose. I really like the nutty flavor from the wheat flour, and it makes them a little more like a muffin and less like a cupcake... or in other words, not quite as sweet. Ha, I also have to sub three times the amount of baking soda with baking powder because I SWORE I had some, but couldn't find any!





In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. I did this by hand because I don't have a hand mixer and I didn't have time to unpack my fancy Kitchenaid mixer.






Next, add in the eggs one at a time, followed by vanilla.





Alternate adding buttermilk and flour mixture. I used a little lemon juice and fat free milk since I hate to buy a whole thing of buttermilk and not use up the rest. The first time I made this though, I did use the buttermilk, and it made a little difference in taste and texture, but not much.





I used a make-shift pastry bag by cutting the corner off of a zip-top bag and piped the batter in to each muffin tin. I then abandoned this technique and opted for a big spoon after I left the bag hanging on the side of the bowl and it fell in :/






Mine ended up taking 25 minutes in a 275° (yes, thats a TWO, not a three) oven in a mini-muffin tine. And while they're baking... it's frosting time!!! Mix together softened butter and cream cheese, then add the vanilla and powdered sugar.






To frost them, I actually had a little cheap-o pastry bag on hand, so I piped on a bit of frosting, sprinkled on some chopped walnuts, and voila!







And that's only about half of what I made! We took the ones pictured above to Chris' work party and I still have some to take to work tomorrow! Please make these! They are so incredibly out-of-this-world. Now I have to go let Jillian Michaels shred off all the junk food I ate today. I'm giving up fried food for Lent, so only 2 more days of naughty eating! Outfit post tomorrow!