MIT - The Life for Me.

I'm not quite sure when it happened, but it did....I became domestic.

Meal planning, crockpotting, baking, cooking, sewing, painting, crafting - you name it, I do it.

I honestly blame Pinterest. Access to so much information at my fingertips. Craft projects. Home improvement projects. Food projects. Projects on projects on projects. It's like I have a legitimate excuses to be a MIT....a "Martha-in-Training. "

So my list has 2 sections dedicated to the art of Pinterest. Number 29 allows me to make 10 Pinterest-Inspired projects, while number 28 calls for me to get my Pinterest on in the kitchen.

So here are some of the projects that I've produced the past couple weeks.

Projects:

FSU Fabric Corkboard - It makes me cringe having to touch the colors garnet and gold, however I'm afraid it's something I'm just going to have to accept since my sister and life partner are Noles. These little babies I made for my sister. Her 18th birthday and first week of classes took place this week. She hasn't received them yet, but I'm fairly certain she has better things to do than read her big sister's boring ol' blog!

Painted Wooden Sign - I've seen this done a couple times on Pinterest and I fell in love. Believe there is good in the world - Be the good. Truer words have never been spoken. This is hanging in the master bedroom and the first thing I see when I wake up (other than my sweet little puppy, barking uncontrollably to be let in the bed). It was pretty simple to make - attach wood together (I used my staple gun and hot glue gun); stain wood; paint wood; nail hangers on wood; hang up and enjoy!

Cork Framed pictures - If you recall, the bf and I did a booze+painting class a couple months ago. Well I was staring at this giant bag of corks he brought me (his Dad owns an Italian restaurant....woohooo free corks) and the thought came to me. Slice a cork in half and hot glue to the canvas. So that's what I did. I personally LOVE the way it turned out.

Chevron Bathroom Sign - Wash. Brush. Flush. I was looking at decorations for our bathroom and couldn't find anything I realllllllllllly liked, so I decided to make my own sign. There was a really helpful link on Pinterest that basically dumbed down how to create your own Chevron. All in all the project took 2 or so hours and another 24 hours for the polyurethane spray to dry. Gotta use that spray if it's going in a moist space!

My Pinterest inspired cooking has been going SUPER awesome. Everything has turned out super yummy. Here are a few of my favorites!

Pizza Casserole - Before you get all judgey, I'll have you know the base of this is entirely cauliflower! It was SO delicious. The leftovers were even better than the meal itself!

Cheeseburger Quesadilla, Bacon and Garlic Sauteed Green Beans, and Sweet Potato + Flaxseed Chips. This was kinda all over the place but it was AMAZING. I'm salivating just thinking about this one.

Spaghetti Squash Skinny Alfredo (with chicken and steak - couldn't decide which protein we wanted, so we had both). The squash was easy enough to bake, however, I cooked it too long and it was quite mushy. The homemade alfredo sauce was on point though. I'm giving this one another chance!

Southwest Calzone  with Sweet Potato + Flaxseed fries- This calzone thing. Ermaghed. So delicious. It's super easy to make and is sure to please! The secret ingredient is using fresh pizza dough to wrap the food up. It provides an amazing texture. Okay, I want one right now. As you noticed, I'm on a flaxseed kick. Hey, it doesn't taste bad and its pretty good for you. I say that's a win-win.

So anyways, this is what I've been up to. Channeling my inner-Martha. I have a couple more projects up my sleeve. Can't wait to share them with y'all! Happy cooking & happy crafting, friends!

Until next time,
L

Welcome to the Wild Wild West...coast

Because I can't help myself (attaching YouTube vids to many of my posts), please enjoy some Will Smith while I share with you my first trip to the Wild Wild West....Coast. This allowed me to check quite a few things off my little list. For starters: numbers 6 (travel to the West Coast) and 20 (visit a new state).

Here we are...over a month after our trip. It has left a lot of time for reflecting on the awesomeness of the WWWC (wild wild west coast), and lots of time to create this masterpiece: our trip in 2 minutes and 44 seconds. It's pretty badass, and I'm not just saying that because I live with the guy. And he also takes some pretty great pictures too. It's pretty impressive that a brainiac (like him) can be all artsy fartsy (like me). Before I bore all of you to death with mushy love crap, let's get back to the high and low points of the trip.

High Points:

Seattle. All of it. Never a dull moment. Oh wait, I can think of one...it was just when a bum chased me and my future sister-in-law down for all our spare change - he was quite aggressive. Other than that, Seattle was perfection. The food was great (specifically the freshly made Italian pasta at Spinasse). I also loved going out on Lake Union for a couple hours by boat. If  you're looking to spend some time with the wind in your hair and on the water, I highly recommend The Electric Boat Company since they not only give you a Captain's hat upon departure, but they kindly upgraded us to a premier boat for freeeeeeee. I got to see the Sleepless in Seattle houseboat which was basically the best part of my day - which may have beat out a trip to Pike Place Market watching people catch fish (flashback immediately to The Real World: Seattle), the first SBux, and a mani/pedi at Julep...please open a store in Atlanta. Kthanksbuhbye.


There are certain things a Southern Belle East Coaster like me could never imagine. for example, flying into an airport and seeing snow covered mountains. Hiking for hours at a time and not even reaching your final destination. Let's go back to the mountain thing again. I was practically glued to the airplane window, as excited as a little kid (who didn't grow up in Central Florida) first trip to Disney. "Oh my gosh. Is that a mountain? Whoaaaaa it's so big! What mountain is that? Oh dang...another mountain in the distance. Ahhhhh there are soooo many mountains!!!!"

The food. And the beer. Everywhere. I easily gained 5lbs on my trip. Easily. How could you not when you have amazing places like VooDoo Donuts, Grilled Cheese Grill, Tutta Bella, the world famous Garlic Fries at Safeco Fieldand on your mealplan, not to mention a plethora of local brews to wet your whistle. My only saving grace to gaining more than 5lbs was the amount of walking we did.

The Seattle Sounders Game. Okay, I know what you're thinking....MLS......gross. But the thing about it, this game may have been the craziest and most fun sporting events I've ever been to. We sat one section away from the diehard fans, who had a designated person leading cheers, chants, and songs the entire game. We were also in the 3rd row behind the goal, so that helped. The best part about the experience was after the game. There was a player who had been traded to the opposing team, but had so much love an respect for the fans that he removed his jersey and took a bow with the rest of the Sounders, who all welcomed him over with open arms. I mean, it was incredible. I don't care if you think the only reason to watch soccer is for David Beckham, I highly encourage you to go to a Sounder's game (at home) if given the chance.



Low Points:

Going to Vancouver the same week as Canada Day. Everything was closed by 8pm. Not to mention the tourists who couldn't ride a bike to save their life. I nearly got in 3 bike accidents over the course of the 1.5 hour bike ride around Stanley Park. Maybe I should give Vancouver a try again. On another week. When it's not Canada Day, aye. I mean, the scenery was lovely after all...

The homeless people in Portland. I mean, sometimes you had to do a double take to realize they are in fact just grungy looking, and not in fact homeless. However, we went for a leisurely stroll along the waterfront the Sunday morning we were in PDX and witnessed Park Services people walking around waking them up. Did I mention, the waterfront smelled like pee?

The lowest of all low points:

Denver Airport. *Cringe* Which is where we slept the first night of our vacation after our flight was delayed....then delayed some more....then delayed again...then as we have begun boarding, our pilot has "timed out" and is not able to fly. And there's no hotel airport, so one who have to go into the city. By the time we would arrive to the hotel, pay $100 extra bucks, we'd get 3-4 hours of shuteye and have to make our way back to the airport for the 6am rescheduled flight. Dear Denver Airport and Southwest Airlines, you are on my shitlist.

Here's the silver lining though....the AMAZING staff at the Westin Portland made our stay super special - allowing us an 8am early check-in (when we finally made it) and then slipping this in our room while we were away (complimentary, of course...for our travel troubles). The sneakiest sneak of all...my boyfriend. June was over, which marked the end of my birthday month and the bottle of bubbly was the last thing I could officially claim during my month-long reign as "Birthday Princess".

So to sum of our trip to the WWWC, it was wonderfully amazing. I can't wait to move go back to Seattle. And yes, Portlandia on IFCis the real deal. If you haven't, please watch. You can thank me later.

Until next time,
L