Finally... a little FASHION!

Alright, I know I've been terrible at posting again!  The important thing is I've discovered a new website, and I'm here to share it!  I stumbled across a website called JustFab.com.  It's a website that allows you to tell stylists about your style and they essentially become your personal shopper!  After you take a little style quiz, they give you monthly selections of purses, shoes, and jewelry.... and everything is only $39.95... with free shipping!!!  There's a little glitch... and you actually have to remember to skip your selections each month so you won't get charged, but that's only after you've made your first purchase.

ANYWAYS..... the whole point here is that I got not just one... but TWO amazing purses for $39.95!!!!  Last month they had a sale that you could get 2 items for the price of one, and since I don't wear high heels often enough, I ended up buying myself two purses.  And here they are:

And the best part... they both have cross-body straps!  What great colors to kick off spring with too!  Seriously.... make sure you check out the website.  And if you decide to buy something, don't forget to cancel your monthly selections afterwards so you don't get charged.  Thank you to the fashionistas who like their quality, but know how to get it cheap!

Wii Like To Party

Greg's brother had a Wii party this weekend! Knowing there was probably gonna be some drinking, I thought I'd bring along some food.  I had a recipe for cupcakes that I had been wanting to try, but I also knew that I should probably bring something salty to balance it out, so I brought my Greek Dip to share!

Greek Dip

Mix together one 8 oz package of softened cream cheese with 1/2 cup Miracle Whip and spread out on a platter.  Top with chopped cucumber, black olives, seeded tomatoes (I seed them so the dip doesn't get soggy), and garlic and herb feta.

*We serve our dip with an option of either baked Ritz crackers or Garlic Triscuits.

As for the cupcakes, I knew I was pretty excited to try out this new recipe, but I had no idea how popular they would be.  The recipe that I found said it should yield 48 cupcakes, but apparently I make my cupcakes a little larger and ended up with about 36.  They are super easy to make and I can't believe I haven't made them sooner!

 

Neapolitan Cupcakes

1 (19.5 oz) package brownie mix

2 eggs

1/2 cup canola oil

1/4 cup water

1 (18.25 oz) package strawberry cake mix

1/3 cup canola oil

1 1/3 cups water

3 eggs 

Vanilla frosting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together the brownie mix, eggs, canola oil and water in a bowl. Fill paper muffin cups 1/3 full with brownie mix.  Then mix together cake mix, canola oil, water, and eggs in a bowl.  Pour the cake mix over the brownie mix, filling the paper muffin cups 2/3 full.  Bake 15-20 minutes.  Remove from pan and let completely cool before frosting.

This recipe is just kind of a general guideline.  You'll want to make sure that the box mixes that you pick up cook at the same temperature.  Then just mix the ingredients listed on the box according to the package directions.  I've read that if you refrigerate the brownie mix before you put it in the muffin cups, that the brownies come out a little gooier.

Both of these recipes were super easy, and I ended up going home empty handed!  Oh, and if you were wondering... my cocktail for the night was a mixture of whipped cream flavored vodka, cranberry juice, apple juice, and ginger ale!

Easy Cheesy

I should be writing about the Shrimp Puffs that I made for Christmas, but I didn't take a picture of them and I don't plan on making them again any time soon.  These cheeseballs were another appetizer for our Christmas dinner.  I got the recipe out of my Food Network magazine and they were easy to make, but weren't anything amazing.  Next time I plan on mixing in jalapenos or trying different things for the cheeseball recipe itself!  I rolled mine in almonds, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, and a mixture of bacon bits and paprika.

Mini Cheesballs

Mix 8 oz softened cream cheese with 1 tsp worcestershire sauce, 1/2 tsp grated lemon zest and 1 cup shredded firm cheese (I used mild shredded cheddar); season with salt and pepper. Form into 1-inch balls using moistened hands.  Chill 4 hours, then roll in toppings.

Cold Air Makes Me Creative

Well, it's finally starting to feel like winter.  There's not a blizzard or anything keeping us inside, but who wants to be outside in 30+ mph wind?  Cold wind?!  I kept myself busy this weekend with several projects, mostly inspired by my new addiction to Pinterest, but also things that I've planned on doing and have never done. 

Started out the weekend by making my mom's homemade salsa.  Not as good as hers, but still impressive for my first time.  And by myself!  Then I decided to decorate my powder room.  Greg helped me paint it a while ago, and I was having a hard time adjusting to the pink, but now that I'm decorating I'm enjoying it more.  The first thing to go up was a decal of the Eiffel Tower that I got as a birthday gift... back in August!  It was a pain in the butt to put it up, but I think it looks great!

Then I saw an idea on Pinterest for organizing my scarves.  I had seen several DIY methods just using shower curtain rings and a hanger, but I thought it was messy and looked the same.  So when I saw that someone had used a towel bar with S hooks and metal rings, I thought it looked much more organized and more of a way to decorate the room!  Now I certainly have more than 12 scarves, but this got my most used ones out of a pile.  The rest will go into the suitcase that I'm decorating (pictures coming later!).  I also put the shelf above the bar because I have so many trinkets that needed a home, and I think it looks really clean over the bar... kind of like my old merchandising days :)

I have some more shelves to decorate with and more suitcases to paint, so there will be more pictures soon.  Special thanks to my boyfriend, Greg, and his power drill!

Doggy Play Date!

 

Meet Beau, my 3 year old Weimaraner!  My sister and my parents dog Trixie also joined us yesterday for Beau's first trip to a dog park.  He's done the doggy daycare thing and whatnot, but I was prepared for this to be an experience.  And by experience I meant for my sister and all the other spectators, as I expected to be running around screaming at him.  Unfortunately he doesn't get off his leash much when we're outside because we lack a fence for our backyard and Beau tends to get distracted by his nose and stops listening.  So I was envisioning an escapade where I got more of a workout than the dogs did.  We had also planned on getting the dogs in the water for their first time.  I was ready for the worst!

Being a Weim, I wasn't sure how he'd react to the water.  He does pretty good in the shower, and he's supposed to be a decent water dog, but at the same time we also use a spray bottle full of water to punish him and he's terrified of it.  We also have to yell at him to stop drinking because he'll chug it and then puke.  So the picture in my head was of him drowning while trying to drink the lake up.

The adventure took place at Raccoon River Park yesterday.  We decided to get the water fun out of the way first and found a tiny little beach area and interrupted some gentlemen fishing nearby (whoops).  Both dogs approached it curious, but my sister and I ended up having to shove both of them in.  Luckily Trixie is a little dog, so we put her in a life jacket and pretty much threw her in.  She swam!  Swam... back to the beach.  Immediately.  She was pissed and didn't want to be wet.  Beau would only go in as far as I would.  So I rolled up my pants and went in to about my knees, which took Beau up to about his chest.  He didn't like it either and kept leaning on me and stepping on me.  I almost lost my sandals a couple times, but at least he didn't knock me over.  We tried to play with some toys in the water, but my smart dog just pawed at them and pushed them under water.  He wouldn't even grab a tennis ball because he didn't want to get his face wet!  And when he did move he would stomp really awkward and splash all over the place.  The water wasn't really the kind of water that I even wanted to be in, so I didn't get him to swim :(  Beau and Trixie were both more than excited to get away from the water.

We figured it was smart to do the water thing first so they had time to dry off before getting back in my car.  Again, I was picturing Beau sprinting off like a Gazelle and air drying in 2 seconds.  Wrong.  Beau is not a mean dog.  Anyone that knows him knows that he is such a wuss.  But other people see a 90 lb dog and get nervous, understandably.  Its a dog park... so of course there are dogs off leash.  One runs up to the fence immediately and Beau about rips my arm off to go see it.  I always find myself trying to convince people that hes harmless, but my special boy looks like a rabid wolf because hes drooling so bad and tugging on me because hes so excited (it doesn't help that I'm not really that strong).  When the owner finally took the dog out we went in to find the park completely empty!  I was so excited and immediately took his leash off.  Again... not what I expected at all.  Well, I expected him to not listen to me, which was true.  But he spent the whole time with his nose to the ground!  I even took off running myself to get him to move and he didn't even notice.  Trixie was the same way.  Neither were interested in the toys or us.  So we leashed them up and walked them around the rest of the dog park.  Suprisingly he got tuckered out and slept well for the rest of the night :)  I'd say it was a good first visit!

I Cook AND I Bake. Take That Rachael Ray.

I love Greg.  Thats what my boyfriend told me to write when I said I didn't know how to start my blog.  Well I do love my boyfriend, but thats not what my blog is about.

I'm finally loving summer with the humidity gone and the temperatures a little lower.  Its almost like fall, but with all the summer food you can enjoy.  Our garden is full of so many ripening tomatoes and peppers, I can't wait to start enjoying them.  My coworker was nice enough to share some of her zucchini out of her garden and I've been experimenting with them a little bit.  So for our dinner tonight we had a pretty amazing meal.  Not the prettiest on a plate, but soooo tasty.  Thanks to my boyfriend we had homemade breaded pork tenderloin sandwiches and some delicious peaches and cream sweet corn, and I prepared some baked zucchini fries.

 

Now you think that we'd have no more room left after all this food, but if you knew how delicious the cupcakes were that I made you would understand how you could make room.  I had made some yummy red velvet cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting for my co-workers last day and I saved a few for Greg and I to enjoy :)  If I could I would make enough for all of you to enjoy, so I'm insisting that you try this recipe.  They're so easy!  You won't regret it!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

1 package red velvet cake mix (2 layer size)

1 package jello chocolate instant pudding (3.9 oz size)

1 package cream cheese, softened (8 oz size)

1/2 cup  butter or margarine, softened

4 cups powdered sugar 

1 cup thawed cool whip

 

-Prepare cake batter and bake as directed on package for 24 cupcakes, blending dry pudding mix into batter before spooning into muffin cups.  Cool.

 -Beat cream cheese and butter with mixer until well blended.  Gradually beat in powdered sugar.  Whisk in cool whip.

-Spoon frosting into large plastic storage bag and seal.  Cut off a small corner of the bottom of the bag and use to pipe onto cupcakes.  Keep refrigerated!

Lets Go For A Ride :)

I know its strange to write my first blog about a bike, but there's a lot going on and this is the most recent thing to happen since I created this blog.

I grew up on a farm, so my love for the outdoors has always been there.  Then after living with my boyfriend in Colorado for two years I got an even greater appreciation for being active.  He always had an interest in bikes and learned a lot about how they work.  So for my birthday one year he put together a vintage beach cruiser for me and painted it seafoam green to my request :)

Moving back to Iowa admittedly sucked a little bit.  A lack of green belt paths to bike on, and less people with an appreciation for being outdoors (being in a car doesn't count people!) made it a little less exciting to get out on my bike.  But I went to an estate sale about a month ago and found an old 1970's Schwinn in an awesome yellow color... bell and all!  I bought it for 40 bucks and brought it back to have my boyfriend fix up the breaks and clean the whole thing.

We took it out for the first time yesterday and the good news is I didn't hit any cars or do anything embarrassing (that anyone would notice).  You should probably know that I've never ridden a bike with hand brakes, nor have I ever had to shift a moving object before.  I get really nervous on a bike anyways... so I should have taken a shot of tequila before I got on this thing.  My boyfriends advice when I asked him about shifting and how and when to do it.... too complicated to type.  So then I got the response "oh, you'll figure it out".  I'm still figuring it out.  I was more worried about braking when there was a mini-van plowing down the street.  Almost rolled off into a ditch, but I got it under control... no worries :)  I think I might want to go back to my other bike already.  Now if the weather would only cool down, I might actually be able to run errands on this thing!