Let the good times roll.

So besides the other amazing things that happened this past year, I failed to mention that I also joined a bunco/ recipe club. This is a group that meets the second friday of every month to play the famous game of bunco and to test our cooking skills.

For any of you that know me well at all, know that I'm not a huge cook. So I like that I am involved in something that is forcing me to test out some recipes and expand my cooking skills. Each month we have a theme for what the food has to be, some examples: something with tomatoes, something with chocolate, something made in muffin tins, red white and blue dishes, casseroles, etc. Each month, we also vote on the best savory and the best sweet dish.

This month the theme was breakfast, and this month, my friends I took home the title for the best sweet dish. The winning dish was: Blueberry Pancake Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream Frosting. (and I meant to take a picture, but ate them all before I had the chance). So for all of those inquiring (via FB), here is my award winning recipe:

Blueberry Pancake Cupcakes (makes 2 dozen)
-3 cups all purpose flour
-2 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 cup butter (2 sticks), room temperature
-1 1/3 cup granulated sugar
-4 large eggs
-2 tsp vanilla extract
-2/3 cup buttermilk
-Fresh blueberries
-¼ cup of syrup

Preheat oven to 350F. Line 24 muffin tins with paper liners. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Reserve about ¼ cup. In a standing mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each and add vanilla extract. While mixing, slowly add buttermilk. Gradually add flour mixture until combined, do not over mix.Toss blueberries with reserved flour mixture.Fold in blueberries. Scoop into prepared pans filling about 2/3 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely before frosting.

And for the frosting:

Maple Buttercream

-1 cup butter (2 sticks), room temperature
-4 cups confectioners sugar
-1/3 cup maple syrup

Cream butter in stand mixer for 2 minutes. Slowly add 2 cups of confectioners sugar. Then add maple syrup and finally add the final 2 cups of confections sugar. And then, of course, frost! And wa-la! perfection!

2011 Resolved.

To start off, I'm not really sure that resolved is the correct past tense verbage to use for resolution. But I'm going to go with it- because I don't feel like looking it up.

I'm not sure I had any resolutions for 2011 -also too lazy to go and look up on this blog and/or notebooks laying around. Either way, that must be I didn't focus too hard on getting them done.

I did want to go ahead and make note of the things in 2011 that were resolved (or accomplished or just happened) and I couldn't or at least didn't plan on happening. But oh am I glad they did.

-Finding out I will get to be an aunt to a nephew.
-Learning to live on a budget and beginning to take financial control of my life.
-Paying off and canceling my credit card.
-The man of my dreams asking me to be his girlfriend.
-Weeding out fast food in my life.
-Joining a co-ed soccer team.
-A very relaxing, and much needed, vacation in Las Vegas.
-Watching the boyfriend be the first generation in his family to graduate college.
-Being blessed with 24 wonderful years of life, thus far.
-Take a photography class.
-Open a savings account.
-Making more costumes than I can count.
-Visiting the best friend in Nashville.
-Walking with the gma through chemo and successfully conquering cancer.
-Reunion with my African teammate in New Orleans.
-Planning and attending a 5 year reunion from high school
-Running the Dirty 30 5k race.
-Accomplishing 6 (maybe) of 50 free things in Oklahoma. Better than zero.
-Learned to give people chances.

And just as last year had amazing things that I could have never predicted and only hoped for, I'm sure this year will be the same. And I can hardly wait.

Long, but not forgotten.

You may have think that because of the lack of posting, I have neglected the dating on a dime. I HAVE NOT!! I'm actually doing an even better job. The boyfriend and I are trying to save moo-lah, to get out of debt and get out quickly. And you may be thinking this should be pretty easy, but when youre trying to tackle a combined $80,000, its not the easiest goal.

We have decided to make a budget. We alloted more money for grocery money and less for eating out. And if im completely honest, when he began to talk about the eating out budget, I got a little defensive. I love eating out: easy and conveinent. How could this ever be bad?!? I am the queen of eating every lunch out during the week, and at least 3-4 dinners. Not only was this killing my wallet, but if there were some health tests conducted, I'm sure its killing my health as well.

So far, we are halfway (well halfway minus a day), and I think we're on track. Saving all our receipts, and stocking up on coupons (not extreme coupons though, just normal stuff, I'm stoked to see how the budget comes out.

Even better than the money we are saving, I am feeling healthy, and my body is thanking me.

Dating on a Dime

In an attempt to save some moo-lah (money) and an attempt to develop healthier eating habits, the boyfriend and I decided to put a limit on eating out. When eating out, one of the two following criteria must be met:

1. We must have a coupon to eat there.
2. We must share the meal. (ordering one entree for 2 people)

And so far so good.

The boyfriend recently purchased a coupon book from Groupon, that has made the endeavor a little easier.

So far meals have broke down as follows:

-Dinner with Amy, at Camille's (a local sidewalk cafe), purchased two sandwiches, that came with two orders or chip and salsa and two drinks for a little over ten dollars~ after a buy one sandwich get one free coupon from the trusty book. The free meal was ran by the boyfriends house after hanging out with amy.

-For the good ole two-month anniversary, we enjoyed some food at CityBites, which just happens to be the boyfriends favorite place to eat and we happened to have another buy one menu item, get one free. He had a sandwich, I had a potatoe.

-We have also delighted into Sonic 'buy one extra long coney, get one free'

-And Jamba Juice 'buy one, get one free as well.'

Also, two outings (taken for lack of wanting to cook and for convienance), we shared a #10 (10 pc nuggets) from Mcdonalds, and 3 cheese chicken nachos from Qdoba.

......and yes, I actually do sometimes cook some meals. So I'd say so far so good. And I feel like we are really seeing a difference in the bank accounts.

DIY: Script Nails.

first DIY project: newspaper script nails.

this is the picture i found regarding the newspaper nails. i thought it looked interesting, pretty unique, so i thought id give it a shot.


step one: paint your nails a neutral color. i picked white. bad choice. i picked it because it could double when, more like if, i wanted to paint a french manicure.


step two: gather supplies (or maybe you should do this first). you will need scissors, newspaper, rubbing alcohol. and a bowl for the alcohol.


step three: (after pouring the alcohol into the bowl and newspaper is cut into small strips that can cover your nails) and after nails are dried completely. dip a nail in the alcohol and then place a newspaper strip on top of it. then remove the strip, and the writing should have transferred to the nail. you may finish the look with a clear coat of nail polish.

.......and this is how mine turned out:

yep, there is a very, very slight difference. i think it had to do with the bad color choice, probably a softer neutral would have worked better. also, the newspaper i used was older, i think if you used a fresher newspaper the ink would be more willing to come off of the pages.

however since my nails did not turn out so well, i had to take off the polish before work the next day, it looked like i was a child who played with a bottle of white-out.

so i guess the first see it and try it DIY project was not so successful, but dont worry i will redeem myself, and maybe one day redeem the script nails as well.

i decided today that i don't blog near enough, so today (or maybe tomorrow) i plan on changeing that. a couple of things to be on the lookout for in the upcoming blog posts: DIY PROJECTS- i have always been a huge fan of these, however it always seem like the people giving tutorials are some sort of superhuman, while i, on the other hand, always seem to run into some sort of glitch, so ill write about the projects so that ou may be forewarned. TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN LETTERS- there are different times in my life where some company lets me down. ill vent here to tell you what they could do better, ill include a letter if i am sending one to the company, and ill keep you updated on any measures taken to clear their name and restore goodness in humanity. CONDO UPDATES- ive lived in my condo for almost 7 months and have lots still left to do on the to do list. this will include before and after shots, and the ho-hum of the how the project came to completion. dont worry the blog will still, as always, continue to contain undertakings, life stories, and random thoughts.