Sara's CUP

Sara we have to talk!! This has gotten way out of hand lol.....What have you done to me turning me onto The Pioneer Woman which led me to Bakerella and to Pastor Ryan.....I'm never going to get ANY work done and I'm going to gain TOO MUCH weight!!


Oh my goodness oh my goodness I LOVE these blogs if you haven't checked them out before you should!! But I can't take the credit - Sara turned me onto them :).

P.S. Sara - want to take a trip to Northern Oklahoma and stay at the ranch? haha

Cheers!!

Whits CUP

Wishing my my gorgeous sweet niece, Whitney, we call her Whits, a very happy birthday today! She's 17 - woohoo!! One of the things I love about this girl is her very sweet spirit and her amazing hugs. She's a lover alright and I'm beyond blessed to have her in my life!

Happy birthday love!!! xoxo

Twitter CUP

I said I wouldn't do it but I did - I'm really not this bad at keeping my word...just sometimes with things like this......I joined TWITTER (what was I thinking...still dunno). It sure wasn't because of the little bird mascot they use - no no - it actually makes me remember the bird that built a nest by my front door and then attacked my neck when he was protecting his babies. All I was doing was taking my trash cans to the curb....the little rascal kept me locked in my house....no I didn't join because of the bird mascot :).

I'm still learning how to tweet - haven't had anytime time since I signed up yesterday but I found this humorous and wanted to share......my first 2 "follow-ees" (I made up that word but hey they make up words like Twitter so I'm not too far off the mark....ya know?!) are Martha Stewart and Jimmy Fallon...not sure why cuz I'm still learning what I did to follow them.

Do you tweet? Let me know :) I'm JavaAA (poker and now my tweeting name - some things need to be consistent since my 347 online log-in names and passwords are all different).

So once I discovered I was "following" Jimmy (I still have no idea what I clicked to follow him as I've never paid much attention to him before but I will watch his show tonight - I mean it's kind of a big deal in the TV world - I watched Conan's first, Leno's first and I'm always up that late.....). Anyway he posted this pic today as he's getting ready for his first show and I thought it was a very cool, he took it with his iphone looking out the window of his new office which is really the reason for this post after all this rambling and because as much as I love 80 degrees (110 not so much) I would love to have a snow day or 2 or 3 wouldn't you? And it's pretty and I think I'm due for another trip to NYC!!
Cheers!!!

Help Me CUP!

I need your help my faithful friends.....

My recipe book cabinet in my kitchen is yet another big reason for my Hunt for Junk House Tour (I will blog about the specifics of this soon since several of you have asked me what exactly I'm doing)........notice the before and after - pathetic before I know....I'm still in process I tell ya!!

But notice in the after how my shelves are all one notch lower....argh!!! My house came with these adjustable shelfs with plastic plug brackets (don't know what you call them - that's my chick definition) that are horrible and really don't hold up well.....hence losing most of my crystal, including my Waterford, last year (pic at the bottom so you can cry with me - very sad day).

Anyway since I'm in my kitchen this month on my tour and have reorganized almost every cabinet now I've discovered that more than half of these plastic brackets that hold the shelves in place have broken and when they do break, some have been hanging by a thread I tell ya, they leave the plastic plug piece that goes in the adjustable holes IN THE HOLE...are you following me.....then forcing me to put the shelf up one or down one notch.

Soooo has anyone else had a problem with this? Any new brackets you recommend? The only thing I've been able to do....man chore....is drill the plastic plug out but I'm a little scary with the man chore drill sometimes and if I try to do it on this particular cabinet - I'm liable to go right through the side since they aren't that thick and leave a hole on the outside. This cabinet is exposed to the world on both sides so that would be no bueno and I would leave it looking like swiss cheese.

Here are the brackets I'm talking about that should be illegal :)

If you have any suggestions, I'd love it!! :)

Sad day last July 29th..............this also happens to be a good picture of my kitchen before - I'll post a pic when it's done cuz the clutter has gone on the junk hunt!

Cheers!!

Week of February 15th

CUPs, Plates and Napkins

I came across this on day 21 of my kitchen tour....okay okay so they weren't stacked this neatly in the very top back shelf of my pantry that I needed to use the man chore ladder to get to them....

But I think it's safe to say that I have officially thrown alot of baby/bridal showers and birthdays at my house. This is all the "leftovers" that you can't just toss (cuz you paid good money for some of them...others not so much) but there are never enough in the leftover set for party #2 themed the same way. What do you do with these?? Do you honestly just toss them or do you find the same thing when you climb on your man chore ladder and peak in your cupboards?

Perhaps I'll throw a BBQ soon and serve the food with all these leftovers - sort of a mosaic party goods party....

P.S. I must have 300 plastic knives and 300 spoons but only 25 forks - you always buy all 3 but never use as many knives and spoons!! I guess for my BBQ all the food needs to be knife and spoon friendly.

Cheers!

CUP of Girl time

My dear friend Shannon came over Friday night - I absolutely adore and cherish our friendship. Ever since we met years ago, our friendship has continued to grow over the years - I'm so so so so very thankful for her and Steve (and their three beautiful kids.....I love hearing them yell out my name...Auntie AA and I do mean they can yell - it just melts my heart every time). We have some similarities in our personalities (actually I wish I was MORE like her) but it just means SHE GETS ME! This is a huge blessing in my life when somebody just GETS me and Shannon does. (I'm blessed with many friends that do as well so a shout out to them too!)

Everytime we're together is not only fun but heartfelt and packed with lots of meaningful conversation and encouragement (and okay some not so meaningful too - we're girls!). Thank you Shannon for always reaching out to me and keeping up on what's going on in my life (sorry I kept you in suspense last week..haha) - you have an amazing gift the way you remember things and are so good at following up on what's going on in others lives - it blesses people more than you probably know!

We made lattes (I know shocker but it's tradition in the old spanish trail house) and Jodi captured Shannon perfectly enjoying her latte (even though I make a mean foam, she opted for lots of whipped cream - can you really blame her??!!)

So I really didn't want to post this picture of the 3 of us but I am....remember my previous post about my new love interest...that heavenly cheese popcorn? Well I clearly ate too much salty popcorn (or I raided the morton's salt container in my sleep) cuz my face looks all puffed up but I opted for humor and memories instead of vanity - it's overrated anyway so I'm posting it!! If you're curious about how or where we are sitting for this photo shoot with that view of the family room behind.....after I made us lattes, we just decided to hang out on our knees in the middle of the kitchen. Okay not really...Jodi used the island in the kitchen to prop the camera for the self-timer and so we had to squat on our knees to avoid a very unpleasant thigh shot! A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do ya know??!!

P.S. Kailey my sweatshirt doesn't say Bar Hopper it says Bar Harbor!

Cheers!

CUP (or wheel barrel full) of Popcorn

Uh oh.....I'm in trouble!! I just discovered this cheddar cheese popcorn and I'm not only in love now (I was in need of a new love affair come to think of it) but I'm in big trouble or at least my waste line is!

I asked my BFF the other day - do you think it's as lo-cal as the cheddar cheese rice cakes that I love so much....hmmm you should have seen the look on her face in response (it would have been the perfect 365 pic come to think of it) it was priceless! Basically the answer her face gave (no words were apparently necessary) was a big NO but feel free to kid yourself and eat up!!

The Cinnamon Toast and Kettle Corn were amazing too but don't hold a candle to my new love interest!! I never go to our mall but I may soon become a mall rat.....just to indulge in this store!!

Kitchen CUP

So as you know I'm on my one room a month tour this year - touring around my house on a hunt for junk and trying to bring my life back to the organized haven I crave. Many people say "your house is always neat....it's never a mess".....that's because they don't often open my drawers, closets or go in my garage. I mean it's not like I'm a pack rat with only a small path to my bed and bathroom but it definitely became time for more than just a spring cleaning (and why does this need to happen in the Spring? I've never really understood that?!).

These 2 drawers were day 23 in my kitchen tour - 2 of the main reasons I wanted to do this room a month tour - every time you go in this drawer for a spatula, you get stabbed by a fondue fork, cut by a serrated pie spatula (is that a necessary item in a kitchen - honestly?) and lately....I haven't been able to find my cake tester - life has been hard! Not that I've been baking alot of cakes but I just feel better when I know I can find it when I need it.

Okay really yes this all fit in one drawer (the right one) - now do you see what I mean? How many cooking utensils does one girl really need? Even the knob was broken on this drawer making it even more frustrating but in my special MacGyver ways.....I fixed it (that's what my BFF calls me when I fix things but I tell you this single girl has about had it with the man chores!). "This is a man chore" seems to be a line I utter way more now than ever before.....sigh!

Awwww relief - I can see everything and I can find what I need without cutting or stabbing myself anymore! And I slept great last night because I know right where my cake tester is - it's in the left front corner!

Cheers!!

4x4 Cup - Take 2

I was tagged by my sweet friend Kelli (of Gleeson Wonder I call them....haha) so I thought I do this second one from my other computer cuz I have pics on 3 computers and one external drive - some day I'll have them organized....some day!??!!

Funny given my previous post that this folder was from an amazing trip....this photo is of Jodi in the Belfry tower when we were in Bruges, Belgium a few years ago (same tower the guy fell out of in the movie In Bruges - although it's a pretty dark movie so I don't recommend it but I had to watch it since I had been there :).....amazingly beautiful city...the Venice of Belgium!

Melissa took this pic though - I'll admit I was a chicken and did not climb it (nor did I climb the tower at La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.....I think I need to work on this fear I'm missing out!)

Cheers!

P.S. Mel and Jo - remember those yummy waffles in the piazza that morning? ahhhhh let's go back!! Fun memories with you girls - can't wait for September now!!