I started decorating for Christmas this weekend. I know, I know.. it's not even Thanksgiving, yet. The way I am justifying it is that I am going to be going home to Mississippi on December 16 for Christmas, so that leaves me little time to enjoy my decorations.
Yesterday, I was feeling crafty...Now, when I feel crafty, I am usually quickly reminded 10 minutes into the project that I am NOT the crafty Matthews sister, which results in waste of money, and a stomping, frustrated fit, usually. Well, I am proud to say that my craft went off without a hitch! Sure, it was simple, but even the simplest crafts I get frustrated with, ADD kicks in, and I'm done.
So, here is what I did....I absolutely love a banner. I have a "trick or treat" banner for Halloween and a "happy holidays" for Christmas. Well, as I was decorating my mantle yesterday, the top needed something, but I'm not really into wreaths, so I thought... A BANNER! I didn't know where to find another holiday banner (especially in El Paso- didn't want it to say Feliz Navidad...) I didn't want to order one online... I wanted one NOW! So, I came to the conclusion that I was just going to have to make one.
Here it is! An easy DIY banner for the Crafty Challenged!
What you need:
1- 4 pieces of paper of your choice for JOY and Christmas trees (I used red glitter cardstock from Michaels)
2- String/ribbon
3-Hole Puncher
What you do:
1-I picked a cute font and printed out JOY out as big as I could get it for each letter to be the size of one page. (If you are actually crafty, then you would freehand this step, this is for the craft impaired people, like myself)
2-Cut out each letter and trace them onto the fancy-shmancy paper
3-Cut each letter out
4-Punch two holes at the top of each letter
5-Thread your ribbon/string of choice
Voila! The easiest banner ever! :)
Here is the finished product with the mantle.
These little guys from World Market are my favorite! :)
Now that it's 11:30, I will get out of bed and plan our mini Thanksgiving dinner. Cayce and I are going to have our own little dinner tomorrow night, so that we can have some of our southern favorites. Thursday we will be going to our neighbors for a Mexican Thanksgiving. Can't wait!
Happy Thanksgiving Break!
Everyone is obsessed with Pinterest. Me? I'm slowly, but surely getting into it. I hardly search the internet with my computer, and the Pinterest app on my phone seems to always be on the fritz... so it's been hard for me to get in to.
My favorite thing to do is look for ideas for my "Dream Home", which is exciting, but strange for me, since I haven't always had an interest in it...
Growing up, my family would drive around every Sunday afternoon looking at houses or going to Open Houses, whether we were in the market or not. I was so bored. Nap time for Blythe. My mother and sister are designers, so they would get really into it. I didn't care. They were good at it, passionate about it, even. I was apathetic.
Since I've gotten older, my interests have grown. I care a little bit more. Mostly, it's because I bought my first house, and I was able to decorate it however I wanted, with the help of my designer mother, of course. She had to motivate me and steer me in the right directions. Now that Cayce and I are in our own house, it was fun finding our decorating style together. Something new. Something fresh. Something ours.
But, being a girl, you're never satisfied, and always looking towards the future. So, while I have my current house decorated how I love, I can't help but make folders of pictures I find on the internet about my future "Dream House" that I will one day find the perfect spot and either build or remodel. Until then, I'll keep pinning
Here are some of the things that I have found on Pinterest that I absolutely love.
I love this tile backsplash with the modern, simplistic faucet. I've also seen this same tile used for bathroom floors. Really neat.
The kitchen isn't my style, but I love the coffered ceilings. Love them even more just stained rather than painted.
Refurbished wood floors. These are really neat. Wouldn't show dirt or scuff marks.
I am in love with wood, vaulted ceilings. Add chandeliers into the mix, and it's even better.
How cool is this for a kids room??
I thought this was great for a kids reading nook.
What a great idea!
I love mixing rustic with modern. These old window panes are great with the lamps and whole set up.
These are just a few things, but I love mixing rustic/antique with a modern twist.
Follow me on Pinterest to see my Pinterest obsession come to fruition.
I wish I could say that I've had all these really important things going on, since you last heard from me, but it's just not so.
News from El Paso:
-Halloween is a HUGE deal here. I mean, it's fun, exciting, but I have never experienced Halloween like I have here. It just seems like the Hispanic culture gets way more in to it than it is back home. I could be wrong, but so far, that's my experience. The decorations were ridiculously awesome.. For example: 5 vintage porsches in the front yard with zombies driving them for the "death race", in house DJ's in the front yards, plane crash scene with actual small plane crashed in the yard?... i mean decked out. I'm already brainstorming for next year...
-It's cold here all of the sudden, which means it's FREEZING in my house because I have a swamp cooler. What's that you ask? The worst invention ANYONE has ever come up with. I remember when we were looking at houses to rent, I kept noticing signs on houses advertising "refrigerated air". Didn't really know what it meant, so didn't worry about it. Now I know that there's a reason why they advertise it, because you WANT THAT, not a swamp cooler. Let me explain... I'm not real sure what it is or completely understand it, but somehow it PUTS HUMIDITY/MOISTURE into my air.... WHAT?????? Literally it's a dial and a switch. Switch is "high-off-low" Dial is "9 8 7 6 5" 5 being the coolest. It just runs unless you have it on off.
There are 2 kickers with a swamp cooler...
1) If it's raining, it simply doesn't work because there is too much humidity in the air.2)You have to vent the air. If I am in the kitchen (the hottest room in our house), i have to either open a window or the back door, so that it will pull all the cold air to that window. You have to give the air an escape! CRAZY! Of course, we were all sealed up for the first month, sweating our asses off, trying to keep all the "cool air" in. Then we learned.
Well, now that it's cold, apparently you can't just flip the switch to turn the heat on. There's a whole process to shutting down your swamp cooler for the season. You have to seal it up and do some kinda switcheroo. Sure, we could go ahead and do it, since the low is in the 30's, but it will randomly get up to 90 again and we will need the wonderful swamp cooler again. So, me, keith, hairless ellie, and olcase will just freeze until the desert decides it's done getting hot.
-Recipes to Share
Soooo good, and even better left over the next day.
Word of advice: don't pour boiling water down your leg. I was finishing the noodles, when I got ready to drain them, I looked to make sure I had the lid turned to the smaller holes, tilting it back just a wee bit, when the boiling water went down my thigh. I have a really nice burn strip that is now purple, a week later. Lovely.
Tonight is the preview night of El Paso's Junior League's version of Mistletoe called A Christmas Fair. I'm very excited to go, but expecting it to be very interesting. I'm crossing my fingers that I can get a tiny bit of Christmas shopping done.
Have you started your shopping yet??
I'll be honest, I'm not a big meat eater. I'm not a vegetarian, and it's not that I don't care for it, I just don't really have to have it in my life. I can't tell the difference between a steak from Shapley's to Ruth's Chris to Outback to Western Sizzlin. All I can tell is if it is tough or not.
Chicken, I love. I can tell if a piece of chicken is fried good or not.. :) Kind of my weakness..
Now, turkey... I don't really care for much at all. Turkey on Thanksgiving? Eh, could definitely do without for sure. Ground Turkey? I hate how pale it is raw... and the texture is kinda weird to me.
So, when I saw this recipe....Asian Turkey Meatballs with Lime Sesame Dipping Sauce from Skinny Taste a few things jumped out at me. good and bad things.
Good:
*Asian-I have a major love affair with Asian food. I could live off of Panda Express and be fine. Seriously, it's up there with Chick-Fil-A (which we only have in a mall food court on my side of town, do you realize how inconvenient that is??)
*Lime-Here comes my other love... Mexican. Anything with the word lime or cilantro and I am all over it. (this recipe has BOTH)
*Dipping Sauce- This girl loves to dip. I don't care what it is. I'm a condiment whore.
Bad:
*TURKEY- see previous comments... just no good.
*MEATBALLS- sick. I can't think of many words worse than meatballs. How can you eloquently say the word? I feel like you have to say it with a raspy growl. sick. Try it... can't do it, can you?
Well, let me tell you, this recipe made me a believer in turkey meatballs. It is SO easy and SO delicious. My whole house almost melted with my rickety oven being on 500 degrees for so long (plus the afternoon desert sun beating through window didn't help), while I prepped everything, but Keith, Ellie, and I pulled through.
The Dipping Sauce was everything I could have ever imagined. It is perfect. I did add some Sriracha Garlic Chili Sauce to eat along with the rice.
I made the Brown Fried Rice to go along with it, and it was great, as well.
It also got the Ol' Case approval. (He's extremely hard to please.)
Try it out!
This is my cute little kitchen. I really love it, minus the old, outdated appliances. When we first moved in this summer, our dishwasher wasn't working. It was straight from the 80's. I hope to never hand wash another dish for the rest of my life. Absolutely. terrible.
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| Cute Flea Market table that I repainted. Love it. |
Some things that I can't live without in my kitchen:
Handheld Garlic Chopper
It is a LIFE-SAVER for mincing garlic.
I got mine at Target.
Caldrea Kitchen Cleaning Products
You can't go wrong with any of the scents. They are all wonderful. They have cleaning products for the whole house.
I got mine at Target. You can get yours here.
Shun Knives
Cooking became a whole new experience, when I got new, nice knives. They are expensive, but totally worth it. I hope to get a new one for each occasion, they make me that happy. Now I feel old, wanting knives for presents....
What are some things you can't live without in your kitchen?
Last night I cooked one of Cayce's favorite meals. I thought that I would share the recipes.
Oven "Fried" Chicken Tenders
Garlic Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Spinach Salad with Poppyseed Dressing
Oven "Fried" Chicken Tenders
(Cayce actually prefers these to the real deal fried chicken strips)
This recipe was adapted from a Weight Watchers Recipe. I do everything by sight, so there aren't any measurements, and of course it depends on how many chicken tenders you want to make. I usually make these on a Monday, because they are great to eat for lunch throughout the week.
*Ingredients*
-Total Whole Grain Flakes cereal
-Whole Wheat Flour
-Tony Chachere's Seasoning (careful-salty and spicy)
-Fresh Ground Black Pepper
-A little garlic salt
-Hot Sauce (I prefer Louisiana)
-Lowfat or Fat Free Buttermilk
-2 packages of chicken tenders
-vegetable oil
*Directions*
-Preheat oven to 400 degrees
-Spray nonstick cooking spray on a baking sheet (DO NOT USE PYREX, it will stick, and you will lose all the crust)
-In a large bowl, soak chicken tenders with buttermilk and hot sauce mixture. Just eyeball how much hot sauce, until it turns pink. Soak the chicken for however long you'd like. The longer you do, the more flavor, obviously.
-I use an electric chopper to grind the cereal. I use about 3/4 of the bag (you won't use it all, plus it gets kinda clumpy from battering the chicken, so you want a little extra).
-Transfer ground cereal to a ziploc and add whole wheat flour to the cereal. It should be almost half and half. You want more cereal than flour though.
-Season flour and cereal mixture.
-Place chicken tenders a few at a time in the bag and toss to coat with mixture.
-Drizzle with vegetable oil before putting them in the oven
-Cook for 30 minutes then flip each chicken tender, and cook for another 15 or 20 minutes.
Garlic Roasted Sweet Potatoes
You will never want to eat sweet potatoes another way after having them like this. SO good!
*Ingredients*
-3 sweet potatoes
-1/2-1 stick of butter (depends on how big your potatoes are
-minced garlic (about 3 cloves)
-salt and pepper to taste
*Directions*
-Preheat oven to 350 (I cooked both at the same time at 400)
-Grease baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray
-Peel and chop sweet potatoes
-Salt and pepper potatoes
-Pour melted butter and garlic mixture on potatoes and toss them to evenly coat. I use my hands. Get in there and get dirty :)
-Cook for 1- 1/2 hours, stirring periodically
(Yes, my oven is so old, it doesn't even have a preheat, digital thermometer. The knob is also 125 degrees off...)
Poppyseed Dressing
1/2 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of cider vinegar
1/4 cup of white wine vinegar
1/4 cup of salad oil
1/4 cup of olive oil
2 tbsp of sesame seeds
1 tbsp of poppyseeds
1 1/2 tsp minced onion
1/4 tsp of paprika
Enjoy!
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| Me and Penn, Labor Day 2011 |
Me: Blythe
I'm a wife. I'm an aunt to that sweet boy in the picture. I'm a perfectionist. I like a routine, and I can't handle it when it's broken. I need to learn to relax and "roll with the punches". I'm a teacher. I love to cook. I'm a homebody.
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| Engagement Pictures, New Orleans, LA 2011 |
Him: Cayce
He's a dentist. He's a father to our pets. He is a country boy that is quickly losing his southern accent. He lives in cowboy boots. He's an adventure seeker. He loves flannel. He's everything I'm not, yet everything I need. He brings out the best in me. He drives me crazy, a lot of the time. He's the love of my life.
 |
| Ellie, El Paso |
Her: Ellie
She is the weirdest dog you will ever come across. She is a full sized, three year-oldish doberman who thinks she is the size of a dachshund. She prefers to be in your lap or beside you. She wears clothes because she has no hair on her back. We didn't intend on rescuing her, but did after all. We found her in the newspaper, but turns out she was infested with hookworms and almost died on us. At 14 weeks old, She had to have two blood transfusions, that was graciously donated by a pit bull. It didn't look good for a while, but she is back to her quirky self. She is kind of really pitiful.
Him: Keith
Keith is Cayce's cat that he has had for about five years. He is the best cat you will ever be around. I say this, having never had a cat and only dogs, because Keith acts like a dog. He loves to sunggle. He uses the bathroom outside. (awesome) He sleeps all day and runs lap in our house or prowls the El Paso streets at night time. Keith is a renegade. Before moving to El Paso, Keith came to live with me (when Cayce moved out here). I lived in the same neighborhood Cayce did, and Keith, being an outside cat, would roam the streets for a few days and then show up missing. He always ended up showing back up at the old house. It never failed. He had a sad year, being kept inside, using a litter box. (yuck) He is now microchipped, and happy as ever. I guess he has figured out that he would have to go across the desert, in order to get back to Mississippi.
This is my family.
July 23, 2003.
The day I started my first blog.
My, how things have changed from the first blog to this one.
I have always had a fascination with blogs. The way people open up their lives to the world, the different purposes for having one, or the randomness in having one. It's just really neat. Reading blogs is a way to make you feel not so alone in this crazy world.
You can read about someone else's mess of a life (why they put the mess out there for us to read, is something else fascinating about it all), you can get a fabulous recipe that has been tried by a real person-not just the author of the cookbook, you can read about tremendous victories in someone's life-whether it be getting a new job or surviving an illness, you can share the experiences one has when welcoming a precious baby into this crazy world, or you can simply keep in touch with family and friends that live across the country.
Some people may think, "who wants to read about their life?" That's the beauty of it, you don't care if anyone reads it. It's purely entertainment, a source of venting, a way to hold yourself accountable, a way for others (if they choose to read) to hold you accountable... of course, it all depends on your purpose, if there is one at all.
My purpose?
Entertainment for myself. Therapeutic. Share my El Paso adventures.
Welcome.
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