SUYL - China Patterns

This is my first time linking up with Kelly's Korner Show Us Your Life posts! Wish me luck!

Our wedding china is the Oberon pattern by Wedgwood. It was very difficult for us to find in stores but eventually we got 7 place settings plus the cream, sugar, and coffee pot (shown in the picture). The coffee pot is my absolute favorite piece!

My everyday dishes are these white square Corelle dishes. I love them!

Just for fun these are Mom's dishes. Old Town Blue. 

And these are Nanny's. Spring Blossom.

I see a scrapbook page somewhere in the future about our dishes and love of Corelle.

Corelle

YIP 6.04.09
Originally uploaded by that blonde girl

Ten Things I'm Thinking Today ::: Walmart Edition

1. I needed to buy groceries tonight because we're out of milk. We go through a lot of milk around here. Especially since Tucker the cat adopted us a few weeks ago. He LOVES milk!! Yes, we know it sometimes makes cats sick but not Tucker. And it makes me happy when I have at least 2 full gallons of milk in the fridge. Last week when it snowed, I had 4 new, unopened gallons of milk. I was ready for snow-cream making!

2. Funny how when you need milk, you suddenly need lots of other things. Like toothpaste. And grapes. I buy milk and grapes once a week. Sometimes I think Tucker and I could live off of those two things.

3. It's pouring rain. It's dark. It takes me 10 minutes to get all my rain gear (rain jacket, hood, umbrella, rainboots, Vera hipster on the inside of my jacket for protection) on for this trip to Wal-Mart. Approximately 10 seconds after walking out the door, I'm soaked. I am now on the search for rain pants.

4. Walking laps around Wal-Mart is not easy. In fact, it's very tiring especially when you forget things and have to walk across the store 10 times.

5. I finally found a frozen entree that I like: Smart Ones Lasagna worth 6 Weight Watchers points. I'm not a huge fan of frozen meals but I'm sick of sandwiches. Today, I took Townhouse crackers and grapes for lunch because I was so sick of sandwiches. (Don't worry, I didn't end up eating that for lunch. My wonderful assistant principal was going out for lunch and offered to pick me up something.) So, I need frozen meals to have on those "It's pouring rain. I'm running 20 minutes late. The traffic reporter on the morning news is already reporting wrecks on the roads that I drive to work." day. I also picked up a Salisbury Steak Weight Watchers meal, again worth 6 WW points. I hope 6 points isn't too much for lunch. My luck I should only eat like 4 WW points and that will ruin my lunch-plan.

6. Speaking of lunches, I also picked up this yumm-o Pasta-Roni pasta salad that I'm making for lunch with some chicken for tomorrow. Yes, I'm planning (and cooking) my meals over 12 hours in advance.

7. I needed to pick up some more make up tonight. I've been using the same Revlon Color Stay Active 02 makeup for about .... 5 years now. I started using this makeup when I realized that the orange stain on the preacher's shoulder of his white dress shirt was caused by my makeup rubbing off when I hugged him. Oops.

So, anyways.....Wal-Mart does not have my make up! None. Not even other colors. Must solve this dilemma ASAP. I must not ruin any more preachers' white dress shirts.

8. Why must the people that organize Wal-Mart put the 27 pound bags of Tidy Cats blue bag cat litter on the top shelf, way out of my reach? I bet they would rethink their Cat Litter Aisle organization when the 27 pound bag of cat litter busts all over the aisle. Good thing I wasn't desperate for cat litter tonight. I'll just get it at Petsmart another day. At Petsmart, someone offers to get my cat litter down for me even though it's on the bottom shelf.

9. I played the "I sure hope I have enough cash to buy all this stuff since it appears that I have lost my debit card...again" game. Luckily, I had 37 cents more than I needed! When I got home, my debit card magically appeared in my wallet. How strange.

10. As I geared up again to walk across the parking lot with a buggy full of goodies, a sweet lady with a small baby complimented me on my rain boots. I was very appreciative of her compliment but I was slightly jealous that her husband was moving their car to the curb to load groceries and keep her and cute little baby from getting wet. Oh well. Playing in puddles is kind of fun.


Updated: I MUST find a Weight Watchers friendly pasta salad recipe. The boxed mix I just made is almost 6 points for 1 serving! Not to mention the points of the chicken that I planned to eat with it! Yikes! Suggestions?

Ten on Thursday: Random Thoughts

1. Why does my Starbucks stop brewing decaf coffee at noon? If I want regular coffee, I want it in the morning to wake me up then. My morning caffeinated coffee has wore off by bedtime and doesn't keep me awake. However, caffeinated coffee after lunch keeps me up at night. Does no one else think this way?

2. Local swimming pool store bilboard reads: "Big Green Egg Central". After several trips by the sign, lots of pondering why a pool store needs eggs, I am finally enlightened as to the meaning behind the sign. BBQ Grills called "Big Green Eggs." See photo below.

3. Had some broken jewelry this week and went through quite the drama to get the piece fixed. Does anyone else get annoyed because their wedding band always looks newer than their engagement ring? I know. I know. I've been wearing the e-ring longer but I want them to look equally shiny.

4. Bought boots at Target this week. Cost me a whooping $7.48. They have flat heels and are great for running.

5. I've been asked to name my Starbucks drink with a cute name instead of having to ramble off "vanilla bean frappacino, half coffee based, no whip." Still pondering what I should call it.

6. Will summer ever come? More snow is planned for tomorrow. It's just plain cold around here but luckily we haven't had any accumulation of snow this winter.

7. I got some free BareMinerals foundation at JcPenney today. I'm not a fan yet.

8. Planning to go out to eat soon. Chilis? Longhorn? OCharleys? Ruby Tuesday? Stevi Bs? Mexican?

9. I am not good at making decisions. Period. I made a decision once on what to name my far-off-in-the-future-daughter and then my uncle named his daughter that and the name is now probably the most popular girl name. At that point, I gave up on making name choices and decisions in general.

10. My lack of decision making skills leads me to wonder how I ever chose which  SLR camera. Well, my Nikon D5000 just "felt right." Not sure I trust the "felt right" when it comes to naming kids though.

11. This post has been fairly photo-less. Will try to add more photos another day.

Ten on Thursday

1. Well, I'm still a few days late getting this up. Oh well.

2. I cooked a yummy dinner tonight. The in-laws are coming for dinner tomorrow, so I have that meal all planned out. We're going out to dinner with friends from church on Saturday, so no cooking Saturday night. Woohoo! Looking forward to no cooking and lots of leftovers.

3. I needed new boots about 2 years ago. But I never could find what I wanted. Now, I'm thinking the scrunch boots might be cute. But of course, boots are hard to find since they are going out of season. I found these boots online at JCPenny.

Might have to head to the mall soon to try them on. Any thoughts? Like? Dislike? Can I wear them with skirts or dresses?

4.  I start teaching a week from tomorrow! Woohoo! :)

5. I start teaching a week from tomorrow! Booo! :(

6. I've been wanting a new purse. Here's what I found. Cheap too at Cato.

I'm not convinced to keep it yet. Any thoughts?

7. This is the bag I'd really like. From Coach. With a price tag of ... about  25 times the price I paid for the Cato bag. In case you want to know, this the Coach Carly bag.

8. This picture cracks me up for lots of reasons. The jacket and backpack match because I'm funny like that. The picture was taken in Target, my favorite place. There's my vanilla bean frap, half coffee based, no whip = my favorite drink. This was taken the day that I rattled off my order really quickly to the barista. "I would like a venti vanilla bean frappuccino, half coffee based, no whip please." Drinking one entire venti anything while shopping in Target gives me a tummy ache. Oops.

9. I created a blog header. I can't figure out how to add it to the top of my blog.

10. Lastly, I wanted to give a shout out to a few blogs I enjoy.

Kelly's blog is so fun. She's so stylish and little Harper is so cute. http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/
Kayla Aimee is so much fun and I'm lucky to know her in-real-life too! http://kaylaaimee.typepad.com/
Laura has a cute little boy and golden retriever and love her scrap-style. http://www.laurakurz.typepad.com/
Elizabeth is another great simple scrapper and seems like a real cool mom. http://elizabethdillow.typepad.com/
Cathy, love how her type always looks like it came from a magazine. http://cathyzielske.typepad.com/

Whew, another Ten on _______________ completed. Have a good rest of the day!

Ten on Tuesday

1. Today is Wednesday. Oops. I also had a goal of posting "Ten on Tuesday" every Tuesday this year. Oops again.

2. I've been making lots of frosting this morning for my Wilton Cake Decorating class. Class is lots of fun. I like playing with frosting. I have discovered I have a natural talent for making frosting clowns.

3. My friend Shirley has started a blog about couponing. I would love to get really good at couponing. Not sure if I really have time for another "hobby". Want to learn about couponing, too? www.savingwithshirley.blogspot.com

4. I would really love to get motivated to scrapbook again. I'd also love to have space to leave my scrap stuff out in the open instead of stuffed under the bed.

5. Since I can't get motivated to scrapbook, I have been organizing my photos. I bought photo boxes on sale at Michael's last week (3 boxes for $5) and made cute labels for them. I even went back to get more boxes because J wants me to organize his childhood photos too. I think the boxes are sort of simple-cute and would look great in that new scrapbook room that I'm dreaming of. 

6. It's cold. Really cold. Currently 36 degrees at lunch time. I'm ready for spring.

7. I've got a job! I'll be teaching 3rd grade while the teacher is on maternity leave. I'm nervous. I'm excited. I'm going to have no time to scrapbook, take cake classes, or organize photos. I'm going to have to get up really, really early. Ugh.

8. I'm getting my haircut tomorrow. I've had this appointment for over a week. I still don't know how I want to get my haircut.

9. I have a "breakfast date" in the morning. Me, Nanny, Pa, and sausage, biscuits, and gravy. YUM!

10. I wish I could learn how to digi-scrap. If I could, I would want my layouts to look like Cathy Z's. (Photo of layouts on Cathy's blog taken as part of the December Daily Project that I never finished.)

Goal for Next Tuesday: Complete a Ten on Tuesday post in less than 20 minutes.

Hello, Cupcakes!

I have searched high and low for days weeks months for a new background for my blog. Specifically, a background with CUPCAKES! Today, I found one! Don't you love the pretty cupcakes?

In other CUPCAKE UPDATES ....

I will soon be getting a custom-made-by-Nanny CUPCAKE APRON! Again, I searched the internet for a perfect cupcake fabric with not very much luck. But yesterday I went out to Hobby Lobby and found the perfect hot pink-polka dot-cupcake fabric. I'm also super excited because my apron is going to have ruffles. Can't wait to try it on.

Why do I need an apron you might ask? Because I'm taking the Wilton Cake Decorating Course 1 this month with Mom. We're very excited and have been stocking up on supplies all week. Last week was the first class but I missed out on most of it due to a job interview. There is quite the interesting story behind the interview but I'll wait to tell that until I know if I got that job.

I'm sure it's quite obvious that I love cupcakes but I also love to cook and bake other stuff. I also love taking pictures with my handy-dandy Nikon D5000 SLR. Photography + cooking = pictures of food and messes in my kitchen. In my last photo order, I ordered prints off all of the recent cooking successes and disasters I've had recently. Might just throw them all together in a photo album scrapbook.

Off to organize my recipes into a CUPCAKE RECIPE BOX that my dear sweet newlywed sister in law gave me.

E-book Giveaway

Rebecca Cooper is giving away one copy of her new e-book, 40 top tips for better photos.

Want to win it too? Click here!

December is Here!

Wow! I have such a busy month. I graduate one week from today!! Woohoo!

I've also been trying to take a photo every day sort of like the Ali Edward's December Daily or Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas. Not sure what kind of album (if any) I will put the photos in but maybe I'll add them to my blog soon.

Off to watch 90210 and eat yummy Gabriel's strawberry cake.

And the Countdown begins....

With the recent announcement of my graduation date, I located a countdown down to any date thingy on a website. Of course, I needed to know how many days it was to several upcoming events.

Here you go:

100 Days till Christmas!!! Woohoo!

90 Days until Graduation!!!

79 Days until one of my bestest friends marries my brother in law. Love being matchmaker!

75 Days until Mom's birthday!

72 Days until Black Friday Sales and my parents' wedding anniversary!

71 Days until Thanksgiving

61 Days until Student Teaching is over!!! (2 months! I think I can handle 2 months!)

43 More school days left of Student Teaching...ugh that means 86 more times that the alarm
clock will go off rudely at 5:45

There's really not a whole lot going on in September or October for me. Just normal life stuff. Nothing gigantic to count down to. But I did save the most important countdowns for last....

3 more sleeps until weekend!!!

10 hours or less until I'm home again!!!

Do I have to set my alarm clock tonight? Fourteen thoughts on September 14th.

So I've had a few thoughts that I kept meaning to post and kept forgetting.

1. My least favorite parts of the school year when I was in elementary school : the first week of getting to know you activities and standardized testing.

My least favorite parts of the school year from the perspective of student teaching: the first week of getting to know you activities and standardized testing.

Notice any similarities?

2. Simple comforts. I've noticed some simple comforts never change. At home, in my apartment, and now in married life I could always find comfort in a hearty breakfast of hot, homemade biscuits and gravy. It's just that sometimes in married life biscuits are just a bit too much to make. So I end up with a scrambled egg sandwich and homemade apple sauce instead. Quite yummy if I say so myself.

3. The Andy Griffith Show is also quite comforting. And recently, the Golden Girls and I have become quite good friends. They come on every Saturday and Sunday morning on the Hallmark channel. I really hope Hallmark doesn't change their lineup any time soon.

4. Good dresses just don't exist anymore. The Dress Barn needs to change their name. It's very misleading. They should change it to the Sweater and Dress Pants Barn.

5. Homemade ice cream is pretty tasty.

6. Starting my 7th week of Student teaching tomorrow. Getting close to the half-way point! Hallelujah!

7. While #6 sounds pretty good, there are actually 5 days in each week of Student Teaching. Do I have to set my alarm clock tonight? Ugh.

8. My goal for the weekend was to start and finish my resume. And I've done neither.

9. I miss Simple Scrapbooks magazine. I think my desire to scrapbook died with it.

10. I still think the waiter at lunch today got some of the drinks mixed up when he took 5 back to the kitchen for refills. It's sort of confusing when at a table of 15 there are 14 water glasses, with and without lemon, and 1 lone coke.

11. I bought new jeans last weekend. They fit. They look nice. Small miracle, let me tell you.

12. My friend Kayla is decorating her new house this weekend. Sounds like fun. New house. New paint. Picking everything out. Then I think of how I helped paint the storage building that one time and how it's not as easy as it looks and I'm glad J painted the house long before I came along.

13. I bought 2 pounds of organic chicken today that would have normally cost $12.01. I paid $2.98. Never had organic chicken before.

14. I've learned to buy 2 gallons of milk on Sunday so I don't have to make a frantic milk run in the middle of the week. Last week, I also realized you should buy cereal and toilet paper regularly too. Not fun to go on frantic runs for those items either.

So, that is all. Fourteen thoughts on September 14th. I wasn't sure I could come up with them all but I did.

EDITED TO ADD: After posting this I let my mouse hover over the time on the computer...only to realize that today is not September 14th. Oops :)

Ten on Tuesday

The first in a series of Ten on Tuesday posts.


1. I've been having a really rough week. And it's ONLY Tuesday! Yesterday, I got home at 2:50 and crawled in bed. I didn't get out again until 4:40. Today, I'm just not tired. I wish the Golden Girls had their own TV channel. If I could watch them 24/7, I'd always be in a good mood.

2. I have lesson plans to work on. I had lots planned for my kids to do. That went well today.

3. Dinner date with the husband when he gets home @ 7:30 tonight. I may eat my arm off before then.

4. Been digi camera shopping online. Really liking the Nikon D5000. Which leads me to needing to find a nice, pretty camera strap. Or maybe I'll make my own. More to come on this topic.

5. I have lots of scrapbook ideas to work on. Journal your Christmas album. Travel album. Photo of the day. Random, everyday layouts. Haven't had time due to #2 and #4.

6. My major success this week: I planned meals for every night on Sunday afternoon.

7. My major downfall so far: We haven't eaten any of the meals I planned.

8. I'm craving lots of fattening foods like buffalo chicken dip and wheat thins. Unfortunately, I've yet to figure out how to eat healthy and on a budget. I think it's virtually impossible.

9. I've discovered that you need to buy the Ziploc brand plastic bags. Blow the budget on the bags always! Homemade ice cream in baggies is disgusting when you get a hole and salt gets into your ice cream.

10. Proof there is a God: I thought I had lost or had my wallet stolen yesterday. As I drive home in tears because all of my cash was in it for the month (which wasn't much because it's almost the end of the month but I have to buy J a birthday gift and manage to cook meals for the rest of the month and pay for any other necessities between now and Aug. 31) I was praying to please let me find my wallet. I get home and I can't find it anywhere! Finally, I go through the purse I carried to church on Sunday. In my purse I find mine and J's Bibles that I had forgotten to put back on the book shelf. In between the two Bibles was my wallet. God was keeping it safe for me. Thanks, God!


I hope I haven't bored you too much. I lead a pretty boring and exhausting life. I hope to write Ten on Tuesday posts every Tuesday if for no other reason but to have some random scrapbook journaling. I'd like another weekly post topic, too. Any suggestions?



I'll leave you with a picture of our "first born" Ashton.