Christmas in July

Seriously! I can hardly wait for this weekend to get here! It feels like Christmas a little to me! Tomorrow morning I'm embarking on the annual longest Garage Sale trip, with a swing by at IKEA. If you don't know what I'm referencing than you obviously haven't spoken to me in the last few weeks! I've been rambling about it for awhile now! I'm bummed my sister won't be coming along this year and I may be making the trek alone, but I ain't lettin it stop me! I've been dying to get started on another project at home. I've got walls to cover and drawers that need organized. I can't wait to see what I find that inspires the next chapter of making my house a home. If you feel like making the journey yourself this weekend here's a few items you may want to bring along:
*a truck - for large furniture pieces
*boots, tennis or an extra pair of flip flops - some of these places can really get back woodsy and muddy
*bags/boxes to put small finds in - you don't want them broken by rolling around in your back seat.
*camera - there will be pleny of photo ops - trust me
*some good jams
*a few good friends or family memebers to spend the day with is a definite bonus!

Keep your eyes peeled for pics of the finds and the aftermath of my journey! Happy Hunting!

Budgeting - ugh

I'll be the first one to admit, I'm NOT a good money manager. Not that I spend thousands on the latest greatest tech items or have new articles of clothing every week, I could just do a better job planning. I know hubbs would appreciate this. So in an effort to end many uncomfortable conversations around money and more importantly be more budget saavy I am committing myself to learning and PRACTICING better budget behavior. Here's one website I've found already that I'm in LOVE with.

Budget101.com is plastered with wonderful ideas for grocery shopping, recipes, home repairs, great gift ideas, and just general budget tips and tricks. And this web site is actually pretty pleasing to the eye, compared to some other budget sites I've stumbled upon. A woman must have created it :)

Another familiar name in the world of finanaces is Dave Ramsey. He has a FANTASTIC course called 'Financial Peace' that I know many churches are involved with. I'll be signing up for the next one! He's also got an aresenal of books and other reference materials on his website. Here's a tip - reserach a book online you're interested in reading - HIT UP YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY! Did you forget its free?! I mean come on now Dave - we're all trying to save a buck here - no offense.

So check it out, get yourself learned in some moohla management!

Contents of a Purse

I've always wanted to do this! I cleaned out my purse and here's what I found...AND For the one or two men who read this, we are about to delve into the private contents of a woman's purse... BEWARE!





14 lists/sticky notes!!! (I might have a problem!)
1 movie stub - New Moon! Ha!
1 sketch of my dream landscaping
9 receipts (4 from Kroger)
18 cards!!! (expired gift cards, or cards with $1.88 on it, old insurance cards, punch cards, business cards etc.)
1 picture - the Isons, the beloved family of 7 I used to nanny for.
1 magazine - my favorite of course BH&Gardens DIY
2 notebooks
3 wallets... !? really?
1 change purse with 15 stray cents floating about
1 Happy to be an artist key chain
1 purse hanger - never used
1 comb
1 peacock feather print nail file
1 empty eye glass case
2 pens
3 tampons
1 unopened box of makeup primer
1 job application to H&M to be a visual merchandiser - it must have been a bad day at work...
1 monthly Jazzercise schedule
2 sermon notes/bulletins
1 piece of mail
A pizza menu
4 coupons
Hand sanitizer, nude nail polish and a partridge in a pair tree!

Perspective - If I were a rich man - la la la la la la laaa

First off - any one get my Fiddler on the Roof reference? Takes me back to 8th grade choir... anyways

I consider myself to be a very blessed gal financially. I have a great job and so does hubbin. We ain't make no 6 figgers', but we get along just fine... but there's a small part of me that was born an entreprenuer and I'm always trying to think of ways to make an extra buck. Whether it be to finance a new home project, my hobbies or my shopping fund, I sometimes find myself with an insatiable appetite to make more money! Ugh!

UNTIL - one Sunday morning in church - I found myself in another sermon about money. WAIT! Don't stop reading! This is different. You're thinking not another rich church preaching on tithing, cuz this was a different kind of Sunday mornin' money sermon.

A sermon on perspective. A lesson on giving back. An eye opening reality on just how blessed we are as Americans.

Here's the facts: (these were pulled from my sermon notes, which I believe were pulled from a website supporting the fight on world hunger - 'World Harvest' I think... don't quote me)

If you make more than $25,000 a year, you are wealthier than 90% of the world's 7 billion people.

If you make more than $50,000 a year, you are wealthier than 99% of the world's 7 billion people.

Half of the world's 7 billion people live on less than $2/day.

93% of the world's 7 billion people do not own a car.

Sooo... instead of trying to sell refurbished furniture for side funds, or launch a mini photography business on the side of my day job, maybe I ought to use my artsy fartsy-ness to raise money for a more worthy cause? Lots of thoughts swirling around in my head on this one. I'll keep you posted on the status of all this... feeling very inspired to give more to those who have less.

Chocolate Cake and Meatloaf - yes please!

I wanted to share 2 new recipes with you. Both are SUPER easy and for the very little effort that's put in, you get great results. Your family and friends will think you slaved away all day!




Lets start with the chocolate cake - because I always wish every meal could start with dessert!

I'm telling you this is so Friggin' EASY!

Start with a regular box of cake mix and a can of chocolate frosting. You'll also need whole fresh strawberries, blueberries and raspberries, about 11 Kit-Kat Candy bars and little preserves, jelly or jam - whatever you have - so long as its not cactus jelly or something - you know they actually make that!

Make the cake as directed on the box using the 2 - 8" cake round pans. Let the cakes cool.

When cakes are cool, carefully slice a thin layer off one of the cakes so that it is flat and not rounded. This cake will be the bottom layer. You could skip this step if you're into the whole leaning tower of Pisa look for a cake. The top layer might slip right off!

Frost the top part of the bottom layer and place other layer on top. Frost entire cake and sides. It doesn't have to be pretty because it will all be covered any way.

Gently break apart the candy bars into individual sticks. Try very hard not to get the jingle "break me off a piece of that - - - " stuck in your head. Gently push the kit kats into the side of the cake so they are standing vertically and the bottom of the candy is facing outward. Continue the bars around the cake until the sides are covered with the bars. There should be little to NO space left in between the bars.



Give the cake/frosting 20 - 30 minutes to set with the candy bars in.

In the mean time - clean fruit and cut tops of strawberries off. Fruit can be left whole. Mix all together in a big bowl with 2-3 TBS of the preserves. This just gives it a pretty glossy look and makes the natural sugar in the fruit come out.

Gently place the fruit on the top of the cake. Start with strawberries and arrange them in a way that looks pretty. Fill in the gaps with bluberries and rapsberries.

That's it! How cool does that look!





Experiment a little - try the white chocolate kit kat bars and different flavors of cake mix, frosting and fruit toppings.

DEVOUR!

Now for the meatloaf!

This aint' yo momma's usual brick of dry baked meat. This one is from my girl Giada on the food network. LOVE HER SHOW! Its SUPER MOIST and SO full of flavor!

1lb. ground turkey
1/4c. sun dried tomoatoes
1/2c. crumbled Feta cheese
2 chopped cloves of garlic (about TBS garlic)
1/2c. bread crumbs
1/3c. fresh chopped parsley
2 TBS. whole milk or half/half - or skim would work
2 eggs
1tsp. salt

Mix all ingredients except Turkey - add that last. Just mix until everything is incorporated. Don't over mix the meat. It will be brick worthy if you do.

Put mixture into a greased loaf pan 9"x5" or so... bake at 375F for 45 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes then serve that puppy!

FN is still here!

Hi all! I've been slacking on my duties as a writer and I apologize! Summer has been great so far and that means my calendar has been full of things like road trips, weddings, birthday parties, collecting junk to refurbish, landscaping, cookouts, and water balloon fights! I've had the opportunity to do a few photo shoots with friends babies and even a few weddings this year and the time spent on after shoot processing - is well - time consuming! If you notice things look a little different around here. I've added a photography tab and will be posting more pictures from shoots there. This is all for now! Enjoy the pics and Happy 4th!

Dress Up for Big Girls!

What little girl didn't love dressing up her barbies and pimping out her pink Malibu dream home?!

I've stumbled across a few interactive websites that will let you relive those childhood play time hours! (Minus the horrible barbie haircuts)

Last week I discovered olioboard.com - used to create and design a mood board for home interiors and now this - polyvore.com! Its a similar site to olioboard, but for clothes!


It lets you mix and match shirts, pants, shoes and ALL kinds of accessories! Its like being a kid again! Remember those paper dolls?! You could cut the clothes out and try to hang them on with those flimsy little paper tabs. That always drove me crazy!

I'm always trying to dream up new outfits, or match the perfect pair of shoes to a dress for a special occasion. This website is perfect for this! So be inspired! No excuses now to not look amazing! I know we'll all be looking and living a little more fergalicious with these kinds of tools at our finger tips - literally!

Its play time! Have fun!

Typos - the spice of life

As many of you know I spend my days working as an administrative assistant. A job I’m good at, but not always particularly fond of. That being said I have had some of the funniest stories from working this career path, but nothing ruffles my feathers more than being asked to do some of the STUPIDEST things. And in the heat of the moment they often feel like extremely offensive requests, but 24 hours post an incident, they’re stories authors couldn’t imagine making up!

The best part is… it’s my REALITY!!

So here’s a short story, from a week ago, from the middle of a conversation I had via instant message with another admin…

I am 4 weeks into a position with a new department. So far all things have gone pretty great! I’m adjusting to the new digs and to the new boss. I’ve got a wonderful group of supportive admins here and am trying my best to win over the admins of the higher ups who work down town.

You see my office location is in Grove City (a suburb of Columbus). Its great here and it’s also where I live. Hubbs was born and raised here, so now that I’m working just down the street, I never get to leave! (whoo – hoo! – do you sense the sarcasm?) any way… that might have been a little off topic.

The nickname for this place is “Grove Tucky” and I think the perception from the high class big wigs of the corporate office is that we’re all a bunch of hill billy’s down here. Which by the way might be partially true, but these are the nicest hard working people I’ve ever met !

Well since we’re all grove tucky down here, I’m trying to prove my worth and professionalism to the other admins that I work with. Our Senior Vice president’s admin is the nicest gal, and I’ve been trying to build rapport with her and prove to her I am organized, sophisticated and intelligent.

Its hard though because we’ve never actually met in person. (Because if she saw me, she’d instantly know I was organized, sophisticated and intelligent… nope not really! Lol)

So we have this rather annoying system (IMHO – that’s blog lingo for 'in my humble opinion') called instant messaging and we often refer to an ‘I.M.’ as a “ping”. People in this department are crazy about it! No need to make a phone call or even send an email – just PING me! – aNnOyING! Constant interruptions all day…

So me and the head honcho’s admin are having an I.M. conversation. She’s explaining something to me about a meeting and what not. I was probably half engaged, because I was aware of what she was talking about, so I replied to her the words ‘got it’ to confirm that I understood the details…

That’s when it happened. I hit enter to send the reply and this is what it said.


Go tit….. (shi*!!!)

I just cheered on a SVP’s admin by saying ‘Go Tit!

I quickly ‘x-ed’ out the IM box, hoping some how that would make it go away… seconds ticked by.










She responded with an ‘lol’ and “that’s the funniest typo I’ve ever seen!”
Thank God! I started cracking up, mostly thankful she thought it was funny, rather than offensive that I just called her a vulgar term for the female anatomy!

We cordially wrapped up the conversation, still chuckling through out.

There’s no doubt in my mind she now thinks I’m an organized, sophisticated and intelligent grove tucky gal.

Pillsbury Short-Cuts

In my family Fruit Pizza is a regular on the menu during the summer. How could you not? With all the fresh fruit available during the warmer months, fruit pizza is a great way use up fresh produce. Pillsbury's short cut for mini fruit pizzas is AWESOME! Who likes rolling out sugar cookie dough in hot weather? It never works - always sticks to the counter!! Beyond frustrating! Why not try pre-cut sugar cookie dough and make individual mini pizzas? My mother in-law stuck this adorable little cookbook for desserts into my Easter basket this year and its been chocked full of great short cuts for quick and easy desserts. Here's the recipe for Mini Fruit Pizzas.

1 package refrigerated sugar cookies (usually 24 cookies)
1 package cream cheese, softened (8 oz box)
2 TBS frozen limeade concentrate, thawed - (BTW if you've got a great recipe for a limeade drink please share, because you will have TONS of extra from this recipe)
1/2c. powdered sugar
Sliced strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, kiwi - or other favorite fresh fruits

1.) Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake cookies according package directions. Cool completely (about 10 minutes)
2.) Beat cream cheese, limeade concentrate and powdered sugar until smooth.
3.) Spread each cookie with approx 1 TBS cream cheese mixture. Arrange fruit on top of each "pizza" Serve immediately, or cover and refrigerate up to 2 hours.

A Few Shout Outs

I recieved an email link to some great Martha Stewart recipes using herbs. I thought it might go well to follow up the themed herb garden blog with some useful recipes for those delicious herbs you're growing! Martha's Herb Recipes

I also stumbled along a really great friendship blog. It has tons of great advice for relationships. Mostly based on questions readers ask. Check it out for all your friendship needs! :) Friendship Blog