Sad Things And Some Strange Wins

Internets, I forgot to get more thread tonight after work. I need more. Not that I got through a whole spindle (are they called spindles? I'm not sure). But I wanted to double up the thread - for heavier yet still lacy - instead of getting a larger string, just use two little ones! It's worked well in the past. I promise.

Also, dinner looked like mush. No really! But I've heard it was delicious.
You know how I was supposed to start a meal-planning activity of sorts? Well, this week we've been winging it. And just deciding at eating.
Monday was tacos. Tuesday was macaroni and cheese with hot dogs and garlic bread. Wednesday was chili (with hot dogs again!) and cornbread. And tonight was mush-looking.
Erm, it's delicious, though! If you get past the sickly pale colour.
Chicken, all cut up and cooked (seasoned to your liking - I like onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, and Tapatio sauce).
White Rice, all cooked up following regular directions.
And a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup. The little cans, not the family size. This you leave uncooked.
Then, when the chicken and rice is done, put in a baking dish, add soup, mix together, and bake for ten-ish minutes at 200 degrees or so. You can guess, I promise.
And that was dinner, and I was told it was good. Not that pleasing to the eye, but good.

This is something I grew up eating, even, and had entirely forgot about it until last night, shame on me!

I will leave you with that, I suppose, seeing as my new projects of sorts are on halt for the evening. I need to go work on the red and black blanket. Should probably do some dishes, but that doesn't sound fun!

Oh, and this.

 

Yeah, that's a canning jar.
Yeah, that's a lid to drink out of on it.
And yeah, everyone says it reminds them of a sippy cup. But it is the most delightful way to drink your coffee. I promise. 

xoxo, Jess (one more day...and then the weekend shall be hers!) 

The Things One Can Do!

Internets, you would be so very proud of me. No really!
I went, last night, from this:

To this:

Thanks to this:

Yes, dear internets, I have dyed my hair. Well, it got dyed. By D, actually. He's done these things before, and I have not. Until now! I have red hair! It's actually a very dark red, which is good. I'm rather fond of it. No really! It's quite lovely!
I honestly wouldn't mind keeping it this colour. It suits my personality a bit more than my natural blonde does, anyway.

My first crazy act of 2013 - dying my hair. We, however, decided against cutting my hair into Bettie Page-esque fringe. I would love to have it someday, but my hair is rather thin, and in order for it to look right it would require a lot of primping that I am not quite ready to do.
So, I am fringeless for now.

But my hair is red! Oh I'm so excited Internets, you don't even know!

I have not yet started the meal planning. I know, shame on me. I discussed with D, and we are actually on vacation next week - and because of that we won't be eating home-cooked foods (except for possibly at his parents' house) often enough to warrant going grocery shopping this week.
However! I have managed to cook the past two nights! No really! First was spaghetti, with deer pepperoni meat, I think he said it was? It was good stuff either way. With Safeway-bought garlic bread, delicious. Last night was fake nachos. Which means there was a can of chili, some shredded pepperjack cheese, some cream cheese, and a lot of Tapatio sauce all heated up and melty with tortilla chips. It's not fancy, but I assure you it works up like a charm, in about ten minutes (even faster if you're good at grating cheese - I am not).
Tonight, I'm not sure what we are going to eat, but I do need to do dishes so I can at least have clean plans to make...something...with!!

And, the kitchen trolley.
Internets, it is done. I'm going to let it show itself off.

So, I apologize, the top really is a lovely peach colour. Not whatever colour you wanna call that off-pink-whiteness it's got there. There's clear contact paper on the top and the second shelf - holding the damask print paper down, and that way I can clean it off if I get it messy. Because I will get it messy. I'm not sure how yet,  that's just the way things go around here.

Happy New Year, Internets. There's lots of lovely images going around Facebook and Pinterest about it being a New Year and people getting shit done. But there's one that has warmed the insides of my heart to near bursting.

Image Found Via Pinterest - Original Source (via Pinterest)

Some reason, Internets, it makes my heart burst just looking at it.
So many things I want to do, that I keep putting off for no apparent reason, other than a few "what if's" that end badly. Well, who cares if it ends badly. It's worse off not having tried at all!

xoxo, Jess (newly red-headed!)

Not What You Were Expecting, Eh?

Oh hello, I'm sure you'll be expecting the turn out of the searching for meal-planning things, correct?
Well, let's be honest Internets, all I've really got is four Pinterest links (yes, I'm resorting to Pinterest to store links, shame on me) and two bookmarks for recipes on my phone. The beauty of the Pinterest links, though, is I can view them anywhere I am - be it on the desktop or on-the-go, with their Android App. By the way, what I've found and pinned can be found here: http://pinterest.com/orangelaserbeam/foods/
And no seriously, that was all found while I was in bed, allegedly sleeping. Nah, I was in bed, D was  sleepin, and I was wide awake. So what does a girl do? Get on her smart phone and google. Obviously. I can't stay away from you, can I internets.

We aren't going grocery shopping anytime soon, I assure you, and I told D, and he needs a few days to think about what he would want, anyway. I told you about the "dunno what to eatttttt" thing, right? Yeah, we're verrryyy good at it.

I do, however, want to share something else, that's been on my back burner for well over a week now - shame on me.

A kitchen trolley! Ya! I know! Other than my kitchen is far too small for it. It will be a craft station, when it finally gets its last coat of paint. In the mean time, I will share some before pictures, and hopefully in the next few days can bring forth some completion pictures.

I was *not* looking for furniture, but it caught my eye as I walked down the aisle! And no, I did not pay 48$ for it - this is the store I work in, so an employee discount was used, thank goodness.

Smart enough on my end, I did not take pictures of it while it was put together upside down. I got it all together but the top only to realize I was looking at holes for the wheels to go into instead of holes for the top to go into! I have not, admittedly, put much furniture together in my day.

These are my paint colours of choice, and a damask scrapbook paper that I'm coordinating with it. On the cheap from Michael's - which can be a lovely and terrible store all at the same time.

I just love the way the oranges come together in this - it almost looks like it has texture, but it does not, sadly. Wouldn't that be awesome, though?!?!

And that, Internets, is really all I have to show of it for now. It's got a lot of paint on it, but of course I skipped taking any in-between pictures. I've only got the handled-parts of the top left at this point to do up, and just need to get them done and viola, trolley!
But until then, I will let you guess as to what I put where. And what we did with the papers!

It will be a Happy New Year, won't it? I certainly hope so!
I keep forgetting that's here, and I'm not sure why. Get so caught up in Christmas, only to forget there's another holiday right afterward!
So,  Happy New Year to you all, and a lovely 2013 to you! Hopefully we can all be a little happier, a little more crafty, and a lot more fabulous! Because, really, who doesn't want these things! I sure do!

xoxo, Jess (who really truly wishes each and every person a great 2013 - right now, we all deserve it)

Fridges

Internets, why is it so hard to decide things to eat for dinner? We have such trouble with this. Sometimes the though process is excruciating. No really! Tonight, we had ice cream for dinner. And Hawaiian sweet bread. Delicious, but nowhere near a real dinner - and some would claim that it's not healthy. But again, have to keep the girlish figure somehow! Erm,  yes, that's my excuse. "Girlish" figure implies a few extra pounds, right? ...internets? Right?
Nah, I don't mind being a few pounds overweight, it doesn't bother me. I'm overall healthy - heck, Friday I walked probably 8 miles or so? Possibly more, honestly, and I felt super sore Saturday, but not in a I-can't-move-way, just in a ooo-it's-been-a-few-too-many-days-since-I-was-this-self-mobile. I don't drive, so I rely on public transportation (bleh) and walking (first choice).

Anyway, back to choosing dinner.

We suck at it.

This is probably part of the reason.

Can you see anything decent in there?! Heck, I can  hardly find things in there sometime. And yes, I have a bottle of wine with a red sparkly label in the door. It's not bad - and I don't even really like wine!

But, it was time to clear things out. There were a few too many old items hiding away in the back, and a few too many dead condiments hanging about.
So, I chucked a bit.

Yes, my wine stayed!

This is, however, the current state of my fridge. And this is also why we can never decide what to eat - there isn't actually anything to eat in there!
We have a freezer full of hand-me-down meat (D's mom became a vegan over the summer, and she gave us all the meat they had), but no idea what to use it for.

Internets, how do normal people decide what to eat?!?! Because we are terrible at trying to figure it out!
I must do some searching, figure out how people meal-plan. I understand the concept of the planning - really, we did it when I was growing up - but that was with other adults picking what to eat! Now that I'm the adult, I'm lost!

I will be doing some searching in the next few days, and will let you know what I turn up, internets.
In the mean time, feel comforted that the three bottles of year and a half old pancake syrup D had before I moved in are now history!

xoxo, Jess (who loves to cook, but never knows what to procure!)