around here: december 2013

peanut butter m&ms and fritos get me through long drives // new running shoes {thanks mom!} // pretty snow // pain in the butt snow // his&hers on the couch // soft morning sunlight // what a combo, groupon.... // all of the important parts were covered // hehehe

ho ho ho!

merry christmas 
happy present day

whatever you do, enjoy the day

eat, drink, and be merry

and drink some more!

xoxoxox

does it make you uncomfortable when i use the word 'dongle?'

i hope by now you have all of your holiday shopping done, if not be nice to the retail people, working retail sucks. conserve some compassion for greg though, because this is what its like to go shopping with me anytime of the year...

deck the halls....2013

the rest of our house/apartment may be pretty spacious, but the living room is quite ittybitty cozy. there are two huge doorways, a big window/radiator combo smack dab in the middle of the third wall, and a giant tv involved. call me a grinch, but i have strong feelings against squeezing in a christmas tree too.  so we just work with what we have {including the landlords choice in walpaper...}.

i think the 3-d paper snowflakes, fake mistletoe, garland and bulb wreath, greg's baseball stirrup stockings, and draped lights make it festive. oh, and the balsam&cedar candle helps too ;)

ps, what are your favorite holiday decorations? leave a comment!

the did list

i like to be productive, sometimes too super duper productive {and always over estimating what can actually be reasonably accomplished}. so i make to do lists. lots and lots of to do lists.  blog to do, cleaning to do, work to do, soo many lists. add all of the extras this time of the year, and things can get kinda crazy.  holiday cookies to make, gifts to buy, gifts to wrap, shorter days, colder days, lots and lots of running around. all of that can kick your butt and give you a mean case of the blahs.

in order to reduce being overwhelmed, i like to switch from my to do list to what i call my did list. i stop tracking what needs to be done and focus more on what actually got done. i'll even break it down into baby steps. so the regular to do of cleaning the kitchen turns into: wipe the kitchen counter {check}; wipe down the stove {check}; sweep kitchen floor {check}; mop kitchen floor {check}.

one thing i've learned, the best way to stay motivated is to feel productive. more check marks on my list makes me feel better. so even if that means fibbing to myself, i don't care. as long as it keeps me moving.

ps, what keeps you going this time of the year? leave a comment!

make your own rice milk, like the other cool kids do

besides being allergic to dairy, i'm weird-ed out by even the thought of it. that's not to say i don't daydream about gooey melty cheese sometimes, but it's another mammals breast milk. groooosssss

anyways, now that you're weird-ed out too....you should totally make your own rice milk, it's sooooo super easy. and making it yourself is a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the cost of buying it at the store. i've never tried to drink a glass of it, but i like it in cooking/baking/bowls of cereal/coffee/etc.

step 1: cooked rice and water in the blender
all you need is 1 cup of cooked plain rice. white, brown, jasmine, whatever you have handy. we usually use whats left from dinner the night before. then add 4 cups of water.

step 2: put the lid on
make sure your lid is on snug and everything's sealed up. seriously though, make sure everything's tight, you don't want a rice milk geyser....... :/

step 3: blend
and blend and blend. and blend and blend and blend. if you have a commercial grade super blender you won't have to blend as long, but with my plain ol' regular blender, i let it run for 6 minutes on high.

step 4: pour into your vessel of choice
if sealing the label of the rum bottle wasn't strange enough, adding some benign rice milk to it should up the ante. make sure you pour it right away, before things settle too much.  and don't worry if it does settle, pour that in too.

step 5: dish soap in the blender
fill the bender halfway with hot water and add some soap. let that blend.  you'll thank me later.

step 6: shake well
don't freak out when you open the fridge and it's separated. just shake it up and pour. {ten bucks says this is the reason it only comes in opaque packaging at the store....}

oh yes, hang on to your hats

that is an empty handle of rum. oh so delicious rum. but it's all gone.

and what do you do when the rum is all gone? mod podge the label, and fill it with something super unexpected....upcycling at its finest.

stay tuned

i guess you could call it a personal problem....

so ive got this problem. you may have it too. it's with gloves {and sunglasses}. it involves expensive pairs.
or i should say, the lack there of.

anytime i have a nice pair, i loose them. at times i've considered stringing them together with yarn. and threading it through my jacket. like you would a 5 year old.

the other problem i have, is i work mostly outside, with a smartphone. and i'm in and out of up to 8 different cars a day. that's a lot of places to misplace your gloves.

so i had been hemming and hawing over getting a pair of touch screen friendly gloves.  afraid that my fingers would only be warm for a few days.  because it wouldn't be long before i lost one.

then i found these at target:

mind blown.

yes my friends, those are effin $3 touch screen lovin gloves.  i should prolly go get a few more. that will guarantee i'll have the original pair all winter long.

hello december

after having my ass handed to me goal-wise last month, all of the holiday craziness, and the likelihood that ill still be a cranky, sunshine-needing blob this month, i'm gonna slow down a bit.

> i'm still not very good at this one, but i'm trying.  i need to write more. recipes and tutorials are easy for me, just writing is much harder. time to work the keyboard. update: well 9 posts worked out to be just over 2/week. that didn't make my goal, but i did write about gloves and feeling productive.

> i want to have my own handmade biz, so i feel the need to support other awesome small timers.  why bother buying from giant corporations who are only worried about their bottom line. {and that is a whole 'nother conversation....} update: over 50% of my gifts were either handmade, from a small biz, or recycled, yay!

> i already feel smothered by how messy the house has gotten while we were prepping/away for thanksgiving.  there's going to be just as much going on this month, but i might as well be productive while i'm holed up indoors.  there's nothing like feeling light and refreshed when you set big goals. update: decluttered some of the *junk* piles around the house and sorted a few boxes of stuff from when we moved in 15 months ago...

> just because it's too cold and dark to run during the week, doesn't mean i need to be so lazy. i've got plenty of cheesy workout dvds to get my blood pumpin'.  this also applies to laying around and being lazy in general.  i can write blog posts from the couch, no reason to not be productive in some way, shape, or form. update: this didn't happen, boo.

PS, what are your goals this month? share 'em in the comments!