Watercolors.

My good friend Corrie, who moved back to Portland last month, is having a baby in August and her family threw her a baby shower so I wanted to send her something for the shower to let her know I'm thinking of her. I didn't want to buy some lame gift off of a registry. Who really wants to ship a silly baby toy or a bib you can buy at Target all the way across the country? I wanted to make something for her...

Corrie's asked me a while ago to knit her husband (my good friend Rob) and son Justice matching hats, and I still intend to do that, along with one for the new little guy who is on his way (he'll be named Thelonious, Theo for short), but by the time I'd thought of the idea (ok, actually Jessie thought of the idea) there wasn't enough time to knit three hats. But I wanted to make something else. I had this idea involving pennants in the back of my head that I'd seen a friend do something similar before. Then all of a sudden this flashback of my 9th grade art teacher Mrs. Morton teaching me how to paint with watercolors popped in my head. Once there, I couldn't rest until I tried to pull off what I'd envisioned in my head. After many attempts, I finally got close enough and made the product below. Pretty simple, but that's how I like things... simple. Hopefully Corrie will be able to put this in Theo's nursery some day and think of her friend Abby who loves her and misses her dearly...

(My many attempts...)

(The finished product... Don't mind the Netflix movie underneath. It was Becoming Jane.

Kind of a let down, just in case you were wondering... The movie that is, not the project.)

Growing less picky each day.

Some would call me a picky eater. I know people who are pickier than myself, but I suppose there is quite a long list of foods that I'd prefer to do without. (Seafood, pickles, mushrooms, tomatoes, sour kraut, mustard, most red meat, coconut, most nuts, ...) Clearly I'm not so picky because I still find plenty to eat and could afford to go down quite a few notches in my belt (if you know what I mean...) Though, I must say I don't enjoy being picky. I'd prefer to be able to order anything off of a menu than being limited to the items that avoid the list above. So, I get excited when I get up the nerve to try something new and I actually like it!

The main reason I'm telling you all of this is because I was encouraged to try something new a couple of month ago by my dear friend Mary and I was sure I wasn't going to like it, because I'd tried it before and wasn't a fan. But. I tried it. And I loved it. And now... I can't get enough. What is that, you ask? Chai! I love chai things now! I'm sitting at the airport waiting to fly to Florida and enjoying a wonderful iced non-fat chai tea latte from Starbucks and I'm just about as happy as can be.

Anyway, cheers to chai tea lattes and the growing list of things that used to be "no ways" but now are "heck yeahs!" (Onions, peppers, asparagus, Chinese food in general, cooked fruit, pineapple, ...)

Check it off the list, babay!

So, I did it! With the help from my dear friend Jessie, I finally decorated sugar cookies with royal icing. For those of you who are not bakers: it's not your standard icing that you spread on with a knife... it's fancy. You've got to do all these crazy things and all this crazy prep work (which Jessie pretty much did all by her lonesome; have I mentioned she's awesome?) but it was fun and looks pretty! Jessie and I both decided that we like normal frosting better (if you want to see my favorite recipe for sugar cookies with normal frosting, go here) but it was still a fun experience trying something new and expanding our baking horizons...

Anyway, number 19 of my 24 Things Before 24 Years is officially checked off the list! (I have also met three new co-workers AND have been writing down the beauties of the day AND have written two letters. I'm on a roll...) Here's a picture play by play of the royal icing experience... (Also, you can go here to hear Jessie's take on the experience.)

Here's all the crazy stuff that decorating cookies with royal icing requires. Well, at least according to Annie's Eats it is. And we love Annie, so we went with what she said.

Step 1: Outline the cookies. Easy enough, right?

Step 2: Kill some time by drinking slushie. Here's my beautiful friend Jessie.

Step 3: After waiting an hour and drinking lots of slushie, we filled it in! We attempted to do the marbling effect that yet another baking blog showed us how to do.

Check out all of those cookies!

Some intense decorating going on here...

Let me interpret Jessie's face: "This is disgusting!" We later decided she was being a tad dramatic but truth is, royal icing just isn't as good as the other stuff.

Tada! Jessie's favorites that she decorated.
Jessie's favorite's closer up. (Yep, that's a swirly dinosaur. Don't act like you're not jealous...)
My favorite's that I decorated. Not sure if you can tell, but that's a beach ball. In honor of my trip to Florida tomorrow!

Can't wait to keep the list coming! (P.S. Joy the Baker totally commented on my post about her. Kind of made my day, ok, maybe my week.)

24 Things Before 24 Years.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I love Joy the Baker. Her recipes look delicious but honestly... most of the time she's a little too... fancy (for lack of a better word) for me. She makes things like this and this and this, and yeah, they look great, but are a bit fancy for my tastes. What I do love about Joy the Baker is just her: the things that she says, what she appears to live for, etc. She made this list of 30 things she wanted to do before turning 30 and I grinned all the way through it because I was so inspired. So basically... I'm going to be a copy cat. Today is July 5, my birthday is on August 15, so I have a little over a month to complete the list. I don't have a lot of time on my hands, so it's a simplified version of Joy's list (apparently I just decided she and I are on a first name basis) But anyway... here's my list.

24 Things Before 24 Years:

1. Mail 5 people hand-written letters.*

2. Surprise someone with a batch of fresh cupcakes.

3. Spend at least 10 minutes a day for a whole week trying to learn how to play the guitar.

4. Make a pretty cake like this one or this one.
5. Send someone flowers.*

6. Spend an evening in a coffee shop doing nothing but self-reflection/spending time with that one pretty special guy that I pray to (Jesus).

7. Compliment 2 strangers.*

8. Enjoy 3 beach sunsets.* (Stolen from Joy and I can actually do it because I'm headed to Florida on Saturday! Yeehaw!)

9. Learn how to use my gosh darn camera.

10. Take someone out to lunch.*

11. Write a song.

12. Play marco polo and sharks and minnows in a pool.

13. Clean out my closet.*

14. Lose 5 pounds. (That's going to be rough considering I'll be on vacation and will gain probably 7 while I'm away...)
15. Give someone in need $20.
16. Read 4 books.
17. Ride a bike at least 5 miles.* (Let's be honest, it probably won't be all at once.)
18. Blog at least 10 times. (Today counts. So what if I'm a cheater...)
19. Finally make some sugar cookies with royal icing.
20. Introduce myself to 5 people I don't already know at work.

21. Tell 15 people why I'm grateful that they are in my life.*

22. Make 3 funny/encouraging/ridiculous videos for people's Facebook walls.

23. Paint something for a friend.

24. Write down the beauty of the day every day until my birthday.*

Wish me luck! I'll try to keep you posted as I go...

(*Items with asterisks are the ideas that I stole from Joy.)

Pennants.

Do you ever just wake up and think, "Today is going to be a great day..."? Hopefully that happens more often than not, but today was one of those days where I just woke up and was overwhelmed with that thought... My cousin Dana stopped by to say hey on her way out of town, I wore a dress to work (and let's be real, everyone always feels better about themselves when they wear a dress, well, at least the female population, ok, maybe not even the whole female population, but I do...), I listened to some good music on the way to work (I've had the album for months and I still can't get enough of Andrew Belle), the sun is out, a three day weekend is approaching... Life is good.

I've been in a funk the last couple weeks, maybe even months. I think the fog is finally clearing, God is teaching me things, and I'm finally getting my head back on straight. It's funny how you are oblivious to the little things when you are in a funk, but once it's gone, they all pop out of nowhere! Today's little thing that I've noticed that I love is: pennants. (What? Did she say pennants?) Yes, pennants. I'm loving their use in decorating these days. Ok, maybe they're not that popular to everyone, but I like them... So, Happy Thursday! And Happy "Hey, pennants are cool!" day! Here are some pictures to convince you of their coolness... (The above picture is an abstract pennant picture from Etsy.)

Here's a picture from a wedding featured in Design*Sponge. There were lots of pretty uses of pennants in weddings on Style Me Pretty but their pictures don't transfer onto my blog quite as well.

This artist from Etsy painted these. I may or may not have copied her idea to paint something... More to come on that soon.

This before and after from Design*Sponge incorporated pennants and I liked it.

Best. Cookies. Ever.

Last week I blogged about the Peanut Butter Truffle Brownies from Betty Crocker. The brownies that I consider to be the best brownies ever. Well, today I baked a new cookie recipe and I am very happy to say that they may be the best cookies ever. Well... at least in my book... as of today. I was inspired by Annie's Eats: she blogged this week about some Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies and right when I read the title I thought, "That sounds amaaaaazing." I took a look at the recipe and it had two things I had a problem with: 1. Coconut (Gross. End of story.), 2. Toffee bits (Who keeps those on hand? No one...) I was just going to take those ingredients out and triple the amount of butterscotch chips, but thought it may be a better idea to see if there's a better oatmeal cookie recipe out there...

So what did I do? I googled: "soft oatmeal cookie recipe," and found a certain recipe referenced in a couple different places so I figured it'd have to be a good one. Upon looking at the ingredients of this recipe, there were a couple of things that impressed me: lots of brown sugar, lots of cinnamon, and lots of normal ingredients for the rest. (I strongly dislike recipes that make you buy things that you don't normally have in your pantry.) So, I tried it, added a full bag of butterscotch chips, and some of the best cookies ever were born. Now I can't take credit. It was Annie's idea, and this person's (whoever they are) recipe... Here's the recipe in my words.

Note: One of my pet peeves is when I start making a cookie recipe, am ready to scoop out the dough and put it in the oven then BAM! the recipe says you have to chill the dough for an hour. I think every recipe should have a disclaimer right up front saying, "Hey! This is going to take more time than you think it is! Plan accordingly!" So here's your note: This cookie dough needs to chill for an hour. Plan accordingly!

Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies

Ingredients

-1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (that's 2 sticks)

-1 cup white sugar

-1 cup brown sugar, packed

-2 eggs

-1 tsp vanilla extract

-2 cups all-purpose flour

-1 tsp baking soda

-1 tsp salt

-1 1/2 tsps cinnamon

-3 cups quick cooking oats

-1 bag butterscotch chips (I think it's approximately 2 cups)

Directions

-In the bowl of a mixer (if you're blessed like me you've got a Kitchenaid!) on medium speed, cream together butter, white sugar and brown sugar. Add eggs one at a time then add the vanilla.

-In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. My favorite kitchen utensil in the whisk so I whisk mine together but any mixing utensil will do. Gradually add the dry ingredient to the creamed mixture. Once thoroughly combined, add the oats, then stir in the butterscotch chips by hand. Once everything is thoroughly mixed, you've got to chill it in the fridge for an hour. (Don't say I didn't warn you...)

-After that excrutiatingly long hour has passed, turn your oven on to 375 degrees. Form your delicious dough into delicious dough balls and bake on an un-greased (although I do like to use parchment paper, it makes for an easy clean up) cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes and your house will be filled with the scent of amazingness and your tummy will be filled with the most delicious cookies in the world. (No exaggeration there.) Hope you enjoy!

P.S. I know that my photography sucks. I've even been trying to experiment more with my camera, but it still sucks. Don't let the lame picture deter you. These cookies are amazing. I plan on buying this book to help my lack of photography skills.

Reality TV.

I'm a sucker for reality TV. I think I used to be in denial and say that I didn't really like it, but when you look at all of the shows that I DVR, 95% of them are in the reality television category. (Ok, not really 95%, I made that statistic up, because I share a DVR with 3 other people and only record two shows, so I guess you could say 50%. Anyway...) I think I like that it's real people, well, more real than an actual written character. I like the way the shows are shot different than a normal TV. And I like how the bulk of reality TV (well, at least the reality TV that I watch) is showcasing some kind of skill.

What reality TV shows do I enjoy, you ask? Well, I bet you didn't really ask but I'll tell you anyway...

-So You Think You Can Dance (currently watching)

-The Next Food Network Star (currently watching)

-American Idol

-Survivor

-Top Chef (and Top Chef: Just Desserts)

-Project Runway

-Ace of Cakes

-America's Next Top Model (don't really watch that anymore, but I'm not going to lie that when I see a marathon on, I may or may not flip to the channel...)

Anyway, just thought I'd give a shout out to one of my guilty pleasures: reality TV. Happy Friday!