let life begin

I am graduating in T-4 hours. It is pouring rain in Tallahassee and it's supposed to stay that way all day. Oh joy, frizzy hair here I come!

Pictures to come of course!

jump on the bandwagon

I did it, I joined Twitter. I've always wondered about it and now I'm in. I'm one of the masses. You can find my profile here. I even got my self a cute, handy dandy button that takes you right to my profile, it's right over there in the "Where I'm At" section on the sidebar.  Ch, ch, check it out!!

Susie Homemaker....not so much

I have recently discovered a love of cooking. I have not, in my previous years, been a big fan of cooking or any other domestic chore for that matter. You see, I was not raised in a cooking household. When I was younger my mom was an "out-of-the-box" cooker. By this I mean that if it did not come out of a box we did not eat it. We ate a lot of Hamburger Helper and Stouffer's frozen dinners. Don't get me wrong, I think all that food is great and am astounded by what can actually come out of a pre-made dinner box. It truly amazes me. But, because of this I never really learned to cook. For example, I just learned to make Quaker grits about two years ago! And I still don't know how to make scrambled eggs for that matter.

I owe my newly kindled interest in cooking to The Food Network. I love watching The Food Network and get very inspired by the meals they create. I always think, if they can make it, so can I! How hard could it be? Right? I have had some flops, I won't mention the empanadas I attempted [i knew something was wrong when the recipe wanted me to use curry powder]. But I've also had some great successes.

Recently I have come across a wonderful cookbook. I am an avid reader of Confessions of a Pioneer Woman, it is a wonderful blog about a Los Angeles city girl who married a country guy and now lives on her ranch in Oklahoma with their four children. She is a great writer and a wonderful photographer [all the pictures on her site and blog are hers!]. Anyway, back to the point, Pioneer Woman is a also a great cook and she published her own cookbook [you can check it out here].

I have fallen in love with this cookbook. Not only does it have some very yummy looking recipes but also, it has illustrated steps in all the recipes. Yeppers, each step in every recipe comes with a beautiful photograph so that you can see what everything is supposed to look like. This is probably the best idea ever! For those of us that are not natural born chefs, we need a little reassurance that what we are doing is right and a picture is a great way to supply this much needed confidence. Also in the cookbook are amazing photographs of her ranch, all the animals on it, and her children [or her punks as she calls them]. She also includes cute little stories between sections, most of which are previous blog posts. I plan on adding this wonderful book to my Christmas wish list [which is now rather extensive].

I have recently discovered hats as a fashion accessory. I know, where was I, under a rock?!?!

I have never been one for hats, I never thought I looked cute in them. Until.....I found this little cutie!

[thank you photobooth for the chic background!]

I was at Target last week and me and my mom were looking for winter things for our upcoming trip to NYC [squeal!], and I decided to give this hat a try. It turns out that I love it and it loves me. A match made in accessory heaven! So of course this now opens up a whole world of fashion choices for moi'! I of course hopped right on Google and got to work....here are some of the contenders that will definitely be going on my Christmas list! [all under $ 50!!!]

Here is the 411:

Pink hat: $20 - topshop.com

Purple hat with flower: $27 - lauraashley.com

White pom-pom hat: $30 - ae.com

Black hat with bow: $12 - forever21.com

Black beret with pearl details: $30 - topshop.com

Purple hate with bow: $9.99 - target.com

Blue hat: $8.80 - forever21.com

Black hat with flower detail: $40 - shopplasticland.com

Do you have a favorite hat? Are you a hat person?

So This Is Christmas

I'm one of those people that likes to decorate for Christmas as soon as I possibly can. I have the urge to bust out the Christmas decor before Thanksgiving but my mom refuses. I truly believe that if I tried to get out the storage boxes before Thanksgiving she would physically block the entrance to the shed with her body. But, I do not agree with the store breaking out Christmas before Halloween is even over! That's another rant for another day.

So this year, I brought out the Christmas decorations right after Thanksgiving. I thought about not even letting the Thanksgiving table get cleared before I ran out to the shed and cranked up the Christmas music but I thought that I shouldn't scare all the guests. A long time family friend and I went to The Christmas Carol on Thanksgiving night so that filled my Christmas spirit quota for that day, thank goodness!

I waited until Friday to indulge my Christmas craving, much to the satisfaction of my mom. As I was sorting out all the doo-dads and watcha-ma-call-its, I came across our "tree". Now, I put "tree" in quotation marks because what I found was not a proper tree. What I found was a horrible excuse for a tree. I found a four foot tree. A FOUR foot tree! Where are we, NYC in a rent controlled apartment? No, I think not! We are in a recently renovated 1,400 square foot house and I will not stand for a puny four foot tree! I insisted that we go to my grandfather's house and retrieve our true tree from storage. We had a perfectly wonderful 7 ft. pre-lit tree sitting there, waiting to be admired in all its glory.

The next day I proceeded to assemble the newly rescued tree. Now, for those of you that have not had experience with pre-lit christmas tress, there is a little catch to putting them together. Each section plugs into the one before it so that all the lights can light up while only using one cord plugged into the wall at the bottom. I had all the sections put together and all plugs connected, I was ready to let it shine. I plugged it in to much drum-rolling by my 5-year old cousins. The reaction was less than excited. Why, you ask? Well, my loyal reader(s), only the first half of the bottom section was lit up! Huh? What? All the sections as plugged in. What is wrong? I took it apart and tested each section individually. They all worked, except the top half of the bottom section. I racked my brain, how could I put it together without having to plug each section into each other? Maybe I could run an extension to cord to each section to light them up individually. But that would defeat the point of having the sections able to plug into each other now wouldn't it.

And then it hit me! Maybe it's the fuse on the bottom half. So, I went to work replacing the fuses in the plug. Ready? Here we go again! Yep, you guessed it. Nothing! Same result! Well after much discussion, it was concluded that one of the lights was burnt out on the bottom section and the only way to fix the problem was to find it and replace it. That sounds like a barrel of laughs, doesn't it? I didn't think so either. Sadly, that tree was put into the trailer outside to be taken to the dump. But, that wasn't the last time we would speak of that tree. Oh no, not the last time by far!

So, in disgust, I headed to Wal-Mart to buy a new tree. For those of you that know me, you know that Wal-Mart is not my favorite place. I had no choice though! I had to have a tree, especially one that is taller than four feet! I found a perfect contender in the garden section and made my purchase. When I got home I got right to work putting it together. I recruited my mom to help me because at that point me and Christmas trees were not on good terms. We put all the sections together and plugged them together. We plugged the whole tree into the wall. What happens? Part of one of the sections didn't light up! Oh no! Not again! I've just about had it now! But, then I see it. A plug that is not plugged in. How could that be? An extra plug in the middle of the tree? It has to have a mate. We searched and searched. By the way, who came up with making the plugs the same color as the tree? Sure it's convenient in making the plugs blend in, but, there in lies the problem, how are you supposed to find them to plug the tree in? Finally, we found the plug's mate. At this point I had an epiphany, each section has multiple plugs to connect.

That's right folks, the other tree was perfectly fine. I just didn't know this fun fact at the time. So now we have two perfectly good trees, and are $100 poorer for no good reason.

I made up with the Wal-Mart tree as I was decorating it. Decorating the tree always makes you feel better. I think I did a fine job, if I do say so myself.

As you can see we are tinsel and candy cane people. Sure the tinsel will haunt us until next Christmas but who cares! It's great!

Now, what's a tree without a tour of it. I bet you've never been on a tour of a Christmas tree before have you? Well hop in the Magic School Bus and shrink down as we venture into the tree. Here are some favorite ornaments.

I got this ornament in middle school when I was taking dance. I still love dance and wish I still took classes. I think this fairy is beautiful and it is one of my prized possessions. I love the colors on her.

That's right! That is me, the one and only! Wasn't I a cute little kid?!? We have many ornaments on our tree with pictures of me. Most of them I made in school and are made of wrapping paper and are held together with glitter glue. Oh the memories!

This is the newest addition to our tree. I picked this cute little guy up for my mom n my recent trip to D.C. My mom collects Santa Clause ornaments and I thought this one represented D.C. perfectly! Isn't he cute!

This is my favorite of the Santa Clause ornaments. What a perfect Florida Christmas ornament! This is also my mom's favorite Santa ornament. It's just perfect with Santa hanging from the starfish with the little present in his hand. I love it!

Did you have a Christmas tree adventure? What are your favorite ornaments?

Everyone has their favorite Christmas music. Some people are very protective of said favorite songs. I am one of these people. I like my Christmas music a certain way. I hate Christmas remixes! Who wants to hear Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer with a speaker-blasting techno beat in the background? Nobody! That's who! It's plain blasphemy!

I digress. As you can see this post is simply a disguise for me posting youtube videos of my favorite Christmas songs. So...without further ado, I give you three of my favorites!

Do They Know It's Christmas - Band Aid

I know some people have some very strong hateful feelings about this song [I try to stay away from these people.] I absolutely love this song! I can't get enough of it! Just look at that amazing 80's fashion. And those haircuts, priceless! It may be a little cheesy but then again, isn't all Christmas music?

Next up.....

Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - John Lennon & Yoko Ono

Who doesn't love a former Beatle and his crazy wife singing about Christmas? I don't know any body who wouldn't love it! This song has less of the cheese factor which is a much appreciated oasis in the desert of cheesiness that is holiday music. It is so hopeful and I love it!

Here is a great cover by Maroon 5 that I found.

And last but not least....

Last Christmas - Wham!

Oh come on! You knew where I as going with this! You should have seen it coming. Of course Wham! has to be included in the trilogy of amazing Christmas songs. It wouldn't be the holidays without the timeless musical stylings of Mr. George Michael. You know you secretly like this song. I'm just shameless enough to yell from the roof tops how near and dear to my heart this song is!

There you have it folks. There before you are my must have Christmas songs. I bet if you look on your iTunes right now you will find them in your collection as well [whether you're willing to admit it or not]. And if by some great cosmic mistake you do not find these songs in your holiday tunes collection, get yourself on over to Limewire and illegally download them today!

Happy Holidays!

Garage Sale Psychology

Last weekend we had a garage sale. We did the very American thing of hauling all our junk out onto our driveway and selling it to other people so they could add it to the junk they already have.

But, as we were hosting our sale some things were brought to my attention.

One, I watch the show Hoarders on A&E way too much. I found myself trying to figure out if the person I was taking money from was a hoarder or not. I tried to profile everyone that stepped foot on our driveway. Could that lady be one? How about her? Is that picture frame just going to go on top of a pile that is almost to the ceiling? Is that vase going to end up on the front porch with all the other garage sale finds, never to be touched again? In the end I couldn't really tell one way or another but it was fun to speculate.

Two, I take things way too personally. As we all know, anything in the retail industry comes in waves. You get a crazy load of people all at one time and then you get 20 minutes of nothing. Well, those 20 minutes of nothing really took a blow to my psyche. I took it way too personally. When people weren't there I felt as if they saw our signs and felt as though it wasn't worth their time. They stuck up their noses at our junk. And the worst thing of all were the drive-byers. They would drive by, slow down as if they were going to stop, get my hopes up, and then decide not to stop. What? Is our junk not up to par for you? Are you too good to even stop and get out of the car? I felt as though they were saying, "Nope, your garage sale isn't even the effort of putting my car in park and taking the key out of the ignition." Well, humph! See what I do the next time you have a garage sale. Will I stop? No! See how it feels then. Although, you probably won't feel a thing because you are not nearly as unstable as me and don't take strangers' opinions about your junk nearly as personally. But doesn't that make me the more interesting person? How else would I be able to write this oh-so-interesting post for the enjoyment of all who read my blog? [All two of them.]

In the end, garage sales: good for clearing out your house, bad for your mental health.