Baking Day

Baking is my therapy. And today, I had a much needed therapy session.

Today's session: cookie dough buckeyes.

Wonderful recipe courtesy of Something Swanky. Now if you're me, you see this title and think "Oh, the salmonella!" but lucky us, this recipe has no eggs. And it tastes just like regular old cookie dough. Delicious.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

16 ounces (weighed) milk chocolate

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Cream butter and sugar. Add remaining ingredients other than milk chocolate.

2. Scoop tablespoon size cookie dough balls. Roll balls in your palms until round. Place on baking sheets and put in the freezer for 10 minutes.

3. Melt milk chocolate in a double boiler according to manufacturer's instructions, setting aside a handful. After melting chocolate, temper it by throwing the handful of chocolate chips in. (This keeps the chocolate from getting that weird chalky look to it when it cools. Thanks Martha Stewart)

4. Pull cookie dough balls from freezer and using a toothpick, dip each dough ball into melted chocolate and allow excess to drip. Place buckeyes on a tray covered in wax paper. Smooth the toothpick hole with your finger.

5. Chill or freeze before serving.

Happy Baking Day!

A College Education

a college education 
(aka everything I learned in college didn't come from a classroom)

It is impossible to effectively judge a book by its cover.

You can plan all you want, but you can't predict the future.

You're lucky to be sitting in this crowded lecture hall for hours per day. Many people can't.

When in doubt, do it.

You can live with very little and be happier than all the clams.

If you find free food, eat it and eat a lot of it.

Things that scare you can be the things that create the greatest positive impact.

If you're going to do it, do it well.

Embarrassing activities can be the most liberating.

No things compare to experiencing things.

Tune Tuesday v. 1

A song for growing up and graduating.

Favorite line:

think of every town you've lived in

every room you lay your head

and what is it that you remember?

Remember when I said that I was going to start blogging more regularly?

Then went on to neglect my blog for 4 months?

In my defense, it was my last semester of college. I had quite a bit on my mind and my plate. Including but not limited to: 3 jobs, friends, 18 credit hours, a learning community, leadership positions and applying for jobs.

Wait, last semester of college? That's right, folks...

 

Four fantastic years later and I am the proud holder of a Bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education with a minor in Psychology. Feels good, man.

Note: I bought the wrong color tassel, wore it for pre-graduation pictures, then thankfully realized my mistake the day before graduation and switched them. Makes for a fun game of "one of these things is not like the other" though.

Although I'm sad to leave the place I've called home for these years, I've also been excited. I had so many things going on the past few years, I think I lost sight of what's important at times. So here's to an ending and a new beginning. And here are some goals for post-graduate life...

Make more time for me time.

Read more.

Attempt daily yoga.

Be more reflective.

Do more crafting and baking.

Bring my camera(s) more places.

Do more nice things for people.

Do things because I want to, not because other people want me to.

Do things by myself.

Embrace spontaneity.


More to come soon. And I mean it this time.

winter break activities

Every break from school I reach the final days and experience a little bout of sadness because I forget all the fun things I've done. Most of the time, as a preventative measure, I keep a little journal so I can look back and remember. This winter I decided to try a more visual approach.

I made maple taffy with my sister and her friend. I read about this in a Laura Ingalls Wilder book in about fourth grade and it has taken me all these years to finally look up a recipe. Pretty tasty, but mostly fun to make.

I made this banner for my friend who's getting married. It pays to have crafty bridesmaids.

I spent New Years Eve with my work family! At first I was kind of bummed that I had to work on New Years Eve but I actually had a blast. As you can see, they're a fun bunch.

Made these Bailey's Irish Creme Swirl Brownies. Mine didn't turn out as beautiful as Wee Kitchen's, but they certainly tasted delicious!

Crochet this.

Knit that.

Went snow shoeing with my parents on New Years Day. I can't think of a better way to begin the New Year than trying something new. The walk was beautiful, I will definitely be back.

And now to bed before my last first day of school tomorrow. Bittersweet indeed. Goodnight blogging world.

land of the cle

My dad is more adventurous than I am.

On a cold day like the other day, I was all ready to curl up in my pajamas with a good book. My dad had other ideas. So we all piled in the car and headed out to the west side of Cleveland.

Good call, Dad.

First, we explored Flower Child, a beautifully vintage shop housing collectible items from the 30s-80s in Lakewood. Talk about heaven. Here are some of my favorites.

A lovely wall of hats.

A little record room in the basement.

Yes, that is a plunger. I found their stash of vintage Pyrex in the bathroom, of course.

That, my friends, is a holographic puppy picture. Don't everyone trample each other trying to get to that beauty.

Salt shakers galore!

Color coordinated vintage kitchen-ware. It's a dream come true.

We then moved on to downtown Cleveland where I experienced the wonder of Noodlecat for the first time.

If you're not familiar, Noodlecat is the brainchild of chef Jonathon Sawyer and is uniquely Cleveland. Noodlecat specializes in various noodle dishes (imagine that) such as ramen, udon and soba and uses fresh local ingredients. It is quite apparent that a lot of love goes into these steaming bowls of noodly goodness.

Not your average dollar pack of ramen, eh?

Finally, we visited the Arcades in Cleveland, which are looking much more lively than they were a few years ago.

Then we visited the highlight of Cleveland: these spinny chairs.

Until next time...

resolutions

So I have this life journal, given to me by my dear friend and fellow blogger Kassie who handed it to me one day after I spent a good 20 minutes admiring her similar notebook which is full to the brim with drawings and notes.

At first glace it is a mere composition notebook.

But disguised inside that 97 cent composition notebook is the inner workings of my not-so-complex mind.

I've journaled in the past, mostly while I was in Brazil, using colorful markers and blank pages. But there's something about the color constraints of a black pen and the nerve it takes to write outside the lines that gets me inspired. This journal has become a list-filled, font-testing doodle haven.

So when I decided to start a New Years resolution list, I picked up my life journal of course. What started as a small list quickly grew longer and longer until I ran out of space on my first page.

"Why stop here?" I thought.
"Why not keep making resolutions until 2015?"

So it is a work in progress. It's an attempt at a better year and a better me, which will build and change as I do. Here's what I have so far.

cut back on material items
do more yoga
make a budget (and stick to it)
read more books
get out of Ohio/PA/Indiana/Michigan area
explore the Ohio/PA/Indiana/Michigan area
plan an out of country trip
save for the out of country trip (see budget)
find time to relax
appreciate relaxation time
read the news
visit friends far away
appreciate friends close by
drink more water
let go
eat from each food group every day
blog more regularly
don't take things personally
don't panic
go outside more
be more silly
take more pictures
care less
do more crafts
hold less grudges
slow down
reflect more
hug more
love more
dwell less

tis the season

Not to brag or anything, but my family's Christmas tree is the best. Forget those silly store-bought matchy-matchy trees, I'm looking for some serious family bonding and memories. In my family we buy Christmas ornaments as souvenirs when we're on vacation and out and about in the world. I might love decorating the Christmas tree more than I love Christmas itself. We've got it down to a science.

As a family, we pop on some Christmas tunes as my brother lights the tree and I dance around behind him and untangle lights. Then we all put on some other cute but less meaningful decorations that we've collected over the years. Finally, we carefully unpack our treasures. Being that we only see these beauties for about a month out of the year, each unwrapping is a surprise. This provides a perfect opportunity to reminisce about our favorite vacation places and spaces. And the result is this perfectly funky and beautiful Christmas tree that is a perfect representation of my perfect family.

Here are a few of my favorites.

A little teapot from the Charleston Tea Plantation (the only tea plantation in the United States).

Some Frank Lloyd Wright art from Falling Water.

Representing Route 66!

My brother and I, d'awww.

Horse hair pottery ornament from an area near the Grand Canyon.

Hi, we're the Nars, and we like to put birds on things!

Put a bird on it!

A delicately carved snowflake from the Warther Carving Museum.

And finally, we top off the night with our favorite Christmas diddly.

 

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