The Blog Life

Yesterday as I was getting ready for bed I decided I felt like I had a blogger kind of day. 

I worked my normal 8-5 job and emailed a bloggy friend, read some blogs, and perused Pinterest during downtime. 

After work, I stopped at a hardware store and picked up some paint, a gunny sack and a few pieces of bamboo. Might sound random, but it's not. 

Stopped in at Hobby Lobby to discover that even though it's 97° outside and June, that won't stop them from putting out the fall decorations. Instagramed that obviously. 

seriously??

Texted my cousin about the cute 4th of July outfit she should totally get her daughter. 

Couldn't decide what shoes...

Stumbled upon several aisles of 80% off home decor and went a little crazy. Okay, not too crazy but crazy enough that when the husband called I said, "Sure honey, you should totally buy that new golf bag!" I also managed to find the two items that I went in for in the first place. Winning. 

Swung by the Dollar Tree to pick up a couple crafting items that were needed and found a couple additional bargains. No big deal.

Made it home in time to do a little spray painting, burlapping and other crafting (that will be seen here tomorrow) before it got dark. 

Played with the puppy and watered my rapidly growing garden.

Came inside and made up a quick Pinterest chicken recipe that was super yummy. 

Watched some reality tv, Pretty Wicked Moms. Followed it up with an episode of Call the Midwife and fell asleep. 

If that's not the blog life, I don't know what is.

Blueberry Lemon Cookies

Well as I posted on Friday, I was in the mood to bake something. So that's just what I did. I made it home in time to take a little one hour siesta, because I was draggin', and my husband wouldn't be home for awhile still. 

I woke up with an even stronger urge to bake so my husband walked in the door to Betty Crocker mixing up a batch of Blueberry Lemon Cookies! I'm so domestic. Not. 

In true wife fashion I managed to ask my husband to fix my broken garbage disposal since I was going crazy without it. Apparently I broke it by dropping a pop tab in it? No idea how that happened, but I guess it's good to know that if my hands ever getting mangled I just need to drop a pop tab down the drain to stop it. 

My cookie making was obviously interrupted approximately 5 times while I helped "fix" the disposal. Let me tell you, no matter how clean you think the inside of the disposal is, it's not. It's actually DISGUSTING. So much for that baking soda/vinegar mix from earlier in the week. 

Well, I finally managed to finish the cookies after washing my hands 27,000 times.  I thought they turned out DELISH! 

Here's the recipe that I adapted to these...

Cookies

2 cups blueberries (mine were some I got a few months ago and threw in the freezer, they freeze beautifully)

3/4 cup crisco

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 zested lemon

2 eggs

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt (all I had was sea salt, worked fine)

1/2 cup milk

Preheat your oven to (about) 375°F.

Mix Crisco and white and brown sugars together.

Add zested lemon and eggs to Crisco/sugar mixture and beat well.

Before the beating.

Slowly add in dry ingredients and milk. (I had to add in a little more flour because I thought they were way too runny. I would probably not add the milk the next time.)

Gently fold in the blueberries. 

I added LOTS of blueberries. 

Drop the cookie dough onto cookie sheets by the spoonful. (I swear by airbake pans and would never use anything else for cookies)

Ignore this awful photo. 

Bake for 10 minutes or until they look right. They will not turn brown on the top, mine didn't anyway. 

These have the glaze described below. 

Let cool.

Devour. Or...

Glaze

I added a little drizzled glaze (I'm sure that's the scientific baking term for it anyway) that was super easy.

1. Pour some powdered sugar into a bowl.
2. Add lemon juice squeezed from zested lemon.
3. Stir. 
4. Add more powdered sugar or lemon juice until it's a nice runny consistency that can easily drizzle. You can also use milk if you run out of lemon juice. 

Stuff your face because they are basically healthy with all that fruit;) They taste like summer and have more of a cakey texture than cookie. It's all good!

Realize that your husband doesn't like blueberries so he isn't a fan of cookies with blueberries. News to me unless he thought they were gross, but I assure you they are not. He is just picky. 

Next time I will probably mix half of the batter with blueberries and the other half with raspberries or strawberries so he will eat them since he loves lemon. 

Enjoy! 

Linking up with Give Me the Goods:)

7 Quick Takes (5)

1. Super excited about a co-host post (is that a thing) I'm doing with my bloggy friend Kala at My Breezy Room next week. I should probably make sure I get the project done this weekend though. Cryptic enough for ya?! Oh and you should probably check out her most recent furniture transformation. It's legit. 

2. My eyelids feel like they weigh 10,000lbs right now. I'm not sure though if it's because I'm tired, which I am, or darn allergies. I love spring/summer but I'm not loving the allergies this year. I literally wake up every morning with a tickle in my nose and sneeze. Over it already. 

3. The library has become my new best friend. Well as best of friends as inanimate things can be anyways. I don't know why I think this is so cool all the sudden. Maybe it's because I'm just used to always having to pay for things at this point in my life. I just checked out a few more audio books and I was getting ready to pull out my wallet to pay when it hit me! No ma'm, your money's no good here (unless you return the goods late that is.) Yep, I'm a nerd. 

via

4. In the past 5 days my dog has killed a total of 5(!!!) baby bunnies:( It is really sad, but at the same time, I guess I'm glad they aren't stealing food from my garden. Gunnar is just SO proud of himself but I wish he would catch the darn birds eating my strawberries instead.

5. Today I found a recipe for Cotton Candy Cake Cookies from Mama Miss and I almost peed my pants with excitement. Okay not really but you get the picture. I'm what you might call mildly obsessed with cotton candy ever since I was little. Some people have signature drinks or a carving station at their weddings, I had a cotton candy station. (And, cotton candy taffy, stick candy and rock candy). Complete with a sign I hand painted. Love the stuff! 

this may or may not be hanging in my house now...

6. Since the person who has checked out the third season of Downton Abbey from the library obviously doesn't have the dedication that I have, and therefor hasn't returned it yet, I have had to start a new series while I wait. Impatiently. I had heard that if you like Downton Abbey you will probably enjoy Call the Midwife. They were right. I do enjoy it. I'm about four episodes in and it is quite good. I still want the DA though. Hurry up you under-ambitious tv show watcher that's hogging the only copy. 

7. In approximately 2. 5 hours I get to see my husband again. That will last approximately 42 hours before I don't get to see him again. And then I will wait another 290 hours (approx) before I get to see him again. This whole work out of town biz is getting OLD. As are we...

circa 2006 at the KC Plaza

Happy friday lovely people!

Linking up with Jen at Conversion Diary.

I'm a Right Brained Emotional Disaster

I stumbled across this little link here on the MSN home page and was like "WOAH". 

THIS IS ME!

If you haven't clicked on the link yet you probably should do it so you can take the "quiz" to determine whether or not you are right brained. Obviously, I already new that I was, but it's weird to have visuals that can nail down your personality so well. 

Here are some of my favorites from the list.

Your living room serves as an artist's studio, video arcade and jam space.

Maybe not my living room but this is what I have....

Craft closet...one of two.

I'm "organizing" garage sale junk (to get rid of), files, wedding supply leftovers, etc.
Excuse me while I hang my head in shame. 

It's all because I'm right brained though I tell ya! Luckily the rest of my house doesn't look like this or my husband would probably kill me. 

Plus you know why I keep all this stuff? Because of the next point...

You can make art out of anything. Seriously, anything.

I think this all the time and it's the reason it's so hard for me to throw some things away. In the back of my head I'm always thinking I could make something so cool with this! I spend hours on Pinterest looking at cool things to make with my junk. I used to spend hours on Etsy looking, but never buying, because why would I buy when I could make it?

You try, but you haven't been to a doctor appointment on time in about eight years.

Yep, this is me too. Always late. Or exactly on time. On Sunday's my priest always jokes, "Oh, Julie's here, it must be time to start mass." Too bad it's true. I try so hard but I always underestimate how much time stuff takes even when I try to overestimate. #RightBrainedProblems. 

You're definitely not a morning person.

EVERY.DAY.OF.MY.LIFE. - I wake up before 7:00 am for two reasons only. 

1. Black Friday Shopping - The last couple years it started on Thursday night so I have gone garage sale shopping early to make up for that one morning of lost sleep.
2. Vacation - I will get up at any time day or night if it means I'm going on vacation and I won't even complain. 

Unless I'm doing one of the two things listed above, don't wake me up early and don't talk to me before at least 9 am. You can thank me later (at a decent hour).

You love making other people feel good.

Does anyone not love this?? Random acts of kindness are the best. I need to do more of them. 

And last, but not least, of my favorites from this list...

This is you watching a sad movie.

Or listening to a song, watching a baby commercial, reading a blog, etc. Literally have felt like this twice three times already today. Not joking.

So, in a nutshell....I'm late because I hate getting out of bed and can't find anything in my mess of a room. Plus I got distracted by all the pretty things and trying to make people happy. I feel bad because I'm late and I'm sure it doesn't make you happy so I turn into a blubbering emotional disaster. (I hope you read this really fast and without pauses because that's how I would say it while reaching for a tissue).

And that my dear husband is what you married. A right brained girl who wants to make you happy but spends lots of her time crying for no real reason. Xoxo!

I Think...

...my dog was trying to dislocate my shoulder on our walk yesterday.

...allergies are the most ridiculously dumb thing in the world.

...whoever has season 3 of Downton Abbey needs to return it to the library stat. 

...I'm getting a little better at eating healthy.

...there is enough hair (mine) in my vacuum to make a wig. Gross, I know. 

...something died somewhere in, or around, my basement. It smells. 

...only getting to see my husband two weekends a month is getting old.

...traveling is the best way to spend my money. 

...my "to do" list will never get done.

...laundry is the best household chore. 

...I'm really in the mood to bake something. 

...I have an obsession with any and all paper products. 

..."I should have been a teacher" every year when summer arrives.

...people that walk super slow are annoying. 

...it's time for breakfast.

XOXO

Blogger Tips and Tricks (for newbies)

I'm super excited that I'm figuring out more blog tips and tricks. Just this morning in a matter of 5 minutes I was able to add a Pinterest hover button over my photos AND add the "You might also like..." underneath my posts. Seriously, it was so easy and now I'm wondering what else is super easy but totally cool that I can add to my blog. 

Oh, and I just realized my favicon has showed up...finally! I tried to do this about 10 times the other day and gave up and now it's there?! Cool.

I realize that these are probably not very cool to a lot of people that have been blogging forever but that's okay. We all have to start somewhere right? 

In case your new to blogland (like me), the blogging side of it anyway, here's where I found how to do these little tricks.

• Pinterest hover button can be found at Blogger Sentral here.  

• The "You may also like..." underneath posts was posted by Heather here.

Feel free to share any tips you might have for this here newbie. 

And because I'm feeling extra beautiful today wearing an old hoodie and my hair piled in an ugly bun on top my head I leave you with this.

from my pinterest

Insta-Drop

I decided to do a new series I'm calling "Insta-Drop." Haven't googled the name so it's probably not original but oh well. I like it and that's what I'm calling it. Anyways...I'm just going to drop some/all of my Instagram photos from the past week or so on here. 

Feel free to follow me on Instagram and leave your "Insta-Name" below in the comments so I can follow you too:)

This was from #throwbackthursday. That's me on the left, my brother Joe in the middle and my youngest brother Mike on the right. As you can see my mom was fond of overalls. Lucky for me, I love them too. Probably a good thing because 9 out of 10 photos of myself as a child involve a pair of overalls. And don't be too jealous of Mike's hair, it didn't stay like that when he grew up, unfortunately. 

The sky near my house last week as the sun was setting. There were too many trees blocking my view so I jumped in my car and drove half a mile down the road so I could snap this. Country livin' at it's best folks. 

Dinner several days. Brown rice, garlic baked chicken and
steamed broccoli that I threw in a pan to sauté with diced red peppers. Yum. 

My nephew Ryder. The ladies better watch out for his big brown eyes.  Love this kid!

My cute husband catching while his little brother practices his pitching skills. Seth was a pitcher back in his college days and still loves the game. Never-mind his work clothes, no time to change before the game.

The necklace I used to wear in high school. Seth and I started dating in high school and he was #5 on the baseball team. Apparently I used to be a jersey chaser. And cool.

Leave your "Insta-Names" below so I can check out your photos!