Happy New Years

Happy New Years!

 

Good Evening, I hope everyone has a safe and happy new year.  I am preparing for my night out with Anthony, and hope you all have great plans as well. We are going out for dinner and a movie tonight. I wish we had tv so we could watch the ball drop at midnight - I will have to find a live stream of it. Have a good night, and I will see you all in the new year :)

 

D

Moms Famous Turkey Soup

Good Evening!

 

All day I have been simmering some soup in my new crock pot that I received for Christmas. There is nothing better than soup when you are feeling sick. I decided to make my moms famous turkey soup. She usually makes it around the holidays but my brother claimed the batch so I need to make some for myself. My mom gave me half her turkey carcass so I could start.

 

Ingredients:

-Turkey carcass

-Carrots

-Celery

-Onions

-Salt & pepper

- Knorr home style stock poultry flavor

-Seasonings of choice

-Filler of choice (pasta, rice, beans, etc.)

 

 First step is to chop all your veggies. There isn't a set amount of how much to use, you can just go by your own tastes. I have a smaller crock pot so I need to use small amounts. I went with 1/2 onion, 1 celery stock, and about 6 baby carrots. Next time I will be using less onions and I found there were too many. Feel free to add more or less to your liking.

 This is a picture of my purple crock pot. Thanks Mom&Dad. For filler I decided on some baby alphabets. I wanted something small and the store didn't have any Fellini so this was the next smallest item on the shelf. I have one container of poultry flavoured stock, and set aside salt & pepper plus some vegetable seasoning for flavor. You may use whatever you wish. TIP: do not add too many spices to the whole pot, you can add them to each individual bowl to each persons preference

 The half carcass my mom gave me was still too large for I needed to break it in half again (yay for second batches). Put the carcass in the pot and add enough water to cover it. Add your veggies and all seasonings plus stock. Cook on high all day - I cooked mine for about 7 hours.

 MMM Its cooking and it smells amazing - plus its making my apartment smell great as well! It looks like its headed in the right direction.

 Once you think it has cooked long enough - veggies are soft, meat is falling off the bone - it is time de-bone everything. This is probably the hardest part of the whole thing but its actually not terrible. I needed to be extra careful because Anthony is super picky about bones! Once you are confident all bones are gone you can add your filler. I wasn't sure what amount to use again, so I just went with 3/4 cup. It was pretty dead on. Anthony recommended I add more noodles next time because he likes a noodley soup.  Again it is done to your own taste.

After about 30 minutes of cooking with the filler it is done! It turned out great! YUMMY It looks just as I remembered it , and I think my mom and dad would be proud to eat it. I wish I could send a bowl in the mail for the ultimate approval. Anthony approves - he is my toughest critic.

 

D

Mini Closet Makeover

Hello

 

I am going to apologise in advance for any spelling or grammar errors, or if I don't make any sense. I woke up this morning with the start of something terrible. My throat is sore, my nose is stuffed and my sinus' are killing me, including my head. After this, I am taking some medication and taking a nap.

 

The other day when me and Anthony were trying to clean up and organise all our Christmas gifts we realised that we just don't have enough room!  We both went through our dressers and the closet to get rid of some items that we haven't worn in a long time. We successfully created a decent sized pile. I love doing that, it clears out my closet of clutter, leaves me room for more, and donates some clothing. I took a long look at my walk in closet and decided it was a complete mess. So we went out for some boxing day sale opportunities. I picked up a shoe organiser, and we both got new dressers.

This is my shoe/boot collection all jumbled at the bottom of the closet.

 The top shelf of the closet rack is over stuffed and not organised at all. Also, you can see that there is a lot of items hanging there its overstuffed as well.

 This is the new shoe rack I got to help keep things off the floor and more organised!

And a final picture showing the cleared and organised shelf top. Also decreased the number of items hanging in the closet greatly by buying a second small dresser!  Now to see how long this lasts.

D

Jewelry/Makeup Dress Code

Hello Again

 

Yup, two posts in the same night. I am on a roll. I guess you can say I am feeling inspired. My inspiration: All my new Christmas gifts. This post is about my new jewelry and makeup.

 

 First, I must say rose gold jewelry is my new obsession thanks to my mother! First item she got me was this beautiful rose gold necklace with diamond heart, a bow, and even a "D". 

 I got these earrings from Anthony's grandmother. They are awesome. I had several pairs similar to this sitting on my online wish lists waiting for me to buy them, but now I don't need too.

 Second rose gold item from my mom was this gorgeous watch. The picture I took doesn't really do it justice. It looks more plain gold here. If real life it is much more rose and much more sparkly. This watch is amazing, and I've gotten so many compliments so far.  This is prob one of my best items.

 Next item on the list is a gold collar necklace. I have seen this popping up all over the place and now I have one too! I have never worn one before so will have to try to style it right. I think the key is to wear it with a plain top so it doesn't take away from the detail or look too overdone.

 Ah! I love these. A set of three leather wrap bracelets from my mother. Gosh, she knows me well. I love this style, and can't wait to wear them with my black studded leather wrap watch.

 Moving onto makeup. First item is of course a Hello Kitty palette from Sephora that my brothers GF Kayla got me. This is to die for! The colors inside and perfect and it even comes with a miniature compact and a liquid eye liner that works quite well.

 This is a jumble of all the nail products I got from many people combined. So many options to choose from, and now my collection is growing. Hopefully they can go to good use on some awesome nail art.

 These are two items from Sephora as well. One from my mom, one from Kayla. The first is a makeup setting spray. I haven't used it before but have heard a lot about it and wanted to try it out. Basically you just apply your makeup and spray this and it helps your makeup last twice as long. The second item is a lip gloss that smells amazing. Not sure what the scent is but I can't stop smelling it! That will probably all be used up very quickly. Not to mention its cute little bottle case.

 

Again, these are not all my items, just a selection of my favourites!

 

D

Christmas Dress Code

Good Evening !

Today I will go through some of the clothing items I received for Christmas. Not all the pieces I got from Christmas will be in here just a handful that I am really excited to try out, but everything I received was amazing.

 

 These are a pair of tights my mother got for me, with cute little bows. I put my arm through them to try and show you the pattern. I think they are just adorable!

 I received two pairs of winter patterned leggings this Christmas - one from mother, one from friend. I love both of them! I can't wait to try these out as I had been looking a good pair for months.

 I got this dress from Anthony's mother. She has good taste! It's actually from forever21! You can chose to remove the neck strap if you wish and go strapless but I prefer the security. I really like this dress, I will maybe wear it on New Years Eve if we do anything. (stupid work!)

 This top is also from Anthony's mom. It is from Abercrombie and it too cute! This style was huge this past summer and I hope it stays strong into next because I will be rocking this alot once the weather changes. I love that it can be dressed up to look nautical, or dressed up just to be cutesy.

 This pink dress is another from Anthony's mom, also from Abercrombie. Another strapless item, but I am really enjoying the strapless look right now - probably because its winter and not really weather appropriate! This also has pockets, just perfect. (Ignore the wrinkles, will need to be ironed.)

 This mint coloured dress is from my friend Amy. And it is amazing! I love the colour, and the contrasting brown belt. Not to mention the cut of the dress is amazing and I don't have anything like it. AND its lace! Triple threat. I was bummed out summer is so far away, but mom recommended wearing it at Easter, and I think she was into something!

I put this outfit together for Christmas dinner with Anthony's Family. In the image you can't really see the dress very well, but it is a black "skater" dress. Meaning it has the skirt of a figure skater with a high neckline. This was a gift from Anthony's grandmother.  I love the blue belt, it stands out so bold. I magically found a bangle in the same colour on my jewelry tree. I am wearing a new pair of tights that I bought from GoJane that are made to look like a ribbon is tied around my leg...closer to the top of my thigh is a bow. They are super adorable. I just paired it with some plain black pumps.

 

I can't wait to start putting some of these & other items to use! A post about jewelry and make up to follow.

 

D

 



Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season - I know I sure am! I was lucky enough to get two Christmas celebrations this year, one with my family, and one with Anthony's. More on all this later. In the meantime, have a safe and happy holiday !

D

Festive Cooking

 Hello All!

Tonight my family is celebrating Christmas Eve as we sadly cannot be together for ACTUAL Christmas. I decided to try to contribute to the nights dinner & dessert. I got all my ideas from Pinterest - such an amazing website. So, I made three items. Amaretto soaked chocolate covered cherries, chocolate covered strawberries, and a Christmas tree platter.  

Amaretto-Soaked Chocolate Covered Cherries 

Step One: Clean cherries and cut small slit into bottom of each cherry. Leave stems on!

Step Two: Soak all cherries in container of Amaretto, make sure all cherries are submerged. I used roughly 2/3 of the bottle, as you can see. Make sure the container you choose can be sealed tightly. Shake container contents and then refrigerate for 24-48 hours.  

Step Three: You will need to start melting the white chocolate. This is the part that I messed up the first time. If you heat it too fast, it wont melt - I learnt that the hard way! I ended up just microwaving on low heat for 20 seconds intervals at a time then stirring in between.

Step Four: Remove cherries from liquid and dry as best you can. If you wish you can save the cherry/amaretto liquid mixture to use as a flavorful drink mixture.

Step Five: Simply hold cheery by the stem and dunk into melting chocolate coating entire bottom half of the cherry, leaving a bit of cherry exposed at the tip. Place on parchment paper and chill for at least an hour before serving.

These were a great hit! Make sure you warn your guests that there is still a pit inside.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Christmas Lights

 Step One: Melt the milk chocolate. I used a double boiler method. It worked well for this recipe.

Step Two: Cut marsh mellows into four pieces (or buy smaller marsh mellows). These are the light bulb outlets. Use small drop of warm chocolate to help marsh mellow stick to the top of the strawberry. Once all strawberries have tops, set in fridge for 5 mins to quicken drying process.

Step Three: Dunk strawberries into chocolate until completely covered.

Step Four: Use any color of sugar sprinkles you like to make the body of the bulb. Not sure what happened to mine, but the color didn't come through very well!

Step Five: Use a white icing to make the groove lines in the bulb outlets.

Optional: You can place on a plate and draw a fake electrical line going from each light to help with the Christmas light illusion. I wish I did that!

 This is the finished product. You can sort of tell they are Christmas lights. They were delicious though, I strongly recommend making some!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cheese Christmas Tree

This recipe was the easiest. No real skill or cooking required. I just chose out three different cheeses that I thought would be tasty and cut them into cubes. I used a Herb & Garlic Cheese Ball - which was so creamy and smooth - for the top part. The middle was double smoked Gouda, and the bottom was Jalapeno Havarti. I used baby tomatoes for "tree" trimmings. The image I saw online used some rosemary as well for color but I strongly dislike rosemary so I left it out. Cheese is always a hit at buffets!

Enjoy your Christmas Eve everyone!

D

Elf Cocktails

Good Evening - 4 days left until Christmas !

This evening my mom prepared us a christmas themed drink called Elf Cocktails. I found themto be very strong, but then agian I am not a cocktail drinker. I prefer to drink wine now.  My mom really enjoyed them though :) Give it a try this holiday season.

Ingredients:

1 ounce melon liqueur

2 ounces citris vodka

1 ounce white cranberry juice

Cherries

D



Dress Code Dec 2012

Good Morning, only 6 days until Christmas!

 

In this entry I am going to go over all my new fashion pieces that I've acquired this month.  I will probably do this more often, whenever I get new items so that it isn't so jam packed.

 The first item is a pair of "curvy fit" skinny jeans. Made for people like me who are curvy! These are actually awesome. There is extra material in all the right places and you can't tell. The back on these jeans sit a bit higher than average low rise for us women with a plump behind. I can actually move around in them without feeling uncomfortable or losing my pants all together - cuz we all know how low rise jeans are these days. They were only $12.80 from Forever21.  I hope they release more color options soon!

 

 I have been looking for a Christmas pattern sweater all month but just can't seem to find one that doesn't look cheap or like its a gag sweater. Instead I settled on this beauty. The fair isle pattern still looks somewhat festive with the purple flower type design that looks like a cross between a snowflake and a poinsettia. The color scheme isn't Christmasy but it is definitely winter themed so it works fine for me. I can't decide if I like it better styled closed or opened. It even has pockets on the front, and very cute over sized wooden buttons. This was a bit more pricey at $41.80 from Forever21.

 Shoe time! I love heels. I have a large collection and rarely find myself able to wear them but at least I have them when I need them. I had my eye on these strappy heels for a long time actually. I was surprised that they still had my size in stock during the giant shoe sale.  Sorry the image is so distant, I will take better images next time I do this. These heels have two buckles on the medial side that keep the strappy crosses together and of course allows you to actually get your foot in. I plan to wear these this weekend when I go out for drinks with the girls back home. I got these on sale (reg.28.20) for $20.45 from GoJane.

 Seeing these heels online I couldn't say no. I have no clue where I will get the chance to wear these without looking too over done, but I have a feeling they shout "NEW YEARS" to me. Very gorgeous gold glitter heels that have an ankle strap that is covered by my pants. Usually I don't wear heels with ankle straps because they make my calves look large - but I make exceptions. I also got these on sale (reg.31) for $25.45 from GoJane.

I bought this knowing that it would be utilised sometime over the Holidays. Sequins seem to the hottest thing right now. I am wearing this out for drinks with the girls as well. Its a classy sequin shift dress that hits mid thigh with a zippered back. I can't wait to wear it. I got it for $35.80 from Forever21.

 When I saw this dress,  I knew I needed it. Not sure where I will wear this yet but it will be put to good use. Lace peplum top and black cotton bottom. Its so comfortable, and I just love the triangle cut out in the back! I need to find somewhere to wear this soon! Do you think its too fancy to wear to a family Christmas dinner? I got it for $29.80 from Forever21.

The last item on my list are these boots that just came in the mail. I have been needing a pair of flat foot boots for the winter and I got these ones on sale. I love the three buckles and the slouchy appearance of the body. I got these as I said on sale(reg 32.10) for $24.95  from GoJane. My mother also got a pair of boots from that sale! Gotta love sales :)

Until next time I shop,

D

Snowflake Nails!

Hello All,

Just a short post to show you a new nail design. As mentioned before I am usually very bad at painting my nails because I don't have a steady hand. This pattern looks complicated but I must say it was the easiest I have done yet!

Here is how I did it:

1. Paint your nails a dark blue colour - I did two coats of Sally Hansen Salon Manicure in "Thinking of Blue"

2. For the snow bank effect I used a makeup sponge dipped in some white nail polish - Sally Hansen "Whirlwind White".  Just start at the top of the nail and dab with the sponge, then slowly move up a bit but don't dab as much so it looks like its fading.

3. I used a Sally Hansen nail art pen in white for the polka dot snowflakes, and the hand drawn flake. You need a steady for that part!

4. I then used a sparkle top coat for the shimmery snow effect - Essence "Space Queen".

5. Covered it all in a clear coat plus because nail pen chips off very easily.

 

And that is all. Give it a try :)

D

Christmas Nails

11 Days Until Christmas !

 

Recently, I have been trying my hand at Christmas nails. I am not very talented in painting my nails as it is and its usually pretty sloppy. Especially when it comes to doing my left hand since I am useless with my right hand. However, in the spirit of Christmas and thanks to pinterest I have been inspired to try Christmas patterns on my nails. I have two this past week so far. My nail color never lasts fully more than two days when I work because I am ALWAYS washing my hands and dealing with chemicals that just live to take off nail polish. The first design I did was just gold, green and red stripes! It was for the most part pretty basic looking, but took forever! I need a much steadier hand. In the end it turned out ok - or it must have - because I got some compliments from co-workers and a nurse.

 The second one I just completed about 20 minutes ago. It is a Christmas Light pattern. I spent about 30 minutes trying to find objects around my house that could make small little light size dots on my nails without looking ridiculous with no prevail. So I have to use a make up sponge and dont very slowly. Some of the light bulbs turned out larger than others - this is a pattern I will need to practise more! But I do really like it.

The next ones I am thinking about is blue and white snowflake pattern, and/or a red and white Santa design. If you have any ideas or suggestions, let me know :)

D

Baking Inspiration

With only 12 days left to real Christmas, and only 9 days left until my Christmas I need to get the ball rolling. This year I am contributing to my mom's Christmas baking. I am going to choose 2-3 desserts and bake them, and bring them home for the holidays. I've never really make dessert food before, except cookies and cakes that come premixed so this will be a challenge for me for sure. I haven't really decided which items I will make but have a few ideas. I will not reveal which ones, because I want it to be a surprise for my family. I just hope they turn out delicious.

 

 

This is a collage of some baking ideas I've gathered from my pinterest account. I especially love the fancy sugar cookies. I have no idea where to get icing that shimmery - I am having a hard enough time finding sugar sprinkles.  

 

I am all completed my Christmas shopping, just waiting on a few more items to arrive in the mail. I managed to not put myself into debt. I can't help but spend too much on Christmas. I even got the cats a little something! I am super excited to go home for the holidays if only got a couple of days.

D

Hello December

 

I am a little late at welcoming December on the blog, but not late in reality.  I love December. Everyone usually hates winter but December is a good month. Its the start of the winter so its not too cold yet. And the new fallen snow is still in its pretty state and not brown with mud. Also, Christmas, and shortly after New Years -Two of the best holidays. And an extra for me, snowboarding!

 

I haven't done much lately, except work, so I created a collage of Christmas decor inspiration!

So many good DIY ideas here. I have a lot of cork crafts above because I have a bunch of them stuck around from a project. I went to the dollar store today to get some supplies to maybe make some of these items, and couldn't find enough to complete even one! I didn't want to spend too much so just wanted to get supplies from dollar store. But since its Christmas, the craft isle has been taken over by all Christmas items. I will have to remember these for next year and stock up early.

D

Final Decorations

Today I put up some Christmas lights on my balcony. Sadly, our balcony's have no exterior electrical plug so I have to run one through the door, and when I want my lights on, I need to be cold form the air getting in the cracked door.

 

I had a hard time getting a good photo of these. Its always hard to capture lights first. And secondly, my camera battery was exhausted so every time I went to snap the picture the camera turned off. Its also raining, and I had no where to steady my hand. Since its a night photo you need absolute stillness to get the perfect shot. However, These two shall do okay.

 Our apartment is the one in the middle that is glowing pink/red. At least we cause an effect. The person the right of the building really has a nice set up.

This is a zoomed in photo of our apartment! You can see the pink cat sitting on the railing, and the red & white lights lining the beam. Nothing for up top though, we have no lights left.

 

D