Home Renovation: Master Bedroom Progress

Here is yet another post documenting the progress of our new home. 

When we first looked at the house we are currently in (when the prior owners were still living there), the master bedroom was empty.  However it was evident we would need to immediately replace the floor as the carpet was soiled from their pets and smelled.  We also would need to paint.  The prior owners had a relatively neutral primary paint color, but the accent wall was burgundy.  Our bedding was tropical - lime greens and teals, so the burgundy would not blend. 

Here is what the house looked like when we first looked at the house (prior owners still living there):

(you can kinda sorta see the blue nasty carpet here)

(the burgundy wall - all of those white spots were random holes we had to fill in???)

Here is after the new flooring was put in and we had painted the walls - we also did not have furniture at this point and were sleeping on a trundle bed, jealous? LOL.

(temporary bedding only, I realize it doesn't match)

(my vision was that the accent wall would be a different shade of green, which it is, but I don't love it)

Here is what it currently looks like (yay furniture):

We still have a ways to go with more decor needed, a television, blinds/shutters, etc.  I will keep you posted as we continue to work on our home.

Friday Five - Paralegal Pet Peeves

I recently have added a few blogs written by paralegals all over the nation to my ever-growing list of blogs that I follow.  It made me realize that I have yet to reveal that I am a paralegal to my mass of followers (insert snort here). 

Well, I am a paralegal in a small family law office in Orange County.  Oh, and we represent mostly fathers.  The office in which I work is made up of 1 senior attorney, an associate attorney (who is just a few years older than myself), myself (the only paralegal), and a secretary.  Well my boss's daughter also works a few days a week doing mostly billing and collections.  We carry a caseload of approximately 70-100 cases on any given day. 

As a paralegal I cannot give legal advice, but I work with the client's to prepare their forms, declarations and prepare them for any hearings or Trial.  I also have get to sort through financial records and assist in Trial preparation by completing discovery and determining all assets and debts which will become issues at the time of Trial. 

I do enjoy my job overall as it is an adventure each day.  No two days are alike and I get to remember that this is not my drama, but theirs.  It is not my life, but theirs.  There are, however, some aspects of my job that I don't like and some things I just need to get off my chest.  Here we go.

1) I am not your therapist.  I don't know how else to say this. I don't mean for this to sound cruel.  I do empathize with you and the problems you are having, but I am not paid to listen to your problems.  I have work to be doing.  In fact, some of the work is on your case and I cannot do it while I am holding your hand while you have a meltdown.  That is what friends, or therapists, are for!

2) It is not my fault.  Again, I empathize with the problems you are having, but I did not sleep with the person and father or mother a child, you did.  Chances are if she is bat shit crazy now, she was probably bat shit crazy then, yet you decided to move forward with your relationship with said person.  Unfortunately you must live with the decision to do so.  I am here to assist in working out an agreement between you and that person, but it is not my fault you are having to do so, so don't take it out on me!

3) I don't care why you split up unless it will have a direct impact on your case.  Things that don't matter - who cheated on who and why.  Things that do matter - she got arrested for child abuse, she's had 3 DUI's and lost her license and therefore cannot drive the minor children, etc.  Stop telling me all about your sex life, or lack thereof, as it doesn't matter and frankly I don't care.  I do not care if she may or may not be a lesbian now.  It's not even that I wouldn't love to hear this info, because to be honest these stories are the best, it's that the Judge doesn't care and will not read it.  Therefore, we will not be including it so save your breath (and your money). 

4) I cannot predict the future.  My biggest pet peeve is when people call me and ask, "What do you think is going to happen tomorrow at Court?"  More often than not I have left my glass ball at home and cannot answer this.  I may try to distract you by pointing out the positive aspects of your case and what we hope the Judge will do, but I cannot tell you what the Judge will do because guess what..... I'm not the Judge!

5) Don't shoot the messenger.  Literally don't shoot me, but also, don't get upset with me when I am merely calling to relay information to you regarding your case (please refer back to #2).  When I call you to tell you that after taking the matter under submission the Judge has determined you have an anger management problem and orders you to attend a 52 week anger management program, don't scream at me that you don't have an anger management problem.  a) Because it is less convincing when you yell it.  b) Because it was not my decision and clearly the Judge may have seen something...... like maybe a glimmer of your current behavior during this lovely phone call.  Instead let's work on a plan to handle whatever the situation is in an efficient manner so as to save you time and money. 

Don't get me wrong, I do like my job.  I care immensely about all of my cases and put everything I have into them.  I care about the outcome of each case and am excited when the outcome is favorable for you and upset when it is not.  But please remember the above tips, be respectful of me and my time.

** Yes, all of the aforementioned have happened.

Fanciful Friday

Today's edition of Fanciful Friday shall be on my top five (5) accessories I just "need" to have.  By need I mean want really badly! :) 

1) Tasha 'Rocken' Headband
Last week I saw a friend of mine wearing this adorable headband.  It's called the Tasha 'Rocken' Headband and comes in a variety of colors. I found it here on Nordstrom's website.  I think black or taupe would blend best with my wardrobe. PURCHASED * by my lovely friend Angela as a fabulous gift for me (black only, still want taupe)

2) Coach Ponytail Scarf
My dear friend Caitlin and I both love Coach bags.  She personalized hers with one of Coach's colorful ponytail scarves.  I would love one for my purses now as I just love this idea.  I found this gorgeous turquoise one, but really there are many that I like from Coach's main website.  The below photo is just an example of what I'm talking about.

and here you can see a sample of how it can personalize your purse:

3) Black Diamond Earrings
I love black diamonds.  When Tim and I were looking at wedding rings I even looked at some bridal sets that included black diamonds, but decided to go with the more traditional look.  Macy's currently has these GORGEOUS earrings available for a hefty price.  A girl can dream though can't she?

4) Chaco Sandals
Chaco is my favorite brand sandals ever.  They are the most comfortable shoes I have ever owned.  Furthermore, I've had the same pair of standard black flip flops for a couple of years now and they are still in pretty good condition.  They're come out, since I bought my pair a few years ago, with a few new styles of their fabulous sandals.  I think the Chaco Aurora pictured below is my favorite.  I'm a size 8.5 if you're interested ;)

5) Coach Agenda
I am all about agendas.  I know a lot of people use their smart phones as their calendar these days, but I'm old school and like to actually have a physical calendar (weekly calendar specifically) in my purse at all times.  I love all of Coach's agendas.  Here is just one of their many options.  I think I would prefer the 4"x7" version.

Thanks for reading! What are your 5 must have accessories of the moment? Share by posting a comment!

Thankful Thursday

This is really a follow up or update to last week's Thankful Thursday post found here. 

Unfortunately with the burglary of our home we were unable to visit our new baby cousin last week, so we had a rain check until this past Monday.

Tim and I took breakfast down, as we both had the day off, and got to see my cousin and her husband and their two beautiful sons.  Here is the newest addition to their family.  Meet Jack (posing ever so angelically with my husband and I):

Again, we are so thankful that he is healthy and that his mama is doing well.  Big brother also appears to be doing well and I just know he will make an excellent big brother. 

Operation Home Security

In light of the recent burglary at my residence, Timmy and I have decided to revamp our security at home.

Alarm - Check.  This was already in place and the key reason why we were fortunate enough not to be cleaned out.  We have asked for additional stickers to put on each and every window.  Although we had a sign up in the front yard, that did not stop the burglars from selecting our home, perhaps if they are reminded by a sticker at all possible entrances they will think twice before trying again.

Siren - our neighbors indicated they heard nothing.  We installed this siren which is so completely ear piercing Hellen Keller might be able to hear it.  Okay that was a politically incorrect joke, but you get my point.  This is being installed.

Window locks - these cheap but handy little buggers from Home Depot that basically don't allow you to slide open the window, instead they would have to break the window which could draw more attention. These have been purchased and implemented.

Blinds/shutters - yep, we didn't have them in all the windows yet.  We've been talking about it, but had been putting it off as we did other home repairs and purchases that we wanted more.  Well, these are needed, so we met with a blinds company over the weekend and we are now proud owners of new blinds/shutters.  I will be posting photos once they are installed - some this weekend and the shutters not for a few more weeks.

Curtains - I need to measure our slider and get the dimensions so that I can have curtains made.  This is my goal in the next few weeks.  Will post pictures once they are up. 

We are going to add a few more locks and precautions to our garage doors as well.

We also went around and exchanged numbers with a few more of our neighbors.  Unfortunately where we live (not sure if it's only like this in SoCal), neighbors don't necessarily get to know each other.  In fact, we hardly see most of our neighbors and only about 3 have introduced themselves to us since we moved in over 6 months ago. 

What do you do to make sure your home is secure? Share your ideas here! 

Wednesday's What's Up With That!?

Remember growing up as a child and watching football with your Dad? My favorite part was always the celebration dances.  I lived for them.  I even selected my favorite football players based on their celebration dances when I was a child.  (Note - in case you were curious my favorite player growing up was the 49ers Merton Hanks - safety - who had the coolest interception dance ever!  He was later traded to the Seahawks and I lost all interest, lol).   

Now, however, a 15 yard penalty on the ensuing kickoff will be imposed for "excessive celebrations".  What's up with that!? This is nothing new, as this was put into effect in late 2009, but I'm still upset.  What is "excessive"?  That seems a little subjective don't you think? Furthermore, what is the purpose of taking this relatively harmless yet widely entertaining action out of football games? Who was it harming? Now what will a little girl look forward to while watching football with her Daddy?

A friend of mine recently brought up a fabulous idea, and I'm going to throw it out there in my blog today.  What if after a play or touchdown you had a specified amount of time to celebrate - let's say 15 seconds.  Anything over the 15 seconds would be subject to the aforementioned penalty.  At the end of the year the NFL players and/or fans would vote on their favorite dances of the season and the winner would be announced as part of the pre-superbowl or pro-bowl festivites. 

Now wouldn't that be more fun?!

Tutorial Tuesdays

I am wild about mini albums.  I love to scrapbook but often struggle to come up with creative layouts, etc.  I have gotten into mini albums, they're awesome because they set the theme for you and are on a much smaller scale.  They also make FABULOUS gifts. 

I thought today's tutorials could be all about my favorite mini album styles.  There are infinite ideas out there, but here are some of my faves.

An inexpensive and simple mini album - toilet paper roll mini album.

A gorgeous tri fold mini album (which can also be an elaborate card) - note it's a video tutorial.  To see a sample of the finished product go here.

Exploding Box mini album tutorial - I just adore this and think it would be such a fun gift!

This is an adorable mini album using coaster.
I have never tried this particular style of a coaster album, but I did make a simple coaster album for Timmy which you can take a look at here (I included a tutorial of how to make my own coaster album in that link).  I didn't add any photos to mine, but of course you can :)

Do you have a specific style of mini albums that you just love making? Share a link to it in the comments below!

Home Renovation: Kitchen progress

So when Tim and I first had a tour of our current house, when the prior owners were still living in it (with all of their ish), it looked like this (yikes):

Ya, I dunno.  It was a really weird set-up.

After the previous owners moved out and we were able to get rid of all of their stuff, we were ready to paint.  I know some people have red, we just don't love red, not our color, not our style, and didn't really go with the rest of the house or the kitchen IMHO (in my humble opinion).

Here is Tim taping off the kitchen getting ready to paint.

We ended up just painting it to match the rest of the walls - a pretty neutral color.  Here was an update after painting - oh that's me in the kitchen.  Be sure to catch this rare glimpse (rare being me in the kitchen)! haha.

I know you're seeing the 2 microwaves and thinking, "What the heck? you guys must really like microwavable dinners".  No.  The prior owners failed to mention the microwave was broken.  Luckily Tim had a countertop one that we could use in the interim. 

Since that time we have gotten a new microwave (on a killer black Friday deal btw).  I also got gorgeous barstools from Santa featured in this photo as well.  Here is how the kitchen appears now:

We still obviously have a lot of work to do.  I would still like to get a new fridge (stainless) to match the stove and microwave (ours is temperamental and decides to leak randomly).  The dishwasher is black, but whatever.  I would like to paint the cabinets - probably dark.  I would eventually also like to get granite counters.  And SOMEDAY I would like to change the whole layout of the kitchen as the pantry being right behind the garage door is very inconvenient.  It will be baby steps though.  First step will be the fridge. 

Just wanted to provide some photos of the progress we have made in our new house (which we moved into in July).  Thanks for looking.  I will be posting pics on various aspects of our house as we work on them.  I know it'll never be done, and it's definitely a SLOW process!

Fanciful Friday

I am in love with the brand Nambe.  Nambe is a brand (sold at Macy's and I'm sure other retailers) that feature elegant home products such as barware, dinnerware, frames, etc.  You can check out their website here. 

I was first turned on to Nambe by pure chance.  My husband and I used to go garage saling with my father every Saturday.  We really initially did it just to spend time with him, but as time progressed we got really into finding great deals.  Most of my holiday decor for all of the various holidays is made up of items bought at garage/yard sales. 

Anyways, one day we went to a garage sale and they had 3 gorgeous sets of salt and pepper shakers, all in their boxes.  The boxes were a little beat up, but the product was gorgeous and looked new.  I had never heard of the brand, Nambe, but being recently engaged I thought these would be gorgeous on our future dining table.  So we bought one set.... for fifty cents.

After garage saling each weekend Tim and I would proudly lay all of our items out in my parents living room to show off our finds.  My mother picked up the salt and pepper shakers and said "Nambe!?".  I shrugged and asked if she had heard of it.  She nodded and said it was a very expensive and high end brand. 

I immediately googled the item and found it online (pictured below).  I also discovered that this salt and pepper shaker set that I had fallen in love with retailed for $80.00.  WHY had I not purchased all 3 sets!? These would have made lovely gifts.  Ahhh! Hindsight is 20/20 eh?

my salt and pepper shakers (Kissing Salt and Pepper) OWN

Shortly thereafter Tim and I set up our wedding registry at a few stores including Macy's.  I fell in love with just about every Nambe product, BUT it was expensive and not an item I NEEDED as much as I WANTED them.  So we only put one or two Nambe items on our registry. 

We did receive a set of gorgeous coasters as a Christmas gift this year, pictured below.

coasters OWN

I still have a wishlist of Nambe products, but I will share with you just a few of my favorites.

 wine coaster

 salad servers

 nativity scene (this is just part of it) (I did receive the Angel from my husband for my bday!)

condiment bowls

Aren't their products just gorgeous?! Well thank you for reading.  Do you own any Nambe products or have any on your wish list? Leave me a comment and share! 

Thankful Thursday - part 2

Our house was burglarized this afternoon.  I know you're thinking, that's a really weird thing to be thankful about..... well sorta. 

I'm thankful we had an alarm system which scared the suspects away - they were in the house less than a minute.

I'm thankful they got away with very little because of their minimal time in the house.

I'm thankful no one was home and Tim and I are unharmed.

I'm thankful we were able to find a 24 hour glass door repair company to come out and replace our glass bedroom slider that same night.

Finally, I'm thankful the police responded so quickly and I hope they take this seriously. 

I live in a fairly middle class neighborhood, and 2 weeks ago exactly the house 2 doors down was hit.  It appears we have a serial burglar, and I hope the police continue to take this seriously and are able to find the suspects.  Our next door neighbor got home approximately 15 minutes prior to the burglary and noticed a car parked in front of our house and was able to give a description to the police.  The car had some identifying features (she didn't get a license), so I am hopeful. 

We are safe, the items taken, although disappointing, are replaceable.  What they really took though is my sense of security.  My stomach is in knots.  I hope this will be a learning experience for Tim and I.  I hope this will never happen again.  Oh and I hope we win the lotto so we can pay off our credit card that we had to put the new slider on :(

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful and blessed to have a new addition to our family.  My cousin Jill gave birth to her second son on Monday, Valentine's Day. 

We are blessed that it was a smooth delivery and baby Jack is already home, happy, and healthy.

Tim and I will be taking dinner over to the proud parents tonight, which also happens to be Jill's birthday.  I can't wait to meet baby Jack!

I now have 4 beautiful little cousins (whom I call my niece and nephews as I have no siblings) on my side.  Hooray!!

Papercrafting Party?

I'm considering hosting a little scrapbook/papercrafting party at my house in the next month or so.  My idea is to have 2 or 3 projects that everyone would get to make and take home (and the idea being that you would learn  how to do it and could replicate it at your own home to make more later). 

There would probably be a fee for the supplies but probably under $20 per person.

Is this anything anyone would be interested in?

I really need to get back into crafting, I miss it so much.  First I need to set up the craft room and unpack all of my scrapbook gear I suppose. LOL. I had so much fun making my friend Jenny's baby shower invitations, it really made me remember how much I enjoy crafting. 

Tutorial Tuesdays

Baby time! Okay, not for me (yet), but I have 2 dear friends that are pregnant.  The first baby shower is less than a month away (the one for whom I made the baby shower cards - you can see them in my prior blog post here).  I am considering (don't hold me to it yet) doing a diaper cake or wreath or something similar, so I've been surfing around the Internet for ideas and thought I would put up a list of some awesome tutorials I came across for your viewing pleasure.

3 tiered easy-to-follow diaper cake tutorial - here.

Diaper wreath - here.

Baby bunny basket - here.

For you paper crafters out there you can definitely incorporate paper crafting into this idea as shown - here.

Champagne bottle center diaper cake - here. I love this idea - the parents deserve a little something after the baby is born after all right?

And finally some cute ideas on themed diaper cakes - here.

Have any of you ever made a diaper cake? What did you do to make it extra special? Leave me a comment and tell me about it or link me to your photo, I'd love to take a look!

As always, thanks for reading :)

Restaurant Review - Scott's Restaurant & Bar (and Valentine's Day)

Add caption

(please note the photo is one I found online as I totally forgot to take any photos of the restaurant or food - oops!)

Scott's Restaurant & Bar

3300 Bristol Street, Costa Mesa, CA 92626 (714) 979-2400 ‎ scottsrestaurantandbar.com

Tim and I enjoyed a very gourmet and luxurious Valentine's Day dinner at Scott's Restaurant & Bar located in Costa Mesa, CA (it's on Bristol directly across the street from South Coast Plaza mall).  It was absolutely perfect. 

From the moment you arrive, the tone is luxury.  Valet only parking, a gorgeous fountain out front (which we did manage to take a pic in front of and I will add hopefully tonight when I upload to the computer).  When you walk in it's a very modern elegant feel.  The layout reminds me of the Mission Restaurant at the Mission Inn in Riverside, but this is much more modern.  We sat at a cozy 2 top table in the back and were presented with the Valentine's Day special menu in which we were able to select one appetizer, one main dish and one dessert each for $65.00 pp (not including alcohol, tax or tip).  Yes, this is a little pricey, but well worth it.

We ordered a nice bottle of champagne.  Wow.  I had never had such a quality bottle of champagne.  It was the Piper-Heidsieck Brut.  I don't know that I can ever go back to my good friend Korbel now (haha, seriously). 

The service was superb.  I was torn between several of the menu items so I asked for the waitress's thoughts and she was spot on. 

For our appetizers I had the caramelized black pepper scallops, sumonomo salad and Tim had the stuffed king crab leg cocktail, romesco.  We shared a little with each other.  Both were divine.  The crab was so tender it nearly melted in your mouth.

For our main course I had the 6 oz. Australian lobster tail with fresh steamed vegetables (I couldn't have the sun dried tomato cous cous which was originally paired with it but contained gluten).  Tim had the grilled mahi, dungeness crab, olive oil-dill emulsion.  Both were beyond amazing.  I even ate the vegetable which included squash - I hate squash, but this squash was no ordinary squash!

For dessert I was unable to have the options on the menu so the chef whipped up some pomegranate sorbet with fresh berries especially for me and Tim opted for the chocolate terrine, almond brittle, with pistachio gelato.  My pomegranate sorbet was marvelous and the berries were perfectly sweet. 

Following dinner we went and sat at their chic bar and I enjoyed a pear martini (with a slice of fresh pear) and Tim had a rum and coke and a coffee. 

This was truly the best food I have ever eaten. Ever.  Perfectly cooked, perfectly flavored, perfectly paired.  Amazing.  The portions were on the smaller side, but we were both adequately full at the conclusion of the meal and completely satisfied.  I told Tim I want to go back immediately, or as soon as our bank account would allow (haha). 

This particular restaurant was selected by mere chance.  It was not something that was referred by a friend or that I had heard about through the grapevine.  I was on a website called urbanspoon.com (similar to Yelp but for food only) and was searching "gluten friendly restaurants".  I happened upon Scott's and after checking out their website and being impressed with their delicious sounding food and the fact that they attempt to use natural organic ingredients, buy from local farmers and sustainable fisheries, I shot them an email asking if they had a gluten free menu.  I was promptly responded to by email that the chef would be able to accommodate my dietary need with no problem and to just advise them ahead of time as to when we would be coming.  I sent on the link to Tim that I would love to go their sometime and he suggested Valentine's Day. 

Luxury was a requirement for this year's Valentine's Day as last year I agreed to go primitive camping with Tim for the 3-day Valentine's Day weekend at Anza-Borrego.  Primitive camping means there are no camp sites, which also means.... no toilets! Eek! We had a nice time though, but I was promised nothing short of luxury this year.  I definitely got what I was promised.

Tim and I also exchanged gifts.  Tim got a Leatherman Mut EOD.  Don't ask me what it is, it's just something Tim had mentioned he wanted after he went shooting with a friend of ours a month or so ago.  It's some kind of hand tool that has various shooting tools in it.  Here is a link.

I received a gorgeous Coach wristlet.  It's called the Madison Clover Print large wristlet and is style number 44368 if you want to check it out on Coach's website.  It's adorable and I love the colors combining brown, tan and a gorgeous magenta.  It's adorable and I can't wait to use it out on the town. 

Tim and I will hopefully be going back to Scott's again, maybe for our next big occasion.  We highly recommend it to all, but caution you that it is pricey.  Well worth the price. 

I will hopefully be adding our Valentine's Day photo to this post this evening.  Thanks for reading and please leave a comment if you have tried Scott's or if you do in the future with what you thought of it!

Best of the Grammys

I'll say it here - I LOVE EMINEM.  I always have, always will.  He's talented.  If you think otherwise, you clearly don't know what talent is.  You may not like what he has to say, or be offended by him, but you cannot deny his amazing talent.  He's good at what he does.

His performance (specifically the part with Dr. Dre) was hands down the best performance of last night's Grammys.  He's good.  Really good.  I also like Dr. Dre, so that didn't hurt. 



Yes I drew the hearts. Shut up.

I was thrilled to see him take home rap album of the year for "Recovery".  If you don't already have a copy I suggest you pick one up ASAP.  My favorite songs are WTP, No Love (feat. Lil' Wayne (who scares me)), and Space Bound.  Oh I also like 25 to Life. 

I enjoyed hearing Lady Antebellum sing.  I think they have amazing voices and I do like their song (sorry Laura). 

It was great to hear Norah Jones sing.  I like her.

I also liked Lady Gaga's performance.  Her entrance on the egg thing definitely peaked every one's curiosity and it was nice to see here in a relatively "normal" get-up.  She's a great performer and singer, so I enjoyed that. 

Muse rocked.  I did like Mumford, but wish they had done their more popular song.

I also liked the Aretha Franklin tribute which kicked off the show.  Jennifer Hudson and Christina were the best by far, but everyone did a great job.

There were a few people superbly dressed. 

Julianne Hough. I pick her not only because I love her and wish she would come back to Dancing With the Stars, but because I think she looked absolutely stunning last night.

J Lo looked hot.  Although I think her dress is a little short for her age, she was able to rock it for sure.

Eva Longoria looked good as always too.

Well that's my good recap of last night. I did enjoy watching the Grammys overall.  I haven't watched in years and I am glad I did.  The pre-show Red Carpet on E was a must-watch for sure as otherwise you wouldn't have seen some of the hideous outfits that luckily some of the stars changed out of (cough Katy Perry). 

Anywho, thanks for reading! Did you watch the Grammys? Who do you think had the best performance or was best dressed?

Check out my friend Jen's picks here on her blog!

Wednesday's What's Up With That!?

Errrr..... Monday. Whatever. I couldn't wait.  I stayed up until after 11pm (which is way late for me) trying to watch all of the Grammys.  Barbara Streisand put me to sleep though so I had to call it a night, so this dose of "What's Up With That!?" features only through her performance. 

Sorry I couldn't wait until Wednesday, some of the clothing (and performances) were just too terrible to put off a few more days without commentary.

First up, I watched the red carpet show.  While some stars dazzled the red carpet, others left me with raised eyebrows and disapproving head nods. 

Katy Perry - why did no one comment on her wings? How could Ryan Seacrest NOT say anything about her wings, simply only asking who did her dress? How about who's brilliant (sarcasm) idea was it to add wings to this dress?

Next up, Rihanna. What the heck!? I can see everything. Everything! Who thought this was a good idea.  Worse - I actually saw her listed on some one's best dressed list this morning. HUH!?

Some chick who's name I don't even know from Glee is next on my list.  Check out her necklace/shoulder pad thingy.  What is that? Ick.

Next up, Hayley from Paramore (sorry Laura) AND Pauley Perrette (from NCIS).  I love them both and they are both adorable girls, but their dresses didn't do anything for their cute figures.  It made Hayley look like she had a boy figure and Pauley look like she was ridiculously tall.... and weird looking.

Gwyneth Paltrow - although her outfit was okay, boring at best, her earrings looked like they belonged.... somewhere else. Hideous. Oh and I was not impressed with her singing performance either for that matter.

Heidi Klum - a gorgeous woman with the wrong dress.  This dress made her body shape look really really weird.  Poor choice whoever dressed her.

Miley Cyrus - although her dress wasn't all together bad, her side boob is what ruined it.  They were like hanging out the sides, made it totally trashy and just plain blah.  I couldn't get a good pic, but you can sorta see in the below pic.  Also, totally unimpressed with her jewelery, if that's what you even call it?

Uhhh.... did you guys check out this outfit? I don't know what's worse, the outfit or the hair. I think I have to go with the hair. Thank you Nicki Minaj for being a complete eye sore.

The cake has to go, however, to Cee Lo Green (although Nicki was a close second). He looks like a ghetto big bird.  I don't even know what else to say.  I think the photo speaks for itself.....

There were many other questionable get-ups, but these are the ones that really stood out to me and made me say "What's up with that!?". 

The performances were also iffy - Bob Dylan - please don't ever sing again.  I almost had to put the TV on mute, it was painful for us listeners to suffer through, even with the talent you had attempting to sing over you so we didn't have to listen to your god-awful voice.

Mick Jagger - settle down. You're 67 years old, clearly on something and obviously think you still possess some type of sex appeal.  You don't.  Stop now. 

Barbara Streisand.  Ugh, it was about here when I started to snooze and had to go to bed.  Her performance was beyond boring.  Why did they have her again?

Rihanna - I love you but you were NOT on your A game.  Many-a-note were way off.  Katy Perry - this goes for you too.  It was bad.

Justin Beiber - Can't stand him.  I honestly thought he only had one song, so I must say I was surprised when he sang a different song other than that annoying "Baby baby baby ooooh".... blah blah blah. Shut up. 

Well that wraps it up for my Wednesday's (errr Monday's) What's Up With That!? Who do you think was the worst dressed or delivered the worst performance of the night?

Bloglovin

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/2341563/erratically-elizabeth?claim=yy6y9anyhwk">Follow my blog with bloglovin</a>

Thanks to my friend Jen for introducing me to this great site!

The best fast food restaurant in the world.

In-N-Out.  If you disagree, you're crazy.  Period.  They offer 2 things, burgers and fries.  Unless of course you know about their not-so-secret menu.  I order mine protein style (no bun so that it is gluten free).  I also require animal fries.  My coworker went out to pick us up In-N-Out a few weeks ago and I told him to not bother coming back if he forgot to make my fries animal style.  I just love love love In-N-Out and enjoy splurging on it as often as I can convince Timmy. 

But did you know that other big chain restaurants have secret menus? I did not until I read this awesome article. 

I don't know about you, but those Jamba Juice shakes sound heavenly! Push pop!? YUM!!

So what's your favorite fast food restaurant? Oh, and do you know of any secret menus!? Do share :)

Game Night and Recipe Reviews

Last night's game night was a hit! All the food turned out pretty well and everyone seemed to have fun.  Guests left around midnight.

See my prior post here for links to all recipes.

Pulled pork - well Walmart (don't even get me started on my Walmart rant) only had ONE type of pork - so I had to work with it - it was a bone in pork shoulder - 10 pounder.  Unfortunately it didn't yield a lot of meat and it wasn't the most tender meat making it a PITA to shred, but it tasted fine.

Tim's ribs turned out pretty well, but may have been cooked a tad too long.

The chex mix was the only thing I didn't love. It was a little too sticky. Although it tasted okay, the stickiness made it less appealing.

The fruit kabob and dip was scrump (yep, my own abbreviation for scrumptious).  The dip was absolutely divine, I could eat it plain with a spoon.

The punch was marvelous.  Even the pregos enjoyed it and the non-pregos enjoyed adding the little extra vodka.  It was so tasty that you couldn't even tell that it had vodka in it - making for a lovely headache today.

The upside down pineapple cake shots were a perfect touch.  They were spot on so a big THANK YOU to my coworker for that suggestion.

The macaroni salad turned out really well.  I don't usually enjoy macaroni salad but I really liked the addition of bacon - let's be honest, how can anything with bacon be bad?

The upside down pineapple cake was good as well, although we barely had enough for everyone - it really serves 9 and we had 15 people.  It could have been cooked a tad longer (it was a little moist) but everyone gobbled theirs up and we served it with vanilla ice cream.

I did find the recipe for the appetizer I mentioned in my previous post, pineapple wrapped ham with cherries on toothpicks - all displayed in a pineapple.  I thought it was a great touch to my Hawaiian themed night.  Check out the recipe here.

Here a couple photos of the food and layout.  Thanks for reading :)

 macaroni salad

pulled pork

ribs

drink station

appetizers

drink and appetizer table set-up

Fanciful Friday

Urban Outfitters is one of my favorite websites to just browse and look at their hilarious items in the "Apartment" section. 

Most of this stuff is totally obscure and would make the most terrific white elephant gifts ever such as the carstache, fingerstache, inappropriate but hilarious notepads, pens to let people borrow (hint zoom in), etc. 

BUT I did find an absolute MUST HAVE. These fabulous stamps (pictured below).

Totally a must have right? I definitely fancy them. Yep. Feel free to "like" or "share" this and post it on your own facebook by clicking the nifty facebook icon below this post.  You know you like them too.

Oh the endless possibilities I could do with these stamps..................

Thankful Thursday

Today I am going to write about my husband.  When I told him I started a blog he immediately asked, "Is it about me!?".  Unfortunately (fortunately?) this blog is not all about Tim, maybe I will start a second blog all about Tim some day, but in the interim, this post will do. 

I truly do have an amazing husband.  Believe it or not we met on match.com nearly 4 years ago (I believe it was early May 2007).  We chatted for a few weeks until he peer pressured me into meeting for a date (5/27/2007).  After our first date I never looked back. 

He is patient, forgiving, generous, passionate, caring, and the most loving man I have ever known.  He always puts me first and I know he loves me with all of his heart. 

Best of all, he loves me for me.  Even with all of my flaws and moods, he loves me, he supports me, and he never turns his back on me. 

I was fortunate to marry this wonderful man on August 21, 2010.  We are currently enjoying being newlyweds and I try to show him every day how thankful I am to have him in my life. 

I love you Timmy.

Menu Planning for Friday's Game Night

I am hosting a game night at my house on Friday (a group of my friends and I are in a group and we take turns monthly hosting a game night, it's quite fun really). 

I have decided that my theme will be Hawaiian.  Yes, I know this theme has been done before, but mine is only loosely Hawaiian based, and we're running out of available themes goshdarnit!

Yesterday I worked on the proposed menu (which is of course subject to change at any time).  Here is what I have so far:

1) Pulled Pork with Hawaiian Rolls (pulled pork recipe courtesy of my lovely friend Kim's mom). This recipe is the easiest and tastiness thing ever.  You just put your pork roast in a crockpot, pour a liter of orange soda over it and let it cook all day.  Afterwards you take it out and shred it and combine it with your choice of BBQ sauce (I use Kraft original as it's gluten free).  I know it sounds strange, but it's marvelous.  Trust me, try it.

2) Ribs (Tim is in charge of not only finding a recipe but also cooking these). 

3) Macaroni Salad found at Buns In My Oven's blog here. Note I will use rice noodles for the macaroni to make this a gluten free dish.

4) Fruit kabobs with pineapple dipping sauce from General Mills found here.

5) Maui chips and dip (haven't quite nailed down the details of the dip yet and this is pending my review of the chips to determine that they are gluten free).

6) Pineapple Upside-Down Cake for dessert from Betty Crocker found here (using Betty's fabulous gluten free cake mix).

7) Pineapple shots for my signature drink which consists of Stoli vodka mixed with pineapple juice and a tidbit of grenadine - this is a recipe from my coworker, so we will see how it plays out. 

8) Volcano punch with no alcohol, you can find the recipe here.  I will be putting the vodka on the side as two of my friends are pregnant so I want to have an option for them.

9) Tropical chex mix also from General Mills found here.

I had also seen a cute appetizer idea that involved sticking toothpicks into a pineapple but for the life of me I cannot find the link.  Hopefully I printed out the recipe and can add it later. 

Oh and for our game we will be playing "What's yours like?". 

Should be a fun night.  A review of the aforementioned foods and the night overall to come sometime this weekend.  I will try to remember to take pics as well!

Wednesday's What's Up With That!?

I saw this gem while driving a few weeks ago home from work on the lovely 91 freeway.  It was too good not to share. 

What's up with that!? Camper shell too short for you? Maybe its an abnormally tall person who owns it? My thought however was, how do you get in? I was so intrigued that I made my way to the other side of the vehicle and determined there was no latch or door of any kind.  Maybe he puts the bed down and crawls in through the hole? Anywho, I thought it was hilariously awesome.  Enjoy!

Tutorial Tuesdays

Who doesn't love tutorials? When it comes to making stuff it's much easier to read about and learn from other people's mistakes than to make them yourself.  Also, it appears that other people are far more creative than myself.  Ideas don't always simply pop into my head.  Oftentimes I have to look at an idea from someone and think about how I would modify their idea to make it my own. I just love love love tutorials.

Sometimes these tutorials will be something that I come up with, but more often than not it will be links to other fabulous tutorials I have found while surfing the web. 

It may be one, it may be ten.  Depends on my mood (and time). 

Most, if not all of these tutorials, will be crafting, but as my husband and I work on the house we may get into some home improvement tutorials as well and maybe I will throw in a recipe or 2.  Cooking a meal can be a tutorial too you know! 

So without further ado, I will kickoff my first Tutorial Tuesday!

Today's theme will be fabulous tutorials I have found that involve Love or Valentine's Day. 

Inexpensive yet fabulous Craft:
Love in a bottle: http://ohsnaplizzie.blogspot.com/2011/02/special-love-day-diy.html

Edible Craft/Recipe:
Conversation Heart chocolate bark: http://bakeat350.blogspot.com/2011/02/valentine-conversation-heart-chocolate.html

Sew cute:
Reversible Love Table Runner: http://craftytammie.blogspot.com/2011/02/valentines-day-reversible-table-runner.html

Paper craft:
Valentine's Day Candy Boxes: http://www.thehybridchick.com/2011/02/valentines-day-candy-boxes/

Kids craft:
Pop-up heart garden Valentine: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/valentine/heartgarden/

Hope you enjoyed the first rendition of Tutorial Tuesdays! Check back next week for more awesome tutorials from around the web!

What do you mean the Denver Broncos aren't playing?

My husband and I enjoyed a fun-filled time watching the Superbowl at a friends house yesterday.  We came decked out in.... our BRONCOS gear!

I know, I know, they didn't play.  Whatever. 

We were pleased that the Green Bay Packers won, even though I had predicted the Steelers would win.  I am pretty sure we were the only people at the party we attended who were cheering for the Green Bay Packers. 

We didn't win any of the pools we entered, but that is a-okay.  Better luck next year when the Broncos play right!?

One of my favorite parts about the Superbowl is always the food.  My friend makes a fabulous Italian type dip with all sorts of ingredients I couldn't even begin to list them.  Another guest brought my other fave - the 7 layer Mexican dip. YUM!

I'm going to miss football.  I really will.  Sundays (and Monday nights) just won't be the same.