So I'm going to a bachelorette party in Hotlanta this weekend, and the first night that we are there some of the bride's Georgia friends are hosting a "Bake and Bait" Shower. I wish I had a picture of the invitation, it is awesome with a little man "fishing" into a measuring cup. The guys will give the groom fishing gear, and we will all get the bride something baking inspired. How cute is that? Props to the friend who designed it! For my "bake" gift I went to Williams-Sonoma and found this awesome personalize-able cookie cutter set.
The bride is very creative so I hope she'll love it! To go along with the gift I also got her a package of sugar cookie mix to get her started.
Have a shower coming up? A friend's birthday? Or even better, a treat for yourself? This makes a great, wallet-friendly gift!
Is it wrong that I fell in love with these while shopping at W-S? I'm such a nerd...
TIE fighter and Millennium Falcon shaped PB&J's? Please and thank you!
I am going to return to all of my blogginess soon, I promise. In the meantime, I'm taking care of Lewis, going to a bachelorette party in Atlanta, and moving into my new place next Monday! Here is a tiny sneak peek at what is going down in the makeover of my new space. Waverly curtains from Lowe's and some Martha Stewart paint in "ballet slipper." More to come!
Seriously, the curtains were about $25 per panel. Chuh-yeap! and cute! Couldn't find them online but check your local store!
I am sorry for the silence the past couple of days. After my living situation debacle your support was so kind, and very much appreciated. Well, little did I know, that was only the tip of the iceberg for my troubles. Yesterday during a routine vet appointment I pointed out a lump on Lewis' hind quarters to my vet. Turns out that lump was a tumor. My sweet, sweet puppy had surgery today to remove it. We are still waiting for the biopsy results before we find out if more surgery is necessary. He is doped up and doing fine now, so we are both resting and watching DVRed shows (hello, Glee season premiere!) and praying for this to be nothing more than a one time thing. Right now, paying double rent, on top of all of these vet bills, not to mention the panic about Lewis' health, it feels as though life has once again decided to knock me down on my knees. Tomorrow is another day though. Good things are around the corner. Welcome to the life of a Post-College Working Girl.
Alright, an update is in order. As of today I am moving into my new, very own place! After one Craig's List scam, fyi if they say they are on business somewhere in "West Africa" don't believe them, and some crazy fast searching I found a place to call my own. Yes, I move fast, but once I'm done with something, I really want to be done with it. SO, now this whole weekend is going to be spent sprucing up the new place with paint (it needs it like Dolly Parton needs a bra) and moving things in little by little. I have two weeks to do it, but this is my only free weekend! Pictures, friends, will be coming shortly! So here are some tunes for the weekend...I will be painting to them....what will you be doing?
I'm so glad to find this one, I love this song but could never find a video from the actual band. How cute is this? I wish I had a music teacher like that....maybe sans ponytail. Love these kids!
I'm drooling over these fabrics from Studio Bon. Bonnee Sharp grew up in Texas and moved to New York to work as a writer for an international advertising agency. After many fruitless searches to find the right fabric, in the right color, in the right material she started Studio Bon. They specialize in hand printed textiles in eye pleasing colors with wonderful geometric designs that are reminiscent of the 60's but brought into the modern era. There isn't a show room near me...which is probably a good thing because I imagine that this fabric is NOT cheap. But it doesn't hurt to dream, does it?
I adore scallops(the pattern not the shellfish).
I would like to copy paste this into my house.
The muted grays and creams with small pops of yellow make me melt. Also, I think the antler chandy deserves an honorable mention here.
I'm having one of those weeks, you know where it just seems to be one thing after another. The times when life hands you lemons and you don't care to try and make lemonade, but you will squeeze that lemon into your vodka soda? I am there. It's not SO bad really, I just might be having to find either a new roommate, which is kinda scary considering all the crazies out there, or find a new place to live...by myself. I don't mind living by myself, I would actually be kind of excited about it, but I suffer from an extremely over active imagination and easily convince myself that the man selling door to door carpets or whatever is trying to scope out my place for when he comes back to rob me later. I know, I can't help it. I blame television, doesn't that make me sound old? It's just that it is comforting to have another human being there, sorry Lewis I know you think you are a person, if for no other reason than to have TWO people attacking the burglar with a frying pan. I am also frustrated because this situation came about right when I was leaving to go out of town for a business trip (Hi from South Carolina!). I can't stand it when I'm not able to get things figured out immediately. I don't think it's impatience, just a need for this home-body to have my living situation on solid ground. Plus my calendar is so full for the next couple of weeks I just don't know when I can fit everything in, be it a move or a new roommate search. Sigh. I'll buck up, get home tomorrow and get my shizz figured out, but until then all I want is a really good hug.
Have you ever been here? I hope not, but whatever may be bothering you lately, I want to send all of my readers a big freaking hug. Squeezes.
Just so you know, it wouldn't be a hug like this....
Growing up, my family always cooked and ate at home. Going out was an extremely rare occurrence for us, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing because I have always believed my parents to be two of the very best cooks I know. Friends who come to visit can vouch, and are usually the recipients of the prized left overs. Now that I'm on my own I have had to quickly learn how to fend for myself in the food department, and most of the time I go the cooking at home route. Peanut butter and jelly counts as cooking right?
Now A's family is a little bit different, for them, going out to eat is the norm. So when we spent some time with my parents recently he was SHOCKED with how good home cooked food could actually be....So finally, I convinced him to let me cook for him this past weekend. I don't eat fish, but it's a personal favorite of A's, so it seemed like it would be a good ambassador from my home cooked style to his restaurant savvy palette.
Cooking at home definitely saves money, and I have to report that A ate every bite. Now, that either means he didn't want to hurt my feelings or it was pretty tasty...he swears it's the latter. I would like to hope so!
Macadamia Encrusted Halibut with Peach and Mango Salsa
2 lbs halibut, cut into 8 oz pieces
2 large egg whites
2 cups macadamia nuts, chopped
4 T canola oil
1/3 cup peaches, diced
1/3 cup mango, diced
1/3 cup pineapple, diced
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely diced
2 T butter
2 juiced limes
salt
pepper
cayenne
Place the peaches, mango, pineapple, butter, lime juice, and jalapeno into a blender and blend lightly to mix the ingredients well. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
Sprinkle both sides of the halibut with salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste.
Brush the top of the halibut with egg whites and cover the egg whites with macadamia nuts. Press them down to keep them from falling off the fish.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Coat a large saucepan with canola oil and place it over medium heat. Place the halibut on the pan, macadamia side down, and sear it for about 3 or 4 minutes, or until the macadamia nuts have browned. Flip the halibut and sear the other side for about 3 or 4 minutes as well.
Place the fish into a baking dish and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
Serve the fish with the salsa spooned on top!
If I can do this one without any knowledge of fish, you can definitely do it too!
Ahem, I wish I had a bunch of really, really beautiful and interesting pictures to share with you from the weekend...but the truth is, I kept good to my promise of doing nothing.
A and I did go for a really nice dinner on Friday night at this local organic restaurant called Zely & Ritz. So good, I highly recommend you go for the fresh beet salad and the homemade pickles if nothing else. Oh, and their hummus with hot sauce was pretty good too.
It was followed by a rousing game of Scrabble....A won, this time....
A trip to the Fresh Market to get the ingredients for dinner(the results of which will be blogged later this week!) led A to prompt me to pick out my favorite flowers for him to give me. So sweet!
Lewis was not one to miss out on all the non-action and helped us lounge while watching football all weekend.
Check it. Ohhhhhhhh snap dragons. I learned how to fishtail braid. Woot Woot!
I'm going to savor the down time from this past weekend, the fall season is about to press ahead full steam....!
Happy weekend, dear readers! I am going to enjoy my last weekend at home before a month's worth of weekends away...how did my fall fill up so quickly? Better question, where did the summer go? So with one last semi-languorous weekend ahead of me I have a few plans, but mostly hope to do a big ole' nothin.
"Congrats, Evie! xoxo p.s. I am a current follower and happily so!"
Thanks so, so much to everyone who entered. Tiffany, I will be emailing you this afternoon to get your mailing address to send your gift certificate to you in the mail! Oh, and Tiffany has a very awesome little blog, check it out HERE.
Now, let's all day dream about fabric-y crafts that she can make (or at least get started on) with her Jo Ann's gift card shall we? You're in? Great...
Hello all! Since A and I didn't get home until 2 in the morning last night I am just now posting the photographic pieces from my weekend. The weather was beautiful! A cold front made it possible for lots of long walks to show A around my parents town, which wouldn't have been complete without a stop in my favorite chocolate shop, Zoe's. We sat down on the bench outside the shop immediately after purchasing the chocolates and devoured all of them...
All the walking and heavy duty chocolate eating left us tired and in need of some coffee.
The puppies even got in on the downtown action accompanying us to the bakery Proof.
I make it seem like we were very active, but the truth is that most of the time was spent at my parent's kitchen island relaxing, reading, and watching my parents cook which put us in excellent position to be taste testers. Have I mentioned that we ate a LOT? Eating might just be one of our best skills. This is what a weekend in their kitchen feels like.
On our way home we decided to hit up the Leesburg Outlets, which was a nightmare and a complete failure of a shopping trip as neither one of us purchased anything. Luckily we were able to meander over to Georgetown to walk around and have some dinner at a delicious Thai place as the sun set over the college-y section of DC. I was also able to convince A that standing in this line:
To get cupcakes from this place of "DC Cupcakes" TV fame:
...was a good idea. Let me tell you that this was a slightly dorky girl moment for me to get cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcakes who have their own show on TLC. The wait wasn't too bad and once I was in the store past the bouncer at the door I stared at the fantastic display of cupcake wares on their pretty silver stands. I got the Red Velvet, Honey Banana, and Apple Cinnamon cupcakes, and while they were extremely delicious, I have to say that I am still in love with my very own The Cupcake Shoppe in downtown Raleigh, NC.
It was a great weekend, we were sad to leave Maryland and DC, but we will be back.
Happy Labor Day Weekend! I'm heading up to DC/MD with A to go see my parents/try to avoid Hurricane Earl which is churning for the NC coast! Please, please Earl, don't mess up my pretty Carolina beaches! Hope that everyone has a safe and fun weekend! Batton down the hatches if you are on the coast! Oh and don't forget to enter the giveaway below by following Post-College Working Girl and make sure to leave a comment!!
In honor of the now category 3 storm...
And one more Dixie Chicks song because I can't leave you with one where Natalie Maines looks so turrrible.
It is September and I have now been blogging for 9 months, which is long enough to have had a baby orrrrrr get 10,000 hits! Not that the latter of which is better, per se, just that I don't feel embarrassed telling my parents about it....I can't tell you how excited I am each and every time that ticker goes up even one visit...let alone 10,000 +. Y'all make my day.
So I figured that there was no better way to celebrate than to say THANK YOU!
to all of my readers and those who casually drop in
by doing my first giveaway!
Since crafting and making things instead of buying them are a big part of what this blog is about, I thought I would share the crafty love with one $15 gift certificate to Jo-Ann Fabrics! If you don't have a store near you, their gift cards can be re-deemed at their online store!
How To Enter:
Follow Post-College Working Girl.
Leave a comment saying that you followed (or, if applicable, are currently a follower) with a valid e-mail address or blog address.
No anonymous comments will be considered.
For an additional chance to win, blog about this giveaway with a link back to this post and leave a comment telling me about it!
The winner will be chosen at random on Wednesday, September 8th with a random number generator.
Good luck and thanks again to everyone for visiting!
