Style File 5-23-11

Sorry for the hiatus again. It's just hard trying to find a schedule that works for me! I think I'm going to modify and say a scrap book page goes up twice a month whenever I get them done. It'll be an unexpected post to keep you on your toes! As for What's For Dinner? I am still going to try to get those up once a week, but I think I'm going to flip when it goes up: Style Files on Monday and What's for Dinner? on Saturdays.

Anyway, here are my photos. I just got a Macbook Pro, which I love. So these are edited in iPhoto until I buy the appropriate editing program. I don't they're half bad for iPhoto. I wasn't expecting to be able to do much in it, but you can do a lot of tweaks in there! Any Mac users have any other insights for me?

You've definitely seen all the elements of this outfit before. I used this shirt in a recent style file, but I just like it a lot for the summer, so you get to see it again! While our friends Matt and Bekah were visiting us a couple weeks ago, we went to the Chrysler Museum of Art. It was a lot of fun, and I got in a style file shoot on the beautiful stairs they have.

 So it's starting to warm up here, which means places like the Chrysler crank up the air conditioning. So I opted for jeans and a cardi over my shirt.

 I've been very in love with braids lately. I think it's because my hair is finally long enough to employ them in cool ways. You should try implementing a braid here and there. They're great fun!

 Owl necklace!

Floral Tank- Old Navy
Black Cardi- JC Penney
Skinny Jeans- Thrifted; Forever 21
Shoes- GAP
Sunglasses- Target
Owl Necklace- Forever 21

Style File 5/14/11

 Well... I took a bit on an unintentional hiatus. I just got really busy at work with Graduation, so I was SUPER tired when I got home. Then last weekend we had some good friend's of our from Texas spend the weekend with us. It was great fun, and I do have some style file pics from that weekend that I'll post later. :) But I think I'm back, for now anyway. :)

 Here is a simple and comfy weekend outfit for me. I picked up the tee on sale at Target. I also have a white one. There's just something so casual, but still a little grown up about a fitted tee. I feel no shame in wearing them.

 I've had these jeans for a bit now, and I just love them. Levi's 515 are so comfy and fit me the best. I have not found a jean that even competes with the 515s as far as fit goes. I should just go out and buy fifty pairs of these jeans before they change how they cut them.

 I have had this scarf probably since high school. I rarely wear it, though, because I was kind of afraid. I'm not sure why. there are so many creative ways to tie and wear a scarf. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship I am going to have with scarves.

 The earrings are also some of my favorites. I like big earrings. I like kind of funky earrings. I think these are both.

 

I just picked up these flats from Target last week. They were 4.98 on clearance. That's the second pair of Target shoes i've scored for under five bucks this month. I guess I'm just at the right place at the right time? 

So there's my weekend style file. What do you like to wear on the weekend? I tend to go for jeans and comfy clothes now that I'm working because I have to dress up all week long. It's kind of a nice feeling to be dressy enough during the week that I like dressing down a bit for the weekend. Have a happy weekend everyone!

What's for Dinner? 5/2/11

Freezer Spaghetti is what is for dinner! I didn't want any of you to be disillusioned about my cooking habits. Sometimes I just don't feel like cooking dinner. Yesterday night was one of those nights. So I made freezer spaghetti. I can hear you asking right now, "what on earth is freezer spaghetti?" Well... it's spaghetti made almost entirely from my freezer.

This is some already cooked ground turkey that I used last week. I only used half of what I had, so I froze the rest for future use. I'm glad I did!

 This is some frozen spaghetti sauce that I had saved from when I made some tortellini. Again, I had extra so I froze it. I did have to add a little bit from another jar I had on hand, but that's ok.

And lastly the pasta that always hangs out in my cupboard. What can I say? we're pasta people around here. So basically all I did for dinner was defrost the meat and the sauce, toss it together, and boil some pasta. Minimal effort. Viola!

I also got some new kitchen gadgets this weekend!

A new oven thermometer because my old one (a really cheap one) broke. It cracked and then ceased to work. Since my oven burns horrifically unevenly and about 50 degrees hotter than the set temperature, I need an operating one on hand. So I spent a little more money on this one.

I also got...

a box grater! The grater I had was rusting. And I had to make some zucchini bread for a BBQ I was going to. I figured rust isn't that great for you. It's one thing to ingest it myself; its another to let strangers and children ingest it. So I just bought a new (more functional) grater. It's Food Network; one of my favorite kitchen brands out there.

Style File 4/30/11

 It's another beautiful Friday in VA Beach! Despite the storms that rolled through last night, it is absolutely beautiful today. Not a cloud in the sky, light breeze, 75 degrees. But I'll stop gloating now, haha. But it's been warm all week so I thought I would bust out the sandals. I don't have a whole lot to say about this outfit, so I'll just tell you what I did with my Friday!

 Today I didn't have anything in particular to do. My day started off at about 6:30, I checked out the Royal Wedding (which was beautiful!! Kate was spectacular looking!) and then went for my run. I got in 6 miles. It's the farthest I've run! Yay!

 Then I went grocery shopping. Yay food! I forgot my list at home, but I managed to not forget anything. I was pleased.

 And later I'll go to the library. I have a hold to pick up and so does Brad. :)

 Then maybe take the dog for a walk?

I do love these sandals. They're my favorite.


Sweater- Old Navy
Shirt- Old Navy
White Tank- Target
Shorts- Thrifted; American Eagle
Shoes- JC Penney
Necklace- Gift from my Grandma (she has good taste in make up and jewelry. It's awesome).
Sunglasses- Target

Scrappy Wednesday 4//27/11

This is a page from Australia, the first of the AMOS trip pictures. Basically, we went on a mini-mission trip within our trip out to the bush. The first couple of days on the trip, we went into public schools in very rural towns. These schools were primarily not Aboriginal. The latter half of our trip we were in an Aboriginal community. In general I don't have a lot of pictures of the students either at Mueller College (the church we partnered with) or from this trip because of the laws in Australia requiring extensive permissions from the parents to take pictures of children. As such, I'm relying on journaling to tell those stories.

Anyway, I like how this one turned out. I made the green and pink grid thing from ripping strips of paper using my Creative Memories ripping tool. The ovals were cut using the Creative Memories cutting system. The lettering and fancy circle shapes were cut using my cricut. Here is a close up of one of those circles, I thought they were pretty awesome.

What's for Dinner? 4/25/11

 Ok, so I don't actually recommend eating just bread for dinner, but it's good to eat none the less. As some of you may know, I don't actually buy bread anymore. I make it myself; but I have a bread maker, so it's not so difficult. Here's what I normally do to make it. It's heavily adapted from the pastor's wife of the church I grew up in. She makes wonderful bread, so here are my little tweaks. Enjoy:

Ingredients:
1 cup warm water
4 tbsp milk
4tbsp oil
4 tbsp sugar
1 and 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast
1 cup white flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp vital wheat gluten

  It's important that you put in the ingredients in the bread pan in the order the manufacturer suggests. Mine says to put the liquids in first, so that's what I do. Start with some warm water.

 Add the 4 table spoons  milk.

 And the 4 table spoons oil.

 And the 4 tablespoons sugar (noticing a pattern here?)

 Now for the yeast. Add 1 and 1/2 teaspoons to the pan. It's important that you keep the salt and the yeast from touching each other in this process. So I always put the yeast in as the first dry ingredient and then put the salt in as the last ingredient.

 The yeast will start to spread out and look like it's melting. That's good; it's how it works correctly. But this is why it's important to use warm water to make sure the yeast rises properly.

 You can use any combination of whole wheat and all purpose flour. Use one cup all purpose to keep the bread light enough to make sandwiches out of. If I use all whole wheat, it's extremely dense bread and not so good for using it for sandwiches and such.

 If you notice, I don't use full cups of the whole wheat. Whole Wheat flour sucks up the moisture. Honestly, this is kind of a guessing game as to how much you should reduce. A good rule of thumb is to reduce by a quarter cup, but sometimes the dough is too dry anyway. If it is too dry add a couple tablespoons of water during while the machine is kneading the dough. Sometimes I have to add flour because the dough is too wet. A lot of it depends on how dry or humid it is outside.

 Now add your 1 teaspoon of salt.

 and lastly, the vital wheat gluten. Bake it on the whole wheat setting if you are using more than 50% whole wheat flour. My particular machine kneads and bakes it for 3:40 minutes.

Finished!! :)

Style File 4/23/11

 I have been on a quest to replace my wardrobe. I am officially down past my goal of weight loss (some of that is an accidental result of increasing my distance on my runs) so that means everything that was in my closet hangs on me all awkward like. Don't get me wrong, this is a good problem to have, but not when spring is arriving and I have events I need to wear dresses to! So I have purchased a couple inexpensive dresses and will probably get some of my favorites from my closet altered down. Anyway, I bought this outfit at Target, for the most part. I had a 20% off coupon for one Merona purchase (the dress) and the belt and shoes were on the clearance rack.

 I love this dress. It's very comfortable and I think it will be pretty versatile. I can dress it up or down depending on the event. I can wear almost any of my shoes with it. I could wear it to work if I so chose. I think the first public appearance it's going to make is going to be on Sunday morning at Church. I always like to wear a nice spring outfit on Easter Sunday.

 The dress had a tie belt that matches it (made of the same fabric) and I like it ok, but I felt I wanted to jazz it up a little bit more. I found this belt on the clearance rack for 9 dollars, so I picked it up. I think I'll find this belt to be a great addition to my wardrobe; especially since I own very very few belts as it is.

 I already had the necklace (and I'm sure you've seen it before). It was my granmda's. She has good taste.

 I used the tie that came with the dress as a headband. I'll probably wear it as it was intended every so often but I like to have options!

 These shoes... I wasn't really intending to buy shoes. But they were the only pair there. And they were on sale for 5.76. They were an online item that had been brought back. They're *technically* a little big... but I love them anyway. I've been on the look out for some shoes I could rock in the evening if I wanted. And you can wear silver shoes with virtually anything.

Up close so you can see the polka dots. I love polka dots. I've mentioned that recently though. :)

At Target, I also bought some of that Jergen's Natural Glow moisturizer for both my face and the rest of me. I do not tan at all. I really don't think I'm really capable of it. I generally turn red (burn. No bueno) and then turn white again. Nor do I want skin cancer. So I thought I might give this glow a go. In theory it won't turn me orange and it will gradually build up to some sort of "Natural Glow", I suppose. I'll have to let you know how it goes. If it goes badly, anyone have any cures for bad self tanner?