ice cream is my love.

alllllways has been.  always will be. 

Some of my favorite ice cream boutiques:  Tasty Twist (East Lansing, MI)  McDonalds, M&M or Oreo McFlurry's (locations worldwide) Sebastian Joe's (Minneapolis, MN) Raspberry Chocolate Chip & Coldstone Creamery.  oh oh oh I can't forget: Dairy Dock (Vermillion, OH)...medium chocolate vanilla twist dipped in crunchies.  I don't know if I love it because it's really amazing or because I only eat it if I'm with my bestie since 1.5 years of age, GEM.

What does ice cream and this these (couldn't decide...they are all so pretty) gadgets have in common???

I just found out that you can buy this attachment for Kitchen Aid Mixers that allows you to make homemade ice cream!!!!  Homemade ice cream is DELISH.  And there are no preservatives or guar gum (sp?)involved.  Just pure goodness.  This is a brilliant feature...and space saving.  Ice cream makers are bulky.  Anyways...if you have a Kitchen Aid...you should buy one.

Now the real question is...if I ever am blessed with a Kitchen Aid...what color will I choose!?!?!  The chocolate brown is just killer.  But I lean towards wild colored kitchen things.  Right now I would pick the lime.  Maybe.  I'm pretty sure you only buy a Kitchen aid once so this will be tough.  Good thing I have at least 2.5 years to think about it.

images via google

still longing for...

these booties.

not sure why.

maybe because I found out my dear friend KS has the suede ones.

maybe because they are beautiful and practical

maybe because I struggle being content with the outrageous amount of blessings that God has showered over my life.  I have way too much.  Don't deserve any of it.

This quote is so true.

I'm without booties.  I'm without a Longchamp tote.  I'm without a sparkly Burberry cap.  I'm without a macbook.  I'm without genuine, non-material, desires of my heart.

and that's fine.

“Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the LORD;

trust in him…

7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him…”

Psalm 37:4-5, 7

I don't think God cares about booties...I know He doesn't care about Longchamp totes (they are mostly plastic.  hahah)  I do know that He provided for me a perfectly imperfect husband and allowed me to work in the place I desired to work for 2 years. Yesterday, I picked out new paint colors (originals were rejected)...I used to think I wouldn't be able to paint until we bought a house or condo but now, while I don't get to actually paint, I will have painted walls!!!!

He knows my desires...and He cares for them.  He will take care of the other things that really matter too...probably not the booties...but you never know.

bootie photo: jcrew.com

Nana's Granola

My Nana and I chat on the phone frequently about recipes...she is a wonderful wife and inspires me to make yummy treats for my husband since I always watched her do that for her husband, my Papa!!  oh how I miss them.

Nana's Granola Bars (she adapted them from Ina Garden, and I adapted them a bit from her)

Ingredients:

• 2 c old fashioned oatmeal
• 1 c sliced or chopped (I prefer chopped) raw almonds
• 1.5 c shredded coconut (unsweetened or sweetened)
• 1/3 c freshly ground flax seed (grind in a rinsed coffee grinder...if you don't grind flax the nutritional benefits are not even close to as wonderful)
• 2/3 c honey
• 3 tbsp butter
• 1/4 c brown sugar
• splash of vanilla
• dash of salt
• chopped up dried fruit or dark chocolate chips or whatever you want.  I like using dried cranberries...and lots of them (1 1/2 c)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350.  Line a pan with foil or parchment paper so you can lift the granola out of the pan when finished.
• Toss first 3 ingredients together in the lined pan and bake for 10 minutes, stirring twice until lightly toasted.  Transfer to a mixing bowl and stir in the flax. 
• Reduce oven to 300
• Place butter, honey, brown sugar, vanilla, salt in a small saucepan and bring to a boil.  Cook and stir for just a minute (or it will get too hard) and pour over the toasted oatmeal mixture.  Add fruit, chocolate, whatever random things you want, last.
• Pour it all into the same pan you used to toast the dry mixture.  Press mixture evenly into the pan.  Bake for 25-30 minutes until light golden  brown.  Cool and break or cut into pieces. 

It is definitely not your typical "chewy" granola bar...but it is sooo yummy, and very healthy too.  JD likes it with yogurt or milk.  I like it plain.  I totally ate 3/4 of this recipe at my desk one day.

I really need to learn how to knit.

I bought a pattern off etsy to make this:

I kinda bought it as a gift for my friend at work.  She is going to knit a "trial" for herself.  And then she is going to try to make one for me.  If she has time.  She's a big time knitter with all these crazy projects going on.

And once I learn how to knit...I will have oodles of yarn spooles (?)...

and I will have to figure out a way to store it all...

Isn't this BEAUTIFUL??

images via etsy & prudent baby

things to inspire your weekend :)

I'm very in to bright colored cupboards as of late.

White walls done well.

This could be one of my top 10 home inspiration photos.

Beach chairs do not have to be plastic.

Wish I could sit on the beach with my mama this weekend.

I will be completely copying this belt idea as soon as I find a big flower that is perfect enough.

If you're reading this, I'm most likely missing you.

images via elementsofstyle, housebeautiful, etsy

books.

I love books.  REAL books...no ebooks or kindles for me, thank you. 

Until we can afford to buy more books/afford the space to fit more books...I might have to consider this hilariously amazing wallpaper.  I don't usually like wallpaper but this is so fun!  Maybe for a skinny wall, or the inside of a closet?

i stole this idea from one of my favorite bloggers, joanna goddard.

He knows what He's doing.

I love this little tidbit from one of Elizabeth Elliot's books. 

“[Gladys] told how when she was a child she had two great sorrows. One, that while all her friends had beautiful golden hair, hers was black. The other, that while her friends were still growing, she stopped. She was about four feet ten inches tall. But when at last she reached the country to which God had called her to be a missionary, she stood on the wharf in Shanghai and looked around at the people to whom he had called her.

‘Every single one of them,’ she said, ‘had black hair. And every single one of them had stopped growing when I did.' And I said, ‘Lord God, You know what You’re doing!’”
Elisabeth Elliot, Let Me Be a Woman (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House, 1976), 32.

Thank you, God, for fearfully and wonderfully creating me the way I am!

mickey d's!

Today will be wonderful because my lawyer-to-be is taking the day off...no studying...just hanging out together all day long!  We will be partaking in a 5 year old tradition.  A date to McDonald's where we will order whatevvver we want (no dollar menu, the BIG stuff).  yum!

 our valentine to you! 

love, love, loooveee.

Feb 14 is approaching.  My favorite thing about that day was decorating little boxes in elementary school and then having all your classmates fill them with candy and cards.  I still love decorating, I still love candy...and I loveee getting cards...so I still love vday.  It's also one of my besties, RS's birthday!  and I LOVE birthdays!  Valentine's day has me thinking about weddings.  Maybe because I keep hearing about people getting engaged...or wanting to be engaged :)

Someday, I would like to plan another wedding (not my own...since I pray to be married to my man forever A & I would rather spend someone else's money B)

I have decided that you will always have better ideas AFTER you get married than you did before...at least that's how I feel.  Agreed?

For instance. I am KICKING myself that I did not wear a sweet headband/piece instead of a veil.

beautiful necklaces for brides or bachelorettes

the perfect green and such a flattering dress.

and finally.  It's so funny.  I worked at J.Crew when I was wedding dress shopping, purchased my bridesmaids dresses there, and didn't even consider buying my dress there.  Loved what I ended up wearing...but these are just scrumptious.  I don't remember the dress selection summer of 2008, but it wasn't this good.

...love!

photos via jcrew & etsy

sailors

look at this cute sailor in front of Kim Kardashian's boutique

miss her soooo much.

I think this adorable photo was taken in No Name Harbor..near Miami.

My children WILL do this. 

photos via cg

read this.

It's short and gives you some info that you probably won't see on the front page.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/08/carbon-emissions-trading-system

and if that caught you interest...read this from last May.

http://blog.heritage.org/2009/05/18/morning-bell-the-costs-and-benefits-of-waxman-markey/

sunglasses, animal print, & booties

have never looked so good.

the milano kappas are at it again, looking smashing.

                I am on the prowl for affordable cheap booties (e.g. far left) that I can wear with my black skinny pants.

I don't like faux leather.  So basically this will never happen.

I am content with being inspired by pretty pictures...

and hey, at least I have black skinny pants.

basic black with nice details.

love the sandy suede.

mmm.  favorite.  they look like a latte.  and could be worn year round.

booties via jcrew, photo via sartorialist

before&after

Much of our furniture has been acquired by antiquing, garage saleing, thrifting, "burming" (this is what JD calls finding things on a curb and keeping them--must be a North Dakota thing)...

I love the thrill of finding something that isn't wanted and making it beautiful and admired.

Design*sponge has a segment where they take older, used, sometimes damaged furniture and fashion it into a gem.  My friend AP and I are going to submit one of our creations on d*s someday...but first we have to do some more shopping trash dump searching to find the perfect piece.

A recent d*s post:

it's amazing what a good clean, some polish, anthropologie knobs, and a perfectly pink wall can do.

images via design*sponge

superfoods?

I just read a book (well the majority of a book...I skimmed a lot) called Superfoods R.X. written by Dr. Stephen Pratt and Kathy Matthews.  The two authors believe there are 14 foods that everyone should incorporate in their diet: 

              Beans              

       Blueberries       

Broccoli

Oats

Oranges

Pumpkin

Soy

Spinach

Tea (Black & Green)

Tomatoes

Turkey

Walnuts

Yogurt

The only foods JD and I don't really eat on this list are: Pumpkin and Turkey (except in November).  Cooking a turkey intimidates me, but I've heard if you buy a "turkey bag" it's easy????  I just don't have enough room in my freezer for a big bird but when I do I am going to make one.  We don't consume much soy either...so this book has inspired me to make edamame a couple of times a week! 

Just buy it frozen(still in the pod), boil some water, throw it in for 5 minutes, drain it and mix it around with a little bit of brown sugar and soy sauce.  This concoction is my attempt to copy my favorite sushi place's edamame appetizer.  JD thinks it "tastes really similar."  But he loves me.  And he loves snacks.

Here's another article on "superfoods" (geared towards women)...some of them are different, some are the same.  I would have to agree with Heath Magazine that avocados should definitely be on the list!!

--image via google

speaking of Trader Joe's...

you need to try this, NOW.  it's my new fav.

AHHHH!!  My friend, LA, recommended the Honey flavor to me...and it's sooo good but this beats it out in my opinion.

p.s. Greek Yogurt??

It's triple strained instead of double strained leaving it very creamy and smooth.  It has more protein than "normal" yogurt, but less calcium (at least typically)....and it's Greek...everything's better Greek ;)

--image via google

lunch.

I'm eating a yummy lunch right now.  I have always had a very good relationship with food.  And I credit that to my mama.  CG is a dietician for pregnant women...well I guess that technically she's a First Mate...but she makes very nutritious and yummy meals while on deck...and someday will return to the nutrition world. 

I love food.  I really enjoy eating it.  But I also like preparing it.  And buying it.  And reading about it.  And reading what's inside of it.  Ingredient lists are the only thing I like about the FDA...but that is a whole other topic.

Here are the grocery stores I shop on a weekly basis.  By going to all five I save a TON of money and have so much fun!

1.COSTCO (I am obsessed.  My friend LA and I have discussed how we would commute hours to shop there if for some awful reason we had to move to a place without one) 
2.Super Target (They truly have amazing deals and fabulous owned brands.  Shop more, Pay Less...and no, I didn't get a bonus to say that)
3.Trader Joe's (Not only do they have the cheapest most amazing Shiraz...they have some of the best deals on Organic and unprocessed foods that I have ever found)
4.Whole Foods (the best samples...and great staples that you can't find anywhere else besides food coops...like Unrefined Coconut Oil and other random things like Castile Soap to make homemade chemical free all purpose cleaner (thanks CG!)
5. Rainbow Foods (I usually only buy avocados here.  But those are so important to me that I am including it.)

A Vente Latte and a full cart at Costco!!  I'm jealous :)

--image via google