I changed the oil in my car...and it still runs!

This was the first time I ever changed the oil in a car, and it still runs! It's not just this car that I have never changed the oil in, but this is the FIRST car I have ever changed the oil.  I can recall being a little girl and looking under the hoods of cars with my father as he would fixed them.  My dad is a mechanic and he would always explain to me what he was doing, how he was doing it, and the mechanics of what was going on.  He still does this to this day.  Because of my dad, I have a really good understanding of the mechanics of a car, but I could not fix one to save my life.

This past weekend I suited up in proper attire, got under the hood, and got dirty while changing the oil in my car...with my hubs assistance!



Now you know who to call when you need an oil change!

 

 

5 Things for 2014

I am usually hesitant to make new years resolutions and promise things to myself; I tend to not uphold the deal I made with myself.  Something about this year felt different, so I thought why not?  I started to make a list and told myself I would have twenty goals on it, at about sixteen I realized it was too unrealistic.  So I have limited myself to 5 realistic goals for 2014.

1. BE HEALTHY. I had a much longer resolution that involved things like drink more tea, wake up earlier, portion control, stretch daily and exercise more. Let's face it, this was too daunting, I don't do daunting.  Let's just say "be healthy."

2. TRY NEW THINGS. In six months I will be 30 and my reason for trying to new things will have concluded. After I finish my 30 Before 30 list I want to continue on the trend of trying new things.  What's life without a little adventure?

3. GO OUTSIDE.  Walk, swim, or run, whatever it is do it outside.

4. DON'T PUT THINGS OFF. Those numerous projects waiting to be started, start them!  I am notorious for having an idea and never following through.  I'd really like to start and finish projects that I have on my mind this year.

5. LOVE. Simple enough, right? I want to spend more time with the ones I love and I want to show the people I love just how much they mean to me.  Life is too short.

 

Steal this Look: Metallic Pedestal Table

Metallic pedestal tables, who isn't obsessed?  But when on the hunt for one, on the cheap, they are near impossible to find.  So with my trusty can of spray paint and a 40% Hobby Lobby coupon in hand I was able to snatch up two of these pedestal end tables and "Steal this Look."

 

Easely Amused

For Christmas this year my sister and I gave our aunts gift cards to a local painting studio.  You know the ones where you bring a bottle of wine and attempt to get in touch with your artistic abilities.  My sister and I went earlier this year to one and we thought it would make a great Christmas gift for our aunts; we plan to go with them and make it into a Aunt/Niece evening...a little bit of paint...a little bit of wine...a whole lot of fun!!!

Instead of the generic and impersonal white paper envelope I thought I'd spruce up the wrapping a bit to make it a little more festive under the Christmas tree.

 

 

I was able to find the tins at the Target Dollar Spot, bought miniature bottles of wine, and the paint brushes were $2 a pack at Target.  These made for a great Christmas gift, or they would make a great year round gift for anyone (just need a plain galvanized tin or any small basket).

 

 

 Linked to: House of Rose: Inspire Me Please



Turkey Day

Since I have hosted Thanksgiving at my house for the last 4 years one would think that I would have cooked a Thanksgiving turkey before, well one would be wrong.  With our first Thanksgiving in our new home I decided that this would be the year for me to defeat the beast that is the Thanksgiving Day Turkey!  I searched Pinterest, cookbooks, and internet cooking sites for the perfect recipe.  I had my "a-ha" moment on Allrecipes.com when I found a Maple Roasted Turkey.  I had to try this recipe, and since this was going to be my first Thanksgiving turkey I couldn't have a Griswold Christmas Vacation experience, so I had to do a trial run.  After the trial run, I knew this was my turkey!  The recipe for this turkey can be found HERE.  After the trial run I decided to double it based on the size of my 18lb turkey. 

I was terrified the whole time that the turkey wasn't going to fit in the our oven, which is by chance the world's smallest oven.

No Griswold turkey reenactment here, it came out perfect.

I was so excited this year to not have to rent tables and chairs for Thanksgiving.  I actually have a dining room and a breakfast room that was able to seat everyone.  Fancy dining room called for fancy place setting as well, I used my wedding china and wedding silver for the occasion.

I discovered the best benefit to cooking the turkey is getting to make turkey stock!  I was able to make a ton of it and have it frozen for future use.  I have already benefited from it and made turkey soup, yum! 

Just call me Betty Crocker

For Trevor's impending descent into his 30's I decided to let him indulge and gift him 30 of his favorite things for his birthday, one of which being German Chocolate cake.

*Side Note* Coming up with 30 of someone's favorite things is a lot harder than it seems. It's hard enough to come up with 30 of my own favorite things, let alone someone else's!

Lucky for me my Grandmother has an amazing German Chocolate cake recipe that helped satisfy at least one of his favorite things, as well as helping me conquer another item on my 30 Before 30 list. With my Granny' recipe in hand and my KitchenAid "locked and loaded" (literally) I baked my first cake...from scratch that is! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made a German Chocolate cake from scratch...YEAH ME! That is after 4 phone calls for further instruction, 4 and a half hours of baking, 1 bad batch of icing, the wrong type of flour and 2 cake rounds that broke in half...maybe I should stick to cooking instead!

 



 

I've gone to the DARK side! EEKK!

 For the past year or so I have been wanting to dye my hair a dark brunette color.  I've never been attached to my hair and never been a stranger to changing it up every now and then; I have just never been this dark before.  I was actually wanting to go in earlier in the fall and dye it but I had to wait until after Halloween due to my costume.  The Hubs and I were Princess Buttercup and Wesley from The Princess Bride, so I had to stay blonde.

So the day after Halloween there I was with my stylist hair deep in dye!  I wasn't too nervous about going dark, I was more nervous about going back to blonde if I didn't love it.  Luckily for me and Magen, my stylist, I loved it, and so did the man who married a blonde! 

 

P.S. Sorry Dad, I'm still a blonde at heart