5FY

1) Fitz and I are trying out adulthood. After day two, I'm exhausted. This whole getting up a reasonable hour, doing the not so fun things first (dishes, laundry, making the bed...), and keeping up with the never ending paperwork is lame. But I love feeling accomplished when I go to bed rather than feeling guilty because I accomplished nothing... yet again.

2) Speaking of paperwork, we put in a solid four hours today organizing immigration information. And it looks like filing is delayed - again - until this year's tax return is processed. Something about Fitz needing to prove he can support me and the six months worked in 2009 put us below the poverty line. Ha. Unfortunately a novel regarding our status as students for the first five months of 2009 does nothing to clear that discrepancy. 

3) Speaking of immigration, I had to list each person in our immediate families and when we met the in laws. 

My list looks like this:

Dad

Mom

Fitz's list looks like this:

Dad

Mom

Sister

Sister

Sister

Brother

Brother

Sister

Sister

Sister

Sister

I added a note explaining our rather unique families. I hope the immigration people are as amused as I am. 

4) Speaking of Fitz, he made the mistake of saying, "what if we rearranged the living room like this?" He should know better than to offer a free game of move the furniture around because I will always, always take him up on it. It's only half finished, but I am loving the transformation. Seriously, this has been our best idea yet. 

5) Speaking of furniture, I might be making a trip to London Drugs to acquire a rather peculiar chair. It's entirely different from anything else we own, but it's originally $80 and now marked down to $20. I'm smitten with it's uniqueness. 

Bonus!

6) Speaking of spending money, we failed in a major way at the whole three month spending freeze. We're still spending wisely and that definitely equates to more saving, but sometimes there are deals that are too good to pass up. Especially when it's on items that you've been seeking forever. Fitz's new $20 coat with the original $150 price tag would be a great example. 

happy sunday

Things I should have done today:
1) Pick up the living room
2) Fold laundry
3) Wash dishes
4) Cook a real meal for supper
5) Organize paperwork

Things I did do today:
1) Nap
2) Make cookies
3) Wash dishes
4) Watch Fitz make Kraft Dinner
5) Waste time on the internet

Meh. There is always tomorrow.

banana muffins

Ingredients:

4 ripe bananas, mashed

1/3 cup butter, melted

1 cup sugar (brown or white or half each)

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

1 1/2 cup flour (or 1 cup flour, 1/2 quick oats)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.

With a wooden spoon mix melted butter into the mashed  bananas in a large mixing bowl. Stir in sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle baking soda and salt over mixture and blend. Add flour and gently incorporate until batter is free of lumps.

Pour batter evenly into greased muffin tins and bake for 20 minutes.

Yields:

12-15 muffins

Source:

My friend, Pinky. 

happy valentine's day to me

I am far to cheap to appreciate a bouquet of flowers, but when I saw the brightly colored primrose on sale for $1.00 I wanted one. 

Actually, I wanted them all, but Fitz made me narrow it down to two. I'm still plotting a way to get my hands on the bright, bright blue.

They may or may not be contributing to my runny nose. I haven't decided yet. Stupid allergies.

Happy Valentine's Day!

my pantaloons!

I'm so pleased with the remodel. Giving old pants new life. 

Fitz was (un?)successfully trying to teach me to model. Ha. 

I might be tall, but that's about where my modeling qualities end. 

This is what they looked like before - wide leg, trouser. I turned them inside out and laid a pair of skinny jeans on top for reference. From there it was a lot of sewing and, subsequently, a lot of seem ripping until the legs were even. Totally worth the time though.

And this post proves that Fitz's photography skills are far superior to mine. 

a chilly walk by the lake

I want so badly to believe that it is summer and I can wear short shorts again, but alas it is only 40F and windy. 

I don't actually wear short shorts. At least not in public. 

I know those brown boots are huge and hideous. If they weren't so comfortable I'd have given up the ugliness a long time ago.

5FY

1) Since I can't buy new clothes I decided to renovate some things I already own. Maybe someday I'll have pictures (like tomorrow, if I can scam Fitz into taking them for me!).

2) When I need motivation to clean I watch Hoarders. Gets me off the couch every time! 

3) I heart Netflix. I missed having cable and this is a very adequate replacement. Happy TV watching to me.

4) Movie night with the girls last night was fantastic. We ate a lot of pizza and watched She's All That. It made me a nostalgic for high school and a little sad that these girls were just kids when the movie came out - for most of them it was their first time watching!

5) Na'an. 

five for you

1) Tickets to Halifax are booked and bought! I've been checking flight prices everyday for weeks (literally) and waiting for that elusive email from West Jet declaring a seat sale and this morning what did I find in my inbox?! That special little message declaring a sale to all destinations between February 10 and June 15. We happen to be flying out on May 29, thank you very much. Saved $170! (I like to think that's more for me to spend when we get there, but it should just go to savings.) Now I just need the stateside ticket prices to drop for our return. Be assured that I'll continue to stalk Orbitz and all the other fancy travel discount sites.

2) I haven't done much in the way of crafts lately, but this blog (Craftily Ever After) is totally inspiring me. The spending freeze requires me to use what is in the house so we'll see what I can come up with tomorrow.

3) I'm quite sure the "only spend $100 on groceries" goal is a fail. I won't call it yet because I still have a whopping $28 left in my wallet, but seeing as it is, oh, only the 8th day of the month I rather doubt we'll make it to the 28th. I might try it again another month if I redefine the perimeters. We always get invitations to join people for parties which often requires a food contribution (at least I always offer - my momma didn't raise no fool), and sometimes those contributions cost more than we would spend if we were eating at home. I'm okay with that and in a normal month it fits easily into our food budget, but it does not mesh well with this silly goal. I like cooking and these little get togethers are a chance to make some of my favorite things. I like cooking for Fitz too, but when he's equally as pleased with spaghetti sometimes I go with the cheapest option just to make the budget happier.

4) Fitz downloaded a trial month of Netflix to see if it's something we'd considered dropping $8 on every month. I think he's gotten his "free" worth out of it in the past 48 hours. Provided he doesn't watch every available show in the next 28 days, it might actually be worth the small monthly investment. We're almost getting bored with watching the 3 television series that we have on dvd again and again.

(I have decided that I'd buy a yearly subscription for my father as a Christmas gift if he got himself some sort of streaming device. Hint. Hint.)

5) I guess this is going to be four for you as I have nothing left to say.

happy birthday, momma

Loves you! 

(And we need to take some new pictures in June!)

five for you

Things I loved about today...

1) If it were, oh, 70 degrees warmer it would be a great day to body surf, but until then, I'm enjoying the wind and the waves from the warmth of my kitchen. The lake is hauntingly beautiful even when the weather is less than stellar. Also, making Fitz pull over by the lake so I could video the waves. (When I become smarter than the computer or when Fitz offers his help, I'll upload said video for your enjoyment. All 18 seconds of it.)

2) Youth group. I know I abuse the privilege of using words like fantastic and awesome and super, but seriously, these kids are super, fantastic, and awesome. I wish I could take them all home with me and mother them to death. (Slight contrast, I know, from my plea yesterday wishing someone would come mother me. But I seriously love these kids.)  

3) Virtual shopping with Kait. Or should I say, offering my style opinions from thousands of miles away via cell phone picture texts from Old Navy dressing rooms in somewhere, Tennessee. I'm still jealous of the blue gingham shirt she got. I can only hope that it's buried in a clearance rack somewhere when I get to the U.S. in June. 

4) Overeating at Kelly O's... how very American of me. We went out with youth leaders to celebrate. Celebrate their awesomeness, celebrate their commitment to the kids, celebrate the awesome year we've had thus far, and to anticipate an equally awesome spring and summer. Also refusing to kiss Fitz because I fear his crab breath will kill me. (The last time the youth leaders piled in a booth at Kelly O's I tried some of their crab dip and discovered a latent allergy to shellfish. Fun times.) 

5) Crawling in bed with my computer and catching up on my blogs. It's an addiction. Must see fashion pictures. Must see DIY house projects. Must find new recipes. Lets justify it as research for my own blog since I just have to complete my February goals. 

five for you

1) Spent yesterday afternoon shopping with Lin for baby thing! (Her baby things. I'm not having a baby, just to clear up any possible misunderstandings.) It's amazing how everything miniature sized is ten times cuter and ten times more expensive.

2) A second wisdom tooth has decided to make an appearance in my mouth. This is a tooth I was assured didn't exist and when that was proved wrong, I was assured again that it would never actually grow in. The extraction for the first tooth was so painful, I'm really not looking forward to the inevitable round two.

3) Cheap entertainment - watching music videos on You Tube of song from the 90's. Reminiscing with Fitz about the good ol' days when we hadn't a care in the world.

PS - We're now taking applications for pseudo-mothers - must be willing to move to the west and cook and clean for two capable, but lazy 24(ish) year olds.

4) My new dream vacation is to spend a week in New York City attending as many television shows as possible. I want to spend my mornings with the GMA crowd and my nights with Jimmy Fallon.

5) I'm ridiculously excited for the next three days - supper at Kelly O's tomorrow night with the posse, Fitz is getting a haircut on Saturday (let all the Fitzes jump for joy!), and a super Superbowl party on Sunday. Monday will be for sleeping.

na'an

Let's count na'an among the items that I will never buy in a store again. Easy recipe, inexpensive ingredients, and it's fresh. 

Fitz ate half the batch tonight. I might have helped a little. 

Ingredients:

1 cup hot water

1 teaspoon sugar

2 heaping teaspoons dry active yeast

1 egg

4 tablespoons milk

4 1/2 cups flour

1/4 cups white sugar

2 teaspoons salt

Directions:

Combine hot water, 1 teaspoon sugar, and yeast in a warm bowl; let stand for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, whisk together milk and egg, stir into yeast mixture. Combine dry ingredient and then add to liquid; mix until combined then kneed on a lightly floured surface for 5 minutes. Place dough ball in an oiled bowl and let rise for 1 hour.  Divide into equal parts (roughly the size of a golf ball). Place small dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and let rise for 30 minutes. 

Roll individual dough balls on a flat surface until they are 1/8-1/4 inch thick. Cook on a greased griddle on the stove top at medium heat, approximately 1 minute per side. 

Yields:

15-18 servings.

Source: 

Tasty Kitchen

better late than never

I'm not a New Year's resolution type of girl. I think they are silly and more or less made to be broken. So I'm defying culture and instead making February resolutions. Like woah. Revolutionary and totally different, right? Save your mockery for March when I report back with the inevitable failures.

But seriously, I'm setting some goals and making them public. That means I have to at least try. And if I tell Fitz, he keeps me accountable, if for no other reason than he enjoys seeing me suffer from my own ambitions. He loves me.

1) File immigration paperwork. I finally have all the required components, it's just a matter of getting it organized and in the mail. It really should be done this week.

2) Remix 5 outfits. It's kind of like Kendi's 30 for 30 Remix, but different. I'm going to pick five items and make five outfits out of each of them. I tend to wear the same pieces together over and over and over so this will make me break out of the routine.

3) Read 4 books. One a week. Totally doable. And we (mostly Fitz) have an extensive book collection that I've barely glanced at since graduating college. Reading was my job in college and I needed a break, but a nearly two year is slightly excessive. Time to break out of it.

4) Spend only $100 on groceries. Sounds crazy, but I think it's doable. It's also one of my 101 in 1001 goals so I have to try. We have a decent stockpile of everything except produce. And since we buy local produce it's fairly cheap. To prove we're not actually starving, I'll post our weekly menus and grocery receipt.

5) Try 4 new recipes. These need to be meals and not baked good. I like baking and consider myself to be quite successful in that area, but cooking and trying new meals is where I struggle.



Just to be wild and crazy, Fitz and I have set a personal challenge for ourselves - no unnecessary spending for three months. THREE! February, March, and April. It's really easy to fall into a trap of complaining about our lack of money when in reality we have everything we need and then some. So the goal is two-fold: 1) to prove to ourselves that we have more than enough stuff in our house and we don't need to constantly buy new things, and 2) to save a little cash for our upcoming vacation(s).

So, uh, it's February 1st... and go.