Busy Little Bee

Right now I am drinking tea (no surprise there), boiling beans to make the winter bean soup in a bit for tomorrow, and soaking old bread in milk for bread soup. I will be taking pics if the bread soup turns out well. Other than that, haven't been up to too much today, just relaxing and hoping the weekend passes quickly....I get G for a whole 5 days next week all to myself!

Time Together

This week is one of the long weeks, so Garret and I were determined to spend some quality time together. We tried going to charity shops in Brandon, but that was a bust.....the 2 we know of closed at 1 (they normally close at 4). So we decided that since we hadn't gotten our ashes yet, it would be okay to eat some soup at Emily's (I was on my third rotation from tummy grumbles). She had yummy lentil soup which neither of us had had in a while. Then we went to the charity shops where we found a cute little midnight blue dress and a braided leather belt (for my waist belts collection).

Last night we sat down and watched Fireproof. I must say we both enjoyed it, I think any couple that has been together for a few years can attest to ups and downs of a relationship, and how easy it is to just stop really seeing the other person and pursuing them the way you do when you're starting to date. My review of the movie is as follows: I am not sure if the actors (outside the adorable Kirk Cameron, of course) were bad or if the writing was just that bland, but it's one of those.....however there are some great lines: Caleb and his friend Michael are discussing marriage and Caleb (Cameron) says, "Marriage isn't fireproof, sometimes you get burned." And Michael responds that "Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." Basically the movie was pretty good (we both liked it enough to watch most of the special features). I would recommend seeing it, even if you are not Christian......I think the message of having to work at love is universal.

Now on to the pics....

My outfit for Ash Wednesday: Grey blue top from Gap, it's a size too big, but I am not bothering to send it back, I just belt it and will keep it around for the future days when we are ready to become more than puppy parents.

I was having a fairly good hair day for not even trying. I got this beaded black headband at Bhs here in the UK.....it's thin and cute.

Garret wore a button down with dark and pale grey stripes......we matched without being matchy.....and we were both ashy for Wednesday!

This is the town hall in Brandon. Isn't it cute?



An adorable little old fashioned green grocer we found.....they didn't have anything we were particularly needing, but I just had to take a pic!

I snapped a pic of Garret as we were walking on one of the main roads.

These are the best bananas in the whole world! They are fairtrade organic, and each one is about the length of my hand.

I am so that American who eats her produce (or fresh bread) in the car because she cannot wait until she gets home.....sometimes I get weird looks, sometimes drooling looks of envy.

This is my funniest pic ever. We had to go to the base pass office because I had accidentally left mine at home. As we were walking back to the car Garret started laughing and told me I had to come back to where he was and look in the window. I think if you click on the pic you will be able to see it clearly, but apparantly someone who works there has my name (or they named the microwave Kalee), either way it's the first time I found anyone with my name spelled the same.....and the sign says "Don't Touch Kalee." GREAT!

Proof that we did in fact actually attend Ash Wednesday services. It was Garret's first time, and I have to say the mass wasn't half bad. Well, except me being weirded out because I left my rings off at home (I take them off in the kitchen a lot) and I felt like a wanton woman with a married man, and was mildly concerned the other parishioners would think so too!

Our delicious dinner last night. We kept it light to keep with the fasting thing. I sauteed up 1/2 of a large Spanish onion, and then put that under the salmon, topped the salmon with dijon and sea salt and baked. Then I put salad on a plate, lined the edge of the plate with rocket (yes, I made it very full on purpose....I thought it looked pretty, and I didn't want the tomatoes getting hot and wilting) and then topped that with a small tomato. The onions went on the center lettuce, then salmon on top. No dressing, everything was flavorful and didn't need it!

This was the dress we bought at the charity shop for 6 pounds (about 9 dollars). It still had the tags and the little bag with straps attached. The pic doesn't show it well, but it's a really pretty midnight blue satin, I added my belt, and a blue grey scarf. Excuse the look on my face, I had just woken up and wanted to try it on with accessories! My favorite part is the neckline, it kind of dips and reminds me of vintage dresses.

This was me right before I began this post, chowing down on some rocket. I have to say I love the peppery taste and it isn't unusual to see me with a bag or bowl of it just munching.

This little break in our week was a good time, we actually focused on us rather than everything else going on right now. And we found out last night that March 5th (a week from today) will be a very special day......WE'RE GETTING MARRIED! Okay, technically we are legally married (we even got married in *gasp* a Protestant church) but Garret it becoming Catholic (he'll be baptized and confirmed Easter weekend) and apparantly that won't happen unless we convalidate our marriage. Basically we have to have the marriage validated as a sacrament in the Catholic church.....I love my church, but damn is it picky! I have a pretty little dress, and our whole class will be our witnesses, so hopefully I can convince someone to take pics.

Now, onto a very important question.....does anyone have a good recipe for lentil soup? I am desperate, about to bribe Jacqui (the owner of Emily's) for her recipe, but thought I would appeal to everyone else first. If you have one, please e-mail me!!!

Thank You

My friend Anna gave me 2 awards this week. These are my first ever, so I am quite excited. I am supposed to pass them on, and I find myself going....hmmm......do I know 8 bloggers well enough?

The first award was:

The first award is a Friends Award.

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

And the second:

Honest Scrap award:
A) First list 10 honest things about yourself - and make it interesting, even if you have to dig deep!
B) Pass the award on to 7 bloggers that you feel embody the spirit of the Honest Scrap.

10 Honest Things About Me

1. I am turning 25 in about 2 months, have been married for nearly 2 years, and I feel like I am just now really trusting myself enough to figure me out.

2. I really love cats, but their litterbox issue drives me nuts......thank God G loves them more than I do.....enough to take care of that part when we get one!

3. This past May (actually May 5th, our anniversary) I took a long luxurious bath while G chatted with me, and then got out, decided my hair was finally driving me too crazy (it was all the way down my back) and chopped into in, cutting off a good 6 inches (with G's help).....then I tried to do long bangs....never again, I ended up getting it (kinda) fixed after crying at the hair place.

4. I really love expensive things (shoes, dresses, wine) but I hate seeing our account take a hit, so I rarely allow myself a big splurge. I get huge buyer's regret no matter how much I love the item.

5. I once asked Garret if he got a tattoo would he ever get my name tattood.....he told me it was bad juju, so no. I pouted and asked if maybe after we had been married 10 years? He said he would think about it, that that might be long enough. Eight more years to go!

6. One of my best friends once said she thought I would be a Martha Stewart Stepford Wife when I grew up....I'm working on it.

7. I am secretly addicted to sites like perezhilton......I tried to give it up this month.....I made it 2 weeks and then had to back-read everything. In my defense, I skim and look at the pics more than anything.

8. I am even more addicted to reality t.v. The Hills, The City, The Real Housewives (all of them), America's Next Top Model, Hell's Kitchen, Project Runway....etc. Even worse is I get my husband addicted to!

9. After watching said reality shows, I tend to feel like I have lost braincells (with some of them), and with a few I tend to talk differently after, which isn't always a good thing.

10. I absolutely hate PB&J....always have, always will. I try and taste G's when he makes one, and I always get this disgusted look on my face. Give me PB with honey, but jelly is just wrong!

And now for who to give it to: Women whose blogs I adore (and many have been helpful whenever I had a question)

1. Stephanie: Adventures In Babywearing
2. Michelle: Bleeding Espresso
3. Chic Mummy
4. Freckles Chick
5. PBW: Forty Is The New Twenty
6. La Belette Rouge
7. Riana: These Days In French Life
8. Deja Pseu: Une Femme D'Un Certain Age

And for all the lurkers and people who occasionally leave comments: Please e-mail me or comment with 1 or 10 things about yourself!!! I would love to hear at least one thing from everyone!

The Rest of the Weekend...

This weekend Garret and I made it a point to spend a lot of time together. This week is one of the hell weeks where 5 out of the 7 days he will be working 12 hours, 10 am to 10 pm. It sucks, but you learn to spend the time beforehand carefully. After the market Saturday we came home and before it got dark Garret started a fire in our outdoor fireplace and then ran to the store for a new bottle of wine. We cuddled outside for about 30-45 minutes. We looked at the stars, Garret pointing out constellations, me impressing him by the fact that apparantly I have good enough eyesight to be able to pick out the red dwarfs (the stars that at any time could basically explode and disappear) something he can only do with his telescope. Then we came in and had a lovely meal.

Fire and Bordeaux....ahhhhh.

Garret took this photo of the wine glass in front of the fire....so pretty.

I got this dish at TKMaxx (the Brit equivalent to TJMaxx) for a few pounds, and had yet to use it. So I whipped it out for dinner. I melted some Brie in the middle, then cut up some bread to eat with it. For dinner we were having roasted asparagus (the first of the season!!!) and roasted salmon with lemon and dijon. We sat and had a nice dinner together.

After dinner we drank tea....lots of it, of course. At one point I started pointing at my tea cup. I oftentimes see things others wouldn't....that night it was an old man in my tea. Can you see his gnome-like self?

The beautiful tulips Garret bought me to replace the last ones that sadly only lasted about a week.

This was a re-enactment. Garret and I were watching a t.v. show on the computer in the kitchen. I kept hearing what sounded like crying, but figured maybe it was the neighbors. Later Garret mentioned it and we went in the living room to find basically this: That is the big box that our market bag came in that I left in the living room. When we came home I dropped it back in the box (after putting up the brie, camembert and sundried tomatoes). At some point, she felt like she couldn't get past it (it was near the little ottoman we have) and sat there whining. Never mind that the part she couldn't get past only came up to her knees andwas maybe 6 inches wide. For some reason she has never been able to guess she is big enough to get past obstacles!

For lunch the next day I roasted more asparagus and G poached eggs for a light lunch. It ended up being very delicious, something we will have to make again.

Blueberry batter with fresh blueberries.

I had enough batter for 2 batches of muffins, but not quite enough paper sleeves. So I made bluberry bread, and dang it is yummy.

Lastly, this is a little candle I got at my bridal shower nearly 2 years ago from my SIL Kathy. She gave me these candles that are in little mason jars ( I had loved the ones she had in her home). One is scented like strawberry shortcake, and the one burning here is vanilla cupcake. Both are yummy smelling, but this was the first time I burned one!
The weekend was great. So, asking for feedback......do I post too many pics per post? too much type to read? I am trying to blog better. Any questions anyone has? If you don't feel comfortable leaving a comment, e-mail me (kaleemarie (at) yahoo (dot) com) and I would love to hear from you. I got an e-mail the other day from a very nice lady, who I promise I am writing back....I got a little distracted by the weekend events! Please forgive me!

Sophie's Big Adventure

Sophie is our beautiful Lab mix puppy (and at close to 2 years, yes she is still a puppy, she never grew into her legs so she still frolics like a leaping deer everywhere!). She likes many things: me, treats, her squeakers toy, bananas, mango, flour, going outside, going for walks, random people, and small children. However there is one big thing she does not like, at all: riding in the car. It's our own fault, she didn't like it as a little puppy, it made her anxious, so we didn't try and get her used to it. Now that in about 5 months she will be taking a 2 hour drive to the airport where she will be loaded and flying internationally, we thought we should probably start with it. So this weekend we decided to take her with us to the market. At one point, the clip of the leash (due to all her wiggling) worked itself out of the loops of her harness while we were eating, and she sauntered off down the hill. I didn't get a pic, but it was hilarious. Most dogs would run off, she just walked casually and stopped when we said her name.

She wasn't really pleased to be in the car, and kept getting up and walking along the back seat.

A very interesting squirrel who tried to hide on the tree. Another squirrel caught Sophie's attention mere seconds after Garret noticed it as they walked around the abbey (I sat on a bench and people watched). She took off after it, because quite frankly, she had never seen one....there really aren't any on our base!

I wanted a pic of her and Garret at the market. The smells distracted her.

Here I was, calm, drinking my wine. Garret had a hold of our princess, so I could breathe....

Until she decided it was odd that I wasn't focused on her and came to visit my lap under the table!

We got comments all day about how nicely she behaved, how sweet she was. Once during lunch Garret didn't catch the end of a conversation, but here is how the first part went "Isn't it so nice to see...." as an older couple watched up as they walked by. Even without the end it was a lovely compliment!

The yumminess....Garret had field mushrooms with creamed spinach and cheese and a fried egg on top. I had a wonderful salad with goats cheese, black olive puree, sun blushed tomatoes, and the house vinaigrette, and we shared a small dish of escargot, a basket of bread, and a carafe of the house red. It was divine, and Sophie was excited.....she takes after her parents and loves French food! I think her favorite was the goats cheese and the bread that I dipped in Garret's cheese.

A quick smooch for a successful meal (I was mildly terrified Sophie would cause too many disruptions....we found success by wearing her out at the abbey first and then going to lunch).

After eating we went back to the abbey and grabbed some ice cream. Garret had English Strawberry and I had Caramel and Hazelnut. Sophie had a little of both.

The sweet eagerness as she sees us eating our ice cream...

She attacked the container when I offered it to her.

It began to get near sunset, and it got pretty chilly.

One last smooch in the abbey, it will be a bit before we get back.

There were a lot of random flowers growing around the abbey (in addition to their beautiful landscaping they do). My favorite was the snowdrops that I wanted to take and put into G's lapel......Stardust anyone?

This was Sophie after I tricked her into getting into the car by tossing a treat in. Otherwise she was having none of it. Her reproachfulness is apparant.

We had a wonderful time, and will definately be doing it again as soon as we can. Maybe on a Wednesday market day when it's much less crowded. Overall I was so proud of how she interacted with other people. She kissed other dogs, little kids would come up and pet her. And at one point I got nervous when a woman and her helper came over while we were eating because Sophie seemed a bit scared of wheels (bikes, strollers, wheelchairs, everything with wheels she stayed clear of all day at the abbey) and the woman was in a wheelchair, but she licked the woman's hands and sat there while she got petted. I know everyone thinks they have the best dog, but Sophie's reputation in the neighborhood (we got told this by our neighbors) is that she is the sweetest dog. And she is.....she very rarely barks (and even then it's generally from excitement, although she does not like Bruno, a dog who lives on our block), she has never snapped at anyone, and once she even had Bruno hanging off of her lips (he was a new puppy and jumped and bit down but she barely noticed!). She loves to give kisses and is just overall a happy go lucky puppy. Sometimes when she is driving me crazy I remind myself that she's the best dog anyone we know has ever met, and she does love her mama!

Stuffed

Okay, I haven't been able to come up with too terrible much to blog about lately. The weather has been blah......and I have just been tired. Am I the only one who gets tired and reflective when the skies are grey? As much as I love England, moving back in 6 months will be just soon enough....otherwise I would be investing in one of those odd lights that give you a version of sunlight so you don't go all weird from lack of sun.

Garret and I decided that we go out to eat too much. And since the people who run his class won't read this I can admit that at times we might have used dinner as an excuse to miss Mass. Probably because we don't enjoy the mass on base. However we are working on fixing that (a.k.a., finding a different church that doesn't have a stained glass version of the statue of liberty....which isn't our problem with the church, but it is mildly frightening, I should find a pic to show on here). So, as Ash Wednesday is this coming Wednesday, Garret and I decided that we would give up going out to eat for Lent. That means no more delectable croque monsieurs, no more steaming cups of espresso, and no more scones......at least none that we don't make ourselves.

And in grand fashion that means that we have been eating out like it's our last meal. Today alone we hit up Emily's for some soup, Chili's for chips and salsa, and then decided to get a salad for me and pasta for Garret (although we each brought at least half of our meal home, so we have lunch for tomorrow!), and then on the way back to base decided to run to our favorite Indian restaurant, not for food, but for amazing floater coffees (which if I manage to replicate I will take a pic). Tomorrow we are headed to the market to pic up veggies for soup, sundried tomatoes for sandwiches and pasta, and cheese, because I love Brie and Camembert. I recently acquired a lovely woven market bag, so I will be sure to take a ton of pics of the market and me with the bag. I will try to wear something cute for the camera!

Hope everyone is enjoying the variable weather around the world. For now, it's been cold here, but most days we have a couple hours of sunshiny-ness.

China

So over the past year or so I have had people ask me why we generally use china instead of everyday dishes. We come across as kind of young to prefer it (we've used it mainly since we were married at 23) and a lot of people seem to think it is too fragile or nice to use everyday. Well, I have to disagree. Garret and I discussed a lot before getting married and one thing I was most excited about was getting to play at being grown up and using real china!

First, let me explain that yes, china can be expensive. We expected that for our wedding we would probably get a few pieces and then we would acquire the rest over the years. However, I registered at Macy's and when looking over my registry one afternoon we began an adventure of sorts. I had previously registered for the sets that had enough for 8 place settings, plus a sugar and creamer, a vegetable bowl, and a round serving platter. I didn't expect to get them, I figured Garret and I would buy one using the discount after our wedding.

However, that day when we printed out my registry it had the whole set (worth something like $500 retail, more if you bought individually) listed as $19, so I turned to the registry lady to point out that there must be a glitch in the computer. She too thought it was odd, since when I had registered they had been on sale for $200 a piece. She looked it up in the computer and sure enough it was listed there for $19. My mother got very excited and asked her to check into it. So off we headed to the computer system of the registers and still it said the same. My mother got even more excited, deciding she would buy 2 sets as my parents wedding gift to me. (understand....we couldn't have even bought one creamer and sugar for 20 dollars) But when the representative tried to look up where one was located in the system she couldn't find one. She called around, and still no set. I was getting mildly heartbroken as I loved the pattern.

My mother and she talked it over and the lady said she would keep looking. My mother also said that since it was listed on both my registry and the computer at that price, my mother felt they should sell them to us at that price even if they couldn't find one in time. The lady agreed. She got ahold of the people who run the website and was eventually able to get us 2 sets (enough place settings for 16 people) for less than $50!!! So yes, I got what even on sale is $400 dollars worth of china for less than $50. My mother and I have had some pretty good luck over the years with our shopping, but this took the cake.

Still, when I moved here to England we bought some plain white Corelle thinking we would want it to use when we did things like pizza or whatnot as a less formal way of eating. But slowly over time we realized that we just enjoyed eating off of the china. It makes for perfect portion sizes (we use the soup bowls for cereal, rather than the huge American cereal bowls that hold at least 2-3 times the serving amount), and it makes it feel like every meal is important. We also use the soup bowls when serving pasta since they seem to keep us from eating huge amounts, and the amounts they hold end up being just enough to make us feel very satisfied but not uncomfortable. We eat sandwiches on the salad plates. And one cute use we have found for the tea cups (other than the abnormal amounts of tea we drink) is to serve ice cream in them. They hold one nice size scoop. For Christmas 2007 my mother and grandmama bought us the gravy boat and plate and the salt and pepper shakers. We still need quite a bit of the china, but we are acquiring it over time, as originally planned. Up next on our list is the coffee pot, the oval serving platter and the fruit bowls (which we also plan to use for ice cream).

As for people who worry about it's durability, here's my experience. I have broken a salad plate and Garret has broken a dinner plate. Our kitchen floors are ceramic tile, so the china never stood a chance (this is on top of one round serving platter and vegetable bowl getting broken in the move, but those will be reimbursed by the movers). However, as long as you don't drop them they do fine. They are dishwasher safe, and while for a bit I was worried about the pattern and hand washed them all the time, I eventually gave it a go, and they have been washed in the dishwasher almost daily for a year and show no signs of wear.

Garret was not with me when I picked out the pattern, but he loves them. They are Mikasa's platinum crown pattern, and so they have just a bit of flair, while still remaining neutral and elegant. If you are wanting just a simple edging, Mikasa has that too and I would highly recommend them simply because ours has held up so well. I will admit they are slightly irregular, as china usually is. The plates do not all sit evenly spaced in our cabinet (but I am told that is normal). Yes, we still would like a plain white ware set (probably because I have an obsession with dishes). But we are taking our time finding a simple one with a little bit of style. Mikasa has a few everyday china patterns in white we are looking at, as well as patterns at Target and World Market. But as we love our china so much, we are taking our sweet time.

This summer when I move home I am also acquiring my grandmother's china, crystal and silver, as well as some entertaining pieces (being the only granddaughter and oldest grandchild does have it's perks). But for the average person, one set of china, if taken care of should last a lifetime. I know not everyone will have the money for items like china and silver, nor such luck with a grandmother, so here is my advice for acquiring such things elsewhere:

• Look in thrift stores and antique stores. If you see a pattern you like, ask them to hold it and do some research. Check ebay for the same pattern. You may be able to get a whole bunch of one pattern very cheaply.
• For silver, check antique places. I love the idea of using a mix of patterns for a more whimsical feel to dinner. Most of my grandmother's silver she bought back in the 40's or 50's but some of it was family pieces with monograms on them. I have a mix of demitasse spoons in sterling silver I bought at an antique shop several years ago, and I use them to eat grapefruit! They are the perfect size for scooping pieces out!
• Ebay is a wonderful place to look for practically everything. I have even found my china set that someone took plates and made a dessert stand out of them (one where there are 3 levels of plates for hors d'oerves or tea time treats).

Basically, it's easy to find and collect china. It doesn't have to be expensive (often you can find sets of china on ebay that are older, but just as pretty). And if you like a more whimsical effect, mixing up similar patterns or colors is easy to do, and pretty easy on the wallet as well! Here's my ever present cup of tea next to me at the computer (I tend to keep a pot of water hot on the stove!)

Making Something Up

Lately I have been trying my best to not waste food in our house. So far so good, we've basically avoided throwing out much of anything. Last night I had plans to make chicken noodle soup. We have a plentiful freezer of chicken (bought at half off, so using a pack of a whole chicken cut up and a pack of chicken breasts cost less than $5) and carrots and onions and celery. I decided to use up the potatoes we alrady had instead of buying more noodles and instead made a chicken vegetable soup.

I know it seems like we eat a lot of soup, and we do. It's been very cold here this winter in England, and a bowl of hot soup, coupled with cups of hot tea (which was my lunch today) seem to warm us better than the heaters ever could.

I made a huge batch of this, so I would highly reccommend halving it unless you either have a large family or love soup as much as we do and have a huge pot. I used my 6 qt pot and it was filled to the brim. Here's my made up recipe (most amounts are approximate, since I started out with much more vegetables, but ended up scaling back)....enjoy!

Chicken Vegetable Soup

1 small whole chicken cut into 8 pieces
1 pkg of chicken breasts (about 3 decent sized breasts)
6 large carrots, chopped into circles or half circles
4 stalks of celery, chopped
4 medium size onions (we used yellow ones), diced
2 lb. of potatoes
1 L chicken broth (we used 1 box of Swanson organic chicken broth)
salt and freshly ground pepper
celery salt
1 pkg Lipton onion soup mix

Place chicken in soup pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Simmer until chicken is done (about 20 minutes for this amount). During the boiling process I spoon off the foam that rises. When chicken is done, remove from water and set aside. Ladle off as much of the broth as you can into another container. (we ended up being able to use very little boxed brother doing it this way and it tasted delicious!) Wash and cut into chunks the 2 lb. of potatoes. Place potatoes and broth (the homemade kind, leave the pkg alone for now....if making a smaller batch you might not even need it) into the pot and bring to a boil. Cook until the potatoes are beginning to become tender and then add the carrots, celery and onions. Add the onion soup mix and spices to taste (I used about a tsp of celery salt, but you can omit if you want. Also about a Tbsp. of sea salt to start with, and then go from there. If halving I would use maybe 1 1/2 tsp to start). While that is cooking tear up chicken into pieces (you can cut it up, but in our house we prefer it torn into pieces, seems to work better that way). Once the vegetables have become soft add the chicken and extra broth if desired. Cook until chicken is heated and then serve.

This was a fun little experiment, that ended up being very tasty and satisfying. Garret loved it even better than my homemade chicken noodle soup (and for him that's a big deal).

If the directions confuse you or you have any questions at all feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me and I will get back to you soon!

Crunchy Cookie Advice

Garret and I are in the middle of baking chocolate chunk cookies, and it reminded me to give my readers a tip I have found most helpful. We don't like to make more than half a batch, because they either don't get eaten, or all we do is eat cookies! But with this new recipe the whole batch only calls for one egg. So the easiest thing to do in this situation? We make the full batch of batter, then make some balls and put them on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and put it in the freezer until they harden. The cookies stay good for quite a while, and we can pull a couple out when we want some.

And my biggest cookie advice to date? Share! I am a favorite baker with friends and neighbors because of this, and it's a good chance to catch up.

Simple Valentine's Day

Garret worked 36 hours the 3 days this weekend (12 hours each, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). Sometimes I hate his job, but eh. Valentine's Day is not that big of a deal to me. The way I explained it to G was that he buys me flowers, he leaves me love notes, and he makes sure to show how much he loves me every day of the year, so a commercial holiday is no big deal. But last night I wasn't feeling so energetic (even after a 3 hour nap) so I called and asked if he wanted to swing by and pick up Indian food for dinner. We ordered a bunch of yumminess (enough that we had some leftovers) and I decided to be cute and set the table. I took a large notecard, cut out 2 hearts and colored them red and wrote "I LUV U" on one and "BE MINE" on the other to sit on the top plate. Add a couple festive placemats and some candles, and it was a nice surprise for him after a long day at work. Oh, and wine of course....always wine.
Please excuse the t.v. in this shot, the computer is hooked up to the t.v. for now (but that's a post for another day!).

Skinny

I am currently mildly obsessed with a couple new accessories. Skinny Belts. I mean, yes, I might be a little late on the bandwagon, but boy have I hopped on! I've been reading a ton of blogs lately, and I realized I liked the look of skinny belts around a waist a lot. But I have always thought that it tends to not be a good look for me. However, after finding a nice brown leather one with a croc pattern at a local charity shop for 1 pound (about $1.50) I gave it a go. As I am slimming down I am really starting to like my waist line......it emphasizes my curvyness ( I have somewhat of an hourglass shape), and a belt there seems to help it. Currently I am in a long grey tank top with a brick red cardigan over it, nothing too fancy as I don't have any plans to leave the house today. But I grabbed another skinny belt I bought this week that is braided black leather, and instantly I feel more put together. Rather than put it over the cardigan (which I am still trying to figure out how to make it work.....it tends to gather the cardigan up awkwardly) I put it over the tank with the cardigan over that.

Okay, enough of me rambling about it.....what do you think? (Please excuse the no make-up/hair tossed up quickly.....like I said, it's a home day) Like it? Suggestions? Does anyone else have a love for belts worn over clothes?

Also, the tracker I have on here has shown a lot of activity lately. Please leave some comments and let me know who you all are. And if you have your own blogs I would love to read them!