Cashew Chicken Or How I Learned That I Can Really Cook

In keeping with new year and new things, I'm definitely making more of an attempt to eat healthy and cook proper dinners. Awhile back I posted smoothie recipes on here and that was also when I was trying my hand at a fit lifestyle. I realized then, I need food. Don't get me wrong, juicing and smoothies are wonderful, but I can't live off fruits and veg alone! I need more and I need it to taste good! So the other day I took a good hard look at all my pinterest boards and made a real grocery list and planned out a couple meals.

Without further ado, here is Homemade Cashew Chicken. All credit for the recipe goes to blog The Art Of Doing Stuff, thanks!!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 Large Chicken Breasts

• 1 Tbsp Cornstarch
• 6 Small Garlic Cloves (minced)
• 8 Green Onions
• 1/4 Cup Hoisin Sauce
• 1/4 Cup Rice Vinegar (unseasoned)
• 1/4 Cup Water
• 1 Cup Cashews (toasted over medium/low heat in pan)
• 1 Can of Mandarin Oranges or 1 Sumo Orange (optional)
• Salt & Pepper
• Olive Oil
• However Much Rice You Need, i.e: One Half Cup Per Person

To begin, I would chop everything (onions, oranges, chicken, garlic) and start your rice cooking. There was a lot more chopping than I was used to and I honestly extra toasted my cashews. They were still delicious, but a bit blackened :(. Separate your white parts from the green parts on the onions and chop all into about 1/2" to 1" pieces. Chop your orange segments in half. Cube your chicken. Mince that garlic!

Once you've cubed your chicken, go ahead and put it in a tupperware or plastic bag with the cornstarch, salt & pepper. Shake it up! Set aside. 

Then take the white part of your onions and garlic and begin to saute in the olive oil for a few minutes before adding your chicken. Fry the chicken for about 5 minutes or so, until all traces of pink are gone.

On medium high heat, add the rice vinegar and cook until it is evaporated. Then add Hoisin sauce and water. Stir in cashews as well. Remove from heat once sauce is thoroughly covering all and add in the green parts of the onion. Give that a quick stir and then serve on a bed of rice. Top with mandarin oranges and ENJOY! 

This was delicious and I was super proud of myself for adulting so well. Make this for yourself! Make it for your friends! You'll thank me! :)

Keep on, Keepin' on y'all!

M.

Is It Too Early for Halloween? Or Nah?

After all the Summertime celebrations have ended and all thoughts turn towards fall and back to school and Halloween....can I just say I am so ready. Both for the cooler temperatures and mostly decorating my house and figuring out this years costume(s). Last year I made a large head-dress with antlers

 and kind of skimped out on my actual dress. This year there is a kind of plan in our neighborhood for a group costume, I don't know if we are still holding each other to this but if not, and really even if......I think I might finally make my mermaid dreams a reality and show my true form this year. It all came from a post about how shell crowns are the new flower crowns and just...OMG

You can look at all the rest of the beauty on Chelsea Shiels' instagram: @chelseasflowercrowns.

So now I am super inspired to try my hand at making my own, and luckily Florida has many shells to choose from to help in this endeavor. Also my favorite part of Halloween is making parts of my costume, as well as make-uping my face.  I am about to pin all the things and watch all the tutorials.

We are not doing any inside party this year, all will be on the outside/front of the house, I'm sure my man has something planned to make a big impact, and don't worry friends, it'll be documented properly this year!

Can't wait to get started!

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

Summer Blues

July 4th came and went. It was a great time with lots of friendships and smiles. Now we are back to regular neighbor hangs and nothing big really happening until the fall. I will definitely be updating more during September/October as we will be throwing 2 parties. The first is a baby fiesta for my dear sweet neighbors and their upcoming baby girl, and the second is a combined effort block party for Halloween! I am so excited for both and looking forward to making all kinds of decorations and foods :)

Now we come to the hottest time during the summer in Florida. My car always registers in the 100's when I get into it after work from sitting on the black tar parking lot all day. If you're wearing shorts, you've got the thigh/butt burns from a leather seat permanently until about late October.

This is also the time for a bit of a summer blues since there isn't anything going on, it's pretty similar to the winter blues in January after all the holiday season is over. It's the best time I think for a bit of an exercise kick. Get those endorphin's flowing! I believe we are getting a work group together to have a check in so that we'll actually work out, but I do know that I'll pick up on my running this week, I need to get active for my own self health.

Wish me luck, y'all!

Keep on, keepin' on!

M.

MAY Be I Ought To Make A Schedule Hahahaha

So with my cracked tooth fiasco I ended up needing it pulled out....which was seriously the worst thing to ever happen to me at that moment. I am no fan of dentists in the first place but this was too much. The unfortunate misstep I took in lowering our dental insurance cause me to have this tooth pulled without laughing gas/sedative. Just shots of Novocaine and a yank!! *cue all my cries forever* Moral of the story, actually read your health insurance packets when you get them so that when you to have an unexpected need for it.

Flash forward to the weekend and our friend's(and neighbors) awesome wedding! So much friendship, so much love, such a wonderful time. My man and I made lifelong friends from an epic week of partying and hanging out. We now have more homes in different countries to visit, which is amazing! Travelling is definitely something that has been on the backburner for far too long.

Another flash forward into this, the end of May and it took me all month to finish writing this blog post. So pretty much this title that was originally a pun is now really what I'm going to be doing as soon as I publish this. Woooo organization!!! I've had a full Kale-Bleuberry-Cherry smoothie, I AM READY hahahaha

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

April Showers Bring.....Projects? Smoothies? Life Adventures?

Oh hi!

So I have at least done a once a month on here :D

But in all seriousness I've been busy, I've been up and down, I've been working all the weekends. It's been a weird time so far this 2016. I've been trying to figure out life and deal with all the things I guess grown up 30 year old ladies get to do. But I'm here! And I'm writing, so great times.

I decided on Monday that I was like "Yea, I'm gonna start getting healthy and eating well rounded meals more and less bad snacks!" So yesterday I bring my lunch to work, kale salad w/ walnuts and cherry tomatoes and a nice onion vinagrette.....and as I take a bite I chomp down on a walnut. On my not-so-great back tooth. And I cracked it :'( This is what I get?! No one ever cracked a tooth on a cheeseburger!!! So now until Monday when I go to the dentist, I can't really chew without it hurting. So now I'm making alll the smoothies. Maybe a health kick on it's own then?? But not at all how I wanted this to go.

I have made 3 smoothies so far and 2 were great and now the one I'm drinking as I type this out is, UM ok, I guess??

The first 2 as follows ( I was inspired by pinterest):

Berry Berry Great :)

Handful of dark pitted cherries
2 Handfuls of blueberries
Handful of strawberries
2 Heaping Tbsp vanilla yogurt
A Good Squeeze of honey
A Pour and a Half of cranberry juice

(Such accurate measurements)
Blend and enjoy. Also I used all frozen fruits so I didn't need ice.

Peanut Butter Yum :)

One to Two bananas (depending on the amount you want to make. I used one and it yielded about half a mason jar full)
3ish Tbsp of peanut butter
A Good Squeeze of honey
A Third of frozen apple juice concentrate

Blend and enjoy. Again no ice due to the frozen juice.

Now the third....I only changed kale from spinach but I got this recipe straight from a pinterest search

Pineapple Avocad-no :/

2 ripe avocados (it does make a full glass)
4 sliced pineapples, chopped
2 heaping handfuls of kale
A Good Squeeze of honey
A Good Pour of pineapple juice
Ice (nothing was frozen)

Blend.....for way longer than you had to on the first two and take a sip, it has an avocado texture, which is expected-but it's too thick. I was hoping as the ice melted it would be ok but I've been test sipping during this whole blog and it's not gotten better. It needs more fruit and juice and less avocado I think. If you do make it: please tell me if you improved on it.

When did this blog get so fancy and full of recipes?! I am a true at home blogger now yes! Expect all the posts on how I DIY'd my entire porch using only dollar store items, spray paint and things from Crate & Barrel that I causally had laying around my house.

But for real though, I'm having a small get together for Fourth of July weekend and I will probably DIY some decorations for that. Plus later in the year I am throwing a baby sprinkle for my dear friend and will definitely update the blog for that adventure.

Stay Tuned!! :D

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

Thanksgiving is Nearly Here!

The holidays are upon us friends! I am honestly looking forward to both Thanksgiving and Chirstmas this year. More than I have in the past few years and I'll tell you what: It's great :)

I've been in retail for going on 11 years now and as the holiday season has crept up faster and sooner, it zapped alot of the spirit out of me for many years. On top of some person drama during those years, I really gave up on good cheer, just putting on a nice front. This year things have come back to a bit of normalcy and drama has been squashed away, and even my store has gone companywide and given us a day completely off on Thanksgiving. The mall held out until November to put up their Christmas lights. I heard Santa isn't even showing up til after Black Friday!

Also, in moving over here to St. Pete, we have bonded with a wonderful block and now I have a pair of lovely ladies to craft Christmas bobbles and garlands with! We're so happy to get together and just enjoy each other's company. My parents had a neighborhood group when they lived in Chicago and they always talk of it with fond memories. To this day I'm pretty sure they still send each other Christmas cards....30 years later! This is the neighborhood we have found, this is where we'll stay :)

When I do crafting, trust that I shall put a few DIY blogs up!

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

In Celebration of Friendship

In my life I have and have had good friends, great friends, best friends, acquaintances, bad friends, ghost friends and toxic friends. All these people made a mark on my life in some way, at some point and shaped me to the woman you know/read about on this blog.

I have found that in troubled times and wonderful times you never expect all the outpouring of love and support you will recieve.

And because it has been a difficult couple months and now because we are on the upswing of our lives, I just want to say thanks.

Thanks to our friends who we love and love us back. I'm happy we are in each other's lives.

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

Nearly Halloween!

Hello all! It's been a bit and I'm back to update you on costumes, life and partytimes.

Saturday was our 3rd annual Halloween party, it was a good time. I made my dress up a day before, started with a simple thrifted long black dress:

Then I added a skeleton garland, some pins and some twine:

That night I added shawls for more effect and my head-dress. Make-up was equally simple with just a half sooty face and some random striping:

Here are extra shots of the night (we sadly didn't take as many as I hoped too):

My man and I had a good time but not nearly as good as we both hoped. You are ultimately your worst critic and the idea of topping last year's soiree proved very daunting and frustraiting. Our friends loved it and at the end of the day that's what matters I guess. Next year there won't be a party (I'm 90% positive) and maybe we'll get to enjoy more haunts around town.

I am looking forward to a  chilled out Halloween night on the porch with our neighbors and my bestie. Happy Haunting you guys!

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

DIY Antlers and Now Floral Necklace Tutorial PART 3 :)

Welcome back! This part of the tutorial is very optional. If you made the antlers and want to be done there, that's totally cool. I'm going for some drama so I added huge flowers!

STEP ELEVEN:

Cover your headband in a ribbon or fabric so the glue can better stick to it.

STEP TWELVE:

Plan out what flowers to use before attatching them. Add embellishments is so desired.

The beige flower had those same middle bits as the blue, but I had to cut them out to get the skull to properly fit.

STEP THIRTEEN:

Attach you flowers! Figure out your pattern and make it your own :)

And done! Also I realized that unfortunately the antlers and the frog piece I made earlier no longer fit together on my head. So now I at least have options during the night to switch out my "crowns". It really works out too since my antlers dried a bit wonky and stopped fitting through our doorways :/
So they are outside antlers now.

True to form I wanted more! I wanted to maybe make a floral crown to wear with my frog piece.....That did not work out. Instead it became a floral statement necklace and honestly that's fine. I was over extending on this costume and I needed to be done with it to move on to other home decorating!

STEP ONE:

Cover your base in tape, I also glued on leaves to cover the tape.

STEP TWO:

Have your baby skunk help you pick out your flowers :)

STEP THREE:

Make your arrangement, glue it on and that's it!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Come back for more Halloween themed shenanigans soon!

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

DIY Antlers PART 2

Hello again friends! Here is part two of perhaps a part three or four series. Doing so many parts because realistically that's how many days this is happening over :)

Ok, there's the continuation of the Antler Saga:

STEP SEVEN:

After you have let your paper maiche layers (2) dry completely you can begin the texturing and painting.

Ok, So what I did there is use hot glue to build a little base on my antlers. Just like real ones, they need that rough looking bit at the bottom. Then I made little bumps and continued up the antlers with lines of hot glue. It makes the antlers look rough and works for when you paint layers.

STEP EIGHT:

Paint the first layer of color. I used peach because I had it, but you can use whatever colors you'd like.

Let that dry. Paint on a second coat to cover any dark areas of newspaper.

STEP NINE:

Mix up a darker color, I used an avacado green and black. Paint that over the antlers and at the bottom, rub it off on your texture bits so it shows through. On real antlers there's this type of gradient.

Like at the base of these.

This is my interpretation:

STEP TEN: 

Paint a second layer of the dark color on the antlers, making sure to cover patches of light. Don't repaint over the rubbed off texture parts though. 

Then let the antlers completely dry overnight and wonder if you should paint more, source answers from friends and plan out your floral attatchments.

Stay tuned for PART 3 (and maybe FOUR :))

Keep on, keepin on, 

M.

DIY Antlers & Floral Head-dress PART 1

My first tutorial!! Halloween is in full force over here in my little haunted house. I bought a bunch of weird gourds and all the costume supplies. Today I shall put in part one of how to make your own wearble antlers and skeleton head-piece. Part two will be a floral crown of epic proportions.

I watched and read alot of pins before starting on this project, so it's a blend of sorts. Here we gooooo.........

YOU WILL NEED:

• 12 Gauge Wire
• Heavy Duty Aluminium Foil
• Wide Headband (2, holes optional but made it much easier to work with)
• Painters Tape or Masking Tape
• Electrical Tape
• Flowers
• Skeletons/Skulls
• Ribbon
• Paint, Colors Your Choice
• Newspaper (not pictured, and almost forgotten)

You will need some of these items more in part two, but here are the steps for how I began making my antlers!

STEP ONE:

Make a shape for the base of your antlers, freehand or with refrences,

STEP TWO:

Wrap the wire base in the foil. Some tutorials only used foil as the base, which is really crafter's choice. I wanted the wire for strength but also because I would be attaching the antlers to a headband.

STEP THREE:

Oooh got a little ahead with that last picture! Ok, so once you wrap the first base antler with foil, cut smaller pieces of your wire and attach them to your base. I then used the electrical tape to smooth it out for the future foil. Antlers, like eyebrows are sisters and not twins, so don't worry if they aren't super symetrical. Also leave about 2 inches of wire bare at the bottom for attaching purposes. Oh and, when you wrap the foil, make the bottom a bit wider to mimic real creature horns.

(Unlike me who did end up fussing with these too long before I recognized their unique ways.)

STEP FOUR:

Wrap the entire thing in masking or painters tape. It provides a more textured surface for the paper maiche and it smoothes out the foil bumps.

STEP FIVE:

Attach the antlers to your headband

The headband/wire combo really holds up. And at Halloween party time, that is clutch.

STEP SIX: 

Prepare your paper maiche. One part Mod Podge and one part water. Use plastic dishware.

Cut newspaper strips.

Cover your work station :)

(I never did use the foam brush except to mix)

It's the same paper maiche technique you learned in school, dip your paper, squeeze off excess, adhere to surface. Continue until you have one full layer and let dry. You can wait a couple hours or do overnight like me only because I wait to be lazy the rest of this night haha.

While your antlers dry, begin on your floral head pieces. I am making two of them along with my antlers because obviously I love to make myself crazy/my Halloween character this year is Dramatic! :)

So here's my little frog skeleton head piece:

STEP ONE:

Find a headband that is big enough to fit on the front of your forehead. Once you have it, take your skeleton and wire this creature to the front middle.

I used electrical tape to cover the comb bits on the headband for pure comfort. 

STEP TWO:

Put some flowers on it! 

Lana Del Rey that skeleton. Make an outrageous crown for yourself. It's the best holiday for it!

 

STEP THREE:

Your antlers are pretty dry by now, so go ahead and put them on with your frog piece. See how they look together and decide "Is this enough or too much?" Spoiler, you can never be too much.

Tomorrow I shall be continuing on the antlers, so look for PART 2 soon :)

Keep on, keepin' on!

M.

Life Update and Decorating Begins

Hello! So I shall start this blog off with the best news of 2015:

MY DAD GOT HIS CANCER SCREEN BACK AND IT IS CLEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have never been more happy in my life. My Dad is my rock and I was having freak outs all the time over his illness. But now we can breathe easy! Tonight I am having dinner over at my parents to celebrate. Mom is making spaghetti squash with meatballs and I'll be drinking beers by the pool with my Dad. I can't wait!

We have begun to decorate. Honestly we are prepared for Halloween year round, but I shall at least show you our fireplace mantle, as it is bad ass:

And in our bar room we have this dapper friend:

Things are coming together outside, but still in the no photo stage. All will be revealed in due time.

I had to brush out my wigs for this month, and yes I have a very large number of them because A) I like options and B) I was able to get them for cheap :)

This is maybe a third of the collection :) And yes I will most likely wear all of them depending on parties and events this month. 

SO READY TO GET MY SPOOK ON!!!!

Keep on, keepin on,

M.

Great and Wonderful Days!

So I submitted a piece to the website, HelloGiggles. THEY ACCEPTED IT!!! YAYAYAYAY!!! I was pushed towards what I want to do, did it and things are happening!!! Really going full force now and signing up for writing courses locally to expand my mind and tweak my skills. I am becoming happier every day and I think that it's really paying off karmacally(SP??).

In other news I am piecing together items to form my voodoo witch queen head-dress extravaganza. I am not sure why I have such a dramatic flare when inevitablly I know that I will hate and eventually remove this piece by my drunkeness at around 2am. But if I come out this year with some cool photos in our backyard swamp, I suppose it will be worth it. Beauty (swamp fashion!) is pain.

Using this little guy as the centerpiece starting on my forehead:

These friends as some sort of decoration on the costume. Currently they are playing Sia and swinging from our chandelier.

This is my wig. Not using those flowers, but wanted to give her a ~look~ (Feeling those Lana Del Rey VIBES)

All in all I am excited with life. I shall more than likely update on the head-dress construction. Look out for it soon!

Keep on, keepin on,

M.

Judy Blume!

     Happy Sunday! Today is the day for sleeping in (if possible) and then languidly going to hang with friends/family or run errands. So this early afternoon as I sat out on my porch enjoying my second cup of coffee and having my Sunday convo with my folks, my mom told me easily one of the most exciting things to be upcoming in a long while.

 Ahem:

JUDY BLUME IS COMING TO DOWNTOWN ST PETE FOR THE FESTIVAL OF READING AND SHE IS GOING TO HAVE A BOOK SIGNING FOR HER NEW BOOK BUT ALSO SHE WILL SIGN ONE OF HER OLDER BOOKS! AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

    Ok, to start at the beginning, my mom was always big on reading to me and made up different voices for characters and would have me read aloud to her before I stated kindergarten. So my whole childhood was a wonderful world of imagination and far off places and great people that whenever I got lonely, would be waiting for me right in the chapter I'd left off at the night before. My two favorite authors during elementary school were Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary. After I started middle school, Judy stayed to give me advice on puberty and friendship. Then I moved on to high school and Judy was still in my corner, never to far to advise. As a grown up I still continue to re-read her adult novel Summer Sisters . I am also currently reading her new adult novel In The Unlikely Event , which takes place in the 40s/50s up to present day. Because of this new novel, she is going on promotional tours around the US and Canada again and today mom told me this wonderful news. Down the street from my house (basically) I will be able to listen to one of my favorite people ever speak about her stories and THEN tell her hello and how awesome I think she is whilst she signs one of my favorite books. I haven't finished In The Unlikely Event yet so I haven't put it in my list, but it is very good so far.

    Also I wrote a question to Judy Blume and she answered it on Buzzfeed and I fangirled ALOT.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ariannarebolini/pieces-of-advice-judy-blume-has-for-young-writers-readers#.yqnqdlJk13

    Keep on , keepin on!

         M.

Ready For Fall!

Hello Internet Friends!!!!
   I have missed this. I am ready to take this blog and really do it a great service. I'm also really ready for Florida to be on the autumnal trend. Let's hear it for sweaters and boots for real y'all. But back to the blog, I really do like writing when I get down on it. I need to stop making silly promises to the ether and make serious promises to myself. What good is having a creative outlet if you never use it? It just makes more brain clutter, not to be confused with brain matter, haha you need that! Ahhhhh anyway....I'm going to write. That's it, that's all. I'm going to just get out there and do it or else I'll always kick my own ass on what might have been.

New to this blog at least, I want to start giving you a visual into my little ramble world, so thus now I shall add photos of said skunk or adventures or cool things my man and I create.

Speaking of my man, he and I are starting to plan and build for our annual Halloween shin-dig which is in the third year of life. It is the most fun I have all year. I love planning a costume, I love decorating, I love making party food and drinks and I LOVE having a blast with my friends.

Here is a taste of the first year:

And then last year(Where we really went all out):

What does this year hold? I'll tell you that the theme is a VooDoo Bayou after our fantastic trip to New Orleans this January. I think I've settled on being a swamp witch, but who knows? I tend to be indecisive when it comes to costumes! Trust that this adventure will be well documented this go-round. Til then....

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

Writing This Blog With A Skunk In My Lap

Hello!

I have been back home from NOLA, but not yet back to work. Tomorrow I shall finally return to the retail world. I actually can't wait. Yes I love vacations and yes I love to have lazy days, but after so long you just itch to get back out there and work! In my dreams and goals, I very much envision myself working from home and all that freedom. Work for myself, make my own hours, not worry about other possibly rude people. It's definitely something that I would like to make a reality in the next few years.

In accordance with my being back from vacation, I am posting about my trip. However it will be a guest blog on another website, run by a dear friend and her husband. It is called Life Between Weekends ( www.lifebetweenweekends.com ) and I highly recommend you check it out. It's all about living everyday like Sunday, which for most is their best day. Why not make everyday your best day? I will be sure to update when the NOLA post goes up.

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

DAY TEN

WEEKEND BEFORE NOLA

Awwwwwwwwww YEA I'm excited. Monday morning we leave for New Orleans. I have never been and have made a list of all sorts of places to check out. Can we pack everything into 4 days? We're sure as hell going to try! My man, my best friend and his best friend are road tripping up and passing through Mobile, Gulfport and Biloxi as well. I am ready for southern countryside and adventures.

Won't be blogging during the trip but will be returning with a megablog of all the shenanigans!

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

DAY THREE

Lazy day for sure.

Last night we went out to St. Pete's First Friday with a very dear friend and her friends from Germany. It was awesome!! We had a ton of fun and ended up dancing until the bar closed. The holidays were so quick and packed together this year and both of us have been pretty exhausted, but sometimes going out spontaneously is just what you need.

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

DAY ONE

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It's 2015. What will this year hold? Who knows! That's the best part, to live by adventure. In 12 days I'll be starting my 29th year on a fun vacation with my man and my best girlfriend to New Orleans. I can not be more excited to start my year of travel around the US in such an excellent city.

Last night was New Year's Eve and we spent it with our dear friends a bit further north in Florida than our home. We were surrounded by acres of land and woods, had a huge bonfire, too many drinks and shot fireworks off at midnight. It was a great way to see one year off and ring in the newest.

This day is for relaxing, so I'm ending here. First of my year goals has started and I don't plan on ending til 12/31/15 :)

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

Day 2!

Sitting waiting for my pizza to finish cooking and anticipating the upcoming episode of AHS Freakshow.

Great end to a Wednesday!

Watching shows on extravagant haunts and collecting ideas for our current party and ones in the future. This party is seriously exciting me, my friends are 100% going to freak out.

I effin love Halloween time.

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.