So Long Sweet Summer

  I can definitely tell summer is on its way out. No, not because there's a crisp in the air. After all, it is Alabama. BUT I haven't been running the AC on high every minute of every day (and night).  Here's a few signs that let me know summer is leaving and autumn is coming:

• the fact that I am back to work now
• last night was the start of college football
• tomorrow is the first AUBURN game (War Eagle!)
• I've already started making my Halloween plans and gathering ideas for costumes
• I looked at my summer wreath on the way in the house last night and decided it no longer looked appropriate
• I can go walking after work and not feel like I'm drowning in my own sweat after walking two feet
• I've put on my house robe a good bit because I'm cold in the house
• I've started looking forward to eating soups again
• My tan is fading quickly--a little too quickly for my liking
• And most importantly, my hair isn't frizzing INSTANTLY when I walk outside

 This time of year always leaves me with mixed feelings. I sure do love those summer nights! Here's a few things I'll hate saying goodbye to:

• Friday nights spent at Chuck's Marina
• lazy days spent by the pool with a great book and a best friend
• having people over any night of the week because I can
• sleeping in
• getting a tan outside of a bottle
• natural highlights
• garden veggies
• And most importantly, this view:

So long sweet summer! It's almost fall, y'all!





New School Year; Old Routine

  I don't think I've ever been quite so ready for the start of a new school year. (Please remind me of this statement come March/April/May!!! I'm sure I'll need to hear it!) I literally did NOTHING all summer. Like got up late and laid in bed watching television kind of nothing. Like so lazy I would get winded watering my flowers kind of nothing. As worthless as I felt, I just couldn't make myself get up and get active. (A big reason is because of that dang bed.) So I started looking forward to August 13, the day I started back to work. Living on a schedule is not such a bad thing, ya know. It's nice to get away from one every now and then for some R&R, but there's definitely something to be said for living your life on a schedule.

  Monday started the third week of my being back at work. It has been an absolutely wonderful school year so far. As usual, I don't really have anything new to report on this subject: same great school; same great coworkers; fresh batch of great kids. Of course, I encourage this type of stagnant trend....

Lovely pic of part of my classroom. I did some revamping to my white board. :)



Ms. Indecisive Makes a Decision (and a few adult purchases)

   So I've been in the grown up world for three years now. It's been a rough and tumble, trial and error, live and learn experience. I was raised to be independent and independent I am! Well, if I'm being honest, I've had to rely on some men to do some heavy lifting around here from time to time. But that aside, yeppers, I'm independent.

   Since being tossed into the grown up world, I've made a couple of adult purchases. Luckily, my house came pretty much fully furnished with appliances so I didn't really have to buy a whole lot when I moved in. Because I have an intense hatred for washing dishes, I purchased a portable dishwasher from a coworker earlier this spring. That thing has saved my life! I had a few haters that thought I was being ridiculous since it's just me in this house. How can one person possibly dirty up enough dishes to justify buying a dishwasher, they said. Well, obviously my parents, aka the haters (love you Mom and Dad), have forgotten just how easily I can dirty up a kitchen with one snack. It also has a chopping block top that comes in handy in my cramped little kitchen.

   I've also purchased some living room furniture that you can read about in an earlier post. I must say it's looking rather nice, and if my house were clean I'd take a picture of it for you. Unfortunately for you, I have not stuck to my self-promise to keep a tidier home during the summer since I have all this free time. I've been far too busy sunning myself to clean this house. I am very unapologetic about this as I feel that this is a much better use of my time.

  My most recent and most adult purchase I've made is a new mattress and box spring set. Jenna purchased herself a new mattress a few months ago and I remember being in awe of such an expensive practical purchase. After spending the night on her best-sleep-of-your-life mattress, I decided I needed one for myself. So off we went to Sticks 'N' Stuff! I got a Sealy Embody memory foam mattress that is to die for! I'm so relieved that I bought it during the summer time when it's not absolutely necessary for me to get out of bed before twelve. Pre-mattress, I can honestly say I would only spend time in my room when I was either sleeping or changing clothes. Post-mattress, you'd be amazed how many daily activities I've managed to relocate to my bed. I take my morning coffee in this bed, read in this bed, blog in this bed, watch tv in this bed, etc.

  So where does this decision making title come in, you ask? The answer is right here. When I moved into this quaint little home, I obviously had to decorate to make it my own. I first concentrated on the rooms where visitors would see--the living room, bathroom, and guest bedroom. After those were done, I just kind of put decorating to the side. It's really not my thing. All that to say, I never touched my bedroom. It still dons the same ol' ugly, gaudy-looking curtains that came with the house.

  Confession: I am mega-indecisive. I know this is old news, but maybe, just maybe, this blog has attracted a new reader. One of the major reasons I have put off decorating my bedroom is because I just couldn't decide on a color scheme. I feel like the bedroom is the most personal room in the house. Because I live alone I have the luxury of making the whole house look like "me". But I just felt so much pressure as to what color scheme would make the bedroom look like "me". I thought maybe if I just looked at comforters and found the one I liked then I'd go with whatever color scheme fit best with the comforter. Sadly, shopping for a comforter is not like shopping for a wedding dress. When you see it, you don't just know. I bet you're thinking to yourself as you read this: "This girl is way over-thinking this." Guilty! I have over-analyzed this decision to the point where it's become so high-stress that I cannot even deal with it.

   Since my new mattress has got me spending lots of time in my bedroom, I figured it's time to decorate it. After all, I'm still sporting my plain khaki micro suede comforter from college and the only theme I've got going on is one I like to call "cluttered with a touch of hideous".

  It took me THREE YEARS to decide on the perfect one for me, but I've got it now. It's from Rachel Ashwell's Simply Shabby Chic line at Target. And here the little beaut is:

  I've decided to decorate with turquoises and corals.



Jelly and a Facial

  Grandma called me the other day to let me know that her bunch grapes are ready for the picking. Of course, I jumped right on that! I enjoyed spending time picking the fruit with my Grandma and visiting with Granddaddy.



  Because I'm planning a nice lil' summer road trip with my bestestest, I'm kinda on a time crunch to get these grapes cleaned, crushed, and canned. I've literally spent ALL day washing, sanitizing, filling, and sealing these jars. And as the timer now sounds with the last wave of readied jellies, I can finally kick back and relax. (Last wave for the day, anyways. Tomorrow's another day.)

  For those of you who care nothing about the how-to's of canning, I'll give you this little lil' home skin remedy to hopefully motivate you to try canning on your own. Using a cotton ball, I swabbed olive oil on my face. I let my face marinate in it all day while I stood over the hot stove with steaming boilers. While the steam helps open pores, the olive oil's rich moisturizers nourish my skin. It's like spending the day at a spa!

How to Prepare Jars before Making Jelly:

(a) Wash jars and lids in hot, soapy water.
(b) Put open jars in large pot and cover with water. Make sure water is 1-2 inches above tops of jars. Bring to a boil. Boil for ten minutes.
(c) Jars and lids need to be hot when they are filled with jelly. Do not boil lids of jars--just boil the jars.

How to Make Super-Delicious Grape Jelly:

1. You will need 3 1/2 pounds of grapes. I don't know the particular type of grape I used--I just know it is some sort of bunch grape. These are pretty much the only kind that grow well in Alabama's hot and humid climate.
*Note: You will also need 7 cups of sugar, 1 packet of Sure Jell, and 8 canning jars.**

2. Remove stems and bad grapes.

3. Thoroughly wash grapes.

4. Crush grapes in a thick-bottomed sauce pan. This step is lots of fun! I crushed using my hands and then used a potato-smasher.

5. Add 1 1/2 cups of water to crushed grapes and bring to a boil on high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.



6. Extract juice using one of the following: jelly bag, cheese cloth, pillow case, mill cloth. I got a big mixing boil and put a colander on top of it. Then I put mill cloth in the colander. Pour crushed grapes into the mill cloth and let drain into the bowl.



7. Because I did these six steps at night, I put the juice in the fridge overnight. You don't necessarily have to do this if you want to make the day out of canning. It does, however, help with tartaric crystals. (I'm not completely sure what those are, but I know they're a bad thing when it comes to canning.)

8. Measure out exactly 7 cups of sugar and set aside. Do not skip this step thinking you'll have time to do it later.

9. Pour exactly 5 cups of juice into sauce pan. Add packet of Sure Jell and 1/2 tspn of butter or margarine (to help reduce foaming). Bring to a rolling boil stirring constantly.. (A rolling boil is when the mixture continues to boil while you stir.)



10. Continuing to stir constantly, quickly pour sugar into sauce pan. Bring to a rolling boil. Boil mixture for one minute.

**I had to boil both of my batches for longer than a minute for my jelly to pass the sheet test. **

11. Remove sauce pan from heat and skim foam from top.

12. Pour jelly into hot, prepared jars leaving about 1/8 inch of space from the top.

Keeping the lids warm with hot water.

Jars hot and ready! Ignore the messy kitchen. This is a judgement-free blog.



13. Skim foam from the top.

14. Wipe tops of jars with wet cloth to remove any drippings.

15. Fasten lids onto jars.

16. Seal jars using a water bath and boil for 5 minutes.

17. Enjoy your jelly!



Back In Action

I've taken a four-month hiatus from the blogging scene. This post is just to let y'all know I'm gonna set some time aside tomorrow to get back in the game. Get excited!

Ikea is the Devil's Store

  After a serious amount of time fretting over which piece of furniture I wanted to rest my new (and still unpurchased) television upon, I finally made the decision to make one final trip to Ikea in Atlanta. I have seriously been mulling this purchase over in my head for over a year. In case you can't tell from personal experience with me or just reading this blog, I have a ridiculously hard time making decisions. It's almost a problem. But that's for another post on another day that I'll decide on later.

  Mom and I made the Atlanta voyage a few months back to look around at Ikea and get some ideas. This was not a trip made with the intent of coming home with anything. I finally found the stand that I thought fit best with my style, budget, and living room. Unfortunately, said tv-stand came in different colors, and so, the meltdown began. I was in love with one certain color, but I don't think it would look best in my living room. Mother was quick to point out that I'm renting my house and don't need to plan all my furniture purchases around it since I don't know how long I'll be living there. This is a very valid point, but I see it from the other side. If I don't know how long I'll be living there, it could be for another year or maybe five years. I don't want to have beautiful furniture that clashes with the house for five years.

  Flash forward a few months to March 30, 2012. My dearest friend, Jenna, came along with me. We had three goals to accomplish on this Spring Break Friday: (1) Purchase that dang furniture, (2) eat at the Cheesecake Factory, and (3) Buy some new clothing for ourselves. It saddens me to say that only one of those goals was accomplished.

  We started out with our trip to Ikea. I'm proud to say that I made swift decisions about which tv stand and coffee table I wanted. (Mom, if you're reading this, I would have made you so proud.) Since it was Jenna's first time at Ikea and she has just fairly recently entered the adult world, we spent about +/- 2 hours going through the store. Once we got ready to gather up the furniture boxes, I realized NONE of it would fit in my car. Before you roll your eyes and judge me for thinking it would, you should know that I have a pretty spacious car. So we left empty handed and feeling a wee bit defeated.



  After some high-stress Atlanta driving we made it to the Cheesecake Factory. Knowing that we are going to the beach in a month and going shopping directly after our meal, we decided to get the Lunch portions of our pastas. We'd already decided we were getting Cheesecake no matter what. I'm going to skip the details and just finish with  this: By the end of our meal, we were literally wailing out because our bellies were so full and we were so miserable.



  Next came the mall. We pretty much only cared about H&M and Forever21. After about an hour, we realized NOTHING in H&M would fit us. After about 30 minutes in Forever21, we realized NOTHING would fit us. So we left with the only thing that would fit us after an insanely decadent Cheesecake Factory meal--jewelry.

  I'm not going to sugar coat it, this trip was wildly disappointing. The only positive things we have to say about it is that although our meal induced misery, it was delicious. And me and the bestie finally got to spend some QT together that we'd been needing.

  I'm not even gonna talk about the 2 hour traffic stop that had us getting home at midnight and Jenna having to wake up at 5:30 to work a 12-hour shift at the hospital.....

Who Needs Nashville When You Have These Cakes

   Okay, for reals, I don't really mean that title. I need Nashville. It's calling my name for Spring Break. But let's get serious.

   One place I have to go when we go visit the Bugna's and the Eason in Music City is the Pancake Pantry. It's soooo good! I'll be honest, I'm not a huge pancake lover. I mean, they're nice and all, but that's not typically what I order when I go out to eat. (Even at my fave restaurant, Cracker Barrel.) But if you're going to a place that is known worldwide for their pancakes, you should probably go for those. And, so, I did. I got the sweet potato pancakes the first time I went, and I've never switched it up since. Sure, I dabble in my friends' plates to sample a bit, but I have only fully committed to these deciousnesses. (Yes, I made that word up; no, I don't care that it's not a real word.)

  I am definitely an over user of my sense of touch. Texture is big for me--especially with food. There are some foods that I don't care for the taste but I eat for the texture alone (i.e., bananas). Anyhoo, one reason these pancakes are so divine is their texture. It's so much better than a regular pancake. I can't really describe it, but just know that it's different. In a good way.

  Another reason these pancakes are menu-stealers is the rich cinnamon cream syrup that comes with them. If you forget about the sweet potato deliciousness and the texture fabulousness, this syrup is reason enough to get these pancakes.

   I ravaged the Internet for a copycat recipe, and found this little lovely. I urge you to try it!!

**Notice that after you mix the batter it needs to sit for an hour.
**I used canned sweet potatoes due to a time crunch.
**I changed the syrup recipe a tad by adding some regular syrup as well. That's how it's served at the Pancake Pantry. I tried it both ways, and I definitely like it mixed in with regular syrup.

Okay, here's the link. Go get 'em!
http://sweetpeaskitchen.com/2010/08/17/sweet-potato-pancakes/

Pancake Pantry in Nashville

Their's

Mine