Day 24: My favorite movie

I don't have to consider this one for even a second. 

The Thin Man - 1934 

More accurately all of The Thin Man movies. These are hands down my favorite movies of all time. I first saw these movies when I was maybe 13 and even then I knew that these guys were awesome. I totally wanted to have a marriage like theirs when I grew up!

William Powell and Myrna Loy are the best on screen couple ever. Period.

I've recently heard rumors about Johnny Depp doing a remake of the movie. Whether that will come to fruition - or when - I have no idea. But it could be cool!

Runners up...

Pirates of Penzance - 1983

I've seen this live twice, but nothing is as good as the movie... I mean Kevin Kline alone would be good reason for that! Also I love that my boys love this, and Matthew is currently trying to perfect the Pirate King's moves (from this video) ...this is also his favorite song from the movie. He thinks it's hilarious the way they are singing at the top of their lungs about how silent they are. Glad to see my 4 year old gets it!

 

and...

Thoroughly Modern Millie - 1967

Definitely a movie worth watching if you haven't... 

and seriously can I be Muzzy when I grow up?

Day 23. Picture of my family

 I've realized recently that we have no pictures of our family as a whole! As much as I hope to fix that in the near future, I'm not too concerned. The convenience of having a phone in my pocket at all times means I get to catch real life. I have the best little family, hands down. So instead of a picture of my family, I have a handful of our everyday life.

My boys reading...

 

glow in the dark bath time 

trying on mustaches

Matthew and The Face in ninja turtle costumes (Matthew did these by himself!)

 watching the Pirates of Penzance (my boys have excellent taste)

Miles on the 4th

 Seriously. I have the best kids. And the best husband.

Day 22. Something I could never get tired of doing

At first I thought it would be hard to think of something I could never tire of doing... I mean, everything can get old given enough time. But I realized there is one thing I could never give up... and that is creating things. Working with my hands. I get lots of people that ooo and ahh over the fact that I make elaborate cookies, plus I do hair, plus I do makeup, plus I do graphic design, plus I love me a good power tool and a some wood to work with. I can do just about any craft thing if it involves working with my hands somehow... but the truth (as Albert Einstein said) is "I have no special talent, I am only passionately curious". And that, my dears, is the truth. I don't always do things right the first time but I am too stubborn to let that matter, so I usually manage in the end.

Day 21. Favorite quote

I could never choose one, but I love a good quote and thanks to Pinterest I've been collecting some. Here are just some of my favorites...

Day 20. Favorite city

I don't care that I haven't lived there for 15 years now. 

Merrimack is wicked awesome.

 

 Though almost anywhere in TX could be considered a runner up.

Day 19. Picture of a good friend

Claire and I have been friends since we were 14 

{as evidenced by these photos from 10 or so years ago}

...and here is our girls night out a month or so ago!

Day 18. Picture of my day

{I know it's been ages but I'm going to continue this anyway}

I'm bursting with news and things I want to talk about (and a renewed reason to start updating this blog again) but it's going to have to wait.... just for a couple weeks. So since I can't talk about that yet, I'm back to my post challenge. I left off what... 10 months ago?

....wait what? How has it seriously been 10 months already? That is crazy. Seriously. So here I am with Day 18 of the challenge I started so very {very} long ago.

A picture of my day... Miles and his Daddy on the swing. Miles loves to swing more than anything and I love the look of pure happiness on his face here!

Day 16. Picture of the place I work

 As interesting as my job is{n't}... I'll do this post anyway. These are the best pictures that I happen to have on hand... the first is more of my parking lot than of my actual office. The whole building had to evacuate one day because, as it turned out, someone burned popcorn. For most of us I think it was a nice little break and an excuse for some fresh air.... but I did feel badly for some people. On the ground floor of my office building is a company that does dialysis... and some of those poor patients were sitting outside in their wheel chairs, or in the case of one man he had these sort of braces on either arm that looked like they were for helping him walk or something... but he looked to be like 90 and had to have a girl on either side of him to help him stand. Anyway. 

And here's my desk. It's very exciting. 

To be fair I should probably put a picture of my own home because I do a lot of work there too! But unfortunately no one pays me for that.

Day 15. Favorite scripture

I guess Sunday is an appropriate day for this.

I never go into religion on this blog, or generally speaking at all when it comes to most people. I've had a love/hate relationship with church and scriptures in the past and I don't discuss it with many people. In any case I suppose if I had to choose a favorite scripture it would probably be Isaiah 1:18

"Come now, and let us reason together, saith

the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they

shall be as white as snow; though they be

red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

I've had my share of things to repent of in my past (and most certainly will in my future) so I find

comfort in remembering that nothing I have done has to be permanent. Even if I, personally,

will never be able to forget .

Day 14. Something I made recently

I have many non-edible projects I've made recently... but none that I have pictures of. So here is my most recent batch of cookies (of which I normally post about here) that were made for my nephew Eli's birthday.

When I originally asked him what kind of cookies he would want when his birthday came he said he wanted Phineas and Ferb... in a tone of voice that suggested he could not care less about this sort of thing. He then proptly ran to excitedly tell his mom that "that lady is going to make Phineus and Ferb cookies for my birthday!" And so, this lady did. At least he referred to me as "that lady"... because I'm pretty sure he later called his Aunt Sandie "that guy".

I do so love  the things that come out of kids mouths. Although I usually prefer it directed at someone else. Like when Matthew calls the male checkout guy at the grocery store "ma'am"

Day 13. Favorite song

'Welcome Home' by Radical Face... a current favorite of mine. I have heard many interpretations of this song and I think it just depends on the person. In any case, I think it is beautiful and it means many things to me.. but in the end it makes me feel peaceful. And that is a rarity for me.


And here is an old favorite... a song that will always be a favorite for me.
And as it happens - was also the inspiration for the name of this blog.

Day 11. Favorite recipe

This post is particularly hard because I don't know how to choose just one recipe to share. Especially because we have recently been trying out loads of new recipes. A good portion of the new recipes we've been trying have come from Pinterest! And almost all of them have been really good. If I have to choose just one though, I guess I'll have to go with this recipe that is something of a favorite for several people who I've made it for at this point. It's quick and easy to make up, and so good!

Chicken Tostadas with Avacado Dressing

 

Avacado Dressing:

2 tablespoons chicken broth

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 teaspoons olive oil

1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (of less if you are sensitive to spicey foods!)

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 ripe peeled avocado

Combine all of these ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth

Chicken:

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 jalapeño pepper, minced (and seeded - again if you are sensitive to spicey foods)

2 cups shredded chicken (I used canned chicken

olive oil for cooking

Add oil to pan. Add garlic and jalapeño, sauté  over medium-high heat 1 1/2 minutes.

Add chicken, cook 2 minutes

Tostadas:

6-8 tortillas

oil for frying

Over medium-high heat, fry each side of tortilla until nice and crispy. I use the raw tortillas
from Costco that are just amazing - so much better than the normal store bought ones.

Assembly:

Top tortillas with sauce, chicken, and anything else you normally would
want on this sort of thing: lettuce, tomatos, cheese, etc.

And enjoy because these are amazing!

PS - original recipe can be found here

Day 10. Picture of my shoes

As I know I'll never get around to photographing my own shoes (who has time for that with 2 little ones?) I'm just going to make this post "Day 10. Pictures of the shoes I wish I had"

  ...ok so I love shoes. It's very girly of me - especially coming from a group of not so very girly sisters. Ah well, they love me anyway!

Day 9. What's in my makeup bag

As I don't often have time for makeup these days, my stash has gotten ridiculously low... by my standards. In any case, I have a few essentials that I am never without...

Loose translucent powder is a must. Pressed powder is just not the same. Now, I'm sure there are lots of good brands out there and maybe it's because I was trained with this brand and it's what I know I can trust... but I always buy Coty Airspun.

Now, the problem I used to have with loose powder is that it doesn't exactly travel well. It's not something you can put in your purse and use for touch ups on the go. But several years ago my Great Aunt Ruth passed away and when my Mom and Grandmama were cleaning out her house they rescued two old fashioned compact cases for me. 

Awe-some!

I've not seen any like these before or since so here is my horrible photography skills in action to show you...

The mirror was missing before it was mine, but that's ok. I love that I can just refill it with loose powder and the mesh screen lets me get just the right amount on the little puff inside. Much better than any modern compacts I've seen.

I also always have the obligatory mascara, concealer, eyeliner, etc. However I don't use foundation... never really looks good on anyone in my opinion. I'm a fan letting your skin breathe as much as possible... much more natural looking, and any unevenness in skin tone can be corrected with light concealer and powder. When I'm going all out or doing someone else's makeup for an event I use darker and lighter colors for facial contouring (although admittedly I've not bothered with this on myself in a while). Here is an example of what I mean:



This is taken from the famous Kevyn Aucoin's book. If you've not heard of him - he's amazing. Definitely look him up and you can learn a lot about makeup.
But I digress...

Long story short: once upon a time I had a massive makeup collection with a big range for every skin color and tone. Now I have my feeble little bag with pretty much only the essentials. I kind of miss doing makeup for others...


PS - These days to save money I buy the majority of my makeup from E.L.F. There are a few products I need a specific brand for (like mascara... I'm very picky about mascara. I could write a whole post just about that, though I'm sure no one is insterested in that) but otherwise they are a good place to go. Decent quality, low cost.

Day 8. What's in my closet

What's in my closet? I'll tell you... about 50 shoes, and a whole ton of clothing that is either too large because it's maternity, or too small because I still haven't lost enough weight to really fit into any of my old clothes again. It's lame. Every day I do the same thing... I open my wardrobe and start going through hangers until it dawns on me that I don't actually own anything that fits. And then I go pull something to wear out of the dryer because I own so few things that actually fit that I am having to do laundry constantly to be able to have clean clothes!

I'd love to say my wardrobe looks something like this:

...in actuality it is so jam packed with my skinny clothes (which I refuse to get rid of!), my more-likely-to-fit-in-the-next-year clothes, and my maternity clothes that it looks more like this:

...ok maybe it's not quite that bad. Still. I was organized once... and it usually looks all neat because I'm weird about things matching like hangers or the fact that my clothes are always hung grouped by color and in rainbow order. Yes, I'm weird like that.  I will be there again someday, I just need to narrow down the clothes in there! Which means I need to get rid of this pregnancy weight. No problem, right?

Day 7. My dream house

Where to even begin with this one... I don't have a specific image of my dream house that I hope to have one day... but it would be on a large piece of property and preferably a little out of the way. I'm  a small town girl at heart. It would also include some combination of this...



...I could seriously go on and on. And on.