Happy Bithday To Me!

Yesterday was my 28th birthday, and I still cannot believe that I'm no longer in my "mid" twenties. Other than that smidge of sadness, it's been a pretty fantastic weekend!

Friday night, Josh and I went to see Wicked. It's the prequel to The Wizard of Oz, but it's about Glenda and the Wicked Witch of the West. It's the story of how each of them came to be. It also explains some of the main characters that you know in TWOO. I've wanted to see it F-O-R-E-V-E-R, and it was, by far, my favorite of the shows that I've seen!! And it changes everything about TWOO!!!! I very highly recommend that you see it if you get the chance.

Wicked was playing in Nashville, so we booked a hotel for the night that was close to TPAC (Tennessee Performing Arts Center). It's called Hotel Indigo, and it is pretty fantastic. It's a modern hotel, and all of the rooms have these giant black and white murals on the wall (look to the left). We'd already plopped down on the bed when I took this - it was more neatly made when we first arrived.

We got there a little early, so after we checked in we walked to Demos for some spaghetti - yummo! After dinner, we went back to the hotel for a pre-show nap (one of the things I appreciate about not having children yet!) and then got all prettied up for the show!

I wish I could have taken some pictures of the performance, but of course there were no cameras allowed. The costumes were just beautiful though!

After the show we went back to the hotel and slept for about ten glorious hours   :-)

I couldn't have asked for a better birthday weekend!

It's Fall Ya'll!

Today when I left work it was 55 degrees. Finally, it feels like fall is here!

Last year I saw a table centerpiece for fall in the Pottery Barn catalog that I fell completely in love with! All of the pieces were ridiculously expensive, so I went to Hobby Lobby to recreate the same look on a budget. I loved it last year, and I love it again this year!!!

I found this plaque of one of my favorite verses, and had to include it. I love seeing it every day!

I also added some pumpkins in the kitchen

Josh surprised me last week with some pumpkin butter, and I've been eating it every chance I get! Seriously, who doesn't love pumpkin butter! I'm pretty much going to spend the next six weeks pumpkin obsessed, so you should prepare yourself for some pumpkin posts in the near future  :-)

Chai Tea Recipe!

Ya'll. YA'LL.

I love chai tea, especially the iced kind! So the other day when I was at home, I got a serious craving for an iced chai, and was really bummed out because we don't have a Starbucks in my town. The closest is half an hour away (THAT, my friends, is tragic)

So I hopped online and scrolled through an insane amount of recipes until I found one that I thought would be good. And it was not only good, it was heaven. You may think that's an exaggeration (whaaaaaaaaaa?! me, exaggerate?! NO!), but I assure you, this is no exaggeration.

Trust me, you need to go to the store immediately, and purchase anything that you don't have so that you can make this! If you like Starbucks Iced Chai Lattes - you'll never buy another! You'll save tons of money making your own equally delish drink, and then you can splurge on Kate Spade (my addiction of choice!)

(I'm not sure if you've noticed all of the parenthesis)

(I *really* love parenthesis)

Ok, onto the recipe! I found it at Big Girls, Small Kitchen.

Iced Chai Tea Latte (1 serving)
6 T Chai Tea Concentrate - recipe follows
1 C milk (I used vanilla almond milk)
Ice

Chai Tea Concentrate
This makes 1.5 cups, enough for 4 lattes

3 T sugar
8 cardamom pods (I only had ground cardamom, so I used about 1/2 t)
1 cinnamon stick, snapped in half
1 slice ginger, peeled
5 whole cloves
4 whole black peppercorns
2 black teabags
1 T honey

Combine all ingredients except the honey in a pot. Add 2 cups of water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Lower slightly and let simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat  and let steep for 5 minutes. Remove the teabags, squeezing out any liquid from them. Let the spices steep for another 15 minutes. Strain, removing all the spices. Add the honey and stir in. Taste, adding more honey if you like.
Cool completely.

I know that seems like quite a bit of time to devote to tea, but trust me, it's well worth all of the steeping time! After we finished the first batch, I doubled the recipe and made a second, and I've had a glass every day! I'm keeping the concentrate in a mason jar in the fridge.

This is one fantastic recipe!!!

Millie Has A Boyfriend

It appears that our new "kitten" has grown-up and gotten herself a boyfriend. I am sad about this for two reasons:

1) She's obviously no longer a baby
2) She is driving us crazy

A couple of days ago, she was yelling so loudly that Josh got up to see what was going on. That's when we found this:

Meet the boy cat that lives next door:

He has been coming onto the porch every single day, and then meowing until Millie hears him. She races through the house knocking over anything in her path, until she crawls into the blinds and stares lovingly into his eyes for as long as he'll stay. It is nauseating really. When he leaves, she cries like her heart has been completely broken.

Needless to say, after a quick call to the vet, Miss Millie will be getting spayed next Wednesday. No baby kitties for us!

Laundry Room Inspiration

Last week at the hotel in Evans, I was flipping through channels and came across a show on HGTV called Showhouse Showdown. Two designers have identical houses, and it's their job to design the entire house. There was this awkward front space, and I absolutely loved one of the designs. I loved it so much, that I think I may want to steal the paint idea for my laundry room.

I think it's time that I disclosed a secret. My name is Kristen, and I'm a stripe-a-holic (I would like to point out that on the first draft, I actually typed "strip-a-holic", which would have been a bold confession to make on the blog, don't you think?)

Anyhoo, earlier this year I painted my bedroom in stripes, but believe me when I tell you that it is super subtle. It's the same color, just alternating flat and glossy. That reminds me, I really need to take some pictures to post because it's beautiful! The issue is, that I can't find a lamp for my nightstand, and I haven't found curtains, and I haven't hung anything up, so it's still a bit unfinished. I'm hunting for stuff though, and as soon as I finish, I'll definitely show you the final product!

This post is totally not about my bedroom, but I've clearly gone there.

Back to the laundry room. Here's a picture of the entryway:

I love the bold stripes, the colors, all of it! My laundry room is small and narrow, and I loved how the stripes made the space feel so much more spacious! Even though he only did one wall, I think it would be interesting to stripe the entire room, yes? I don't know. Still throwing ideas around. I think Josh thinks it's "too much", but my theory is that I'm in there quite a bit more than he is  :-) 

I would definitely want a rug, maybe like this one from Target:

What do you guys think? Do you like the idea of the stripes?

What's For Dinner?

This week was a super busy week for me. So I wanted nothing more than some comfort food to relax with. Pasta and meatballs sounded AH-mazing, but that didn't seem like a good idea since I'm trying to watch what I eat. So I came up with an alternative, which is equally delicious and comforting!

Chicken Meatballs
2 lbs ground chicken
1/2 cup skim milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 t Oregano
1 t Italian Seasoning
1/2 c minced onion
3 cloves garlic
1/2 whole wheat bread crumbs
salt and pepper, to taste

First, preheat the over to 400.

Then, start by putting the chicken into a big bowl. Add all of the ingredients except the onion and garlic.

Finely chop the onion and garlic, and then dry sautee (no oil) them together for about 5 minutes. I wanted a stronger onion flavor, so I only did it long enough for the onions to begin to soften. If you don't want as strong of an onion flavor, you may want to cook them longer.

Add the onion and garlic right into the bowl, and then mix everything together with your hands.

Form meatballs that will fit into a mini muffin pan, and fill!

Cook the meatballs for approximately 20 minutes. I used a meat thermometer, and mine were perfectly done at 19 minutes.

This recipe made 30 meatballs, and a good serving size was 3 a piece. Which meant I had plenty to freeze and serve later!

I'm sure there are plenty of ways to serve these, but like I mentioned, I was going for comfort. I cooked up a very basic tomato sauce recipe and dropped the meatballs in for a minute, then served over some cooked quinoa. D-E-L-I-S-H! And super duper comforting - exactly what I needed.

Home Organization Notebook

Although I've been trying to reign in some of the chaos in my life, I'd never considered any type of organizer before. Then I saw Erin's post on her organizer, followed by Laura's. That was all the convincing that I needed to create something of my own.

Initially, I thought I would make an organizer. After all, creating my own would allow me to put exactly what I needed for my particular home, and would allow me to eliminate those things I didn't need since I'm a total control freak I know what I want. I went to work finding lists and links all over, and bought a binder, and some other staples for my notebook. I've been working on it for a couple of weeks, but I needed some dividers, so off to Target I went. While I was searching for dividers, I came across their planners section, and started flipping through for ideas. That's when I realized that most of them had everything that I needed, but packaged more nicely than my homemade notebook. Unfortunately, there were still a few things I wanted, and I also wanted a pretty one, because I'm a girl and I like pretty things  :-)

Enter Erin Condren. After some researching, I've decided that I'm investing in this rather than making my own as originally planned. Although it's not as specific as my original, I can definitely make it work. There are a few things that I LOVE. I love the special dates page. It will allow me to keep track of birthdays (which is a huge opportunity of mine). There is also a Morning, Day, and Night breakdown that will allow me to not only track meals, but also track chores and blogging. The monthly overview will be used for appointments and other important reminders. The notes section in the back can be used for a few different things, but I'm definitely going to be using it to track Christmas cards and gifts received, which will be super helpful during holiday season!!!! It also comes with stickers, and let's face it, stickers rock!

I haven't ordered it yet (since it's such a recent discovery), but I can't wait to fill it up! Once I get it in, I definitely intend on showing you how it's helping me stay organized!