My thoughts on 2011 and goals for 2012...

I hate New Year's resolutions. I hate them. It's like promising to do something because everyone else is. And it's always the same things... "My New Year's resolutions is to loose weight/go to the gym", or " I'm going to quiet smoking" or " I'm going to stop drinking soda". I've heard them and then by mid January, your back to chain smoking, eating Slim Jims, and sitting on the couch watching old episodes of Fraiser crying wondering what went wrong! Ok well maybe that's a bit extreme, but you get the picture.

Things I've learned this year....

1.) While you don't really get to choose the family you get, you can choose your friends and make them your family.  I don't have a big family, and by choice I stopped talking to my father because he didn't agree with my marriage to Jim. My mother is not a saint by any means, and she isn't always the easiest person to deal with or be around, but she is all I have and I'm stuck with her. My grandparents were amazing people and worked hard their whole lives. They are very special to me and even though they are gone now, I hold them close to my heart and think of them all the time. I have a sister and things are rocky. I'm not sure what more to say about this at this time. I will say though, that my sister has two awesome kids. My niece who is 15 is a spitting image of my sister. She is smart, and funny and has more common sense then most people I've met. My nephew who is 12, is one of the funniest,most unique, and sweetest person I've ever met.  I'm proud to be their aunt and I hope they know how much I truly love them. 

With that being said, Jim and I want to start a family of our own. Not right at this moment, but within the next couple years we would like to adopt or have a child of our own.  Jim doesn't have a big family either and we both want our child/children to have friends and a full childhood with memories of friends and family (both of us were only children growing up, my sister is 14 years older then me so I basically was an only child).  I recently started talking to my sister, and would love nothing more then to have her in our lives, but things are a little rocky and that decision is hers. I've made my piece and when she is ready I will be here.  Our friends have been so amazing this holiday season, especially Mitch and Maryanne, who let us and the dogs come stay with them for almost a week around Christmas. This brings me to my point. With all the family drama and the little family we have, I've realized that our friends, are our family. We may not get to see them all the time living so far away from one another, but our friends really mean the world to us... That means you, Halley, Elaine, Cora, Jaxon, Amanda, Mitch, Maryanne, Lisette, Matt and Cadell.  You are the family we chose and you mean so very much to us. 

2.) With all this time on my hands this year, I've had alot of time to think and plan and really decide what I would like to do in the future. Goals I'd like to set, with that being said.... WITHIN THE NEXT 2 YEARS I WANT TO OPEN UP MY OWN BAKERY AND COFFEE SHOP.  I want it to have a Pin Up, retro, vintage theme. All the baked goods will have fun names like Cinnamon buns being called "Victory rolls". I want to have fun little classes for decorating cookies and cupcakes and a couple times a month, staying open late and doing burlesque shows.  I'm super excited and super motivated.

Goals for 2012....

1.) I have a horrible habit of not staying in contact with people. My goal this coming year is to stay in touch with my friends more. I want to catch up more often and hear what going on with everyone. I don't care if people need to tell me to call less, I'm going to pester my bestest friends!

2.) I am going to enroll at the local community college and take courses on business management and maybe a couple of baking courses. Jim and I have been talking about taking a class together maybe so we can study together. I think that might be fun. 

No resolution, but lots of brain storming. I'll update soon with some fun stuff.

And once again, Thank you to my amazing husband, who takes care of me when I'm a snotty mess and make me feel pretty even if I have a crusty nose! True love, aint it pretty :)

Happy New Year.

Be Safe!!!!!!

One of our engagement photos!

Review this... New look.com

Let me start off by saying that I was not gifted any of these items. I bought them on my own and was not paid by New Look.  

    

     With that being said this is my first online purchase from outside the US. New look is Great Britain's version of Forever 21. I like forever 21 but I have alot of issues with fit and quality there. New Look has alot of options as far plus size clothing goes. I went there specifically because I was looking for wide calf boots. They have a whole section of shoes dedicated to wide feet and let me say that the selections are super cute and not orthopedic or granny looking at all. I have been swooning over these...

Wide width suede polka dot booties

     I bought a dress, a ring and boots. I'll start with the dress. It's a navy blue with white dots. It's a  tunic style dress with button detailing in the back. It has a tie in the back to create shape. I prefer to wear it with a belt, or to wrap the tie in the front to make it look like a belt. It's defiantly a polyester blend, but it had held up pretty well. I got it on sale for about $20 and I have been happy with is. As for the ring, It's super unique, it's two little swallows with encrusted crystals on them. The ring doesn't connect and the birds stick up for a super unique and eye catching look. It came in a antique gold color, but after wearing it for about half our the finish rubs off and the copper starts to shine through and turns my finger green. The ring was less then $10 so you can't really be mad. If I'm going out, then I will still wear it, but I try not to wear it all day, because my finger stained pretty bad last time. Now for the boots. I got these grey leather-ish  knee high boots. They are kind of a mix between a motorcycle boot and a riding boot. I really likes them and they ran about $50. They are not wide calf boots but they are wide width. When I got them in the mail I tried them I tried them on and they don't go up to my knees all the way because I should have gotten wide calf, but I love them so much I think they still look good even though they are a little slouchy. 

This is the dress and my boots

You can see the tarnish on the ring some. I still like it though.

     As far as ordering from the U.K. I did have some problems. I was supposed to receive my package withing 7-10 business days. After 2 weeks I sent them an e-mail. With no response, I sent a second and then a 3rd email. On the 3rd attempt they contacted me back and apologized. Shortly after I got my package, it was close to a month after I had ordered it. On the label, there was a stamp that said that it was mis-sent to Australia! 

     With all that being said, I was happy with the things I purchased and would attempt to order from there again. If I had another shipping issue though, I would stop shopping there. For the most part I was completely happy. I would say that the quality of product is a little nicer then Forever 21, and that they have a larger selection of plus size clothing then a lot of U.S. stores. On a scale of 1-10 I would give my shopping experience a 7. 

Let me know what you thinking. Have you ever ordered from New look? What were your feelings on the quality of the products? Would you shop there again? I would love to hear your opinions. 

Houston, we have landing.... Etsy store is up and going strong!

My poor chubby fingers have been hard at work, typing, photographing and blogging about THE NEW ETSY STORE!!!!!! It's finally up and running and we have a decent amount of stuff. This partnership  with lovely Mrs. L is going swell. She picks up where I lack (grammar big time) and comes up with witty descriptions when I have a brain fart. I'm still off work, which gives me ample time to craft, especially when I don't feel good and imprisoned to the couch. At this moment though, I'm super happy with how this has all turned out. Our little shop is getting ample amounts of views without any marketing too. Once we sell a couple things we will start thinking about marketing and adds and google words and all that fun stuff. Other then that not to update on, and my brain is a little fried right now so I will leave you with some Outfit of the day photos and will try to chronicle my baking adventures tomorrow.Oh here is the link to the Etsy store.

Oh SweetHenry Shop

OOTD-

Dress and boots- New Look

Sweater- Ross

Leggings- Target

Fascinator- Etsy shop!

OOTD with a side of Cheesecake!

Cheesecake bars are the bastard child of lemon bars and cheesecake. They are possible the most delicious thing I have ever put in my mouth.  An added bonus is that they are pretty easy to make as long as you have a mixer. The first time I make them I did not have one and creaming cream cheese is not easy with an old vintage crank hand mixer. So I made a wise investment and broke down and bought a new electric hand mixer. It makes things so much easier. Ok so on with the tutorial....

you will need...

5 Tbsp butter, softened

1/3 c brown sugar

1c flour

1/2 c sugar

1 (8ounce) packet cream cheese

1 egg

2Tbsp milk

1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

1/2 Tsp vanilla

1. Heat oven to 350

 2. Blend the butter, brown sugar and flour in a bowl. mix until it is the consistency of course sand. Set aside 1c of this mixture for the top of your bars. 

3. In a 8 x 8 inch pan, spray non-stick spray or coat with butter. Press the remaining crumb mixture into the coated pan.

4. Bake for 15 minutes.

5. While crust is baking combine the sugar and cream cheese into a bowl. Mix until cream cheese is smooth again. 

6. add the egg,lemon juice, vanilla, and milk into the cream cheese mixture and blend until all ingredients are combined.

7. pour cream cheese mixture over your baked crust and top with the remaining crumble. 

8. Bake for another 50-55 minutes until, toothpick come out clean from the center of bars.

 9. Let stand for an hour to set up all the way, then enjoy with friends and family or indulge by yourself! 

On a side note, Jim managed to score a vintage kitchen aid mixer and has been restoring it for me for Christmas. I'm so super stoked and my baking aspirations have been boosted to the next level!  We have been re-arranging our house and making it more "grown up", honestly it feel so good to have a house that is ours and not some place we live. 

On a side side note , I took a couple pictures of what I wore the other day to run errands. I love this skirt and try to wear it as often as possible without people thinking "didn't she just wear that?"

This ring is from New Look , I always get a million compliments  on it when I wear it.

OOTD-

Sweater and leggings- Target

T-shirt- Wal-mart

Lips Skirt- Forever 21

Flats- Payless

Bow- DIY, soon to be on my Etsy store!

 

Have a great day everyone and Etsy updates should be comin' up real quick!

MIxing Business and Pleasure! --OOTD--

     Ok, so I love a good craft. I mean what's not to love, turning boring ol' things into fun pieces of art to display/wear?! Well I've been making felt flowers for years. When I got married, all of the bridesmaids bouquets were made out of felt flowers and buttons (4 bouquets). After the wedding I went on felt strike and wanted nothing to to with felt or flowers or even crafting for that matter. Within the past couple of months I have started doing more and more projects and now with all this extra time on my hands (the doctors have me off work until Jan. 15th) I having been crafting my little heart out. I've been making felt bobbles, adorned with hand sewn beads. I'm loving the whole process of making them and beading all of the colorful felt accessories. I've been making hair doo-hickeys and rings, but plan on branching out and making all kinds of things once I can figure out what customers will like. An amazing friend and I are starting an etsy store. (I know, everyone and their mom has an etsy store, but this is my chance to make my little slice of the Internet that much fuller and well rounded... like me!) When we have the site fully set up I will make sure to share the link with everyone. 

     I went back to the doctor on Wednesday. It was as usual a guessing game. This time though the doctor seemed pretty certain that we are on the right path. Apparently the bone in my ear is grown into my ear drum and my inner ear is no longer vibrating. This could be something I was born with or some sort of trauma caused. If it was caused by trauma that could be what is causing my headaches and dizziness. The specialist (ear, nose and throat specialist) will be able to determine this and then tell me were to go. The boy and I have been researching this and it's called surfer's ear, and the treatment is surgery were they cut off your ear and chisel the bone away and then re-attach the ear. I'm hoping that it's an easy fix and  not surgery, but in all honesty I just want to know what's going on and for life to go back to normal-ish. 

     Other then my ongoing broken-ness and crafting, I've been baking alot. Miss kaelah beauregarde at little chief honeybee. has an awesome recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pie! Also I found an awesome recipe for Cheese Cake Squares, it's like a mixture between lemon bars and cheese cake. I will be doing a tutorial on those tomorrow! They are so good and pretty easy. I will say the hardest part is mixing the cream cheese because my mixer broke (hint hint x-mas!), so I have an old school mixer that you hand crank, not electric at all. I'm getting pretty buff from this baking stuff though!

Navy flower with beads and vintage button

unedited- purple felt flower with opal beads and pink vintage button

OOTD-

Dress- Kohl's

Sweater and leggings- Target 

Boots- New Look

OUTTAKE!!!!!

     Ok Jim is getting restless and wants dinner so I'm off to make homemade mac'n'cheese and meatloaf burgers. Hope everyone had a good thanksgiving. Till tomorrow, fancy shmansy... tootels!