Glee Fashion Show

I am on the Glee bandwagon big time and love these photos I saw in Glamour when I was the airport last week. The dresses are incredible - especially Diana Agron's Dior dress (second picture).

Usually I'm not into musicals but for some reason I find this show so entertaining. I think its tapping into my life long dream of having a good voice and being able to sing without making people cringe. I sing anyway, just alone in my car with the music so loud I can't even hear myself.

Glee Fashion Show

leggy

I love this picture from Amanda Pratt. I've been drooling over how long this model's legs are and her adorable heart tights.
Borrowed with love from Twila's Vintage Blog. She has a wonderful fashion/design/vintage blog with a lot of eye candy. My favorite posts are her series "10 things that make my heart happy".

leggy

She & Him

I am loving the album Volume 2 by She & Him (Zoey Deschanel and M. Ward).

This pretty much describes their music:

She & Him make music for an eternal springtime, when the temperature is warm enough to go riding with the top (or at least the windows) rolled down and the radio turned up. They occupy an alternate universe where the saddest of songs feel as warm as sun showers; the rain may be coming down, but somewhere nearby, everything looks bright.

The song Thieves is lovely and I think my favorite track on the album.

On Jimmy Kimmel just so you can see how cute she is.

I think she has the most beautiful voice.

Do you have any music finds for me?

She & Him

how do you love?

I'm reading Eat Pray Love and stumbled across this paragraph the other night that really caught my attention. I think it sums up a lot of who I am and how I love. Its not me perfectly, but I can definitely relate to it.

"I disappear into the person I love. I am the permeable membrane. If I love you, you can have everything. You can have my time, my devotion, my ass, my money, my family, my dog, my dog's money, my dog's time - everything. If I love you, I will carry for you all your pain. I will assume for you all your debts (in every definition of the word), I will protect you from your own insecurity, I will project upon you all sorts of good qualities that you have never actually cultivated in yourself and I will buy Christmas presents for your entire family. I will give you the sun and the rain, and if they are not available, I will give you a sun check and a rain check. I will give you all this and more, until I get so exhausted and depleted that the only way I can recover my energy is by becoming infatuated with someone else." - Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert

I definitely have boundary issues. I definitely can find myself giving too much. I did this with my now husband back when we were in college. It was a very tumultuous and crazy time for us. Now I think I am so scared of being that way again, that I overcompensate by being too selfish sometimes.

How do you love?

how do you love?

Recent snack obsessions

When I travel for work I almost always stop in one of the book/magazine stores or Starbucks for a treat. I've come across some new snacks that I am absolutely obsessed with and aren't bad for you.

Kind Bars are all natural, gluten and wheat free and most are dairy free as well. They are pretty filling and sorta taste like dessert.

The fruit and nut one is one of my favorites but if you are feeling like something sweet go for the Sesame & Peanuts with Chocolate. Its kinda of ridiculous and amazing and may make you lick chocolate off of your fingers on a very crowded plane. Not that I do that because its disgusting.

I'm also loving peeled snacks. They are essentially just peeled dried fruit with no added anything. They also have fruit and nut mixes but I've never tried them. The "much ado about Mango" pack is by far my favorite. I could eat these packs all day long and each pack is only 120 calories so you don't feel guilty eating them.

What are some of your favorite snacks? Also don't think that I'm some kind of health nut - I chow down on gummi bears, chocolate and french fries far too often.

Recent snack obsessions

lovin these shoes

I saw these shoes on Piperlime earlier this week and bought them since they were only $40.

I got them yesterday and they are this beautiful metallic color (that doesn't come through in the pictures) AND they are actually really comfortable. You should seriously consider buying these if they have your size.

lovin these shoes

Quiche-a-licious

So clearly losing weight was not high on my priority list last week because I decided to randomly make quiche. I blame it on the rain (yeah, yeah) and Smitten Kitchen for all her ridiculously awesome recipes.

It was super easy to make and tasted incredible. My husband polished off half of the quiche in a night and then finished it the next day. He was still in a quiche induced coma when I decided to make a second quiche two days later to finish off the pate brisee dough that I just couldn't let go to waste. Yes I could have put it in the freezer but whatever. Cheese and dough is too hard to resist sometimes.

Now that I've told you a useless back story and mentioned the word quiche a million times (isn't it a weird word), I'll move on to the recipe which I ever so slightly modified. The no-modified version can also be found here on Smitten Kitchen.

Images via Smitten Kitchen

Martha Stewart's Pate Brisee

Ingredients

• 2.5 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar (I included this but Smitten Kitchen didn't in this savory recipe. It didn't taste weird or sweet so whatever floats your boat)
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup of ice water

Directions:

1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, salt and sugar.
2. Add butter, and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal. - I used our kitchen aid because we don't have a food processor and it was all good.
3. With the machine running, add ice water in a slow, steady stream. Mix (pulse) until dough holds together without being wet or sticky. Don't do this for more than 30 seconds. To test, squeeze a small amount together. If it's crumbly, add more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time.
4. Divide dough into two equal balls. Flatten each ball into a disc and wrap in plastic.
5. Transfer to the refrigerator and chill at least 1 hour. Dough may be stored, frozen, up to 1 month. Or if you are like me, just make 2 quiche's in 2 days. Its worth it.

Spinach Quiche Recipe

Press out the dough into a 9-inch round pie dish or removable-bottom 9 inch round tart pan. (I used a pie dish).

Ingredients:

• 1 3 ounce package cream cheese, room temperature (I used light cream cheese and it still tasted great)
• 1/3 cup half and half (or milk) - I should have used milk but I used half and half
• 3 eggs
• 1 10 ounce package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
• 1/2 cup of grated cheddar or gruyere - we only had pepper jack so I used that and it was amazing
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
• 4-6 green onions thinly sliced or 1/2 cup finely diced red/white onion/shallot - I used the green onion
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon of chilli powder - this was my own addition because I like things spicy. It didn't add much to the taste in the end though

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Beat cream cheese in bowl (or kitchen aid) until smooth
3. Gradually beat in half and half/milk and eggs
4. Mix in remaining ingredients
5. Pour mixture into the crust
6. Bake until the crust is golden brown and the filling is set (about 25 minutes). I ended up baking until the filling was golden brown too because I just prefer it that way.
7. Cool 10 minutes before serving.

Thats it. Its pretty easy and its very hearty/filling. We ate the quiche with ketchup because we are awesome and unsophisticated. In my opinion the dough is the best part.

Any non fat kid recipes you want to share with me?

Quiche-a-licious

Mediocrity

I have seriously dropped the ball on this blog. I don't even have any good excuses. I guess my attention span/will power to do things waxes and wanes. I made all these resolutions, like everyone does, and clearly haven't followed through on some of the ones I really wanted to keep. Namely getting and staying focused on my health through a better diet and exercise, cooking new meals regularly (lets just change that to just cooking), and writing regular blog posts.

I think that I'm just not one of those people that has a thing and can stick to it. You know how when you think of some people you think of their associated hobby or something they are the best at- photography, cooking, sports, travel, whatever. I'm into a lot of different things and probably range from poor to above average with them. As a kid my parents put me in everything imaginable - ballet, tap, swim, synchronized swimming (for reals), water polo, violin, piano, soccer. I was that kid that had a schedule as a 7 year old and went from soccer to swim to violin lessons. Thing is, I was never really amazing at any of those things.

As an adult I find myself becoming totally consumed by things and then a week later just abandoning it altogether. I once bought Nutrisystem, ate two of the meals and never opened another package. That was a seriously bad idea. I'll draw for a day, run for a week, cook for a month but never do anything with consistency.

I've been wondering if my fickleness and lack of focus has made me mediocre at everything. Then I start to spaz out and think about how if I can't be good at the things I am doing now, how could I possible be a good mother, work and be my own person? But thats another topic and I've already rambled enough.

Nothing like some awesome clip art to illustrate my point...

Or how about this awesome image:

I don't even know if this makes sense. Can you relate or are you one of those awesome people who is super good at something (or everything)? If so, can I have the secret to your success :)

Mediocrity

lovely illustrations

Aren't these illustrations and drawings by Julie Morstad just beautiful?

All images via julie morestad. Discovered via Little Garden (who I discovered from Cup of Jo)

I would love to get these for our place. Especially city walk for our dining room to go with our ork posters.

lovely illustrations