Some Monday funnies

My favorite GIF of all time if this doesn't perfectly describe a cat's behavior I don't know what does





The best description of the differences between cats and dogs.



Story of my life



why was I not here for this?

Whitewashing Furniture

After repainting my beautiful wall shelves an accidental bright hot pink I was desperate to find a way to tone the color down. My good friend Sam sent me a link to whitewashing furniture and I fell in love with the idea. I was a little nervous to try it as I am usually not good at those kind of things, but surprisingly it is a lot easier than I thought.

All it takes is two parts of white paint and one part water. If it looks a little thick still you can add more water, we ended up having to do that.

After you've made the mixture simply paint it onto your furniture. Make sure you paint with the grain of the wood for the best result. On one website it mentioned waiting until it's almost dry and then wiping the extra off with a paper towel, but we did not need to do that.

The biggest problem I had with this procedure was getting the paint lines to look even and uniform. I think the issue was the shelves we were painting had a lot of nooks, edges, and bends; the pegs didn't help either. If you're painting a nightstand or dresser I assume this will be much easier.

Here is a picture of the before and after. The top shelf is clearly way too pink especially for a babies room whose main colors are sage green and light pink. The bottom shelf is after the whitewashing. I absolutely love how the pink still shows through the white.

A good thing to note is the paint dries super fast I mean it was completely dry in about 30 minutes.

I was a little nervous that you would be able to tell that my paint strokes were not even and uniform, but you can't at all when it's hanging up and I actually love the way it looks!

Chinese Dumplings

Homemade chinese dumplings have been a favorite food of mine since I was a little kid. In my opinion they are ten times better than restaurant dumplings, but Jack says that they are just completely different. If you have a spare 2-3 hours some evening I highly recommend giving these a try they are actually easier than one might think.

This recipe will make about 40 dumplings.

Ingredients

• 4 cups of flour
• 1 1/2 cups of boiling water
• 1lb of ground pork
• 1/4-1/2 head of cabbage
• 1 tbls of garlic
• 2 tbls soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tbls sesame oil
• half of a beaten egg
• dash of salt

To start you have to make the dough or to save time you can purchase wonton wrappers at the store. The only problem I have with the wonton wrappers is that they are a little thin so when you're pan frying the dumplings they sometimes break a part. To make the dough it is easiest to use a food processor, if you don't have one I highly recommend purchasing one as they are miracle workers in the kitchen. I actually requested a food processor before I requested a coffee machine, because they are that useful. I have a 7 cup cuisinart that goes for around $100.



If you do not have a food processor you can still make the dough it will probably just take more time.

Making the Dough

• First start a pot of boiling water.
•  Take 2 cups of flour, pour it into the food processor, and add just a dash of salt. Put the lid on and start to mix the flour while slowly adding in 3/4 cups of the boiling water.
•  You will soon notice the dough starting to form a ball when it does this let it spin around the machine 41 times. Yes this is a random number my mom made up, but it seems to work so we stick with it. *FUN FACT: this is actually one of the ways my mom taught me how to count as a kid*
• Check the dough and make sure that it is firm enough to roll into a ball. If it is too wet add some more flour and continue mixing. If it doesn't turn into a ball and spin around you can add cool water until it does.
• After you've mixed the dough, take it out, form it into a ball, place it on a floured surface, cover it with a towel, and let it set for 30 minutes. 
• Do this process twice so that you have two balls of dough. 
• While it's sitting you can make the filling!

Dumpling Filling: You are going to use the food processor again so make sure you clean it out. 

• Take about 1/4 of a head of cabbage wash it off and throw it into the food processor to shred it.
• After it's finely shredded add in the meat, garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, and egg.
• Thoroughly mix all of the ingredients.

Preparing the dumplings: This part can be tedious, but is fun to do if you have a partner.

• For this you will need a spoon, a small dish of water, a rolling pin, and a cookie sheet.
• Take the ball of dough and cut it in half. Roll the half out and cut into it so that you have about ten medium sized squares.You will do this for both balls of dough.
• While one person is rolling the dough the other person can be the filler. In each square you take about a teaspoon or more of meat it depends on how big you made your squares and plop it in the center of the square. You are going to want to position the square so that it's like a diamond. With your finger wet the edges of half the piece of dough and fold it over so that it makes a small triangle. Press the edges down with your fingers to seal it closed.
• They should look like this when you are done.

Cooking the dumplings

• Cooking the dumplings is very easy. You'll need a large pot of boiling water and a large pan with frying oil set at medium high heat.
• Make sure that the water is boiling and continues to boil the entire time you're cooking. 
• Take about 4 to 5 dumplings depending how large your pots and pans are and place them in the boiling water. Let them cook for exactly 7 minutes.
• Take them out of the water and place them onto the frying pan until they are crisp and a light golden brown.
• Continue these steps until all your dumplings are cooked.

This may seem like a lot to do, but it's a lot easier than it seems and the end result is heavenly. It's definitely more tedious than it is difficult. These dumplings are my favorite food in the entire world right next to my mothers egg roll recipe which I still have yet to figure out. When I do you all will be the first to know how to make them.

Dipping sauce is obviously a great compliment to this meal. My personal favorite is vinegar and fire oil. Jack uses just plain soy sauce and my sister uses a mixture of half soy sauce and half hoisin sauce. A majority of the people I've introduced these to prefer the soy sauce and hoisin sauce so i would recommend that first. 

Try making them and let me know how they turn out I'd love to hear peoples opinions.

PS I've never made these for some one and had them NOT fall in love with them so I'd say they are definitely worth the time.

37 Weeks!

So today reaches a huge milestone in pregnancy I am officially 37 weeks, which means that if the baby is born any day after today she is considered full term. Unfortunately, since Saturday I have been in a lot of pain and went to the doctors yesterday. After hooking me up to the contraction monitor it turned out I was having small contractions, but not enough to say I'm in labor yet. My problem though was I have been having severe cramps that are pretty much continuous and keep me up at night. My doctor sent me to get an ultrasound just to make sure that everything was alright and everything was great baby is completely healthy!! However, little Mariah is already 7lbs and is very very low most likely why I have been experiencing the cramps.

Due to my pain I have been trying everything to try and induce labor naturally some of these things are actually quite hilarious. My favorite, and Jack's too is getting down on all fours and shaking my bum. I am not sure how this can put you into labor, but I read it online so I had to try it. I also read eating Chinese food can help so I have ordered Chinese food three times in the past two days. Balsamic Vinegar is also said to possibly put you into labor so last night I took two shots of it, this is something I do NOT recommend. I won't mention the other things just to keep my blog PG, but I'm pretty sure every mother knows. I have also tried the pressure points on the web between your thumb and pointer finger and on the inside of your calf. So far nothing has worked, obviously, since I'm typing this blog entry and not in labor. I really wanted to go into labor today, because I mean come on how cool would it be if she was born on 12/12/12. I sadly do not think this is going to happen.

I haven't had that many unusual cravings through out my pregnancy, but recently they have been a little crazy. Unfortunately, my biggest craving is for soda I don't know why, but I can not get enough of it. I try and stick to only one glass or two a day. My other craving is for crazy bread from Little Ceasars I have eaten it every day for the past week it's getting to be an issue.

So currently that is my exciting and slightly hilarious life for the time being. Let's just say I'm pretty desperate for Mariah to be here already!

3 more weeks!

I know I have not been posting nearly as much as I should, but these past few weeks have been more than rough. I have been having contractions every day morning and night that aren't regular but are very painful. My doctor has unfortunately been less than helpful and won't tell me what would be normal contractions and just says "Try not to think that the baby is coming any day, because that will just make these last four weeks that much harder" and I keep thinking "well I wouldn't, but you won't tell me what it's going to be like when the baby does come so every time I experience a contraction or painful cramp I think 'is the baby coming??'" I have been not encouraged to post because I feel like If I did it would be whole lot of complaining. SO instead of complaining I want to show you guys a hilarious video of my cat Leia when she was younger. I posted it on Facebook, but just in case you missed it here it is!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0vCenImi5Q&feature=share

This video makes me laugh every single time she was so crazy as a kitten thankfully she has calmed down a lot since then, even though she is still a bit whacko. Hope this brings a little smile to your day!

30 more days!

It has been such a magical weekend. Jack and I woke up early yesterday and enjoyed a beautiful snowy drive through cape Elizabeth. We had breakfast at the good table and were seated right next to the window so we could enjoy the holiday decorations being lightly covered by the Falling snow. HART was having a kitten
event at pet quarters and we spent over an hour playing with all the little cuties in hopes to find a new friend for Boots. We got our Christmas tree and spent the rest of the evening decorating and wrapping presents. I can't even imagine a better way to spend December 1st and now that its December 2nd there are officially only 30 more days until my sweet baby girl is due!!

Shelves for Mariah

While searching my parents house Jack and I found these adorable matching wall shelves and we thought they would be so cute if we repainted them. 

I wasn't a huge fan of the wood color and thought they would be adorable in a dark pink. So we headed off to Ace Hardware and picked out a gorgeous dark pink called Lucious lips. 

We decided to paint it white first so that way the color wouldn't be mixing with the brown. Although, this was a good idea we didn't realize that when we opened the pink paint that our gorgeous dark pink was actually an extremely HOT pink.

Needless to say this was not the color we were going for and does not mesh well with Mariah's sage green walls. My goal is get out the white paint again and do a sponge paint coating on the top. If anybody else has any ideas they would be greatly appreciated.

Christmas Stockings!

When my sister and I were children my best friends Grandma sewed us these wonderful decorative stockings that we still use today. Last Christmas I decided that I was going to try and make the same ones for my new family. I bought a stocking kit for Jack and one for me. I started Jack's last year in the hopes to finish it by Christmas that year, however I had no idea how long it would actually take me.  . Here is a picture of what Jack's is supposed to look like. You can purchase these at Amazon for anywhere between $17-$30.

I thought this would be perfect for Jack since he loves golfing so much. When I didn't finish it last year I basically gave up on it, but now with Christmas around the corner, a little pressure from Jack, and some serious pregnancy boredom, I decided to pick it back up again. Here's what it looks like so far:

Not exactly like the picture and besides the drunk reindeer I think it looks pretty decent for being my first one. It definitely needs some touch ups, I need to sew on the last few pieces, and the back. It should be done for Christmas and I'm kind of excited to see what the finished product looks like!

Chicken and Stuffing

Apparently at Hannaford they sell pre stuffed roasting chicken in the meat department at only $1.29 a lb. For a 6 lb chicken Jack and I paid $11 and it was delicious. I think this is a perfect idea for a night where you have some extra time and don't feel like cooking or preparing a meal. The whole thing took about 3 hours to cook and I only had to baste it every once in a while with some chicken stock.

Turkey Pie

Last night Jack and I tried a new recipe I found on Pinterest, we changed the recipe around a lot and kind of made our own thing, but it turned out to be pretty good. This meal is extremely easy to cook so it's perfect for a weeknight dinner when you don't have very much time. The ingredients are as follows:

• 1lb 97% lean ground turkey
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup baking mix
• salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 egg white
• 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• french's fried onions

To start, set the oven to 400 degrees. Begin cooking the turkey, onions, and garlic in a skillet. You can also add other seasonings for more taste; we added garlic powder and onion powder. When browned put into an 8 inch round pan or you can use a 9 inch square pan, really whatever you have. Mix in the remaining ingredients and top it off with some french's fried onions. Stick it in the oven and let it cook for 25 minutes.

While it was cooking Jack and I made some potatoes as a side which ended up being a perfect addition to the meal.

My one complaint about this meal is it was just a little bland but nothing a little hot sauce can't fix or more seasoning. 

Nutritional Information: One recipe makes 4 servings

• 432 calories
• 22 g of fat
• 1 g of fiber
• 40 g of protein
• 13% of your iron
• 34% of your calcium

Broccoli Harvest Salad

So I'm pretty sure I've mentioned her before, but if not I'm going to mention her again, because I am in love with her blog. Kelly Hunt from Eat Yourself Skinny, http://www.eat-yourself-skinny.com/, has some of the most delicious and healthy recipes. I have so far made two of her recipes and each one was delectable. The first one I made was her macaroni and cheese with cauliflower that was amazing; Jack deemed it his new favorite mac and cheese, and the best part is it's low cal and low fat.

The most recent recipe I tried was her Broccoli Harvest Salad and oh my goodness is it amazing. It very quickly made it to the number 1 spot for pasta salads. You can find the recipe here: http://www.eat-yourself-skinny.com/2012/10/broccoli-grape-harvest-salad.html or check out my pinterest board under Food.

The recipe is as follows:

• 1/2 box of farfalle we accidentally used a whole box, it still came out great, however it does explain why we didn't have nearly enough grapes, onions, and broccoli. 
• 1lb fresh broccoli
• 1/2 cup light mayo
• 1/2 cup non fat plain yogurt 
• 1/3 cup of sugar
• 1/3 cup of diced red onion
• 1/3 cup of red wine vinegar we actually didn't have this so we combined red wine and white vinegar worked just as well.
• 2 cups seedless red grapes
• 6 cooked turkey bacon slices
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans we did not add this in because neither Jack nor I like chopped pecans

The recipe is pretty easy to make the only tedious part is slicing the grapes in half.

To begin prepare the noodles and cook the bacon; meanwhile cut the broccoli into florets, cut the onions, and the grapes. Jack and I always buy pre cut onions because neither of us can take the burning eyes, it is more expensive, but extremely worth it. Don't forget to steam the broccoli it's not mentioned in her directions. Mix everything together then cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. 

I forgot to take a picture of ours, but it essentially looks the same just with more noodles. 

I predict that what we made will probably be about 6 servings if you're eating it as your primary meal. Nutritional information is as follows:

• 473 Calories
• 6 g of fat
• 9 g of fiber
• 20 g of protein
• 19% of your iron
• 28% of calcium

Living Room

After living at my apartment for over a year, my living room is finally starting to come together. Three out of the four corners are completely done; I just have one more corner behind the couch that needs some decorating and organizing.

I absolutely hate this corner and have not figured out what to do with it yet. It definitely needs a couple wall hangings, but I would also like to find something to put on top of that hideous large white thing. You can't see it in this picture, but right behind the couch is essentially storage space that we've just thrown things like blankets and Jack's golf clubs behind. Soon I will take care of this corner and it will look just as good as the rest of the living room, but for now I just avoid eye contact with it.

The desk is my newest and most favorite addition. It fit my living room and personality so perfectly. I am not even close to done with the desk accessories, but it looks good enough for now until I have some spare cash to make it look perfect.

To the left of the desk you can see my favorite mirror in my house and possibly the world. Jack bought this for me for my birthday two years ago. 

I know it's probably not every body's favorite, but I love animal furniture/decor. It's one of my secret obsessions.

The painting hanging above the desk came from home goods and cost a total of $14!

I am loving my mantle piece that is currently decorated for Fall.

All the fall decor came from The Christmas Tree Shops and cost $13. The mirror above was given to me and the picture frames were all ones I had saved from Christmases and birthdays. So everything on this mantle cost me a grand total of $13!

I really like everything about this corner except for the lamp which I will replace once I get around to it. Currently it is not on my top priorities. I love the picture that we just recently added. Shutterfly was giving away 2 free 8x10's all you paid was S&H so I paid a total of $3 for two 8X10's and the frame was $5 from walmart. My favorite piece in this corner is my elephant table (again with the animal furniture).

I found this beauty at burlington coat factory for $25. When I bought it the glass top was broken off, but that was a very easy fix. Jack bought some 2 part apoxy and just glued it back together it's been perfect ever since. 

My next task it getting my apartment organized. My kitchen cabinets, underneath my bathroom sink, and front closet, are a disaster. Slowly but surely I will complete them before Mariah is born.

Fluffy french toast

I know I haven't been posting as recently, but frankly I haven't been doing anything new recently. It's hard for me to clean and cook dinner so Jack has been helping me out tremendously with that. He makes dinner every night for us and doesn't complain even once. Last night we did make something new though and it could possibly be my new favorite meal. Fluffy french toast, a recipe I found on allrecipes.com, it was by far the most delicious french toast I've ever had; so delicious in fact that I had to eat three slices. We followed the recipe verbatim, which can be found here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/fluffy-french-toast/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=fluffy%20french%20toast&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page

The ingredients are as follows:

• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 cup milk
• a pinch of salt
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• thick bread (we used texas toast bread from the bread aisle and it worked amazingly)
• syrup of your choice
• powedered sugar

To cook it you simply dip the bread in the mixture then throw it on a griddle or frying pan; it was that easy. By far the fluffiest and tastiest french toast. We topped it off with syrup, powdered sugar, and whip cream. Can I say heavenly? cause that's what it was. We also served it with a couple strips of turkey bacon to ensure I was getting some protein for the day.

Ask and you shall receive

So as you all know a little bit ago I made a post about how I desperately wanted a desk for my apartment. I told my wonderful boss how I was looking for a desk and if she saw one to pick it up and I would pay her back. Well not even two weeks later she told me she found the perfect desk and she was going to fix it up for me. I had no idea just how wonderful it would turn out. It's still not ready as the paint is waiting to dry, but she brought in a couple of pictures today. If this desk doesn't scream Lauren Radigan I don't know what does.

Yes she made the chair too with a leopard print seat. Oh and yes those are leopard print knobs you see. 

I have essentially come to the conclusion that I have the most wonderful boss in the world. How many employers would go out of their way to re finish a desk for their an employee? I am just in shock that she did all this for me. I absolutely can not wait to set it up in my house and get it all set up for my organizational binders!!

Dear hormones please go away

I thought I had made it safely through my pregnancy with out those dreaded hormonal changes every body talks about. SURPRISE! I was very wrong; the past couple of weeks have been an absolute mess for me. My emotions have ranged from being insanely happy to extremely mad to more depressed than I have ever been.  I honestly have started to feel like a crazy person. Thankfully I have the most wonderful man in the world who, despite getting yelled at for every little thing, acts like everything is fine and has yet to to let it bother him.

I have also been stressing over everything from our financial situation to the fact that my house is a mess because I don't have the energy to clean. It's been really hard for me to handle and I've been trying to find ways to reduce my negative attitude, stress, and depressed feelings. Something that really helps is taking a Vitamin D supplement. This is something my mom has always recommended to me and as a kid I kind of blew it off, but now I am a huge supporter. More often than not taking it will instantly reduce my stress, but sometimes I need a little more help. Looking at funny and cute pictures online does help and also chocolate! I have been eating a lot of chocolate especially for some one who never ate much chocolate before becoming pregnant.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from today:













Obviously the mother and baby ones have a very special place in my heart right now.

Mariah's Room

Getting Mariah's room started and finding the things that I would need was not as easy as I originally thought.  First off I couldn't decide whether or not I wanted a changing table or if I should just use my bureau. I finally decided that I did want to get one as well as getting a bookcase. I searched high and low for finding these two pieces of furniture at relatively low prices and couldn't seem to find anything below $70. Even the simplest changing table was still over $100 and a teeny tiny bookcase was around $70. I finally decided that I would just find one on craigslist. I am a huge advocate for Craigslist as you can find incredible things at incredible prices, however, you do have to wait to find the perfect one because some people will try and overcharge you. For example I saw some one trying to sell a box of maybe 100 used crayons for $20, which is just ridiculous because they are like $6 brand new at wal-mart. Every morning and every afternoon I would search craigslist for a changing table and bookcase until I found what I wanted. I finally saw somebody advertising a used changing table that was only 12 years old and originally from Pottery Barn for only $25!! Needless to say I was beyond thrilled AND one of the coolest things about it was the family we bought it from knew little Annie. Apparently their daughter is really good friends with Annie and the changing table was hers when she was a baby so she was pretty excited Annie's new niece was going to be using her changing table.

I am absolutely in love with this; it's nice and big and it has a bookcase underneath so I essentially killed two birds with one stone. I was originally looking at buying a book case for $70 and a changing table for $100 and I got both for $25; so I saved $145 just by taking my time and keeping a good eye on craigslist posts.  The glider right next to it I spent only $25 on as well. My landlord's daughter had a baby several years ago and offered to sell it to me and I jumped at the opportunity. While I'm not thrilled with the color I'm pretty sure I can fix that and besides it's incredibly comfortable. 

I also got Mariah's bassinet from craigslist for only $20 which was an incredible deal. The blanket hanging over the side was free from a good friend. The moon mirror above I got from a garage sale for only $3. 

Including the $40 we spent on refinishing her dresser we have spent a total of $115 on all of her furniture. That is a price I am just not going to complain about. We still need to get decorations for the wall, but that's something that will come with time.

Like I said earlier I am a HUGE craigslist fan, but be ware when buying from there because people do try and overcharge you. When purchasing from craigslist it is definitely worth it to be patient and wait until you find exactly what you're looking for at the price you want to pay. 

Why I like to be organized

I actually love this little card, because in all honesty this is exactly why I chose to have a more organized lifestyle. I hate looking for things and far too often have I not taken advantage of warranties, discounts, or returned items, because I have no idea where the papers are and am frankly way too lazy to look. So yes I am organized because I am too lazy to look for my stuff and I am quite okay with that. I also love the way things look when they are organized, I always have. I remember being about 10 years old and visiting my  mom's school, she left me with the secretary for awhile who had all these beautiful organized files and that's when I decided I was going to be a secretary and the most organized person I know. While I have succeeded with becoming a secretary, I am still working on becoming organized but I am getting there. Now if you're wondering why is she a secretary when she has her bachelor's degree in business management. Well folks I like being a secretary/receptionist and it's what I'm good at. Someday soon I will become an office manager and be the ultimate secretary!

Baby Shower

Had such an amazing time at my baby shower in Albany, NY. My aunt's did such a wonderful job I can't thank them enough. Here are some of my favorite photos from the shower!

My cake was absolutely beautiful, pink and glittery!

Mariah's room is finally starting to come along! I've been researching decorating tips and organizing tips all day to find the best way to set it up. I would show you guys a picture of it, but I want it to be a surprise for Jack when he comes back from Texas in 5 days!