Observation Tuesday: Volume 3

- If you would like to get someone to use you as a vendor, do not say "tell me about you/your wedding day/your fiance" and proceed to interrupt them every 6 words. Not the best way to win someone over.

- I still possess the talent to get ready in about 9 minutes in the morning. At least that is one skill I haven't lost since graduating college.

- I really think John Mayer is really funny. I follow is tumblr One Forty Plus and honestly laugh out loud often when looking at it.

How To: Remove Wine Bottle Labels

Well, I mentioned earlier how I destroyed my fingers trying to get wine labels off bottles for my wedding centerpieces. Here are the fruits of my labor.

And here is the process I ended up using:

1)Soaking bottles in hot water and fabric softener. Not sure why the fabric softener, but my mom thought she had heard it somewhere so that's what we did. Then we would rip off as much of the label that would come off.
2)Now we used a combination of baby oil and lighter fluid and a scrubby thing to scrape off the sticky stuff. I read about the baby oil online and I've used lighter fluid before so I just went with it.
This was quite the process. I did, in fact, get the Goo Gone suggest from multiple people but was too lazy/cheap to go to the store to get some. However, I may cave and do that for the next round.

Observation Tuesday: Volume 2

-I just saw this recipe for cinnamon bread and am dying to make it.
-Yesterday I tried to scrape wine bottle labels off wine bottles. Not as easy as it sounds. More to come on that later.
-Best observation of this week: noting the names of products at Ikea. My mom and I went yesterday to get stuff for my future house and I spent the better part of the hour and a half we were there just saying the names of products; "slaak, husvik, karlstad." What's not to love about those words?
-Just read Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. It was excellent. Such an interesting story about a man in the cirucs. The plot is so intriguing and its just about a world that is so foreign and interesting. I recommend it.

O Empire wide and glorious, you stand supremely blest.

Guess I should learn all the lyrics to "Texas, our Texas" since on September 8, 2010 that's where I'll be living...

Observation Tuesday: Volume 1

I'm going to start Observation Tuesdays on the blog. This will be a weekly feature in which I publish my observations from the week, or that moment, or anything really. It will be random.

Here are this weeks observations:

- The Las Vegas Airport is the loudest airport I have ever been in. Not surprising, but the slots seriously increase the normal volume level.
-I just observed a guy wearing an outfit I would wear exactly - longish jean shorts, peach colored v neck tee, tan colored toms and a plethora of trendy bracelets. Not sure if this is embarrassing for me or him.
-One highlight from my week - I changed my gmail background this week from "dusk" to "desktop." I wanted to be more professional than "bus stop" or the gameboy theme and desktop fit the bill without being too boring. Yes - these are the details that make my week folks.

A few of my favorite things

Not kittens. Not mittens, although I do love them. But my favorite things right now were thoughtful gifts I've gotten. Like these:

1) This super pretty, homemade plate from my best friend. She didn't make it, but had her friend custom make it for me! So fantastic. It will hold a special place in my new home, perhaps breakfast in bed and holiday meals.
2) Okay - lets be honest. This is the cutest picnic basket ever. And it is filled with colorful plastic utensils, plates and napkins. Some of our dear friends gave it to us as an engagement present and I cannot wait to take it on lots of outings.
3) God gave me this sunset the other day. Or rather he gave the entire Phoenix metropolitain area this sunset. Nothing is as good as natural beauty.
4) I also got a gift card to Chocomize. Um, what isn't to love about custom-made chocolate bars with options like gummy bears, cayene pepper and raisins? Nothing, that's what. My other bestie saw I had posted it on a friend's website and was thoughtful enough to gift it to me! I'm thinking dark chocolate with lavendar and sea salt.

I could go on and on and include the Toms my fantastic fiance got me, or these Etsy prints my mom got me (click here), the amazing picture my fantastic artist of a sister painted for me, or the super cute hot and cold mug from my parents. I'm so blessed to have people in my life that know me enough to get me such fantastic presents. It's not just the things themselves, but the thought that has gone into them.

Shortbread

Shortbread is one of my favorite things in life. Honestly, a latte and a piece of shortbread on a cool morning with a good book and I couldn't be happier. In fact, I used to get a box of Walker's shortbread every Christmas. I once tried to make some when I was 13 and ended up doubling the salt content due to an unsalted vs. salted butter incident. Needless to say it did not end well. This past week, since I had close to nothing to do, I decided to make some.

Below is a step-by-step picture guide of me making Shortbread adapted from this recipe from the food network.

1) Gather ingredients.
2 sticks of butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
2 cups flour1 tsp salt
my secret ingredient (which isn't a secret, just scroll down)
2) In goes the butter to the mixer. I mixed this up first a bit by itself, then added the sugars and mixed until fluffy. As soon as you do this add in the flour and salt. Now, mine looked SUPER crumbly so I added a spoonful of sour cream. Call me crazy, but it worked.

3) Then you smoosh it into a greased pan. I used this adorable tart dish of my moms. Score the dough into sections. I just eyeballed it and failed, but whatever. Put it in the fridge to chill for 1/2 an hour.

4) Go to the gym. Okay - this is just me and not necessary for the recipe. But I did it to balance out the 629 calories I was going to eat in shortbread later.

5) Come home from gym. Preheat oven to 300. Bake for an hour. Shower in the meantime because you may be sweaty if you went to the gym. Take it out, LET IT CHILL (if you don't it will crumble) and cut along the scored lines (which are almost completely baked out, but oh well).
6) Pour yourself a big glass of milk, trust me, and get yourself a piece. Now try not to eat the whole pan in one sitting.