It's All Happening

Have You Switched to HappyCozyLife?

noreply@blogger.com (MsAmanda) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:18:00 +0000

Don't forget to update your links and to subscribe to HappyCozyLife! This only bloggedy-blog will be going away soon!

New Blog: HappyCozyLife

noreply@blogger.com (MsAmanda) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 04:19:00 +0000

Long overdue and still working out a few kinks, but I'm moving this blog on over to HappyCozyLife starting now!

Besides layout and a web address that doesn't include my maiden name, not much has changed. All of the posts from It's All Happening have been moved over, plus I updated my links. Bear with me though, because there are unresolved font issues as well as the header you see above not showing yet.

So change your favorites, your feeds, etc. Come on over to HappyCozyLife!

What We Ate This Week

noreply@blogger.com (MsAmanda) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:12:00 +0000

Herein begins a busy time round our house. We don't necessarily get to sit down together for all of our meals. But I'm going to keep on cooking!

Sunday Pork tenderloin and potatoes baked in Lipton's onion soup mix, salad
Monday Bacon and artichoke jambalaya (NR), kale, blood orange and hazelnut salad (NR) I'll make again, I liked them both. And I swear, the kale gave me extra energy the next day.

Baking
Saturday I baked a new lemon bread recipe. Unfortunately I had lemon oil instead of lemon extract. SO...VERY...LEMONY. Like painfully so.

On Wednesday I made the double-delight peanut butter cookies (NR) that have been all over the place since the woman who created the recipe was on Oprah. They were...okay. Gasp, I know. I think my issue is that while I love peanut butter and peanut butter desserts, I've never been crazy about peanut butter cookies.

Skinny Jeans and New Tops

noreply@blogger.com (MsAmanda) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:10:00 +0000

Last month I picked up a new pair of skinny/straight jeans during one of Gap's flood subscribers' inboxes with codes and 40% off emails. While I love my pair from Alloy, I need a pair that provided the kind of coverage a 30 year old lady needs. After doing some research online and in the store, I settled on a pair of Real Straight Jeans.

And I freaking love them. Not too tight, but slim enough to wear tucked into boots, they are so comfy (stretch is key). Not tucked in they will be perfect for the ankle length style that is both popular and flattering for me. The only thing is the length. They are crazy long. I cut them and intend to get them to a tailor before spring (or Florida) come.

They'd look great with any of these tops.

Top to bottom: Striped Scoop Neck Top, Kali Embroidered Tunic, Ash Knit Top, Colorful Macrame Top, Embroidered Paisley Peasant Top and Here & Now Tee.

Melamine Measuing Cups

noreply@blogger.com (MsAmanda) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:54:00 +0000

I've had these measuring cups for about a year and the continue to make me deliriously happy.

Donate to the Red Cross With Your Amazon Account

noreply@blogger.com (MsAmanda) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:08:00 +0000

Using your Amazon account, you can donate to the Red Cross to help with Haiti disaster relief. Found via diablocody.

Products for Fine Hair

noreply@blogger.com (MsAmanda) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:15:00 +0000

If you have hair like mine (layered, fine, soft and lots of it), then this time of year is a nightmare of flat hair and static.

I personally can't stand having overly processed or stiff hair, so over the years I've cultivated a little stable of go-to products to keep my hair looking and feeling good.

First of all, what makes a huge difference for me is not washing or conditioning my hair everyday. I do it every four or five days. It keeps the natural oils and gives it more body.

That said, these are my tried and trues.

MOP Lemongrass Lift I use this all year round. It gives my hair fantastic body and keeps it in place when I wear it up. If I'm going to style it (like curling it for a wedding), I put this in when my hair is wet and it is the only product I need. I NEVER, EVER use hairspray.

Neutrogena Triple Moisture Silk Touch Leave-In Cream Weightless and easy. I use this when I'm really feeling static-y.

AVEDA Phomollient Styling Foam Also very weightless.

Terax Crema I think this is the best serious conditioner. My hair feels so silky smooth when I have time to let it sit on my hair with a shower cap on.

Aveda Pure Abundance Volumizing Clay Conditioner This makes my hair feel light and fluffy. I need product in it after using this one.

This Week in Yaays and Boooos

noreply@blogger.com (MsAmanda) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:55:00 +0000

Yaaaayyyy

Decorating and playing with snow and ice. Ice vase is from Design*Sponge and table is from Apartment Therapy.

Cute kitchen remodel from AT.

Awesome bags and totes made from Hmong baby carriers. Dazzling Lana, found via Jillian Frances. (I love when someone else does the Etsy work for you!)

Cooking with different kinds of salt from Our Best Bites. Image of table salt from Wikipedia.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

NBC, Jay Leno, NBC management. Boo, boo, boo. I'm with Coco! I don't know where the image is from, my friend Carrie sent it to me.

Vaseline Total Moisturizing Conditioning Lotion

noreply@blogger.com (MsAmanda) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:22:00 +0000

It has been so dry and cold for way too long and I really can't stomach smelling like a Bath & Body Works store/overly enthusiastic perfume sprayer any longer. I picked up a 3 oz bottle of Vaseline Total Moisturizing Conditioning Lotion as a fragrance free trial run and I have to say, I'm pleased.

Any other tips? Baby, its dry up in here.

2010 Food Intentions

noreply@blogger.com (MsAmanda) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:32:00 +0000

What can I say, all I can blog about it is what is top of mind for me. This month at least it is FOOD.

Beyond baking and making one new recipe each week, I want to tackle some foods that I have thus far shied away from. I also want to perfect a go-to recipe for others. Some of these things are way easy, I know, but for whatever reason I just haven't gotten around to trying them.

To do
Roast and break down a chicken
Roast root vegetables (beyond potatoes and carrots)
Grow a garden, part deux
Homemade hot chocolate
Mark Bittman's No Knead Bread
Bread
Red beans and rice
Cuban and shredded pork
Join a CSA
Blueberry red wine reduction

Eat/make more
Vegetables
Fish, snapper
Sangria
Kale
Crockpot recipes
Danish puff
Brussels sprouts
Salad dressings and recipes

Find a go-to recipe
Vanilla cake
Lemon cake
Lemon bread
Sugar cookies
Pizza dough
Granola
Pretzels
Manicotti

Of course, this list is not complete....

Inspired Food Reading

noreply@blogger.com (MsAmanda) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:41:00 +0000

To help in my quest for new recipes, I ordered Cooking Light and Martha Stewart Living through my niece and nephew's magazine drive. Both showed up just in time to help me chart a course for food exploration and new recipes in 2010. In addition, my mother renewed the Cooks Illustrated subscription I had let lapse.

Besides new recipes, there were some totally inspiring and hunger pang inducing articles. It had been quite some time since I'd picked up a Cooking Light, so I really was not expecting to want to book a ticket to Quebec City after reading an article about the city's storied food culture.

Artisanal cheeses, the discovery of Jerusalem artichokes, North American foods with a European flair, and poutine. Oh, do I want some poutine.

Most interesting was the story of Les Fromages de L'Isle d'Orleans. Considered America's first cheese and made on a tiny island just outside Quebec City, government regulations prohibiting unpasteurized milk halted production 40 years ago and only recently has it been made with scientific twists on the old recipe.

The other story I just ate up was about Black Dinah Chocolatiers, featured in this month's Martha Stewart.

Husband and wife pull up their West Coast stakes and move to a tiny island in Maine's Penobscot bay (I'm sensing a theme here, no?). He's a computer geek and she's a chef. To supplement their income, they started a chocolate business with a cafe attached to their house.

Most inspiring? The farm market collection, featuring products made within 50 miles of Isle Au Haut. Blueberry black pepper, rhubarb, apple, strawberry balsamic and chevre & nib just to name a few.

Photos from here, here and here.

What We Ate This Week

noreply@blogger.com (MsAmanda) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:26:00 +0000

We've pretty much been on vacation for the last two weeks and while we ate well over the holidays, it was good to cook at home and stock up on groceries. NR denotes new recipe.

Monday-Pan fried pork chops, salad and linguine avgolemono with artichoke hearts and green beans (NR). While we liked the pasta, we like our lemon fusilli standby more, so I think I will just try switching up the vegetables in that recipe.

Tuesday-We had friends over for the Orange Bowl and lots of treats to last us for the rest of the week. There were carrots, french onion dip with Ruffles, the world's best pasta salad, BBQ meatballs (NR), another dip and Anthony made hot wings from his own special secret recipe.

The meatballs were great, I will definitely make again. I heard the wings were very good, but the fryer stunk up the house so I've been boiling slices of lemon, lime, orange and cinnamon on the stove to drive out the smell.

I'm heading into the new year with cooking excitement. I'm looking forward to trying new recipes and conquering fears about cooking foods I've shied away from.

Holiday Card Art

noreply@blogger.com (MsAmanda) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:44:00 +0000

My former roommate Lica's yearly holiday card is a work of art and this year was no different.

This year's is based on the Frank Gehry designed Weisman Art Museum on the University of Minnesota's Twin Cities campus.

This Week in Yays and Boos

noreply@blogger.com (MsAmanda) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:23:00 +0000

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY

Hawks win the Orange Bowl!

What a great way to end the season.

Design*Sponge has been doing a really fun series called Living In. The Julie & Julia one is absolutely delightful.

Fun way to display jewelry.

I forgot how much I LOVE Archer Farm organic fruit strips. A little burst of fruit flavor in your mouth. Raspberry is my favorite. Yum.

This is Micky’s favorite winter toy. Playing fetch in the snow with tennis balls is a sure fire way to lose them, so I ordered this LED lightup ball for playing at night.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Neighborhood thief steals dog toys and Christmas gifts.

In the past month we have had not one or two, but three UPS deliveries stolen from our front steps. I’m so mad! I hope the rotten thief is enjoying the fake mustaches and buster cube.

The Hurt Locker

noreply@blogger.com (MsAmanda) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:27:00 +0000

By now there have been enough movies released and bandied about to start talking about this year's potential Oscar nominees. As a longtime Entertainment Weekly subscriber, I start to read it much earlier. But no matter. The movie I'm wholesale recommending is the The Hurt Locker. Now out on DVD, it is also back in the theaters.

Singularly focused on a small team of soldiers who diffuse bombs in the early days of the Iraq war, it is intense, suspenseful and engaging.

I know the first reaction to an Iraq war movie is to groan and look the other way, but this one is worth your time and all the nods from critics.

You won't regret it, promise. Photos from Time Out New York.

New Years In Colorado

noreply@blogger.com (MsAmanda) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:19:00 +0000

Whew. See you later 2009, cheers to you 2010. I'm starting the year off feeling ultra, super relaxed. I'm sure it won't last long, but I'm going to try to parlay my peaceful easy vacation feeling into this first week of the year with pictures from our New Years trip to Colorado.

There was skiing.

At Keystone.

There was snow.

There was ice skating, followed by beer and macro photography.

There was snowmobiling above the Green Mountain Reservoir.

And the guide was a good friend of one of our good friends. Totally random.

I didn't list it on my 2010 intentions, but trips to high altitudes always remind me who important it is to just be. Just breathe. Just take it in. Just relax your shoulders, snuggle in and just be.

Here's to a great year. Outstanding!

2010 Intentions

noreply@blogger.com (MsAmanda) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:01:00 +0000

Well, I'm off for a few days to do something I haven't done in years: ski! In the meantime, I'm leaving you with my 2010 intentions. Ready?

Cook one new recipe each week and bake something new each week
Take a picture everyday (will have to find a new subject other than Mr. Micky Mick)
Paint upstairs rooms
Start thinking about, planning and ruminate in general about redoing our bathroom (it needs it all: painting, new plumbing, ventilation, storage added, rotten wainscoting removed, floor redone and last but not least, tile around the bathtub)
Landscaping! Must to tame the jungle that is our yard
Container gardening, composting and adding a rain barrel
Sewing class
Holdover from 2009, eat more veggies
Be the bigger person. I think I'm pretty good about not showing my frustration with people, but I know I can find new ways to go about it

The 00s Have Been Good to Me, Baby

noreply@blogger.com (MsAmanda) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:00:00 +0000

I love end of the year recaps. But end of decade recaps are even better. The 00s (or aughts?) have been good to me, this I know. Let's see, I:

Finished/graduated from college, took off to Minneapolis (where I didn't know anyone besides family) to intern for 3M. Two days after 9/11 I interviewed for a job that I didn't apply for and got it.

Without a friend to call my own, I moved into a great house in Kenwood with three complete strangers who became fantastic friends. Some moved out, others moved in and many nights were spent drinking wine, etc.

One job turned into another, friends started marrying and multiplying (in the frozen tundra and other places near and far).

And one such union led me back to Iowa, where I met the Mr. Mr.

Long distance love=new job in Des Moines, marriage, house, puppy, new friends plus loads of nieces and nephews. A whole new family to add to my own. I turned 30.

There was much travel, but upon review it looks like swaths of the middle of the US need to be visited by yours truly.

Ireland, England, Italy, Switzerland.
New England + New York, many times for many reasons
Washington D.C and Maryland for Jana's bachelorette and once with Anthony.
Hilton Head, Atlanta, New Orleans were all new and some were visited a few times.
Florida, many times of course.
Missouri and Chicago, lots and lots, Omaha once
Denver was a new place, Montana not so much
Las Vegas, San Francisco, Napa, LA, Seattle were new adventures, visited Portland again

I wish there were more pictures, but I've only had a camera since 2007.

What else? Lots of books and Entertainment Weeklys read. It became easier to just be me and separate myself from notions of who I "should" be. Hawkeye football, tailgating, lots of wine, good times with family and a patented method of packing just what I need and not feeling like I don't have something important on vacation. It's all been happening, and baby, it's been good.

Micky's First Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (MsAmanda) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:42:00 +0000

All he wanted for Christmas was to:

Swim and explore with his cousins.

Play fetch.

Have a sleepover.

Relax at home with his new toy.

Christmas Gifts!

noreply@blogger.com (MsAmanda) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:35:00 +0000

Here's a handful of our Christmas gifts. Can you match the gift to the person in our family?

Gap boucle jacket, Beatles Rockband, J Jill sundown sweater jacket, Cuisinart multiclad sauce pans, Olive Kitteridge (Jan. book club pick), Kong air squeaker ring and Under the Dome.

Happy, Happy, Merry, Merry

noreply@blogger.com (MsAmanda) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 14:23:00 +0000

Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas!

From our house to yours.

Back in a few days!

Holiday Gift Idea #22

noreply@blogger.com (MsAmanda) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:23:00 +0000

In no particular order, these gifts are free or minimal $$. Just figure out how they apply to the recipient.

Joy
Love
Hugs, Hugs and Kisses
Grace
Say I love you

A Sven and Ole Joke
A knock knock joke
A mix CD
Cookies

Shovel your neighbors walk
Vacuum the floor before your mom gets home from work
Take your dog for a walk

That's it, no more gift ideas. You best have a good idea if you need to purchase something!

Holiday Gift Idea #21

noreply@blogger.com (MsAmanda) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:03:00 +0000

Electronics aren't a bad gift, but if the recipient is a woman who did not specifically ask for something that plugs into the wall, then think very carefully about your decision. It isn't to say they won't use and appreciate it...eventually. Just beware.

Cuisinart 12 Cup Brew Central Coffeemaker. Yes, it is worth it. I love ours.

Electric Pepper Mill. These are so, so great, especially when you are adding pepper to a dish while cooking.

Brookstone 4-in-1 Charger for Cell Phones, Smartphones and iPod

Brookstone Wine Opener. I know they have been around and were a big gift a few years ago, but I think they are the perfect type of gift. Who wants to spend the money for one themselves?

Brookstone 80-Hour Rechargeable Battery

One of my favorite Christmas gifts from Anthony was a camera. He'd done all the research and picked out the best camera for my needs. But, here's the thing: it was what I wanted.

2009 Intentions in Review

noreply@blogger.com (MsAmanda) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:49:00 +0000

Done

Heal thy back
More purposeful reading
More frequent blogging Take a look at the archives baby!
Take more pictures See above
Take a class or three I took a cake decorating class, Pilates class and Italian cooking class. I’d intended to do a sewing class, but it didn’t work with my schedule.

Done-ish/Hmmmmmm, not so much

Scale down the intensity of my procrastination skills House-wise yes, I feel pretty good. I got the D@MN kitchen done and found the right couch. See here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here. Downstairs feels pretty good. Upstairs, here’s looking at you kid. Work-wise, saw improvement for sure.
New vegetables Definitely ate more veggies this year, but didn’t really branch out. Like, at all.

Ongoing, basically forever
Remembering to have grace

Holiday Gift Idea #20

noreply@blogger.com (MsAmanda) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:28:00 +0000

Okay, this is not original, but I couldn't resist the picture. Not too late for a magazine subscription as a gift.

Photo from here.