another week gone by, another week to go

Apparently I like to just disappear for days at a time. I lose track of it. Today during church I was inspired to make a list of things I need to get done before Christmas... and just in general. I have a feeling that there will be a lot of craft posts coming soon. maybe not this week because I work 35 hours, but maybe more so because of that. I tend to like to keep things going when I'm busy and tend to stay lazy when I don't work much. I should be posting Christmas gift crafts within the next seven weeks. To all of you family that read this, I'll say who it's going to be for at the beginning of the post so you don't get a glimpse of your gift if you don't want to.

So for the dress today, it isn't technically a dress. Mom has always called it her getaway dress, so who's to say I can't call it a dress? This is the "dress" that she wore after her reception or wedding after she married Dad and they ran off together for the rest of their lives. When I was at home the last time Mom had Dad get it out of the hallway closet so I could try it on. IT FIT! I think it's so pretty. The whole thing is knit with a cream yarn that kind of has little popcornish thick parts on it. Anyway, it's very cute. It has a long skirt, a top with a bit of an X pattern at the top, and a matching belt. It's so vintage and pretty.
Oh course I had to wear my vintage red snakeskin heels with it. A perfect match.


Yesterday, Saturday, I decided to get things done seeing as how it was my day off. I also decided to wear something I probably wouldn't wear to work because of that as well. Basically I cleaned and organized my room and for some reason decided to put things in jars on my windowsill... like you can see in these pictures. I'll take a closeup of them sometime I'm sure.

So I was fed like a queen yesterday. Right when I was about to go upstairs and make myself some food I got a knock on my door from Bert practically shoving tamales into my hands. They were hot and delicious. Apparently some woman came around selling them and Bert bought a ton. She handed me the ones she couldn't fit in the fridge. Mmmmmm. Tamales are one of the many reasons I love the holidays and am sad I'm not in Texas.

After getting things done and stopping by the French Bakery to pick up some bread for dinner I went to my dear Dallinfriend's place for dinner. Oooooh my goodness. He made the BEST clam chowder I have ever had. It didn't even cross my mind to pick out the onions and corn. I love onions and corn... I just usually don't like the texture. I know I'm a picky eater. Anyway, we cut the bread I got in half and made bread bowls and dined dined dined. Seriously, I was so full and happy and sleepy after that I left relatively early. But oh my Dallin, you can cook that for me anytime.

The dress for Saturday was a Silence and Noise colorblock dress I got from Urban Outfitters one depressing day when I needed to run away and went to Salt Lake. I think buying dresses when you are feeling down is always a good thing.
The boots are my Blowfish Falls in whiskey as always.
The cardigan under it is a tan Gap one that I have four of in different colors.


Friday was just another Friday. I worked long and hard, passed up on watching a movie with friends I ran into at the grocery store, and passed out while talking to my old friend Mr. Mike and eating oreos and milk. All in all I'd say it was productive.

The dress is an old Gap dress that I replaced the buttons on.
The shoes are once again my Blowfish Falls in whiskey.
The shirt underneath is a remade cream mens waffle henley from Gap.


I had another interview with my friend Rene's work on Thursday, so I wore plants for the first half of it... then realized that I hadn't worn a dress and that I was going to a show that night and coerced Brandon into helping me pick something to wear. Kind of hard over the computer I guess. Oh well. Even though I was hesitant to wear velvet, I think it worked out well.

My friend Kris' band is on tour right now and Thursday was their stop in Utah. I got my friend Emily, who also kind of knows Kris and his brother Andrew to come with me. Those kids are very talented. It is a group of four brothers in a band called Les Sages. You should check them out at lessages.com. Anyway, since most of their family is here they added a part for one of their sisters at this show, so she was up there on Thursday. The whole family has nine kids. Their mom came and so did one of their other sisters... maybe one of their other brothers, but I'm not too sure. I had meet about four of them before, but it was cool to see more. I swear that whole family has something about them. I have a communal crush on that family. They are so genuine and their style is just so unique. They grew up in Canada and picked up and moved around from there. You should listen to the song Nomad. It's a story of their childhood and their parents' love. They even switched instruments after every song and sang acapella after the show. Anyway, they are all very talented and beautiful people. Check them out.

So my dress for the night was a navy velvet Gap dress.
The cardigan was a cream boyfriend Gap one.
The boots are Simple brown felt that lace up the back.
The belt in my Gap hemp one.


I kind of feel like I just didn't care what I work on Wednesday. It was shipment and I knew I needed to move around and get dirty.

The dress is a Gap nightgown from years ago.
The tights are greyish brown ribbed Gap tights.
Blowfish Falls boots in whiskey.
Gap blue and white striped cardigan with added lace.


Now I KNOW I just threw this on on Tuesday. It's a throwback to the 90's with an 00's twist.

The dress is a remake of one of my mom's old dresses from the 80's or 90's.
The cardigan is a black and navy wrap sweater from Gap.
Blowfish Falls boots in black.

I'll talk to you later kids. I only have a week of dresses to go. It's kind of bitter sweet.

comfort food

Becca and I usually have people over for Sunday dinner. One day we should probably have other people cook the food, but until then... So today I said I would cook the main dish. Becca loves my chicken and dumplings, so because it's her birthday next week and she won't be here I decided to make them. It is also going to be our friend Leah's birthday next week, so they made pie as well. It was the PERFECT day for chicken and dumplings and pie. It was slightly grey and drizzly and just the right kind of cool for it. Our dinners are usually very lively. This one was toned down quite a bit. I take it as a compliment to the food. We were all still loud and enjoying ourselves, but we were content. All in all I would say it was a sucessful evening.


The dress for today was one that I got for Christmas last year. It is from Anthropologie, made completely of silk, and heavenly to wear.
The cardigan is another Gap one. That's what happens when you work there for five years and have a great discount. I think I have four of that one cardigan in different colors.
The shoes are some of my favorite heels. They are vintage red snakeskin. I found them in a boutique on University. They had been there for months because nobody could fit into them. Luckily I have small feet and a brother who was a cobbler for the first probably four or five years of employment that could give me pointers to make them work.


Now because I'm nice, I'm going to throw in the chicken and dumplings recipe. The picture looks gross I know, but that was when the broth and chicken were being all cooked up. Trust me, it was good. Plus, this is one of the cheapest meals ever. I think I dished out like $6.50 to feed six people and have a massive amount of leftovers.

For the chicken soup I got a chicken (better uncooked. It may be faster to buy a precooked one, but then you have to mess with finding chicken stock and all that jazz. Plus it tastes better this way), one large yellow onion or two small ones, a whole garlic, and some flat leaf parsley. You don't have to chop everything up all nice. I basically pulled apart the garlic, chopped the parsley in half, cut the onion into chunks and threw them in the pot. You'll want to put them in the pot with a lot of salt and the chicken, then fill it up with water just to the top of the chicken. After that you just put it on the stove and as we like to say in our family, "boil the snot out of it." This will take about an hour and a half. You know it's done when the meat falls off the chicken when you pull it out of the water. Now it's time to burn yourself. Just take the chicken out and take the meat off of it. At this point I like to take most of the chunks of onion, garlic and parsley out of the pot as well. Now throw the good pieces of chicken (shreaded to whatever size you like) back into the pot with that delicious broth still in it. Viola, you have chicken soup. Yumm.

Now for the dumplings I used my brother's recipe that he actually took from someone else. Anyway, it was good. He warns you NOT to take the lid off the pot and peek at them while they are cooking. DON'T DO IT. I know you want to soo badly. Trust me, it is a bad idea. I once tried to make dumplings in a pot with a lid that didn't fit it and I came out with really thick chicken soup and no dumplings. It was still good, but I wanted to cry a little. You want them to be like fluffy rolls floating in delicious soup. This will happen if you do not look at it.

http://quotidianefficacy.blogspot.com/2008/11/chicken-and-dumplings.html

Now go enjoy the delicious cool weather comfort food. You'll want to add salt and peper to taste when you sit down to eat it. Also, it's the perfect thing to put the chicken soup in a bag and freeze and then whip up some more dumplings when you want it again. That's another reason why I love it.