Tis the season for.. toffee

As usual every Christmas time I make toffee. It's a family recipe and everyone seems to love it. The only downside to this, is that each year my list of people that would like toffee seems to get longer and longer. This year I planned out making 6 batches. Hopefully that will be enough. If not, guess I go back to the store and pick up some more stuff to make a couple more batches.

I have a running list in my head of people who have mentioned they wanted toffee, but since my memory isn't the greatest some days. Leave me a comment if you want to be added to the list.

Here are some shots of my process. I got 3 batches done last night, then I was out of cookie sheets.

(get all of your ingredients together)

(start cooking in the electric frying pan)

(Melt the chocolate chips)

(once it turns the perfect shade of brown and smells wonderful pour into a cookie sheet)

(let set for a minute or two and then cover with melted chocolate)

Cardigans

Is it wrong to be in love in with cardigans & want them to be the only sweaters in your closet? I hope not... because I can't stop looking at them and wanting to buy them all.

Black Friday

We opened a new store, spellitout.bigcartel.com. We are having a Black Friday sale. Use the code BFSALE at checkout to get 20% off.


-- Post From My iPhone

Hallo-weenie

Usually every year we are very into the Halloween spirit. We decorate the house. Pull out Stew and get him ready for the holiday. But this year none of that happened. I am pretty sure it had to do with the fact that I have been battling a cold for a few weeks and have had to fly out of town a couple of times. I just didn't put the dedication into Halloween this year.

We received several party invitations, but ultimately decided not to attend them since we had no costumes. At the last minute we decided to get out and go to a "zombie" party. Although we had no costumes we threw some makeup on and headed out. We needed to stop by Target for some chips 'n dip. While there we got several comments about being scary or getting hid by that bus from no where. Considering we had not thought this out before hand. I don't think it turned out too bad.

Memphis

On Sunday I traveled to Memphis, TN for work. While there in my free time I was able to check out the surroundings. I wish I could have seen more and that it wasn't down pouring on Tuesday, when I had the whole day to explore.

The first night there I went to the B.B. King Blue club. There was an awesome live band.


Yeah, he was playing the guitar with his tongue. Crazy!

Beale street is awesome at night, with all of the neon signs.

I also wandered around the city and found some cool buildings.

I would love to go back and be able to explore the whole time, rather than in between work meetings. This city is so awesome and has an amazing history.

Books - again

Last year I posted about these lovely books.

As I was looking around the internet today I found that Anthropologie is now selling these on their website. You can save the hassle of getting them from Canada.

Check them out here.

Sunshine?

Last week I had to fly to San Jose for work. It was a quick little trip, but I was able to spend some time with my colleges from another office and enjoy the warm and sunshine.

I do like being home - but as I was waiting for my car to warm up this morning so the ice on the window would melt (I couldn't find my ice scraper) I was nostalgic for the sun and warm for a few more weeks.

(View from my room)

(Santana Row)

Do you know..

how many foods in our life contain starch? It's insane! Really.

I know this, because for the next 3 weeks I am starch and sugar-free. Although that doesn't take away from my natural sweetness! ( ba dum!)

On Wednesday, I have to fly to San Jose for work, and felt that I should probably draw my diet to an early end. I stopped my shots on Saturday. The last week of the shot portion of the diet, was a struggle. My body seemed to be fighting me the whole way. That's another reason why I decided it was probably time to stop and move on to the next phase.

I ended with a total weight loss of 30 pounds (including the cleanse loss & diet). I am happy with it. Every little bit helps. Right now I just need to focus, make sure I follow the rules and keep the weight off.

I don't have a picture right now, but I'll get one up later.

Diet Week 4

Wow, it's been four weeks. I only have a little over a week to go until I am done with the shot. Sadly, I don't think I am going to meet my goal though. My goal was lofty, but I am very happy with what I have done so far.

Here are my updated tallies:

• Lost a total of 22.6 pounds (increase of 8 pounds since last week)
• Grand total lost of 27.4 pounds
  

Updated picture:

Fabulous Family

I have some super creative and savvy relatives and I thought I would give a shot out to them and what they are doing. Also, their blogs should be checked out.

First my cousin Jeri. Jeri lives in Arizona, but has a blog Budget Menus for the week. On her blog she goes through the ads for the local stores, tells you what is one sale, and gives you a menu of these sale items for the whole week. This past week her menu totaled $70.85. Amazing! Although she is in another state, some of the items might be comparable here.

Next is my cousin Kim. Kim has begun selling adorable petticoats, pettislips and tutus. Barefoot Creations is her blog for ordering and viewing these fantastic items.

Another cousin Lisa, make adorable necklaces and bracelets. Unfortunately, she doesn't have a blog where she highlights and sells these, but she should. ;) Her jewelry is beautiful and handmade.

Something to Read

I can't seem to get into reading Jane Eyre (one of my favorite books). Maybe it's because I have read it before... who knows. I might just have some form of ADD that's undiagnosed. Either way, I am seeking everyone's thoughts on some really good books to read. Hopefully with a new book I can kick this ailment and enjoy reading a book again.

If I had more free time I would love to join a book club. How often to book clubs meet anyway? Anyone in a book club and like it?

Can you see that I am a mess? Help me, please.

writing on the walls
Originally uploaded by nardell

Red Velvet love

While I have been on my diet Jon has been left to fend for himself. I haven't completely neglected him I do buy him food at the store, I am just not preparing dinner for the both of right now. Before I go to the store I always ask him what he wants. He usually doesn't have any specific requests, so I buy what I think looks good if I could eat it.

I was baking zucchini bread the other day, because we received a huge haul of large zucchinis. While doing so Jon asked where his treats were. I asked him if he wanted some cookies, and he said no, that he wanted a cake. Mind you baking is so much harder when you can't get the taste the batter or finished product. Jon was my zucchini bread taster since I was using a recipe I hadn't used before. He said it turned out great! More on this zucchini adventure in the future.

We have had a busy week and Jon seemed a little stressed so while he was at dinner with his family I set out to make him a cake. Granted I could have gone to the store to buy a cake mix. Instead I decided to make my favorite cake recipe - Red Velvet with Vanilla Creme frosting. I usually use this recipe for cupcakes, not cake as it's originally intended. But it was cake he wanted and it was cake I made.

A three layer Red Velvet cake.

ps. I love the Vanilla Creme frosting more than anything in the world! It's light, creamy and what I think is the perfect pairing to go with this cake.

Both the cake and frosting recipes are from a Magnolia Bakery cookbook. You can also find the recipes here:

Cake
Frosting

Diet week 3

I totally missed getting my Monday update up and even didn't get an updated picture. Ooops!

Well it's later but better than ever. As of Monday I had lost about 16.6 pounds. Then adding in my pre diet loss, it's a total of 21.6 pounds. Woo hoo!

October 2nd is the last day of taking shots, and then I have a 3 week adjustment period. By
October 2nd I am hoping to have lost a total amount of 41 pounds.

For those of you who have been following my diet and aren't aware of what I am doing, here's a little insight. I began by doing a liver/gallbladder cleanse. After that I went on the HCG diet, which is what I am currently on. Originally, I decided to do this diet because if done correctly it will reset your metabolism. Since I have hypothyroidism, my metabolism was messed up. I am currently on synthroid to correct the issue, but it doesn't set your metabolism back to normal. Once I did the cleanse and lost a little weight, I really got sucked into it and wanted to lose more in the hopes that I would feel more like myself. So far it seems to be helping.

On the HCG diet you are on a 500 calorie a day meal plan, while getting shots of HCG everyday. The HCG pulls from your fat storages and engorges your blood with between 1500 and 2000 calories a day. I know what you are thinking.. aren't you starving? Actually no. Since I have so many calories in my blood I am not starving. I do get hungry but I just eat one of the allowed meals and I am good. On this diet you can lose around a pound a day. You just have to make sure that you are drinking at least 2 quarts of fluid. Normally this isn't an issue for me, but lately I have started to feel water logged with all of the fluid, but I keep pushing on.

This diet may not be for everyone, but so far it seems to be working with me and I am happy with the results. It's also nice to find that I need new clothes because my old clothes aren't fitting anymore.

Diet week 2

I just finished the 2nd week of my diet. I am not finding it too hard, but there are moments when I long for the social aspect of dining out. Unfortunately, since the requirements are so strict dining out really isn't an option, unless you eat a plate of lettuce and have ice water to drink. True story.

I can't really feel too sorry for myself though, because I am loving the results that I am getting. I am finally feeling like my former self. After a couple of years struggling with weight gain caused by unknown causes it's nice to be on the other other end. Weight loss. Yay!

Here are my tallies so far:

• Dropped one pant size
• Lost a total of 14.6 pounds (increase of 5 pounds since last week)
• Grand total lost of 19.4 pounds
  

Updated picture:

Giveaway on the Spell It Out Blog

I am having a giveaway on the Spell It Out blog. You can check out the details and enter by going here:

Spell It Out Designs - Giveaway

Diet Update...

A week ago Sunday I began my new diet. Every morning I have to weigh myself to see my progress. Owning a scale is somewhat daunting to me. Scales and I have a checkered past and haven't always seen eye to eye. Currently this scale is my friend. Mostly because it keeps telling me I am losing weight (except this morning) and gaining more muscle. As of this morning I have lost 9.6 pounds. Bringing my cleanse and diet total to 14.4. I didn't do the best upkeep after the cleanse since I went on vacation the day after I finished.

Here's a picture from last night. Mind you it was taken at 10:30 and was a last minute type of thing so that I would have a picture of my progress for this post. Be gentle.

For the love of... BOOKS!

For my birthday in March I splurged and bought myself the whole set of these Penguin Books. They are the classics and have these fabulous covers.

I was just reading the design sponge blog and found out that Penguin Books is releasing 8 of these same titles in the US, but with different covers. Penguin how could you do this to me? You know I must get those books too. The covers are so fabulous!



Guess I need to save my pennies, and that wii purchase is back on the back burner.

Phase 2

Yesterday I started the next step in my weight loss adventure. Yes, adventure. I didn't plan ahead enough to get a before picture. I'll try and get Jon to take one tonight, so that it's not Myspace style in front of a mirror.

I'll post my weight loss progress next week.

***UPDATE***
I kind of slacked on the whole getting a before shot, so here is a picture that Jon took before I started the diet, but was mid cleanse. It's kinda embarrassing to see myself this way. Check out the other hot ladies in the pic though.

Rooster

Back in early July Jon and I ventured down to Utah County to try out a new restaurant, Rooster.

It's a nice little restaurant. Emphasis on little though. We decided to sit outside and enjoy the nice weather.

We had already planned on ordering some dumplings, but took a look over the menu to see if there was anything else we wanted to try. The waiter sold us on the idea of trying their bubble tea. I'd heard of bubble tea but hadn't had it before. It's a milk tea that has boba balls in it. Boba balls are made from a mixture of tapioca and carrageenan powder. The straw for the drink was huge, maybe a half inch wide. I don't think Jon was sold on it, but I might get one again sometime.

For dinner we ordered the Rolled Rice Noodles with peanut sauce and hoisin, an order of Shrimp & Roasted Red Pepper dumplings and Veggies & Tofu dumplings. I tried both of the dumplings and thought they were great. Jon only had the Veggies & tofu but agreed that they were good. Neither of us were really in love with the rolled rice noodles. We both love sticky rice with peanut sauce and thought the rolled noodles might be just as good, but didn't think so in the end.

(We were so excited to dig in I forget to get a picture until we were almost done.)

For desert we got their Chocolate Lava Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream. It was *A-MAZING*! I checked their menu as I am typing this and found they don't have the lava cake with ice cream anymore. I wonder if they will substitute ice cream.


If you are in the area or looking for a new place to try out, I recommend it. Plus what can it hurt going to some place new?

Cleanse & misc. housekeeping updates

I know I was going to post this on Saturday, but between everything going on at Craft Lake City and then leaving the next day for the saltflats it got looked over. Finally tally after 28 days is a weight loss of 10 pounds. Woo hoo!

I am going back to the wellness center in a little over a week and will see what will be the next step.

In other news.. thank you to everyone who came out to Craft Lake City and stopped by my booth and said hi. My apologies to those of you who came early while I was still having a minor stress out. Thanks to the fam who ran and got me a plug adapter. I never ended up getting the laptop hooked up to the wireless, but at least I am now set with an adapter if I ever need it again. Also, thanks to my mom and Chicka & hubby. Without them I never would have been set up in time.

I hope everyone had a good time and picked up some fabulous things from the vendors. I know I did!

Studio 5

Just a heads up.. I will be on Studio 5 again tomorrow. Studio 5 starts at 11am.

-- Post From My iPhone

Craft lake city

We're here come stop by and say hi! The festival is going on til 10 pm.




-- Post From My iPhone

the salt.

It's that time of year again. What time is that? Speedweek!

As if my life was not crazy enough, trying to get everything done for Craft Lake City, I am also heading out to the salt (salt flats) for a few days to check out the cars and hopefully see some new land speed records get set.

Some might think that the salt doesn't sound like a great place to vacation. But.. I love it! Being out in the middle of the salt flats is like no other place. If you have stopped at the rest stop off of I-80 and walked onto the salt you haven't gotten the complete experience. You need to take the exit after the rest stop (heading west), drive by bend in the road until there is no more road. The races are then held a few miles out from there in the middle of the salt.

Jon and I have been going to Speedweek for that last few years. We get to kick back for a few days, hang out with our friends and watch history be made. I am taking my laptop with me and am hoping to be able to post some pics out there, but we'll see what happens.

(Us last year with Lucy)

Here are some photos Jon has taken previous years.

Dilemma

For the past 20 days I have been minding my p's and q's when it comes to this cleanse I have been doing. I am feeling good and even have noticed a change in how my clothes fit. This has been awesome because I wasn't really expecting to see a change in my weight with this cleanse. As I mentioned in a prior post even others noticed a change without me mentioning to them I was doing this.

Well, that high came crashing down last night when I watched the dvr'd segment of my on the news yesterday morning.

I've always had a pretty good self esteem about myself, but the last couple of years that has all been put to the test with this unexplained weight gain. The gain has worn me down and frustrated me. I don't feel as though I have control over my own body and at some points don't even recognize the person that stares back at me in the mirror.

I have even noticed that I shy away from having my picture taken because the person that shows up in the picture as me, is not the person that lives in my head. I once again came face to face with this reality as I saw myself on tv. The person, "me", that was standing there talking was not me. I was even embarrassed and almost didn't want to finish watching myself.

Don't get me wrong... I know I am a great person and I know things will change. I am just really frustrated with my current state. But, I feel like I am in the right path in getting help to jump start some weight change. Here's to hoping it all works. After the 8th I will be down with the cleanse and will post my weight progress.

For those of you who missed the tv segment. Here are some pics Jon took with his phone. Please keep in mind I am being brave in posting these, since I am obviously not happy with who I am in them.

Birds

I have an insane love of everything birds. Not only real living birds but also bird decor. The other day Pioneer Woman posted this china on her blog and needless to say, I am in love!

Busy Bee

The last little while I have been prepping for Craft Lake City. I have even put Jon to work asking for his assistance with painting. For my display I found some nice tables, but of course I had to make things difficult and insist that they be painted the colors I wanted.

I've been a mess the last few days trying to get everything accomplished that I want to. Here's a shot of my the current state of my craft room.

Part of my stress is due in part to the fact that I have to do a mock set up tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn for the Channel 2 News with Casey Scott. If you are up that early tune in and you might get to see a sneak peek of my both and maybe yours truely!

Mark your Calendars...

Two weeks to go!

I'll be there with a booth for my vinyl chalkboards and whiteboards.
Come check out the crafts!

How I roll..

In an attempt to make my blog more interesting I am going to start a blog label titled "How I roll..". For these posts I am going to let you all in, a little more, on my crazy life. I imagine it will be pictures of crazy randomness that is my daily life.

Are you all ready?

Random Thoughts

I've been kinda MIA again... I have been busy and haven't exactly been inspired to write on my blog. I used to think that I wanted a blog that people would flock to and read everyday. Then I realized my blog really isn't that interesting. It's just random tidbits of my thoughts, ramblings and other stuff I throw up here on the good 'ol internet. Anyway... I still don't have much to say. This weekend I will try and post pictures from a recent mini adventure.

Side note: I started my medical cleanse as recommended by the Integrative Medicine Center that I have been going to. I didn't exactly love that every doctor I previously went to wanted to give me some prescription to "fix" my problem - so I decided to try a more Eastern approach. It's a 28 day cleanse and I am on day 10. I already notice a difference and others have noticed too. Only downside, I get an occasional craving for a food I can't have. We'll see what a difference has been made at the end of day 28.

It's yours.. you keep it!

One of my pet peeves in life is cigarette butts. I HATE that people choose to smoke and then feel compelled that they do not need to keep the remnants from their cigarette in their car - but rather just flick it out the window. First off, last time I checked this was considered littering. If you choose to smoke it, then you should have to keep it in the car with you until you can properly dispose of it. Newsflash it's not like you and your car don't already smell from smoking the cigarette. Keeping it in your ashtrash until you can throw it away isn't going to make that big of a difference. However, it will make a difference in the environment. There won't be cigarette butts in the gutters, the edges of the freeway and more specifically in my yard.

I don't care what habits people have, unless those habits impact my life. Some days it takes everything I have... to not get out of my car and retrieve a cigarette butt, throw out of someone's car window, and throw it back in their car with them. Ps. sticking your hand out the window, like you are feeling the breeze, but instead slyly tossing your cigarette butt... isn't fooling anyone. If you have to go to those lengths you obviously know you shouldn't be doing it.

This rant was brought to you by: My Soapbox

Whiteboard Decals

This just in... there are **new** Whiteboard Vinyl Decals
listed in the Spell It Out Etsy shop.