1 spring goal achieved, and some other cool stuff.

A friend of ours, who's a youth leader in Kentucky, posted on facebook tonight that he was looking for some new art for his youth groups worship space. I thought I would donate a couple paintings I did. I did part of this a while back but when I pulled it out tonight I suddenly got inspired to add to it. So I whipped something up real quick and I'm really happy w/ how it turned out. I'm not an actual artist or anything, but I still really like it and hope it speaks to whoever see's it hanging in the youths worship space. It's inspired by 1 Corinthians 13:7.

I think I'm going to make another in different colors to hang over our bed, because this verse gives me hope in the truth that love really does win when Jesus is at the center of it. I just had Matt type the words out for me in photoshop because I'm lame and can't do it myself, and then I cut them out, ran the edge of the scissors along the edges of the paper to rough them up, and then I melted golf wax and used it to adhere the paper to the canvas. Then I dripped some wax all over to add some extra texture to the overall piece. Super easy. ANYONE could do it. While admiring it I realized that this totally counts as my spring goal to make at least 1 crafty thing. Hopefully it wont be my only crafty thing, but things are awfully busy right now and you never know. I did a fist pump and said an overdramatic "YESSSSSSS." When I realized this. I'm weird.

Also, this weekend I went vintaging at Atomic Number Ten with two cool girls. Abi, who is pretty much the only person who ever comments on my blog (and lets be honest, probably the only person who reads it besides myself.) and Kristen. It was fun. I got a skirt with snails on it. And the snails are kissing. It is way too cool for school. Too legit to quit, even. You'll get a picture when I wear it. It was our first time at A.N.T. and it was good. I'll definitely be going back to hit up that vintage dish section once we finally get a place.

I wanted to get more pictures but I was too busy filling my arms with vintage goodies to try on and trying to figure out a way to get the beard to let me blow our whole budget on cool stuff.

Other than that the past several days have been filled with this:

how are you this week?

another grand week.

Hello blog friends! I hope your week was as delightful as ours was. What a great week! Lots of rainy restful days,and some gorgeous sunny ones, too. Ice cream was involved, lots of walks were involved, naps were involved, a new vintage pretty was involved, and a scrumptious niece was involved. I loved this week. I did a 5k on Saturday benefiting OASIS Cincinnati called the Aruna 5k. We raised $27.000 to help free sex slaves in India and stormed the streets of Clifton like a swarm of bees. It was chilly and rainy but it was so worth it!

Waiting for us at the finish line was a goody bag full of coupons including free chipotle. YES. I also decided that Chipotle is best consumed with a clementine IZZE.

YUM.

I drove to Oxford this week and spent a few hours with little miss Caraline, and also got to visit my grandparents. I took Cara outside while it wasn't raining and walked her around in the grass with bare feet. She loved it. She's going to be walking around on her own so soon! I can't believe it. She just points at everything and babbles and laughs to herself. I wish I could get in on her little jokes. I bet she's awfully funny.





I also tried a new recipe this week, and it turned out really yummy! It was turkey sausage pizza pockets that I got from Giada's show on the food network. I LOVE Giada. Like, head over heels. She is awesome. I watched the show and then tried to make the pizza pockets a few days later from memory, so I forgot to add a couple minor things and I made 4 pockets instead of 8. Needless to say they turned out a little doughier than intended, but they were still good! Next time I'll remember to cut the dough into 8 pieces! The arugula in them added a really nice peppery flavor, and the turkey sausage was really good. The cream/parm cheese blend was the best part. SO good. I had some of the mixture left over after I spooned it into the dough, and ate it as a dip on tortilla chips while dinner was cooking. Also yummy. I will probably make it as a dip again!



While at my mom's, she gave the me the cutest little vintage pyrex bowl. She found it at a church rummage sale for super cheap. It's so precious!! It's the perfect size for serving a small appetizer in. Anyone who knows me well knows I love a good vintage pyrex. So pretty.


Today the beard is working hard, so Harlem Jones and I are doing a lot of this:




Here's the recipe for the pizza pockets. I definitely recommend them!
Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 ounces Italian turkey sausage
1 cup tightly-packed arugula (about 1 ounce)
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup grated Parmesan, plus 1/4 cup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (13.5-ounce) package of store-bought pizza crust (recommended: Pillsbury)
All-purpose flour, for rolling out pizza dough
1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)
1 1/2 cups marinara sauce, store-bought or homemade
Directions
Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a medium-sized, heavy skillet. Add the sausage and cook until crumbled and golden, about 5 minutes. Add the arugula and cook until wilted. Turn off the heat and let cool about 10 minutes. Add the cream cheese, 1/3 cup Parmesan, salt, and pepper and stir to combine. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Roll out the pizza dough on a lightly floured surface to a thin 20 by 12-inch rectangle. Cut the rectangle in half lengthwise. The cut each half into 8 equal rectangles.

Spoon topping onto 1 side of each of the rectangles. Using a pastry brush, brush the edges of the rectangle with egg wash. Close the rectangle of pizza dough over the topping. Use a fork to seal and crimp the edges. Place the pizza pockets onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Brush the top of each pizza pocket with egg wash. Sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan. Bake until golden, about 15 to 17 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the marinara sauce over low heat in a medium saucepan. Serve the hot pizza pockets with the marinara sauce alongside for dipping.

We used Newman's Own marinara and private selection organic arugula and it was yumtastic. Let me know how you like it!

xoxo.

Thrifted

So Matt's birthday is Monday, and tonight we're celebrating with friends over a delicious brinner bash. For those of you who don't know what brinner is, I'll explain. It is the act of eating breakfast for dinner. This is Matt's favorite. So tonight, we shall feast upon a breakfast casserole (his mama's recipe), big fluffy biscuits, bacon, cinnamon rolls, yummy fruit, 3 different kinds of cereal, and mimosas. And we will have cookies and milk for dessert. Because hello, cookies and milk goes with the brinner theme too. Don't act like you never eat a heaping pile of oreos or chocolate chip cookies dipped in milk for breakfast. Anyway, I was on a mission to find some cute pitchers to pour milk and juice out of last night, and OMG. I found a diamond. I was browsing St. Vincent De Paul and was feeling pretty disappointed and uninspired by their selection. My general opinion every time I go in St. Vincent is that they don't have anything worth writing home about and they're overpriced most of the time. So there I am, looking at all these cracked, ugly, overpriced pitchers when my eye catches the splendor of this legit vintage goddess. Not only is it a super cute, unharmed pitcher that just needs a good washing, it includes ALL the accessories needed to brew loose leaf tea in it!! OMG OMG OMG!!! I promptly grabbed this baby up and payed the 2 DOLLARS it cost. Then scurried out before anyone could try and steal it from me. 2 FREAKING DOLLARS!!! I am on cloud 9. Feast your eyes upon her, she is grand.




Sigh. It may be the beards birthday, but the lady got a present : )