Keepin’ It Real: May 2014

Every month, I try to do a summary of that month with outfit outtakes and a quick wrap up of things I might have missed blogging about in that month. May had some doozies in terms of outtakes. And it was a doozy of a month for a lot of people I know, my family included. When I told my friend we had to endure one more day of May, she exclaimed, “NO-O-O!”

I hear ya, sister.

If you missed last month’s “Keepin’ It Real”, you can find it here.

On to this recap. May, I will not miss you:

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Recipe fail. My mom asked me the other day, “Do you post everything you make?” Oh my gosh, no! When you are experimenting with a new recipe there are going to be some misses. I have even made some recipes from very acclaimed chefs and have had to throw the whole dish away. So, no, I do not post about every recipe. Only the ones I would absolutely make again. And again.

The other day, I made this dessert. So bad. Tip: Do not add raspberries to Strawberry Shortcake. It sounds good. It is not good.

Outfit Outtakes:

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As promised. A glimpse of Holy Holey Girdle. It is such a small glimpse. We saved over the other original pictures with the revised ones, so this is what we have left. Here is the actual outfit post.

It really is more like an extra pair of skin colored shorts than anything else. And to be even more forthright, the only reason I wore them on this day was to hide my colored underwear. The dress is so flowy, it hides a lot of flaws. The girdle is not the typical spanx. It does not offer much support, but it makes me feel more confident.

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And I could not resist adding this picture because of the unfortunate placement of my hand.

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So, I fell in a cactus (picture of my cactus hand is in “Keepin’ It Real: April 2014. Link above). And my twirling has never been the same. The outfit post for this photo shoot is here.

This picture makes me laugh.

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“True Detective”, anyone? Just a bit of an odd thing to find around town.

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Peonies! Everywhere?! Yes, please! Tip: Trader Joe’s will let you take the plastic bucket if you ask nicely. : )

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Does this alert ever make anyone’s day better?

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At San Diego Children’s Hospital, the ceiling tiles are randomly painted overhead. Isn’t that just a nice unexpected thing? That way, when a child is being wheeled through the halls and into various rooms, they have something to look at and look forward to.

I could hug whoever thought of this.

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My mom gifted me a gift card to Anthropologie and these for Mother’s Day. Isn’t that the sweetest?!

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Father’s Day idea. My kids each made my dad and my husband some of these hammers a few years ago. We just painted a wooden hammer and then shellacked it. I found the idea on Pinterest. Easy peasy.

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And my most exciting purchase of the month. Seriously. These barf bags. I have a post about them ready. If you ever get car sick or have children that get sick, these are priceless.

With that in mind, May, you can be on your way.

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Oh my gosh! Last night my husband and I were dancing with the dogs in the kitchen to “I like to move it.” When we sing it to the dogs they dance with us. It is actually quite cute and comical.

The dogs are funny, too.

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Well, Ollie got too rambunctious and did a back flip! He hit his head so hard. We immediately stopped dancing, but I felt so bad for him. You can see the beginning of it in this picture. Who knew he had it in him?

Coming up in June:

Maui posts! We are heading back to Maui next week and I cannot wait to blog about it!
My Husband’s Secret Part II… She had to find out sometime. ; )
Honey Ice Cream! My favorite treat in the summer.
Whirlin’ Twirlin’ (Free People Mixed Print Tunic).

What did you think of May? Will you be happy or sad to see it end?

Keepin’ It Real March 2014

My brain seems to have turned to mush in the month of March. Is that how the saying for March goes? “March Madness” or March Mushiness”? I keep making foolish mistakes in my posts. I have been catching them before they actually go up (hopefully). But, for example, in two posts, I found these two sentences:

“The hotel also sent up a sweet gift of chocolate covered strawberries for are anniversary.”

” I thought this was the picture that best depicted the link of the skirt.”

I brought a $10 bill to dinner when I thought I had grabbed a $100. I have been making silly blunders. Everywhere in life. It is odd and I hope it ends in April!

In my Keepin’ It Real posts, I like to share things that went on in the month that I never got around to posting about. Or photo snafus. It is my monthly random (or at least, more random than usual) post:

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I love the nail color I painted my nails this month. It is a gel nail finish. I will have to get them redone this Friday.

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Photo outtakes.

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A Murphy photo outtake.

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Okay. Here is another one. He deserves it. He is quite ornery.

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I have been reading this romantic fantasy book series as a wonderful escape.

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I thought this was a funny item waiting in our hotel room bathroom at The Wynn hotel.

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If I were to describe March in a sentence, I would say it was the month I became obsessed with Nutella.

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Trader Joe’s has super cheap daffodils right now.

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I was at a club with my friends and had to take a picture of the tile around the toilet. It was so unexpected and pretty. I want to do this in my master bathroom as the toilet is in a separate stall.

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Have you tried a hamburger from The Habit? Oh. My. Gosh. Yum! : )

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Found a new italian restaurant in town that makes their pasta from scratch. Mmmm. So good!

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We have an authentic wood burning Italian pizza place right around the corner from us. The pizza is amazing. My son and husband have started adding french fries to half of their pizza and declared it the best thing ever. I tried it and it is surprisingly good. Have you tried french fries on your pizza?

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My son is a gentle soul. We have long since learned that rough sports are not for him. He also did not like the yelling involved in martial arts. So, we found his thing in golf.

I love to go with him to his lessons. It is so peaceful. I thought this tree branch looked like an evil hand trying to pluck the hawk from the sky.

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Have you ever read Jenny from The Bloggess’ recount of the time she purchased a five foot tall rusty rooster? If not, here it is. She does curse. This does not bother me. But I thought I should add that before you click over. However, she is the funniest person. Ever.

Anyway, in honor of her, I had to snap a picture of this huge rusty rooster I found whilst driving around. Again, there are so many people in this world I must meet!

What was something cool you saw or tried this month? Please share!

Keepin’ It Real February 2014

Good bye February! You were a blah sort of month. Being neither long enough to make any decent memories or short enough to skip through. March is a busy month for me. I cannot decide if I am excited about that or if I will indeed miss the carefree easiness of February. February is in no rush. It is the baby sibling of all of the other months. No responsibilities go to it. It is just a wee little thing.

Edited to add: . My husband (the sweet eternal optimist) was horrified at my less than stellar review of his birthday month.

Sorry Sweetie! I will add some happy memories to February.

The highlights:

My husband’s birthday

Discovering three wonderful new restaurants

Happy Belated Birthday Auntie M!

My sweet mom surprising me with chicken pot pie

My amazing friend Jessica painted my bathroom (sharing soon!)

A night out with girlfriends around a firepit

True Detective

My husband surprising me by coming home again after all ready having left for work to give me one last good bye kiss for the day

The Lego Movie

Many snuggling mornings

My nephew had his birthday and sweet birthday party

A three hour phone call with a good friend

I got to hold a beautiful baby girl

And she liked me more than my sister*

Wow! I guess February was a pretty good month, afterall!

Okay, enough of that. Let’s get real!:

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Look! The carpet at the Pantages Theater is Humboldt’s twin! Poor Humboldt. I can’t. I just can’t stop embarrasing it.

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Outfit outtakes.

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Tonight for dinner I made homemade biscuits with homemade macaroni and cheese with fruit salad.

But last night, the kids and I had Trader Joes frozen breaded chicken tenders, oven fries with the most amazing new sauce that I have recently whipped up after seeing it numerous times online. Oh, the guilt! But it was so good! If you cannot wait for me to ever get to that post (cause, I mean, my picture of it is so good. How could you wait for such a delicacy? I should totally be getting a call from Bon Appetite any day). And really, who knows when that will be? Here is the easiest dipping recipe.

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My daughter and son have both been working on giant paintings of our dogs in their art class. I will update when they are both finished, because I simply cannot wait. Of course, I probably will not get them framed until next November when the framing deals happen again.

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I’ve started a post that is going to take me a long time to complete. I will be reviewing and rating around twelve different mascaras. It might have to be broken down into two posts. We will see. Here is the first mascara I have started.

Why am I doing this? Well, I purchased a huge mascara sampler from Sephora and just now opened it. And I have always wanted to be a scientist. So. Mascara. Check. Experiment. Check. Scientist Jenni. ????

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Remember when I bought my husband that ice cream maker that I he always never wanted for Christmas? Well, I finally got around to ordering containers to start making my ice cream this week. For friends and family this is great news, because I cannot possibly eat all of the ice cream I will be experimenting with. I hope to perfect them now so I can share the recipes in the summer!

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And on Wednesday night I made two small batches of homemade ice cream. One vanilla and one cinnamon. Each one has a certain twist. Brynne, you can guess what that is! The only way I will make homemade ice cream…

Unfortunately (or fortunately for my diet), ice cream and my tummy do not mix. So I just get a small taste of the stuff before passing it along. Sigh.

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I also remember promising certain posts in January’s Keepin’ It Real that never made it up in February! I wrote my children a different letter instead and Stick In The Mud will go up in March. Also, My Husband’s Secret is being posted on Monday!

I really did this update so I could do a screen shot of a screen shot of my blog. I find this hilarious. I might have a problem.

I liked doing two outfit posts a week this month instead of one. What did you think? Less or more outfit posts?

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You know that feeling you get the night before Christmas? That is the feeling I am having about my year blog giveaway! It starts March 10th and I am so excited!

Did you have a good February? Are you excited about March? Any fun memories to share?

*This is unfortunately not true and was added just to razz my little sis. Which is the perfect way to end the little sibling month of February! ; ). I do love you, Mandi!