Currently.

Feeling: I have been feeling a lot lately, that's why I decided to do a currently post real quick. Mostly right now I am just feeling upset. I tried to find another word but all I feel is upset. My house is a mess because Spring came this past weekend and brought ants which GREATLY upsets me. I sprayed and bleached everything. If you didn't know me, you'd think I was on meth due to how much I cleaned last night. I'm not though, just really hate bugs. I also feel upset by how much I let others affect my life. Honestly I get so mad at myself for constantly comparing myself to other people and I am so tired of it. I may be a little (ok a lot) overweight, I'm not engaged or anything and I don't have kids yet but guess what? My life is awesome. I don't always like my job, but it's a good job and it has great benefits which are really hard for most people to get. It's also a steady income which allows me to afford to live in my beautiful house and feed my stupid awesome dog. I have a college degree which I worked really hard for, which allowed me to get this job and would allow me to get another if I wanted. I have a wonderful group of close family and friends and most importantly, I have the love of a wonderful, wonderful man. He is the love of my life and I hate that I have been allowing others to poison our realtionship and ruin some of the most special moments of our life together. I.Am.Over.It.

Watching: Whatever is on cable, which frequently includes the Kardashians I am ashamed to admit. I am also upset that spell check does not count Kardashian as a mispelled word, what is this world coming too?!

Reading: Lots and lots of book on gardening. I just ordered one off of Amazon, The Cook's Herb Garden, and it so amazing. Seriously, highly reccomend if you want a book about herbs, it has evreything!

Thinking about: how I can better manage my money. Yeah my job is neat with the benefits and all but the pay leaves a little something to be desired. But I'm not going to complain, just need to be more creative. Or learn to put things on the back burner, like paying off credit cards. I need to get them paid off, and I will, but somethings in life are just more important. Also I am young, there will always be credit card debt to pay off so I should just relax!

Eating: way too much that's for sure! No seriously, I need to get it under control. I am a huge stress eater and the last 6 months and have very stressful for me, as my gut will clearly show you! Mostly I am just tired of feeling yucky. I want to feel healthy again so the goal is to eat much better from now on.

Looking forward to: Summer. Which is so weird, summer is my least favorite season but this year, it is going to be awesome. Long summer nights of barbequing with friends, hanging out on our wonderful back porch, leaving the sliding glass door open to feel the breeze and gardeing in my little gardening is going to be so amazing. I just can't wait.

Trying to work out alone, just not possible anymore!

Happy Easter!

 

Happy a little late Easter! Can you believe this picture? It turned out way more perfect than I thought it would and it cracks me up! Although it took a lot of effort to get this picture let me tell you!

 Bosley woke me up early yesterday morning so I got up with him and put some eggs in the oven. I found something on pinterest saying you could bake them instead of hard boil them so I thought I would try it so we could dye them. So Chris got up and started breakfast and Bosley needed to go out so I took him. I decided to take some Easter pictures of Bosley and Chris came out with some cheese to get him to sit still.  I didn't even think about it, but I asked Chris to shut the door so I could get pictures of him on the porch. So we went about out business taking pictures and playing with the dog. Then we walked back up the steps and Chris went to open the door...and it was locked. I had completely forgotten that the bottom knob of our front door seems unlocked from the inside, but it's actually locked and Chris didn't know that. So he shut the door. And the oven was still on with the eggs inside, he had left the burner on to start some breakfast and had also left the fridge open because he had gotten cheese. Needless to stay we panicked! I tried every window and door, but could not get in. I had to call my sister who had a spare key to come all the way down to my house to open the door for us. It wasn't the worst thing though, we sat in the beautiful sunshine and played with the puppy, and Chris reminded me that I had asked him to make the house secure and it was for sure secure! Needless to say we now have a hide a key and Chris will not be shutting the front door again!

Other than our little morning fiasco and the fact that I have been deathly ill this weekend it was a great day. We left the patio door open, played with Bosley outside, had my family over for dinner and dyed easter eggs and played with the dog some more. All in all, it was a great Easter! Now I need to go get ready so I can go to the doctor. Hope everyone had a great Easter!

Say Hello to baby Bosley!

So last weekend it finally happened, our little boy came home. And by little, I of course mean a 20 pound puppy. No seriously, he is 20 pounds. He is an English mastiff, a dog that can get up to 200 pounds or more. Yikes.
 His first family called him Bill Murray cause he is such a goofy guy, but my dad's name is Bill. So we picked a Bill Murray character and he played Bosley in Charlie's angels so we named him that! We thought the B at the beginning would be helpful, and I think he knows his name, but he is a selective little turd. Sometimes he listens, sometimes he doesn't but that's just part of being a puppy.

He sleeps a TON which has been helpful since Chris and I have never raised a puppy on our own and it can be pretty tiring honestly. He also loves his crate, and will walk in there himself to sleep. In fact that's where he's at right now! He is a really smart little guy, and even though he has only been here a little over a week, we have had very few accidents inside and he is quickly becoming potty trained. He really has caught on to going outside quick and only has to go to the bathroom every couple hours instead of every hour like a lot of puppies. He also sleeps through the night without having to go out, which is awesome. Of course I expect some accidents, but he has actually started going to the the back door when he needs to go out so that helps out a lot!

When he is awake he is super playful and mischievous though! He'll play with just about anything that you give him, including the 2 liter pop bottle pictured above. He loves his soccer ball and rope, and my family got him a squeaky toy which he always attacks, so funny. Like I said though, he's not picky and also likes to bring sticks and pine cones inside. We don't allow rough housing a lot, because that is setting him up for bad habits when he is someday a 200 pound dog. He is in his biting phase though, we're trying to break that habit real quick. His little teeth are sharp! He pretty much knows how to sit already, he picked that up almost instantly it was weird. We need to work on come and stay though. Bosley very much knows what NO means, although sometimes ignores it. Above he decided to eat some of my flowers, even though I told him No many times, so I put him on a leash. This guy loathes leashes. He flipped out so bad and was crying and jumping around. I went over and calmed him down and told him he was a good boy. He still gets grumpy when he gets to the end of the leash, but at least he has stopped trying hang himself with his leash! That is also at the top of the training list so we can go on walks this summer!

Then we he is done playing, this happens. It's so funny.

So there he is, our beautiful boy. Chris and I went back and forth many times about getting a puppy, but when we saw this guy we just knew. It is obvious that he was very loved and I actually still email his original owner to let her know how he is doing. We plan to continue on spoiling this little guy, it's so easy since he is such a sweetheart! I honestly couldn't imagine our life without him now. Welcome home Bosley! Now I have to go wake him up so he sleeps through the night!

Dessert Monday: Homemade Brownies.

So this week I wanted chocolate. I still had some vanilla ice cream cream left, so I will make some chocolate ice cream next week. But I wanted something chocolate to go with my ice cream. Also I wanted something easy because I haven't been feeling too well lately so of course the first thing that came to my mind: brownies. I wanted easy brownies and so I just googled that and landed on Rachel Ray's website. She does annoy me, but she has some delicious brownies!

 

So like I said, easiest recipe in the world from Rachel Ray:

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar

• 1 1/2 sticks melted unsalted butter

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 3 eggs

• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

• 1 cup flour

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees . Grease a 9-by-9-inch baking pan. In a large bowl, combine 2 cups sugar, 1 1/2 sticks melted unsalted butter and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Whisk in 3 eggs, 1 at a time. Stir in 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder and 1 cup flour. Transfer the batter to the baking pan and bake until just set, 25 to 30 minutes; let cool. 

So I of course modified it a bit. I wanted to used up some leftover chocolate chips I had so I put those on top of the batter and put it in the oven. In hindsight, they should have probably been mixed in the batter, but it still worked out. Because they were so dense on top, I actually cooked the brownies for almost 40 minutes, just use the old toothpick test and you'll know if they're done or not. I also used and 8"x8" pan, just made them thicker. I don't think I would go any smaller than that though.

O.M.G. Best dessert ever in the world! Give it a try for sure!

Project recap for last week and my weekend.

So I skipped a week. We have been a bit under the weather and last week when I tried to do a post I was watching Glee on netflix at the same time and the internet was being a jerk. The internet is still being a jerk, but less so tonight. So I'll just post last weeks pictures, and if you're really curious about how my project is going you check in out on Instagram with the hashtag #365ofhome. So here is the last week in pictures.

Day 42: So this is my hummingbird buddy. If you were to follow me on Instagram, you would see multiple pictures of this little guy. He comes to my bird feeder every sunny day then sits in my window in the sun for a little while. It's so awesome.

Day 43: Time for everyone to be outside! Chris gave me these beautiful potted flowers for Valentines day but it's time for them to go outside and do their thing. I put them right but the sliding glass door though, so I can still see them!

Day 44: Sunshine through my window! And the window really needs to be washed, yikes.

 Day 45: So the trees in my front yard are famous. They have their own book and everything, I swear.

Day 46: Oh sunshine. You make everything so pretty!

Day 47: So we have a mole. Another one of my wildlife buddies.

 Day 48: What I spent today doing!! We started our gardening and landscaping today, and I have always wanted my own rose garden so I put one in! I am pretty proud of myself. I have never been one to work outside, but apparently I am pretty good at it! The top picture is the before with all the weeds and dead plants. I took all of those out to put in my roses, which are pictured below. So neat! Also note to self though, go back to the freaking gym. My back hurts so bad!

Other than that we didn't do much this weekend. We fell asleep at about 9:00 on Friday because Chris has been sick so he just kind of passed out. And because I am always tired I did too. Saturday was regular errand day and Chris went to class. Then we just hung out at home the rest of the evening. Chris keeps claiming he is bored, that he doesn't know what to do around the house and I said here's something: enjoy it!! I know I do! So yeah, tomorrow I need to stop at the store for a few things then head to the dentist then I am going to spend the rest of the day resting and organizing recipes. I will also share the brownies I just made. I can smell them and I think it's time for me to crumble one on some vanilla ice cream! Hope everyone else had a great weekend!

Monday Dessert: Chocolate Chip cookies

My sister found this cookie recipe on pinterest and it is the best. It's mostly the same as all other recipes, but it has corn starch and a lot more brown sugar. That seems to add a lot more yum to it let me tell you.

 

I decided to add some Valentine's day chocolate chips, only about 2 weeks so I can start!

Ingredients: 

3/4 c. unsalted butter, softened

3/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 c. all purpose flour
2 tsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy and light in color. Add egg and vanilla and blend in.

3.  Mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chunks.

4.  Using a standard-sized cookie scoop or tablespoon, drop dough onto a prepared baking sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, until barely golden brown around the edges.  (The tops will not brown, but do NOT cook longer than ten minutes.)

5.  Let cool, on the sheet, on a wire rack for five minutes.  Remove from baking sheet and let cool completely.  Makes approximately 3 dozen.  Try not to eat them all!

So there you have it, the best chocolate chip cookies ever. Enjoy!

Project recap for last week.

So I'll just admit it up front, I didn't do anything this weekend so I have no pictures from over the weekend. We stopped by a friends birthday party for a few and I did get to see my best friend for an hour or two but for the most part I have been sick so we've just stayed in. Hasn't been too bad, I don't mind it but I know Chris gets kind of bummed when we don't get out or see people. Anyway, I still think it was a good weekend.

Day 28: Love the buffet in the corner. I'm really grateful Chris's mom let us have these pieces because they are beautiful.

Day 29: Chris's mom also gave me these little rooster from the 30's. They are perfect in my kitchen window and are my little dish cleaning buddies.

Day 30: View from laying on my couch. LOVE those sconces. Seriously they are so amazing.

Day 31: I took then rest of the pictures in this post all today. Due to being sick I was really lazy with my project, but I caught up today. Snapped a picture of our front path, it needs some help.

 Day 32: Waiting to see what pops up on the side of the house! Kind of hoping they are tulips but they look more like Daffodils.

 Day 33: Had to make some more hummingbird food today, we were out and our little buddy keeps stopping by looking for food. He's good now, hope he comes back!

Day 34: My tulips decided to open up. They are so not purple, good thing I really love tulips! These crazy guys, hopefully they will come back when it is actually spring!

So there you have it, basically a recap of my project and week. Now it's time to finish dishes and put the sheets on the bed so I can go to bed. Oh the joys of being in your own place! I'll be back tomorrow with the cookies I made this weekend!