Fall Crafts & Such

This weekend was full of fun activities. I decided to go down to Baltimore and visit Michele since I had not seen her new place. I arrived on Friday night, late since the weather was awful, and she took me out to dinner with a few of her friends. I had some awesome quesadillas that were toasted on the outside and filled with Jerk Chicken on the inside.. so yummy. After dinner I was pretty tired from the drive that took double the time, and so we went to bed on the early side.

Fall Wreathe

On Saturday we woke up and went to breakfast and then went shopping around Fells point. I stopped and got some Oysters from a street cart that were very yummy. The guy, who was also very cute, showed me how to properly shuck an Oyster so I could do it at home by myself. I am an Oyster feign. Since I had been shopping the past few weekends, there wasn't really any clothing that I needed so I asked Michele if she would like to do some fall crafts. We ended up going to AC Moore and getting some things to make some decorations for her house and some decorations for mine. I had seen this on the Better Homes & Gardens website and thought it was a really cute idea. I really like how my fall crafts came out! Do you like my rendition of the BHG centerpiece? (ps. when did I get so old that I go look at the BHG website?!)

 

Fall Centerpiece

On Saturday night we went out to dinner at a very nice restaurant with a few of Michele's friends. I had mussels and a caprese salad and it was delicious. Then we headed out to the bar for a bit. On Sunday we went to brunch and I had bacon infused french toast! Again, delicious. After brunch I headed back to Philly to get some things done before the week started all over again. It was nice to see Michele and I wish we all lived closer like the old days.

Its Tuesday, its dreary, I am tired... more tired then normal. Something about when the seasons first change makes me exhausted! I feel like I am in the clouds this week and like every task takes monumental effort. Anyone else get the post summer slumber feeling?

Happy Friday!

This week has felt long and exhausting. I am looking forward to the weekend and am itching to get out of work. Although I don't know whats worse, having to sit in this cubicle or the thought that at any minute this weekend I could be crushed to death by falling space debris.  Just when you thought you could relax and enjoy the weekend you have to worry that a six ton object is going to fall from the sky and crush you! Life is hard..

Kitchen: The heart of the home

The kitchen is one of my favorite places in my house and where I spend a lot of time. I love to cook, and every good cook needs an accessible kitchen. As you know, I have done a lot of different things to my kitchen from painting to decorating. It was pretty bland as you  can see when I moved in. This week I thought it needed one final touch. I added handles on the cabinets..it makes it so much easier when you are cooking to open them! I absolutely love the large handles I chose from Lowes, and they look great on the cabinets. Cabinet handles are a great way to dress up the kitchen without breaking the budget. I think each handles was around $5 - $6.

Last night I made this Salmon, Asparagus, and Orzo Salad from Cooking Light. It came out delicious. Orzo is great because it give you the "pasta" feeling but mixing it into other more healthy things is much better for you then eating straight up spaghetti and sauce. Everyone knows I am a sucker for a good bowl of carbs.

This salad however fulfilled my carbo-loving needs and didn't leave me feeling bloated and hungry an hour later. 1 1/4 cups of this salad was 310 calories vs. Barilla Pasta which is 210 calories for 2 oz... not including the sauce.! I felt full for the rest of the night and there was lots of left-overs for the rest of the week. If you havent checked out Cooking Light, you definitely should, its a great website for healthy, easy meals to make right at home.

Fall Favorites

Even though the first day of Fall isnt until September 23rd, it is really starting to feel like fall out there already! I'd thought I'd share some of my favorite things about fall in a quick post!

The return of fall means the return of the Starbucks Pumpkin Spiced Latte -- one of my favorites!

I love slouchy boots. They are warm, comfortable, and they go great with leggings, jeggings, or skirts!

 Nothing is better then hanging out on a cool fall saturday afternoon in a cute cotton outfit adorned with a scarf.

Another one of my favorite things about fall is that life slows down and the craziness of having the weekends jam packed with things comes to a hault. Fall is my favorite time to enjoy my house, plan dinner parties for my friends and catch up on a good book.

My last favorite thing about fall is cooking great fall meals. One of my favorite meals to make in the fall is squash soup. Its easy, its healthy, and its orange goodness just screams fall.

A Lopsided Friendship

Over hurricane weekend I forced Joe into watching the movie "Something Borrowed". I had read the book, and had been wanting to see the movie they made, but had never gotten around to it. Incase you haven't read the book, here is a plot synopsis.
"Rachel White is the consummate good girl. A hard-working attorney at a large Manhattan law firm and a diligent maid of honor to her charmed best friend Darcy, Rachel has always played by all the rules. Since grade school, she has watched Darcy shine, quietly accepting the sidekick role in their lopsided friendship. But that suddenly changes the night of her thirtieth birthday when Rachel finally confesses her feelings to Darcy's fiance, and is both horrified and thrilled to discover that he feels the same way. As the wedding date draws near, events spiral out of control, and Rachel knows she must make a choice between her heart and conscience. In so doing, she discovers that the lines between right and wrong can be blurry, endings aren't always neat, and sometimes you have to risk everything to be true to yourself."

I often feel that my friendships are lopsided with the short end of the stick pointing towards me. I put in more work, more effort, I care more.  This got me thinking: am I the 'Rachel' in my friendships?

We are so quick in society to tell the waitress if our order is wrong, or question a bill if we think we've paid the wrong amount, we question our parents if we disagree with them.. but we rarely call out our girlfriends on their faults. Why is this? Is it our overwhelming needs for acceptance at all cost?

Most friendships are uneven at some point.. there is always a giver and a taker. In the best friendships, that roll will flip-flop depending on circumstances at a point in time... its being there for each other when the other is in need. I'd like to think that this is how MOST of my friendships are... But what happens if the roll never flips and we end up in a lopsided friendship much akin to Rachel's? You know the kind of person I am talking about: one who only calls you when SHE has nothing to do, but doesn't know your number if shes made fun plans with other people, heaven forbid you tag along. The person that always makes plans with you and then breaks them last minute when something better arises and then makes some lame excuse. The people who take, take, take and give little regard to your feelings in return. There is also some friendships that have fallen into the trap of time, where the rolls are so ingrained in us, we don't know any different. One person always does the calling, and the communications, and the chasing, and that's just the way it has been for such a long time that we are used to it. What happens if the 'Rachel' in the relationship just stopped trying? Would the friendship die?

The truth is I deserve in return what  I give to others and then some. I am a good friend and will go to the ends of the world for the people I care about. However, I deserve to be heard. I deserve to be texted. I deserve to be invited.  I deserve to be met on time. Its time to redefine my friendships. I am going to build my own container and pour them into it instead of being liquid in theirs and making them feel fulfilled. If people don't reciprocate my invites, or invite me to their events, and make me feel as loved as I make them feel then they can go find  someone else to take from because I am not an ATM.

Hurriquake 2011

This past week started out with a earthquake and ended with a hurricane (that ended up being a huge let down.) Joe and I had planned that we'd spend the weekend together because next weekend I am going home for Labor Day and he will be having boys weekend with his friends. On Friday, after listening to the media hype up the hurricane all day, I decided maybe it was better to be prepared, then to not be prepared. So, at lunchtime, Allie and I headed out to Genardi's to get some food, water, batteries, snacks.. the essential stuff. When we arrived, water and batteries were sold out. We got some food.. and that was about it. You would have thought the end of the world as we know it .. people were bumping into each other with carts and furiously navigating their way through the aisles looking for the makings of their last supper. On my way home, I stopped and bought ice in case we lost power, and got gas in case I had to escape. By the time I got home it was late and I was mentally exhausted from fighting the crowds. Joe came over around 11pm after helping his mom secure her house and we were both pretty tired, so we headed to bed.

On Saturday, we woke up to dreary skies, but nothing significant. I made us a big breakfast of eggs, sausage, and home fries. Since it was a little rainy, we decided to stay in and watch 'Something Barrowed' because with the media frenzy, we didn't know if one second it'd be fine and the next would be awful.... The night dragged on with much of the same. By 6pm I was going crazy! In the middle of movie number two, the Emergency Response System interrupted and said that a tornado had touched down in Philadelphia slightly north of Manayunk. Que Joe's freak out. Shirtless, because he had been surveying the rain from the roof deck, he ran around with a head lamp on his head screaming to get away from the windows. Alarmist much? I walked outside, the trees weren't even moving...

Ok, so the EAS didn't stop for the next 40 minutes we sat in anticipation awaiting the tornado that was going to rip through the city. Nothing...

On Saturday night at 5am.. and realized we had slept through the 'worst' of it. The power was still on.. the basement was damp.. but nothing significant.

On Sunday.. it was still windy but we were dying to get out. We headed down to main St to watch the river flooding into the street and then we headed to the city to get some tapas for dinner.

All and all, all the media frenzy and preparations were for nothing. The hurricane fell about as flat as the earthquake.. nothing significant and definitely not the end of the world. All that bitch Irene did was RUIN MY WEEKEND! Here's to waiting another 5 days for a weekend that isn't plagued by weather.

Nana Knows Best

As I said in my last post, this past weekend, I was home in Rochester. Everytime I am home, most of my time is spent with my parents and grandparents, as I feel I do not get enough time with them these days. This weekend, my grandma wasnt feeling all that well so my time was spent just chit-chatting with her at her house. We talked about a lot of things, but one part of the conversation really stuck out. She asked me about how things were going with Joe. I told her that he was enjoying his new place, although I was really pressing for him to move in with me, as it made the most economical and logistical sense. I also may have mentioned that I really want a sparkling rock in the near future.

My grandma has met Joe maybe twice in her life, both times briefly. But the advice she gave me regarding the situation was like she had known him for years. She said, "so your asking him to do these things and he is pushing back on you?" I replied that that was exactly waht was happening... not so much because he doenst want to do them.. but more becuase I want him to... She said "you need to make him feel like its his idea, whether it is or not. The more you act like you dont care about those things, the more eager he will be to do them." She went on to say that no one likes feeling like they are doing what they are told by someone else. If he feels like you are not focusing on it and dont really care, he will probably come around about it a whole lot faster. So stop mentioning it.

I looked at her in amazement. This happens all the time with us. Him getting a new job was my idea... in the end he did it.. and pretended he came up with it. Him moving to his own place was also something I wanted.. he did it.. just six months after I asked him to.. on his own time frame. But how did she know this? She doenst know him! Maybe thats becuase its a phenomenon as old as she is... part of the male psyche since cave man times...men want to do what they want to do when they want to do it.. END OF STORY. A woman suggesting something a man should do makes them feel controlled.  Even if said man ends up doing exactly what said woman wanted... he will pretend he did it becuase it was his idea and what he wanted.

The bottom line is I think she's right. However hard it may be to shift my focus from engagement and moving in together, I need to do it. I need to give him space and time to make the decision to move forward and approach me. He knows where I stand and what I want, and harping on it will not make him feel like he is doing it because he wants to... but because I am forcing him to. My new plan is to just wait it out. We have talked about a timeline for all of the above before, he is aware of it. Whether he makes it happen or not is up to him and him alone. I truely believe that if something is meant to be, it will be. I am done forcing the issue. I am confident that if for some reason he doenst come around I will be ok. There is a plan for each of us, and by forcing a plan that may not be in the cards, I might miss out on my true calling. Nana has been around along time, and I trust that her advice will ring true. So, lets just wait and see.