Out of My Norm

Yes, another shopping and clothing post. Oh joy! Hopefully they are semi-interesting..

Like I mentioned in a previous post, I went summer clothes shopping in a big way and have yet to truly regret any of my purchases. That is a true miracle! So here are some of the other things that I got:

 Top to Bottom, Left to Right:
--In the last posting, I showed the Old Navy links with the shorts and skirt. I never would have guessed I like the skirt but it was really cute on! The shorts are for work...which I will talk about in a minute.
--Two dresses: the black and white one is technically a swimsuit cover up but I didn't even notice it until I saw the tag. It has side slits that make it iffy on undergarment necessity. Still has tag on...just in case. The second dress is denim, totally not my style, but I tried it on and completely fell in love with it. It might just make an appearance in the next few weeks.
--Two tops: One is from Plato's Closet and is kind of interesting and fun. The other is from ON and is very light and summer and I fell for it as well. You could say that this day I was kind of a clothes whore; falling for things left and right!
--Two cardigans: Do you have any idea how many cardigans I have? Really? I have....oh...well, I'll just keep that number to myself for now. I have plans to get rid of some, I swear! As long as I don't end up buying cats that match them all, I should be fine. The one on the left reminds me of Easter with a pale blue background and white polka dots. The one on the right is that strange mustard-y color that kind of works with everything. I only found it in a medium so I may not wear it until the Fall time but it was only $8 so I couldn't resist.

See...I'm easy.

So as you may or may not know, spring and summer does not come around here for at least another month or two and then it only stays for two or three months at the most. I have yet to experience this but every real Michigander says to get used to this cold at least through April. 

Wonder why I am buying summer clothes on a tight graduate student budget? I'll give you a few hints:
1) Internship is required for my program
2) Spring term starts in May
3) Hurricanes

The Tights Are Upon (Me)

The leggings. The tights.
They have been everywhere this winter but I had yet to really embrace the trend. I wore leggings ONE day with a skirt and boots and I do believe that was in October or November. Since it has been around six months, I decided to try it again!

Perhaps I am resistant to change? Pants have been far too good to me....

Oh yes, it was barely above 40 degrees for the past six months. Got it. So on St. Patrick's Day, the holiest of party days, I unearthed my green dress that I do believe has only been worn once since I bought it in 2004. Yep. 2004.

I wanted to look nice this day not because of the holiday (I am not a college boy or Irish) but just because. I am in a total rut with work ensembles so this was the perfect time to bust out some fashion sense.

(I swear I am not showing my "come hither" look in the last picture...)

I forgot how painful it was to wear heels all day when you are walking back and fourth between your office and the front desk all day long plus walking around on campus but I felt much more confident. Ideally, I would love to dress like this for work every day and turn my entire wardrobe in to J.Crew catalog with a smidge of Anthropologie thrown in for good measure.

Green dress, GAP, $10-12 probably
Black cami, Old Navy, $3
Cream cardigan, Target, $10
Black tights, Old Navy, $2.50 (still in the package right before this showing)
Black heels, Target, $10-12
Rose pin (you can kind of see it in the first picture), Vintage Merchant (Portland), $2

Making Progress

I am slowly making my way down my Food Bucket List and recently made chili for the first time! I used to love love love Nalley's Turkey Chili but haven't been able to find it in Michigan and don't want it SO bad that I feel the need to order a case of it off of Amazon (but man, come next Winter I just might be that desperate). I have tried all the store brands and "fancy" brands and they just don't compete. I decided to take matters into my own hands!

 

 Mmm....deliciousness. Now for the "recipe," I looked around the internet a bit then just threw a bunch of stuff into a skillet:
1 lb. lean ground turkey meat
1/2 medium chopped onion
hunk of red pepper and green pepper, diced
half a zucchini, peeled and diced
--Saute that all up in a pan until the turkey is just done
dash of cumin
dash of chili powder
dash of garlic powder
sprinkling of S&P
2 cans (15oz. each) of chopped tomatoes
1 can red kidney beans
1 can black beans
handful of quinoa
maybe some water...don't remember
--mix all of that loveliness together and let is simmer for a little bit until the beans are soft and it smells like...chili!

The quinoa adds a bit of bulk and soaks up some of the liquid from the tomatoes. I am not a huge soup eater so I like hearty stews. I wish I could have made more of this but the pan I used (pictured) is the biggest one I have. It turned out so good!

Then for dessert:

It's like the land of never ending cookies! I use my favorite chocolate chip recipe (super basic) and then added dried cranberries and walnuts. Yum!

Up next on tackling that Food Bucket List: Tofu Phad Thai (or Phad Se Ew, haven't decided that one) and Salmon Cakes!

Oddities

There are some times in life where you look at yourself and think, "Wow, I am weird!"

Everyone has their oddities, some show them and some don't. But really, what is normal anyways?

Here are my top 7 oddities (number chosen at random):

1. I am an obsessive cleaner of my inboxes. I have about 15 folders for my work/school email to organize with and my personal inbox is usually under 10. I email people back immediately and usually only keep things in the inbox as reminders of things to do.
2. I think manicures and pedicures are a waste of time and money. I do my nails at home and they look pretty decent when I actually put some time into them. Yes, the leg massage part is nice but really, not worth $20.
3. I usually only buy things under $10 and grocery items under $2, if I can help it. It has been well documented on my blog that I am cheap but there are these odd dollar amounts set on certain things.
4. Speaking of numerical limits, I can only have one soda per day. I am not an obsessive soda drinker but if I have one for lunch or dinner, I rarely ever will have another one later in the day.
5. I make lists. There are lists all over my house and many of them overlap. I have a white board on the fridge (that I wish covered the entire fridge...ah, to dream) and a magnetic notepad, two Post-It note pads floating around the living room, a daily planner, a yellow legal pad with work and grad program lists and a Gmail list.
6. I write on envelopes instead of going to get a proper piece of paper. I have recipes written on many, many envelopes that are now clipped up on my fridge and stuck into the pages of cookbooks.
7. The stickers that come on fruit (bananas, apples, kiwis, clementines)? I can never throw them away. Ever. I always, always put them on something else like the peanut butter container, my vitamin container, and  the fridge note pad. There are also some on my notebook and planner which can only tell me that I was sitting near them when I ate some sort of fruit.

So strange! Any oddities you want to share?? :)

Quotes of the Day: Happy Monday Edition

I feel like the weekends are going faster and faster as the year moves along. I took a mental health day from life on Friday and even with that extra day, I have no idea how it is yet again Monday. I thought some uplifting and positive quotes might be nice.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

--Mark Twain

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.”

--Mark Twain

"The measure of mental health is the disposition to find good everywhere."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I would rather regret the things that I have done

than the things that I have not."

--Lucille Ball

Flow of Thought

I have been exhausted this week which leads me to believe that besides my wild sleeping habits, I also am getting sick. The tiredness leans towards sickness and combine those two together and add some inactive Netflix and Internet and you get major grumpy pants. MS. Grumpy pants, actually.

I came home starving tonight and spent 45 minutes (literally) looking at different pizza advertisements and seeing what might make the most sense:

I know I want breadsticks. 
I don't need breadsticks but if I am going to order pizza, I am going to order breadsticks.
Okay, these three have good ratings online so let's see how much that would cost. 
$3 delivery charge? Um, that makes the whole pizza thing over $15.
I'm nervous.
Oh, the chicken artichoke pizza sounds good.
I have frozen chicken, artichokes and pizza crust-like options in the freezer.
Oh, the veggie pizza looks good.
No, I want simple and comforting. Hawaiian. Yes.
Okay....calculating costs....I have pineapple in the freezer, pizza crust-like options and turkey lunch meat.
I don't need a whole pizza.
April, get off ass and just eat what you have. 
You don't have money. You don't need pizza.

Conclusion (besides that I am losing it)? Made mini pizza and ate large bowl of ice cream to quell crankiness. I ran out of cheese tonight though so tomorrow night......hmmm...

I decided to get a little gift for some people I used to work with. That internal conversation went like this:
...Check email...
Oh, good deal on some flowers. Nice.
That isn't that much. Who should I send them to?
Oh, I have a coupon! Yes. 
Paid. Done.

I gots my priorities people! :)

Hot Dog!

Okay, the title can be taken as good and bad in this case. I do love me some meat though (TWSS)!

I went crazy shopping today in preparation for my next "trip" which has a totally different climate than the one I have been living in for the past eight months. Dude, I am prepared for winter and 30 degree temperatures! It felt completely unreasonable to be shopping for skirts (with nekkid legs) and shorts. More on this later.

For now..here is a sneak peek of a few things I bought and will actually NOT return this time:

 All from Old Navy and all for a good cause! I had a coupon for 30% off today and 5% of the proceeds go to my charity of choice which is World Wildlife Fund. It might not be much but at least someone else will benefit off my clothes buying bonanza! More to come tomorrow when I show you all of the lovely items I got.

P.S. The second part of that hot dog was that I was starving while running errands, found myself at Sam's Club and was too tempted by the magical hot dogs so that became my dinner. It was delicious. It was satisfying. And then I felt so guilty that I don't think it was actually worth it. Live and learn people!

Shoes are Important in Life

I was reading Eating Bender the other day and she had the greatest items on her blog. There is this store Curly Girl Designs that have these amazing quotes and pictures on various items like t-shirts and light boxes. This one that Eating Bender linked to is awesome! I wish I could have the print to hang up and remind me who I am each day.

Isn't that great?

I even have the new shoes to go with it! (On sale for much cheaper than listed, of course)

 Source

Pieces of Inspiration via Quotes

Often times I get inspired by the blogs that I read and then make a post. Sometimes I pull ideas and then include my own take and other times I take tiny pieces of it. I never know what I want my blog to be and since there are all of three people that read it, I can be as responsible and flowy as I choose or choose not to be.

I have had a lot going on lately (which I have a post scheduled for later this week to explain!) and so when I do read those little pieces from the inspiring blogosophere, I desperately want to capture it. The Simple Dollar always has great life and financial tips.

“You shape your houses and then they shape you.” – Winston Churchill

“Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one.” – Benjamin Franklin

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. – Vidal Sassoon

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. – Thomas Edison

Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness. – Napoleon Hill

I’ve always worked very, very hard, and the harder I worked, the luckier I got. – Alan Bond

Quotes of the Day: Bob Dylan Edition

I honestly don't know much about Bob Dylan. I know he is a highly regarded and popular musician but above that, I also believe he was mentioned in "Gilmore Girls" a few times. Apparently I need to get my 70's music groove on one of these days. I found a collection of his quotes while randomly clicking around the internet and I thought some of these were just really great--straight and no nonsense.

 Source (Amazing picture by the way)

“A person is a success if they get up in the morning and gets to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.”

“There is nothing so stable as change.”

"Chaos is a friend of mine."

"No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky."
 

Reverb: March Post

March Prompt:
If March 2011 was your last month to live, how would you live it?

Wow, if I would have know March would be my last month, I would have started living it up on Tuesday! No, just kidding. I got paid today so really today would be a good start. I guess I would take my car into the mechanics to see what shape it was in and get it all fixed up and then drive! I would visit friends in Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh and North Carolina. I would then drive up from NC through Washington D.C. to Philadelphia and New York City and maybe all the way up to Portland, Maine. Then I would sell my car and that would pay for the plane ticket back to Oregon to see family and maybe from there drive down to California.

Plan B would be to sell everything I own, buy a ticket to Italy and call it done.

Free Will Astrology Wisdom

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Speak the following lines out loud:
I love everything about me
I love my uncanny beauty and my bewildering pain
I love my hungry soul and my wounded longing
I love my flaws, my fears, and my scary frontiers

I will never forsake, betray, or deceive myself
I will always adore, forgive, and believe in myself
I will never refuse, abandon, or scorn myself
I will always amuse, delight, and redeem myself

Damn, I might have to post this somewhere in real life! 

Movie Reviews ala Netflix

I love Netflix. I always wonder if it is worth the money but then I realize that it is my destresser and my amusement. This week is technically my "spring break" although my work email would seriously prove otherwise. Over the weekend I took one day and just attacked my Netflix queue. Do you have a queue? Cause I have two!

I have the regular DVD disc queue (152) and then the Instant Watch (69). It is like window shopping at Blockbuster or something. I put everything on there that I have heard about or see on television shows (SATC, Gilmore Girls, etc.). The problem is that my attention span is teenytiny so if the mood strikes, I have to get on to the movies!

Currently I am making my way through "The Cosby Show" which might seem random (which it is) but it has an odd soothing effect on me. I'm actually excited because Netflix just made a deal to get more shows that I love like Frasier, Family Ties, and Cheers on "Watch Instantly."






NOW SEEN:

 I totally expected not to like this movie and be seriously confused afterward. I wanted to make my way through the Oscar nominees as well and so this was a must. I must say that I really, really liked this movie! I thought the storyline was a little strange but the effects and actors were brilliant.

Another Oscar nominee but don't get why. I think the storyline is good and anything with the main three actors, Mark Ruffalo, Julianne Moore, and Annette Bening, will definitely be good, but I don't think it is Oscar worthy.

Ah, yes, I finally saw this one! There are some movies that I also watch purely because of the buzz about it. I probably wouldn't have watched this otherwise except to see Justin Timberlake. This was a great movie that really dives into a complex world that most people don't get to see because it all happens behind the screens of our computers, iPads and iPhones. Jesse Eisenberg is fantastic.

I love 90% of the actors in this so what is not to love? Awkward acting and really strange storyline. I felt like I was watching Dawson's Creek fast forward about 25 years.







And a list of the rest!