two weeks of lovelies

the clinic has been kicking my butt for some reason and i have had much difficulty finding free time. i am hoping that things will settle down next week and i will be better at keeping up with things like reading blogs and actually keeping up with my own.

the number pi while waiting for deliciousness.

a lovely cup of tea in my grandmother's wedding china! love. it.

a night on top of the art museum while enjoying music and watching older couples dance. lovely!

a silly mirror outside of a bathroom. accompanied by the most professional karaoke i have ever heard!

lots of enjoyment was found in my pitcher of ice tea that i was able to enjoy over and over again in my grandmother's china. i found this pitcher a few months ago at the salvation army with 6 matching cups! one of my favorite finds. but really, all of my finds are favorites!

 super cute frog curtains.

a sweetly delicious study snack.

and of course, we got our goggles and started our "swim team" practice! i cant wait until this week is over so that i can get in the water again!

 

love.

"Whenever I feel the need to exercise, I lie down until it goes away."

~Jack Handey

since gaining my poundage back in june, i had a goal that i would work out frequently in july. that did not happen because i began working ten hour shifts and at many moments my feet almost broke off. i then said i would begin the first week of august since i get off at five. i once again did not achieve that goal, but also only pushed it back one week. soon, my friend and i will be beginning our swim team, consisting only of ourselves at the moment. our supplies shipped monday night and im super excited! we will follow through. especially if we go with the custom made swim caps. good luck to us!

one of the happiest things of these next two months, although it may be hot, i get to wear open toe shoes!!! so far i have felt the freedom nearly every day!

this is the loveliest thing i may have ever seen. at least that i can remember at the moment. brunch at a wonderful place with hundreds of origami animals hanging from the ceiling!!!! it was perfect. the ceiling was beautiful even without the birds. which means, i loved it!

until next week...

love!

“he said, if you allow yourself to be enchanted by the beauty to be seen in even ordinary things,...

...then all things prove to be extraordinary.”

~ dean koontz

blueberries may not be as amazing as blackberries, but i love eating bowls of them at lunch.

it was nice to have a change of scenery and hang out with alisha and angie while playing trivia. if only i didnt suck at the trivia part! the only answer i knew was the name of the indian girl in peter pan: tiger lily. alisha was a great asset though!

i got a new oil burner that im super excited about. its electric! now i dont have to constantly make sure the candle is still burning!

and here is the happiest image of the week. (i had to save it for last). the lovely mark my dads glass left on the table at picasso cafe. such a great sign of good things to come! that or the table loved the food as much as we did. you cant not smile back at it!

i may be stressed, but lovely things can still be found everywhere!

love.

the perfect meal

here is a photo journal of the lovely dinner i had with alisha at the wedge earlier this week. it was perfect. and yes, we ate every last bite! a food coma shortly followed. (but not for too long because studying got in the way!)

the appetizer.

the main course. (i almost forgot to take a picture! gah!)

alisha has an unhealthy obsession with marinara sauce.

the surprise dessert! melt in your mouth amazing!

i could not have asked for a better study break. thanks alisha!

at this point, im hoping laura immediately goes out and eats! haha

love.

weekly lovelies

my weekend involved lots of frozen yogurt. delicious! i love berries.

maybe it doesnt look all that appetizing, but it was amazing! the store was out of asparagus so baby broccoli was the replacement for it in my goat cheese pasta. i made it essentially half noodles half broccoli and it was perfect! it also made for lovely lunches throughout the week.

 

maybe this next week will involve something besides food. probably not though. i just love it too much! haha

love.

it's my own garden now. my own secret garden.

~the secret garden

i have decided to begin a weekly post about things i enjoyed during the week that was inspired by many other blogs i read. part of me wishes that i could have finished my 365, but it became something i didnt enjoy doing once school became absolutely horrible. so instead, each week i will post a few pictures of things i loved/enjoyed. i am not stressing myself out by having to meet a specific quota so some weeks may have one picture while others may have ten. i hope you enjoy it!

even though i am really frugal about purchasing unnecessary things, i chose to buy the cheapest bouquet of flowers at target. (i did try to find wildflowers, but i never found any!) i must say, i may begin to put flowers on the necessity list. i find myself looking at them constantly and they give a lovely feel to the apartment. so far they have lasted an entire week with no wilting! and one bouquet filled three vases! they are perfect. perfectly beautiful.

apparently i have never tried blackberries before. WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?! they may have surpassed blueberries as being the best fruit ever. and they tasted awesome on my chocolate soy milk french toast. yum yumm!!!

lets just say that i ate waaayyy too many cookies this week. but they were so delicious!

the weekend was filled with a great amount of time by the pool with people i love. it was so enjoyable and relaxing that i even forgot that i dont have a summer! these chairs were super comfortable and so bright and cheery. all my time was spent floating in the water though because it was so hot that i could hardly breathe!

love.

monthly macaroni 4 and 5

i ran out of time in may to make a macaroni so i made up for it by making two in june. unfortunately, both seemed to land in failure town. at least in respect to all the others i have made.

the first one i attempted was baked caprese that used fresh mozzarella. i am not quite sure what happened (i am going to blame it on the fact that i used kraft shredded cheese for the first time instead of market pantry), but when i made the sauce the cheese immediately turned into a goopy ball! goopy really is the wrong word though because it was more elastic or rubber band like. it was the strangest thing i have ever encountered! the only things that were different when making this particular macaroni was that the stove was different and i used kraft cheese. i did everything else exactly the same! never again will i use kraft cheese!

(look, you can even see the rubber band of cheese in the picture!)

nevertheless, i chose to try and stretch the cheese over the noodles in hopes that the cheese rubber band would melt in the oven. once again, i was wrong! it stayed like a rubber band and was even difficult to cut and especially eat. but despite all of these drawbacks, this macaroni had an absolutely amazing flavor! dare i even say perfect flavor. ill just say it, i loved it! im not sure if it was the basil, the oils from the cooked tomatoes, or the melted fresh mozzarella, but it was amazing. i am going to make it again in hopes that the cheese will respond normally and melt. it deserves another try. and i would like to taste the deliciousness in the way it was supposed to be enjoyed!

the second one i made was broccoli and squash and used monterey jack as the main cheese. i was unable to find frozen squash so i bought a fresh organic one and pureed it myself in the magic bullet.

i was happy to discover that the first disaster was not caused by my stove because the cheese melted beautifully this time! i also chose to freeze half of it so that i wouldnt have to eat the same macaroni and cheese for at least 12 meals in a row. it also made for a super quick meal a week or so later.

this macaroni and cheese smelled very delicious and looked super delicious since the sauce wasnt a rubber cheese ball, but the taste just didnt live up to the smell, or the work i put into it. i think it may have partially been due to the fact that i didnt have enough parmesan. the monterey jack had a plain taste to it and i feel like if i used more parmesan it would have had more flavor. if i didnt have many other macaronis to make, i would probably try it again using a good amount of pecorino romano. it has such strong flavor and tastes amazing when mixed in a dish (thank you kelly for that discovery!) so i think it would kick this one up a lot and get rid of the bland taste.

well, i hope that my next one is more of a success! i may take this month off, i havent fully decided yet. and in the words of hosty, eat your mac and cheese! ah! ah! ah!

love.