.happy.holidays.

well for all of you who follow me on twitter you know that i made it to Chicago fine and survived the holiday.  i got glutenated/food poising on either christmas eve or christmas day and am finally feeling better today.  i was like close to death for the past two days.

on sunday we (the fam) and i went down to marshall fields (AKA NOW MACYS) and ate in the walnut room.  this is my favorite holiday tradition ever.  this year it was marred not only by my being gluten free but also by the HORRIBLE waitress we had.  she first told me there was not a gluten free menu (i had called ahead to make sure there was), she barely spoke english, she did not know the menu and she was RUDE.

when i finally got a menu i saw that the chicken sausage was gluten free.  this came with cabbage and smashed potatoes.  sounded good to me, i was craving me some smashed potatoes.  when it came out it was just sausage and some cabbage.  when i inquired about the mashed potatoes (the whole reason i ordered the dish) she told me i was allergic to them.  This was odd because i am not sure what you would add to smashed potatoes with sour cream and chives to make them have gluten.  to make matters worse she did not ask if i would like to sub steamed vegetable or a salad for my missing side.   I was about to ask if i could get some steamed vegetables when our waitress went missing again.  not to be seen again until she had the bill.

after dinner we went out to see the windows and do a bit of shopping.  i was lucky enough to find a pair of the gold snake skin tory burch revas at nordstroms rack!  size 11!!  done and done.

i would chalk the day up a success.  (i also got to walk around all day with out the crutches!  i was so sore the next day.

i will post a picture of my shoes after i wear them (it is still too snowy here to wear flats!).

i have also chosen the look i want to go for for julie’s wedding: i will just be soooo beautiful.  but no more pretty than the bride!

.pantone.

are you obsessed with pantone?

I AM.

i really only like the color blue.  it is my favorite.  i also sorta like the color yellow and we can toss a bit of pink in but for me it has been and might forever be BLUE.

navy blue, light blue, sky blue, turquoise, robins egg, blueberry, blackberry,

you name it.  i love it.

but never ever ever did i imagine how many shades of my favorite color there truly is.  in come pantone.  if you love color, and i am sure you do!, do not click on that link unless you have free time… LOTS OF FREE TIME!

here are the colors for this coming spring:i am DIEING over regatta!  i mean seriously i am dead (oh i miss rachel zoe).

alright.  i have much to do and very little time.  going back to db today. (doctor for my hip).  it still hurts.  little to no change in past two weeks.  and the cold is making it worse.  and i am getting fatter by the second.  good thing yoga pants always fit.

oh and i need to pack for 10 days, three formal events, and the frigged

temps of chi town.  (no fear lots of blue involved.. and SPARKLE FLATS!)

.taming.the.beast.

i have been blessed.  i am somewhat of a wiz in the kitchen.  not to toot my own horn by any means but i was giving the baking genes in the family.  from the time i was little i liked to cook and bake.  i can remember leaning how to make grill cheese and pancakes as a child and the joy i felt the first time i ever did it alone.

i can also remember the few failures i have had in the kitchen.  now i am not talking setting the stove on fire (done twice) or burning the handle of a pot, spatula or tray of cookies (countless times) i am talking about throwing out a whole recipe because it was REALLY JUST THAT BAD.  i can only remember doing this twice although for the sake of my memory we will say if happened maybe half a dozen times.

the first time was when i made baking powder biscuits out of my samanatha american girl cook book.  i mistook the teaspoon for the tablespoon and baking soda for baking powder.  i will never forget lisa trying to choke one down.  we through the whole thing out and she explained to me the differences.

the second time was recently when i made a box tiramisu.  why i ever thought this was a good idea will never be clear but lets just say it was HORRIBLE.  ill stick to the home made from now on!

well this was until i became gluten free and started baking…

let me first state that i hold impossibly high standards for myself in the kitchen and will not settle for ok.  this applies to gluten free cooking.  if it does not taste as good or better than the original it is a failure.

cue christmas cookies.

my first batch was doomed from the start.  i just assumed flour is flour what is it made out of does not make a difference… WRONG!  i just subbed in millet flour.  on the label it said good for baking.  well it was the worst taking cookies of my life.  i mean BAD. vomit in your mouth bad.  take a shot of vodka and still not cover the after taste BAD.

this whole batch was tossed.  good news? after learning that you must combine flours i have remade them and they are delightful!

second failure: kolackys

i got this recipe from brittany’s love blog real sustenance. (she also has a recipe for english muffins that i am dieing to make).  brittany’s recipe was gluten free and vegan.  i am not a vegan and well am sorta INLOVE with dairy so i just subbed in my non-vegan products and ran with it.  FAIL.

no this was not the type of fail that causes me to toss a whole batch.  this was the kind that lights the stove on fire.  in her recipe brittany said the dough would be sticking.  well mine was STICKY.

oh why am i talking abut brittnay like we are besties?? BECAUSE we are friends, we e-mailed and tweeted back and forth over my need to perfect my kloackys.

i digress…

i knew there was a problem when i placed my kloackys on a silpat.  genius idea right?  WRONG.  due to the moisture in my cookies they decided to slip off the silpat and fall onto the oven floor.  this caused the oven to smoke, the alarm to go off and poor dusty to exile himself to the snow until i had the issue under control.  out of my frustration with myself for not having perfect kloackys i tweeted Brittany (@realsustenance).  she followed up with the sweetest tweets offering to help me.  i sent her an e-mail detailing my probs and what ingredients i used.  she suggested that i go for it and use full fat cream cheese and ONLY an egg yolk and then went even further and made them again herself to make sure the measurements were correct!

i rolled out the rest of the dough from the original batch between two pieces of plastic b.c even the parchment was causing an issue…

i just whipped up a new batch of dough this  morning and it is in freezer chilling.  the consistency was completely different with this batch.  the funny thing about gluten free cooking is  you have to trust the recipe as most of the time the dough/batter is not what you would have using a wheat flour.  this was another mistake i made with the first batch.  i added sweet rice flour until the dough was what i wanted… result: disaster.

this time they were much better.  i was a bit wary of adding sweet rice flour to the dough but finally found my rythm and the result?  GLORIOUS!

so thank you brittany!  i could not have done it without you!

.weekend.rapup.

oh what a weekend i have had.  if you remember i finished the semester from hell on thursdays.  i got another 4.0 in case you were wondering.  oh and i also got two additional A’s in the classes i was taking at the local community college.  One would think that would be a happy ending to this semester.  WRONG.  i got a lovely little e-mail from the incompetent people in the college of education telling me that they were unable to place me in my student teaching assignment because i had not met all the requirements.  after inquiring about what requirement i had not met the lovely individual informed me that i cannot placed to student teaching in a social students classroom becuase i had not taking the social studies praxis.  WELL NO SHIT SHERLOCK.

A. i do not want to be in a social studies classroom
B. i aced the math praxis and do not plan on taking the social studies one
C. the forms i filled out and turned in IN SEPTEMBER CLEARLY STATE i should be in a math classroom and HAVE met all the requirments and were singed by my advisor.  so why on the last day of the semester i was informed that i would not be able to student teaching is really beyond me.

BUT THEN AGAIN THIS IS TOTALLY IN LINE WITH ALL THE OTHER AWFUL THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED THIS SEMESTER.

so after a very stressful few hours of going back and forth via e-mail becuase the gate keeper in the advising office won’t ever let you talk to anyone i finally got the placement lady to say “i will try and find you a math placement for the spring”

TRY?!?!?!

you have had my forms since September, you made the mistake and read them wrong and did not do your job and you are going to TRY and find me a placement?!?!?

needless to say i am a little upset over this.  i think that if they do not find me a placement i am going to just go over to the school i sub at and ask if i can do it there.  and then have the school deal with it.

 

in other news i have a great post coming and by fight in the kitchen with a klocky recipe and dinner with the tennis ladies!

.snow.day.

today here at happy headquarters we had a snow day.  i took my exam and by the time i came out at 11 there was an inch of snow covering the earth!  i went on to do my errends but after doing two i decided that people in VA do NOT know how to drive and started making my way home.  my drive was 6 miles and took an hour.

i just love this song from the starbucks commercials and have been singing it all day!

when i got home K$ and i started making cookies.  about 6 dozen later, and lisa and thug coming home because of the SNOW, i finally got a second to blog.  my CS5 did arrive but i have not even had a chance to open it!

all of the cookies are full of gluten and i am waiting for the kitchen aid bowl and paddle to get finished in the dishwasher to make kolackys.  while this recipe is both gluten free and vegan i will only be making them gluten free.  kolachys are one of my favorite types of cookie and i cannot wait to try Brittany’s recipe.

.friends in high places.

its no secret i LOVE my friends.  if you have friends and you don’t love them consider your self judged.  that’s right i judge you.

recently one of my friends who i talk alot about on this here little blog JM, wrote a little post for indie ball.  in case you still have not checked out jm’s blog get your bum over there or consider your self judged times 2.  also follow it on twitter @urbnexplorer

jm is currently crippled just like me, hence her talking about her arm in a shoulder cast.

she is an amazing writter and has GREAT taste.  be sure to check her out!

.anticipation.

i did another bad thing.  but this one is going to turn out alright… i hope.

i bought Adobe CS 5 (the premium version).  about 5 days ago i had to restart my computer and that meant my grand idea of just keeping illustrator open so that i can use it for forever was foiled.  now do not get me wrong i was not against purchasing it… i just do not have the money.  thankfully i am a student still and am able to get the student pricing but still that is alot of money for someone who makes nothing.

but i did it.  i used that secret emergency credit card and bought it.  it will arrive tomorrow (thank you free amazon prime membership because i am a student).  i am like a child waiting for santa to come.  like a crack head trolling the streets looking for a fix.  i can’t think of anything other then getting back on illustrator AND exploring in design (never used it!).

this new purchase really makes me want to enroll in a class that will teach me how to get the most out of my adobe suite.  i know that at the community college in Charlotte they had classes you could sign up for but i have yet to see anything like that here.  booo hooo.

.coffee.hug.love.

RT @jessicamlinaric: morning boost in a chic sleeve, thanks @anne_mariehugh ! get your own: http://etsy.me/fhkV2I http://twitpic.com/3fcltt—
anne-marie (@anne_mariehugh) December 14, 2010

.holiday.to.do’s.

this year i get to go to my favorite city at my favorite time of year.  while some people might dread chicago at winter time, I LOVE IT!  and that is exactly where i am heading.

why do i love it?  i think it is rooted back in my early childhood.  while i was born in chicago, i have no memories of it.  we moved to st. louis when i was just a few months old.  however, we have gone back many times and i even moved there for my first job out of college.

christmas eve with my fathers side of the family is an experience.  when we were all younger and my grandparents were still alive it was at there house.  we would all (2 grand parents, their 8 children, and their children no family has less than 3) pack into their small family room, hover close to the ground (the cloud of smoke from my grandfathers lucky strikes was a permanent fixture in the room) and tear into our gifts.  first came the godparent gifts, then the grab bag gifts.  by this time there was noise, paper, and pandemonium.  I have no memories of being at these christmas eves only reminders from pictures and stories.

now that my grandparents are no longer with us, we celebrate at my aunts amazing house in oak park (its like the type of houses you see in movies), there is no cloud of smoke and most of the noise comes from the cousins drinking too much.  thankfully there are still little nuggets, as cousins have now had their own children, who scream for joy when they open their gifts.

we have changed the grab bag a bit and usually end the night at a dive bar reminiscing about the early years, the cloud of smoke and the monster that lived behind grandma’s garage, and the great family jim and jean created.

not only because of my family do i love chicago  the city comes alive at christmas, the white blanket of snow cleanly coves the windy city and brings it back to the city i picture in my mind.  while it can be bitterly cold a quick stop into marshal fields (i will NOT call it macys) and a trip up to the walnut room not only transports you back to a different time when shopping was not something you did on the way home but it was a destination.  no matter how old i am seeing that giant christmas tree brings me the joy that christmas morning once did.  after warming up with a hot toddie, a peppermint (spiked) hot chocolate and a little nosh, one is ready to view the windows.  this is probably the one time in my life when i am able to calmly face any crowd.  i am transfixed every time i see the windows.  i prefer not to know the theme of the windows until i go down to see them.  preferably with a starbucks in hand and snow flakes falling.

this year i am also going to bring a bag full of my own gluten free christmas cookies, as they are tres hard to find and i already know i like them!

After going to college in the midwest and living there for a year a holiday in chicago also means catching up with all my fav people.  on my visit i will be getting together with 2 sorority sisters ( i was lucky enough to see them both when i was in for the marathon) and my housemate HEP (she ran the marathon but i never got to see her), my bestie from Luxembourg JM over at urban explorer, and hopefully KL.  i was suppose to meet up with all of them the monday after the marathon but seeing as i could not walk and had a stress fracture in my hip i had to cancel.

jm and i already have plans to go to zoo lights (at lincoln park zoo) and drink warm drinks, hot toddy’s or peppermint (schnapps) hot chocolate.  hopefully ending the night with a night cap!

BUT before i head out west (if you remember in the great gatsby they refer to the mid west as out west so i think if Fitzgerald could do it so can i!) i have lost to finish here.  today i am hoping to finish my christmas card design in ilustrator (AMC already got a little peak!) and bring it over the the printer.  i also have my first final tonight, so i will be heading to the lib to STUDY soonish.

i also need to try converting my grandma’s spritz cookie recipe to gluten free.  i feel like to do this i really need to follow Shauna James Ahern suggestions and buy a food scale.  i am also going to use a lard butter mixture.  i read an recipe on line from a blog.  i thought i book marked it as i would love to direct you all to it but now i cannot find it anywhere.  if it was you let me know!

alright at 6 minutes to 8 my play time is over.  off to studying.

.glitter.

in my favorite fuel song, shimmer, there is a line “all that shimmers in this world is sure to fade away, again”

well i am soooo sure that this shimmer is not going ANYWHERE.

last week, i blogged about AMC’s colleague making her own glitter flats. i was inspired and over the weekend i did the same!

so here is is my directions to DIY glitter flats.

1. get a pair of plain flats.  i went to target and got these:

Women’s Mossimo Supply Co. Odell Ballet Flat they were $12.99

2. get some glitter, liquid stich, a sponge brush and mod podge clear acrylic sealer (i found all of this at walmart, mine does not have a large crafts section (no fabric) so yours should have it.  for the glitter i was unsure about how much this project would take and i wanted to have the color just right so i bought 3 oz containers of gold, silver, red, green and blue.  they were $1.79 a piece.  i then mixed all of the gold and silver with a portion of the green, blue and red.  i emptied them down to the top of the label.  i poured them on the a piece of tin foil that i bent so it would have edges.  i figured this would be the best way to move the glitter around.mixed it looked like this: this was way more glitter then i needed.  i poured the glitter back in to the empty gold and sliver bottles and used the rest for the shoes (after one coat i had left over glitter without going to the bottled portion.

3. i cut a paper bag so that it would lay flat and used that for my work surface.  i started by putting the liquid stich on the shoe and using the sponge brush to move it into a light layer.  i did not take a picture of the glue spread or me spooning the glitter on as i did not want the glue to dry.  i have TOTAL confidence you can figure that part out.

4. when moving the glue around i would swipe it until i got close to where the glitter was then i would use a sponging motion.  this seemed to work very well.  Be sure to sprinkle (i spooned) the glitter over the parts where the glue over lapped the glitter.  i piled the glitter on and then shook it off.

5.  after i glittered the whole shoe i left them sit for 24 hours.  the liquid stitch said to wait 24 hours before laundering so i figured at this point the glitter would be as set at it was going to be.6.  after letting the shoes dry for a full day (it was acutally like 28 hours) i sprayed them with the mod podge clear acrylic sealer.  i followed the directions on back and did the first coat of “bursts” and then did a second “swipe” coat.  i filled the shoes with plastic bags and held them in my hand as i sprayed.  in the end they looked like this:the spray took some of the sparkle out of them but the sparkles do NOT fall off now.  the spray was matte and that may be why, but it was all they had and until i actually used it i was not sure if i was going to or not.  I was torn between sponging the liquid stitch all over the shoes.  I decided against this as it took the dimension of the sparkle away.

and cole b if you still want a pair i have TONS of extra glitter and can make them for you.