New Place, New Kitchen, New Decor!

It's that time of year again. I am moving to a new place. Fifth place in four and a half years. You would think I like to move. Well, no...especially during the summer. Since I will be starting my student teaching in the fall, I wanted to find a place that will be a little closer to the school I will be student teaching. My move will save me about 20 minutes in driving time. Yay! I have found myself a little one bedroom town home with a lot more space, just for me. It was hard packing all of my stuff into my 10x10 bedroom. Yes, there was storage, lots of it, but I also had to share the space with 3 other people.

I really am going to miss my current house, especially the kitchen. Oh! Can't forget the friends! My friends will be missed the most. The kitchen was a good size with lots of counter and cabinet space filled with all my kitchen gadgets. Unfortunately, the kitchen is the drawback for my new place. It's about half the size. I will have to be creative to fit all my kitchen stuff into the new kitchen. Luckily, there is a lot of storage elsewhere in the home. What is Ikea for if you don't utilize it?

Besides the lack of space, it really is a cute kitchen. What I am most looking forward to is decorating it!!! I will continue the decorating theme I have at my place now, French Cuisine. I have a lot of new ideas that will make my new kitchen look like a little Paris cafe. I am looking for a set of wooden or metal, fork and spoon about 20" long that I can place on my wall. I have also a bought a sheet of metal at HomeDepot that I spray painted with the chalkboard paint and am going to stencil either the word Menu or Bon Appetit on top, with a Eiffel Tower image on the bottom left corner. I will eventually get it framed. I also want some vintage metal signs of Paris Cafes or French wine. I think my taste may be a little out of range for my broke, college student wallet. Any ideas for my little Paris Cafe in Tucson? Stay tuned for pictures of my new kitchen and the deals I came up with. 

We Like to Move it, Move it!

I have decided I cannot stay in one place for more than one year. I have moved every year since my freshman year and I am moving again for the forth time. Hopefully, I will stay in this place for longer. I have two new amazing house mates, Marissa and Suzie. All of us praying that this living situation will work out since our past living conditions have not. We have dealt with too much room mate drama to last us a lifetime. I believe this is a match made in heaven. We also have an cute three bedroom brick house, with a great backyard (nicely landscaped), and the most important part...an awesome kitchen. My favorite place in the house equipped with mock-granite counter tops, a gas stove (the best) and all the appliances you will ever need. Now, I just need to load it up with all of my gadgets and equipment so I can start baking. (I promised the friends who are helping me move that they would get food out of it.) I have a list of so many things I want to experiment with and things that will be totally new for me. It will be fun. I am so excited to be living with two girls who also love to bake.

I am also ecstatic about living with a dog again. Leela, a beautiful orange dog that Suzie rescued from the pound, will be a great addition to our home. I miss having dogs around. I've always had a dog ever since I was born. Currently, my family and I have three dogs, all mixed breeds and the loves of our lives. Maddie, Lily, and Patrick are now the center of attention since both my sister and I are in college. I am partial to one of them, Lily. Lily Potter to be exact. Lily is my precious baby. I miss her so much and keep on threatening my parents that I am going to take her back to Tucson with me. Totally joking, of course. Lily would enjoy living in a different house with another wonderfully playful dog but she would miss her brother and sister. I couldn't do that to her. I miss Lily and my family a lot, but I am in college. It's the time when I get to discover my independence, make my own decisions, and to learn more about myself. I think my moving a lot is part of the growing process. I want to discover new places and experience new things. Wish me luck! I'm off to sign a new lease...

Blueberry Imagination

A couple weeks ago, I was at my parent's house visiting the family and trying to entertain myself in a town that does not have a lot to offer me anymore. Apart from my family and a few friends I have left, there is a movie couple movie theaters, a Walmart, a Family Fun Park (Go-carts and Miniature Golf), and a bowling alley. I used to enjoy these things when I was younger, living off my allowance and what ever my parents provided for my entertainment. The bowling alley is starting to become run down and is utilized by few people my age. All of them, older men and women involved in the local bowling league or are just there to get a few drinks at the bar. The family fun park is still prosperous and a decent hang out spot, but I choose not to visit because I do not want to pay over $5 for one 5 minute ride on the go-carts or $10 for a lame miniature golf course. What's a miniature golf course without a windmill and a castle? Come on! I do partake of our local movie theater, owned by a local family. I love going to the movies. It is what my friends or boyfriend and I did when we lived in town. I would go every day if I could. Unfortunately, I am a broke college student not wanting to pay $7.50 per ticket to go to all of the movies. Don't get me started on Walmart ( or as we call it "Mallmart") Walmart was the only thing in town that was open 24/7, apart from Dennys. My friends and I frequented Walmart a lot because there was nothing else to do. Sometimes we would dress up in goofy outfits and parade them around Walmart. Crazy, I know, but that was our entertainment. We used our imaginations.

While visiting my parents, I used my imagination once more or shall I say a couple times more. I began making up my own muffin recipe. Muffins...because I was really craving them. I looked in the fridge, saw three containers of these beautiful, plump blueberries. I pulled them out and started compiling all the ingredients I know are in a basic muffin recipe. Flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt for dry ingredients and eggs, milk, and veggie oil for the moistening agents. I mixed the dry ingredients, making sure they were distributed well, and then mixed in the liquid. I needed to add a bit more milk to make the batter the right consistancy and then tasted a little. Sweet, yes. Definitely a good start for a basic muffin. It needed more, a bit of flavor. So I go to the cupboard, pull out the first ingredients that pop into my mind, cinnamon and pure vanilla extract. I pour a good amount in, stir it and then go in for another taste. Perfect, or almost perfect. Nothing is perfect in my opinion. Good enough though, to start pouring in the freshly washed blueberries. I fold them in carefully, taking extra care not to smoosh any of them. Next, I pour the batter into my already prepared cupcake pans (lined with pretty wild flower cupcake papers.) I then crumble on top, my muffin topping of flour, sugar, and butter. It's time. Here goes nothing. I then place my experiment into the toasty oven. I become very anxious. Are they going to turn out? Did I use all the ingredients I needed? I only had to wait 22 minutes and then they would be done. Those 22 minutes took forever, probably because I was so impatient for them to be done (and I was really hungry.).........Timer goes off! I pull them out, they look absolutely decadent. I place them on a cooling rack and wait a few minutes for them to cool. When I felt I could not wait any longer, I bared the almost too hot muffin and started tasting it. So fragrant, so full of flavor, and had a beautiful crisp top and moist body. It was heavenly. My family found out about the muffins and they swarmed in to grab their breakfast. It was great. I enjoyed knowing they loved the muffins and that I had supplied a brief moment of happiness for my family. Food brings happiness, especially when it's made with love. So, even when I was in town visiting for the weekend, I still resorted to my old ways and used my imagination. My imagination...always there for my entertainment.

Blog theme??

Bonjour!! Welcome to my new blog, which also happens to be my first. I've always wanted to make a blog but could not figure out what to blog about. I thought about blogging about several of my cooking experiments or scrapbook pages/cards I make. Or should I write about life experiences? I guess I can do all of these things, right? It is MY blog after all. I came across another barrier, when I came up with this crazy idea (from my crazy mind) that ONLY young, creative, married women blogged. I may be young and I may be creative but I am not married. I seemed to have developed a stereotype about bloggers which told me it was not socially acceptable for me to have a blog. My experience of looking though blogs has given me the idea that only these women have blogs. Maybe it is because of the genre of blogs I view? Or Maybe, just maybe the majority of the blog community really is taken over by these young married women? Who knows? Well, move over ladies...I'm moving in!!

I've always enjoyed looking at blogs. I love looking for ideas for scrapbook pages or for home decorations. I like to to see how women can transform their surroundings into something chic and beautiful, as well as unique.

I also enjoy looking at blogs that revolve around baking and cooking, especially since they are my joys in life. I am always reminded of Julie Powell's blog, "The Julie/Julia Project," when Julie Powell made the decision to make a goal for herself. She decided to take a year and cook every recipe in "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," two recipe books written by Julia Child and Simone Beck. Powell's idea has been an inspiration to me since then. I adore french cuisine. It's classy, adventurous, complex, and not to mention very tasty. Mmmm!

Since I have many interests, I have decided to blog about whatever new creation I come up with. Whether it be a baked item, redesigned furniture or wall decor, or my scrapbook pages and cards. Until next time....au revoir!