Lil Blue Boo Fundraiser!!

Cancer is a nasty thing it takes life as you know it and turns it up side down and keeps you on your toes. I have been affected by cancer in my life not personally but through friends and family. Many of us have seen someone close to us or an acquaintance battle it. It doesn't take very long before you figure out it isn't a friend (the cancer) you want around for very long.

If you follow my blog then you have seen my posts on Evy's Tree it is an awesome small internet business that makes handmade clothing for men, women and children. I also have her business on my Facebook so I have been slowly following the progress about Ashley from Little Blue Boo who has been diagnosed with Choriocarsinoma which a form of cancer that is a result from a molar pregnancy. What really got me to start following Ashley's progress through her fight with cancer was her video of her having her head shaved. One of my good friends was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago and has been cancer free for a year, she also made the decision to shave her head once she began to loose her hair due to intense chemo treatments. The difference between Ashley and my friend is that Ashley video'd her shaving her head and if you can watch this video without crying it'd be a miracle. Its a very moving and personal video, I'll provide you the link and you'll soon see that Ashley is tall, thin, a young mom and business owner. 

http://www.lilblueboo.com/2012/01/a-rite-of-passage-a-video.html

Evy's Tree as well as many other small internet business owners has started a fund for Ashley and her family to have resources to pay off the costly medical bills she will soon acquire and hopefully we can all donate enough money to give her a month or two off to focus on her healing and not have to worry so much about keeping her business running. The blog that Amy wrote over at Evy's tree is way better than what I have told you. I just wanted to get the word out about what all these wonderful lady's are doing for Ashley. They have rightly named themselves Team Ashely! So head on over to her blog and read it!! 

http://evystree.com/blog/?p=1656

If you can participate in the auction go for it but if not there is a button on the right side of her page that you can donate to a paypal account that has been set up to go directly to Ashley. Any amount will help if 20 people donated $5.00 that'd be $100.00 that could cover their trash, water or a portion of their electric bill for a month. It may help to pay a portion of some of her medical bills. Literally any amount would help!!

And if you cannot participate spread my blog on, on your Facebook or email it to someone that you think might be willing to help. Simply getting the word out about this will help a lot!!

Winners!!

I have emailed all of you as of friday at 12:20 asking for your address. 

Hopefully if you havent checked your email this blog post will catch your attention as it is listing all the emails that have won.

1st place: hermie0001@hotmail.com

2nd place: Mar77777@msn.com

3rd place: vienred_88@hotmail.com

If I do not get responses from you guys by next Friday (1/27/12) I will have to draw new winners!!!

Please check your junk mail box!!!

GIVEAWAY TIME!!!! - CLOSED

I have been blogging since about May and have some regular followers whether they are actually subscribed to my blog or they check it regularly I thought a Thank you was in order. 

LaynieBug Designs Melissa Blair is sponsoring my giveaway, I love working with her and have loved watching her little business progress to what it is now. If you don't know anything about this business you need to head on over to Facebook and search for her!! She makes amazing hair accessories and is a joy to work with :).

The nitty gritty of the give away...

There will be three winners who will be chosen from random.org.

You MUST be friends with Layniebug Designs on Facebook 

(just click on the name and it'll take you right to her Facebook page).

You MUST leave a comment on this blog post with your email so I can contact you. If you do not feel comfortable leaving your email then please just leave your name, Melissa will be the one contacting you for me via Facebook. 

And for a bonus if you are a follower of my blog you get a double vote (if you are not a follower, become one!!). 

You can enter one time only. 

The giveaway will start today (1/16/12) and end (1/20/12) at noon.
Open to International participates. 

The first place winner will win:

 Black flower with two thin headbands and 8 hair ties in the colors above.

The second place winner will get:

 The turquoise flower that comes with two thin head bands and four hair ties. 

The third place winner will get:

The silver flower with two thin headbands with four hair ties. 

So to recap the ways you can win is to leave your email in a comment on this blog, be a friend of Layniebug Designs on Facebook and to be a follower of my blog these are all different avenues to enter. 

What I've been up to..

I had intentions of blogging a bunch this break and to read like three or four books just for fun.. But that has not happened at all. What I have really been wanting to do now is let my brain rot, watch TV and not move at all. I guess you could say I have a touch of the lazy's.. 

I went home for two and a half weeks, while that was fun visiting with the people I was able to see. It was also nice to come back home and get caught up on some stuff before school starts... Like the laundry and on my to do list.. cleaning this place up. It would have been nice if I came back home to a house and not an apartment that consists of me having to walk outside to take my dogs out (see touch of the lazy's).. 

But I like our little home. 

So you may ask.. well if you are so lazy, what the heck are you going to do the next two weeks??? 

Your answer: NOTHING!! But clean :) and get this apartment back into shape before the term starts.. I also have been planning our wedding.. 

Naive me thought I'd be able to put some of this off until the summer but I am slowly realizing that a couple of these things are going to have to be done sooner than I thought. This week Tony and I are going to go look at a couple different venues and possibly stop off at the store we are going to use for our invites just to ask some questions. 

My suggestion to all you peeps out there following my blog.. Keep an eye out for a give away I am going to be doing at the beginning of next week with LaynieBug Designs, you can check her out on Facebook!! 

Most Amazing Cookies EVER!!!

For Christmas one of the gifts I got was a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, which I have been wanting for a very very long time. You can only make so many things by hand before you just don't bake anymore. I decided I would try my mixer out on some cookies. I saw this recipe on Pinterest and decided to try it out... essentially I made it my own :)

What You'll need:

1 pound unsalted butter

1 3/4 cups granulated sugar

2 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar

4 large eggs

6 Cups All Purpose Flour

1 tablespoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

2 pounds bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Directions

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats; set aside.

- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars.

- Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

- Reduce speed to low and add both flours, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, and chocolate; mix until well combined.

- Using a 4-ounce scoop for larger cookies or a 1-ounce scoop for smaller cookies, scoop cookie dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart.

- Bake until lightly browned, but still soft, about 20 minutes for larger cookies and about 15 minutes for smaller cookies.

- Cool slightly on baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

I used Ghiradelli chocolate bars I believe they were 60% Cocoa but I am not sure. I also modified this recipe because I did not want to spend 10 dollars on special flour so I just used AP instead of half bread and half pastry flour. This yield's A LOT Of cookies so beware, had I known that I would have half'd the recipe. 

YUMM!!!

I hope if you make these cookies they taste super good.

Maybe tomorrow I will have time to sit down and tell you a little bit about what I have been up to now that I am on winter break with only two weeks left :(

Best Potato Soup Ever!!

I found this recipe on Pinterest and just had to make it but of course I tweaked it so it isn't exactly the same as the one I found. 

Ingredients:

3-4 russet potatoes 

2/3 cup of sick butter

2/3 cup of flour

4 cups of milk

1 cup of heavy cream

1/4 cup of chicken or vegetable stock

5 slices of uncooked bacon

1/2 cup of sour cream

5 cloves of garlic 

2 bunches of green onions, sliced thinly

Colby Jack Cheese 1-2 cups

Pepper to taste

Wash and cut your potatoes into cubes place them into a pan and boil them for 15 minutes, cook bacon until no longer raw or however you like yours. You can either crumble your bacon up after its cooked or you can slice it up before you cook it. 

Melt you bacon in your soup pan once melted whisk the flour into the butter, once it is smooth with no lumps of flour are visible. Add your milk slowly and one cup at a time once all 4 cups are in the milk add the heavy cream. Put a splash of stock in the mixture. Add pepper.

Take your cooked potatoes and smash them up a little with your whisk, then add them to the cream mixture. Add onions and garlic bring mixture to a boil for 8 minutes and then turn heat down while stirring continuously.  Once the mixture is simmering add cheese, sour cream and bacon (I put the grease in with this too, I know not the healthiest :) 

Enjoy!! I didnt add as much cheese to the mixture while I was cooking it because I knew Tony and I would add more when we ate it. This isn't the healthiest but it is literally the best potato soup I have ever had!!

Some tips:

Because this is a cream based soup KEEP YOUR EYE ON IT!!! You cannot walk away from this at all because if you do it will burn. I let it simmer for about an hour after I finished everything keeping a very close eye on it. Don't cook the potatoes all the way either because if you do when you add them to your soup they'll turn into mush. 

Some Big NEWS!!!!

If you aren't on my Facebook then this is totally new information for you and if you are than only part of this will be new :)..

I AM ENGAGED!!!!!! 

Like any girl I imagined it my entire life but never knew exactly how it would go down or who it would be and all I can say is I am so happy to get to tell everyone a funny story and look forward to spending the rest of my life with Tony. 

Tony and I opened our Christmas presents last night because next weekend we will have Tony's niece and the following Thursday I will be heading home to spend time with my family and Tony will be spending time with his, it'll be our last Christmas apart :)

I had opened all my presents and he had opened all of his.. He told me I had one left but I had to go get it from the car because it was to big to wrap, so reluctantly I walked down to his truck and was expecting this rather large box to lug back up to our apartment but I found a little tiny pink box on his console. I picked it up really confused as to why I had to get this wrapped box from his truck and started to walk back in side. Like anyone with a brain I decided to shake it box and noticed it made no sound, I knew it contained jewelry inside because it was that type of box. I then noticed it was really light, lighter then it should have been. So I decided ehh whatever I'll open the dang thing. IT WAS EMPTY!!! I am not going to lie I was a little irritated and doing all of this while walking back inside our apartment, he parked far away on purpose. When I came in the house I said something along these lines but I am cleaning it up for my viewers "You got me an empty box? Why did you get me an empty box for Christmas? I didn't get you an empty box" there was some f words in there I am sure you guys can place them appropriately. Once he told me he didn't know why he got me an empty box he told me to come closer and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I pretty much lost it and was bawling, it is for sure a moment I will remember for the rest of my life and I am looking forward to marrying him!!!

So to answer you questions it wont be until 2013 because I need to finish up school and get a job to pay for my wedding :)

I hope you guys all had a wonderful weekend!! 

The cuts on my hand is from who knows, I literally have no idea I was sitting in history class on Thursday and went to grab my coffee when I noticed that my fingers hurt and I looked at my hand and I had those three cuts there.. Super weird. Anyways Three more finals left and then if I was you I would be looking out for a give away on my blog :-)