Such a short InstaWeek this time around!

On the third, I finally threaded a new bobbin on the Singer my momma learned to sew on to work on a project: a cupcake apron! Admittedly, it was from a pre-pieced kit that all I did was cut out & stitch together, and it's not perfect by any means, but I like it. Especially the pocket.

But I am more than happy to italicize another item on my 101 in 1001!
#23: Sew 5 projects!



[side note: My love for clothing with pockets knows no bounds. Aprons, dresses, fanny packs.]

The same night, I used a rotisserie for the first time in my life to cook a chicken for the two of us and Tim. It sucked. Well, it tasted fine, the parts I could salvage after brutally mutilating the poor poultry, but it just wasn't a good experience. That is one appliance I will have to revisit & learn more about. Not one of my finer kitchen-related moments. I snapped a secret picture of my Prince helping me do the dishes. Head over heels for moments like that.

I also participated in my first ever "Throwback Thursday", and posted about our first ever dates! Both of them were to see the Tampa Bay Lightning [my team] play the Pittsburgh Penguins [his team]. Nothing like starting a relationship off on a complete rivalry! Actually, the first night we ever met, our teams were playing each other.
[They crushed us. It's a sensitive subject.] Hockey is one of five things we initially bonded over, so in addition to being both of our favorite sports, it's a huge part of our relationship.

[the other four include: Disney World, LOST (the tv show), 90's Nostalgia, and continental breakfasts.]

On the 4th of July, we went over to his family's house for grillin' and swimmin'. J got really serious about stacking condiments & beverages, and our nephew hammed it up on the sliding glass door. I love that kid. Both of 'em.

Saturday night, I went to my BFF's mom's vow renewals with her and another Gal-Pal. It was seriously. freaking. hot. On top of the sky high humidity, I got outrageously sunburned Friday morning with her & her family at the beach, so everything felt approximately one million times worse. All in all, it was a great time that included the most giggling I'd done in a long time, and ended with night swims.

I need to stop slacking on life updates, and on doing more projects. Sometimes I feel like my mind is trying to process a million and a half ideas all at once, and I get stressed out just thinking about them.

I also need to stop combining life updates with InstaWeeks with 101in1001's.

But since I'm already here, and for some reason, so are you, we're gonna keep on truckin'.

Last week I mentioned having an epidural in my back to fix a herniated disc, and I am beyond ecstatic with the results so far. I still haven't taken any pain medication in almost two weeks, aside from something for a headache. This was something that seriously prohibited me from living a normal life, and now it's gone. I'm so thankful for that. It also means getting to move forward with things I had to put on hold before, like routinely going to the gym [something I legitimately enjoy], and finishing up our SCUBA certification. I'm thrilled. 

So wonderfully, honestly, hesitantly excited.
Can't wait to see what the future holds for me & the Prince.

Be Excellent to Each Other
-DanniDear

Last week, we drove down to break into our friend Jen's car when she locked her keys inside, but failed to mention she called AAA before we got there, so she bought us fancy coffee drinks to make up for it. I love that my favorite barista is also one of our best friends.

We also had to give the MonsterCat a bath because I'm allergic to his dander.

My life, in a nutshell. Stupid faces, a silly boy, and a snuggly, loving puppy.

Also nabbed some NY Strips on special from our local meat place for dinner. So wonderful.

Our [uh-mazing] friends from Washington sent us a bunch of PS3 games, and this is my current play.

Tampa Bay Lightning announced their buy-out plan for the team's captain, Vincent Lecavalier. It is pretty crazy, but I'd be lying if I said I hadn't seen it coming for a few months now. I'll be sad to see him go. He's done so many things for the community, and I'm lucky to have watched him bring home the 'Cup in 2004.
The same night was spent relaxing with friends, by way of hookah and french braiding Tim's pompadour.

I also happened to post something on Twitter about how much I enjoy magicians Penn & Teller, as well as Brynolf & Ljung, a magician duo from Sweden we discovered on P&T's show, "Fool Us", and they retweeted my random post. It was fantastic, as are they. Watch them on Britain's Got Talent here. I'm a sucker for Swedes anyways. I might watch too much hockey.

My mornings usually consist of far too many snuggles with a puppy far too big to lay in between us on a full size bed.

But here is proof that I am carrying out #7 on my 101 in 1001 list: walk Holly once a week, for 3 months. So far, we're on week two! She makes it a little less than a mile before giving me that, "okay, we can go home. now." face.

Saturday we spontaneously went to Disney's Boardwalk to enjoy JellyRolls, a dueling piano bar, with Tim. That place is so wonderful. We actually went there while on our anniversary trip in March, and fell in love. So much fun. They also have nightly, rotating, "Red Solo Cup Specials" where 11 bucks gets you 32 ounces of some delicious mixed drink. That night, they featured Alabama Slammers. I can't wait to go back.

Sunday was all about desserts. Three different flavors of gelato [pistachio - my favorite, dark chocolate raspberry, and chocolate], some sort of brickle, brownies, cannolis, and my banana pudding! I made a stop motion-esque video of its assembly, so as soon as I figure out how to get videos off Instagram, I'll share it.

I mentioned that I'd been working on Holly's walks, but I've also watched 4 of my 26 alphabetical movies, which for me is outrageous because I never really watch movies. My list is here in case you're curious as to what I've seen. Also included in that post are the places I plan on keeping track of books, video games, etc, for anything that requires a list for my 101.

Additionally, I've also started making headway on probably one of the biggest tasks on my list. #2: fix my back.

I've had scoliosis as long as I can remember, but it's never been that serious of a hinderance on my life. In January of this year, I herniated a disc. [L5-S1, in case you were curious.] And that, my friends, is a gigantic hinderance. I can't perform basic tasks. Like unload the dishwasher, sit in certain chairs, cough, sneeze, turn my head, anything.

Well, yesterday, after dealing with the constant pain and taking way too much ibruprofen, I had my first cortisone epidural. Holy crap, do those things suck. But I am happy to say that after 24 hours, I can sit down for more than a few minutes, move my neck completely, sleep on my sides again, and haven't taken any sort of medicine since! [actually, I couldn't take anything five days before that, either, but...] My next one is in two weeks, and I hope I continue to improve. I know J does, since he pretty much has to do everything around here or for me.

This is just the post where I'm just planning on keeping track of all of my tasks that require lists.

76: Read 50 Books


77: Beat 1 Video Game for Every Month


79: Watch 26 Movies I've Never Seen
a-
b- Bachelorette [06/30/13]
c- Cabin In The Woods [06/27/13]
d-
e-
f-
g-
h-
i-
j-
k-
l-
m-
n-
o-
p-
q-
r-
s-
t- TiMER [07/01/13]
u-
v- V/H/S [06/30/13]
w-
x-
y-
z-

I just want to start off this post by saying two things:

1- In the future, I probably won't be posting multiple times in one day. I felt this was a special case, as today's first post is a prerequisite for this here blurb.

2- My portrait lens might have been drunk today. All of my pictures turned out kind of wonky [see exhibit a to left], and obviously I can't go back and recreate a step-by-step project. Well, I could, but as a very wise woman once said, "ain't nobody got time for that."

On that lethally accurate note, today's project is the first one off my 101 Things in 1,001 Days list...

#35 - make a display for jewelry & glasses!


Believe it or not, the aforementioned Exhibit A is the finished product.



This is a terrible DIY tutorial. I'm not even going to try and pull a fast one here. But it was relatively simple, and took maybe about an hour [most likely less. probably not more. I'm about as useful at keeping time without a clock as a sundial at night.] and I pretty much just wanted photographic evidence I haven't forgotten about my 101in1001 less than 24 hours after it started.

Here's all the junk I used:
-a frame I found at a thrift store for a quarter, and painted the same "hospital walls white" as the trim in our bedroom. [like five months ago. don't judge me.]

-some sort of wire. the package says "28 Gauge Galvanized Wire". I mostly bought it because it already had a cutter guy attached to the package. I deemed this an important attribute.

-white cup hooks

-some tiny eyelet hook things

-the greatest tool known to man: aka- this pocket knife/plier contraption guy I found in the garage and will take with me to my grave.

-a tape measure because...symmetry.

These are the tiny eyelet guys.
My camera wouldn't focus entirely on the actual subject, but if anyone wanted to recreate my fingerprints, they're perfectly clear.

[I have pretty defined ulnar loops on my left hand...]
[hurray for being a crime scene major!]

I wrapped the wire on each hook until I felt like it was enough. Or until I got frustrated stabbing myself with the tip of the wiring.

I took the knife part out of my Greatest Tool Known to Man [aka: GTKtM], and stabbed a hole because I Googled "how to put a hook in wood" and that's what it said to do.

Also, I advise leaving the "Safe Search" filters on.

And it actually said, "gently use a hammer and nail to start the hook."
but uhhh...

This is what it looked like all screwed in!

And you can see the white hook screwed in to the front! I did two white hooks on each side of the front, and four rows of eyelets & wire on the back!

Ta-Da!

I added two more hooks to the top, and hung it from an art project from last year!

This isn't even 1/3 of my glasses. They're scattered throughout the house/random travel bags because I didn't have a very efficient way of displaying them before & I have an overwhelming fear of being caught some place without glasses/breaking glasses and not having a spare.

This is what the frame is hanging on!
I found that guy at a local thrift store ages ago and fixed up.

Funny enough, we were at GoodWill earlier today, and found the EXACT same letter holder!

The letters are from either Hobby Lobby or Old Time Pottery.
I'm thinking Old Time Pottery.

But that's it! My first completed task!

I'm deeming this project a success because it's been hanging for almost 6 hours, and has yet to come crashing to the ground!

1 down, 100 to go!

Oh! and we got this cutie pie candleholder from GoodWill today, too!

He's precious, and hung out on the coffee table while J and I played Mortal Kombat [thanks to our favorite West Coast couple, Dani & Matt!].


Be Excellent to Each Other,
-Danni

Whew. Okay. I think I've got my plans for this pretty well sorted, and I'm so excited to start this journey for the next almost three years. To think, when I'm set to finish this, Johnny and I will be 11 days shy of our 5th dating anniversary!

This is a huge challenge to me. I'm all about list-making, but holy jeeze. This is some serious dedication.

and I am SO ready!

I'm so excited to have a set list of things I want to accomplish, but fall by the wayside and get put on the back burner. Not anymore!

If you're looking for my list, you can click here, or use the brand spankin' new tab at the top of the site to meander on over and see what I put myself up against!

This is the link to my first completed challenge!

For more on the challenge itself, go peruse the DayZeroProject link after the description!

1: A big ole plate of homemade nachos. nothing beats it.

2: The difference between dogs & cats - Holly snuggling up to Johnny, while Cooper attacks my feet through the comforter. still have a scratch from that.

3: Went to the optometrist Thursday [top 5 biggest fear], and had my eyes dilated. apparently, it only worked on one eye, and J spent the walk through the mall to the car telling me I looked like a crazy person.

4: Took Holly to the puppy beach with my BFF. she loved/hated it. haha.



5: BBQ pulled pork after 6 hours in the slow cooker, fresh oven roasted corn, and a big glass of sweet tea. perfection.

6. Friday was spent with awesome friends, hookah, adult swim, and a random 6-pack of sodas from World Market.

7. We could be hours late for something, and J would still stop and smell as many candles as possible.

8. Quick & crappy watercoloring of Johnny while he plays through Bioshock for the first time!!

9. The post I made for my daddy for Father's Day. I miss you every second of every day.


Well, that's it for this week! I have something in the works, hopefully to be posted tomorrow!

Live Long & Prosper,
-Danni

A lot has happened in the last few months. Nothing absolutely life-altering, but happenings nonetheless.

For one, we found an amazing new fishing spot. We don't catch mounds of fish by any means, but nothing beats being away from everything with your best friends.

Not to say we never get bites....


[whatta hunk]

J & I also celebrated being able to tolerate dating each other for two years by spending a few gluttonous days Disney World.

Seriously, I don't think I've ever eaten so much over three days in my entire life.

Also, I bought all new sundresses for our trip, and Florida ended up setting record lows the entire time we were in Orlando. Just my luck.

We ate at fancy restaurants, in the back seat of a car at a drive-in, within eyesight of Cinderella's castle, consumed sea food next to one of the largest salt water aquariums in the world, drank 32 oz solo cups of delicious adult beverages at a dueling piano bar, and got to spend a few days ignoring the world.



I love his handsome face to the moon and back. He's my everything.

In April, we took a family trip down south to see the Penguins take on the Panthers.

I am absolutely smitten with them.

That weekend was a lot of fun, and I am beyond lucky to have these crazies. Understanding what it means to be constantly surrounded by family for the first time in my life changes everything. What an overwhelmingly amazing feeling.

A few weeks ago, we went to Star Wars Weekends, and had a blast.

I did my best LadyHan, and spent the day as a not-so-scruffy looking nerf herder :]

We got to see Jim Cummings [with Ashley Eckstein & James Arnold Taylor] and Warwick Davis do some stage shows, and it was...moving...for a lack of a better word. I cried at least twice during both shows. If you aren't familiar with them, I highly suggest giving Google/IMDb a workout.

Do you know what it's like to be hugged so tightly by Chewbacca because you're dressed like Han Solo that you can't breathe and aren't visible inside of his fur?

Because I do.

I almost cried. Again.

Nothing beats being smothered in love by everyone's favorite Wookie.

There are a few reasons I've wanted to start regularly updating this again.

The first of which includes looking at the old family photos of a friend and coming to the realization that our group of friends rarely take pictures. So I've decided to take my camera with me more often, and increase my picture-taking, then actually doing something with the pictures.

Starting with yesterday! My family from Louisiana is at Disney World, and yesterday we got to go play with them at Animal Kingdom!

Along with wanting proof that we actually do things other than lay in bed and marathon countless TV shows on Netflix on our days off [we don't], J & I are planning on making a lot of really major decisions, and I wanted to establish a place to talk about them freely and keep a lot of people up to date simultaneously.

Besides, being able to go back and read posts from eons ago is a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to that a few years down the road.

So if you'll just excuse layout and content changes while I find my internetical groove,
I pinky promise not to go almost half a year in between updates again.

Now it's time to go bake brownies to go with the tie dye cake I already made for an afternoon with my family!

I had a bunch of free time today, since J had a 12-hour shift and I had the day off [of course. ugh.]

but I did a few neat-o burrito things today, the first of which was making an apron out of a huge shirt my mom found at a thrift store and gave to us.

It's too big for either of us to wear, even just around the house or to bed, but I hated that it wasn't being used to its awesome potential.

ESPECIALLY WITH THE NHL LOCKOUT OVER.

We are big fans of hockey, and it's one of the first things we bonded over. [see also: LOST, Nickelodeon shows from the 90's, and continental breakfasts]. And even though I'm the Tampa Bay Lightning fan, and he's from Pittsburgh, I can get down on some Penguin-loving. Particularly that James Neal. mmmmmm.

Hockey hotness aside, this seriously 4-minute project [albeit, 2 1/2 were spent looking for my good scissors] came in handy for the rest of the day!

I finally learned how to make my family's chicken n dumplins from scratch!

I've been wanting to do this for the longest time, compile all of the classic recipes I've eaten my entire life into some sort of collection.

Except...nothing about the recipes are very..."exact".

So there's not a whole lot to write down, other than:

"wash chicken."

"put in stock pot and fill with water. add a handful of bullion cubes until it tastes right"

"cook until chicken falls off bone, then take out all the bones and yucky stuff."

Even the flour and water for dumplins aren't measured.

My momma, being the wonderful woman she is, came over this morning and walked me through the recipe, and posed for pictures all day long. Whatta trooper.

"just dump in like half the bag of flour, and add hot water until you can mix it all together and it's not sticky, and not dry."

Seriously scientific here, y'all.

After the dough has a chance to rise, pretty much to double the original amount, it's time to roll the dumplins!

This is actually the first time my rolling pin & mat have been used for something other than sweets! Check out the sweet orange stain from mixing color into fondant!

Cutting the dumplins!

this and the next step were always my jobs as a kid.

I can't remember a time when I didn't help in the kitchen, at least a little bit.

One of those stupid little skills you get thankful for later in life.

My favorite part!

Bring your stock to a boil, and gently place each dumplin over a "boil spot", where the water breaks. keep covering them until there aren't anymore.

Gently stir from the bottom. It keeps them from sticking and scorching!

Wait for the pot to start boiling again, until you run out of dumplins.

We stir the flour from cutting them into the broth because that's what thickens it up, and we like it thick.

Put the lid back on, cockeyed, and let simmer for like 20-30 minutes, then reap the rewards!

Watered down sweet tea in a mason jar with my homemade chicken n dumplins?

Sometimes I forget how much of a southern upbringing I actually had, until I'm dumping Louisiana Hot Sauce on everything I eat, or arguing with J whether or not country fried steak is a breakfast food. Which it totally is.

The last thing I did today was make my first batch of homemade laundry detergent!


After conversing with my aunt about which ones she's made/liked, I decided to try this one out!



I chose this one for a few reasons:
1- the guest author hilarious and I love the entire HowDoesShe website
2- she did her research.
3- her favorite detergent was MY favorite detergent [apple mango tango, anyone?]
4- it uses the purex crystals that my mom swears by, and got me addicted to, though their price tag leaves much to be desired.
5- the ingredients were environmentally-conscious
6- it was safe for high efficiency machines. J & I have one, which is both a blessing and a curse.

I'm not going to post the step-by-steps, because the link I provided does a thousand times better than I would.

But in the article, she says you can make a year's worth of detergent [based on 6 loads of laundry a week, and 1 Tablespoons of detergent a load] for $28.00.

And I'll be darned if the total we spent [before tax] was 28.09.

I was originally only going to make a half-batch, but when my momma came over and I was telling her about it, she liked the idea and wanted to go halfzies and take some back to her house.

I think the only two things we did differently than the original instructions were:

1- We used Fels-Naptha, because it's what they had at WallyWorld. It comes in 5oz bars, so we used 15oz altogether instead of the suggested 14 for Zote.

and then...

2- We didn't add the Purex Crystals to the mix, because I like the purple kind, while my mom prefers the blue. potayto, potahto.


Word to the wise:

IT. MAKES. A. TON.

Holy crap, do we have a lot of detergent. 

I've actually already used it on 2 loads, one of which is out of the dryer, and I am super duper satisfied with the stuff so far.

Well, I hope my first non-introduction post wasn't too horrifyingly bad,

but just in case, here's a picture of one of the cats, Flower, looking really precious while I was cooking today.


Hopefully that'll compensate for everything wrong with this entry.


I have another project in the works, but I'm missing one key component before I can start that.

for now, my friends,

Live Long & Prosper,
-DanniDear

There is a lot of pressure on the first post of a blog.

It sets the tone for the entire website, future entries, and the readers' impressions of the writer.

I've sat here, staring at this text box for so long, debating how I want to start this.

Do I want to talk about how many identity crises this page has been through in the last two years?
How many times I've deleted all of the blog posts, just to start with the same old "this is why things didn't work out" spiel?
Why I couldn't just create a successful blog the first time? second time? third?

Then I realized my answer was right there. In that sentence.
"Successful"

My blogs repeatedly failed because they weren't successful. My blog wasn't successful because I wasn't defining success in a way I wanted to, or ever could.

I wanted so badly for my little corner of the world wide web to be this beautiful work of art, filled with perfect pictures and flawless content. I wanted my page to be a shrine of magazine-worthy Pinterest projects, littered with the retelling of exemplary days of my problem-free life.

One word, five syllables: insurmountable.

My blog will never be this aesthetically engaging, wildly popular, or insanely glamourous masterpiece in the way some of the ones I follow have become.

And, for the first time, I am more than okay with that.

I just want to post pictures of food, recount funny anecdotes, maybe throw in some DIY arts & crafts.
I just want to be myself in day-to-day life, but on the internet.
I just want to be a REAL blog, made by a REAL girl, for REAL people.

We have part-time jobs. We're in college.
We have very little free time, and even less money.
We live paycheck-to-paycheck most of the time.
Sometimes we live paycheck-to-spare-change-under-the-seat-in-the-car-to-paycheck.
Our room is a mess, and we almost always owe money to the library.
But it's okay, because this isn't a fancy-schmancy blog after all.


So there.
First entry, written.
Confessing this is my umpteenth attempt, admitted.
Accurately setting the tone for myself and my blogself, described.
I killed three birds with one stone.*

The internet is a scary, huge, intimidating place, folks, and I am one insignificant domain in this crazy online world.
And I am so happy you are here.


-Danni



*no birds were harmed in the making of this blog post.