Homemade Jewelry Cleaner

Craving: Something sparkly! Diamonds are a girls best friend.

After posting that craving, I am realizing that dogs are actually a girls best friends. But they aren't sparkly. Unless you count their eyes when you take pictures of them and they get all glowy!

I forgot my jewelry cleaner while I was in Alabama.

I LOVE my ring. LOVE it. Charlie got me the exact ring that I always dreamed of, and went beyond any expectations I could ever have in terms of quality etc. With that in mind, I do actually try to clean it as often as I can remember!

Usually with all the cooking and dishes I do, I remember to clean it frequently. I also try to remember to take it off when I put hair cream in or lotion/moisturizer on, but sometimes I forget.

While I was staying with Charlie's sister Sarah, I asked if she had any cleaner and she did not, so while she was at work I decided to put pinterest to some good use.

I totally forgot to take a before picture!

Ingredients:
1 cup of hot water
1 tbs salt
1 tbs baking soda
1 tbs dish soap
dirty ring



Let it soak in for a few minutes:


(I wear my grandmother's band, which is why there are two rings in there).

When it's finished, you can clean it off with a clean toothbrush or tinfoil, or you can just rinse it off with hot water.


The result:


Not the shiniest the ring has ever been, but pretty clean, especially compared to what it was!!!

I definitely recommend just getting jewelry cleaner (in fact, most jewelry stores will give it to you for free).  I usually take my rings off when I shower, and then when I'm finished applying all my lotions etc, the ring is good to go.

Back to Monday: Springs Preserve, cheat hostess foods, and The Bachelorette

Craving: being green, pretty food, sappy romance

On Monday I headed out to Springs Preserve to meet my friend and fellow military spouse, Alison, for lunch. As we drove in the parking lot, I was reminded of the last time I was there which was with the Mountain family, and I had a pang of missing them!

The cafe used to be Wolfgang Puck and is now run by culinary students. It was really good, although I was expecting a restaurant and it was set up like a cafeteria - no big deal. I ordered a salmon wrap and Alison got a goat cheese panini. We sat outside even though it was hot as ****. I really don't know what four letter word to use for that, they all fit, and add some more heat!

We had a view of the strip which was nice, but I couldn't get a good pic on my iPhone due to lighting, so this looks super emo but it's the only edit that really showed Alison!



Hello pale Avigail! Maybe this is the lighting as well....or maybe I need a touch of sun.

After lunch we walked around a bit. We weren't in the right shoes or clothes for one of the hikes so we went into one of the museums and learned all about conservation.

They had an actual garbage truck that modeled how much garbage could be recycled instead of thrown out. The sides were filled up with cans.


A couple weeks ago, I was SO FRUSTRATED when Charlie forgot to take the recycling out. It is only picked up every other Friday. My friend Eden told me that they collect it twice a week at her home outside of Philadelphia. I was sure she was confused with garbage, but she assured me it was the recycling. Although I am frustrated that we missed the recycling, I am proud that we have much more in our recycling bins than we do in the trash!

They also had a "house" where you could explore and find random ways to reduce energy etc.

Fun Fact: Lower your energy bill by closing vents in the bathrooms and closets. Brilliant!

There was an interactive display about how energy travels to your home:


I counted that as my workout for the day. Okay not really, I did work out that day, but I haven't been going as regularly as I should be. Even though I'm not working, I am stressed lately and the day just seems to go!! Must. Schedule. Gym. And. Go! (Update, I wrote this on Tuesday, but I actually ran on Wednesday and worked out! must...keep...it...up!)

On the way home we stopped for a sonic soda, during happy hour. I had a diet sprite with strawberry. I highly recommend it.

That night several girlfriends came over to watch The Bachelorette.

As I mentioned, I am not working, but I am BUSY and stressed out. With leaving for Alabama on Saturday, I have been getting things together and getting organized for the trip. Lots of errands and phone calls, etc. I decided to make cheat foods with pretty presentations. I had the idea to do a "make your own salad" from Adina, and wanted to replicate it but in small dishes instead of all on a plate. I only had 6 of these and they were way too small. I will do a different presentation next time, but here you go:


I also made ravioli skewers with tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and a pesto dipping sauce (not pictured):

I didn't photograph it but I had chicken meatballs in the freezer and I cooked them up with some vodka sauce. They were a hit.

Rachel was one of my best friends growing up here in Vegas, and she came and brought a bottle of wine she made in Napa!


Here are the girls with crazy picture eyes:


And you know how much I love my mommy so of course she came:


I am enjoying this season of The Bachelorette. I like that Emily is really following her instincts and asking them real questions. Ever since Charlie and I met and fell in love I have a new appreciation for the Bachelor, because Charlie and I fell in love in like, NO TIME. We were probably naming our babies after a month. I know that the Bachelor relationships don't typically work out, but I love Ashley and JP, and I think Emily could be looking for the real thing. I am obviously in love with Arie as is all of America, but I think that Sean is actually the best fit for Emily. I do like Chris and think that younger guys CAN be the real thing - my friend Emily's husband is almost 5 years younger than she is and he's an amazing husband and father.

After the show I called Charlie and told him that even though I had said I'd leave him for JP, that I would now leave JP for Arie. Sorry JP!!!

Weekend Part 2 and guest blogger announcement

Cravings: pink pink pink!

On Sunday morning my mom and I woke up in the hotel (Marriott - we get lots of points with them and great military upgrades when I'm traveling with Charlie). We looked at different websites of videographers. I used to not want a video of the wedding until I saw a highlight reel that Sarah, Charlie's sister, was tagged in on facebook. I was hooked. It is more "cinematography" than "videography" and is something I actually would watch quite often, such as if I am having a sad day, or maybe if I miss Charlie, etc. It's short, you pick a song it goes to, it captures all the highlights from getting ready to getaway, you can include your vows or speeches if you want, etc. I think at this point I may have found a company to do it, but am still taking suggestions!

After we looked at reel after reel, it was time to head over to the shower. When Em first got married, I forgot her invitation at my apartment in Baltimore. I had no idea where to go! Luckily I remembered a few details and called a few hotels and found it. This time I forgot the invitation on my fridge, but luckily Em texted me right back with the address :-)

We walked in to see this:


Em's sisters in law, best friend, mother in law, and mom did everything by themselves. I couldn't believe the cake pops weren't professionally done! Her s.i.l. got styrofoam spheres, hot glued moss to them, put them in the buckets, and put the cake pops that she made into it. 
Something really creative that she did was dip marshmallows and white oreos - the oreos were my favorite.

I got to see Shaya, Em's 2.5 year old princess:


She showed me her rapunzel case and put stick on earrings on me. So glamorous!


I got to give baby Talya some kisses:


And taste yummy food, including a sampling of the cake pops!


One of my favorite parts was seeing the soon to be family of 4 (David came to pick up Shayna):

Unfortunately I didn't snap a picture of all of them together, whoopsie.

Here mom came and brought this:


She appraoched me and said "I was horrified to find out that Em took you to get your tattoo!" So funny. She read it on the blogpost I had written about Emily's pregnancy photos. To this day, none of us can get over the fact that Emily is the one who took me to get it when I was so young! So out of character!

I think my favorite picture of that day is actually this one:


Me and Emily both have such special relationships with our mommies. Boschnack/Rackow clan - start coming back to Vegas for Thanksgiving!

While we were at dinner for Emily's birthday, she spoke about a parenting tip that was so phenomenal, I got excited, without even being married yet let alone pregnant. I am very excited to announce that Emily will be making a guest appearance on the blog with tidbits of parenting! I can't wait for her advice to reach you all.

And....I'm back!

Craving: My computer screen and flickr pictures to update my blog!

Had a little blogging hiatus.
Last weekend Charlie had a bachelor party weekend with guys from out of town, and then he left for Alabama on Friday, so last week was spent:
a) cleaning after the bachelor party
b) getting loose ends ready for the AL trip.

Then, this weekend, my mom and I drove to LA to go to my very good friend and "big sister" Emily's baby shower. I posted about Em's creative belly pics the other day, and hope it inspired some creativity!

I will catch up in short(er) posts than one long one, but for now, this is what's been going on.

Last Thursday: I surprised Charlie after having worked SO hard and having no time to spend together with a date to Ferraros, the amazing Italian restaurant where we had our first date. I even put my extensions in for the night! We asked our waiter to snap our picture and this is what we got:


Funny flash and Charlie looks like hes about to get out of his seat. Oh well.

Friday - guys arrived. Bachelor party, aka, not enough hours to clean the house since I am ocd and there were like 6 guys here.
The good news? I had to keep myself occupied so I finished my wreath! Are you excited to see the pictures of it all hung up and pretty on my door? Here's a preview of the finished product:

Saturday and Sunday were bunco and Jaren's baby shower which I told you all about.

Later on Sunday my mom and I went to the park for a celebration of "Shavuot" which is a Jewish holiday I like to refer to as "the cheesecake holiday".

We were late because of the shower but here is a lot of mostly eaten dairy food - blintzes and bourekas and cheeses and just lots of cheesy goodness. I will post about Shavuot and the holiday's meaning soon.

Charlie's friend Paul stayed an extra day and gave Odge, my grey dog, a lovely mohawk. Look forward to a post coming soon titled "Paul Calhoun: Future test pilot? No, future dog stylist.

What did I do during the week, besides last minute stuff for the trip to Al?

Well, I decided to go deposit all this foreign money Charlie had laying around. I figured most of it would be expired because of the Euro, but you know what was accepted? Croatian money! That's right! It was worth about $6, score!


Also had some loved ones' birthdays:
May 31: My sister who is 25 (weird how my little sister is now older than I am since I am still 24.....)
May 31: Emily, my "big sister"
June 2: Katy, one of my best friends and bridesmaids
June 2: Sarah, Charlie's sister, who I can't wait to see in Alabama!

Below is me and Katy at the yard house (with some round of guy that paid for the round of drinks we ordered, so we allowed him to be in our picture).


Saturday, my mom and I drove out to Ventura County. We went to a restaurant and met about a dozen of Emily's friends for her birthday celebration and then today we went to her amazing baby shower. I will post about it all later but will leave you with this picture. Her sister in law did all the decor from scratch, including cake pop "trees" - she even baked the cake pops!!!


Okay actually I lied, I will leave you with this picture: me and Shayna!

I'm showing her a picture of the last time I saw her, over a year ago.

See you soon with all my updates :-)

Wreath-spiration

Here is my neighbor's wreath as promised. I replicated this and will post pictures when they are both done (I have one complete and two clay pots of flowers ready). Mine are red/white/blue for the summer holidays!

If you like this let me know and I can make you similar ones with whatever colors you like!




This is a picture of all of it - I took it on my iPhone so the wreaths aren't clear but I wanted you to have the full effect.

Happy Wreathing!

Spring Cleaning

Spring cleaning has been going on. And by that I mean I spent many hours attempting a wreath and about one cleaning. Charlie did drain the pool:


Apparently you're supposed to do this every like, 8 years, and the prior owners hadn't done it once. So we rented a pool pump/drain (no idea what it's called) and did it.

Doggies, don't fall in!

They don't seem too interested. (whoa, I almost typed to instead of too).

Last night while eating a batch of fresh kale chips (literally off of the pan I made them on) I had the idea to keep the pool empty since we will be in Alabama for June and July, so we could save a huge water bill! My mom and Katy were over but since my mom was sharing the kale chips with me and Katy hadn't dug in yet, I made Katy e-mail Charlie from my mom's computer. The e-mail said something like: Hey sweety, I have an idea, why don't we keep the pool empty until we're back and save a huge water bill? By the way, what the HECK is all the stuff in the gym room?"

Well let me show you what I found in the gym room, interspersed througout granola bar wrappers, silverware, and paperwork:

It was NOT in the laundry basket, just all over there. I guess I did do spring cleaning beyond the hour of organization. When my mom saw it she asked if I was sure I wanted to marry him. What a ridiculous question. I just need to make sure to go in there more often to clean it. If I don't go into the office for two days it looks like a frat house.

I forgot to take a picture of the kale chips but it was super easy and delicious. I literally just took precut kale, put it on a sheet pan with about a tbs of olive oil, then took a lemon wedge and sprinkled it, a tiny salt, and fresh parmesan cheese. Bake at 325 for 20 minutes (although I think next time I"ll do 15 minutes). I don't usually do parmesan but the Moutnains left me some when they left.

I also roasted brocolli and brussel sprouts in some balsamic and olive oil. Katy and I ate almost the whole batch for dinner. I was STUFFED off of vegetables.



This was already dug into. You don't use etiquette at the Maddox household, just dig on in!

The living room (and kitchen area) is a wreck because I am organizing everything. Mom came over to help but first we ran to hobby lobby to get the finishing items for my wreath (almost done!!!!). Mom had an MRI done and she did not have a tear which is good and bad. Good because it's not a tear, bad because there's no surgical solution. Just needs to endure the calcium until it dissipates.

We sat her down on the couch with a heating pad and Katy and I started working on the bookshelves in the living room. Katy and I both have one of our degrees in psychology (my other is math and her other is premed I think), and we were laughing because we were like mice that go and do something inefficiently several times before realizing what the quickest route is. We kept going around behind a couch side table before realizing we could go the other way (duh!), before realizing we could just move the original side table! We have lots more to do and she's coming over soon to finish the job.

Charlie came home from work early and he kissed me hello and proclaimed "you smell like kale" and I proclaimed "you smell like alcohol". Thank GOODNESS he went out and had a little fun (I know he only had one drink but still!). He has been working nonstop and so he and Rob went and had a drink after work. He seriously comes home most nights and this is what happens:

This is from a couple nights ago. Odge loves his daddy and his favorite spot is to crawl on top of your legs right in the crack between them.

So if you're wondering why on earth the wreath is taking so long, ask yourself: would you be able to work on it when this little bubba crawls right in?

Mom can I sit there?

I looked over to Charlie to help me but Maya was taking all his attention:

(notice the ladder in the background? For our bookshelves)


The dogs nicknames have changed to Lazy, Stubborn, and Annoying. Can you guess who is who?

Lee - help me out here, get up!


No mommy I'm comfortable. Go watch Big Bang Theory.

I guess I'll finish the wreath another day.

Yarn balls and crows feet

Two nights ago I decided to make a rosemary focacia pizza crust. I had a tomato pesto and then I had random cheeses left over, which is why this pizza looks so.....creative?

The mozzarella (white closest to camera) was my favorite.

Katy came over bc I hadn't seen her since she started her new job with the RRA's. She had an interview for a cocktail waitress position to earn extra cash until all her licencing came through. So I am wearing short blue shorts, a baggy white tank top, and Katy comes over wearing....Katy clothes. She wouldn't just let me snap a pic so she took one posing with Lee-kles.



We then proceeded to eat dinner on the couch while watching jeapordy and making yarn balls. In our awesome outfits.

Yes, rolling yarn balls.


Katy do you know the jeapordy answer?

We watched teen week and actually knew most of the answers. And I even knew final jeapordy. I never know final jeapordy. So happy. We always know the math and food questions. Of course.


My finished product. Yes, I mean the yarn ball. I know the finished product should be the wreath. I am special.

I did finish all the felt flowers!


When Katy left I started rolling the yarn onto the wreath but my thumb hurt from the swing incident so I stopped and cuddled the bubbas instead. Odge has been scared of the dog door (what a freaking weird dog). He'll stand there barking. I have learned that if I send Maya out the door, she'll sniff him and walk back to the door and he follows her in. I was about to go send Maya out, when Lee just jumped out and went to get him! So freaking cute.


Don't worry Mommy, I went and saved Odge.


Aww Lee-kles, thank you, I love you!

Also, I am beginning to see smile lines aka crows feet! Don't believe me?


Scrunch!

(sad)