Photo Friday: The Problem With The Common Camera

As I've mentioned before, I decided to go full-on manual about 6 or so months back. While I'm still trying to find my footing, I absolutely love being able to control, to some extent, how my pictures turn out. When I flew out to my brother-in-law's wedding, I decided to keep my DSLR at home, since it was bulky and we were already bringing extra luggage thanks to the wedding and Christmas presents. Besides, my point-n-shoot was fairly advanced. Surely that would be enough, right?


Wrong.


It's safe to say that this will be the last time I'm without my DSLR by my side. I can't handle machines trying to be smarter than me (I'm looking at you, Skynet). From white balance to exposure, the point-n-shoot could never really get it right. However, that didn't mean I didn't have a little fun and trick my camera when I could. The result? Some interesting photos that look like someone had been trying to film a night scene in the daytime, like every music video in 2000.

(Really, music video directors, you were not fooling anyone. The sunlight was reflecting off of everyone's skin!)

Try it Tuesday: Ornaments as Gift Tags

I get into a bad habit of taping a small piece of gift wrap onto the gift, writing who the gift is to, and calling that a gift tag. My mom ever-so-subtly let me know that I should be using tags or stickers by…handing me a packet of gift tag stickers and telling me that I should, "use these if I can't afford tags."


This year, I decided to go in the opposite direction and use ornaments as gift tags.


These are honestly everywhere: from Michael's to Five Below to the Christmas Tree Shop. You honestly can't throw a rock in around Christmas time without hitting personalized ornaments.


I have a few people I give gifts to that have rather unique names. The solution? Find ornaments that showcase said person's first initial.


Now, they have a pretty accent on their gift -- and something to put on the tree next year!

Christmas Decoration Mega-Post!

After hinting at us since after Labor Day, the holidays are finally on us. Like a good girl, I waited until after Thanksgiving before I removed the last of my fall/harvest decorations and went into Christmas mode.


The first is the obvious: the tree. Someday we'll have a real tree but, our fake one works perfectly fine for now. We'll celebrate our first house with a real tree. And, as we see it, this metal frame can handle the cats climbing up it. A real tree in a stand? Not so much.


For the first time, ever, we have a tree topper. I found this little snowflake at Marshall's (again, one of the best places to go to when it comes to finding cheap decorations) for $14.


And of course I needed to decorate our dining room table. I replaced the table runner with a red spiral runner from the Christmas Tree Shop for a ridiculous $3. I got a small table cloth to match, which I'll get into later.


I tied some ribbon around our candlesticks, and ran another ribbon under our centerpiece. This time, I simply braided the free strands and anchored the edges with the candlesticks.


I placed some fake poinsettias in a vase and placed it at the edge of the table facing the wall.


I have a few ribbons from my wedding favors leftover. I tied one of those ribbons around the vase for a bit of an accent.


The matching table cloth was the perfect size for our old TV stand/dining room shelf. In the spirit of the Christmas tradition, I decided to "wrap" the table as well -- but more on that later.


I've always wanted my own porcelain village. And the Christmas Tree Shop had these for $2-3 a piece. I hadn't been in a Christmas Tree Shop since I was a kid (even though one of my friends works there), and I'm kicking myself for not going sooner. They are just a buffet of awesome and cheap decorations.


Another something I got from the Christmas Tree Shops was a set of small bowls for our coffee table, perfect for green and red M&Ms.


I adorned one of our DVD stands with a snowman cookie jar. I don't have any cookies to put in it, per se, but who said decorations have to be functional?


The front of our TV stand is now home to some ivy garlands with mini mason jars of poinsettias. I love these little corner pieces, if only because they keep the garland in place.


Extra ornaments? No problem, put them in a vase, like I did for our subwoofer.


Or in a glass pedestal bowl. like I did in our bedroom.


Can't keep those window candles from staying still? If your windows slide open, wrap a plastic zip tie around the candle and wedge it in the opening.


I might use LED lights now instead of the large incandescent bulbs like my parents do, but that didn't stop me from hanging a large fake one from the window.


I found this at a Goodwill store. It's a fake lantern -- instead of oil, it holds candles -- but I love the feel of it.


Our first song frame now has two small green vases to keep it company.


Our little kitchen window needed some garland as well. I got this up by hammering two nails in each corner and tying the garland to the nail. I wrapped a red ribbon around it and tied a little bow in one of the corner -- although the ribbon is more to hide the nail than anything else. You can see off to the left that I replaced the intricate vines with a simple mistletoe.


And what bit of decoration is complete without a kitchen mat?


Or kitchen towels?


I actually got these two years ago after the Christmas season, when they were on sale for $2 a piece at CVS. I'm a patient person -- I'm okay with putting something away for a year before I can fully use it.


Have some extra tree trimming? Why not hang it from a doorframe?


I got this from JoAnne Fabrics before I even had a use for it, if only because I'm a sucker for anything pearl-like.


This little piece is part Charlie Brown Christmas Tree, part Ice Witch. I found some twigs, spray painted them grey, and hung some cheap ornaments that I got from Five Below on it. I used some of my clear marbles (which I have way too many of, anyway), to keep the twigs in place.


The view from where I actually have the tree, which is on top of Isaac's mini fridge and microwave -- both things that were once in his office before his company banned mini fridges and microwaves.


Our front door needed a wreath, so I made these little beauty with ribbon, pins and a styrofoam wreath, but more on that later.


I feel like, the more years I spend in the real world, the more into Christmas I get. Really, you're only old if you give up on the Christmas spirit. Or holiday spirit. Whatever.

Bacon Alfredo Pasta

I think I loved this project so much because I spent the entire cooking sipping on champagne. This was actually back when I need champagne to kill a set of flies that couldn't have conveniently died with the first batch of autumn air. There's something about sipping on champagne, singing every song on your iPod (getting more and more into it, but more and more off key, with every sip), and cooking that makes me want to watch an 80s chick flick. However, I do apologize if some of the pictures lack any real … photographic merit. Like I said, sipping on champagne the entire time I cooked.


So for this, you need bacon, broccoli, Alfredo sauce, and penne pasta. I love Felicia gluten-free pasta. It's a rice/corn flour pasta. While nothing holds quite like corn pasta, I've yet to find it in penne form, and this is pretty amazing in and of itself. And, if you'd like, a glass of champagne with a strawberry in it.


First, cook your bacon. Actually, the right word is burn your bacon. The more cooked your bacon is, the more it will crumble. And since I prefer my bacon overcooked anyway, it made sense to just leave it in the pan a little longer to get a bit of a char to it.


Once your bacon is cooked, pour your Alfredo sauce into a saucepan and crumble in the bacon. Set the burner for low and just let the sauce combo simmer.


Now it's time to set the pot to boil for the pasta. Once the water is boiling and the pasta is cooking, prepare another saucepan to steam your broccoli. Steaming broccoli is a lot easier than it appears. All you need is a saucepan with about a centimeter of water in it and a strainer. Open the strainer in the saucepan (you'll know you have the right amount of water if the surface of the water just covers the legs of the strainer, but never goes above the strainer's floor). Cover it up and set the water to boil. Once the water is boiling, add the broccoli, re-cover the pan, and let everything cook for 3-5 minutes (assuming the broccoli isn't frozen).


Now, it's just a case of prepare and enjoy! The bacon's rich (let's be real: epic) flavor will have made its way throughout the entire sauce. And it might just be the semi-drunkard in me talking, but no pasta sauce tastes as good as pasta sauce with a little bacon in it ;)

Blog Update -- Also Known As My First Post, Post-NaNoWriMo

So, first things first: my brother-in-law's wedding was absolutely gorgeous. The dress was incredible, the groom looked great (although he didn't look as good in the dress as the bride ;)). It was the type of fanfare you usually only see in a movie or read about in a book. You can read all about it (as well as the crazy events that lead up to the wedding) at my now-sister-in-law's (sister-in-law-in-law's?) wedding blog Posh Purpose.


We split the week we spent in Florida pretty evenly between helping out with the wedding and enjoying the wonderful weather. My husband charmed his way into upgrading our rental car from a midsized sedan to a convertible at no charge, which we took full advantage of (I think I'm still brushing out the tangles from having the top down so much.)


I got to make friends with the local wildlife, including a tiny lizard that had no qualms about diving out of my hands and onto the road.


The villa we stayed at was honestly second to none. From a condo that was easily 1.5 - 2 times bigger (and infinitely nicer-looking) than my apartment, to a heated pool and hot tub…


…To a boat dock that I got to do a little morning yoga on. There was a huge sign that said, "NO TRESPASSING" -- but who pays attention to those things, anyway? Plus, as I noticed, there were three units in use that weren't being rented out by my extended family. The rest were empty. As I saw it, who was going to complain about some tall girl on her mat doing dancer's pose?


And I surprised everyone around me by drinking my weight in sweet tea (twice I had someone say, verbatim, "A yank likes sweet tea?").



I was worried that the trip would completely, well, trip me up for the last week of NaNoWriMo. Turns out I was completely wrong. Between a nice, nonstop flight, and my propensity to wake up early when I don't have blackout curtains (turning the bedroom into a modern-day cave), I had plenty of time to write. I actually reached 50k a day before November 30th. I know it's a technicality, because I wrote 7000 words beforehand, but, given that my goal was to reach 37,000 words by the end of November, I'm pretty proud of myself. I took something that I decided to do on whim -- almost giving up before I started, since I had so much else on my plate -- and surpassed all my expectations.


I decided to challenge myself a little more and attempt 57,000 words (so 50k + the 7k I had already written) by December 2nd. This meant that I needed to keep up my writing pace, even on the wedding day (and somehow I got my 1000 words in the morning of!), and write like a fiend on the plane.


Which I did.


I'm now at around 60,000 words (and around 250 pages), and I refuse to let up on the 1000 words/day pace. I'm so ridiculously close to finishing this book that I can't let up. I just don't have it in me to put this back on the back burner and focus on other endeavors like before. Maybe it's just this book's time to come. It will be nice to say that I'm the author of two books (not including my bastard child that will never see the light of day without a proper gutting).


But I must admit: I can't wait until my book is finished and I can go back to the other things that take up my precious free time! For instance: my crafts. I finally found a great tutorial for making a quilt out of random fabric, and I've been dying to try it out.


Another thing I am now itching to try out actually came as a result of a little wedding SNAFU. My sister-in-law had ordered these great little cufflinks for her ring bearers, only to have them not arrive and the seller avoid all contact with her. This lead to a manhunt around town to find a suitable alternative. Long story short, I superglued from Star Wars mini figurines to cufflinks. My sister-in-law joked that I should start a business.


Many moons ago, I did, on whim, set up an Etsy account, on the off chance I'd ever make something worthy of being bought. And, given my extremely impulsive self, I've already purchased a bunch of cufflinks and some flat Lego pieces wholesale. (Considering everything was $30 total, I'm not too worried if this doesn't come to fruition. I've definitely impulse bought clothing that I ended up not liking for more than $30).


So stay tuned and potentially tell your friends: Trial & Error Creativity might be setting up shop soon, selling little boys'/novelty cufflinks! And maybe -- time and God willing -- whatever else I can make (or find at an antique shop) that other people could use!


As a craft update: my travel project has officially hit critical mass. Once I got my rhythm in printing out maps, there was no stopping me. This project had such a calming effect that I ended up leaving a stack of maps to backstitch, saved for days where I was really stressed out. They hang out in a corner of our bedroom right now, but, as I've said before, I can't wait to hang them up in a den or an office.


Now, I have never endorsed items before (frankly because I really saw no need to), but I need to tell you how wonderful this hair curler is. I have the straightest of straight hair -- and it holds no curl. Absolutely no curl. My friends have all tried. Hair stylists have all tried. I've had my hair so tightly and hotly curled that I had Shirley Temple ringlets, only to have them fall flat within minutes. But the Sultra Bombshell Cone Rod is incredible. I borrowed it on whim from my first sister-in-law (my brother's sister) and I was amazed.


I took this picture after a long day of picture taking, dancing outside in the humidity, and changing clothing. And my hair still has some body to it. This never happens. The curling iron can run you up about $130 but it's worth the investment!


So now that things have calmed down (somewhat), hopefully my blog can return back to its regularly scheduling broadcasting. I have a ridiculous backlog of crafts that I did over the past 4 or so months (and then just took forever to do write-ups for :)) that I can't wait to share with everyone -- including what I did for one of the wedding presents, but that's for a future post.