Move over, Martha!

So, Martha Stewart I'm not, but I have my moments of craftiness and kitchen prowess, so I thought I'd be a little domestic and share a lovely crafting incident and an oh-so-yummy recipe today. Just a couple of gems to make up for the MONTHS that it's been since I last blogged!

Last weekend I was invited by the BoyFace's little sister's mother-in-law (who is, coincidentally, also his best friend's big sister...it's all a little confusing, I know) to a delightful little affair known as the Scrapbook Party. As nice and innocent as the hostess's intentions may be, these things always end up being about 15% fun and 147% stress for me. Of course, they also end up being about 2% actual scrapbooking and 968% sitting around talking about what I'm going to scrapbook.

I'm the world's most indecisive person, so trying to narrow down a total of about 15 pictures out of the thousands I've taken or been in over the past 25 years of my life can be a very daunting (and for me, apparently impossible) task. Knowing these things about myself, I decided this time I was going to carefully choose a handful of pictures and take only those pictures to work on at the party. "What a genius idea!" I was thinking to myself at the time. "Life will be so much more simple, so few decisions to make!" Yeah, I was WAY wrong.

I took my few pictures, loaded up my giant tub of scrapbook junk and set off on my merry little way to Bonifay, very confident in the fact that I had nipped all the stress in the bud and was going to be very productive at the party. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I got to Tammy's house (which, BTW, is the most perfect depiction of Shabby Chic I have ever seen...it's seriously magazine material...but more on that in the future...) and, much to my dismay, she opened the most glorious of craft cabinets...and then announces that we're all more than welcome to use any of her millions of sheets of paper, thousands of pens and stamps, stickers, embellishments, fancy scissors, etc. Well, of course this opened an entirely new set of decisions...I've got the pictures, but what do I do with them? Does the one of the BoyFace in his niece's pink and white polka dot sunglasses need a cute and silly girly background, or does it need to be camouflage or something else uber-manly to counteract the already disturbingly girly picture? Do the pictures of my family at the FSU v. UA football game last year actually need to be scrapped on FSU related paper and such, or can it just be similar colors or can I really just do whatever the heck I want regardless of theme, color scheme or any other restrictions set by the scrapbook nazi? It was all just too much...so I decided to snack and gossip instead. There was actual scrapbooking going on and I managed to produce one (super cute!) page by the end of the night, but considering that I was there for about 6 hours, I suppose that's really not saying much! For those of you on the edge of your seats wondering what I scrapped, it was the picture of BoyFace in the girly glasses...and, (finally, after hours of agonizing decision making), I went with the super girly background...purple with lots of polka dots to match the glasses. Hey, he brought it on himself by letting me take a picture of him wearing them! Don't pity the BoyFace.

And now, it's recipe time! I've been feeling pretty Betty Crocker-ish lately and really like to do things like sit on the couch and read - yes, I said read - cookbooks. In so doing, I've happened across tons of new, yummy recipes. So, when I was invited to the SP (Scrapbook Party, for those of you not down with the lingo) I thought it would be the perfect time to try one out! It turned out so well that I ended up having to write it down over and over that night to pass out to all the girls at the SP (which also helped me waste time so I wouldn't have to decide what to scrap!). The recipe sounds a little strange at first, just a hodge podge of ingredients, but it's super easy and surprisingly delicious! So, without further delay, I proudly present to you POPCORN GORP!

8 c. (about 1 bag) popped natural flavor popcorn
3 c. coarsely crushed corn chips (like Frito's)
2 c. Kix cereal
1 lb. white chocolate or white almond bark
2 c. m&m's or Reese's Pieces

Combine first 3 ingredients in a large bowl.

Microwave white chocolate on high, 1 to 3 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds until melted. Drizzle chocolate over popcorn mixture, tossing to coat. Stir in candy. Spread on a wax paper lined cookie sheet or jelly roll pan. Chill 30 minutes. Break into pieces and store in an airtight container. Yield: 16 cups

The original recipe calls for m&m's, but they're not my favorite and I wanted fall/Halloween colors, so I opted for the Reese's Pieces. I doubt I'll ever do it with the m&m's now...it was SO good with the Reese's!

One more thing...
Since I've gotten so into the cooking/recipe stuff lately, I was thinking it would be fun to do some sort of recipe swap. Anyone else interested??

Hmm, that's alot of blogging I just did. I think I need some GORP to refuel.

HGTV, shmHGTV

Dear HGTV,

Thanks.  My productivity level is now zero.  I don't have a home, I don't have a garden, I'm most certainly not your target audience.  In spite of this, I find myself intrigued.  House Hunters?  Brilliant.  Design Star?  Genius.  Hidden Potential?  Flawless.  

Not only have you drained my productivity, you have also managed to successfully highlight the serious downfalls of my homeownership.  What?  What's that you say?  My situation cannot be called "homeownership" because I do not, in fact, own a home?  Well, thank you again.  You have sufficiently proved my point.  I do not own a home, I do not have $200,000 with which to buy a home.  I do not have a home to remodel, to renovate, to redecorate or to "re-" do anything else to.  Yay for me.  

HGTV, I hate you.  Nay, I loathe you.  Keep up the excellent work. 

All my love,

Lauren

My Favorite Baby

Guthrie part II...

I'll add some more, better pics shortly, but for now I can at least share stats!  

Geez, this kid...

10 lbs. 5.8 oz.  

20 inches

born 5-24-2o08 at 12:21 pm

UAB Hospital, Birmingham, AL

He's way cuter in person and has ALREADY been picking his head up and sucking his thumb!  

Guthrie Franklin Holmes

My favorite baby in the whole world!  Don't worry...he'll get cuter when he's more than 55 minutes old!  

Welcome to the world, Baby Holmes!

So, at this very moment I'm sitting in the waiting room of the maternity ward at UAB.  I'm getting a nephew any minute!  It's surprisingly boring to be such an exciting thing, but once the waiting's over the fun will begin!  As of Monday morning, Guthrie Franklin Holmes weighed 10 lbs. 2 oz....and was still in utero.  Yikes.  Fortunately for the mother (my sister-in-law Heather), the doctor scheduled a cesarean.  I couldn't imagine having to deliver such a big baby!  The other big news of the day is that it's Chris and Heather's 1st anniversary.  I can't think of a better anniversary gift than a new baby!  They had they're "last supper" last night and got up first thing this morning to head to the hospital.  Heather is pretty miserable.  Well, maybe not so much anymore, she's got drugs!  She's recently been quoted as saying "I just want my vagina back!"  I'm beginning to think someone else's pregnancy and delivery are REALLY good methods of birth control!  For those who may be curious (and because it's unusual)  "Guthrie" is from the folk singer Woody Guthrie...think "This Land Is Your Land"...Chris and Heather are fans of his.  Franklin is a family name on our dad's side...his middle name is Franklin, our grandfather was Frank.  Definitely unique, but if you know Chris and Heather, it's fitting.  Anyway, this is a sort of stream-of-consciousness post I suppose, but there's very little to do in this waiting...but wait.  So, here we sit, waiting.  He'll be worth it.  Any interested parties may find Chris and Heather's take on this whole event on their blog "Sitting on the Egg."  Here's the link: 

 http://southernfriedfilms.com/baby

It's full of ultrasounds, Chris's rather amusing take on fatherhood, Heather's belly, etc.  Probably not as much fun for all of you as it is for me, but it's entertaining!

Things that make me happy...

So, I spent this past weekend at the beach for the wedding of 2 very close family friends. The wedding itself was beautiful, but I think it was the rest of the weekend that made me realize how lucky I am. Here are a few of the things I enjoyed most, in no particular order...


1. My amazing BoyFace (who hates weddings and didn't even know the people getting married) took time off work just to go with me. And who would have guessed, he admitted (about 3 Crown and Sprites in) to having a pretty wonderful time! Seeing other people happy makes me extremely happy, so I was pretty pumped that he had a good time.


2. This weekend marked said BoyFace's first meeting with 2 out of 3 of the men in my family. If you know these men, you'll know they can be a little intimidating...especially if you're the man trying to date their baby sister! Needless to say, I was a little nervous about introducing him. Lucky for me, the boys (BoyFace included!) were on their best behavior and all seemed to get along really, really well. Because my family and this silly boy are 2 of the most important things in my life, it was such a wonderful thing to know they could all live in harmony and actually like each other!


3. It's fun to be friends with your siblings. Contrary to popular belief, big brothers can actually be pretty cool. Having spent the better part of 25 years arguing with them and constantly being thought of as the little sister, it was so much fun to hang out with my brothers as adults. I've obviously spent time with them since we've all been adults, but I think bringing the serious boyfriend to meet them sort of shifted me along the path from little sister to just sister. I'll always be the baby, but now it seems they realize that even the baby grows up some time! Anyway, my brothers are wonderful and we had SO much fun this weekend.


4. After 36 years of marriage, my parents are cooler and more in love than ever. It's actually a little disgusting, but hey, after being with the same person nearly 24/7 for that long, you're doing pretty good if "a little disgusting" is the worst thing anyone has to say about you!

5. Old friends are the best friends. Adam, the groom of the weekend, is my oldest brother Chris's best friend and has been for about 18 years now. Hanging out with them (Adam's pretty much my third brother) was a good reminder of how important it is to stay in touch with friends, even if you rarely ever actually see them. It's nice to have someone that knows you, knows your history. You don't have to explain yourself or your reasoning for anything you may do, because an old friend probably already knows exactly what was going through your head when you did that. They know when to laugh at you, when to cry with you, and even when you may need a swift kick in the pants or a "Chin up, old pal." They know what all your flaws are and have had plenty of time to either accept them or learn to ignore them and have no problem telling you when you need to the same yourself. If you're as lucky as I am and have an old friend or two, keep them, love them, appreciate them.

Now go out and find some things to help put the happy in your ness. And if that reference is lost on you, Google Ben Harper "Walk Away." Know it, love it. Be happy.