Something Warm Since It Is Still SO COLD!

This time last year the weather in Michigan was BEAUTIFUL! This year....not so much. It is still below freezing and snowing occasionally. So much for the beginning of spring. So much for wedge sandals in March. Thanks to my Crock Pot, I have been keeping myself occupied and cozy with some fun slow cooker recipes!

The Christmas gift that keeps on giving!

My Nanny got Josh and I this gem for Christmas and it is my latest cooking obsession. It makes it easy to come home to a warm, yummy meal. When it's cold and snowy, there is nothing better than some beef stew to keep you feeling good. What you will read below is a Nanny original recipe, and is absolutely delicious! There are a lot of ingredients, however all you have to do is throw them into the slow cooker, so do not be discouraged by the list.

This is what you will need for a nice, full pot of stew:

1.5 lbs of stew beef (cut up in chunks)

1-2 cups of flour to dip the chunks of beef into

2-3 pieces of chopped celery

4-5 medium sized potatoes cut into chunks

28 oz can of crushed full tomatoes

1 small can/box of beef broth

1 package or can of onion soup

1 table spoon of worcestershire sauce

1-2 cups of chopped, fresh mushrooms

1-2 cups of pearl onions (just peel and throw in or cut each in half)

1 bay leaf

fresh parsley

garlic salt

a nice, healthy splash of beer of your choice!

All you do is put some flour into a bowl, add a healthy dose of garlic salt and mix. Then dip each chunk of beef into the dry mix. Then PUT EVERYTHING INTO THE POT! It is that simple. Cook for 8-9 hours on low. Serve with a biscuit and enjoy!

Josh couldn't get his paws on these fast enough!

This recipe is a huge hit and the hardest part is running all over the grocery store to collect the ingredients. Yummy and easy, it doesn't get any better!

My City Is NOT Miserable!

I LOVE Detroit! I go out to eat here. I go out for drinks here. I work here. I shop here. I live here. 

From the beautiful view of the river from my apartment to the amazing city scape you can see from the water, Detroit is beautiful. There is so much life in this city, but it's hard to see it from states away. This past week Forbes ranked Detroit #1 on their list of America's Most Miserable Cities in 2013. I thinks it's deplorable for a magazine that considers itself "Information for the World's Business Leaders" to further our city's bad reputation when we are fighting to bring this city back to greatness. 

There are more and more jobs and young adults moving to Detroit these days. This city is just starting to build more commercial and residential buildings, while tearing down abandoned homes across town that are inviting crime. Those of us who live here, work here, and go to school here are proud to say we love Detroit. While our previous mayor is on trial and our city is nearly bankrupt, we are still fighting. Detroit is still bringing in business and jobs. For the first time in 20 years, Detroit is submitting an application to be considered the next city for the summer Olympics location. Our city should be encouraged by periodicals like Forbes, not taking cheap shots so that more of the World's Business Leaders will buy more magazines or send more traffic to forbes.com.

It is easy to get caught up in the crime and violence that frames Detroit in the media, but if you walk the streets, eat in the restaurants, skate in Campus Martius, shop at Eastern Market, catch a wings game at the Joe or a Tiger's game at Comerica Park, that is when you see beyond the news stories.

This is the real Detroit.

Clark Park

Historic Homes

Amazing Cityscapes

Great Food!

I LOVE DETROIT

Thank You Ikea

Hank refuses to acknowledge that Ikea is good for anything other than the big, blue bags.

He hates the fact that the minute Josh and I return from Ikea, instead of giving him our full attention, Josh immediately strews pieces of furniture everywhere and ignores us both for hours. I know I gave a little tease of my new dresser a couple months ago, but I have finally gotten around to showing the final product.

TA DA!!!

This is my lovely blue dresser from Ikea, in one functioning piece thanks to my patient, talented boyfriend. I was smitten with this dresser the minute I laid eyes on it. Better yet, Josh felt the same way! So it was settled. This would be my wardrobe's new home in our bedroom. So long tupperware bins! Well, most of them... You might find one or two if you look under our bed.

This bedspread just so happened to coordinate with the dresser, so it had to come home too! My next project is to have some primary colored details casually placed about to give our bedroom more character. I am thinking a bench for the end of the bed would be a nice touch. Let's not let me get too carried away, but hanging some artwork will be my final victory. I cannot believe it has taken me this long to finally get this apartment put together, but I am happy that it is coming along.

So far this year I have epically failed at my resolution to post more often, but at least this is a start. See you soon! 

Happy New Year!

Erin and I sharing a cheers!

This is me in an amazing jewel toned Carolina Herrera courtesy of my mother, 

and my new favorite Kate Spade earrings (bright spot danglies in gold).

This past year has certainly been action packed. 2012 marked the beginning of this blog, new job offers for both Josh and I, the big move to Detroit, and a lot of amazing evenings with family and friends. I can hardly wait to see what comes along with 2013. 

I have been working on a couple resolutions for the new year, they are as follows, 

and in no particular order:

-Refrain from purchasing as many shoes as last year.

-Get back into regular work outs.

-Work on being more patient, I hear it's a virtue. It is also a weakness of mine.

-Find and try fun new recipes for Josh's and my dinners.

-Get back to posting on here more often!

We'll see how these go in 2013. Any words of encouragement/advice are welcome. Wish me luck!

Here's to you, my amazing readers! 

Cheers!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

This Christmas photo of the Scully children and dogs took only 15 minutes (we couldn't keep everyone still any longer), 3 photographers, and about a billion photos. This is one of the better ones.

Christmas is one of my favorite times of year. I love everything about Christmas, from the decorations to the music, and of course the presents! I've decided on this Christmas Eve to share some of my favorite Christmas things! 

Here we go:

Holiday themed treats.

Festive centerpieces.

 

Christmas trees! 

Ornaments!

While I prefer real, large, Christmas trees decked out in lights and ornaments; this year Josh and I had to settle for a rather small fake Alberta Spruce from Target. It fits perfectly in our living room and it also provided a great toy for Hank...he LOVES the box! We are in the process of beginning an ornament collection so that as the years go by we get a fully decked out tree. 

Decorations!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE holiday decorations! Above is the exterior of the Hecker-Smiley Mansion, one of the most beautiful historic homes in Detroit. I attended a DAR meeting in this city treasure, and had the pleasure of a tour of the first floor of the home, an insight to the home's history, and best of all a chance to see this amazing home decked out for Christmas!

Hecker-Smiley front entrance.

Now I am off to enjoy some more holiday music as I finish wrapping and relaxing before venturing out with Josh to visit family members.

Merry Christmas!

Hank's Latest Antics...

This little bugger and his toys have created quite the nightmare for Josh and I lately. Naturally Hank's mice, ping pong balls, and little trinkets wind up in and under EVERYTHING. I trip over them walking down the hallway. I find them in my shoes constantly. We recently had our oven replaced, and I found about a dozen of them when we pulled the old one away from the wall. He often pulls the bifold door of the laundry closet open and pushes his toys into the closet and under the washer and dryer. Somehow a ping pong ball got stuck up under the washer and Josh and I could not get it out. Normally I would just leave it and forget about it, but this thing was making SO MUCH NOISE every time we tried to use the washer! This ping pong ball had to get taken care of asap. My sanity was at risk. This turned out to be a project instead of a simple task on Josh's "Honey Do" list.

Yes, that is Josh taking apart the washer. The sad part is the bifold closet door was the worst part. BY FAR. This thing took about an hour or more to get back on and close correctly. I thought Josh and I might kill each other before we got this door back in place. This whole project was such a nightmare, Josh and I vowed to never let the cat's toys get in there again. We started putting the laundry bin in front of the closet and we even put a towel down so that if Hank got the door cracked, he could not get anything under the washer. We vowed to never take that door off again. This lasted about a week until I turned around to fold clothes and Hank jumped on the washer, fell off, and got stuck between the washer and the wall...

At least we got the bifold door back in place in under an hour the second time around.

This little munchkin is so lucky he's cute.

Thank You, Sam Edelman

Sam Edelman Ballet Pink Pointed Toe Flats

It's been a little while since I discussed my latest food wear favorites, and these are absolutely perfect!

Sam Edelman makes very nice shoes with soft leather and flexible, padded soles. These flats are not only comfortable, but they look great with both pants and pencil skirts.

Hank also finds my flats appealing.

LOVE THESE! 

The quilted, padded soles are greatly appreciated when I run around in them all day long.

Happy Turkey Day/Thank You Nanny and Paula Deen

A few years ago I offered to bring the cranberry sauce as my contribution to Thanksgiving dinner at Josh's grandmother's house. I then discovered that cranberry sauce/relish is one of the most difficult things to make because you have to pop the cranberries perfectly and it's quite a science project. As with any food emergency, I went to my Nanny. She told me we could figure out cranberry sauce, but that it would be a better use of my time to just buy the cranberry relish from Nino's because theirs is the best. She then scoured her kitchen and gave me a torn out page from a foodie magazine with a Paula Deen recipe that I have used every year since. It is so simple and delicious! I really owe it to Nanny and Paula Deen on this one!

You will need:

A pretty glass dish or two

A package of cream cheese

Two table spoons of mayo

A cup of pecans

A nice container of cranberry relish (2-3 cups should be enough)

All you do is let the cream cheese soften and then mix in the mayo. 

Once it is nice and creamy, add in about a half of a cup of pecans.

Next you need to take the back of a fork and crush down the cranberry relish.

Then you simply layer them into your dish(es) and add some pecans on top.

Serve and enjoy!

This is seriously the yummiest addition to the meal and it makes for such a festive table decoration!

Every year at dinner my family goes around the table and shares what each of us are thankful for most. I am sure pretty much everyone else's family does the same. Every Thanksgiving there are both funny, ridiculous, and touching comments. I think the biggest hit of a response over the years was the year I was most thankful for my ability to wear nearly any shade of lip gloss. HAHA! This Thanksgiving I am thankful for so many things, most of all my friends and family (yes, Hank is considered a part of the family since I treat him as my child). My shoes come a close second.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Favorite Things...

Josh and I found ourselves running around town the other day. He had a couple of errands to run, so I joined him. We wound up adding several places to our list of errands, all of which wound up with us picking up favorite snacks. In between skate sharpening and kinkos, we stopped at Sbux for Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Yes, we are all LOVING the fact that the holiday cups are out! After Kinkos, we had an hour to kill before we could pick up our dry cleaning so we stopped at Farm's Market for Spinach and Feta Pies. Then we headed over to Sander's for Sea Salt Chocolate Caramels. 

These fun little indulgences got me thinking about my favorite things lately...

Cannot keep my paws off of these...

All of the rainy weather is giving me a perfect excuse to use my fun, colorful umbrella.

My new Kate Spade abstract phone case...

Goyard coin purse. 

Pink. 

Goyard. 

Cute little pouch that fits bobby pins and hair ties perfectly. 

What's not to love?

Go Blue!

The Big House. (View from my seat.)

Football is one of my favorite things about the fall. Today is the last home game of the season and I could not be more excited to get back to the big house!  Josh and I normally hit almost every home game, but this fall things got a little complicated and we've only made it to two games so far this season. The fact that we haven't spent as much time as we would've liked in Ann Arbor lately makes today even more special. This girl will be decked out in her finest maize, Michigan bow from Miss Annie's Bows included this afternoon!

Today is also my sister, Erin's birthday! 

Happy Birthday Erin!

I am so proud that we've graduated from stealing lip glosses from each other to me going to you for beauty product recommendations. You have truly grown into a fabulous women right before my eyes, but I will always see you as my baby sister who is always annoyingly thinner and taller hahaha! 

Love you!!!

The Best Blush

Nars Orgasm Blush

This cult favorite of beauty product junkies hardly needs an introduction. Anyone worth their weight in lip gloss knows this shade just from the photo, so I won't waste many words recommending this super blush. If you have been under a rock for the last 5 years or have refused to use blush, this is your gateway drug. Give it a swirl!

This morning the last few chunks of my favorite blush fell out onto the bathroom floor. I used this compact until there was literally nothing left. I almost never get to the bottom of any makeup other than foundation, but this stuff is good to the last spec. Luckily, I had a back up lined up and ready to go. Once I discovered Nars Orgasm blush in college, I vowed to never be without it so I always buy a back up once my current one starts to get low. Yes, I am one step from make up hoarding.

The Accessory Of The Week

My favorite Longchamp tote hanging back in her place at the end of election day.

The trendiest accessory of the week, an I Voted sticker.

Big, small, blue, red, circular, oval; it doesn't matter. 

The best addition to any wardrobe this week is an "I Voted" sticker. Regardless of your personal opinion of the turn out of the election, the fact that we can all go and express our opinion through our vote is what truly makes this country great. I hope each and every one of you are proudly displaying the fact that you voted this week.