'ello!

Just letting you know I'm still alive!

The above photo is of yesterday's sunrise from the train on my phone

as we were heading out of the Lake District and on to Bath.

I'm walking down to the train station in about 45 minutes to begin

the long journey back home - about 24 hours I expect.

England has been lovely and I have lots of photos,

but no way to get them onto my dad's laptop thus the lack of sharing.

Much to blog about when I get home! See you soon!

upside-down cranberry cake

Upside-Down Cranberry Cake 

This is a great pie-alternative for Thanksgiving. It's pretty and festive! 

The recipe comes from Smitten Kitchen with only a couple small changes. 

 Ingredients: 

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and divided

2/3 cup brown sugar 

2 T. molasses 

2 cups flour 

1 cup sugar 

1 t. cinnamon 

1/4 t. nutmeg

2 t. baking powder 

1 t. salt 

3 eggs 

1 cup sour cream 

2 cups cranberries 

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 375 and butter the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan. 

In a small saucepan, bring 1/4 cup of the butter, brown sugar and molasses 

just to a boil. Pour the mixture into the cake pan and set this aside. 

Step 2: Stir together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. 

In the bowl of an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, 

beat together eggs and sour cream until blended. 

Add the remaining melted butter and mix well. 

Add the flour mixture to the bowl and mix until smooth. 

 Step 3: Pour the cranberries into the cake pan and gently press into the caramel. 

Drop the cake batter in clumps on top of the berries. Carefully spread the batter 

so that it is even without disturbing the berries underneath. 

 Step 4: Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick 

inserted in the center (cake only) comes out clean. 

Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes before inverting onto a large plate. 

 Too pretty to eat? 

Never. 

Coming Down

For your listening pleasure on this rainy Music Monday

I've been busy getting ready for my trip, 

including updating my music library with lots of new stuff for the flight. 

Obviously this is more important than planning all of the lessons for 

the four days of work I'm going to miss. Priorities. 

Quinoa Burgers

My mom has discovered Pinterest and on Sunday morning she sent me this photo: 

(source) We made them for lunch that afternoon and we both approved. 

Really easy and delicious! So for this week's Recipe Tuesday, 

I'm going to refer you to the blog I got the recipe from, 

and here are a couple photos of ours. Here they are...Quinoa Burgers! 

We enjoyed ours with a lovely salad. YUM. 

Birthday Recap

There's nothing like a birthday to make you feel loved by family and friends. 

I had the day off work and spent it driving around in the rain, 

eating cupcakes, and visiting a couple estate sales. 

Later two of my besties a-ha (you saw her guest post I hope?) 

and Kelly took me to dinner at Little Water Cantina down the road. 

We also fueled up on coffee before heading to the party... 

which was held at the Zoo Tavern (classy, I know!). 

My mom brought me these beautiful sunflowers. 

So many good friends came out to help celebrate! 

It was fun to get so many different people together. 

Then as a surprise a-ha made me this AMAZING cake. 

Isn't it gorgeous??? She even used my favorite color combination. 

And all of those cute little owl cookies - delicious and so pretty. 

Basically my birthday was lovely and I owe it all to some special people. 

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. I'm still working on my 27 before 28 list and 

would love some suggestions if you have any!

11.11.11

guest post by: a-ha

Today is an epic day for two reasons. I only care about one.

HOLLY’S BIRTHDAY!

And what’s a blog without a guest birthday post?

In lieu of Holly’s list "26 before 27", I’d like to share 27 things about my best friend, and your favorite blogger…

Ms. HOLLY O!

27. even though we are celebrating her 27th, she still gets carded. a few years ago, we were purchasing booze and the cashier said she had to card holly because she looked like her daughter... who was 14

26. she is flexible

(personal photo)

25. when she hangs out with midwesterners, she starts talking like a midwesterner

24. she can take old lady stuff from estate sales and make it cute and chic

23. when holly gets excited her eyes get big and she starts running in place while flailing her arms

22. she was a vegetarian before all the hipsters made it trendy

21. she is a great teacher

(personal photo, notice jason’s reaction to her grading during our beach weekend)

20. if she doesn’t know something, she looks it up on the spot

19. she never lets alcohol go to waste

(personal photo)

18. she claims to get “mad” (but i’ve never seen it)

17. she appreciates the little things… walks, seasons, fresh veggies, naps

16. she could start a craft store with all the stuff she has

15. she is easy going. at a party she fell asleep and I drew a hatchet and my initials on her leg. when she woke up she laughed and said we could draw whatever we wanted, as long as it wasn’t a male’s appendage.

(personal photo)

14. one time she dyed her hair red, and it turned out orange. radioactive orange. it was awesome

(personal photo, circa the time of orange hair)

13. in high school she sang in a band and was voted “most likely to be on trl”

12. she is a grammar goddess. she can recite all sorts of rhymes about grammar. (i still don’t know when to use effect and affect)

11. 11/11/11 she’s been thinking about this birthday … forever

10. she was a bridesmaid in four weddings in one year for her closest friends. she planned parties, designed amazing invites, stayed up late crafting, bought all the dresses, smiled for a million pictures, and never once complained

(via holly’s fb photos, mark malijan photography, jose mandojana photography)

9. she does not like surprises that involve closing her eyes

(personal photo)

8. she is never afraid to admit mistake. like one time she mistook soy sauce for vanilla extract in her valentine cookies

7. she’s good at dressing up in costume. my favorite was when she was a punk rock princess (i wish i had a picture of that)

(holly's photo)

6. cod (the fish) is her truth serum

5. she takes the best pictures

4. i pretty much give her credit for bringing the back the side pony tail. when i met her in 9^th grade, she loved all things 80’s and during a sleepover we made a pact to bring it back- and now look around!

3. she has a BIG heart for all living things. one time kearney was driving me home and we saw two dogs on the side of a very, very, busy road. after dropping me off, kearney went back to see if the dogs were ok and found holly there trying to coax one to safety!

2. she loves her family (and they love her!)

(holly’s photo)

1. she is the coolest person i know, and it's only fitting that her birthday is on the coolest day of the calendar!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOLLY!

It's personal.

"It" being my tattoo. 

I've had my feather tattoo for several months now. 

I still absolutely love it with all my heart. 

One of the most common questions I get asked 

besides, "did it hurt?" (yes!) is "does it mean something?". 

I usually say "yes" and change the subject. 

Because hey, it's personal. 

But then I saw this print on Paper n Stitch 

and realized I could make a long story short... 

The feather stems not only from the fact that I love feathers in general, 

but also what they represent. I like to think of the phrase "free as a bird". 

I wanted a reminder of that, but the print above says it best. 

 Let yourself be free. 

To me that means the following: 

1. It's ok to do what you need to do in order to be happy. 

2. There's no sense in waiting around for someone else to bring 

that happiness to you. You have to go out and get it. 

3. Don't wait around for good things to happen. 

4. Learn to work with what you've got. 

Maybe some of those things sound contradictory, but it makes sense to me. 

This is something I am really trying to work on, and the feather is a reminder. 

Plus, it's pretty. Or at least I think so, and that's all that matters. 

It's Real

It's Music Monday and have I got a song for you! 
I first heard this last week and Shazamed it 
(new verb I use to describe the use of the Shazam app on my iphone) 
Days later it popped into my head and I haven't been able to get it out. 
Although, I haven't tried very hard because I LIKE having it in my head. 
It's catchy Indie pop at its best...plus there are cute dogs in the video. 

These guys are playing at The Crocodile tonight and I am totally missing out. 
The album this song hails from, Days, came out in October. 
I'm downloading it as I write this and I can't wait to check out the other songs! 

Saturday

Saturdays are lovely. 

I started off with coffee and reading blogs. 

Then there was yoga in Magnolia with Kelly. 

I met my mom and my aunt at a yarn shop in West Seattle, 

and we all bought yarn and had brunch. 

 I spent the afternoon rearranging my furniture (sneak peek below) 

and doing some major cleaning. Now I'm painting (above) and working 

on my square photo wall. After all, I only have five more days of being 26... 

Thursday Happy Thoughts

It's time for another glorious Thursday Happy Thoughts! 

I've noticed a definite theme in my picks tonight...see if you notice. 

1. Darn you Lauren for posting about this print! 

I want one so bad. 

2. Definitely feeling this right now. I haven't hiked since September. 

Do you ever just CRAVE mountains? Photo source. 

3. Planning my trip for the end of the month. Photo source. 

We're going to spend the week in Lake District National Park! 

4. Have I posted these houses before? I still love them. 

I want to make some sort of little village for xmas. Source. 

5. These candles are supposed to create tree silhoettes. 

I can surround myself in tree shadows in my own home?!  

From West Elm. Expensive. Sad. 

6. Finding things on Etsy that I love and ALREADY HAVE. 

Plus I got it way cheaper. Happy. Thought. 

7. Suddenly I've realized how much happier I would be 

if a wall in my bedroom was covered in vintage paint by numbers. 

Is that weird? I don't even have any. I like this one. 

8. I think I just instantly fell in love with everything in this Etsy shop. 

I forced myself to pick a fav and this bear stuffie is it! 

But go look at the rest of the shop - I also love the fox, whale, 

owlet and songbird stuffies. Also the tree pillow. 

Did you pick up on the theme? It happened all by itself. 

Which is your favorite? Any happy thoughts I'm missing out on? 

Fun Finds at Fab

This is sort of like a Thursday Happy Thoughts, 

but on a Tuesday and all items from one website. 

There were just too many goodies on fab.com today that I have to share! 

(if you want to view the items you may need to be a member, click here 

to join and get a free $10 credit if you do it by 7:36 am tomorrow!) 

1. How cool is this wool felt mistletoe garland? 

It's 12 ft. long and also comes in a second color scheme. 

(ok update, this already sold out! I think I can make 

something similar...inspiration!) 

 2. These pretty serving utensils. Love them! 

3. I love these forest ornaments. Simple. 

4. This birch wood tree. 

How cute would this be with the ornaments above? 

5. My favorite - so much so that I bought it this morning. 

I LOVE everything about this print!