THE WORLDS EASIEST (AND MAYBE YUMMIEST) DIY

Probably one of my favorite things to read on a blog is a DIY. And HELLO Pinterest. Its totally one of my favorite things in the whole world. ever. But when it comes to the DOING part of the DIY... I...don't. I have a hard time mustering up the patience to DIY even though I always want to save money, I hate to pay full price for anything, and I love creating (hello, I am an artist after all). But I do have a mean lazy streak. I'm trying to cure myself of that with our new home, I made a goal/pact with myself that I would DIY as much as I could and I'd buy minimal furniture that was actually new for the house. 

Anyway, I don't even know if you could call this a DIY so much as a recipe...but even THAT is pushing it. This is THAT easy. 

I know. Chocolate. You could put chocolate on just about anything and it would be A. MAZING. Kind of like those booths at the fair that fry everything. Fried Butter? Fried PBJ? Totally weird. Totally good.  I digress...

As a rule, I purchase one pack of semi-sweet chocolate morsels every single week when I buy groceries. Its basically just as important as buying bread in this house. Bread... Milk...Eggs...Chocolate. And I we use the entire package every week. What does that say about us? I don't know. And I'm okay with it. Any who. I was craving something salty and sweet the other day and I knew Henry was going to want a late afternoon snack. We rarely let him have junky food so I figured he'd get a kick out of chocolate covered pretzels.

Here's what you need:
A Handful of Chocolate Morsels (whatever type suits you best)
Pretzels
Cream or Milk (Optional)
Sprinkles (Optional)

Here's what you do:

Put your handful of morsels in a microwave safe container. I usually use a mason jar or glass pyrex dish  that comes with a top so that I can just pop any leftovers into the fridge. 

If you want creamier chocolate, or a softer covering for the pretzel then add enough milk or cream to JUST cover the morsels. Should be 1/8 to 1/4 cup at most. If you chose to do this, then you will have to keep the covered pretzels in the fridge to keep them solid-ish. 

If you skip the milk/cream then you still want to put the covered pretzels into the fridge to temper the chocolate so it hardens, but they should stay hard out of the fridge, but wont keep as long.

Basically, do whatever you want to do :). 

Microwave the morsels for a minute, and let sit for a few minutes in the microwave before stirring.

This prevents the chocolate from cooling too fast and becoming grainy (again- this step is nitpicky, you can stir right away if you're like me and don't want to wait :) ). Stir the mixture until smooth. 

Dip those bad boys into the chocolate and lay onto a cookie tray. I added some sprinkles for a little sass and additional crunch. Enjoy! 

And you're welcome. 

What's your favorite thing to combine with chocolate? 

HERE'S WHAT

As I mentioned last week, things have been a little stressful lately, but I always try to find the good in everything. Here are some things that have put a little pep in my step lately. I'm linking up with The good life blog today...even though I'm a minute or two late on that...

1. Daring Greatly by Brene Brown. Whether or not you are in the mental health / social work fields, this book is something you should be reading. She's a social worker who spent 10 years of her life doing research on vulnerability, and ended up with thousands of stories and interviews that she analyzed and put into this book. She wrote this book to encourage parents and teachers, and...just people, to be vulnerable, to deepen their connections with one another. She is hilarious, and brilliant, and heartfelt, and just amazing. Do yourself a favor, go to Tarjay and pick yourself up a copy. 

2. This view, and well, Starbucks. You can't really tell in this photo but this is the back porch of the Starbucks on base where my husband works. It looks out over a Bayou. Its basically gorgeous. Its my new "place" . And Starbucks, well that's self explanatory for why it puts a pep in my step ;). 

3. This guy in baby shades. I mean. 

4. My thesis in book form! Signed, Sealed, and Delivered. I'm official. And boy, I'm so so glad THAT is done. I actually know what it is like to have a book deadline, and...whew. 



5. This. is. so. good. We moved from a place with a Trader Joe's to a place without a Trader Joe's. Can we have a moment of silence for that? Thanks, I feel better. So Now that means I have to spend more than $5 on an excellent bottle of wine. This, at $11 hardly breaks the bank. Its a lightly sparkling white wine. It is sweet, but not as sweet as a Moscato, and very refreshing on a hot FL. evening. When you head to Tarjay to get Daring Greatly, swing by the wine aisle and pick up a bottle. Yumsies. 



6. I was in line minding my own business at my local Starbucks - which is in a Target by the way, (wow lots of Starbucks and Target in one post) and the lady in front of me orders a bottle of syrup. I know at one point that Starbucks sold a bunch of "do it at home" kind of stuff including some of their syrup but I thought that was a one time deal. I'd also heard of people paying insane amounts of money for PSL syrup purchased black-market style on ebay and such. But for $10 she got 1 litre of the good stuff. Obviously I'm a quick study and got my iced two pump americano with a side of one litre vanilla sugar free syrup and charge it please. 

What are some things that have made you happy lately? 

Things I don't want to talk about

Prepare for an extremely long winded post that is perhaps hard to follow at times, but bear with me. (Also, none of these photos really relate to the post- but I figured it would help with the monotony ;) ) 

Today marks two days shy of a month from our big move. We have only been in the new house for a little shy of 3 weeks. Basically everything that has happened in our life in the past month has been good. But it has been really, really, really hard. I don't say this to be ungrateful- but to be real.  As an INTJ I am famously private, insular, solitary...to a fault, and I'm trying to be more open. I have been helped by the friends I've made through blogging or by things I have read on other's blogs; so I say all of this with hopes that maybe sometime someone will read this and maybe I helped them in some small way. 

The house we moved into was less than ready to be moved into. Its beautiful for the most part, its in a nice neighborhood, and all that. It had no hot water, holes in the walls, and filthy carpets to name a few. The landlords have been a nightmare to deal with, and we have additional unplanned monthly bills for this house. 

Money this month has been rough. Don't worry I was raised right, I'm not going into specifics here. We've saved for a year for this move. But almost as a rule, the Navy messes your paycheck up during a move or promotion, and well, both of those things have happened (again- both good!) but it may not get fixed next month, and the major amounts of money we spent on the move won't be repaid for maybe 12 weeks or longer due to the sequester (lack of manpower to do the needed paperwork).

A LOT of our belongings were messed up in the move. We put in a $15,000.00 claim for damaged goods (to give you an idea). That won't be accepted. (not being negative nancy- we try to keep a PMA - or positive mental attitude for those non-breaking bad watchers). But the movers just won't pay that much. My dresser, which was made by hand by my great, great, great grandfather was split up the side during the move. No amount of money will fix that or replace it. 

Since Henry was born I've struggled with major hormonal imbalances that still have not straightened out, coupled with post partum depression and anxiety. None of this was made easier by that. 

I promise I don't say any of this to be dramatic or negative. I am humbled every day at the unending blessings I have in my life. I am saying this because this has been what I consider to be a "white knuckle" moment in my life. 

Casey is a fellow blogger, and someone who I have never met in person, but I've read her blog for years. She talks a lot about entitlement in her blog. I am not entitled to ANY thing that has gone on in the past month to have gone ANY better than it did. None of us are entitled to anything. We are not even entitled to another breath, or another day. We are entitled to what has already passed.

(via pinterest- unsure of original source) 

My faith has been a big part of keeping me from "losing it" over the past few weeks. God doesn't promise an easy path, but he promises he'll be there. It has taken me a long long time to "get that", and I still struggle with trusting that it will all be okay.  I've had to remind myself to trust during my moments of entitlement, of expectation, that things SHOULD be different because I prayed about it darnit! Because I visualized it going well! Because I expected it to! Because I'm a good person, I deserve it! My husband who serves our country deserves this. My son deserves this. Well... Murphy's law and all that. 

I have been working on being more positive, as I've said before. This has been a perfect test of that. And I've failed many days, and many times each day. But this experience so far has taught me that you really truly can learn from every single thing that happens in your life. Sometimes it comes easier than other times. Some times it takes a note to self every hour, every minute, every second. Its not easy to just say "be positive", but I've learned that being positive (and that just means doing your best, not being perfect with sunshine shooting out of your ears all the time) through everything really is worth it.

via Pinterest unsure of original source

on moving and being adventurous

This is my view as I sit on my parents' patio this morning, drinking a cup of 

 Pal's coffee. We are in the middle of the biggest move of our family's life to date. After living in the same place for almost 7 years, the Navy is moving us to our new home in Pensacola, FL. The truck pulled away from our house Monday after lunch with all but two carloads worth of personal belongings (p.s. its amazing how much a honda civic can hold). We will find ourselves in our new home mid afternoon Monday (God willing).  

First we stopped in our home state, NC for a minute and tried to see as much family as possible in our less-than-24-hours stay before heading to Johnson City, Tennessee (cue the OLd Crow Medicine Show sound track). Next we are on to ATL to see H's God mama and stay with an old friend of hers and Robert's.

Where I thought it would be immensely stressful to be house-less for a week, I feel like I've left my stress behind in VA. I know there are hours upon hours of painting and unpacking ahead of us in our new home, and I will have to start the process of making new friends and getting acclimated, but I feel like I've spent so much time getting excited about our move that I am seeing it (at least at this point) as an adventure. 

I feel in this season of my life that I need to embrace adventure more, and look at life more in that light, and embrace more. Becoming a mom definitely informed that change I'm trying to make. Where I was and have always been somewhat trepidatious of change, my husband and son always plunge full force into life- and figure things out when they need to. I love that about them, and as a mom, want to foster that as much as possible in Henry, even though I know he will end up on wild and crazy adventures that may involve something like getting lost in the chesapeake bay for 24 hours straight (thats another story for another time, and you'll have to ask dear Robert about that one.) 

I will miss my friends in VA dearly, but as every military spouse knows, if you don't move first, a dear friend will. We have friends scattered to the four corners of the earth and its nice to know that no matter where we go, we probably know someone nearby. 

 We spent a lottttt of time going through and getting rid of a ton of stuff (they say 3 moves are the equivalent to a house fire when it comes to purging things- and we are on move number 4) and have been dealing with some health problems. But now that we are in tip top shape and past the hard part of the move I hope to write more! 

xoxo

emily

saw it on Pinterest challenge!

There are always so many projects I see on Pinterest that I want to do, so this is a way to challenge myself to do them every once in a while. I make recipes from Pinterest on occasion but usually nothing other than that. 

This DIY is particularly out of my comfort zone because I am NOT a hair stylist by any means. I mean- I didn't own a brush until a few years ago when I cut my hair off and HAD to style it every day. I can't believe I just admitted that out loud...

Original Pin
(I could not find the original site, please let me know if you know of it!) 

Anyway, I adore messy hairdos, especially this one. So I thought I'd give it a try...

I started with 2 day unwashed hair and added some dry shampoo to the roots to add some body. I normally don't wash my hair more often than 3x a week because my hair is SO fine it gets oily easily AND gets really dried out easily. I am currently in the early stages of no-pooing my hair (Another Pinterest challenge coming your way) which you can read more about here. I decided to curl my hair sporadically with a 1 inch curling iron to add more body/texture to it. As you can see in the original photo, the model has a lot of body and texture to her hair. 

Next I parted my hair down the middle (in the back). I don't do the middle part too well so I kept my natural part in front and just decided to see how that would work.  I also teased my hair a bit in the back using a comb, as it appears the model has done. I decided I need to tease it more and higher on my head next time for the same effect. 

Next I separated my hair in half again on either side.

I twisted each side and then twisted them together into a bun. I realized in hind sight that I can make it messier to achieve a look closer to the original. 

And finally I braided each side and twisted the braids around the bun, pinning each one into the bun. I attempted the french-braid on either side and gave up after my arms fell asleep after several attempts haha. Then I sprayed my hair with some hairspray to smooth out the fly-aways. 

All in all I'm happy with it! It took a while for me since I'm a newbie but its a nice change from my usual topknot, pony, or leaving my hair down. It is not ideal for a get ready and go kind of day as my days usually are around here. I normally shower at night and don't wear makeup in the summer so I'm ready in about 10 minutes flat. (Having an extremely active 16 month old also dictates my morning routine as well ;). )

what I'm thankful for today

A while ago I started keeping a gratitude journal. I don't write in it every day, but I do make a mental list at the very least every day. 

Doing so has helped change the way I think completely. I used to be a pragmatist and a cynic at times for sure. Being positive has helped me realize how limiting my previously negative way of thinking was. 

Athletes and motivational speakers have lauded the power of positive thinking forever...and they're actually on to something.

I've found that gratitude has been the easiest and most profound way of changing not only my thinking but my way of life. 

I get more done in my day. Things that previously upset me no longer do. I am more openminded. Things that once made me anxious no longer do. And the biggest thing is that I'm no longer as hard on myself as I used to be. 

It really is as simple as being grateful. I love the adage "be grateful in all things" and that can be extremely difficult to do. But I'm working on it. 

And so, I'm sharing today's list:

1. Henry + Robert  (Hen and Robert will always be my #1 on this list)

2. Our upcoming move to a new place

3. The connections I've already made with WONDERFUL people who live down there.

4. Re-entering the fleet and the Navy community

5. My bright pink shirt I'm donning today. (No clue why but it makes me SO happy!) 

6. The friendships I've made here

7. Being home with Hen this summer

8. That my quiche turned out last night and I have yummy leftovers for lunches! (Its the little things!) 

I encourage you to start keeping a gratitude journal or list and see how that changes things for you! 

++ Emily 

Note: The photos included really don't go with this post other than that they are photos that make me happy :)

This Week On Instagram

This past week I went to Seattle for a Professional Conference for a few days. I made sure not to spend too much time working and did a little sight seeing. From top left:

1. My new mug and coffee from the original Starbucks //  2. The hubby and I on a date to go stand up paddle boarding // 3. Sleepy Henry after waking up the night before due to a nightmare // 4. Gin and Tonic Season!  // 5. Getting back into running. // 6. Honey Badger Cartoon! // 7. My boy loves Chipotle //  8. Midnight french fry stop on my way home from the airport // 9. Breakfast at Le Panier in Pikes Place // 10. The original Starbucks // 11. Pier 70 where my fave season of The Real World was filmed in Seattle // 12. Dinner at Cafe Champagne in Seattle