Baby Steps

Hello All!

Well, I broke my New Year's Resolution already. Don't remember it? Check it out here. But I'm justifying it because I only broke it at work. Wait, I never say work, I say school. Because I'm a teacher, remember? As any good teacher knows, lesson plans are the key to a successful, organized, and productive classroom. As any teacher also knows, they are the bane of one's existence. They totally stink. The only thing that stinks more is grading. Remember when you were in school and got to grade your neighbors paper? Wasn't that so fun? Well it's not anymore.

Anywayyouprobablydontcareaboutthat, I slacked off during break, and didn't create lesson plans for this week. Fear not, my students were not climbing bookshelves and hanging from the flag pole during the Pledge of Allegience, I pulled myself together around 7am, and arranged some pretty kick-ass activities about Christmas Break and Resolutions.

And because, as any good teacher knows, teaching by example is always helpful to the little kiddos. So I shared my New Year's Resolution. They thought it was boring, and wanted to have resolutions like "remember to feed my fish" instead. Whatever, I guess that's a pretty good one for a 7 year old.

But since I need someone to think my resolutions are smart, or practical, or even logical, I am sharing them with you. My general resolution was to be more organized. That's a giant step for quirky-kind though, so last night (during the Eagles game, yeah that game, the really embarrasing one) I told Dave we were gonna start with baby-steps. (He automatically shares the same New Year's Resolution as me). Presenting Baby Steps:

Almost Quirky Home Renovation List:

January:

1) Order cable box for bedroom (cannot stand not having HGTV in here!!!!)

2) Buy and install new hardware for bedroom set

Yep. That's it. Baby steps people, baby steps.

Maybe in February we'll have a few more items on the list, or a few more major items on the list. But, as any good teacher knows (are you tired of this yet?), you have to instill confidence in a child to encourage them to take risks. This means lots of positive reinforcement, and scaffolding (starting small).

I'll let you know how our January To Do List goes. I'd be too embarrassed to ever admit we didn't get that meager stuff done though, so you'll probably be reading a post the first week of February declaring "Mission Completed", whether we did or not ;)

Do you start off your resolution or goals with baby steps? Surely this can't be a secret only teachers know about ;)

Till Next Time,

A. Quirky

Happy New Year!

Okay, so I'm a day late. But the most productive thing I did yesterday was open a bottle a Motrin, and swallow a few of those puppies. They didn't help. The 20+ hours of sleep finally did. So yayyy! Happy New Year!


Dave and I celebrated in a pretty rad way. (New Year's Resolution: Use rad in sentences more often). Our friends, Katie and Justin, got married, and it was F-U-N!!!! Seriously, surrounded by people you love, in a hotel (no worries about driving after a few too many cocktails), with delicious food and (tons of) dancing is the way to go.


Here's my first official blog photo of Dave and I:


Happy New Year! So looking forward to all of 2011 :)

-A. Quirky

Bad Gemini

(You Want This Magnet)

Darnit. I wish I could get a bigger version of this picture, but I got tired of looking. No surprise there, if you read my magnet. I actually have this magnet somewhere, but I can't find it. Again, no surprise. It's so cheeky, I love it. It basically highlights all my faults, and really most of them are true (that's not easy to admit), especially the ones I circled.

See, Dave and I are both Geminis (our birthdays are 1 day apart), and well, two Geminis in one house can have its disadvantages.

In our day to day lives it's little things like deciding where to eat, or what to to eat, who should drive, what we should watch on tv, and who should take Georgie out. Okay, this is stuff every couple deals with, but where it really messes us up is in the home improvement area.

As I mentioned here, Dave recently moved into his grandmother's house. The house has good bones (Mom Quote), but needs a lot of work. The fact that we have pretty much no money for any major renovations leaves us with lots of small improvements to work on in the meantime. The problem? We cannot even decide what to work on. That's right, forget deciding on a paint color, we can't decide on whether or not to paint!!

Now that would be problem enough. Except sometimes we do decide to do something. And when that happens we do it. We just do it. We don't really research it, we don't really talk it out. We don't explore other options. Dave is worse than I am (sorry hunny!), but it's still that indecisive and flighty quality in both of us that hurts us.

Sometimes it works to our advantage, like the paint color in our bedroom. (More on that later) But most times it doesn't, like remodeling the fireplace. After we tore off the fireplace doors we realized the fireplace wasn't deep enough not to have them. So now we can't have fires, and have hideous gold fireplace doors just hanging out in the hallway.

With all of this comes my New Year's Resolution. Yes, I could stand to use a few pounds, and I should show my sneakers what the outside of my closet looks like. But for the better of humankind, err, Quirkykind, I am going to become more organized.

Here come detailed lists of any and all projects, pros and cons lists, detailed spreadsheets, and budget calculators. We're going to order a bed (no more sleeping on the floor on a mattress), clean the fireplace (you have to do that before you pain it, we discovered), and a new kitchen back splash.

We'll see how it goes.

Happy New Year!

A. Quirky

Thursday Obsessions

Covergirl Lash Blast Mascara.


Now remember, I haven't achieved that "Perfect Smokey Eye" yet in my life, so I am not the be-all, end-all opinion on mascara. My day to day make-up consists of moisturizer, lip gloss, and mascara...and now blush, natch!! MAC Blush. I know, I'm moving on up! But until I get all the way on the MAC Bandwagon, I'm sticking with my Covergirl Lash Blast. It doesn't clump. It doesn't flake. It does smudge, but I think that's because I rub my eyes all the time.



So, until I stop rubbing my eyes, or master the "Perfect Smokey Eye", Lash Blast it is :)



Toodles,



A. Quirky

Snowed In Cinnamon Rolls

A blizzard of sorts hit the East Coast this past Sunday, which just added to the do-nothing, laziness I was feeling after Christmas. And when it snows, I get hungry. Some people know it's going to snow because they feel it in their knees. Me, I feel it in my stomach.
I'm usually a salt girl, but for whatever reason, I was craving a sweet treat. Enter "Easy-Peasy Cinnamon Rolls", renamed for this post as "Snowed in Cinnamon Rolls". These rolls are so easy because they don't require yeast to make, but are still pure deliciousness.
Nevermind my photography skills, these rolls are much better than their pictures :)

Ingredients:



Dough:
2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
3 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup milk

Filling (aka the best part):
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup brown sugar
3 teaspoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
3/4 milk

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees


1. Do the filling first. In a small bowl, combine all filling ingredients to form a soft, crumbly mixture.

2. Sprinkle about half of the mixture over the bottom of a greased 9x9 pan

3. Prepare your dough mixture: Mix together flour, baking soda, sugar, brown sugar, and salt.

4. Cut in softened butter. (I use my hands for this part)

5. Stir in milk. You should now have formed a soft dough

6. Flour a surface to roll out your dough. Roll out your dough into a rectangle-ish shape. Your dough should be about 1/4 inch thick.

7. Spread your remaining filling into the rolled out dough.

8. Roll up the rectangle into a long log. Cut the dough into about 16 small rolls.

9. Place them in the pan. I like to make sure that the rolls are covering all of the mixture I put in the pan, otherwise you're just wasting that mixture. The rolls will expand a little bit, but don't get too huge.


10. Bake the rolls at 400 degrees for about 20-25 minutes. If you like your rolls "doughie", bake them for about 18-20 minutes.

11. While they're baking mix the powered sugar and milk for your glaze. I like my glaze thicker, so I use a lot of powered sugar. If you prefer a lighter glaze, start with a 1/2 cup powdered sugar, and work your way up to taste.

12. As soon as the rolls come out of the oven, plate them and drizzle your homemade glaze over top. I plate mine upside down, so that the filling faces up. They look tastier that way.

Lastly, sit near window, think to yourself, "I'm so glad that I do not have to be out there in said blizzard", and eat tasty roll. Try not to eat all rolls in one sitting.

Enjoy :)

A. Quirky

Favorite Gift

I was a lucky girl this Christmas. I got some really good stuff :) I was also able to gift some fabulous, yet practical, gifts this year. (The mixing bowls were a hit).



My mom got me the newest edition of Photoshop Elements (yeah, still figuring out how to use it), and gift certificates to my favorite stores were many, but Dave especially spoiled me this year. I got a new pair of sparkly, georgous, sophisticated, and stylish diamond studs. I. Love. Them.



What could be better you ask? You may be surprised. My favorite gift of Christmas 2010 is a different sort of pair. A pair of black Hunter Rainboots*! These were on my "I Need to be More Stylish" checklist, and also happened to make an appearance on my "I Must be More Practical" checklist.




These babies are stylish and functional, and in black, oh so classic. I even got to wear them in the snowstorm yesterday! See, I'm almost-er quirky and stylish and grown-up-ish post Christmas 2010**

Merry Christmas to you and yours,

A. Quirky and The Hunter Twins (my new best friends)

*For the record, my most favorite gift was the wine and food I got to share with the ones I love the most here in Jersey, but that's not as fun to read about!
**I'm still only Almost Quirky because a real quirky person would have remembered to call rainboots wellies, and well, I didn't. Damnit.

And So This Is Christmas

I had to share my favorite Christmas song. I love this song because it totally puts me in the Christmas mood when I hear it in December, yet it's message is so simple, lovely, and important, I could listen to it any month of the year.



Happy Christmas !



A. Quirky