Hair

My husband is a hair stylist in Scottsdale (check out his facebook page if you're close for contact info), so I thought it'd be fun to post pictures of my hair since I met him in 2009. I think the number count is 25+ hair changes...we've known each other for 3 years...

This is around the time he met me - black

Dark Brown

Dark Brown with Highlights

Dark Brown with different highlight placement

Gettin' lighter

Blonde

Blonder

Even Blonder

Gettin' blonder!

Now, let's chop it off and make it red

This is what happens when you dump fire engine red on bleached hair - it fades to a lovely Fifth Element Orange.

Red again

Red with halo of blonde

Red with Highlights

Blonde again

Blonde/A-line Bob

Platinum

Blonde & Brunette

Fun color placement

Extensions

Red

Red & Blue

Just Red

Pink

and now...Brunette!

House Hunting

    I've decided to start journaling about our house hunting experience. God has blessed us so much these past few years and this is just another example of it. We weren't expecting to be close to looking for a house until August, but here we are at the end of June and about 3 weeks into house hunting all because of God's amazing providence! We would not be ahead of our plan had it not been for God - and this is another great example of how much better God knows than we do!

     I've fallen in love with two houses so far - we didn't get the first and we're waiting to hear back on the second. I am most thankful that God is protecting my heart and that, even though I immediately start moving in in my head, He is keeping me grounded and emotionally detached - something Anthony and I were pretty concerned about when we started talking about looking for a house. Thank You, God, for that answered prayer!

     The whole house hunting process is very intriguing to me, and while I would like to be able to just find a house love it and get the offer accepted with no wait time, that is not how it works - not even in the fairytale I tend to convince myself I'm living in.

     It's been fun - it's been stressful, but we're patient and know that God has His perfect timing and His perfect house for us to get started in. Plus it's fun to look at houses, see how other people decorate (at least the houses that are still occupied) and then start imagining how we would paint it and decorate it, what rooms would be used for what, what patio furniture are we going to get, what appliances do we like. I think I like the imagined decorating most right now - so much so, that I am currently re-organizing our apartment from TOP to BOTTOM to de-clutter and see how we might want to decorate our future house - where ever it is and whenever we get it. I think that's a funny thing though - I resigned myself to dealing with our random boxes we didn't have room to put in a proper place when we moved into this apartment and now I'm determined to make it work in an aesthetically pleasing way all so I won't have to re-organize and re-decorate our house a gazillion times (a million might still happen though).

So here's to happy house hunting, the hope of the future, and God's timing.

 Love to you, my friends,

      Sara

Date Night Vase!

     Anthony & I have been married for almost 20 months (if I did the math correct - and we all know that rarely happens), and I think that we've both realized that we tend to get into these "comfortable", "monotonous", "lazy" phases where we end up doing the exact same thing every day. Come home from work, make dinner, eat dinner, do some chores, play with bunnies, watch tv.  The last part is the part that gets frustrating. I know also, that I am a huge homebody so if I don't make plans in advance to do something I will pretty much just stay inside all day which then makes me not want to go and do something later on anyways. And let's face it, we all need to get out of the house every now and again.
     I saw a link on Pinterest for a date night jar - and I LOVE this idea, so I made one - except that ours is more like a date night VASE (ok it is a date night vase) because we didn't have popsicle sticks and the mason jar was too small for all my rolled up pieces of paper. I'm super excited for this - I am convinced that it is going to be SO much fun and that we will grow even closer together as a result of it.

Thanks to Pinterest and these lovely bloggers:
Life in the Green House
Six Sisters' Stuff
Small Notebook
Ideas for a Fun Date
Happy Money Saver
The Dating Divas

and some creativity on our own behalf, we were able to come up with a TON of fun things to do together.




When I told my husband what I was doing, the first thing he asked me was, "are you making it color coded?". Of course I am - normally I would have done it a little more uniformly, but I'm trying to NOT spend money when I have other things that will work just as well, so I just used what ribbon I had laying around and split it up into 4 categories.

• Dark Pink Ribbon = more expensive dates, dates that involve advance planning, or both
• Light Pink Ribbon = less expensive dates that get us out of the house
• Tan Ribbon = at home dates
• Princess Ribbon = $5 or less dates

(I realized after I had tied the dark pink ribbons pretty tightly that I should have used the Princess Ribbon for the expensive dates and another ribbon for the cheap dates, but I'll have to fix that another time.)

Here's a list of the dates we decided to include:
Dark Pink Dates - More Expensive Dates/Planning Dates:

• Melting Pot
• Go to the Zoo
• Weekend Away
• Hotel Stay for the Night
• Dinner at a Fancy Restaurant
• Go to a Local Fair or Carnival
• Go See a Play
• Go to the Water Park

 
Light Pink Dates - Less Expensive/Out of the House Dates:

• Go to the Botanical Gardens
• Go to a Museum on Free Admission Night
• Try a New Restaurant
• Theme Night - Decide on a theme and stick to it ALL night
• Go to a Local Sporting Event
• Coffee Date
• Window Shopping for the House
• Dessert Only
• Bowling
• Mini Golf
• Dinner and a Movie (Hubster's Choice)
• Dinner and a Movie (Wifey Boo's Choice)

Tan Dates - At Home Dates:

• Have a Spa Night
• Go Swimming/Jacuzzi
• Back to the 50s Night – turn the kitchen into a diner with burgers, fries, milkshakes
• Rent a Movie from the Library to Learn to Dance Together
• Have an Outdoor Picnic
• Have an Indoor Picnic
• Build a Fort
• Action Movie
• Chopped Challenge
• Homemade Pizza and an Italian Movie
• Make Dessert Together
• Popcorn and a Chick Flick
• Puzzle and Pizza
• Take Out and Board Games
• Fondue and a Movie

Princess Dates - Cheap Dates (again, I should have switched the princess ribbon and the dark pink ribbon):

• Have a root beer float date
• Visit a bakery and pick up two cookies! Next, head to somewhere fun to enjoy
• Enjoy 2 Redbox movies and have a movie night.
• Lay on a blanket in the backyard and stargaze while listening to two new songs you’ve downloaded
• Grab water guns at the Dollar Store and have a water fight!
• Visit a fast food drive-through and enjoy a milkshake with two straws.

Recipe: Cakies - these will change your life!

I intended on posting about these in December...so I'm 7 months behind - better late than never! I give you

C A K I E S

I don't remember where I got this recipe, but it was back in California and I remember thinking "I'm going to need this recipe when we have kids." These little babies are the simplest thing to make and they are a highly requested cookie now that our friends have been made aware of them.

Ingredients:

• 1 Box of Cake Mix (Favorites so far are lemon [pictured above] and white cake - least popular is strawberry)
• 1 Egg
• 1 Stick of Butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350* and lightly spray cookie sheet with Pam
2. Combine all ingredients in the stand mixer. Dough will end up turning into a ball. 
3. Using a 1/2 TBS [pictured above] or a full TBS, drop onto cookie sheet. They need some space between them, but they don't rise or spread out too much, so you can get a LOT of 1/2 TBS sized cakies on a cookie sheet. 
4. Pop in the oven for 10-12 minutes. Keep an eye on them - you don't want to over bake them. 

They are seriously SO good - soft and chewy and you need to at least try them 1 time in your life. Perfect if you need to bring a last minute dessert or just have a busy schedule. They take about 15 minutes total to make.

Lots of lemony cakies,
Sara

The blessing my husband is

We don't have kids yet and we probably won't for awhile, but as I was driving to work today I realized how blessed I am by my husband and how great an example to our future children he will be. I started thinking thing the beginning or our relationship. He went out of his way for me when he didn't have to. He hs cared for me deeply and genuinely from the day we met. He never tried to "make a move" on me, he didn't kiss me until we had been together(unofficially) for about a month, he drove me, he provided for me before we had a serious commitment. But the thing that stuck out the most to me in those early days was that he didn't act like any other guy I've dated. He was gentle and sweet, caring and respectful.
There's one event that has always stuck out to me. We were hanging out at his house with 2 of his friends, it was getting late and I wasn't feeling the best. He told me to just go upstairs and crash in his room - he didn't want me driving so late when I lived 30 minutes away and he was in the middle of a game with his buddies who were staying the night So I listened. I remember being concerned that his parents would be upset, but I was really too tired to drive and Anthony had other guests. I went upstairs and fell asleep. Sometime in the middle of the night I woke up feeling like someone was in the room and it freaked me out. I started to look around, the door was cracked letting in a little light and there, on the floor in front of the door was Anthony - fast asleep. I think I realized then that he loves me. It blew my mind that he would sleep on the floor - every other guy I've dated would've climbed into bed. I remember thinking that he was sleeping on the floor in front of the door to protect me -not only my reputation and integrity, but also because I didn't know the guys staying over very well.
That's the kind of man I want our sons to grow up to be - respectful, caring, God honoring, protecting, and serving men - men who choose to do the right thing even if it would be just as easy or easier t do the wrong.  That is the wrong. That is the type of man I want our daughters to marry. I am so blessed that he is going to be ge example for our children if and when we have them.

Thank you Sweetheart for always loving, respecting, caring, protecting and providing for me, for us, for our family!

Mini Apple Pie Goodness

I got this recipe from Little Bit Funky.  The only thing I did differently was make the pie crust and use slightly less cinnamon. It was just a lot of cinnamon the first time I made it. The thing I love about these is that they are pretty simple to make and they are super easy to transport & there's no mess when serving! I think this would be perfect to do if you need to bring a dessert to a get-together or even at the holidays. I know dishes are the last thing anyone wants to do when celebrating and spending time with family and these you don't have to worry about messy plates, messy pie servers or messy pie pans!

Pie Crust Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup water

 Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. 
2. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. 
3. Stir in water until mixture forms a ball. 
4. Divide dough in half, and shape into balls. Wrap in plastic, and place in freezer about 1 hour - just until it's no longer warm - or you can refrigerate it for 4+ hours. Freezing it for an hour ended up being perfect. The dough was SO easy to work with. 
5. Roll out dough on a floured counter. Don't over work it. 
6. Using a Rammekin (or any clean, circular object that is slightly larger than a muffin pan), cut out 24 circles of dough. With left over dough, cut out strips or small shapes - this will make the pie topping later.
7. Place each dough circle into each cup of the muffin tin - you may need to use some of the left over dough to cover the sides better. Every time I've made these, that has been the most difficult part - but pinching the dough at the top of the cup and then working down is MUCH easier then working from the bottom up. I tried.
   

 
Apple Pie Ingredients:

• 8 cups (5-6 large) Apples (I used Granny Smith), peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 12 tablespoons of flour
• 1 1/2c of sugar
• 4 teaspoons of cinnamon (the original recipe says heaping teaspoons, but I personally thought that was too much - 4 leveled off teaspoons was much better the second time around)
• 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg 
• 4 tablespoons of chilled butter cut into 24 equal portions 

Directions:

1. In a large bowl (I used my stand mixer bowl because it's the biggest bowl we have & a wooden spoon), mix together apples, flour, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Make sure apples are evenly coated and then set aside - the juices in the apple with begin to  make it make a little bit of syrup - that's perfect!
2. Spoon the apple mixture into the dough filled muffin cups. Make sure they're heaping - you won't them to be domed.
3. When the apples are all spooned out, you may have some cinnamon sugar syrupy goodness at the bottom of your bowl - I highly suggest spooning this on top of the apple mixture! So yummy!
4. Place a piece of butter on top of each pie then add the strips or shapes of extra dough on top of it, being sure to pinch it onto the side of the pie crust lining the cup. 
5. Brush with melted butter. 
6. Bake at 400*F for 15-25 minutes - it really depends on your oven. Ours has a mind of its own, so I started checking on it at 15 minutes (because the original recipe says 18 minutes). Some batches baked in 15, some in 25. Hopefully we'll be done with this oven soon. :)
   
   
   Enjoy your yummy little apple pie. Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream is highly recommended. :)

Organizing the Spice Cabinet

Just like when I organized the pantry, I didn't take a "before" picture - but you can KIND of see the messiness in this picture:

 

 Things don't really fit - and you can just see that it's completely disorganized (also, please ignore the dinner making mess in the picture. Thank you.)

BUT - it's not so messy anymore:

Taking a note from my pantry organizing fun, the first thing I did was pull everything out, wipe down the shelves and group items with similar things. Then I had to decide where would be logical for things to go.

My biggest issue was the spices. There were SO many and it was SO hard to find everything and nothing stayed together AND we had this huge ferris wheel type spice rack that took up a ton of room on our countertop, yet we hardly ever use most of the spices. Once I realized that I could probably do without most of those spices, I stopped everything and pulled the spice rack out.

I took out all of the spices and separated out the ones we actually use from the ones we don't. Out of 20 spices in the rack, we only used 7. So, I dumped out all the spices we don't use and washed the containers. I then took our spices and poured them into the empty containers. This helped condense a LOT - we had 5 things of cinnamon and 4 things of nutmeg and duplicates of almost all our other spices; partly from my awesome kitchen shower before we got married and partly because I ended up buying spices I didn't think we had because I couldn't locate them easily.

Now I was stuck with spices in containers with wrong labels. The first thing I tried to do was remove the printed labels, but that proved unsuccessful so I went to plan B. I grabbed some red scrapbook paper, the hot glue gun, whole puncher and some yellow ribbon and got to re-labeling our spices. I didn't do the ones that were correctly labeled - but will at some point because I really like uniformity.

Labeling problem fixed, I went on to try and figure out how to stack the spices without going out and spending $10 on a shelf thing. The scavenger hunt was a success! I found 2 identical trays that are about 1"-1.5" tall. I took out the glue gun, glued them together so that they created a stair effect and placed it on the shelf. Then I added all the spices in alphabetical order (because I'm like that). Then I added the rest of our spices that didn't make it into a container to the side of the staired shelf - putting the taller ones in back and shorter ones in front.

On the other side of the cabinet are our "everyday" items - salt and pepper shakers, salt and pepper grinders, oil, pam, toothpicks. And toward the center I put other cooking items, like chicken and beef boullion and kitchen bouquet.

On the second shelf is all baking items on the right side. Using an organizing shelf you can get at BBB or Target, I put baking spices & extracts on the bottom. Food coloring, sprinkles, cupcake liners, frosting, etc. on the top.

On the left side of the cabinet, I placed all our vitamins and stuff like that. And nothing gets put on the top shelf because the second shelf is hard enough for me to reach. :)



The most important thing to do when organizing, is to figure out what works best for YOU - it doesn't matter how I organize my cabinets, if it isn't a system that works for you then don't do it. I do suggest trying different things out though. It took me almost 2 years to figure out pantry and spice cabinet organization!

lots of pretty organized shelves and loves to you,
Sara

Pantry Organization

I go nuts when things get really messy and cluttered. It sends me in a funk and I just want to run through the house and throw everything away. I don't like feeling like the stuff is overtaking us - but that's exactly how I've been feeling about our pantry. Every time I open it, I just want to slam it shut again. I don't want to see it, I don't want to have to go into it. It overwhelms me. So, I decided I needed to organize it and come up with a way system that works for us (and by us, I mean me because the Hubster is not the type of person to get greatly annoyed by the pantry. He's just not.)

So here's what it ended up turning out to be like:

I realize now, that I should have taken a before picture - but I was too focused on fixing the problem, that I didn't...the same thing happened when I organized our spice cabinet and then the entire rest of our kitchen. You will just have to trust me that it was a completely disorganized mess that drove me bananas.

So what did I do?
First - I went on pinterest, searched for pantry organization and read a handful of blogs for ideas. The important thing to remember is that you need to do what fits your lifestyle and not what some blogger says you should do. I ended up incorporating suggestions from a number of different bloggers - and I'm sorry that I didn't keep their blogs handy to link you to them for more suggestions.
 
One of the things that every blogger I read had in common was to remove EVERYTHING from the panty first so I did and that totally gave me anxiety - because that's the type of person I can be sometimes.) Then, I wiped everything down and separated everything - like with like - to determine how many "sections" or "zones" we would need.

After that, I decided which items we use most frequently and arranged them on the easiest to access shelves (the middle ones - shelves 2 & 3). I put the least used items on the very top (because we're short and it's hard to reach) and then the semi-frequently used items on the the last shelf.

Here are the sections from top to bottom"
Shelf One: "Impromptu Entertaining" (That's the Red Box). The box is easy to get down, which is important since we're not tall folk and I would rather not have to dig around on the top shelf for longer than necessary.
 In the box you will find:

• Paper Plates
• Paper Bowls
• Paper Napkins
• Plastic Utensils
• Plastic Party Table Cloths
• Popcorn
• Chips
• Salsa/Dip
• Easy to put together appetizers
• And other quick snacky things.

Next to the red box are all of our serving trays and bread baskets

Shelf Two:  "Baking Items". Everything that I use for baking is on this shelf - extra flour, sugar (brown, powdered, white, raw), cake mixes, chocolate chips, extra baking powder, marshmallows, oil, pudding mixes, frosting, etc. Since we have a TON of baking stuff - I'd rather make it sweet than savory about 90% of the time - I knew it had to have it's own shelf or share a shelf with something we don't and won't have a lot of - so it shares the shelf with the "Weeknight Meals Basket". I use this basket to group all of the dry, non-perishable ingredients for our meals throughout the week. That way, when I get home from work it's super easy to just go and grab out of the basket instead of digging through the pantry. I'm sure this will be VERY appreciated when we have munchkins in a few years.

Shelf Three: "Pasta and Rice". We always have a TON of pasta - it almost rivals the baking items, but not quite. I did my best to group like pasta with like pasta - putting any duplicates together as best I could so I know when we're getting low. Barilla pastas are on the left, then it goes to macaroni and cheese type deals, then "Asian" pastas (Ramen noddles), and Rice.
Then comes the "boxed starches". Hamburger helpers, stuffing, extra bread crumbs, etc. We usually don't have a lot of this so it just gets put towards the back.  The starches share their shelf with "Canned Foods". I used a pantry/kitchen organizer shelf thing we weren't using. Broths and soups are on the bottom, veggies on top - grouped by kinds. Tuna is next to that.

Shelf Four: Separated into 3ish sections: The first section is "charity lunches & snacks", then "Powdered Beverages"- chai tea mix, iced tea mix, hot chocolate, extra coffee, extra tea, etc., and the last section is "Breakfast Foods" since we usually forget to eat breakfast on the days we're working, I figured it didn't need to have a prime shelf spot.

I then labeled each section on the edge of the shelf. It's been a few weeks since we put this system into place and it's the longest our pantry has remained organized throughout our entire marriage! And I have to say, I am glad that we are getting organized well before we have a house to manage and a family to raise. I feel like it's gonna make that a smidge easier.

I hope that, if you're looking for a way to get organized, that this at least gives you a starting point for creating a system that works for your lifestyle and personality.

Cheers!
Sara

Recipe: Flour Tortillas

Hi Family & Friends!

     The other day I decided that we were going to have burritos/tacos for dinner since we had left over beans from our small group & I didn't want things to go to waste. However, I was in a lazy mood and didn't want to go to the grocery store after I discovered that there were NO tortillas to be found in the house. So naturally, it was easier to just hand make them. Since this was my first attempt, I can't say that these popped out at me as "the best", but they were still quite delicious- even though I made them way too thick. I do, however, think that next time I will add a little more salt or something so they have a little more flavor. I got the recipe from Eat Good Food, though I deviated slightly...very slightly.

First things first - get your ingredients ready. I'm finding it much easier to measure everything out when you start. I make far less mistakes this way than when I'm doing everything at the same time.

You will need:

• 2 Cups all-purpose flour 
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp vegetable oil
• 3/4 Cup warm milk (not hot)

Combine all dry ingredients and the oil. It will a little bit clumpy and a lot of dry - distribute the oil as evenly as possible. 

Next, heat up your milk so it's warm - using the stove is probably better, but I used the microwave because I a client was on her way over and I needed to move fast.

Add the milk in slowly, I did about a 1/4 cup at a time. Mixing after each 1/4 cup. It's gonna get ooey-gooey, but it may not get ooey-gooey as quickly as you think it will. It took longer than I thought, but once it's gooey - it's pretty gooey.

Now comes the work. Turn the ooey-gooey ball of dough out on a floured surface, set the timer for 5 minutes and get to kneading. You will knead the dough for the full five minutes. The recipe didn't really say exactly how fast to knead it so I went from a medium speed to a slow speed.

When you're done kneading the dough, put the entire dough ball into a bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Let sit for 20 minutes.
Rumor has it that if you don't let it sit for the full 20 minutes that the dough will be rubbery and very difficult to work with. I decided not to test this and let it sit for the full 20 minutes.



When the 20 minutes are up, separate the dough into 8 equal sections, roll them into little balls, place in the bowl again- not touching (I used two bowls), cover with the damp cloth (again), and let sit for another 10 minutes. (At this point, my client had arrived, so they ended up sitting for about an hour to an hour and half - I don't think this really effected them.)

Next, on a floured surface, take one ball of dough and pat it out into a 4 inch diameter circle. I couldn't get it into a circle, so it was more like an oval. Using a rolling pin, roll out your dough ball into an 8" diameter circle (or oval). It's easiest to roll from center out, but find what works best for you and just go with it. I am a terrible measurement judge, so mine ended up being a bit thicker and probably closer to 6 inches than 8 inches. Next time, I'll get closer. :P [[no rolling pin pictures, sorry - I was a floury mess at that point).

Now, heat up a frying pan! I used the 8" one, realized that it was probably small for what I was attempting and after 2 or 3 tortillas switched to a larger frying pan. Don't add any oil or butter or pam or anything - just heat. Take your 8" dough circle and plop it into the frying pan for about 30 seconds, or until it starts to bubble up, then flip it over and heat the other side for about 30 seconds, or until it bubbles up. I found that tongs worked best in flipping sides.

Eat Good Food blog says that "They keep well in the fridge for a few days, wrapped in foil/etc. Reheat them any way you like, but I personally like putting them in foil in the oven for a few minutes until they're nice and warm."

Lots of warm yummy tortillas from me to you,
    Sara

New Website

Hi Friends!

I have just launched my new and re-glammed website - so go check it out! It's got new photos, an updated theme, easier navigation on the contacts page along with social media connections and a sign-up for the monthly newsletter.

 www.lipstickandloves.com

Thanks!
-S