bits and pieces

Here are a few touches in my new place that I just love love love...

Mom helped me hang these little jewels on the porch

and my blue poms came free from a colleague.

My Wolf Kahn postcards from the Art Institute got a new life in dollar-spot frames...

while my favorite initial hangs on the pretties doorknob in the house.

Oh, and I love my new rooster cookie jar!

i found a bedroom....

that looks like the spirit of my blog.

And has all the characteristics of a southern girl's dream room: pink, polka dots, monogram, and damask.

Naturally, I love it!

fashion crush!

Emma Pillsbury (played by Jayma Mays), the quirky and cute guidance counselor on Fox's popular television series Glee, is my absolute fashion crush. I am obsessed with her put-together, classy, and colorful style. Last season I googled "how to dress like Emma from Glee" and found a few pointers:

1. Dress in various shades of the same color:

 

2. Mix and match your brights.

3. Throw on a cardigan (I am obsessed with cardigans...just look in my third dresser drawer...)

4. Accessorize! And don't be afraid of bold designs.

7. Have red hair. This one's a little harder to achieve. I carry a recessive gene, have a gorgeous mother with red hair, and am marrying a red headed hunk...but am not yet bold enough to dye my dark brown hair. I'll try to pull off an "Emma" look despite that, however.

6. Shop J.Crew, Anthropologie, Bananna Republic, and maybe even Boden. The Boden catalog is my new obsession...if only money grew on trees! Here's my favorite jacket in their fall collection:

Spotted Jacket I ADORE

a beautiful wedding

Just returned home from a most lovely wedding at Nicollet Island Pavillion near downtown Minneapolis. If I was still in search of a reception venue this might be on the top of my list! No pictures from the actual ceremony and celebration (forgot the camera at home!), but here's a stock photo of the outside.

The ceremony was lovely and wonderfully conducted by my future father-in-law. The bride's father gave a beautiful toast and the cover band, The Dweebs, rocked the house. Fun to dress up for a classy affair, celebrate with the bride and groom, and meet new friends on a beautiful evening at a beautiful location. Congratulations Serena and Steve! We're so excited to see what the future holds!

fresh apple cake

Apples, apples everywhere! With the start of fall comes the start of apple season. Here's a delicious sounding recipe that I found in my newest Southern Living (October 2010) magazine. Can't wait to try it!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2  cups  chopped pecans
• 1/2  cup  butter, melted
• 2  cups  sugar
• 2  large eggs
• 1  teaspoon  vanilla extract
• 2  cups  all-purpose flour
• 2  teaspoons  ground cinnamon
• 1  teaspoon  baking soda
• 1  teaspoon  salt
• 2 1/2  pounds  Granny Smith apples (about 4 large), peeled and cut into 1/4-inch-thick wedges
• Browned-Butter Frosting,
• Dark Chocolate Frosting, or
• Cream Cheese Frosting

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Bake pecans in a single layer in a shallow pan 5 to 7 minutes or until lightly toasted and fragrant, stirring halfway through.
2. Stir together butter and next 3 ingredients in a large bowl until blended.
3. Combine flour and next 3 ingredients; add to butter mixture, stirring until blended. Stir in apples and 1 cup pecans. (Batter will be very thick, similar to a cookie dough.) Spread batter into a lightly greased 13- x 9-inch pan.
4. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack (about 45 minutes). Spread your choice of frosting over top of cake; sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup pecans.

I think I'll use the Browned Butter Frosting:

Ingredients

• 1  cup  butter
• 1  (16-oz.) package powdered sugar
• 1/4  cup  milk
• 1  teaspoon  vanilla extract

Preparation

1. Cook butter in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, 6 to 8 minutes or until butter begins to turn golden brown. Remove pan from heat immediately, and pour butter into a small bowl. Cover and chill 1 hour or until butter is cool and begins to solidify.
2. Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy; gradually add powdered sugar alternately with milk, beginning and ending with powdered sugar. Beat mixture at low speed until well blended after each addition. Stir in vanilla.

fiesta ware extraordinaire!

I fell in love with Fiesta ware the moment I stepped into the dining hall at St. Olaf College. Stacks of plates in salmon pink, sea foam green, and pale peach were everywhere. Bowls in the same muted yet vibrant colors lined the cereal display and fruit buffet. Despite the occasional crash and shatter of a plate here or a bowl there, these colors stood the test of time (well, 4 years at least) during my tenure as an Ole. Around my junior year (presumably after many plates mysteriously went home with Fiesta ware loving students or met their fate on the tile floor), a few new colors were introduced. Suddenly my day was made better when I could make my daily sandwich on the ONE navy or the ONLY bright shiny teal plate.

Life in the caf is event better these days for students. Now there are sunshine yellow plates, kelly green, and bright scarlet bowls everywhere. It's hard to have a favorite with so many bold-make-you-excited-to-eat plates.

I love Fiesta ware...but not yet as much as this guy:

The colorful world of Fiesta ware

However, I'm registered for dishes in scarlet at Herberger's for the wedding...hubs to be and I decided to buck the traditional china route and get something we really loved. For me, love means bold, bright, colors.

I'm ready to start my collection.

you can't judge a book by it's cover (or can you?)

We've all heard the adage "you can't judge a book by it's cover." Probably true, but a cover still plays a huge role in my decision to pull a book off the library shelf. When I'm in search of new (and usually light) reading material I start at the beginning of the alphabet in the fiction section and glance over every shelf quickly, pausing only if a book spine catches my eye. In order to warrant a second glance the book spine (let alone cover) has to:

a. have an interesting title
and/or
b. be colorful or have a fun font.

It's not an exact science but it seems to result in at least a few good books out of the large stack I usually take home.

Sometimes I pull out a book and read the description only to realize that this book caught my eye once before (maybe even years ago) and something in the description vaguely suggests that I've already read it. What a disappointment! (truth be told...sometimes I take it home and read it again anyway!)

the most disapointing part of reading a good book...

is that it has to end. There are some books you keep wanting to put down each time to you try to get sucked in. Those books go back to the library ASAP. Then, there are those books that you speed through, anxious to find out what's next. These are the books you bring to read in the carpool on the way to work (until you get a headache), take to the gym at your lunch break (and later look longingly at while responding to emails), and finish while curled up in your grandfather's favorite leather chair that now sits in your apartment. That's what I did with my most recent library book, anyway. Melissa Senate's The Secret of Joy was a (can you guess?) joyous read. It sucked me in, kept my attention, and made me crave bits of solitude where I could read, read, read.

But now I've finished. What to do next? I wandered around last night wondering if I should start another book from my library stack. Would it be as good? Would I get sucked into the story or would I skim the pages, waiting for something to grab hold of my attention? I decided to take my chances. I'm a few pages into a book called The Second Draft of My Life. Jury's still out as to if it will make my next blog post. Regardless, check back soon to find out my library secrets and confessions.

Finally, here are some favorite books I hated to finish:

To Kill A Mockingbird (captured my heart in 5th grade and has been a yearly read ever since.)

The Poisonwood Bible (thank you, Mrs. Freeman and senior year English!)

They Marched Into Sunlight (Perhaps the best account and insight into the Vietnam War I've ever read. An AmCon favorite.)

Plus scores of other, less intellectual beach reads.

What are some of yours?

back to school at the U!

Karl goes back to school tomorrow! He's starting his Masters of Nursing program at the U of MN and will be done in 16 months. To celebrate the occasion I baked him a little back to school cake. My goal for the layers was maroon and gold (colors of the U), but it turned out a bit more purple and gold instead. Not really a problem, though, since he's a big Vikings fan too!

Here are a few pictures of the process:

Ingredients assembled and ready to go!

The cake batter started out white....

Then ended up maroon (well, sort of) and gold!

Once the layers were done, I used a bread knife to "saw" off the rounded tops to make them easier to stack.

Here's the cake after it's been frosted with homemade buttercream...

And then after it was cut!

Our dear friends Michael and Marija came over for dinner last night and enjoyed Karl's cake with us. Hopefully this will be a sweet and inspiring start to a new grad school experience!

Be on the lookout for first day of school pictures tomorrow :)

fall...

There's a chill in the air tonight. Makes me excited for my favorite season in Minnesota: fall! There's something so cozy about sweatshirt weather.

In the south, my favorite season is spring!

Winter can take it's sweet time, however.

a midwestern ball

While on a walk around southwest Minneapolis last night, my soon to be hubs suggested I change the name of my blog to "A Midwestern Ball" and make it a commentary on Twins baseball. Though a creative suggestion, I think I'll keep it as is. However, this Midwestern belle has come to LOVE Twins baseball in recent months. I think the new stadium helps as well as the mini season ticket package hubs to be got me for a birthday present last March. We've been to almost all of our games and are so in love with the stadium, the view of downtown from our seats, and memorizing what song always comes over the loud speaker when each player steps up to bat.

I love a good game when the Twins win, of course, but I also love people watching. The many fans of the great American game are pretty entertaining to watch. So far my favorite fan is the tiny little toddler who sometimes sits in the row in front of us. He comes decked out in Twins gear with his mom, dad, and big sister. While Dad tries hard to concentrate on the game, he periodically pauses to read Thomas the Train books to his little fan and hand him another fruit roll up or bag of cheerios. I couldn't stop smiling during one game when the little guy turned around in his seat and stared at us while methodically placing one cheerio after another in his mouth.

I have a secret desire to be one of the little kids that gets to run onto the field with the players during the occasional "kids starting line up" event. To stand next to Delmon Young, Danny Valencia, Scott Baker or Justin Morneau....what a dream. Speaking of dreams, Danny Valencia and Scott Baker have made recent appearances in mine. Scott Baker and I had lunch during "halftime" of a Twins game downtown. When he had to run back to pitch another inning I made sure to get him a take out box!

The view from our seats

My sweet parents on a visit to MN!

Go Twins!