Operation Surprise Party was a success!

I've told a few of you about my the surprise party my dad and I have been planning for my mom, but I didn't trust myself to post about it until after the fact. I'm glad I resisted too, because I probably would've spilled the beans and then it would've been ruined! But anyways, it wasn't! It was a complete success - just look at her face!

Oh, and did I mention it was a toga party? Yeah, that's right, a whole bunch of my parents' friends came dressed up in togas in all different materials and colors like they were still in college! It was awesome. I'll have to try and find a good picture of all of the colors.

So I guess I'd better back up a little bit. My dad had the idea of a surprise party for my mom awhile ago and quickly got me and a few of our neighbors and friends in on it. Then he moved on to the tennis team (my mom plays tennis all the time). Our list of attendees quickly ballooned to about 35 people (we were originally expecting, like, 20). And then it fell to me to get things more organized from there - getting the supplies we needed and sneaking them into the house, ordering the cake, etc. So I made a walmart run and had a whole bunch of soda rolling around in my trunk for a day or so (good thing it was a few days ahead of time so it could settle down again lol). And then I had to find plastic wine glasses and a few random things, so I made a Party City run. Oh, and ordered the cake from Whole Foods. And then in the middle of all that, Dad decides a toga party would be fun (I think he gave people about 72 hours notice on that one... lol) That was all fine and dandy, though. The real interesting party was the day of the party.

We didn't tell Rob until literally 12:00pm the day of the party. And we told him not to tell anyone. So what does he do? Call our neighbor, who was also in on it, about 5 minutes after we tell him. Good thing she knows him and told him, "do not tell your mother." After that, I went to the gym, and pretended to work out for, oh, you know, three hours. Well, I actually worked out for about an hour, then went running around the city to pick up the cake and any other last minute things we needed. Then my dad had to get my mom out of the house so I could come home and unload and get some things ready. They left about 5 minutes before I got home - phew! So then Rob and I had to figure out what to do with the cake because it wouldn't fit in our neighbor's fridge! We ended up putting it in our outside fridge and had to conspire to keep my mom away from it. But that worked out. And then we had to get the beer from our neighbor's house to our house and into an ice chest. Well, there was too much beer for the ice chest. And then we had to hide the ice chest. So I had an ice chest + extra random beers hanging out in the trunk of my car. But, whatever. After awhile, my parents came home again and got ready to go to a costume party, where they were dressed in, you guessed it, togas! So then they left again and Rob and I had about an hour to set up and get ready for the party.

We frantically tidied up and set out drinks and got some food and ice and dressed up as romans (that was hard since I didn't trust him to safety pin me...), put up a banner I made and tried to get everything we could, ready. Then people started showing up (there was about a 40 minute window between when people were supposed to begin arriving and when my mom and dad were supposed to come home). So for about 10 minutes, people just poured through the door. Rob and I had a hard time keeping up with introducing ourselves and welcoming them and getting them inside. But everyone was so nice it hardly mattered. And then all of a sudden my dad calls and says they'll be arriving soon. So a few minutes after he called, I had everyone quiet down (as much as possible haha) and turned the lights off. Rob kept a look out and let us know when they were pulling in. Then when she walked through the door, he flipped the lights on and we all yelled surprise! The look on her face was priceless... I wish I captured it better.

But I did get a good picture of her with the cake!



Anyways, it was a really fun party (partying with my parents' friends is always a good time haha- I love hearing their crazy college stories). And if you read this whole thing, then props to you! If not, well, then you're probably not reading this anyways, but that's ok, I don't blame you. I just wanted to get this down because it was fun for me :)

Birdsong

Well, it's that time again! Book review time. Ok, so maybe it's not that exciting, but I've been meaning to post about the book I just finished for a few days. I just finished Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. I got it at Borders awhile ago, right before they closed (so I bought it for $3 when it was originally $16- score!).


Anyways, the book is set in France before and during WWI and also England in the 1978. It centers around a young Englishman, Stephen Wraysford, who falls in love and has an affair with Isabelle Azaire, a married French woman, while visiting France. The novel follows Stephen as he falls in love, joins the British military, perseveres through life in the trenches and finally sees the end of the war. This review is actually really hard to do because I can't really give too much of a summary without giving away much of the story. It's a beautifully written eye-opening account of the horrors of trench warfare, but it's also a touching love story between two unlikely lovers. Furthermore, it bridges the gap between the past and present through it's dual timelines (in WWI and 1978), and shows how the past never really leaves us.

While I wouldn't rank this book in my top 5 ever, it was definitely a worthwhile read, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a little deeper, multifaceted story. I apologize for the lack of substance in this post, but I really hope you'll take my word and pick up up (or if you want, you can borrow it from me).

Hope you're having a good weekend!

Ps. I'm super psyched to post tomorrow... my dad and I are frantically preparing for my mom's surprise party tonight, so it should be a lot of fun and I'll tell you all about it tomorrow! xx

Chicken Marsala

Everything's better with wine, right? Especially cooking, in my opinion. Anyways, it was my mom's birthday on Tuesday, so in our house, the birthday person gets to chose whether we stay in or go out to dinner and if we stay in, they can choose the meal. So, my mom decided she wanted to stay in and she wanted chicken marsala. And so, that's what I made. This post won't be as good as the other one because I forgot to take pics, sorry!

Anyways, here's what you need: (oh, and I rarely measure... so its mostly according to taste, hope that's ok)
- chicken cutlets, or chicken breasts pounded (either way, they should be about 1/4" thick)
- 1/2 cup marsala wine (ok, maybe I lied about measuring)
- some chicken stock/bouillon/broth/whatever (ok, maybe not)
- olive oil
- butter
- flour
- salt and pepper
- italian seasonings
- crushed/chopped garlic
- onion/shallots (if desired)
- mushrooms, sliced
- fresh italian parsley, chopped (if desired) (aka flat leaf parsley)

And here's what you do with all that stuff:
- Get a big skillet and heat up some olive oil (you want it hot, but not smoking - smoking oil is baaaad)
- While that's heating, dredge your chicken pieces in seasoned flour (flour + salt and pepper + italian seasonings)
- When the oil is hot, pan fry the chicken pieces until brown, then flip over
- While that's going, heat the oven up to 200 degrees
- Once both sides of the chicken pieces are browned, transfer to an oven-safe pan, cover with foil and put in the heated oven to keep warm
- After all the chicken has been browned and is in the oven, add a little bit of olive oil and saute the onions/shallots (if you're using them) until tender, then add garlic and saute for ~30 seconds.
- Add Marsala wine and ~1/2 cup of chicken broth to pan
- Bring to a boil and let reduce to about half
- If you think the sauce is too thin, mix some flour or cornstarch into 1/4 cup water or broth to make a roux, then add to sauce. Reduce further.
- If you think the sauce is too thick, add some Marsala and/or broth
- When you're happy with the consistency of your sauce, add some chopped fresh italian parsely
- Take the chicken out of the oven and put in a serving bowl
- Pour sauce over chicken
- Garnish with italian parsley
- Enjoy with fresh pasta and steamed vegetables!

I hope that recipe made sense.. if it didn't, please let me know and I'll edit it and keep your comments in mind for future recipe posts!!

Ps. On a completely unrelated note, I'm obsessed with Gym Class Heroes and Adam Levine's song Stereo Hearts. Just thought you should all know :)

Family Time

Hey all, sorry for the major lapse in posting, but I have a good excuse I swear! This past Thursday, my cousin and two of my aunts came to visit! My dad and Rob were taking off for a guy's weekend in Texas, where my other cousin goes to school (Texas Tech) and so we decided to have a girl's weekend! So they got in Thursday night and we all had dinner as a large family (my dad and Rob were still here) and then had carrot cake for the moms' birthday (my mom and her twin, my aunt Lisa, each turned older (I don't think they'd want me to put the number here haha) yesterday) and for my cousin (Emily's) bday (she's turning 13 tomorrow - omg she's gonna be a teenager! I'm so old.). Then on Friday we went to Garden of the Gods and played tourist in Colorado Springs. Here's a few pics at GoG:



On the left is all of us in front of Pike's Peak (the local 14er, which for you non-Coloradoans (Coloradans? Coloradons? I dunno...) is a mountain who's peak reaches 14,000 feet or higher. Pikes Peak hits 14,110 feet) the one on the right is Emily and I in front of a plaque that says Garden of the Gods was donated to the City of Colorado Springs.

Then, Friday night, Em and I went to the Colorado College hockey game against Bemidji State (which is in Minnesota). It was a really fun game and CC won 3-1, so that was exciting as well. Someone thought I was Em's mom, though, so that wasn't so fun... do I look like I'm thirty? Or old enough to be a 12 year old's mom?? I hope not... Anyways, it was fun. We got super cheap tickets, waaaaaay up high in the back, but then moved down to the front row of the upper section after the first period.

That night we watched some movies (Footloose and Dirty Dancing, my former (tear) roommates know how much I love dance movies!).

The next day we had a lazy morning and then drove to Breckenridge! The drive took at least an hour longer because we kept having to make random stops (photos, shopping, snacks, potty, etc.) but I love that drive, its so scenic. So, we got there, checked into our sweet condo and then went shopping! We had a great shopping day, everyone bought something and the town in Breck is super cute and quaint and has just great stuff there. Below is a pic of us showing off our purchases (and notice the shopping bags in the background).


My mom is wearing one of the mitten/glove thingys that I got (you know, the ones where the mitten part flips back so you can use your fingers), Joanie is modeling her new scarf, Em is wearing her new hoodie and showing off the stuffed animal she got for her friend, I'm wearing a hat I bought and Lisa is displaying her new bag.

The next day we did some more shopping and walking around and then it was time for the CA crew to go home! It was a quick weekend, but really fun and I'm really glad we all got he chance to get together!

Ps. sorry there was a lack of food discussion here, funny since we ate a *lot*, but maybe tomorrow :)

Pps. I couldn't leave this pic out...

My latest nail obsession: sparkles!

A few weeks ago, my mom and I went and got pedicures together. We both went out of our comfort zone: she got dark purple and I got sparkles. Well, after a few weeks, our toes were looking a little worse for wear. So we decided to make a Target run and get some nail polish to touch up. My mom found a great color that matched almost perfectly. I didn't fare as well. However, I did pick up a black color by Sally Hansen and a sparkly polish (I'd been meaning to get black for awhile and then I got the very last Nicole Make a Comet-ment bottle. It was seriously calling my name.) I played around with the sparkles by itself (too much, maybe for spring) and over a few colors (pink and red were alright, but not for fall). The ones that worked out were black (below) and my mom's purple (above). I put the purple on my fingers since I think it's a little more subtle and the black on my toes (one layer each). Then I put one layer of Make a Comet-ment on my fingers and toes, followed by one coat of top coat.



I'm new to this photographing my nails thing so bear with me, but I think I did an alright job. If you look close in the pictures, you can see all the different holographic colors in Make a Comet-ment. I absolutely fell in love with this nail color when I saw my nails in the sun - it's like having a rainbow on each nail! Even with the dark colors underneath, the sparkles were still the main event. And I love that you can pair it with several colors, makes it so versatile and easy to work with.



What do you think? Do you have a different nail polish obsession?

Chicken Pot Pie Dinner!

My other blog from when I was abroad focused around food. Food that I ate at home with my host family (omg my host mom was such a good cook!) and food that I ate while traveling. Safe to say, my motto for those 5 months was "live to eat." And, well, I haven't been quite like that since then (probably why I'm back to a normal weight haha), but I have been cooking while at home and I decided that since people liked hearing about my food reviews so much, I'd post about my latest creation and meal.

I decided to make a chicken pot pie. I'm not really sure why, but it sounded so yummy and comforting (because, I mean, really, who doesn't like chicken pot pie?). So I went to my handy dandy cookbook (Better Homes and Gardens - it's awesome.) and found a recipe for a pot pie! Well, kind of. It's one of those recipes where you can choose what kind of meat, base and veggies to put in. So, I used chicken (we bought a rotisserie chicken and shredded the meat), cream of mushrooms, carrots, mushrooms, zucchini, potatoes, string beans and shallots.



Here's how I made it: (sorry there's no pics, I got distracted by cooking) (and I didn't follow the directions exactly, but it still turned out great!)

1. Chop everything into the size you want.
2. Preheat oven to 400.
3. Heat up some olive oil in a large saucepan or pot. Add shallots, cook until tender.
4. Add everything else: veggies, chicken, cream of mushrooms, salt, pepper, italian seasonings. Stir it all around.
5. Add other liquid if necessary (I ended up adding another can of cream of chicken, 1/2 cup of water and 1 cup of chicken broth, but I had probably 3 times the amount a veggies the original recipe called for)
6. Bring to boiling.
7. Turn off heat and pour everything into a 2 quart pan.
8. Take your topper (I used a premade pie crust, but you can use almost anything - crescent rolls, biscuits, etc.) and place it over the stuff in the pan, fold any extra over the side of the pan.
9. Brush the topper with a little bit of milk, sprinkle a little bit of cheese (if you want, I used parm) on top
10. Pop it in the oven for 25 minutes.
11. When its golden and bubbly, take it out and let it sit for 20 minutes before serving.
12. Enjoy!



Sorry I didn't get a pic of it after we cut into it, but it smelled and looked so good I totally forgot in my haste to eat! It was delicious, creamy but not heavy and flavorful but not overpowering. And it was so easy! I'm definitely making it again, soon!

Wall Decor

Alright, so here's a project I'd been meaning to do since I got home from school. In May. Whoops. I guess unemployment has a way of making you catch up with things you should've been doing (like cleaning... my room is so clean now, it's weird). So anyways, when I was younger, my dad gave me a map of Middle Earth (from the Lord of the Rings, I come from nerd stock) that I put up on the wall above my bed. I think I got it when I was maybe 12 or 13. And I've wanted to change it every year since I started college, but it never really seemed worth it to do on break. But, I guess at this point, I'm not on break anymore... well we'll say an extended break at home. So, it seemed like time to finally take down that old, faded poster and put up something a little updated. Here's my wall before (but after the poster):


I decided to do a photo montage of some of my favorite pictures in both black and white and color. It took me awhile to figure out the details of everything, but eventually, I got them all framed and up on the wall. So, here's how it looks now:



I wanted to make sure that the layout left the option to add more pictures and didn't look too planned (I tried to avoid a central point and blatant symmetry) and I think it worked out pretty well! Let me know what you think :)

DIY- projects I made

Since I've had exorbitant amounts of free time lately, I've been getting into crafting. I really need to learn how to sew, that would make lots of projects possible. But I digress. Before I started this blog, I made a few things.

1. I realized that I ended up only wearing two or three necklaces when I have about a million. And my earrings were an organizational disaster. Plus I don't even know where my bracelets went. So I figured I should organize all of that. I looked online (isn't Google a wonderful thing?) and got ideas by clicking around. Then I went to Michael's and my Dad's toolbox for my supplies. I used:
- wooden unfinished frame from Michael's
- screen that I found in my garage
- black and clear gloss spray paint
- hooks from my Dad's stash of hardware stuff
- staple gun

First I used the staple gun to staple the screen to the frame. Then I ransacked by Dad's supply of hooks and screwed them in across the top and bottom. Finally, I spray painted everything black then clear gloss (after letting the black dry overnight). Then I put my jewelry in it so it looks like this now:


My necklaces are on the hooks across the outer top and all across the bottom and my bracelets are on the top middle hooks (so you can still see the earrings below it). My earrings are organized in the middle screen section. The only thing is that you can't put stud earrings in, because you wouldn't be able to get them out, but thats ok since I wouldn't be able to fit all of my earrings anyways.


2. There's this great blog called Honestly WTF and they have a great DIY section. There's this bracelet that they made that I loved, so I decided to make it also. Supplies were: a gold link bracelet (that I found at Goodwill on a bargain hunting adventure), embroidery thread (that I'm sure we all have from our friendship bracelet days) and 2 bobby pins (another staple in any girl's life). That's it! And I think they do a really good job of explaining it, so I'm not going to (also because while it's not hard to do, it is kind of complicated to describe...), but here's how mine turned out:



So, I think both of my projects turned out pretty well! Any thoughts?

Book Review- The Hunger Games

Ok, so unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard about the Hunger Games trilogy. I'd heard about it from a few people (my neighbors, my friend Devon, etc.), but hadn't picked it up because I had (and have) a stack of literally 12 books next to my nightstand to read. You see, I have this small problem of buying lots of books (and with the recent sales in Border's, who could resist walking out with less than 5 books?? Certainly not me.) and then getting distracted by other books... maybe I'm a little ADD... Anyways, my mom got one of the books and read it and told me that I NEED to read it. So, being the good little girl that I am, I did. And OH MY GOD, it was so good! I finished the first one in about 5 hours, and immediately bought the second and third books and proceeded to finish those over the next two days. I staked out a spot on my couch and spent the majority of three days there just reading.

So, I guess since I titled this as a book review, I should say something review-y like. Alright, here goes. The Hunger Games is set in a post-apolocalytpic world where the city called the Capitol rules twelve districts that collectively make up the civilization known as Panem. Katniss Everdeen is a 16 year old girl from District Twelve, the poorest district that mines coal. When her younger sister, Prim, is chosen to participate in the Hunger Games, Katniss volunteers to take her place to save her. The Hunger Games are a form of control exercised by the all-powerful Capitol and involve taking a boy and a girl between age 12 and 18 from each of the twelve districts and putting them in an arena where they fight and kill each other until only one is left alive. Katniss enters the Hunger Games with Peeta, the boy from her district and as they fight through the arena, she learns a lot about herself, the Capitol, Panem and humanity.

That's just the first book, but I feel like I can't really review all of them without giving pretty much everything away. Thus, you should read it. them. all of them. Like right now. Kthanks. :)

Diving In

Alright, so I could do a longer intro-type post about what I'd be posting and everything, but I didn't feel like it. Thus, I'm just diving right in and posting about something, instead of posting about posting.

A few weeks ago, I went to a show in Old Colorado City (for those of you not from C Springs, its, you guessed it, the older part of town) with one of my friends, Kyle, and my brother, Rob. I read about the show in our local newspaper, which said that it should be a great acoustic show by a little known artist, Jonah Werner. That article was spot on. The concert was in a teeny venue called the Loft, owned by Jonah's brother, and sat maybe 100 people (but I'm really bad at estimating the number of people, so it really could be anywhere from 80-120 people). Rob, Kyle and I were in the middle of the second row, so we had a great view. Jonah played guitar and sang, while his brother handled an accouterment of percussion instruments (bongos, snare, rainstick, that box thingy that people sit on and play, etc.). The show was great, Jonah was really funny and down to earth and his music was awesome. It was an acoustic set (which is probably my favorite type of show) and his songs were funny, sweet, serious, thoughtful and intriguing by turn. He also turned me back onto the acoustic genre (I had previously been stuck in a country genre). So, if you like acoustic music, I highly recommend checking Jonah Werner out. He's on youtube and itunes and has a website, jonahwerner.com . I also made a mix on 8tracks of a few of his songs and a bunch of other acoustic songs you may or may not know, so go check that out also: http://8tracks.com/valeriekirsten/acoustic

Let me know what you think!

Revelations on Gchat

A few days ago, I was talking to my friend Caitlin on Gchat and I was telling her about my crafting experiments (most of which worked, some of which did not) and she mentioned blogging. I've blogged before, while I was abroad in France, so that I could keep my friends and family up on my travels and meals (mostly meals) and she said she loved it. So, we both thought, why not start blogging again, for the same reason, except instead of travels and meals, it'll be more about crafting, meals and fashion. Anyways, I hope this will help me both keep myself occupied while I wait for my job to start and keep my friends and family updated on what I've been up to. Feel free to leave comments on anything and everything and thanks for reading! xx