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Monday, March 23, 2015

Food Rules Everything Around Me

Hello! Kali here, writing to you from the frigid north! All I keep seeing are everyone's 'First Day of Spring' posts, and we had snow this weekend! I'm so desperately wanting to see some flowers in bloom, or any sign that Spring is actually here. Until then, I'll keep crafting up a storm, and thinking about FOOD 24/7!

Eddy and I have still been doing pretty well with our diet, with a few cheat days here and there. We tried Union Square Donuts for the first time last week (an obvious cheat day), and we don't think we can ever have a stale donut from Dunkin Donuts again! Since then, all I can think about is that Maple Bacon donut, and everything else I'm not supposed to be eating! Instead of indulging myself, and hating myself later, I've just been incorporating my cravings into silly art. Here is how I gave myself pizza nails, and saved my waistline!

I chose my base color as pink, so the pizza slices would stand out, since there is no pink in pizza. Then I (very sloppily) painted yellow triangles on each nail. This will be the cheese base for each of your pizza slices. 

Next, I took my large dotting tool and made a row of brown dots, across the top of each pizza slice. Overlap the dots, so you can't see where each dot starts or begins. This will be the crust for your slices.

Now take your large dotting tool and make red dots in the center of the slices, to represent pepperoni. You can do as many as you want on each slice, or none at all! If you want a veggie pizza, you could make little green and red peppers, or brown mushrooms, whatever you want! 

Finally, I took my black striper, and outlined the pizza slice, so it will stand out more against the pink background. 

Voila! Zero calorie, adorable pizza nails! 

I could not get over how easy those nails were. I want to give everyone pizza nails! Since I was on such a food kick last night, I also decided I wanted to make some food related art to hang in our apartment. Let me be clear: I AM NOT AN ARTIST. But, I do enjoy painting, and food is fun to paint, and I want a hamburger! Instead of eating one, I painted this little baby instead... 

Silly, I know. But I love it, and it will go in our kitchen, to replace all the actual hamburgers that aren't being cooked in there! I got this little piece of wood at Michael's, along with a nice 8-pack of acrylic paints, that are really coming in handy during this cold season. As much as I am bummed that I'm still stuck indoors, this totally cheered me up!

So how about some actual food, huh? It is not pizza or burgers by any means, but last week I tried this recipe for Parmesan Zucchini Crisps, and fell in love. I'm not a huge fan of vegetables, so I love when I find a way to make them, so I forget they're good for me! Here's how you can do it to:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and slice two zucchinis into quarter inch slices. 

Coat your pan with the non-stick spray of your choice, and arrange all of your zucchini slices, so they are all butted up against each other. 

Next, season your zucchini. You can use whatever seasons you want, but I used salt, pepper, and garlic powder. 

Using a spoon, press a thin layer of parmesan cheese onto each zucchini slice. Then pop them in the oven for 15-20 minutes. 

Keep an eye on these while they are in the oven, because as you can see, they can burn easily! Lucky for me, I like things crispy. These turned out to be a tasty, and healthy snack alternative, that were super easy to make! Do any of you have good recipes you use when you're craving something bad for you? We would love to hear from you, and know how you beat the diet blues! 



Monday, March 16, 2015

Polka Dots & Daisies

 Hey Dolls, It Bekah and I'm back! 

Wow what a crazy month. After a year of planning our wedding it was over in a blink of an eye, and honestly we are kinda sad its all over. During our honeymoon we kept saying how we wished we could do it again.We wouldn't change a thing, we just want to keep celebrating will all of our family and closest friends. I'm going give you the day in a nut shell. 



So where do I even start. Well first can I just say, I have never felt so pretty in my whole life. I think that “bridal glow” is a real thing.

The morning of my wedding I was so anxious and ready see Jerry and all our friends and family. My mom had a few surprises for me throughout the day. The first one was getting picked up in this sweet 1966 Ford Fairlane. This made the ride to the venue so memorable. My bridesmaids and I were girl talking and laughing the whole way there. Its a moment that my girls and I will always remember. 
Now after this, things start to get a little blurry, everything was on fast forward. 


I wore polka dots on my wedding day. The dress was a show stopper. When I bought my dress, people thought I was crazy. I had it custom made from a designer I found on Etsy, Pixie Pocket in New Zealand. Unfortunately I couldn't see it, feel it, or try it on. Not gonna lie, I was a little nervous.   I researched her reviews and exchanged emails with her. Her past brides looked amazing and couldn't stop raving about how happy they were. The quality of her dresses exceeded my expectations and more.  There were no alterations needed, it fit like a glove. Pixie Pocket made my dream wedding dress come to life. 
My bridesmaids dresses took me longer to find. I had 3 bridesmaids originally but unfortunately had a little unexpected drama. Long story short, I'm very happy I ended up with these 2 ladies. My Maid of Honor Lauren wore a pink tulle dress from unique-vintage , and Sarah wore a yellow lace dress from ModCloth . They were the best bridesmaids. 

 

The guys looks so handsome. Those who know Jerry know how much of a wrestling fan he is. He gave all the guys wrestling socks to wear for the wedding.  Jerry and his best man Barry wore Macho Man, Jason and Brandon wore Ultimate warrior, and Mike work Hulk Hogan. The handmade ties and fun socks added a nice personal touch for them. 


We had Go Get Gone (a local rockabilly band) played our ceremony and cocktail hour music. Ive know Mike and Angi for many years and instantly envisioned them playing on the porch at our wedding. A month into wedding planning I had them booked. They were so excited to be there and they really were the icing on the cake. Everyone had a blast bopping around and watching them play.
Without my Mom none of this would have looked so nice. She took our ideas and ran with them. Her and my step-dad transformed this old, boring building into a beautiful, unique space. They gave Jerry and I the most amazing day. It was a great way to start our happily ever after.
Stay tuned for more details from our wedding. For now I'll leave you with one last photo. 


















Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Everything I've ever loved

Hey y'all, Kali here! The weather here finally warmed up to 43 today (a heat wave, right?), so I decided I would throw some spring colors on my digits. I just started following this Australian nail salon on Instagram, +I Scream Nails - Melbourne Nail Art, Collingwood, and the design I chose is a mash up of a few they did this past week. Basically, it consists of everything I've ever loved!

I started out by choosing my base colors, and giving all of my nails two coats of their color. 
My thumbs got lavender stripes, so the bottom half of my nail will look like the paper lining of a cupcake. 
Next, I took my large dotting tool, and made 3 white dots going across the center of my nail. Then I went back with my white polish, and filled in half my nail, so the white part now looks like the icing part of a cupcake. 
My pointer fingers then got diagonally striped, to give the look of my pastel rainbow.
I did the same thing with my large dotting tool, and made 3 more white dots across the bottom half of my nail. Then filled in with white again, so my nail looks like clouds with a rainbow behind it. 
I decided to put donuts on my ring fingers! I started with making a ring with brown polish, to resemble the dough part of the donut. I did not use a striper for this part, I just used the regular brush that came with the polish. 
Then I went over the brown polish, with pink, leaving a ring of brown around the outside and inside of the donut. The pink part is the frosting on the donut.
Going back with all of my different colored stripers, I made several small lines on the pink icing, to resemble the sprinkles. 
At this point, I was exhausted, so my middle and pinky fingers just got tiny polka dots in colors to match! 

Of course I decided to add little faces on my clouds and cupcakes, making them super Kawaii! I made the eyes with black polish, and my large dotting tool, and the mouths with the black striper. 
Boom! Rainbows + cupcakes + donuts + Kawaii = CUTE OVERLOAD! I hope you all go paint something you love on your nails now. I promise, it will make your day! 










Sunday, March 1, 2015

MARCHing to a new beat

Happy March, y'all! I don't know about you, but I am super glad February is over! I know I have said it a million times, but this winter is kicking my butt, and every inch we get closer to Spring, is a better day for me. I woke up with some new motivation, and a much better attitude than I've had so far in 2015.

Along with my bad February attitude, I fell off the diet wagon for the better part of last week. One too many beers were drank, I definitely consumed multiples of the forbidden carbs, and there may or may not have a been a late night stop at McDonald's. Shame. Shame on me! Anyways, today was a new day, with a whole new set of calories to eat up. I decided to not continue this shame spiral, and whipped up one of my favorite Pinterest recipes: buffalo cauliflower.


Since we are still trying to be as gluten free as we can, I decided to tweak the recipe a little bit, and breaded the cauliflower with quinoa flakes. All you need is cut up cauliflower, 2 eggs beaten, quinoa flakes, and buffalo sauce. Dip the cauliflower in the eggs, then the quinoa flakes, throw them on a baking sheet, and in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes.

They should look like this after the first 15 minutes.

Toss the baked cauliflower in the buffalo sauce, until it is all covered. I used store bought buffalo sauce this time, but Eddy has made sauce from scratch in the past. You can do whatever you want!

The cauliflower then goes back on the sheet, and in the oven for another 15 minutes. After that, you should have these tasty little nuggets, that are ready to eat!

Super easy, right? I was convinced that these would not be anywhere near as filling as eating buffalo chicken, but I was totally wrong. Not only is this a delicious meal, but it is also satisfying! I get pretty bored eating vegetables, so this is a quick and easy way to (literally) spice up your meal.

I hope everyone had a more positive start to March like I did, and that you all did something that made you happy today!