Franny's Thanksgiving

I write from my grandma's couch, watching South Park episodes while my younger brother mixes a drink from the bar.  It's our last night hanging out before we both have to go home to our normal lives.  These few days have been a welcome reprieve for me.  Another one of those little trips that turns into a "what the hell am I doing with my life" kind of soul-searching.  Maybe more about that later.

So here are a few pictures from the weekend... enjoy!


A really lovely drive through Sonoma County on Wednesday afternoon.



The traffic was epic.  Truly.



I didn't help much with the actual cooking of the meal.




But I did enjoy eating it.  Back to calorie counting starting Monday.  Promise.

It was a great Thanksgiving.  So anyway, more South Park watching and then a few hours of sleep before the eight hour drive to get home.  But I have a feeling a certain someone will be looking forward to seeing me again... and I don't mean my cat.

xoxo
S.R.W.



Arts Alive!

All of my posts seem to be at least a week or two behind... I need to do better with that.  If only I had more time to spend at home alone, on the internet, instead of with my wonderful new boyfriend.  Just kidding! 


Here are two of my favorite pieces...

Gumball machine button baby doll robot sculpture...
failed to get the info on the real title or name of the artist...



mermaid with fishing lure tail... love this!

We went to the Morris Graves Museum of Art first, then down through some of our favorite spots in Old Town.  It was a fun night!  I had a blast... and of course, we finished it off with a visit to our favorite little watering hole, the Shanty!

xoxo
S.R.W.

Halloween Weekend

So much fun!

Halloween was great.  I looooved being Barbie!  The blonde wig was great... I have a feeling I will get more use out of it than I originally anticipated.



Barbie, enjoying a Mad River Brewery Steelhead


Super cute!  I wish I had a better picture of what I was wearing, but unfortunately I was too distracted (by the beverages, and my new guy) to record my costume.  Matt actually took this picture with my phone.  Matt is my handsome wonderful fella.  He bravely went with me to a work party on Saturday, and he was a champ the whole time.  Everyone loved him and gushed about how handsome he is. 

We went out to the Shanty too, Friday night.  I should have had more pictures of my various costumes (angel at work on Friday, top hat and tuxedo shirt Friday night, Barbie Saturday and Sunday) but as I've mentioned, the distractions. 


The pumpkins were very cool.



Love the spider

And there was much revelry and beverage drinking.  Barbie enjoyed beer, but took it up a notch on Halloween night.  Which may or may not have been a good idea, as Halloween was on Sunday, and Barbie had to work on Monday morning at 8 a.m.  I powered through.

So that's all for now, quite a lot of fun.  It's one to remember, glad to share it with you!  I will try to post more often.  I should be able to manage it a little better in the near future, as I settle into a lovely and comfortable new routine.

xoxo
S.R.W.

Barbie Goes Greek

So it's decided... I'm going to be Barbie for Halloween!

1959 Barbie

I got a shiny pink dress to wear... and as I may have mentioned in a previous post, I have the platinum blonde wig already.  So much fun! 

Made a wonderful Greek pizza tonight... fresh dough from WinCo, pesto, mozzerella and feta, kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, and baby portabella mushrooms.  So good!  I really should have taken a picture of it when it was cooked... didn't happen though!  And I would have leftovers, but I ate 3 pieces and gave the rest to a new... ahem... friend of mine.  Quite enjoying the new fella in my life. 

So anyway, Greek pizza and Barbie.  Quite a fun weekend.  I promise I'll get a pic of my costume.  I'm a little bit excited about it.  And now, off to a new work week!

xoxo
S.R.W.

Too Many Tomatoes?

So, I made the curried eggplant!  I was so very excited to be chopping vegetables as I enjoyed my wine... I believe that enjoying wine is an essential part of the cooking... that and music.  My soundtrack included M.I.A., Snow Patrol, and Deadmau5.

Step 1: pour the chef a glass of wine

My ingredients were wonderful.  Super fresh cherry tomatoes, lovely basmati rice from the bulk food section at the Co-Op, eggplant (which is one of my newfound beloved vegetables) and fresh basil. 


I discovered that the chopping of cherry tomatoes is slightly tedious.

The recipe says to add 2 cups of water, which seemed to make the veggies very soupy, and seemed to dilute the curry a bit too much.  I may have possibly put too many cherry tomatoes in the pan though... not sure. 

So I cooked it as much as I thought I should, didn't want to overdo the veggies... and I plated my first cooking experiment, along with 1/2 a slice of naan and some plain nonfat Greek yogurt, made by my very favorite yougurt company Zoi.  And voila!  My dinner:

So, I am pleased with my dinner making.  Very pleased!  I also have a feeling that it's going to be even better tomorrow, as the spices soak in and make the veggies more flavorful.  And it looks like I'll have a few more days to figure out whether or not I like this stuff... cuz I have quite a supply of leftovers...



Dinner for the rest of the week!  Seriously!

xoxo
S.R.W.

Franny Wants to Cook

So tomorrow night (or perhaps Wednesday) I am going to cook.  Yes, that's right.  I'm going to cook dinner using raw food items and combine them into something delicious, and incidentally, under 400 calories per serving.  I am going to follow the Real Simple recipe for:

Curried Eggplant with Tomatoes and Basil

Right now, the ingredients are in a box, in my refrigerator.  They look like this:


Ingredients from the North Coast Co-Op

I promise to post a picture of my own finished dish as soon as I make it.  I'm a little bit excited about cooking dinner.  I need to focus on making real food for myself, instead of just heat and eat stuff.  Although I will say, I've been surviving on Amy's frozen Indian dishes:




Mattar Paneer



Palak Paneer

 So amazingly yummy that I actually have cravings for them.  I get a little bit excited when I know that I'm going to have my Mattar Paneer for lunch that day.  I also enjoy some delicious naan when I have these meals... I'm a big fan of all types of bread...

Hmm... almost hungry now looking at all this food.  Oh, BTW, Franny may have a new boy in her life soon.  Will be sure to keep you posted.

xoxo

S.R.W.



Franny's TV Style Icon

Love.  This.  Show.

I adore the style on the show... love Christina Hendricks... she is so beautiful!  And what a figure! 

Love it!

xoxo
S.R.W.

Franny's Latest Obsession

Pink and Red La La Love mini top hat by TwoBackFlats

Mini Beaux Victorian Top Hat by Topsy Turvy Design

Hot Pink Glitter Mini Top Hat by Janine Basil

 I love love love mini top hats.  I bought one yesterday to wear for Halloween.  I also bought a cute little pill box hat with bats in the veil.  Can't wait to wear them! 

xoxo
S.R.W.

Franny's favorite wall art

So since I was around the house for most of the day, not wanting to leave my new internet connection, I took a few pictures of the framed art I have on my walls.  I love to be surrounded with things I like... almost to the point of excess.  Anyway, some phone photos for your viewing pleasure:



"Framboisiers" framed lithograph



little wooden heart wall hanging



Two chickens, hanging in my kitchen



little mushroom wall hanging



antique little lady print


In addition to finding a new appreciation for my domestic surroundings, I did a lot of work with my Etsy site.  One of my favorite hats is the "Fat Tuesday" hat, a super colorful fuzzy hat with a little vintage leather button on the side.  The other hats are fun too.  I'm a little bit excited about the glass head I got at the mall today.  It's just a cool decoration, when I'm not using it to take pictures!



Fat Tuesday hat



Charcoal

So all in all, a good productive day!  I can hardly wait to see what tomorrow's 5 blog posts will be about!  Maybe something about The Office.  I've watched the first disk of season six today, twice.  I love the show.  I want to be Pam.

xoxo
S.R.W.

Franny's new internet connection

Yay!

I am currently blogging from my apartment!  I'm sooooo happy to finally have an internet connection in my own little room.  Yaaaay hooray!  So I am hoping that this means I will be updating more often, and maybe enjoying life a little more.  You wouldn't believe the number of things every day that I want to look up.  Inquiring minds want to know!  And being connected makes me feel a little less isolated. 

Slight distraction... a marching band just went by my house.

So it looks like the Casa Kid Walk route goes right by my house.  Ok, that explains all the people I saw walking in the street as I looked out my kitchen window over the trees and garage roof.  At first I just saw a couple wearing straw hats and carrying water bottles.  Then I saw matching outfits.  It started to come together at that point.  Then the Marching Lumberjacks and revelry.  And without the internetwebs, how would I have known what this mysterious event was?

CASA is a really worthy organization.  I have actually considered becoming a CASA advocate.  And now that I have a link to all the information I need, I can look into it for real!

Ok, so that's the first blog post of the day.  I hope that I'm able to actually leave my house now that I have the internet at my fingertips! 

xoxo
S.R.W.

13 Hats

yay!  finally got the picture to work!  added 10/9/10

Hats!  Hats all weekend!  I stayed in last night instead of going to Arts Alive.  Grandma and I had cheeseburgers and watched "who-done-its" (Grandma calls murder mystery and cop shows "who-done-its"... adorable) and I crocheted like a madwoman. 

Ugh.  I just spent such a long time trying to get the pictures to upload.  I don't know what is wrong with my computer tonight.  I've been watching Lifetime all day.  So many Lifetime movies.  Wonderful.  Not to mention I finished my laundry, so all in all it has been quite a productive day.

Not much to report, other than all of the hat making.  The only thing to say about spin class crush, is that there is nothing more to say about spin class crush... not sure what went wrong, but it did, and now there's not much to say on the subject. 

Here is my new favorite blog:
http://urbanweeds.blogspot.com/

I want to move to Portland, bigtime. 

So, no photos of my new hats because my computer is being difficult.  Perhaps tomorrow!

Saturday is the Best.

Yesterday

mimosa at Golden Harvest Cafe in Eureka

was

cheese fries at Golden Harvest

 
delicious.

Mango flavored Long Island Iced Tea at Applebee's

 

 

 

I got an adorable polka dot dress at Ross.  I'm going to wear it tomorrow for work. 

xoxo
S.R.W.

3 Desserts

It has been quite a few days since I've had a chance to post anything... I found out that my laptop has some sort of virus that makes my email address send random links for Canadian Viagra to all my friends and/or coworkers.  Not a good thing.  Tonight I'm using my mom's computer.  It has a very big screen... so big I feel like I could just jump into it like a portal into another time or place.  Wouldn't that be fun?

So, spin class guy and I went downtown on Tuesday for a chat and a walk.  I had some iced tea, he had some ice cream.  We might be getting together this weekend for a beach picnic, which would be fun.  I'm hesitant to think any more about it, because I'm not quite sure how invested I want to be just yet.

On Wednesday night, my mom and grandma and I went out to the Looking Glass House, a new restaurant in Eureka.  It was really good food... I enjoyed it in spite of the fact that it completely sabotaged my calorie counting for the day.  Here are the desserts we enjoyed with coffee:

I had the chocolate mousse:

Mom had the chocolate torte cake:

Grandma had the key lime cheesecake:

Yum, yum, and yum.  I can personally testify that all three of these desserts were delicious.  I tried all of them, as much as my full stomach would allow.

And with that, a sweet goodnight.  Weekend, here I come!

xoxo
S.R.W.

Statues

So, drumroll please...

Spin class crush wants to go out!  He asked me if I wanted to go out and get tea or coffee...  He is so cute.  So we'll see.  I have to admit, I'm already trying to find reasons it won't work out.  Ugh.  Why am I so cynical? 

Anyway, I'm looking through my New York trip pictures to find something I want to post tonight.  I went to NYC at the end of July with one of my fabulous friends, and it was such a wonderful trip.  I had so much fun.  Tonight's photos will be statues.  Have I mentioned I have a thing for statues?  I'll be reminiscing about Paris soon (my May 2009 adventure), and there were some awesome statue photos from that trip too.

Here are some of my favorites from my recent trip to the Big Apple:

at the Metropolitain Museum of Art

Love this one... just wonderful.

Marble head of a goddess

4th century B.C.

Found these near Radio City Music Hall... it was a pleasant statue surprise!

Goodnight all!  Happy Friday tomorrow!  Yaaaay!!

xoxo

S.R.W.

Dishes

Today was alright. 

I did some dishes, and randomly decided to take pictures of them.  I don't know why.  It's fun to try and see ordinary things in a less ordinary way... find symmetry where it's not expected to be.

I like the way the light shines through the water in the cup in the second picture, and the repetition of the circle shape in the top picture. 

I ate an eclair for dessert... it was 210 calories.  All in all I think I made it under 1800 calories today.  That's about where I need to be if I'm going to see some weight loss.  I have about 20 lbs. left that I'd like to lose.  Anyway... dishes. 

My crush asked if I was going to be at spin class on Thursday... what does that mean?  He asked twice... why does he want to know?  Hmm... I guess I'll have to wait till Thursday to find out... the suspense is killing me!  Don't worry, I'll keep you posted.

xoxo

S.R.W.