Hot Mess

A coworker of mine brought in two big bags of peppers from his garden. I'm guessing one family of five can't eat two big bags of peppers all by themselves? Crazy talk :) Since this was the second time he brought them in, I decided this go-round that I would take them home and make jalapeno jelly. What a GREAT IDEA, right? I mean, yes, it ended up being a great idea; however, there's also this tiny part where my hand turned into a ball of flaming fumes and fire. But I get ahead of myself.

I'm into this thing lately where I want to know exactly where my food comes from. I think maybe I've just hopped onto the locavore game because it seems like I'm not the only one who's back into canning and making things from scratch. Either way, I thought this would be a great opportunity to learn how to make jelly. A few years ago, I made orange marmalade (and then orange butter) from the tree in my backyard and it was really satisfying...and yummy! Talk about from cradle to grave with that one! And since I love jalapeno jelly, canning, and homemade stuff, I figured this would be a match made in heaven!

I followed this recipe pretty closely. And even though my coworker warned me that I should wear a glove, did I wear a glove while cutting these spicy beasts? No, of course not. Because I actually thought to myself, oh I don't need that. I'm tough. I don't need gloves. Well, perhaps I am tough, but I'm also an idiot because the day before I had picked steamed crabs. And if you're not familiar with picking crabs, that means that the day before I had scratched up my hands and created little crevices for the jalapeno oil to penetrate into my skin. Oh so smart. After slicing and dicing one big bag of peppers, my hand was on fire. FIRE, I tell you. As in, it woke me up in the middle of the night FIRE. As in, I had to sleep with my hand on a ice pack FIRE. As in, hot water from a shower or doing the dishes or just washing my damn hand after going to the bathroom set my fingers on fire FIRE. Please learn from my mistake and wear gloves if you're going to make this jalapeno jelly!

Anyway, my jalapeno jelly adventure worked! Not only am I am now the proud owner of six jars of jelly, but it also effectively distracted me from NOT getting a text or phone call from a stupid boy. Whatever. I have jelly and he doesn't. (I don't think you're ready for this jelly!) I'm super excited. I tried some at home last night to make sure it didn't taste like crap and it was delish! A bit runnier than the stuff I've bought at the store in the past, but still tasty. I'm assuming the honey-like consistency is because I used powdered instead of liquid pectin. I also used plain vinegar, since my convenience store didn't have apple cider. I'm pretty sure you're allowed to trade things in and out unless you're baking...which is basically chemistry...which I nearly failed. So there's always that. Anyway, I'm serving it up with some Ritz crackers and cream cheese to my coworkers today to see what non-biased people thing. But I think that this is a winner :)

Love,

Stephanie Marie

Making It Mine

I decided that since I'm going to be staying in my current apartment for the next 10 months, I might as well make it feel and look like my home. So last night I started moving some things around, hanging pictures up, and just putting together a plan for how I want my place to be. Here's a shot of my day bed after my updates.

Day bed update.

Here's the before shot. I exchanged the duna for a crocheted blanket my grandma made me. I also FINALLY sewed the two pillows you see on either end. They're made from Ikea rugs and pillows; I think the entire project cost me around $10. I also moved my coffee table to the side (you can kind of see it off to the right). I'll need to pick up a lamp for over there. And I also want to get a floating shelf for over the bed. The script painting, which still isn't done, will be moved to the hallway. 

What do you think? It's starting to feel more like my home, which I love! And I'm trying not to spend much money on these changes, so I'm going to have to put my thinking cap to get creative. Anyway, I'm off to a concert that my friend is performing in tonight and a massage with my mom tomorrow. Happy Friday!

Love,

Stephanie Marie

Making a Home

I have a few things bubbling around in my life right now. And for some reason, I just don't feel like blogging. Usually for me that means that I'm unhappy. Creativity and happiness usually have a direct correlation. But that's not really the case right now. I think because my life is just do darn busy, I need some time to decompress and relax. 

 view full image

"Robin's eggs in the geranium #annapolis #flowers"

Anyway, one of the things that I'm going to be doing is decorating my apartment in Baltimore. I've signed the lease to stay another 10 months, and I think it's about time I make it my own space. I've been living with the bare minimum to get by for the past 6 months, but 10 makes it feel more like home. Bring on the culinary utensils! Come on with your full-length mirror! Hand me an iron! (It's crazy what I learn to live without!) Here's a picture of what I'm currently being inspired by for my "living room":

 

Anything inspiring you?

Love,

Stephanie Marie

Playing Catch Up

Two weekends ago, Kath came into town for Michelle's bridal shower. Although I was WAY too busy Saturday to get any pictures of before, during, or after the shower, I did snap a few of Kath and me on our date night from Friday. So, here are a few random photos from that weekend...

New purse for my birthday!

Kath and sangria at the courtyard at Tapas Adela.

Pork belly face. Seriously epic food.

Next up are pictures from LAST weekend...trying to get it all out before this coming weekend's extravaganza :)

Love,
Stephanie Marie

In-SPA-ration Take 2

This past weekend was a blur. A few friends came into town Friday for Michelle's Bridal Shower, which took place Saturday. We had to go shopping for all the food and decorations and then set up for said party. It was a whirlwind, but totally worth it for Michelley! 

But before the weekend tsunami hit, I made sure to carve a little time out of my schedule for some pampering at Salon 921 in Federal Hill. My massage was wonderful, my masseuse was lovely, and the entire experience was just what I needed! Peppermint lotion, sounds of the ocean (and Blue Angles every now and again), and blueberry tea. In heaven. Make sure you take care of you too!

Easy wall hangings.

Sliding barn door for the changing room.

Waiting room with tea and fuzzies.

Love,

Stephanie Marie

A Shot of Nature

My coworker and I have been walking at a nearby park twice every week for about a month now. We started out trying new paths, but have decided that there's one loop in particular that we really like. It doesn't hurt that the chosen loop takes exactly one hour, too! 

Can you see the deer? We saw 3 yesterday!

Usually I get really bored when I do the same thing over and over again, but I think that having a friend to walk with and the seasons to watch change has really made this a fun and "diverting" experience. Yesterday, due to the rain and heat we've been experiencing in the Mid-Atlantic, the coworker and I got to experience so much nature! Deer, fungi, rain. Oh my! It was definitely another unique trip around the loop. Gotta love a shot of nature after sitting in a cubicle all day.

Coral fungi.

Side note: I've been super bogged down with moving, my condo, my job, and other stuff that I haven't had much energy to blog. Please forgive me. Thank god for these walks or I'd go insane!

Took this a few weeks ago. Trail in the park.

Hope your enjoying the outdoors as much as I am. Have a great week if I don't talk to you again :)

Love,

Stephanie Marie

Two more days until my birthday!

A Day in the Life: Spring Edition

Some random photos for today's post. I've been doing a lot of birthday planning, fulfilling bridal party duties, and apartment hunting, so a few of my household duties have gone by the wayside. Laundry be damned! Will work for food! A dirty house is a godly house! Right? :) 

An empty fridge is a sad fridge.

I have since gone grocery shopping and washed my clothes. Now if I could only motivate myself to put them away and to use that vacuum cleaner that's been sitting in the middle of my room for over a week. Some day...

My new roommie-to-be taking a photo of a hawk w/ a rat.

How's your hectic life going for ya?

Love,

Stephanie Marie

Only 8 more days until my birthday!

Memorial Day Weekend Recap: Adventures in Maryland

You'd think I took a vacation or something, since I haven't been posting on here all week. Nope, no vacation...at least not a physical one. Guess I just needed a little mental break. Anyway, thought I'd pop in here to show what I was up to last weekend, you know, just in time for THIS weekend :)

Mama's on the Halfshell's soft shells and fried green tomatoes.

While everyone else heads to the ocean, I try to stay away from the beach for Memorial Day Weekend. There's basically one way to get to the shore and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge gets a wee bit crowded during the summer. Crowded, as in, think of it like Christmas shopping: If you go before 9am or after 9pm, you should be fine. If you go during that 12-hour window, you're going to be inching your way along the flatter-than-my-chest road to paradise. 

Strawberry festival in Davidsonville.

Oh, it's fun to get old. In high school, I would dream about the day that I was finally allowed to drive to the beach without my parents. I'd hop in a convertible with three of my closest friends, we'd put the top down, wear our bikinis, and blow bubbles around our "neighbors" while we sat in traffic. I WANTED to sit in traffic. Weird. Also, none of that happened when I finally got to drive to the beach for Senior Week. I was in my post-it-note yellow 1987 Pontiac Sunbird wearing clothes, without bubbles or traffic, and I got pulled over by a cop for speeding. Welcome to the real world, lil' Steffie!

The Shake-Down Cruise of 2012. Finally on the water!

Anyway, my idea of a grand Memorial Day Weekend now (as an adult) is being outside in nature, barbecuing, and just lounging under the sun. Even without much planning, I think this year ended up being the perfect combination of all of those things. I even had a little foodie adventure with Michelle and Ray. Soft shell crabs CONQUERED!

Sunday kayak before lunch with the Lees and Brew @ the Zoo with Katie.

How was your Memorial Day Weekend? I'm counting down the days until I turn 30. With the last few days of my 20s quickly diminishing, I'm trying not to freak out about where I am in life. Instead, I'm going to go wine tasting with my mom, have a wine tasting birthday party with my friends, and do a little alone-time spa trip. Wino much? ;)

Loyola University in Maryland wins the 2012 NCAA Championship!

Enjoy June!

Love,

Stephanie Marie

PS. If you didn't know this already, "Wedding Crashers" had it all wrong. Maryland doesn't do football and crab cakes, silly. We do LACROSSE and crab cakes :) All Maryland NCAA Division 1 tourney this year. LoCo v. UMD and guess who won? Lil' ol' Loyola. Gotta love that!

Weekend Wrap-Up: Busy Bee

I was a busy, busy bee this weekend, starting with Friday right after work. My friend Annie asked if I wanted to go to the Black Keys concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion. It's this outdoor venue that I used to go to with my parents when I was growing up, and I had no idea that it was so close to home! It's right near my work! So funny how your perspective is so different as a child. We got there hour early so we could have a little tailgating picnic in the parking lot. It was just glorious. A little sunshine. A little beer. A happy me :)

As it turns out, several of my other friends were at the concert too. Gotta love social media. I never would have randomly run into them otherwise! I also have a major appreciation for real seats over lawn seats. Gotta love getting old...

Saturday, I took my time getting up in the morning. Had an egg sandwich and a pot of tea. I just love tea. It's so comforting and this little teapot is my favorite way to make me feel like I'm indulging. It's tea...it's not special, but everything feels special in a matching outfit ;)

Around 11, I drove up to White Marsh to pick up my friend Lindsey. She was coming along for a ride to one of the wineries that I'm planning on taking my friends and family to for my birthday. Since I'd never been before, I figured it might be a good idea to check out the grounds and the grapes just in case. Don't want my friends drinking poisoned wine, so I sacrificed myself and had a tasting...and a glass...and bought a bottle :) And Linds and I sat on this porch and let the sun drift by. So relaxing. I'm hoping that we'll all have lunch on this porch in a few weeks.

On the way home, we stopped at Yogi Castle for a little sweet "lunch." It was the perfect nearly-summer treat! I got cake batter and dolce de leche yogurt with walnuts, chocolate sprinkles, and some marshmallow thingie. I'm hoping more of these will be in my near future!

After a brief nap and a quick bite with Amy and Linds, we headed to Gecko's for Michelley's 30th birthday party. I woke up early Sunday to walk to the Inner Harbor for the first outdoor yoga session of the season. But apparently it takes longer than 30 minutes to walk there from my house, so I turned around after a half hour of walking. Grabbed an iced mocha, watched a little TV, and met up with the Gibson girls for a quick trip to the National Harbor to pick up some shoes. 

I'll post those pictures tomorrow. It was all of our first time there and was super fun. Hot, but super fun. I'm pretty nervous about how over-heated I'm going to feel come July, but in the meantime I'm trying to appreciate the not-too-humid May days.

Hope everyone had a beautiful day outside in the sun! Summer is almost here, folks!!

Love,

Stephanie Marie

Me Meal: Hola, Hot Stuff

I forgot to post this yesterday. It's another great MeMeal :) I followed (pretty closely) the directions from Hungry Girl. Unfortunately, I didn't have regular mayo so I used Miracle Whip (don't judge. If it was socially acceptable, I'd eat it straight out of the jar.) and instead of bran cereal I used tortilla crumbs. Oh, and I bought a slaw mix instead of the broccoli slaw in a bag. I think I like the texture better, but I had to pick out the green pepper chunks. E-w. Surprisingly, the MW tasted just fine, but something was seriously off with the tortilla chip crumbs. They didn't have any pizazz or crunch. Oh well. I'm going to have to research some other fried substitutes as well as how Rubios makes their corn tortillas taste so darn good. These were kind of card-board like: dry and absorbent. I'm really selling this one aren't I? ;) How about a close-up shot of the yummy goodness to turn you on?

These s'rimps, as my grandma used to call them, and their mixin's were quite tasty! A little tangy, a little crunchy, and a little spicy. And a heck of a lot healthier than anything I could have bought at a taco stand...not that Maryland really has those, but you get my point. Anyway, it was a fun and quick creation, and cooking is about learning and tweaking after all. I'll tweak the heck out of these guys next time!

Adios!

Love,

Stephanie Marie

Curling Up With Clooney

I'm still working my way through my Oscar 2012 movie list. Obviously there's no longer any rush to watch these since the Oscars have been over for a few months now. But I thought it would be fun to try to see them in between whatever other cheesy movies are on my Netflix list. Last night was a perfect rainy night to watch another one: "The Descendants."

 

At first, I thought this was going to be another one of Clooney's typical heist-type movies. (Seriously, that guy is getting into a bit of a movie rut; he needs to branch out a little bit more with his roles.) But then I'd heard a lot of good rumblings about this movie, so I decided to give it a go! And I'm glad I did :) 

It was definitely a good mix of drama and comedy. His two on-screen children are ridiculous and fun to watch, and I love how you can watch the growth of their family during a terrible time in their lives. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for some nice scenery (Clooney included) and a little feel-good family film (ABOUT family, it is in fact rated R and therefore not really a film to watch WITH your family).

So there you have it. I'm trying to decide what I want to watch next, but I'm thinking maybe something a bit more exciting like a thriller. I have "Breach" and the first disc of the TV show "Las Vegas" next up; we'll see how long those last!

Are you like me when it comes to rain: You need to wear comfy clothes, curl up in bed, and watch movies all day? Or do you have a better solution to waiting out the rain?

Love,

Stephanie Marie

Rough Rider

I saw this sign and titular "rough road" on my block last night. I couldn't help but think as I walked passed it that it's certainly a sign for someone, but I am certain that this sign is not for me!  I'm sure there will be speed bumps and pot holes ahead, but rough roads? My rough road is in my rear view mirror.

Happy Friday. Happy Mothers Day weekend. Happy happy!

Love,

Stephanie Marie

Good Day, Sunshine!

 

It has been a rough week for me so far. I'm not exactly sure why, but I've needed to go home from work early, hibernate in my sweats, and sleep for about 10 hours each night. To get to the place where I am today feels so good! I'm happy, I'm jovial. Hell, you can call me Peppermint Patty because I'm in a good humor! :) At this point, I'm not sure exactly why I've been living in gray, but it doesn't matter anymore because things are on an up tick! 

Oh, hey, Friday eve! Where'd you come from? Oh, hello, sunshine! Good day to you, too! I feel like I should start singing my nieces' song: "Hello to sunshine. Glad to see you, too."

Totally unrelated side note: My coworker's listening to Peter Gabriel...by choice! Also, I heard a favorite childhood song on the new VW commercial. Love it :)

Has anyone else had a case of the springy blues?

Love,

Stephanie Marie

Photo courtesy of pinterest.