Wallpaper. It Hates Me.

Hey y'all! It's Sarah again. So... remember my post about taking down the wallpaper in the parental units' bathroom?
How that wallpaper made me go insane?
How it still affects me to this day?
How even Aunt Mary's beloved steamer cannot calm my fears of demon borders and wallpaper backing?

I do.
Vividly.

I used to be somewhat chipper about the whole wallpaper removal process. I would skip to the offending room, steamer in hand, thinking, "I'm gonna get yoooooooou!"

Now I cower in the corner until someone shoves a putty knife in my hand and tells me to pull it together.

I'm bitter.

Oh so very bitter.

So imagine my reaction when out of nowhere one evening, (As I was crazily packing to move back across the country in less than two days after presenting my five panel Master Planning final project at 7:30 AM that morning to my professor and two campus planners for Texas Tech) I receive this video.

 

(Notice the giggling of my older sister. And the stifled laughter of my loving mother who was taking the video.)

You actually don't even have to imagine my reaction because this was it.

 

There may have been some uncontrolled arm waving, hysterical laughter, and and random outbursts of, "ICAN'TBELIEVETHISWHYDOESWALLPAPERHATEMENHGRFSOAFHIJRWAFLONSNV!!!" thrown in there too. (The boyfriend and my best friend Kristin were actually present for this. I'm surprised they still speak to me like a normal human being instead of one that has a one way ticket for the insane asylum.)

But anyway, we used to find it amusing that when Rebecca was at a loss for words, she would break out in song. Well, apparently, I break out in rhyme.

That was on the spot too. 

The bathroom in question is now fully painted and blindingly shiny with new fixtures, all in the time it took me to take down half the wallpaper in the Master Bath.

 

Excuse me while I cry.  

I guess the moral of this story would be to not enter a hostile arena of vicious wallpaper with an inflated sense of confidence. The fall is painful, and the road to recovery, draining.

However, as the projects in the basement continue to move at a decent clip, I am scheduled to take down the beachy themed wallpaper in the former exercise room. I have decided to approach this task with one goal in mind:

Revenge. 

More coming soon! :)

 <3 Medium- Well

How I Ended Up A Red Raider: A Weird, Romantic Comedy

So just how did I end up at Texas Tech University? Wearing red and black, throwing my "Guns Up!", saying "y'all", and becoming an honorary Texan? (That's an official title y'all. When your Texas born friends tell you you're an Honorary Texan, that's as serious as it gets. New citizen status! Do I need another passport?)

This is going to a bit of a story. I say, "Weird, Romantic Comedy," because there's love involved, some parts were kind of funny, and it's odd how life works sometimes. (And that, boys and girls, is how titles for blog posts are made.)

As y'all know, my Mom and Dad both graduated from UT (Dad with his Master's in Urban Planning and Mom with her PhD in Economics) and Uncle Don graduated from Texas A&M. Somehow seeing the vicious friendly rivalry between our families for their respective alma maters made me want to attend school there. (Apparently, I like to decide where to go to school based on knock- down, drag out, "hidden sticker," wars and shameless t- shirt gifting.) After searching and applying for schools that had accredited Landscape Architecture programs, I narrowed down my choices to Kansas State and Texas Tech. 

First, we toured Kansas State. We stayed with Beth (aka crashed her apartment ;) ), toured campus, and visited the Landscape Architecture Department. It was awesome to say the least! Beth was there for another 1.5 years to finished her Master's degree, it's my birth state, the campus was gorgeous, and everyone we talked to was very nice. It seemed like an awesome place to be!

We took over her living room...

...And kitchen ;)

President's House

Rain Gardens! :D

Dinner time! Homemade Lasagna :)

Big, spinning globe in Beth's apartment complex.

Touring campus :)

Then, due to circumstances completely out of my control, knowledge, or future predicting capabilities...
I went and fell in love with Texas Tech.

I know. I'm difficult. :P But hear me out!
When I first started applying for schools, I never really thought that I would have that "feeling." You know, that feeling they say you get when you find the right school? The one in your gut that makes you go, "Oooooooh I get what they were talking about!" and you feel like something just settles into place? The stars align, angels sing, and you get the pony you've always dreamed of owning?? (Um... ignore that last part.)

But in all seriousness, that feeling hit me almost right away. I still remember turning to my dad and saying,
Me- "Dad, I REALLY like it here."
Dad- "Sarah, you've been on the tour for two minutes."
Me- *Smiles* "I know."

Entrance to campus

The English/ Philosophy Building

Memorial Circle :)

My church! :) St. Elizabeth's

Plant and Soil Science Building. Many of my classes are here!

Now, for any of you who know me well, you know that I have a hard time making decisions. As in, I can't even decide which pair of socks to wear most mornings. (They're all identical and they never see the light of day because I put boots or tennis shoes on and completely cover them up. Yep.) But for some reason, I just KNEW. Of course, there was the traditional decision making mess for a few days:

-A pros and cons list.
-Hours of hashing out all information the tour guides and pamphlets had crammed into our brains.
-Calling Beth for the 50th time to make sure me leaning towards Texas Tech was indeed ok and she wouldn't hate me forever.
- Badgering Dad about feeling bad, not wanting to make a decision, wanting to know what his choice would be etc. on the plane home while he probably just wanted me to zip it so he could sleep.
- Dreams about a Matador and a Wildcat duking it out on a football field. (Kidding)

But it was tough. I cried. I was scared. I had two amazing options and I could only pick one. Not only that, a huge pro for Kansas State was Beth! Because all of us Gorney girls are apparently dead set on going to school anywhere BUT Virginia, I know my parents would've been able to sleep more soundly had I picked the same out- of- state school as her. But more than that, it would've been fun! We could have sibling dinners and sisterly bonding. She knew the campus and could show me the best places to go. We wouldn't have to travel alone and I would know someone as soon as I got there. (After being away for so long now, I know that sometimes you just need family to not feel so lonely.) The campus was beautiful and had a wonderful community feel. The students, staff, and tour guides I had met were extremely nice and welcoming.

But in the end, Texas Tech's Landscape Architecture program was more of what I was looking for. One, it was located in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources as opposed to the College of Architecture. This was (and still is) very important to me, as Landscape Architecture is NOT, "shrubbing up buildings." It is the design and stewardship of the land, well outside the scope of Architecture in many cases. Being in this college brought the program closer to the environmental and horticultural side of the profession so often forgotten under the shadow of the "all powerful" Architecture.

But I digress. (Before I get on my Landscape Architecture soap box ;) )

The other reason I chose TTU was that it just felt right. Those feelings I mentioned earlier, the campus environment, the location, the people I met; I felt like I was where I was supposed to be. They were similar to the feelings I had at Kansas State, but different somehow; stronger. Not just because I was excited to be there, but because I felt I was supposed to be there. Trying to explain that eloquently would probably be the writing equivalent of a face plant, so I'll spare you from reading more in this freakishly long post the unnecessary descriptions. Although I would've been very happy to be a Wildcat, I knew that I was meant to be a Red Raider; and I am so happy I made that decision. :) 

It has been a lot of hard work, plane flights, homesickness, and hours on the phone, but I really am so blessed to have been able to go to TTU. I love it as much as I did that first tour day, and I literally get butterflies every. single. time. I see crop circles outside my plane window when I'm flying back to school! (That means I'm about 15 mins. away from landing in Lubbock :) ).

So for all those people who ask me how I ended up in Red Raider country, I say I fell in love. Which is true! But the messiness, outside factors, and the big decision were also what really lead me to Texas Tech. I can't wait to tell y'all more about my time there, so look for more posts soon! :)

<3
Sarah (Aka, Medium- Well)

P.S. Another funny factor in this story. My junior year in high school, we had to take a, "Career Interest," exam that gave you degree programs based on your hobbies, interests, likes and dislikes. I put things such as, I liked being outdoors, I liked animals, and I like being hands on etc. Well, the NUMBER ONE career choice they gave me was...

Taxidermy.

  

http://bisonworld.org/taxidermy

Yep.

Because, apparently, if I like animals and being outdoors, I must like shooting said animals and stuffing their dead bodies. By golly, this program had me all figured out! (My family still has not stopped laughing about this. It will go down in history.)

Anyway, I already knew I wanted to be a Landscape Architect, so I began looking up schools that had the program. Texas A&M I knew for sure, but UT only had the graduate program. Then, I saw Texas Tech. Interested, I clicked their link, went to their homepage, and thought, Wow, this is gorgeous! I want to find out more! So I kept combing through their website. That day, I went home and said to my dad, "Dad, I want to go to Texas Tech University to study Landscape Architecture." He said, "Ok, Sarah. That's nice." This exchange was promptly forgotten in the coming days, only to hit me two months AFTER I had already moved into my dorm at Texas Tech!

Funny how things work out, isn't it? ;)

Weekend Schedule

I have decided, for numerous reasons, to move to the basement for the summer.  I plan to start looking for places to live in the fall.  I haven't decided whether or not to buy a condo or rent an apartment.  It's hard to justify spending $2000 in rent per month but I'm not sure I've mentally wrapped my mind about owning something as substantial as a condo.  We shall see.  But for now I'm staying at home and moving to the basement.  I wish the basement had a kitchen so I could live essentially on my own, but it doesn't so I'll suck it up for a few more months (how many times have I said that before).

The impetus for my move is Medium Well is coming home.  And if you've ever experienced two adults and a teenager in the same bathroom getting ready at the same time you know why I'm moving to the basement.  If you've never experienced that then count yourself lucky.  It's a war.  An all out, drop down, drag out war.  I'd guard my makeup with the straightener while Medium Well and Small One duked it out with elbows.  It was ridiculous.  Whew, bad memories.

Anyway, this move has inspired my creative streak!  Not that it's ever particularly dormant . . . I guess this just nullified my laziness.  I no longer have an excuse to do nothing on the weekends just because I feel like it, I now have to get my butt in gear or else!

Here's a quick run down of the first few projects on my list.

First was the bathroom (for aforementioned reasons).  I can start using the bathroom in the basement before I have to move down completely.

The first thing to go in the bathroom was the hideous wallpaper.  This is the wallpaper carnage.  It wasn't pretty.

The cabinets in the bathroom and the cabinets in the wet bar desperately need to be stained.  They will be, a dark, lovely java color.  Oh and the laminate counter top on the wet bar.  Hideous.  I'm thinking of at least painting it and maybe putting up a small tile backsplash and making it resemble more of a kitchenette.

This is the last major change I will be making.  This is a room without any doors.  It's a small enclave that I'm using for craft storage right now.  This is also where we stick people come to visit us :)  It has a window so if more people stay than can fit in the bedroom we have them stay here on the pull out couch (I move craft supplies of course).  If you sleep in a basement you have to have a window for escape in case of a fire (code issues).

I want to turn this space into a walk in closet!  I'll hang shelves along the walls and move the furniture out and have a desk centered under the window.

Now for the not so big changes.  I want to refinish this coffee table and make it a tufted ottoman.

I want to paint this hideous chair white and recover the cushions in a soft chenille fabric that's lying on the chair right now.

I would also like to take the time to inform anyone who was interested and concerned for my general state of mind, I DID NOT BUY THIS CHAIR!  No one in my immediate family bought this chair.  A woman in my dad's office was moving to Texas and getting rid of her furniture.  I bought a lot of her stuff and this came with it.  It's hideous but beggars can't be choosers.  I'm hoping I can make it somewhat better (they still sell this same chair at IKEA btw.  If you ever feel so inclined please, whatever you do, do not buy the fake black leather version.  Fake black leather and plastic wood make me gag).

On that happy note, here are the fabrics I've chosen for the curtains in the rooms.  This is the fabric that is going in the new walk-in closet.  This fabric will stay in the room even after I've left so my mom approved it's colors and designs.

And this is the fabric for the curtains that will go in the room that will be my bedroom.  I'll take these with me when I leave since the colors are neutral and the pattern sophisticated enough that they will probably match a lot of spaces in houses throughout my life.

Well, there you have it.  A quick run down of all the crafts that will keep me busy for the next month or so.   After I finish these projects there are a lot more to go (tufting a headboard, painting my new bedroom, recovering both couches, making shelves, etc) but that's another blog post for another time.  Wish me luck!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to my wonderful mom!  And my wonderful grandmothers!

This picture actually has both my mom and her mom in it.  This is the present Grandma sent Mom for her birthday and Mom loved it and wanted to show Grandma how beautifully it was wrapped (because Grandma wasn't all that sure Williams Sonoma could adequately wrap a present to meet with her high standards).  I mean it even came with a baby whisk!  How cute is that?!  So here you go Grandma, mom loved her present and it was wrapped very nicely :)  Happy Mother's Day!

My Sweet Tooth

Look at these gorgeous little pastel parcels of loveliness!  Look at them all nestled in their soft bed of colored Easter grass just waiting for me to stop by and marvel at their delicate perfection, ponder their lusciousness, and reminisce about their deliciousness.

And then stuff a handful in my mouth and swoon in bliss while breaking the scale at the same time.  Don't ask me how it happens, call it my intuition, but you can just hear the scale cracking and groaning from the bathroom when eating these little buggers.  Not that this stops me.  I've just taken to avoiding the scale.  Our breakup wasn't him, it was me.


 

This is what my parents do to me!!!  Situated right next to the fruit bowl is the ever present Cadbury egg and white chocolate M&M bowl, and it never ends!  Seriously, when this thing gets low it just get refilled.  Magically.  By the fairies who hate bathroom scales and my jeans.

You see my parents have this thing called "self control" when it comes to these delightful delicacies.  I don't.  None.  Not at all.  It must be a gene I'm missing.  Or maybe I have the "it's delicious, I'm going to eat more of it" gene.  So, for them, having this bowl of tempting lusciousness out all day, every day is no problem.  For me it's a nightmare.  A wonderful nightmare filled with longing, satisfaction, and guilt.  Lots of guilt.  I think bowls of cadbury eggs are why confession was invented.

When faced with situations like this, I normally choose avoidance.  I would physically remove myself from the temptation by not purchasing any sweets.  Lent was also a time when I was spectacular in self restraint (New year's resolution, not so successful.  Lent, very successful.  Again with the guilt thing).  Sadly I can't say to my family "I have to fit into a bikini and look presentable in less than two months so I'm flushing your entire devilish stash of cadbury eggs and white chocolate m&ms down the toilet." I'm pretty sure I would be disowned.  And I can't even eat them faster to make them all go away.

   

This is what our pantry looks like right now.   You see, we absolutely love, cherish, and adore these little chocolate lovelys and they're only available for a limited time every year.  So we stock up.  Which means we should be set to last the summer and only suffer a few months of deprivation before Christmas rolls around and we can get our fix again.  Why do we have so many bags of these candies?  Because I made them buy them all.  They were pretty embarrassed going to the store and purchasing 8 bags at a time, let me tell you.  And why was I making them buy all this candy when I've just spent the first part of the blog post complaining about my squishy, non-bikini-ready stomach?  Because we didn't buy as many bags last year and we ate them up faster and I had to spend a good 7 months listening to "I miss white chocolate m&ms," "I wish we still had white chocolate m&ms," "weren't those white chocolate m&ms good?"  So to save my sanity I made them buy enough to last the summer, subsequently sabotaging my goal of meeting a future husband or boyfriend and wowing him with my toned physique.


  

But it's worth it, I guess, because these little things are delectable.  Truly they are really, really good.  I confess to having a soft spot for white chocolate.  I have loved it all my life.  As a young kid I only liked milk chocolate and white chocolate.  Becca and Sarah got the chocolate Easter candy and I got the white chocolate Easter candy.  This was just a fact of life.

(Oh, P.S., for my birthday my mom and Sarah found white chocolate cake batter bark from Godiva.  Um heaven!)

Where was I?  Oh yes.  I was first introduced to white chocolate m&ms back when the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie came out.  They came out with a special edition version for the movie and omg it was amazing!  My mom and I fell in love.  Sadly this special edition never gained enough popularity to become a mainstay on the shelves and all we were left with was a vague memory of blissful scrumptiousness (and anger at the coconut m&ms they decided to introduce instead.  Honeslty have you ever heard anyone say they actually like the coconut m&ms?  Ever?).  That was until last year when, by some miracle, we found white chocolate m&ms special for Easter!!!  Words cannot describe how excited we were (because our mouths were full, duh!).  But we misjudged our voracious appetites, hence the wailing and the moaning and why I didn't make the same mistake this year.

I did have a minor scare this year when the Cadbury eggs were out at our grocery store for weeks and I looked and looked for white chocolate m&ms and couldn't find them.  I had almost resigned myself to the fact that they weren't popular enough the year before and wouldn't be sold this year when we randomly saw them at Target.  Apparently white chocolate m&ms are a special Target only product.  Who knew.  Anyway, crisis and melt down averted.


     

White chocolate m&ms joined our mainstays of Cadbury eggs for Easter.  I can't remember when we first had cadbury eggs.  I mean we knew about the cadbury cream eggs for years.  Those were synonymous with Easter candy, but I think mom and dad got the mini eggs randomly one year and they became a given in our Easter baskets.  I have no idea what makes them so addictive but they are so good it's ridiculous!  Thankfully they now sell them at Christmas time too (although they're just balls, not eggs.  I've never heard of Christmas eggs.)

We also found the dark chocolate version a few years ago and dad has been loving them.  I think they taste fine, but I prefer the milk chocolate and so does everyone else so dad gets these all to himself.

So that is the story of our stash.  My wasitline will get bigger as our stash gets slowly smaller.  I might hide a few bags and bring them out in August when morale gets low.  But I'll only have to do this with the Cadbury eggs because . . . they now sell the white chocolate m&ms at Target and not just for Easter!!!  I was almost disappointed, all those embarrassing shopping trips looking like a hoarder of candy for nothing!  We can now indulge our passion for white chocolate whenever we want!  Forget the ten bags we still have in the cabinet.  Sigh.   Oh well, at least now you all can go and try them and experience them and then maybe you won't think I'm as crazy for writing a blog post about how much I love white chocolate and the angst I've gone through for years over these things :)

If You Give a Girl a Baking Sheet

So I cookie.  That's what it's called, "cookie-ing." Trust me, I've read enough cookie blogs to know that because I "cookie" I am a "cookier"and what I do is called "cookie-ing."  Apparently people who "cookie" are smart enough that they can make up their own words . . . lol, oh well, at least it makes sense.
Btw, I think I'm addicted to reading cookie blogs.  Pinterest and cookie blogs.

I like to cookie a lot and since my family is pretty much sick of sugar cookies by now (they haven't said anything to me, but I can infer) I keep having to invent new reasons to justify making cookies and decorating them.  "Hey mom and dad, you now have two dozen cookies just because I wanted to try out this new piping technique.  Surprise!" doesn't sit too well.  But it's getting to be a bit of an obsession.  If I go more than two weeks without making cookies it feels weird.  Thankfully there are enough events and holidays (first volleyball game of the season anyone?) that I can make cookies pretty often.

So since I make so many cookies and post the designs ad nauseum I figured I should show the process of how I make the cookies and not just the finished product!

First, make any cookie dough you want.  I make the cookie dough from the blog Bake at 350.  I had a blind taste test between our traditional cookie dough, the cookie dough I used during college, and this cookie dough this past Christmas with the family and the Bake at 350 cookie dough won!  It also stands up pretty well to baking and shipping.  This is what works for me, but you can use your favorite recipe for cookie dough.

Take the dough and plop it down on a lightly floured surface.  The dough that I use doesn't use softened butter, instead it takes cold butter, cut into cubes, and mixes it with the sugar.  This means that you don't have to refrigerate your cookie dough before you roll it out.  It saves A LOT of time.  It's awesome.

I also like to take a piece of freezer paper and tape it to the counter and roll my cookie dough out on that.  You don't have to do this if you don't want to, I just like being able to untape the paper and put the whole mess into the trash can instead of having to scrub the counter for ages after rolling out the dough.

 

This is the rolling pin I use.  I got it for Christmas and it's really nice because the plastic disk on the side keeps the entire dough the same thickness.  I use the 1/4" thickness.  I've heard that people do it thicker at 3/8" but that is a thick cookie!  Who knows, I might switch to a 3/8" thick cookie in the future but for now I make a 1/4" thick cookie.

Having the cookies all one thickness and never having to guess at how thick to roll the dough makes sure that all the cookies bake at the same rate.

When the dough is all rolled out and the cookie shapes are cut out, arrange the cookies on a silpat.  This lovely invention makes sure that the bottoms of the cookies never burn and that the cookies never stick to the pan.  And it's pretty inexpensive, just $25.  If you make a lot of sugar cookies I really suggest it.  Chocolate chip cookies don't work as well on it, they spread out.  So if you like flat chocolate ship cookies this will also work for you (but we like our chocolate chip cookies mounded.  Personal preference and all that).

Isn't it funny how something as simple as cookies can have so many different "right" ways of being made?


 

Ok, here are the cookies arranged on the cookie sheet.  You don't need them to be spaced very far apart because . . . . 

You freeze them before you bake them!  Seriously.  Put the cookies in the freezer for at least five minutes before you cook them.  This will ensure that the cookies keep their shape.  Ever had those Christmases where the snowman migrated into the santa and morphed into a reindeer?  Yeah, that's because the cookies weren't frozen beforehand.  Trust me on this, it will change your life and save you a lot of tears!

Bake them for 10-12 minutes.  I know that at 12 minutes the cookies will be perfect, but that's for my oven and all ovens are different, so finding the exact time will take some trial and error.

Five minutes is the minimum, but I normally freeze them for 10-12 minutes.  I work on two cookie sheets so while one sheet is in the oven, I have the other cookie sheet in the freezer (and it takes 12 minutes to bake a pan of cookies, hence the 12 minute freezing time lol).

See?  Pretty cookies, no spreadage (making up words again).  You can take them off the pan to cook on a cookie rack, but leave them on the pan to cook down a bit and firm up first.  There is nothing worse than lifting a freshly baked cookie off the cookie sheet and having it break in half because it hadn't hardened enough.  Leaving them on the sheet won't harm them at all.

Ah, the most important (and yummiest) part of the cookie baking process . . . tasting!  Now before you go poo-pooing taste testing as just an excuse to eat a cookie (which is partly is), it's also important if you're giving cookies to other people to eat, like your office or your friends.  Case in point:  I use salted butter to make the cookie dough.  It's pretty much the only thing I ever use salted butter for, so I ran out one day and didn't want to go to the store just to get salted butter when I had butter in the fridge and salt in the cabinet.  So made the dough as normal and I just added a teaspoon of salt to the butter in the beginning.  BIG mistake!  I later learned that each stick of butter only has 1/8th of a teaspoon of salt in it, so by adding 1 teaspoon of salt I had added four times the salt needed to the dough!  Those cookies were for my mom's birthday so it's a good thing I tasted them before I had decorated them and sent them out the door.

Moral of the story (or blog post), taste your finished cookies, freeze you cookies before baking, and use cold butter to make the dough.  Voila!  You will have perfect cookies every time :)

Frosting how-to coming soon . . .