Recipe Round Ups

It's a lazy Friday afternoon (SCAD always has off on Fridays which usually make for busy work days or lazy cozy days...work can wait til Saturday & Sunday sometimes) and although I did wind up being pro-active by doing laundry and cleaning, I also perused the internet extensively. From next to my kitchen sink. Let's just say that the realtor that handle's my landlord's responsibilities when he's not here, SUCKS and is dishonest & unreliable. You'd think that since I pay more for this apartment than my last one, the management would be fantastic. Nope. In fact, just the opposite. So until Comcast installs my own connection on Tuesday, I will be stuck next to my tiny kitchen window & sink if I want to go online. #firstworldproblems, i know.

So since I was conveniently located in the kitchen, I decided I needed some culinary inspiration so of course I went straight to Small Kitchen College to really examine all of the great posts from the past two weeks. Here are some of the ones I really loved and know you will too:

1. The 7 Healthiest Cereals To Eat Before Your 9am Class

2. You're Invited: Oktoberfest!

3. 9 Cool Ways to Use Your Freezer

4. The Dorm Room Bar: Rosemary Sangria

5. Cooking 101: Grilled Cheese

Have a good weekend!

peppermint coffee date

Oh, hey. Getting pumped for the chilly season & the different ways to enjoy a nice cup of joe? Well, I'm over at Small Kitchen College this week talkin' about love and coffee and perhaps a little anti-Nickelback talk as well.

Come on ovah!

walking to the coffee shop

In March, I will be graduating SCAD and spreading my wings, giving someplace else a shot. So for the next couple of months I want to fully soak up every detail of this little city and cherish the time that I have spent here. Who knows what the future brings and how much of it will be memories that I, and only I, can call my own. This is the place that I moved to not knowing really anyone or truly anything about the area. Miles and miles from home.

My first apartment(s) are here, first with complete strangers and then alone where I created a tiny home for myself. It was the first time I couldn't just leap in a car when things were getting tough and be near my mom. I took a chance by declaring a major that I was kinda sure was for me but now as I'm on my way to graduation, can proudly say that it is very much for me. I learned a ton, from mistakes and successes. I've been criticized & praised, now understanding that the praise part rarely occurs without the criticism part first. I shed tears over projects (and people) because it was the first time I really gave a shit. I was working on things I loved, for people I admired, yet being here has made me feel calm about the future and my prospective career options. Most importantly, I figured out bits and pieces of who the hell I was, fell back in love with someone that I had been missing for years and gave somewhere besides the north-east a shot. It's a different culture here and being exposed to it has been interesting and frustrating.

Savannah is lovely and calm. It has shaped bits & pieces of my life, especially my personal taste and favored style. My time spent in Savannah will be a chapter in my book that's really just beginning. So, as hard as it will be to up & leave it after 3 years, it is totally necessary. I want to leave it while it remains this cherished time in my life and before it gets too routine and maybe tarnished. I don't want to ruin a good thing, you know? It's like The Sopranos finale and the fact that they aren't coming back with movies and spin-offs. It was great while it lasted so let's not push it. Yes, I'm comparing this to the Sopranos because I am a New Jersey girl after all, awlright?

So, tiny things like my five minute stroll to get coffee through my neighborhood that I will remember and be inspired by for the rest of my life, is something that I look forward to everyday. I want to notice small details and thankfully my IPhone helps me capture them so I can essentially remember them forever.

Oh, and Twitter can help me remember how many times I complain about how god-damn slow but extremely kind everyone is here or other tiny thoughts. Technology rules.

kate spade x current/elliott

I am so in love with Kate Spade & Current/Elliott's recent bag collaboration entitled "Westward". In case you haven't noticed, the days of Kate Spade's boxy & utterly boring bags are over and their rebranding it practically perfect.

Kindness Above Malice

Some of you might remember my post awhile back about my cousin Kameron. My Aunt & Uncle were on TV today spreading the message against bullying and I'd like to share their words & strength with you all.

look ma, no oven!

This week I'm over at BGSK College talking about cooking without an oven! The recipe is for a savory and melt-in-your-mouth sweet potato with parmesan and herb butter cooked to perfection in under 10 minutes using the microwave. Sounds Paula Deen-ish but in reality, this recipe is all about keeping it pretty simple and relatively nutritious.

Head on over here!

missoni for target

So, obviously, like any red blooded girl who loves fashion (AND Target) I was thrilled to head over to Target at 10am (ok 1030am) to shop the Missoni for Target collection. "How picked over could it be in Savannah, GA?", I thought. Well, the answer to that is very picked over. I forgot how much these girls love to shop down here plus, i'm sure my entire major was there pounding down the doors. That happened. A beardy man working there told me, with the most frightened eyes, that "girls were banging on the doors before we even opened and went crazy!". Oy. But also understandable..

Still, the aisles were filled with 'leftovers' that were presumably just as fantastic as the sold out items. I found almost everything that I had my eye on (except the blanket and bath towels :( wah.) and I kind of skipped over the clothing because that might be too much. Home items, fine. But you KNOW everyone and their dog will be sporting the clothes and that might be excessive. However, I did pick up a pair of colorful & perfect flats. The only pair that wasn't a size 3 or 1 and they were just my size so I took that as a sign and threw them in my big ol' red cart.

I wound up with just a few items and that is a-okay with me. Although my heart still aches for the candles & picture frames. My apartment is entirely too small to overload it with the Missoni stripes so a little here and there is just right. In fact, within two minutes of being home I was able to use the packaging from my shoe box to create two home items. I am very proud of myself! Utilizing what I've got, that's ma deal and you can do it too! You're welcome. ;)

When I asked the beardy Target man when he'd be re-stocking the items, he told me "never. this is it." My face must have looked like a child that had it's hot dog stolen by a seagull at the beach (Ahem. That happened to me once.) That's it, folks. So go get what you can because you know you want to.

And to Missoni? Congratulations. Not only a design inspiration but a total big whopping marketing inspiration. Causin' all this chaos based on a couple of stripes and a respectable sought after brand name. Hats off to you.