JACK VETTRIANO

A little over a year ago, I was looking for a painting to go at the head of my bed when I stumbled across this one:


"The Singing Bulter"

It was on sale at Kirkland's and it was the perfect size so of course I purchased it. I then went home and tried to find more paintings by Jack Vettriano. Not only did I look online, but I also looked at Kirkland's again and at Hobby Lobby and I found this one:


"Elegy for The Dead Admiral"

The other day, I revisited the site and decided to share the other paintings that I would love to have on my walls :)


"Midnight Blue"


"Sweet Bird of Youth"


"The Big Tease"


"The Road to Nowhere"


"Mr Cool"


"Altar of Memory"


"Mad Dogs..."


"The City Cafe"

all images from the exhibition link on the jack vettriano homepage

DAY 159-166

Day 159:

Since I was home, I had to go pick up Levi from his little boarding vacation. He's always so excited to go home after he's been there!

Day 160:



For a class assignment, I had to watch a children's television program and read a children's book. Since I read Mary Poppins a while back, I decided to use that for the book and for the show, I watched The Fairly OddParents. I hadn't seen that show in a while, but it was still as entertaining now as it was when I was younger.

Day 161:



It was grocery day!! I decided to make some pasta salad that I could munch on for a while. Instead of making just enough to last me a few meals, I ended up making a ton. It filled up a very large container...I have a feeling I'll be throwing some of it away soon.

Day 162:



My pictures came! I ordered close to 700 pictures from SnapFish recently and they finally arrived! For some reason, I hadn't ordered pictures in over a year, so the result was a large package. I'm glad they're cheap though!

Day 163:



I made the tastiest breakfast needed to fuel my 10 hour shift. It consisted of a waffle sandwich with Nutella and strawberries in the middle. It was absolutely delicious!

Day 164:



As you can see from this post, the family and I traveled to Summerville for the family reunion which was a lot of fun!

Day 165:



It has been so much fun having Bella and Alexi living here!

Day 166:



Oh ya know, just Max watching some quality TV. The VMA's replayed so he insisted on watching them. Did anyone else think that Rihanna and Taylor Swift didn't perform that well? I think my favorite performer of the night was Usher. He can sing and dance and who doesn't love "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love"?!

FAMILY REUNION

part of the family in Summerville, GA


me and laurel showing off our awesomeness


with the ma


i dont know why i find this picture semi-humorous :)


isaiah trying to fish in the trees. too cute!


the flags at half-staff for 9/11


the lake from the paddle boat


having some fun while getting a good leg work-out


mom and the newest family addition


jackson, weyman, mom, and me...missing three!

TAG

I was tagged by Sara, my roommate who resides over at My Fancy Tuna, to do a list of seven random things about myself. As you can see from my last post that included doing something like this, I run out of things to say very quickly. But here goes nothing!

1. I would like to eventually work in a children's hospital
2. I love to read, but I doubt I could pinpoint my one favorite book
3. Horror/thriller movies are my favorite
4. I get very nervous doing ice-breakers in class, most of the time I don't participate
5. My favorite song to belt out in the car is "I Have Nothing" by Whitney Houston
6. Thunderstorms are excellent (unless I'm home alone)
7. I personally have never dialed 911

So, I assume I'm supposed to tag people to do this, but instead, I'm just going to do what most others do; if you would like to do this, feel free!! So I tag everyone! :)

COULD IT BE?

The most delicious cake is now available in a cookie form! I mentioned making red velvet cookies on previous post and it sounded like something everyone wanted to try, so....here's the recipe!!

Red Velvet Cookies
from Joy the Baker (who originally got if from Rachael Ray)

*1 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour
*1 tbsp of cocoa
*1/2 tsp of salt
*1/2 tsp of baking soda
*5 tbsp butter
*3/4 cup of sugar
*1 egg
*1 tbsp red food coloring (i used 1 tsp and it was fine)
*1 tsp vanilla
*1/2 cup buttermilk (if you don't have this, you can substitute it. put 1/2 tbsp of white vinegar in a measuring cup. fill the rest of the 1/2 cup with milk. let sit for 5 minutes and you have yourself some buttermilk {kinda})

Preheat oven to 350.
Line cookie sheets with foil. (DO NOT use Pam or oil. this will make the cookies spread out and the edges will be crunchy)
In one bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa. Set aside.
In another bowl, cream the sugar and butter together. Then add in an egg, the food coloring, and the vanilla.
Mix the flour mixture and the buttermilk into the sugar mixture alternately.
This is supposed to make 10 large cookies, but I made smaller ones and used a spoon to measure them out. After putting them on the sheet, spread them out to the size of the cookie that you want. They won't bake much larger than how you spread them out.
Bake at 350 for 12 minutes.



Cream Cheese Frosting
from Food Network

*4 tbsp of unsalted butter
*4 ounces of cream cheese
*2 c of powdered sugar
*1 tsp vanilla

Cream the butter and cream cheese together
Add in powdered sugar one cup at a time.
Mix in the vanilla.

In the original recipe for the cookies, it said to use a vanilla and chocolate frosting, but I think with red velvet, you have to have cream cheese frosting, so I replaced that part :)

ENJOY!

MRS. KIMBLE

I absolutely loved Jennifer Haigh's book The Condition. Since it was a great one and her writing style was so easy to follow and get into, I thought I would try her first book, Mrs. Kimble. This book is about three different women who marry the same man, at different time though. A portion of the book is dedicated to each of the women and you see from their point of view how they feel about Mr. Kimble and how he affected their lives. Throughout the book, his son, Charlie, is also incorporated with all of the women.

I loved the different perspectives and the timing of when we meet the characters. By including Charlie in every part of the book, it was a good way to see how everything that Kimble did affected others.

Now I know I shouldn't play favorites, but I would definitely say that the first part of the book with Kimble's first wife, Birdie, was the most interesting. You meet her right after Kimble left and you see how it impacts her life and the lives of her children.

Again, with the writing, I love how the entire book isn't told from one character's point of view. It keeps it interesting!

I would definitely recommend this to anyone. It was a pretty quick read and it was so entertaining. I felt so involved with the characters and I'm sure you will too!

DAYS 154 - 158

Day 154:



Instead of working in my usual department at work, I worked in the Juniors department. It wasn't as crazy as it usually is, but the couple pieces of clothing I was bombarded with were black and red dresses. Since it was two days from game day and apparently everyone procrastinates with picking out dresses, I felt like I was putting up the same dresses all night!

Day 155:



To get ready for the breakfast tailgate we were having on Saturday, I baked some muffins when I got home from work Friday. They weren't the best muffins, but they looked pretty! (this is not a picture of them, i actually forgot to take one :) )

Day 156:



GAME DAY!

Day 157:



I spent yesterday with my grandma! I felt like I was a little kid again. We baked cookies and then watched Pocahontas. It was free OnDemand so how could we pass that up? Hopefully, I'll get around to posting about these cookies soon. They are the red velvet cookies I mentioned earlier, but this time we made them into sandwiches. Excellent idea!

Day 158:



I am headed to this place today! I haven't been to the Mall of GA in quite a while so it will be fun! And I actually plan on buying some things, unlike the last time when I left with a single shirt.

I HOPE YALL HAVE A GOOD LABOR DAY!

BETWEEN THE HEDGES

Today marked the first game of the season for the University of Georgia Bulldogs. The game definitely did NOT disappoint. Of course, we whooped up, but it was still a very interesting game to watch!



Since it started at 12:20, it was so stinkin hot! The student section is always the section that gets the short end of the stick because we are in the sun no matter what. Today was no different; after the game, I didn't see one student that wasn't at least a little burned.




The game was against the University of Louisiana-Layfayette and we did a little more than win, we dominated. The final score was 55-7, but like I said, it was so interesting and so much fun! It wasn't like the games where one team has the ball the entire time and they score when they have it, it went back and forth a little bit.




and this my fellow bloggers, is what a dedicated fan looks like :)

PLEASE DON'T STOP THE RAIN

Oh man, I am in love with this song. Just listen to it and you'll know why I'm hooked.

DAYS 144-153

I'M BAAAACK! (again)

I hate that trying to catch up with school work has taken me away from the blogging world, but lucky for you, I'm done with my homework for the night :)

Day 144:



I don't know why, but I get kind of excited when new school books arrive. It's not that I'm glad my days disappear because I have to do a ton of book notes, but I like it when my classes are interesting. My books have been used so much since I've gotten them!

Day 145:



Since I leave my window open during the day, I find Bella on my bed when I come home from school. She loves looking outside at the parking lot and I definitely don't mind, look at how cute she is!

Day 146:



I had a day off so I decided to take a shopping trip (big shock). I bought these two shirts/dresses. They're too short to wear as dresses so I wore them with leggings and they were quite comfortable.

Day 147:



Max is adorable. Enough said.

Day 148:



Apparently, I shop a lot. I bought yet another top/dress. I'm pretty sure I'll be wearing this to the first UGA game on Saturday. I can't wait!!

Day 149:



A few weeks ago, I saw these shoes at Rack Room and really liked them, but they didn't have the black pair in my size. I decided to make a trip back there to see if they now had them, but they didn't again. You can't even buy these online either!

Day 150:



I didn't really do anything Sunday so for my picture, I'm using one that I found online that represents the tasty New Orleans chicken I had on break at work. I love that chicken...I kind of want to try and make some...

Day 151:



Did anyone watch the reunion of the Real Housewives of New Jersey?!?! It was awesome! The little digs that were made at Danielle were great and every minute was so tense. Caroline, yet again, made me see why she's my favorite. I don't even need to explain why she is...

Day 152:



Technically, I bought the shirt today, but I laid eyes on it yesterday. It's a little busy for my taste, but I tried it on and it was really cute!

Day 153:



I'm hoping that I'll finish Mrs. Kimble tonight. I only have a few pages left so I'm sure I'll post a review about it soon.

So I've thought about other topics I could use for upcoming posts so you should be prepared. It's going to be very interesting.

On a side note, this weekend is going to be awesome. Party Friday, UGA game Saturday, possibly visiting family Sunday, and shopping Monday. Can it get any better?

P.S. The dates on the pictures are off. I don't know how it happened and I haven't changed it yet...obviously :)