Elusive Ink

Currently Listening
The Christmas Song
Josh Groban



I know, I know, it's been far too long since I've posted. But I do have a good excuse! A very special guy came to visit me over Thanksgiving. (He's probably the only person who reads this blog, to be honest.) So, I've postponed blogging for the past week in favor of spending some time with him. :) He left early yesterday morning, and while I already miss him, my blog is now receiving some much-needed TLC.

So, let's see...where to begin? Thanksgiving was fantastic, the feast I'd been planning for weeks came off flawlessly, everything was completely homemade, nothing from a box or a can. I'm going to be a little puffy and show off for a moment, humility is not my strong suit, and I am proud to say that not only was the feast delicious and finished on-time, but it looked beautiful too. I was nervous to attempt a Turkey this year, in the midst of trying to cook everything else from scratch - but even the turkey turned out beautiful and tender! (Thanks to some tips I found online.) I plan to make a post with pictures, recipes, and a few tips I learned while making Thanksgiving dinner. Edit: Made the post, you can find the recipes here.

Also...Williams Sonoma Marketplace is quickly becoming my absolute favorite store. I could go crazy in that place. In the past week and a half I've bought a rolling pin, pie crust cutters, fondue fuel, and a few other little things from there. (As well as receiving a gorgeous coffee grinder from there as an early Christmas gift from Nathan.) Next on my list is this set of mixing bowls, an espresso machine, and a kitchen aid mixer. All of this is quite amusing in light of the fact that I do not have a kitchen of my own. :P I will be totally outfitted once I do.

Inspired (once again) by Heidi Swanson, I've begun to seek out some nice vintage cookware. Pieces with character for serving and such. Not to the point where all of my stuff is outdated, kitschy, and grunge looking, but where mixed with my Le Creuset, and other newwer items will make a nice ecclectic mix. In fact, I'm anxiously waiting at the moment for an ebay auction to end on some handpainted polish ramekins. (Ramekins have become a favorite dish of mine, after my thanksgiving Cheesy Potato Ramekin bread was loved by all.)

So yeah, while Thanksgiving was great...black friday definitely wore me out. It wasn't as bad as I'd imagined, though, and after I got off work I found out that Nathan had asked my parents official permission to pursue a relationship. So we went on our first "date" friday night, sushi and bowling. Had a blast...oh, and I'm way better at bowling than him. Pursuing new relationships -- be it friendship or something more -- is always exciting, and scary. But I like to think that I'm a risk taker, or I try to be...and Nathan is absolutely fantastic, definitely someone worth taking a leap of faith for. I like to believe that every person we encounter is there for a reason, every relationship we pursue, every friendship that we lose. People come and go out of our lives, but we should appreciate and adore them for the time that they're here, and know that they were here to teach us something, to help us grow into better people. Some people are always around, others may drift, and others you may only know for a short amount of time...but there's definitely value to every relationship, friendship, and random conversation in an elevator. That was a weird little rant, just something I'd been thinking about. Don't get me wrong, I don't intend to let Nathan drift anywhere anytime soon!

My weekend was spent in Christmasy efforts, almost finished my christmas shopping. (It was far more exciting than it should've been to buy an Easy Bake oven for my sister.) We enjoyed my first attempt at fondue, re-discovered that "A Christmas Story" never gets old, and put up our tree and stockings. The house definitely feels like Christmas now, which is always a good thing...I'm a sucker for holidays. Not sure why, we've always been pretty laid back about the decorations and such. I just love the holiday season. (But only IN the holiday season, it really bothers me when people listen to Christmas music before black friday, or after Christmas.)

The rest of the weekend was spent enjoying my time with Nathan, and in pursuit of an answer to the question: "If DJ Lance were to chew up and spit out a candied Gabbaland, what color would the spit be?" The answer? Teal. In actuality I am painting a Gabbaland "cube" for my youngest sister, Molly, who has all but one of the little plush dolls and requests "gabba" on a regular basis.

Unfortunately, Yo Gabba Gabba has not been popular enough for long enough yet to justify a lot of merchandising. They have a few items, but not a huge selection. Which pretty much demands creativity. (Creativity happens to be my specialty.)

This is what I've got so far, It's still a work in progress though.


Anyway - I've got some things to do, but I'll write more later! :)

-Lindsey