Ahem!!! I am Back!!!!

What’s happenin’

It is hard to blog when you feel so unsettled.  These past 8 months (OUCH!  That is an embarrassing amount of time to be absent from here) have been crazy. Well I say that, but it’s been more like a 'hurry up and wait' situation.  You know, when you have so much to do, but you are still anticipating much more to come.  Since I last blogged, in April, I finally learned how to style straight across bangs, then decided to grow them out again, changed my position at work, moved back to Georgia, started the whole work from home thing, started traveling for work, found/bought our first home, and lived at my parents for four months as we waited to move in, learned to crochet.  I have been meaning to start blogging for awhile, but I never knew what to say, after such a long break.  There really is nothing to say, except, we have just been busy!  I started this blog, not really having a direction, and I still don’t really have a direction, but I am content with that.  Here are 3 photos from the past 8 month...haha.  It looks like I am out of space and need to upgrade my storage!! 

Trip to Charleston

Bangs!

First Crochet Scarf :)

Here is what I do know:

I want this place to chronicle the fun adventures Ryan and I have.

I want this to be a place where I put things I love (music, movies, food, clothes).

I want this to be a place I can share my faith. 

***I know that is a sad amount of pictures (been slacking on that as well).  You can follow me on instagram for, perhaps, a better view of my life lately.  Meredith Yackel…there’s only one of me!!

Much Love,

Mere

The Bangs

So I go the bangs...Pretty happy so far.  Lots of options.  My favorite would have to be my hair pulled back though.  

Before

After

I will say they are a little tricky to style somedays.  It's pretty much hit or miss.  Any pointers?

Much Love,

Mere

Maple Salad

Ingredients for dressing: 

2 tablespoons Maple Syrup

2 tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar

2 teaspoons Dijon Mustard

6 tablespoons Vegetable Oil

2 cloves garlic (minced)

Cracked Pepper

Salt

Instructions for dressing:

Add all ingredients together and stir.

For pecans:

½ cup Pecans

2 tablespoons maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350.  Stir pecans into maple syrup.  Take out of oven and immediately remove from pan onto parchment paper.  Let sit for about 5 minutes.

For Salad

1 head Romaine lettuce (or a bag)

¼ cup Gorgonzola

Maple syrup pecans

Dressing

Instructions: Pour about half of the maple syrup dressing onto salad.  Toss and let sit while you prepare the pecans. Once the pecans have set, pour them over salad along with the gorgonzola.  Toss again and serve.  

I am not a huge salad person, but this stuff is addictive.  The dressing alone is what makes it.  See you tomorrow!!

Much Love,

Mere

She Bangs

Well, today I take the huge leap into bangs.  I have not had bangs since the 1^st grade.  Yes, occasionally I will get a little bit of a side bang, but today I am fully committing. Here is some inspiration I have looked to. 

(Source: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six)

I am leaning towards the Zooey Deschanel style bangs right now and then maybe going in more of the Bridgette Berdot look as my hair gets longer.  We will see though.  I always make last minute decisions in the chair.

Much Love,

Mere

Long Time Gone

Well Hiya!  I’m back.  After an unintentional break, I feel rejuvenated and full of fresh ideas.  Sometimes blogging can wear you out.  It’s easy to get in the mindset of having to post everyday, and trying to stay ahead of the curve, but at the end of the day think ‘why do I do this?’  So, why do I do this?  (1) I really want some way to chronicle me and Ryan’s journey. I think it would be really neat to look back on these posts 4 years from now and reminisce and see how much we have grown.  (2) I just need something outside of my everyday work.  I am in HR recruiting and most days/weeks/months just seem monotonous. Sure I get to speak with a lot of different people, but it is pretty much the same thing all the time. It’s not a bad career, but in the long run I really want to be in a more creative field.  This is my outlet for what I do not get to express 40 hours a week at work. 

In no way do I ever plan on monetizing my blog. I love when I get new followers, and get super excited when people comment, but I really just view this as a fun project. With that being said, I would like to get back into more of a routine with posting.  I have really been thinking about what I want this blog to be like, and I am sure that will be a recurring question I ask myself.  When it comes down to it, I just want this to be a place I am proud of.  Well, that’s all for now!  Happy to be back…see you soon.  In the meantime, these are just some outtakes of a photo shoot gone wrong...or just windy...

Much Love,

Mere

March Updates and April Goals

Hi everyone.  I promise I did not mean to disappear for two weeks, although I have kinda been in the slums lately on what to post about.  Anyways, its time for some updates.  

Yet again, sewing has not been accomplished this month.  I did find out my problem though.  My needle had somehow become bent so I had to buy a new one and install it.  Now it is all set up, except I am still having issues actually picking up the bottom thread.  On the other hand, I did paint my kitchen island.  That only took about 5 days total!!  I am still trying to find some hardware for my drawers, but the major part is done.  I hope to post on that later this month.  I also finished my curtains for the kitchen (not sewn).  I halfway finished my vanity, and then somewhere along the way stopped for some reason.  I was also able to add more color to my wardrobe and house.  

One other thing I was able to do was clear out a lot of clothes and junk I did not want anymore.  It is amazing the amount of stuff you can accumulate in just 8 months time!!  Most of it we just gave to a thrift store, but I was able to sell some stuff to Plato's Closet.  I highly recommend it too!  $130!  Can you believe it?!?  I have another load I plan on taking this week.  My advice is to make sure to iron and neatly fold everything before you go.

Here are my goals for April:

Find hardware for Island

Finish Vanity

Figure out a crafty way to reorganize our subpar refrigerator in our townhouse. 

Continue thrifting for wall art

Continue adding color to my life

Give side table lamp a facelift

Sew, sew, sew, sew, sew

Here are some things I loved in March:

We are making this on Friday!! Yummmm

Fringe tassel garland.  I think this would be beautiful at Christmas time.

Totally inspired by this video...to make grilled cheese at least.

Do these not make you excited about summer days by the pool?

Beautiful hardware.

Decorating with doors!!  I like. 

Tried these....love them.

Perf...enough said.

Much Love,

Mere

Fancy Grilled Cheese

Did any of you watch the last Grilled Cheese Social video? (Here). Not only did the sweet potato fries grilled cheese look mysteriously tempting, it was also extremely funny. I highly recommend it.  Anyways, this website got me uber excited and I decided to experiment and try my own concoction.  Although, my grilled cheese is not as witty as hers, it was a winner with the mister making it a winner for me.  Hold up…can a grilled cheese be witty, oh yes it can.  Check out here, here, and here.

So on to the main event…

Ingredients:

Whole wheat bread

Crispy cooked bacon (it is important that it is crispy)

Guacamole (I would typically make my own but there have been no good avocados in these parts of the woods recently…so it is organic store bought)

Gorgonzola Cheese

Room temperature butter (unsalted)

Teaspoon of Liptons French onion dip mix

Instructions:

Carefully stack (yes carefully) all the ingredients

I did them in this order (bread, cheese, bacon, guac, cheese, bread)

Mix room temp. butter with French onion dip

Shhhhmeear on butter mixture and place the butter side on the pan

Then Shhhmear some more butter on the other side

Use panini press (we got ours from TJ Maxx for $8) and lay on top of sandwich

Each side should stay down about 4 minutes on medium heat…but always check yourself

Get fancy with your grilled cheese self…and enjoy.

Much Love,

Mere

The Calzone!

So Friday night was the premiere (at least online) of our favorite show to watch together, Community.  Have any of you seen it?  It was bench mid-season on NBC, but now it is back for another round.  It is hilariously smart, although not well received by the masses (much like Arrested Development) we love it.  

We could not think of a better way to kick off the mid-season premiere than nestled up on the couch with a nice hardy calzone, so that is what we did.  Now we make pizza all the time, but have never attempted a calzone so this was a bit of an experiment.

We took some dough out of the freezer (we make our pizza dough is large quantities and freeze it) let it thaw and stretched it out much like we would do a regular pizza.  (Make sure that you use A LOT of cornstarch while doing this so it does not stick to the counter). Then put all your toppings on one side.  We did hot sausage, banana peppers, blue cheese and mozzarella. From there you want to fold the other side over, and score the edges with a fork.  Then I beat and egg and rubbed part of it on the outside.  We set the over on 400 degrees and let cook for about 25 minutes (keep an eye on it though…we do not have a specific time we just check it ever 5 to 10 minutes). This was so very good, so I know we will be doing more in the future.  Have a splendid day!!

Much Love, 

Mere

The Weekender

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This weekend was beautiful.  The weather was perfect.  We had some friends visit on Saturday and were very encouraged by them as we had the chance to catch up.  That night we went to our favorite pub in Montgomery and celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with a fun band, a yummy street pretzel, and a lucky charms bar!! Sunday was beautiful as well, and the weather swept me up and tricked me into believing I could get anything done.  This resulted in me starting three DIY projects in one day (one of which I completed and two of which are sprawled out across the apartment).  Good news is, I finished one of my goals for March, cutains!!  I didn’t actually sew them (I have yet to learn to sew…still) but used some fabric glue and hemmed all the lines.  So they may not last all that long, but we will see.  They look great for now, though.  Hope you all had lovely weekends as well!

Much Love,

Mere

The Obsession

And the obsession grows...

This was taken in August and I believe our coffee inventory has doubled since. 

Plus we have a new edition to the household. Our very own espresso machine!!! After months and months of saving and deciding which espresso machine would be best, we took the plunge and bought one.

Introducing the ….

The Izzeo Duetto II

FYI...it will not actually stay at this weird angle for long.  They forgot to send the reservoir tank so we have to use it like this until the tank comes.  Also, this thing weighs 70 lbs!! 

This is the tamper and portafilter holder Ryan's dad made.  Don't they look great!?!?

One happy mister with two successful espresso shots.

I am sure we will be having more coffee posts coming soon.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend and a grand St.Patrick's day!!

Much Love,

Mere

As of recently, we have been quite smitten by the tiny grain Quinoa. It wasn’t until yesterday that I discovered from Food Coma, how to actually say it. (Woah I know).  We were no way close by the way.  It is pretty expensive, compared to other grains, but we were able to squeeze three meals out of one bag (about $8 for 3 cups of quinoa). 

This is how we have been making it.

1 cup of quinoa

1 red pepper (diced)

1/3 of a large red onion (diced)

1 zucchini (diced)

1 T olive oil

2 t garlic powder

Feta for garnish

Apparently I chop veggies with my eyes closed. Dangerous.

Instructions: Prepare quinoa as directed on packaging. Dice red pepper, zucchini, and red onion.  Place veggies in pan with olive oil and let sauté.  Sprinkle garlic powder over veggies.  Cook to your likeness and then add to quinoa.  Mix them all together and then add feta on top.

This would make a great side dish for the spring and summer.  We eat it as a full meal though. 

Much Love,

Mere