Newlyweds and Nesting: Elizabeth Anne Designs Living: A Food, Lifestyle, and Craft Blog » Feisty Tourist

Christmas Crafting: Glitter Houses

Feisty Tourist — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:00:32 +0000

I might be a little behind in getting on board the glitter house boat (I believe they became re-popularized in 2006 by Martha), but some people still haven’t heard of them so… Here are two little houses I made.

“These quaint little decorations, known as ‘putz houses’ or ‘putzes’, were found on tables, mantles and under Christmas trees in homes across America for many decades starting around the early 1900′s.” (-LittleGlitterHouses.com). The blue one above as an attempt at a model of my own home.

I think glitter houses are adorable for Christmas and a fun craft project. You can check out Martha’s instructions and templates here. The pink, yellow, and green house I made is from LittleGlitterHouses.com. It’s simpler than Martha’s, so it’s a good one to start with if you want to give this craft project a try.

A few things the tutorials didn’t mention: For the windows, I use red clear cellophane that’s like the stuff you wrap Easter baskets up in. For the light inside, LED tea lights work perfectly. If it won’t fit in the house, stick it in the base and make a hole for the flame part to come through. You could also run a string of twinkle lights across your mantle or wherever you have your houses set up, but I couldn’t bear to see the cord. I’m trying again on my house soon – with lollipop sticks for the porch railing. Wish me luck!

If you like these but don’t want to get quite as involved, check out Martha’s Train Station kit, available in lots of craft stores (I’ve seen it in Michael’s and AC Moore).

Have you tried these before? Any tips?

P.S. Bonus – I’ve started blogging about the Baltic cruise Ami and I went on with our husbands over on my travel blog. Come visit!

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Posted in: Crafts, Decor, Holidays

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Free home ideas magazine

Feisty Tourist — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:59:10 +0000

Lowe’s is my favorite big home improvement store, so I was pretty excited to see a commercial on HGTV about Lowe’s Creative Ideas for Home and Garden. It’s a bi-monthly publication that you can get delivered right to your home for FREE. There’s a sample issue here so you can see if you’ll enjoy it.

They also have a free publication focusing on woodwork projects; check out a sample issue of that here. And, of course, there are ideas on their website.

Are you a Lowe’s lover?

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Posted in: Decor

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Fairy Tale Theme Nursery

Feisty Tourist — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:48:24 +0000

Let me preface this by saying that we don’t have kids, and we don’t even know if we want kids. That said, I have been thinking about decorating a nursery… basically just for fun. One idea I’ve toyed with is a fairy tale themed room. I’d love this chandelier and castle wall decal for either a boy or girl:

For a little boy, I’d continue the dragon theme. For a girl, I’d go with pink unicorns. Cute, yes?

Chandelier from Crayon Castles; castle decal from walldecors on etsy; boy bedding from InStockShipsNow; rug from Oompa; girl bedding from CSN Baby.

Has anyone decorated a nursery or child’s room in a fairy tale theme? How did it turn out?

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Posted in: Children, Decor

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Sumptuous bedding

Feisty Tourist — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:14:29 +0000

WANT!!! Check out this gorgeous bedding from Natori at The Home Decorating Company:

Asian not your taste? Keep shopping – The Home Decorating Company seems to have something wonderful for just about anyone’s taste.

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Posted in: Decor

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Two Options for Chicken Tikka Masala

Feisty Tourist — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:00:16 +0000

I loooove Indian food. In fact, I think chicken tikka masala is right up there with Chicago deep dish pizza on my list of favorite foods. If you know me at all, you’re wondering why I’m posting about recipes, aren’t you? Yeah, I’m not a cook. Since I got laid off, I’ve started cooking a little bit, and I at least help when hubs cooks.

{image source}

Okay, so here’s a glorious recipe we got from friends (I’m sure they found it somewhere, but I’m afraid I don’t know where):

1 cup yogurt
1 tbsp lemon juice
4 tsp ground cumin
4 tsp ground garam masala
2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp minced fresh ginger
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 tbsp butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
2 tsp paprika
8 oz canned tomato sauce
1 cup heavy cream
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

In a large bowl, combine yogurt, lemon juice, 2 tsp cumin, cinnamon, cayenne, black pepper, ginger, and 2 tsp garam masala. Stir in bite-sized peices of chicken, cover, and refrigerate one day. DID YOU CATCH THAT? PREP A DAY IN ADVANCE!

The next day, grill the chicken on skewers or cook in a skillet. Then melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute garlic and jalepeno for one minute. Season with 2 tsp cumin, paprika, and 2 tsp garam masala. Stir in tomato sauce and cream. Simmer on low heat until sauce thickens – about 20 minutes. Add chicken and simmer for 10 minutes. Transfer to serving platter and garnish with fresh cilantro. Serve with rice and naan.

My husband thinks this takes three hours. I’d say two (he tends to exaggerate a bit.) This recipe is DELICIOUS!!!!! Can’t find the time? No worries, here’s the fast version:

1 jar tikka masala (we like Trader Joe’s brand)
1.5-2 lbs chicken

We made this recently. To make it even faster, we cooked extra rice two nights before and baked extra chicken the night before. So we just cubed the chicken, threw it in a pan with the sauce, and simmered for 15-20 minutes. Easy peasy! It’s not *nearly* as good as the recipe above, but hubs says the difference in prep time was totally worth it. If it means I get to eat chicken tikka masala at home more often, I agree.

A couple of bonus tips: We started with samosas (also from Trader Joe’s) and enjoyed some Trader Joe’s naan as well. Yum!

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Posted in: Cooking and Food, Recipes

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Book: Corner Shop by Roopa Farooki

Feisty Tourist — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:00:18 +0000

I just finished Corner Shop by Roopa Farooki – what a good book! And well timed considering where I am in life at the moment. Oscar Wilde once wrote, “In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” The story is about a family – a mother, father, son, and grandfather – and how that Wilde quote applied to their lives.

In the first half of the book, we meet the son, Lucky. He dreams of playing soccer for England in the World Cup and scoring an important goal. He works towards that goal with great intensity, practicing all the time. He’s also slightly obsessed with Portia, a slightly older, gorgeous girl who works in his grandfather’s shop. It seems as though his dreams with regard to soccer will be dashed when his teammate drops out of the team, forcing Lucky to take up the position of goalie rather than midfield.

We also meet his mom, Delphine. She’s a sad character – to all the world, it seems as though she has a picture perfect life. She has a successful husband who adores her, a well-mannered son with great potential, and a beautiful home. She herself even had a successful career before she gave it all up for motherhood. Though her husband’s always been perfect for her on paper, he has irritating habits, and she’s never really felt as though she cared for him as much as he cares for her. She longs for something more.

Zaki, Lucky’s grandfather, appears to be fairly content to start. He has a successful son, a grandkid he really enjoys, a corner shop he can close up whenever he feels like it to go gamble, and plenty of younger women with whom he can run around. Both he and Delphine begin to think about their past – when they were together long before Delphine became involved with her husband. Zaki and Delphine enjoyed a brief, passionate romance, and they both long for that sort of passion in their lives again.

It’s a story about dreams – both those fulfilled and unfulfilled. It’s a bit sad, and, I have to admit, I did not get as involved with the characters as I do in some other books. It is the overarching theme that makes it worth the time – if you don’t get your heart’s desire, do something about it; change something so that you’ll have another chance, and you may yet find it. If you do get your heart’s desire, don’t allow that to make you too content. It’s so very important to have goals in life and to work towards achieving those goals. You have to make sure that your life is always about beginnings, not endings.

I’d give it 3.5/5 stars.

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Posted in: Books and Reading

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Feisty’s Jet Blue Tour

Feisty Tourist — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:00:23 +0000

I apologize for my lack of posting over the past month. I got laid off, so I’ve been focusing on my job search and some other goals and activities. {Just in case you’re wondering or know someone who might want to hire me, I’m an intellectual property attorney with five years experience. Ideally, I’d like to remain here in the Triangle, but I’m willing to move for the right position – elsewhere in North Carolina or somewhere else fun (i.e., Chicago, DC, Atlanta). Read more about what’s going on with me here.}

Now, on to the main point of this post!

Last week, Jet Blue announced an All You Can Jet Pass for $599. The deal is that the pass allows you to, with certain restrictions, fly all you can stand on their planes between September 8 and October 8. Sounds pretty cool, eh? Well, there are some catches to it.

All flights must be booked at least 3 days in advance.
The passholder must show up for each booked flight, or all other booked flights will be cancelled and no new flights may be scheduled until a $100 no-show fee is paid.
Only one flight per city per day may be booked.
Flights can be cancelled/changed for free, but this has to happen at least 3 days in advance of the flight or you’ll pay the regular change fees.
You can fly to JetBlue’s international destinations and Puerto Rico, but you’ll have to pay the taxes and fees.

So… it’s really only a good deal if you’re able to fly a fair amount within the time period, definitely won’t miss your flights, and plan to stay in the US. As it turns out, it seems as though I have the time to really utilize this deal, so I booked it on Saturday.

My current plan involves visiting 11 cities in 23 days. Since I’m unemployed, I have a strict budget of $400 and will be relying on my friends in these cities to schlep me around and feed me (to a certain extent) as well as to allow me to crash at their places. I’m working on the details of this at the moment and intend to book my flights soon (hopefully today!). Fortunately they all have internet access, so I can keep in touch with my friends and family, continue the job search, and blog about my adventures. I am really glad for the option to change your flights with 3 days notice – that will allow me to scoot back to North Carolina if some lucky employer wants to interview me. ;)

My current itinerary includes: Washington, DC; Denver, CO; New York, NY; Houston, TX; Chicago, IL; Boston, MA; Seattle, WA; Long Beach, CA; Las Vegas, NV; Salt Lake City, UT; and Portland, ME. This will start in mid-September, so be sure to follow my travel blog for updates.

Image from Baltimore Sun.

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Posted in: Travel

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Books: Vampire reads

Feisty Tourist — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:00:05 +0000

E’s post reminded me that I’ve been meaning to do a run-down of the vampire series I’ve read for y’all. I’m going to put some of it under a cut since there is one Twilight “spoiler.” Here goes:

Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer: I read all of these the weekend that the last book came out. Despite my seeming dedication to them, I’m not impressed. The writing was pretty bad – how many times did Edward really need to tell Bella that they shouldn’t be together? And it seemed as though Meyer forgot that the books needed an actual storyline until more than halfway through. I thought the movie was a lot better – cut a lot of the useless stuff and condensed the story quite nicely. And don’t get me started on the fourth book; I cannot believe that was classified as young adult. All that said, if you like young adult stuff with some angsty romance and vampires, check it out. Just don’t read them all at once because you’ll be irritated with how predictible everything is.
The Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith: To me, this is the original YA vampire series. I read them back in 1991 when they first came out since I was already an L.J. Smith fan. The whole time I was reading Twilight, I was thinking, “Boy, I remember The Vampire Diaries being so much better.” So I re-read them recently. And I still think they’re better. They’re definitely written more simply, but there’s just something about the Elena-Stephan-Damon love triangle that’s so classic and perfect – and far superior to the half-@ssed triangle in Twilight. You know there’s no way that Bella is going to end up with Jacob over Edward (well, you do if you’re paying attention). But Elena just might succomb to the darker Damon over seemingly perfect Stephan. And she still might! Apparently more books are coming. Even better, there’s a tv series based on the books premiering this fall on the CW. (Side note: They’ve cast another Degrassi girl in this one.) Bonus: If you like witches, check out Smith’s Secret Circle series, which is even better than the Vampire Diaries.
The Last Vampire by Christopher Pike: These aren’t my favorite Pike books, but they’re decent if you’re vampire obsessed. I guess I don’t connect as well with this series since the main character is a super old vamp chick – I prefer a younger main character. That said, if you think some of the other YA vampire books are a bit young but you still enjoyed them, you might like these better.
House of Night by P.C. and Kristin Cast: Despite my appreciation for Smith’s series, this is actually my favorite series. Not only do we have a great teenage vamp chick as the main character, but it’s set at a boarding school! I love stuff about boarding schools and secret societies for some reason. Anyway, I thought the flow of the story is much better than in the Twilight, though you do trade off a bit in the character development area (thank goodness! I’m really not sure if I could’ve taken even another page about Bella and Edward). I also like how the Casts have twisted the traditional take on vampires and have set up far more interesting love interests for Zoey; this seems more realistic than finding your soulmate in high school (I know – I’m one to talk since I found my husband in high school lol). I could, however, do without some of the childish language used by the main character. And I definitely wouldn’t recommend it to younger readers because of the sexual content and Zoey’s bad behavior. Side note: These remind me of a more mature version of the Daughters of the Moon series by Lynne Ewing, though those didn’t have vampires or a boarding school so I’m not sure why.
The Undead/Queen Betsy by MaryJanice Davidson: I’ve only read 5/7 of this series, so I can’t fairly review the whole thing. That said, I highly recommend taking one as a beach/car read on your next trip. They are a fun combination of chick lit and mystery. You’ll find discussion about fashion, an interesting romance, and a simple mystery in each one. Beware – the books are, like Janice ‘s Stephanie Plum novels, very formulaic, so I recommend not reading more than one at a time.
True Blood by Charlaine Harris: I’m only 3 (of 8) books into this series (and have only watched the first season of the show since we don’t have HBO). If you’re sick of the YA novels or really just can’t get enough, pick these up. You’ll love Sookie, the main character, who has a love affair with a vampire. And the books are definitely at least somewhat different from the show, so no worries about one totally spoiling the other for you. Be advised – these are written for adults, so there’s more graphic violence and adult content than you’ll find in the YA books. The only reason I haven’t read all of them just yet is that I have to take breaks from that kind of stuff for my mental health.
The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice: You know how I said Harris’s books are kind of adult? They pale in comparison to the gore in Rice’s books. To me, this is not lighthearted reading, so, if you enjoy any of the others I’ve talked about, you might not like these. I really really love vampire books, movies, and tv shows, but I just can’t handle this series – or the movie.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8 by various authors: Okay, I couldn’t resist it. I am a huuuuuge Buffy fan, so I can’t help but add these graphic novels to the list. If you were a Buffy fan and have not started following Season 8 (which picks up where the tv show left off), check them out for sure. They’re bizarre but fun. Since Whedon and his gang aren’t limited by a production budget or FCC censorship, there’s some wild stuff in here.

Do you know of any other good series about vampires? What are your thoughts on the series that you have read? Come on, you know you want to disagree with me about Twilight! Oh, and if it seems your taste in books might be similar to mine, friend me on GoodReads.

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Posted in: Books and Reading, Entertainment

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Fashion: The importance of a good foundation

Feisty Tourist — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:46:08 +0000

I’m talking about BRAS. Specifically, I want you to wear the right size bra. Most women aren’t. There are varying claims, from 70-99%, but it’s undisputed that most women really aren’t wearing the right size bra. I didn’t really find my correct size until I was about 25, and I still have a terrible time finding bras that actually fit . It turned out that I was wearing a band size that was several inches too big and cups that were several sizes too small. This is apparently pretty common. Here are my tips to making sure you look your best by beginning with your most important foundation garment:

Get thee to a fitter. Please don’t go to Victoria’s Secret for you fitting. If you’re lucky enough to fit into their bras (I’m not), then you may certainly buy bras there. But don’t rely on them to properly size you – many of the associates aren’t properly trained in bra fitting, and they seem more than willing to tell you the wrong size to get you to buy from them. Go to an independent place that carries odd sizes if at all possible. For example, check out Bravissimo in London, Pennyrich Bra Patch in Raleigh, NC, and Pink Corsets in Hendersonville, NC; there are several places in NYC. Let us know in the comments if you know of other good places like these. These stores are the best because they have the widest range of sizes, so you are much more likely to be able to find bras in your correct size to try on. If you don’t have access to something like that, go to a high end department store, like Needless Markup, Nordstrom, or Harrods. They don’t care much if they don’t have your size, and they do tend to carry a wider range than Vickie’s.
Get thee to a fitter regularly. Women change bra sizes many times during their life, and I’m not just talking about during and shortly after puberty. You’ll change sizes as you gain or lose weight from various things or even just randomly as you age.
Once you’ve been fitted, try on a ton of bras that are about your size. You’ll find that some give you an odd shape, some run small or large, and some just feel awful. When you find your first bra that really fits, its… well, it’s better than really good chocolate. You’ll experience good support without pinching from the band or straps. Ideally, you should get a band size that fits when you’re using the largest hooks so that, as the bra stretches from wear, you can lengthen its use by tightening it up.
If you are, like me, a ridiculously odd size, hit up the major online retailers: Figleaves, Bare Necessities, Bravissimo, HerRoom, etc. I’ve ordered from the first 3 and have had very good luck with them. They have great return policies, so I don’t hesitate to order 20 bras while fully intending to only keep 3 or 4 (assuming I can find 3 I like from the 20). Fantasie is my favorite brand.
If you are, like me, somewhat well-endowed, you should also consider bra-sized swimsuits. Several of those online retailers I mentioned have these. I have to give a little plug for my favorite brand here, Freya. They have some great choices (including this one, which I have and love) that are cute and very supportive.

Trust me – if you’ve been wearing the wrong size for years (or maybe all your life), you will feel so much more attractive in a bra that fits properly. Happy shopping!

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Posted in: Fashion

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Style: ModCloth

Feisty Tourist — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:00:00 +0000

Although I don’t claim to be a fashionista, I love clothes. As y’all know, I also love to travel. So… I’d rather have money to travel (and for retirement!) instead of spending it to be dressed head to toe in stuff from Anthropologie or Nordstrom or whatever. If you follow me on Twitter, you might already have heard me rave about one particular place I love to shop – ModCloth.

I’m not quite an every day dress wearer like Allison, but I am Southern. I learned at a recent seminar about dressing professionally from the boardroom to the ballroom that one reason it’s so tough to find work-appropriate dresses is because Southerners are the primary market for such things, and that’s a relatively small market. I fall right into this stereotype, and, fortunately, ModCloth has some great stuff.

Assuming you’re not particularly well-endowed, pair this adorable polka-dot number with the right white jacket, and you’re golden for work or an alumnae tea. At just under $100, it’s cheaper than a similar dress would be from Anthropologie and still high quality. The Sidecar Tour dress is an even better bargain at less than $45. I have this one and love it.

The blue Seven Year Itch dress is perfect for dinner on a cruise ship or a date with your sweetie. I’d love to wear the Cran-Orange dress to a bridal shower or for dinner and a stroll downtown on a warm summer night.

ModCloth’s goodness isn’t limited to dresses. I get compliments all the time on my Wuthering Heights jacket, I love their accessories, and the one of a kind vintage finds are always interesting. Follow them on Twitter to have a chance at winning something from their website on I Spy Thursday (at 4pm EST every Thursday, they post a Twitpic of an item, and the 5th person to identify it wins one). They also have a special Twitter account you can follow so you’ll know when they have new items available.

I speak from firsthand experience to let you know that returns are quick and easy, and their customer service is very good.

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Posted in: Fashion

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