Tara's Favorite Quick & Easy Meal

A recipe? From me? Shocking, it's true. I'm definitely not a cook/chef/baker (although I do make a mean chocolate chip cookie). And to be fair, this isn't even my recipe, it's just one that I found and loved and change from time to time depending on whether I have all the ingredients or not. So here's my favorite quick and super easy pasta (made quicker and easier!). You may have seen similar things like it on Pinterest; I know I have. And I drooled heartily at them all. This girl likes her pasta.
Since I don't remember what it's called, it shall be named....

Fresh Herb Pasta!

Ingredients needed:
(Keep in mind I made this for just me and measured nothing, so I didn't include any kind of useful amounts. Fortunately most of it is preference-based anyway)
--An amount of spaghetti (for one person I just took a small handful)
--water? (to boil the spaghetti...yeah. Just being thorough, here.)
--oil of choice (canola for moi)
--Parmesan cheese (freshly grated would probably be delicious, but I just use the ol' powdery stuff)
--red pepper flakes
--garlic (again, original recipe calls for a clove or two, but I was out and so used garlic salt. It works)
--herbs of choice! (my preferred combo is oregano, basil, and chives. mmm.)
--salt and pepper, if ya want.
--tomato (optional)

How is it Done?!?
First, bring water to a boil. Then, cook spaghetti!

My handful of spaghetti!

Boil, boil! Mwahah.

Meanwhile, as you patiently wait for your pasta to cook, cut up your fresh, delicious herbs. Or if your herbs are dried, I guess you could spend the time measuring our the amounts that you want, which would be significantly faster. I'm sorry, dried herb users, I don't have much else to occupy your spaghetti-boiling-time. I guess you'll just have to play this video and dance around your kitchen. Do it! I promise your day will be happier.

Actually, you should do that even if you had to chop herbs.

I got my fresh herbs from my recently made herb garden (yay!) which is simply blooming and oh-so-happy! I can't believe I've kept them all alive.

Basil

Chives

Oregano. Did you know that oregano is fuzzy? I didn't until I took this close-up
and now I'm vaguely creeped out. Don't worry, it's still scrumptious.

Now would also be a good time to cut up those fresh tomatoes. These are optional, so if tomatoes aren't really your thing, just leave em out.

I should also point out that if you're going to use actual garlic cloves--the more delicious way to do it, admittedly--then while your spaghetti cooks you would put the cut up clove(s), a bit of oil, and some red pepper flakes (to taste) in a little pan and heat it up until the garlic starts a-sizzlin'. You'll take this off the heat and then dump it over your drained, cooked spaghetti, add the rest of the ingredients and it is sooo good. So good.

Or if you're just using pantry stuff like me, you'll want to drain your spaghetti, douse it with some oil, and then dump in all these things, to taste: garlic salt, parmesan, herbs, red pepper flakes (leave this out if you prefer milder tastes, it gives the pasta a bit of a kick), herbs, salt & pepper if you want, and tomatoes. I like to wait until the last moment to add the tomatoes so they're still cool when I eat the dish. Delish!

The ingredients of choice.

In the end, you have this pretty pasta that you feel good about eating and, bonus, is also extra delectable!

It's seriously my favorite, I eat it for lunch at least twice a week. Yum. Let me know if you try it!

Ten Reasons Why Beauty and the Beast Wins

Well, I was going to write about the Scottish Festival that we went to last weekend {the highlight of every summer! My wedding last year was only marginally more exciting for me than this super-awesome event ;)} But for whatever reason I'm not really feeling it today, so instead I'll just take an unexpected turn and talk about my favorite Disney princess movie ever, Beauty and the Beast. Random, I know. I like to keep you on your toes.

Beauty and the Beast is by far the best and most role-model worthy Princess movie Disney has made. (I feel I should point out that I'm talking the classics, here. I feel like Tiana and even Rapunzel are pretty decent princesses to take after, too.) And by the way, while I will staunchly defend this movie as the best princessy movie ever, I will also totally abandon my position if you can provide me with a reasonable and well-stated argument in favor of another film. But just you try! Just. You. Try.

So here you have it....

10 Reasons Why Belle's Story is the Best

1. Belle reads constantly. Obviously this is awesome. Thanks to her love of reading, she's smart and imaginative and also makes friends with all the townspeople, especially the bookstore man. This is something everyone should definitely do because people are fun friends AND with just a simple batting of your over-large eyes, you too could go home with your favorite book free of charge! There are no negatives here.

2. Belle lives in the French countryside. Does this really need further explanation? I have been in rural France-land and it is seriously like a scene from a story book. A story book like Beauty and the Beast.

3. Belle is an awkward misfit. Now, this seems a little unbelievable since she's gorgeous (her name literally means beauty...a little transparent) and the "hottest" guy in town totally has a thing for her, but nevertheless she still doesn't quite fit in somehow. Everyone in town looks at her with the same indulgent smile that you would give a child after he showed you his masterful mud-pie. I suppose this is because she is a nerd for reading books. And because her father is a bit of a nutter. Either way, having watched this as a little book-loving, super-awkward pre-teen, I feel that this whole misfit characteristic really works well for the young and potentially insecure female audience. Would it work better if Belle also had braces, Snoopy glasses and no sense of fashion? Yeah, probably. But it's a good effort.

4. Belle is an upstanding model of modesty. Suuuure, she shows a little shoulder in that mysteriously available golden ball gown, but for the most part she is in her cute and decently flattering "provincial" garb. No sea shells necessary to win over the man-beast.

5. Belle is a family gal. Nothing comes before her crazy-haired inventor father, Maurice. From the very beginning where she defends him against Gaston (creeper-stalker) and then takes his place as the Beast's prisoner, to the very end where she leaves in the midst of a romance-filled evening to save him from his slog through a blizzard, she is one dedicated daughter. So dedicated, in fact, that she can't even give her semi-boyfriend a heads up that, hey, don't worry, she'll come back in a few hours and he doesn't need to slide into a hopeless depression caused by her apparent abandonment.

6. You get to watch the part of their love story where the Beast is the Beast. It may sound weird, but I would be surprised if anyone said they honestly thought the transformed Prince was more attractive than the Beast version. (Okay, maybe not that surprised.) But really. The Beast was strong and bulky and makes for a pretty intriguing love interest in that he differs from the average strapping Disney prince...and is a Beast. I wonder if Belle minded that her post-curse Prince was suddenly the exact same size as she was and had prettier hair? Regardless, the Prince had blue eyes in both versions of himself so that's a plus either way.

7. Cogsworth's awesome zinger. Ad-libbed by David Ogden Stiers (aka Cogsworth), mind you.
Beast: "I want to do something for her...but what?"
Cogsworth: "Well, there's the usual things: flowers...chocolates...promises you don't intend to keep..."

(7.5).....And then he gives her a library! I mean, come on! Take note, fellas.

8. Belle tolerates no controlling Beast baloney. Beast gets all demanding and rude, so what does Belle do? She leaves. Way to go, Belle. No one should take that kind of hogwash from anyone else, and when the Beast gets after her for it later, she gives it right back to him and he realizes he's been a real dunderhead. I hope you are all appreciating my totally PG-rated language in honor of the Disney topic.

9. Belle meets her Prince and doesn't marry him the next day. This is probably my biggest reason for loving this movie. Granted, he is a freakishly huge buffalo-bear-gorilla-boar-wolf-lion who imprisoned her within ten minutes of their first meeting, but the fact is that they started out with no affection lost between them and then got to know and like each other at a normal pace. The fact that they got to know each other at all automatically gives them a boost above the competition. I'm lookin' at you, Sleeping Beauty. And Snow White. And The Little Mermaid.

10. They both learn lessons together. The Beast's life-changing lesson is kinda central to the story. A scary old lady comes to his door and asks for help, he sees her craggy old face and nay-says that right off the bat. So she transforms him into a crazy-looking animal mutt until he can get someone to love him through his beastliness, just as he should have loved others despite their beastliness. And, magically, Belle pretty much learns the same lesson (along with some others, like the fact that you can find adventure without even leaving your own home town if you have a cursed animal living in a castle nearby). People are not always what they appear to be on the outside, and first impressions are not always accurate. Sometimes they're whoppingly inaccurate. A stupendous lesson for any child, if they pick up on that rather than on the idea that maybe their dishes sing and dance while they sleep.

In case anyone's wondering, the fact that the entire village seems to have forgotten that 10 years prior there was a prince living in a castle within walking distance does not negate the fact that this movie is rockin'. Plot holes do not supersede wonderful life lessons.

Bonus knowledge: A few weeks ago I was informed that the Beast's name is "Adam." Well, I guess technically the Prince-who-is-no-longer-a-beast's name is Adam. The Beast's name is the Beast. But anyway, who knew? I certainly didn't, but I'm glad I'm no longer lacking in this important piece of B&tB trivia.

Bravest of Puppies

In addition to home decor and related things, I am also obsessed with my dogs. Thus, I feel I should warn you that I'm writing today about an outing completely revolving around them and their silliness. If you think dogs are dirty, useless animals or just boring to read about, this would be the time to stop.

Or now.

Now, perhaps.

No? Still with me?

So be it. On to puppies!

This past weekend, Joe and I went to a river with our puppies...and also four other dogs. There were humans too, our friends Doug and Cait and their sister Stacie. All of these dogs, mind you, were under a year old, so obviously it was impossible to take a picture of them all. (Well, I think Caitlyn managed it, but that's because she has superpowers that I lack.) So we'll just do a roll call instead.

Sadie! Golden-doodle. Fluffy white and oh-so sparkly clean...for now.

Red! Full-on poodle. Looks like a stuffed animal. Less old than Sadie.

Tess! Aussie-collie mix of the most beautiful sort. Smart and bursting with energies.

Ace! Collie extraordinaire. Super cute and well-behaved. Least worrisome of the bunch, and also youngest (I think? Maybe Red is. Hm.)

Magnus! Newfoundland-Great Pyrenees mix. Giant beast with no manners. Handsome and aloof.

aaaand Sawyer! Strangely-shaped mutt. Best guess: collie-newfoundland. Funny and needy.

I really wish I'd gotten a before picture of these guys. Especially Sadie, she was looking pret-ty scraggly by the time we left.

We began the escapade by loading all puppies into the back of Doug's truck with the most worrisome ones tightly leashed. It was kind of a circus. So many puppies! We had a bit of a hard time finding a place to go where they wouldn't immediately attack nearby folk, but we eventually found a pretty nice spot of river and let them free. I'm sure we were all envisioning these 6 dogs leaping with joy into the cool river waters, splashing and swimming with abandon. That didn't happen.

Joe trying to guide his beast into the water.

Tess eyeing the water suspiciously. 

All dogs nervously pacing the bank and tentatively pawing
only the most shallow areas.

None of them would go in. Despite throwing them in (just the ones we knew would recover from it, don't worry), pushing them, enticing them with sticks, tennis ball, and giant branches (a Magnus favorite), they all just watched with hopeless longing as these tempting items floated out of reach in the water, which they must have assumed was actually lava.

Finally the pristinely white golden-doodle Sadie decided to forgo all that silliness and jumped in to get a stick. Hooray! One dog that isn't a scaredy-cat. (Don't you think that's probably the worst insult in dog world? I bet they'd all be giving me some major stink-eyes right now.)

Yay Sadie! Bravest of dogs!

 And for a while that was almost enough to get the rest of them in. They were certainly a little more incessant with their pawing and whining as they hovered at the river edge. But nay, none followed. They just started chasing each other around in the weeds, probably trying to hide their shame by pretending they didn't even know there was a river at all.

Some of the company. Dogs pretending they know of no
river. Caitlyn probably recording Sadie doing
what dogs do best  worst. 

I actually don't remember this happening, but there is
a picture so I guess it did. Go Sawyer! I also love Tess's head
poking in there as if to say "Well? Scale of 1 - 10, how
searing is the lava?"

Magnus finally decided he couldn't be outdone by this curly-furred
girl, so he waded in even futher than all the other scared puppies
to take away the stick she earned with her bravery.

 At one point, a super-loved stick was thrown all the way onto the opposite shore. Sadie, undeterred, went over to fetch it and got stuck after climbing up the bank and deciding that it was way too steep to climb back down. She's no fool, guys. So Magnus, hearing her wimperings for help, finally made the plunge. What would we do without damsels in distress!

The second bravest of puppies. And Joe.
Can you spot Sadie? Bonus points if you can!

Of course, once he got to the other side he helpfully started eating cow poop. I don't know what we expected. Joe made the sacrifice of swimming across to rescue Sadie after Magnus proved to not be very good at it. And Magnus just clambered down himself like it weren't no thing.

Some final attempts at puppy coercion.

After waiting an hour or two we came to the conclusion that the rest were just content to not be brave, so after they'd had a goodly amount of fun-time-scampering we loaded em up and headed home. We might have been dirtier than the dogs.

I don't know how I managed to take a half-clear, half-blurry
photo like this, but I love how it makes Tess look extremely creepy.

And Magnus took up half the truck bed himself. Creepy Sawyer.
And look, Red! I got so few pictures of him for some reason.

 Overall, not what we expected. But the dogs were exhausted when we came home and I'm pretty sure they still had an adventurous time. It was fun to watch them be all nervous around the scary water and run around outside. Ah, man, they're so cute and silly. I do love puppy play dates.

The Bedroom That Will Be

You may have noticed that I have recently become a woman (semi)obsessed when it comes to crafts, DIY projects, and home decor. The living room has had most of the focus since moving in because it was plain and is the room most people see. But next on the agenda is most likely our bedroom. OooOOoo. I have a few ideas of what I'd like to do in there, mostly involving some light grey walls, fun detail decor and maybe a change of bedding to go better with the plan. We'll see. But I wanted to make a post of inspiration pictures, and hopefully after all is done I can compare the two and see some mystifying similarities between my new in-home retreat and the rooms that inspired me (....and Joe. He cares too. Sort of).

By the way, if you too are bedazzled by the pictures below and want to add them to your "someday this will be MINE MWAHAHAH" Pinterest board, please pin them from the original source that I link and not from my blog....since I have nothing to do with them. Yes? Yes. I would just remove the nifty little "pin it" link from the photos but...I don't know how. Sigh. Confessions, confessions.

I first realized that light grey walls were my heart's desire after seeing these pics on a couple of my favorite blogs:

Work in progress photo from The Lettered Cottage.
It's so light and airy! I love it.

Gallery wall from Young House Love. Such a
great home "makeover" blog, I love basically
everything they do. Ever. Including this amazing
gallery wall. Seriously, go look at the post on how
they put it together. Uh, brilliant! 

This is another from Young House Love. I'm thinking
a darker grey accent wall behind our bed, maybe
with a stenciled pattern over it, would be quite fun.

A stencil like this, for example. From Cutting Edge Stencils.

And I just found this one on Pinterest, and traced it back to
this tumblr. No idea if that's the original source
(probably not) but I tried. I like the white/grey bedding,
fresh and lurvly. And the walls, of course.

Love the shades of brown in this one, too.
From Blissful Blog.

I also found some cute...what would you call it..."his" and "hers" silhouette graphics at thegraphicsfairy.com (so great for free art to print out for your boring old bare walls...ok my boring walls) and I'd like to get those made rather large and put them over our nightstands or in some other empty space for some added quirkiness.

Anyway I think you get the idea. I'm hoping this will be sort of a summer project for us.... and that we can do it all for pretty much no cost. As no major changes are being made I feel this is quite doable. Here is our room right now, by the way (in case my multiple picture postings have faded from your memory or you have forgotten from lack of interest...you're not getting off that easy!):

Stencil wall? Hmm?

Curtains of some sort shall be crafted!

All black accessories. Hooray for matching anything!

To end, here's a list of things to do:

    -Paint walls light grey

    -possibly stencil one wall that may or may not be a darker grey

    -make curtains or buy them for a ridiculously good price (probably white)

    -art for the walls

    -new bedsheets/pillow cases (?)

    -find lamps for the side tables

    -replace doorknobs on closets and patch holes on weird top cupboard closet (we replaced that hardware            last year)

Fun! Can't wait to get started. :)

DIY Kitchen Herb Garden

For several months now I've been eyeing these lurvly herb garden planters I've seen on Pinterest. (Ah, Pinterest, you sly devil.) I didn't really know how to make it happen and I didn't have anything to put in it, and then our windowsill was laid siege to by our outdoor garden plants that we never had time to plant (until last weekend...seen here!). So I just ooh-ed and aah-ed and looked at the greenery in my window and hoped I would eventually make a kitchen planter so my sill may stay forever green. It's just too pretty to resist.

Finally this week the garden went outside, and a planter box came inside! I kinda just made it up, because none of the plans I found were the right size and because it's just a simple box and shouldn't be too hard.

Inspiration pics: 

TheBeatThatMyHeartSkipped

Migonis Home

Creatively Southern

Ana White

Those last two in particular, because they have handles. Isn't that just smashing? I love the color of the second one, too. If our wood had been that deliciously old and dark, I would have kept it natural. 

 Here's what I made!

Just ignore the fact that they're planted too low and you can see the unpainted insides. I ran out of dirt. I know, it sounds ridiculous but it happened. 

Anywho, here's what I did. 

First, the Joe and I traveled far and wide to find some suitable wood (Home Depot). We came home bearing two cedar fence planks and some wee screws. And also a new hand saw, because our first one was left here by the previous owners (very nice of them, it came in handy many times) and it was pretty dull and not a little bit rusty. So, with the help of our fancy new saw, I started cutting our boards to length. After one cut had been made, Joe noticed I was using the brand new saw and wanted to try it out to see how magical it was. I graciously stepped aside and let him finish doing the rest of the boards. :) 

Magical, indeed. We use buckets to saw wood because we're legit like that.

Our kitchen window has a mini-bay-window thing going on, so we could fit a pretty sizable box. The boards were about 5 1/2" wide. Our three long pieces were cut to 34", and our end pieces were cut just shy of 6 3/4". 

We screwed the long side pieces into the outside edges of the bottom piece first, then attached the ends. The wood split slightly in some places as we screwed it all together, but we just decided it would add to the "rustic" look of it all. Right? Poorly done = rustic. :)

It was also pretty rough wood, so before going any further I sanded it down to prevent woe-inducing splinters later.

It fits!

I forgot to mention the rope we got from the depot for homes. I had to have some cute handles! They even ended up being practical later, when I had to haul the giant, dirt-filled beast inside. Bonus!

I eyeballed a decent looking length of rope...

...knotted it inside some holes we drilled into the end pieces...

...and voila! Beautiful rope handles. Magnificent.

Joe happened to be painting some edges on our living room ceiling, so I borrowed his supplies to paint the box white. I like the natural wood look, but the cedar was kind of pink and clashed weirdly with our counter tops and windowsill. So white it went!

Then came dirt and herbs! I lined the bottom with a cut up, large plastic garbage bag to help with potential leaking, and the dirt pretty much keeps the water in everywhere else so far. Basil, chives, rosemary, cilantro, oregano...and a jalapeno, though success there might just be wishful thinking.

They're alive! (...for now)

I wanted to paint some nice phrase on the side like "herb garden" or "kitchen herbs", and set about doing it the hardest way possible, which was by printing out letters and cutting them out of the paper to make a stencil, if that makes sense. I could have just cut them out the normal way, traced around the letters on the box, and painted that. But, nah. Never occurred to me. After getting halfway through cutting the "H" (from "Herb"...as in "Herb Garden"...yeah I didn't get far) out of the paper around it, I decided to throw that idea out and buy some stickers.

Sadly, a trip to Hobby Lobby proved that letter stickers are usually pretty small. So instead, at the suggestion of my brilliantly crafty cousin Kelsey, I got some cheap cork coasters and traced/cut some letters out of those. I should have taken pictures of that, because it was a bit ridiculous and tedious. Luckily, Kelsey came over to watch the Hobbit with me as I crafted the letters one by one. I love the result! :

 Detail pics!

Am I a fan of how the letters and handles ended up matching? Yes, yes I am.

I'm eventually going to get some nice, nutritious dirt for the herbs so I can raise them up out of the box a bit more, but overall I'm pretty pleased with the result. I don't know how long it will last, but I do love having a box o' greens in my sunny window.