Monthly Archives: November 2008

17 People

Posted by sarah3030 in family, Happy
I come from a fairly large family. And we’re not just large in numbers, we’re also all fairly close. Close geographically and close emotionally. Both of my parents had lots of aunts and uncles and siblings and I have lots of cousins. My mom’s side is the closer of the two. I credit my grandparents for this. My grandparents on my mom’s side are my most favorite people in the whole world, and have been for as long as I can remember. They are both traditional and progressive thinkers, which makes them wise, insightful listeners and advice givers. I know they’ve been proud of me my whole life and I think about that with almost any decision I make, what would my grandparents think of this?

My grandmother made the wise decision many years ago to never compete with the growing tug of multiple families as her children married and had several places to visit on a holiday. She has maintained a Saturday Thanksgiving tradition when everyone was available knowing that it’s the people that make the event, not the actual date. Wise, I told you. Last night was this Thanksgiving. I love this Thanksgiving. I love the family they have created. I think we are an interesting bunch, respectful and hard working. I think we have vastly different opinions for being raised with mostly the same values. I like watching how some of my cousins are as parents to their children. Mostly I like to watch Grandpa as he takes it all in and knows that he had something to do with this.
I didn’t realize how badly I needed a dose of this family yesterday. I had a rough afternoon with big decisions and realizations on my horizon. Some things in my life are a real big mess. I was reminded yesterday though, that no matter what, this family will be there. They will still be mine. Lucky for me.

I also decided I knew exactly what I wanted for Christmas from my grandparents. I wanted a wedding picture of theirs. Not the original, but I wanted to scan one in and frame it. I left last night with a few options, and even more than I asked for, a picture of my great grandmother (grandpa’s mom and dad) at her wedding.

This is my great grandparents. Check out the amazing veil/head piece my great grandmother (whom we called Muzz, though I don’t know why) is wearing! I think it’s incredible. They were married in 1923. Here are my grandparents on their wedding day:

These pictures make me happy.

The Fall’s Gonna Kill You

Posted by sarah3030 in Uncategorized

First, a note about my blog titles. I know they don’t always seem like they make sense. And rarely are they directly related to what I’m writing about. As I’ve mentioned, I’m a huge Sorkin fan, and sometimes Sorkin critic. I took it on as a personal challenge to use episode titles from Sports Night, West Wing and Studio 60 as blog post titles. I don’t know that I can do it forever, but I’m fairly sure I can do it for a while longer. =) In an upcoming blog I’ll talk about how the Sorkin craze began and give you some of the best written dialogue from television. Maybe when I run out of titles, I’ll just start using one liners from the show… Anyway, I felt an explanation there was due.

Is everyone as happy as I am when the new, giant, seasonal Williams Sonoma catalog comes to their house? It’s practically an event for me. The nice ladies at Cupcakes Take the Cake must agree with me.

This picture was posted there. Cake stands are my latest obsession and I just think I don’t have nearly enough yet. All shapes and sizes are so useful and so versatile. My most favorite Williams Sonoma product right now is this though –

It’s an Ebelskiver Filled-Pancake pan and it was one of my favorite Christmas gift last year. I had been hinting (not hinting in a subtle way, hinting like I had this page cut out of the catalog and hanging on the bulletin board I kept invitations and new baby announcements on) for it all year and my husband came through. One of the recipes is even for Lemon Curd filled pancakes, and well, see the About Me section to see that Lemon curd is all right by me.

The Cold

Posted by sarah3030 in Christmas, friends, Happy
Happy Thanksgiving!
Today I’m most grateful for Adrian Soyers, the nice woman who is buying my Louisiana house. Happy Thanksgiving to you Ms. Soyers. I’m grateful for my perfect cat and my many friends. I’m grateful for my giant kitchen island that provided lots of space for cookie making & merriment last night.
Here are some pictures of how all that turned out:


The pictures are, from top to bottom, our sugar cookies, in mid decoration. We had a variety of icings to use last night and they came out so great! The second is hard to tell, but it’s my pan of marshmallows before I cut them. I’ll have to take a better picture now that they’re cut. The last is Laura and I. Another very successful year of Christmas cookies under our belt. My kitchen is a disaster mess, and I’m pretty sure the secret to hard candy involves corn syrup and water and sugar because that’s what is stuck in the bottom of my pot. (My fault for waiting until the next morning for dishes.) Oh well. I should also say that Laura was a trooper. When she arrived at my house last night to make cookies, I informed her that our first floor heat has gone out and it was 56 degrees in the kitchen. It warmed up with the oven and all, but still. Chilly night for making cookies.

The Indians in the Lobby

Posted by sarah3030 in Favorites, Happy

My friend Alex has charged me, in a blog tag-you’re-it-fashion, to list 7 facts about myself.

Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog – some random, some weird.

Here goes:

1. One of the great tragedies of my life is that sometime during the last year in Louisiana I accidentally scooped up my Care Bear along with a pile of give away clothes that were on the guest bed and added him to the box. If you have a childhood stuffed animal that made it with you to adulthood, you know how tragic this can be. I think the Care Bear almost meant more to me later in life than earlier. I took it when I donated blood, when I saw Scream the movie in the theatre, on all of my out of town internships. It was a constant companion and I’m always sad when I think of how I could have possibly done that. It was Birthday Bear, it had a cupcake on it’s tummy. I think this is how my obsession with cupcakes has grown…

2. I don’t eat yellow candy.

3. My “theme song” is Suddenly I See by KT Tunstall.

4. I downloaded the entire Miley Cyrus album that recently came out and I love it.

5. Everytime I went to any Mexican restaurant for years I ordered chicken tacos. That was it. I think it’s a real sign that I’m maturing that I’ve begun branching out to things like enchiladas.

6. I think the sexiest things in the world are: toned arms on men, subtle winking, Crane’s stationery, the Fugees song Killing Me Softly

7. I’ve seen Cowboy Mouth live in concert more than 20 times. Their concerts bring out a very real & true Sarah, and I like that about them. I never would have guessed a little hoosier rock & roll band could have done that to me, but it does everytime. Although as I get older I find myself standing further and further from the stage. I still love them, but I’m getting old.

Talking Points

Posted by sarah3030 in Christmas, Happy, Quirks

I have a thing for toothbrushes. I’m fascinated by what I refer to as toothbrush technology. And I’m not talking about electric toothbrushes that feature sonic or infrared abilities or have built in timers. I’m talking about plastic sticks with bristles. Everytime I see a new toothbrush hit the market I think to myself, “That’s it – there’s nothing else they could think to add to a toothbrush,” I am proven wrong. I recently picked myself up a new toothbrush and was amazed by my options. This is something I feel should be standardized. Why do we need so many different varities? I went ahead and bought this one. I beg you to click on the link. The Colgate website has a whole video about this toothbrush’s features. It has this scrubby pad on the back of it that I thought was intended to clean your tongue, a nice feature. It’s also designed that way to help (for lack of a better word right here) exfoliate the inside of your cheeks! Genius! Why haven’t we had a toothbrush that’s thought of this before? And what will they come up with next. You know I’ll be watching.

I did a little blog hopping this morning. My friend Cyndi has found some of the most stylish and most interesting blog friends and I enjoy link hopping among them to see what they are loving at the moment. I ran across this picture this morning on Coveiter. It’s a random package of numbers, letters, labels and more and can be found to purchase at the Uppercase Gallery. I think these are so fun and I can see eclectic little displays of these mismatched items all over my house. I love to decorate with words and letters and I’m so happy I stumbled across this on my blog hop. For those of you struggling with the perfect holiday gift for me for under $15 – let me help you out…I want this!

Lastly for today, tonight is one of my most favorite holiday traditions and that is baking Christmas cookies with my best friend Laura. We’ve been doing this since high school and the last couple years we’ve had to take a hiatus since I lived in Louisiana and she was in Chicago and we were only in St. Louis together for about 3 days and they were jam packed with family festivities. For many years throughout college this event took place in my mom’s kitchen. My mom had a large tupperware bowl she kept in the pantry full of sprinkles and Laura started to comment after a couple years that she wasn’t exactly sure what the shelf life of sprinkles were, but she was pretty sure some of ours had reached that point. We used these same holly berry sprinkles far past their prime. Those nights are full of good memories and old jokes that have managed to live on. We once tried to make chocolate covered pretzels that were sprinkled with peppermint. They did not come out quite like the picture and we have given them the affectionate nickname of “nappy-kins”. (Laura explains it as “nappy” – because they were kind of gross looking, and “kins” because that made them cuter. It oddly works.) We have made them again, our skill level increased, and I made a version of the nappy-kins for her bachelorette party (imagine a pretzel rod dipped halfway in white chocolate and covered in a clear sugar sprinkle. Trust me, they were pretty, and delicious after a night of drinking.) The first time I ever tried to make fondue was one of our cookie nights and I went a little heavy on the white wine. I look forward to our adventures tonight, that will include homemade marshmallows (a first!), some chocolate peanut butter surprise cookies, our standard sugar cookie and a chocolate dipped chocolate cookie. Wish us luck!

And It’s Surely to Their Credit

Posted by sarah3030 in Uncategorized

Much updating to do for all of you on how all my weekend plans turned out. As promised – pictures are up!

First, I have some very exciting news to share. We received an offer on our Louisiana house! We put the house on the market in April and got word Sunday morning that an offer had been made. It was a completely acceptable offer and we said YES in about 30 seconds. The closing is supposed to happen fairly quickly, within the next couple of weeks if all the appraisals and inspections are in order. Hello to being a single mortgage household!! It was a great house, and I hope the new owner is as happy with it as we were.

Weekend updates:

I did get bangs. I think they are fun. I think I’m still adjusting to them and look forward to tomorrow when I’ll actually have to style them myself. It’s a different look and a small change I was needing.


The white tree is up and completely Disney-fied! I really like it. I know I have another small box of Disney ornaments somewhere…surely I’ll find them next week when I get the rest of the Christmas decorations out.

(Pictures of the tree and a couple of my favorite ornaments)

I made some very fun Holiday Cards during my scrapbooking afternoon with my friend Joy. I had a blast playing and a great time catching up with Joy. The cards don’t all look as professional as some examples in the store or online looked, but by golly, they were made with love and by hand!
Happy Monday to all of you.

A Good Day

Posted by sarah3030 in Happy

I decided to make the things I’m grateful for a weekly post. I think it’s valuable to find the small things that are going well and focus on them, even if it’s for 10 minutes as I write this.


I’m grateful for friends who will explain what the movie Signs was really all about. I’ve been trying to catch all of M. Night’s movies since Laura and Anna are such big fans. I watched it last night and knew it wasn’t supposed to be about the literal alien plot, but wasn’t quite sure what to make of all of it. I did know that I liked the odd coincidences that seemed helpful and the fate is bigger than us concept. So, cheers to people who will tell you what the movie is really all about.



I’m grateful for finding a 6.5 foot white Christmas tree for $35. I thought $75 was as low as it was going to get and then I got the call that my mom had found one for $35. I haven’t had a Christmas tree in 3 years, so this year I’m getting two. A traditional one for the first floor living room, and a white Disney Tree upstairs in front of the big window in the reading nook. I also found this great tree skirt that has glitter swirls all over it and if you look really hard, squint your eyes and tilt to the left, it even looks a little like Mickey’s head.


I’m grateful for Hodak’s fried chicken and french fries. They are a reason I’ll never be able to commit fully to a vegetarian lifestyle. Hot, crispy, inexpensive and delicious.

I’m happy I have some weekend plans that I’m really looking forward to. A haircut, dinner with a high school friend at a local thai place, scrapbooking with a friend I don’t see very often and dinner with my sister are all on the list for the weekend, and I have a huge selection of alternates as well. A movie, some Christmas shopping, tree decorating and some baking are on the B list. I’m grateful to be busy.

Happy weekend everyone. I hope it brings you something you’re happy for also.

The Cut Man Cometh

Posted by sarah3030 in Crazy., Hair

I thought of several corny jokes to start todays post with…The Big Bang Theory, To Bang or not to Bang, etc… I decided to avoid them all, even though this topic might be humorous to some. It is in fact about – whether or not I should cut bangs into my hair.

I have a lot of time to myself these days. My husband travels every week and that leaves me at home with the cat and the knitting. I’m 80 years old before my time, but that’s a blog for another day. I’m going to try and explain how this whole bang thing came around without sounding crazy, but as they say in Clue, too late.

I bought this shirt the other week. I mentioned it in my things that make me happy post. Well, I got home from work the night I wore it and just couldn’t take it off. It’s my dream white shirt, it was so hot. I finally go upstairs to change into my standard evening sweatshirt and I pass a mirror and start admiring this shirt yet again. Then what happens is eventually I end up taking what I believe is known as a good hard look at myself.

(Note: I know there are several vanity and mirror jokes to be made here. If you know me well, you know I’m fairly obsessed with mirrors. Thank goodness my sisters don’t read this or there would be plenty of tales about how I’m slightly image obsessed.)

So, that night I ended up standing there for several minutes and staring at myself and really seeing myself. (Do you think this is a sign of too much therapy? Or just enough?) I shake that off and resume my evening of red wine, dvr’d shows and knitting a scarf. Then a couple of nights ago, this happened again. I was having a pretty good hair day, so I found myself admiring my ponytail. Then all of a sudden, it wasn’t my image or hair I was looking at, but myself. All the psycho-babble about finding yourself, I was starting to understand it. That night while all this was happening, suddenly I thought, you need bangs. The true Sarah has bangs. Which brings me out of the semi-crazy portion of this post.

I gave up the bangs at the end of my senior year of high school when Mr. Lane, who was directing our production of Our Town, told me I had to get them out of my face. That began the process and all through college I started growing them out and then I’ve had pretty much the same hair style since. Why bangs now? I have a pretty healthy relationship with my hair. If I don’t like something, hair grows back and I rarely get very upset about a bad haircut. I think my hair is my best feature, but that’s all because it’s thick and curly, neither which I have any control over. Why not try something new?

That was my journey to the question and now the decision must be made. I’m going to get my hair cut Saturday. Perhaps I’ll come out a truer version of myself. It might be nice to meet her.

The Crackpots and These Women

Posted by sarah3030 in Crafty, Happy
Wednesday night is Knitting and Tea night at my new favorite cozy place – the London Tea Room on Washington Avenue. You should go read their website – read through the menu and the tea information – not only to get information – but because some of the cheekiest humor is woven throughout the site. It made the place even more attractive to me. (I was first attracted because they have scones and tea – enough said.)

Once a month they’ve stayed open a little later and invited knitters into the shop to sit and knit and sip. I went last month and it was a really lovely night. I’m currently working on a project that requires some helpful hints from more experienced knitters than I.

If you’re just not sure what that is – it’s the start of an R2D2 knit hat. Yes, I know. It’s pretty dorky. It was a request and since there’s really not a lot of knitted projects that I want to take on (I never want to knit myself a poncho or a purse – I am not Ugly Betty) I say yes to anyone who asks for a scarf or a hat. And I like the challenge that this hat is providing – knitting with two colors of yarn is tricky.

So, tomorrow I will sit, sip, knit and ask questions of some strangers doing the same.

Full Disclosure

Posted by sarah3030 in Uncategorized

Cake for breakfast wasn’t just a blog name – it’s still a tried and true practice for me whenever I have the opportunity. Which happened to be this morning. I had made a batch of pumpkin cupcakes over the weekend and had the very last one of them for breakfast this morning.

My favorite cupcake bakery is The Cupcakery, here in St. Louis. Their Tuxedo cupcake is probably the best cupcake in St. Louis, and I ate a lot of cupcakes to be able to say that with any degree of confidence. For October & November, they have also been offering a pumpkin cupcake and it was so delicious. I thought I would find a good recipe and whip some up last weekend. Wouldn’t you know that Martha had a recipe for them, AND that it turned out just amazing. So moist and a little dense and really yummy.

And here you have it – enjoy this fall treat as a departure from the standard pumpkin pies this Thanksgiving season. (ps – the recipe says it makes 18, but I got 24 standard cupcakes out of the mix.)

Ingredients
Makes 18.
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix!)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice; set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together, brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and eggs. Add dry ingredients, and whisk until smooth. Whisk in pumpkin puree.
Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about halfway. Bake until tops spring back when touched, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pans once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.

Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients
Makes about 2 cups.
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions
Place cream cheese in a medium mixing bowl. Using a rubber spatula, soften cream cheese. Gradually add butter, and continue beating until smooth and well blended. Sift in confectioners’ sugar, and continue beating until smooth. Add vanilla, and stir to combine.