Top Ten Posts

I didn't want yesterday's blogiversary post to be suuuuper long, so I left out the list of the top ten most popular/viewed posts from the last three years. Here they are now! There's a good mix of recipes, a handful of movie mondays, and a few other random posts. Enjoy!

1. Reasons why Autumn is the Best Season- my most popular post by a loooong shot. It has over 500 views more than the second most popular post. I think it got into the stumbleupon world.

2. Movie Mondays: Wristcutters: A Love Story- one of my favorite movies to this day.. according to my stats though a lot of people find this post after google searching "cutting wrists" :/ soo... that's unfortunate/weird. I hope those people are inspired to watch this excellent movie and are thus in a much happier and enlightened place for having done so.

3. Movie Mondays: Life as a House- I think this was one of the first R rated movies I saw when I was a kid. Very sweet film. And Hayden Christensen at 20 playing an angsty lil teenager is a real cutie.

4. 20 Things to do in my 20th Year-I'm glad this post is popular because I think it's one of the better things I decided to do on this blog. I didn't do them all but maybe I'll recycle a few for my upcoming 22 in 22! I am starting to think I may never have the chance to beat Stewart at Chinese Checkers though.

5. Shampoo? Toothpaste? Facewash? Who needs 'em!- This post has a really corny title, but some pretty decent info/ideas for anyone trying to go the all natural/no-poo hygiene route. I still stand by it all! Especially the facewash. PUT OIL ALL OVER YOUR FACE. seriously. you'll thank me.

6. 7 Layer Burritos- The only post I know of that has gotten "pinned", which makes sense because pinterest is obsessed with copycat recipes. Inspired by my 17 year old self's diet of taco bell but so much more delicious.

 7. Sesame Seared Tuna and Papaya Tempura Sushi with Spicy Sesame Sauce and Papaya Chutney- A long time ago I did this thing for a website that doesn't exist anymore called Foodie Fights. It was basically a competition between food bloggers... 5 or 6 people could enter each week, 2 secret ingredients would be revealed, and everyone would create/blog about a dish. The winner from the previous week and a special guest judge would decide the winners. This was my first entry and it won! If you couldn't figure it out the secret ingredients were sesame seeds and papaya.

8. Mint Nail Polish and 30 Day Challenge Day 18- I have no idea why this post is popular but it has a couple weird pictures of me and a couple funny videos. And I'm wearing nail polish and trying to be cute.

9. How to Couch-Hop Successfully- I had no idea, when writing this post in a state of frustration and annoyance at my current house guest situation that it would become so popular. Honestly I sound a bit like a self-righteous bitch in it. Oh well. I stand by my tips! And don't hop onto my couch if you don't like it ;)

10. Movie Mondays: Dakota Skye- Another awesome movie. Low budget indie, filmed in Scottsdale AZ which is cool. Great quality and sweet, interesting storyline about a teenage girl. Very very nice.

There you have it! That, apparently, is what people have been reading on this blog. Lots more recipes/movie mondays/other cool stuff in the archives :)

Love,
Em

Life. Or, that silly little thing that gets in the way of all your plans: A lookback on 2011.

me at the beginning of 2011. i was in mexico when i made my new years reolutions. lookin' fresh and ready for the roller coaster ride of a year ahead of me.

 I have a habit of setting goals for myself. I think it's because I love to make lists, and I love the idea of bettering myself in all sorts of ways. Sometimes they are healthy, attainable goals- like getting rid of products and using cheap homemade alternatives, like I talked about in my post yesterday. But lots of times I just bite off way more than I can chew, assuming that everything is going to go according to plan and nothing tricky or difficult is going to get in the way.

The good thing is, I don't feel too bad about myself when I don't achieve all the goals I set for myself, because I know that I did my best under the circumstances.

So, I want to look back at some of the goals I set for myself at the beginning of 2011. I accomplished some of them, and a lot of them I never really got around to completing. But you know what? That's life. If I've ever had a year where life got in the way of all my plans and good intentions, 2011 was that year. Life totally kicked my ass, actually. It didn't just send me down a road I wasn't planning on going down, it sent me to an entire different dimension.

Anyways, here were my new years resolutions of 2011:
1. Continue to strive for happiness (above all other things). I think I did this pretty well. There were a lot of times throughout 2011 that I threw caution to the wind and did something that was going to make me happy despite how unconventional it might have been. I took a lot of risks and had a great time. After Linn died I found it difficult to know or remember what made me happy, but I think I did the right thing in taking the last 2 months of the year to just be with myself and remember.
2. Maintain a weight of 120 pounds. I did this all year, until Linn died. then I blew up a bit. Now I'm working on getting back down. No more alcohol and eddas cheesy bread for me!
3. Be more outgoing and make several new friends. I think I pulled this off pretty well. I got really close with everyone I went on the Greece trip with, and now I'm good friends with all my coworkers at Brooklyn. In 2011 I also got much closer to my friends from Eddas.
4. Spend more carefully and save more money. I accomplished this in that I got a job and took a personal finance class, but I didn't actually save much.
5. Continue going on dates, playing games, laughing, joking, and loving with Stewart. Hmm. Well, Stewart and I had a great spring semester together, although shortly after I returned from Greece we broke up. Luckily, we stayed very close friends and lived together for the rest of 2011. So I guess I accomplished this.
6. Find more things to be passionate about. I love a lot of things, but I don't know that I found anything new to be passionate about this year. Unless Pinterest counts.
7. Always be reading a book. I'm in the middle of several books right now, but unfortunately I haven't read much since I got back from Greece. I'd like to start again. I feel like before shit went crazy last year I had so much time and I was doing so many things at once. School, working out, blogging, reading, socializing, traveling... I hope I remember how to do that again.
8. Worry less. Hm. I think I definitely became more apt to try risks, but new fears were also introduced into my life. But that's the way it goes, right? I think a small dose of fear is healthy. It keeps us from doing stupid things.
9. Do more creative things. I think I accomplished this. I learned to play some new songs on the piano, and spent a lot of time singing. I also wrote a few poems and started a couple stories. My film production class last semester also provided a great creative outlet. When linn died, I wrote a lot and also constructed a lovely 20 page scrapbook that helped me to take my crazed, grieving energy and focus it into something that turned out to be beautiful and healing.
10. Write 300 blog posts. Obviously I failed at this, but I don't really care. One of those things where life got in the way :)
11. Start compiling recipes and cooking new ones from online, cookbooks, magazines, etc. I think I accomplished this. With the help of foodgawker and pinterest, I was very cuisine-inspired last year. My favorite dishes included alton brown's chicken pot pie, that absolutely divine crazy feta recipe I posted, the pioneer woman's burgundy mushrooms, some feta saganaki I made when I returned from Greece, and pdubs brined turkey. A church down the street gave me a turkey for thanksgiving, and I was really excited to cook it because I had never tried before. Totally easier than the movies make it out to be.

Here are things I accomplished in 2011 that I didn't even fathom would happen:

1. Date Linn, who I secretly had a crush on since I met him in May of 2010.
2. Get a tattoo. In a very visible place, no less.
3. Be the guest of honor at a surprise party
4. Get roofied in Greece. Not exactly something I wanted to happen, but a crazy story and life experience, none the less.
5. Hike the Samarian Gorge. Something much better that happened in Greece.
6. Learn to cope with immeasurable loss.
7. Record a song
8. Work on foley for an independent film
9. Successfully live with my ex-boyfriend
10. Love something unconditionally, no matter how early it wakes me up with barking and gnawing on my fingers or how many times it pees on the carpet.
11.  Pull off catering for a camp after a sleep-deprived month in a different time zone.
12. Pull myself together and push through it all, coming out on the other side (mostly) unscathed.

Obviously this is a little late, but I wanted to talk about it anyways. New Years resolutions are funny. We can try and attain all these goals we set for ourselves, but I've found that most of the time life seems to get in the way. Hopefully its for the better.

I hope your new years resolutions are already working out :) I'm not sure if I'll make a list for this year (now that we're one sixth of the way through) but we'll see. Have a lovely weekend!

Love,
Em

Shampoo? Toothpaste? Face wash? Who needs 'em!

I am all about the semi-recent movement from fancy, expensive store-brought products to healthy, cheap alternatives. It turns out most of the things we are raised to believe are absolutely essential to personal hygiene are actually doing the opposite of what we want them to! One by one I've ditched my once-beloved products and moved on to things that not only feel better, save the environment and save me a whole lot of money.

1. The first things to go were shampoo and conditioner. I stopped washing my hair with them about a year ago and I haven't looked back. I wash my hair maybe once every two weeks with baking soda and vinegar, and other than that I just rinse it well when I shower. Shampoo is designed to strip our hair of it's natural oils, which is not only irritating to the skin but is completely counterproductive. These natural oils are responsible for shiny (not greasy), healthy, protected hair. When they are stripped away, our scalps overcompensate and create too many oils, leading to greasy hair that needs to be washed more often. Conditioner is just there to replace the oils that Shampoo takes out... so really it's entirely unnecessary if you leave the oils alone in the first place.

 When I wash my hair, I use a combination of a couple tablespoons of baking soda (because I have verrry long hair) and hot water, poured over my head in the shower and lightly massaged in. This gets rid of the dirt and grime without irritating my scalp or stripping away too many oils. I follow this with a mixture of a few tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and hot water, which acts as a natural conditioner/softener and leaves my hair shiny, soft, and voluminous.
To read more about washing your hair without shampoo and condition, you can look here.

2. I just ditched toothpaste about a week ago. That might sound absolutely appalling, but toothpaste is actually a pretty modern invention. One of those ways corporations trick us into paying money year after year when we don't really have to, you know? Instead of toothpaste, which is full of all kinds of fancy chemicals that I can't even begin to try to pronounce, I use a combination of baking soda and sea salt. Baking soda. It's just so useful, isn't it? Not just for the back corner of the fridge anymore. I made a mixture that was probably about 75% baking soda and 25% sea salt and I store it in a quarter pint sized mason jar in my bathroom. The mason jar helps keep the mixture air tight and moisture-free. I just wet my toothbrush, shake out the excess water, then dip the tip into the powder. 

When I first tried it I was pretty worried about the baking soda flavor- I am not a fan of the whole baking soda/warm water heart burn relief method- but I pretty much just tasted the salt. This was no problem for me because lately I've tended to prefer savory over sweet anyways. The baking soda cleans and whitens teeth (my teeth are whiter than they're ever been with "whitening" toothpastes), and the salt gently scrubs and promotes the production of saliva which keeps gums healthy.

Honestly I didn't research this nearly as much as I first researched using BS and ACV on my hair, but I felt pretty confident today when I went to the Co-op grocery store on 4th ave today (a haven of all things super healthy... and overpriced) and found a small bottle selling for 5 bucks called "tooth powder". The ingredients? baking soda, salt, and a small amount of peppermint to give a minty flavor. If the co-op is selling it and touting its health benefits, I feel pretty good about doing it for cents in my own home. For more info, you can look here.

3. I haven't officially tried this one, but it's getting hype all over the blogosphere. The idea is to ditch your fancy shmancy 8$ face wash (or 30$ if you use proactiv, like I did when I was a teenager) and wash your face with oil. Yes, oil. It's the same idea as the shampoo thing. Face wash basically strips your face of oil, which contrary to popular belief is NOT the cause of acne. Acne is caused by changing hormone levels and dirt and bacteria that clog the pores. Face wash gets rid of the grime, but also the naturally created oils that keep our skin radiant and soft. Thus, our skin over-produces oil, making our faces greasy and more likely to get clogged. Washing your face with oil dissolves the grease and grime and replaces it with clean, healthy oils. Also, it's apparently a great makeup remover.

When I stopped by the co-op today, I picked up a bottle of castor oil. I already had a bottle of grapeseed oil from some beauty products I made my mom and sister for christmas, however, I've heard extra virgin olive oil, sunflower oil, and several other types work well also. When I got home I mixed the two in a bottle I used for icing cookies last year (75% grapeseed, 25% castor). I plan on using it tonight for the first time. Here's what you do: put a small amount of oil in your hand. massage it onto your DRY face for about a minute. Get your tap water as hot as you can, and wet a washcloth with it. Put the washcloth over your face and just wait until the cloth reaches room temperature. Doesn't that sound like a great way to start/finish the day? Like a mini spa. Anyways, then rinse the washcloth and wipe the oil off your face. And that's it! Soft, smooth, radiant skin. Or so I hear. I'm super stoked to try this. Supposedly you only need to do it once a day (tops) for results. For more information, look here. 

Do you guys have any diy beauty products that you swear by? I'm pretty sure the next thing to go is going to be my deodorant, and then probably my volumizing mousse and hairspray. Let me know if you have any other suggestions!

Tasty Tuesdays: Dip

It's that time of the year again, folks. With the start of school comes the start of college football, and i'm guessing normal football too but I've never really been very in tune with that. Anyways, all this fall-frenzy sports mania craziness means tailgate parties, game-watching sunday afternoons, and lots and lots of food. most likely greasy, cheesy, bready foods. and dip. more dip than anyone really needs, but we know we all love it.

in an effort to help us all branch out from veggies with ranch and potato chips with sour cream and lipton onion soup mix, I've decided to make this edition of tasty tuesdays totally centered around dip! Awesome, slightly more complicated but a million times more delicious dips that are certain to be the highlight of whatever sports-related event you're attending/hosting. hell, it doesn't even have to be sports related. it doesn't even have to be an event! If you want to eat an entire bowl of one of these by yourself at home, i totally won't judge you.

click on the pics for the recipes :)

Jalapeno Popper Dip
i love jalapeno popper anything. something about adding cheese and seasonings and breadcrumbs to a roasted jalapeno just wins me over every time. I don't see why dip form would be any different.

Italian Hoagie Dip
I don't eat meat, but for some reason this recipe really intrigues me. Classic sandwich in dip form? How could that not be totally awesome? This is from one of my favorite bloggers, and after this dip he also made a cheesesteak dip, a meatball sub dip, and a blt dip.

Zucchini Hummus
I love me some hummus, but I don't love the high calorie/fat content. Yeah yeah, i know it's the "good" fat, but a calorie is a calorie. This sounds like an awesome, healthier, lighter alternative to the real deal- and lord knows we're all up to our ears in zucchini right now.

Blueberry Cheesecake Dip
Sometimes you want all the ease and functionality of dip, but all the delicious goodness of dessert. This dip is here to save the day.

Cheddar Guinness Dip
This dip contains some of my favorite things. Multiple cheese, Guinness, mustard, and hot sauce. I might have to buy some Irish cheddar from T-Joes and whip this one out for irish day next year.

Hot Reuben Dip
Another sandwich-turned-dip, but from a different one of my fave blogs :) Strangely enough I love reubens although i don't eat meat (usually), and don't really like thousand island or sauerkraut. If you happen to live in the portland area, the vita cafe makes a freaking awesome vegan one. otherwise, just make this dip.

Clam Dip
hands down my favorite dip from my childhood. this was made for every get together, potluck, and camping trip. My family's was just cream cheese, clams, clam juice, and salt and pepper though. I'd be interested to see what it's like with these additions!

Buffalo Chicken Dip AKA Crack Dip
there are lots of recipes for this dip- titled "crack dip" for it's addictive qualities- floating around the internet. some of them include bleu cheese and bleu cheese dressing, but i'm more of a ranch girl so i'm more inclined to try this one. I imagine one would use celery sticks for serving :)

Cookie Dough Dip
my idea of a dough/batter replica dip is a bowl of raw brownie batter, served with spoons for dipping. while i'm home alone. but this sounds good too, i suppose ;)

Pizza Dip
Maybe you want all the fun of dip but your friends are more the delivery-pizza types. Compromise! This looks pretty awesome. I guess i'm just into things that are normal foods/meals turned into dip form.

Enjoy your fall/football festivities!

Lovely Little Things V.IV

Back to school, back to monthly volumes of lovely little things. This will be a special summer-themed edition since I missed all the summer months


1. Making/Drinking drinks with little skewers of fruit and adorable little umbrellas.

2. Summer Romances

 3. Warm evenings and long, late sunsets

4. Going on picnics (ignore how retarded I look in this picture)

5. Taking day trips to swimming holes, rivers, etc.

6. Spending a whole day in your pjs, doing whatever the eff you want.

7. Eating nothing but a plate of fresh, cool, in season fruits and veggies for a meal

8. Having the time and freedom to discover new hobbies, reach into your creativity, and rediscover lost talents and interests.

9. Dining outside

10. Having a reason to run through sprinklers at any time of the day or night.

Happy September/end of summer my lovelies. I know I'm sad to see it go... but then again I'm going to have 100 degree weather for at least another month :/ Sure do miss the freedom though! See you next month with another volume of Lovely Little Things

if i was...

this is something silly and random that has been floating around the blogosphere for a while. I used to LOVE filling out those facebook notes, and before that myspace survey bulletins, and even before that chain email surveys! god does that make me feel old. i even sent a real live paper and pen and stamps and envelopes chain letter once. oh, geez. anyways. it looks like fun, and due to all my previous survey loving experience, i couldn't resist.

• If I was a month, I would be October
• If I was a time of day, I would be twilight
  
• If I was a direction, I would be East
• If I was a planet, I would be Venus
• If I was a piece of furniture, I would be a book shelf
• If I was a poet, I would be Sappho, without the lesbianism ;)
• If I was a gemstone, I would be an amethyst
  
• If I was a tree, I would be a weeping willow
  
• If I was a bird, I would be a dove
• If I was a tool, I would be a screwdriver
• If I was a flower, I would be a lilac
• If I was a kind of season, I would be spring
  
• If I was a musical instrument, I would be a flute
  
• If I was a word, I would be 'ambiguous' (but not in a bad way, necessarily
• If I was a feeling, I would be passionate. passionate love, passionate anger, passionate creativity, everything.
• If I was a fruit, I would be a nectarine
  
• If I was a sound, I would be a quiet wind
  
• If I was a body part, I would be finger tips
• If I was an automobile, I would be a baby blue convertible (like nancy drew!) but a hybrid one.
  
• If I was a place, I would be Loutro, in Crete, Greece. The place i felt most connected to in years.
  
• If i was a jewelry, I would be an anklet
• If i was an age, I would be 26
• If i was a weapon, I would be words
• If i was an animal, I would be my darling clementine 

distracted...

 oh, summer. you get me off doing things like lake picnics and fancy dress parties and '50's beer pong nights and late nights and lunches out and you get me forgetting about blogging! i missed it, and i missed you all, but i can't say i didn't have a lot of fun in my last few weeks of summer :)

I've got a few posts planned for the next couple weeks- i'm planning on doing that fast i listed in my 20 things before i'm 20 post within the next few days, cause i've got a salt river trip planned for labor day and I'd like to look nice and healthy and detoxed and thin :) I also need to do an end of summer post, because this summer was epic and crazy and amazing and the best summer of my life and also the most insane at at times sad summer of my life. so you guys need to see lots of pictures and hear lots of details :) aaaand i've got a few other things up my sleeve for the next few things that i think will be fun... not to mention the 200 remaining greece pics!

for now, let me tell you some things that have been going on these days:

i had my first day of my junior year of college today (upperclassmen, woo!). i only had one two hour class starting at 2pm and it was a breeze. i'm so in love with my schedule this semester.

i'm hoping (and kind of expecting, fingers crossed...) to get a job at brooklyn pizza on fourth ave this wednesday. i have an interview and my buddy caleb who worked with me at mama eddas up in prescott put in a good word for me. we'll see!

stewart and i broke up. don't freak, we're still best friends and we're actually still living together this year. things had been drifting for a while and it just feels better this way. we do everything we used to do, just without the relationship-y part, and it's been going great so far :)

i hung out with all my old friends from edda's this summer- like, i spent every night at their house- and it was the hardest thing in the world to say goodbye to them :(

i watched the entire series of battlestar galactica with stewart, and I LOVED IT. judge me accordingly.

I've been feeling really inspired lately, and i finished two poems/songs tonight. maybe i'll share them with you soon :)

I went to see horrible bosses. it's good. worth a look. only if you're under 40 and like the actors, though.

this is probably the most confusing, exciting, love and emotion-filled time of my life... it's been crazy, and i've come to realize i can never know what to expect and i can only know what i want in any given moment, not for the long-haul, at least not now. it's been crazy. i wish i could say more, but it's complicated.


a real summer post will be coming soon, probably after the salt river trip in a couple weeks. i missed you all, and i appreciate you all sticking around in my absence. love you!

<3
Em

20 in my 20th: #4 Get a Puppy

I'm on a roll with these 20 things, guys. I signed up for home ec last week and got my sewing machine tuned up to make sure it's in perfect working order, and I'm just finalizing a couple songs I've been working on on the piano- one that i wrote and one that i didn't write but i love. thats 3 more things that'll be coming at you all in the next few weeks! it's been really fun working towards these different goals and writing up these posts :)

Onto the thing you all really want to hear about- this adorable little love muffin!

Name: Clementine, as in Kate Winslet's character in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind- one of my top three favorite movies. 

Age: 5 months

Breed: Terrier mutt, but she definitely has some border terrier and some wire-hair in there. She also must have some kind of small breed terrier in there because she's tiny and she probably won't get much bigger.

Color: white, with beige-ish wiry top coat in some places

Eyes: beautiful golden brown

Where I got her: Phoenix, AZ- some guy owned her mama and daddy and I guess had to get rid of all the little pups. She was the last one left.

How I found her: craigslist, baby!

Personality: so very  sweet and shy- when i first met her she tried to high-tail it into the guy's kitchen- but she quickly warmed up to me and now thinks I'm her new mama. she follows me everywhere i go, and when I have to leave and then come home she sees me and wags her tail so hard her whole back half wiggles back and forth. She's very quiet, except for if she sees a dog and feels threatened by it- then she'll growl and potentially bark. usually this happens when she's sitting on me or on the couch and the dog comes into the room, so i put her on the floor so she and the dog are at the same level. I'm working on socializing her (which should have been done when she was younger, but i guess the dude didn't take care of that) so that when she's a bit older she can be nice and friendly with other dogs and people. she's very, very smart and seems pretty willing to be submissive- i haven't had to teach her how to heel at all, she just naturally walks next to or behind me on a slack leash when i take her out for walks. unlike the dog i grew up with (that my parents still own), clover, she doesn't have an endless appetite and bottomless stomach- she's generally uninterested in food, although i have gotten her to finish her meals the last two times. this means food will be cheap and I won't have to deal with her being all over me for it, but it's also made it hard to be successful with starting her training commands- like sit, stay, etc- since she doesn't really care about the treat reward in my hand that usually captures a training pup's attention. 

She's such a little cutie, and I've been trying to take her lots of places so she can get more comfortable with the world. she's already doing so well! she doesn't flinch or tuck her tail between her legs when she sees people or other dogs, which she certainly did the first day or two i had her. We've gone down to the downtown square a lot, as well as to other friends' houses, the vet, around the neighborhood, and to the barkery. she's getting more sociable every day! she's such a little sweet heart, and I know she's going to grow up to be such a well-mannered, sweet little companion.

<3

Em

It's... Fall?

If you know me at all or have read more than like 3 posts on this blog, you'll know I'm a fall girl. I am all about autumn. I will talk your ear off about pumpkin patches and hay rides and knit skirts and leggings and scarves, and I will feed you pumpkin breads and stuffed squashes and hot toddies until you want to kill me and go live in bermuda or antarctica or somewhere where it is never fall, ever.

But even I have raised an eyebrow at all the fall-stuff that is trickling into the latest of the interwebs. Halloween cupcake decoration DIYs? Beef and beer stew topped with garlic bread? Cmon people- I can appreciate an icy beer here or there during these sizzling months, but beef? stew? garlic bread?! I've got at least another 2 good bikini months left so what the hell are you doing?

I love fall, but I'm not one to cut summer short either- unless it gets to be November in Tucson and it's still 85 degrees and green. Either way... fall will have it's time. the web loves fall. spice bread recipes, knitting patterns, thanksgiving cornucopia diys- bloggers eat that shit up. but for right now, it's still SUMMER, damnit. So I say we turn up our noses at all the autumn stuff flooding our blogs and tumblrs and pinterest boards and embrace all things summer!

Sangria is a total summer thing. It's perfect for garden parties, bbqs, or really anything at all because it's delicious. make some, stat.

I love using zucchini to make healthy "pasta" salads. you really can't tell the difference as far as taste and texture go, and you cut the calories by an absurd amount. This pesto pasta sounds delicious, refreshing, and oh so healthy :)

I'm kinda caprese-ed out, but if you need to get your summer fix of tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil drenched in olive oil, check out this recipe for cute little caprese appetizers I posted last summer.

Now is the time to be wearing flowers in your hair. I really want to go buy some cute fabric and plain headbands and make a million of these adorable rosette hair accessories!

I think this is the cutest idea for a tropical themed summer party. I'm one of those people that believes wreaths can be a year round ordeal ;)

go enjoy what's left of summer! take a roadtrip, go camping, take a beach/pool day, buy short shorts and bikinis and flirty yellow summer dresses. eat fro yo for dinner. lay on the grass and look at the stars. drink lemonade on porch swings. It's summertime, baby! and the livin's easy :)

<3
Em

20 in my 20th: #3 Drink Ouzo in Greece

Hooray for accomplishing the first of 20 things I wanted to do before next May 10th! Unfortunately I did not get a picture of this event- you see, I drank ouzo a couple times but I was waiting for the perfect moment to really "count" it- and when that moment came my phone was dead and I didn't have my DSLR! the unjustness of it all... anyways, I can describe what I considered the best ouzo drinking occasion in Greece to be.

For those of you who don't know, Ouzo is a clear Greek Liquor with a 40% alcohol content, like most other hard alcohols. It's made from anise seed and so it has a distinct black licorice-y flavor, similar to that of Jagermeister and Absinthe. I'm not a huge fan of black licorice-y alcohols... or candies... or anything, really, but I figured hell, I'm in Greece and I might as well do as the Greeks do ;)

You can shoot ouzo like you would any other hard alcohol, which is what we did before we went clubbing in Mykonos (THAT's a whole other story altogether...), but the more proper way to consume it is in a tumbler poured over ice cubes, which slowly melt and chill/dilute the ouzo.

Anyways, It was July 2nd, if I remember correctly- we were in Santorini, an absolutely gorgeous crescent shaped island with lots of beaches named for the colors of their sand. We spent the first half of the day at the archeological site of Ancient Thera, which was interesting, although by this, the 27th day of our trip, we were all kind of site-ed out.

 Anyways, we then wandered our way down the mountain to the black beach, where we bought 2 euro gyros and half liters of amstel or mythos and strolled down the boardwalk in search of a good place to lay out and enjoy the beach.

  I was with two of the boys I spent the most time with on this trip, Trevor and Kellner. We wound up finding a spot under the shade of a tree, where the black sand was warm but not scalding like it was in the sun. We laid out our towels and spent a while reading our various books for a while before Trevor eventually decided he wanted to get some ouzo. He and Kellner went off in search for a bottle, cups, and ice while I watched their stuff. It wasn't terribly classy, laying on the beach drinking ouzo from flimsy plastic cups which got sand all over them from the condensation, but it was wonderfully fun and relaxing sitting there with the boys, laughing and chatting and joking and people watching and getting just a little tipsy. It was great :)

I'm on the verge of completing a few other things from my 20 in my 20th list, like writing a song and getting a puppy- so look for a few more of these posts coming up in the next few weeks!

20 things to do in my 20th year

 It's just a week and a day since my 20th birthday, and I've come up with the brilliant idea of writing down 20 things to do or experience before my 21st. ok, so... I didn't exactly "come up" with the idea, per se... i may have stolen it from the lovely lady over at Yes and Yes who came up with 32 things to do in her 32nd year. But I'm not going to steal any of hers! At least not intentionally. I'm not even going to look at what's on her list. I'm going to make mine first :)

1. Eat a habanero. This could be raw, whole, or cooked in some dish. No ditching the seeds though.
2. Do a one week fast- whole fruits and veggies on days 1, 2, 6, and 7; fresh fruit and veggie juice, water, and herbal tea on days 3 and 5, and water on day 4.
3. Drink ouzo in Greece
4. Get a puppy
5. Sell something handmade
6. Create the perfect chocolate chip cookie
7. Rent and actually use one of those silly work-out DVDs.
8. Make beer
9. Hike Pima Canyon, go camping there.
10. Create a sauce/condiment and name it MSoss.
11. Write a song
12. Go to Summerhaven at the top of Mt. Lemon, ride the ski-lift.
13. Take home-ec, make all the projects.
14.Spend a whole day without using my car (just walk, bike ride, etc)
15. Make this mac n cheese
16. Learn to play a new song on the piano- a recent, alt-folk song which I will also sing to.
17. Go on a grocery trip and attempt to use coupons to save an absurd amount of money
18. Take a photo a day for a month.
19. Beat Stewart at chinese checkers (this is his favorite game in the universe, and I have refused to play him at it since I met him in high school, because I want to get freaking awesome at it before I play him)
20. Make and record music with the people I love.

I may turn this post into a new page, so that I can cross things off as I go and keep track. I may also make a post for each thing I accomplish. This was really fun to write! If any of you feel so inclined as to write your own list of things to try/do, be sure to give me the link so I can check it out!!

love,
em