Simple and Delicious Chicken Stock

I love the idea of making homemade soups and stocks but I'm never quite sure where to start. But here is a super simple recipe for a tasty chick stock which leaves you with a boatload of cooked chicken to eat.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken broken into pieces

1 small to medium bunch of parsley

Place chicken and parsley into a large stock pot. Fill with water until just covered. Add a bit of salt and pepper to taste. 

Bring to a boil, then turn down heat and simmer for 2 hours. 

Place some cheesecloth in a strainer over another large pot. Strain the broth into the pot, saving the chicken in the strainer. 

Now you have a whole chicken to use for salads, soups, casseroles, etc. 

I decided to shred it and use it for salads and posole. You're also left with a giant pot of golden delicious stock to use how you want! It lasts for a week in the refrigerator, or a few months in the freezer.

Not pictured: There is quite a bit of fat in the broth. After doing some research, I would recommend placing the whole pot of stock in the refrigerator overnight to allow the fat to solidify and rise to the top. The next day, just skim off the solidified fat - it's a lot easier than trying to skim the fat when it's still liquid!

Modern American Girl - Addy's Surprise

Ok, so I cheated on this one. I KNOW. But Emma Watson is practically wearing the same dress! It's just red. In fact, a color blind person might even think it was the same one! And let's face it, there aren't too many plaid dresses out there now that don't look like they're for 8 year olds. All you need to add is some black tights, awesome booties, and fun jewelry and you're golden!

Side note- I loved this dress so much when I was a kid that I demanded my mom get me a plaid dress just like it for Christmas one year. The one she found was actually a perfect blend between these two dresses - it looked almost exactly like Addy's but it was red. I loved that dress so much and it has now been passed down and worn by 4 of my female cousins. I'd say that was one article of clothing that was put to good use.

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Misc. Snapshots

Pretty spring flowers

Invitations are sent out!

That's Numberwang! (Or painting table numbers)

A much needed nap

I've already worked two almost 12 hour work days this week, so needless to say I'm ready for the weekend. But alas, it's only Wednesday. The good news is that I'm getting my hair done this evening so that's something to look forward to!

Bridal Shower Style

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Things have been a little wedding crazy the past week because we finally hit the 8 week mark! I might be blabbing about wedding stuff more than normal this week, so I apologize if you're bored out of your mind hearing about it. But I'm not that sorry, because I'm going to keep doing it. Like wedding shower dresses! Let's talk about them! Or how I can't find anything in the style that I want and there's not enough time to make one.

My aunts are throwing me a shower next week and I'm on the hunt to find a fun spring dress that I can wear again. What I wanted is a cute, white, short lace dress that isn't too tight, but isn't a boxy sheath dress because those look terrible on me. The only options I've been able to find were not exactly what I was looking for, too expensive, or couldn't be shipped to me on time for next week. So I decided to turn to other inspiration.

I've been catching up on episodes of New Girl, and while I'm still undecided about the show itself, Zooey Deschanel is adorable and has such cute dresses. So now I'm on the hunt for stripes, fitted bodices with flared skirts, and boat necks.

Modern American Girl - Addy Learns a Lesson

So here Addy learns a lesson about mean girls. And yet mean girls never really go away, so it's actually a pretty applicable lesson. Also I thought it was so cool that her mom was a seamstress and could sew clothes. (And then 10 years later I learned to sew my own clothes and it was awesome). Also, Addy won the spelling bee and I always liked that because I stunk at spelling.

For this outfit we're breaking out the blazer again with a wrist of stacked bangles and fun heels. Because she is going to ROCK this spelling bee!

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Wedding Wednesday - Enjoying it all

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I'm naturally a planner and a worrier, and this wedding is no exception. It's so easy to get caught up in all the little details that I forget to enjoy this time in my life. I'm engaged, and that will soon be gone. As Kacey reminded me this weekend, we need to focus on the now and take in every moment to truly enjoy our engagement. Hard for me to do since I can't wait to be married! But here's to stepping back and trying to let go of the little things.

The future

This cracks me up:

By Grant Snider

Modern American Girl - Meet Addy

Wow, we are halfway through the American Girls already! Addy was a bit difficult for me at first, largely because I'm a little white suburban girl so it wasn't really working to project my style onto her like I had with the other dolls. So instead I'm using a muse for her style. I'm going to base a bit of her look off my old employer and mentor Cassie, who is a bridal designer in LA and who hired me at my first internship in the fashion industry when I lived out there. She had this fantastic vintage meets modern style that was still a bit fitted and sexy.

Honestly, Cassie probably wouldn't be rocking a bright blue headband with this outfit, but Addy has the blue band on her hat so I guess we have to do what the book shows. And I couldn't find a decent puka shell necklace (which was one of my favorite parts of Addy's outfit) so I went with earrings instead. (I also loved that Addy had pierced ears. This was so cool to little 9 year old me.)

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Wedding Wednesday - Mixing Styles

Let's talk about mixing decorating styles. Kacey and I got the townhouse we applied for! We don't currently live together, I know it's pretty rare these days but what can I say - we're old school. I absolutely can't wait to move out of an apartment (and away from my stupid downstairs neighbors) and into our new place, but we have a slight problem. See my decorating style is like this:

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And Kacey's style is this:

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So, uh what do we do? I don't fancy living in a log cabin (unless it was an actual cabin up north in the woods, but our town house is in the middle of a suburb) and Kacey doesn't want to live in a world of pastels. So for those of you who live with husbands/boyfriends/fiances how do you balance masculine and feminine decorating styles? I don't mind having rustic bones of a room, as long as all the cushions/blankets/textiles are pretty and fluffy and cozy. I've been looking at Scandinavian interiors, I feel like they have a nice minimalistic masculine vibe with some quirky and feminine touches without being overly girly. Any advice on how to make sure we don't end up in either a bachelor pad or a pretty pretty princess palace? 

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Food Cravings

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I've been on Pinterest (that's never good) drooling away over all these amazing food pictures and I finally decided to kick it into gear and actually try to make some myself. Here are some that I'm eager to try soon!

Happy Easter!

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“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!" - Luke 24:5-6

Happy Easter Sunday!

Neutrals and Neons

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I've never been a huge neon fan, but it's everywhere right now and I think it's growing on me. While I'm not about to go full 80s and rock neon head to toe, I do like how it pops with a neutral base.

Modern American Girl - Changes for Kirsten

I know I haven't done this in a few weeks due to various circumstances, but holy cow how are we already done with Kirsten?

I love this outfit, it makes me want to be a snow bunny in Colorado or someplace and spend my days skiing and sipping cocoa with cute boys by the fireplace of our lodge. Of course Kirsten wasn't doing any of that, she was busy having her house burned down because of that darned pet raccoon she decided to keep. But then she got to move into a pretty house that wasn't a log cabin, so that was good right? Honestly, now that it's almost spring this is the last kind of clothing I want to look at, but I still sort of love it. Especially the deer necklace. Because I'm from Wisconsin, yo.

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Wedding Wednesday - Table numbers

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Wedding Wednesday - haven't done one of these in a while. Let's talk about table numbers because mine just arrived in the mail yesterday! For some reason I had my heart set on table numbers that weren't just paper. I don't know why, but I loved the idea of a standing number I could prop against the vases or set on the tables as part of the tablescape. The problem was, I could find anything cheap enough (and I'm pretty cheap) or the correct size. I finally got smart and looked on ebay and I found a great little company, SJA Wood and Crafts, that will make wooden table numbers to your dimensions and font specifications! I was a little apprehensive about buying things that I hadn't seen in person, but they not only look amazing but the seller shipped the next day. I ended up ordering 4" tall numbers which I plan to spray paint silver and use as the numbers for the tables. I'm so excited to finally have a fun DIY craft for the wedding!

Minor Monday Miscellany

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Alright, I'm finally back and mostly healthy now although I still have a bit of a cough. This weekend was very enjoyable and included going out for Saturday morning brunch with some good friends who I hadn't seen in awhile, lots of wedding planning, and spending some much needed time with Kacey since he's been traveling lately. We also found out we got the town house and our lease starts in May! I'm so excited, we're about a 2 minute drive from a lake which will be amazing in summer, have 2 stories all to ourselves plus a basement, a big beautiful kitchen (not quite as cool as the one pictured above), and central air which was a huge factor for us. I've been constantly thinking about decorating and DIY ideas for our new place and don't know if I can wait until June to move in!