Country Girl

I love country -- I can't help it! I know that so many people hate country, but seriously it is so good. You just have to give it a chance. And I just watched Country Strong (which was awesome) and so now I'm like on a country music high. You're thinking "great" aren't you?

Okay. So here are some of my fave country songs right now. In no particular order. And with my favorite part marked :)

And yes, my favorite parts usually aren't that original seeing as they're the chorus.

1. Chicken Fried by the Zac Brown Band
Seriously - what's not to love? This song makes me want to get up and dance for everything that I have.

"You know I like my chicken fried / A cold beer on a Friday night / A pair of jeans that fit just right / and the radio up"

2. Without You by Keith Urban

What a great love song. I love my boy whenever I hear this.

"Without you I'd survive / But I'd have to have the notion / That I could live this life / Just going through the motions."

The fast cars, the guitars, they are all just second to / This life, this love that you and I've been dreaming of for so long / Would all be as good as gone without you"

3. Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not by Thompson Square

I just love this story! One of my favorite things about country music is that the songs all have so much heart behind them. For the most part, they don't just sing about nothing. 

"It was the best dang kiss that I ever had / Except for that long one after that / And I knew if I wanted this thing to last / Sooner or later I'd have to ask for your hand / So I took a chance, bought a wedding band and got down on one knee / You smiled and said to me are you gonna kiss me or not"

4. Kissin' in Cars by Jesse Lee

The opening lines just hit me because they seem to describe so perfectly my life. I love being out of school, but it seems like life goes so fast these days. Sometimes I just want it to slow down.

"I'm all grown up now and I don't know how / But I'm finding out what live's about / This month's rent is already spent / Seems like it just came and went, it's crazy"

I can't find a video. Look it up on iTunes!

5. Give In to Me by Garrett Hedlund & Leighton Meester

This is one of the songs from Country Strong and it is so good! It is a beautiful duet - who knew this Gossip Girl could sing so beautifully? Speaking of musicians who have a great voice, what's up with Gwyneth? UM HELLO! She is about 10,000 times cooler in my book ever since she started singing!

"My heart is set on you / I don't want no one else / And if you don't want me / I guess I'll be all by myself"

Alright. There's my post for today. Hope you gave at least one of these songs a chance :)

To Die For Cake

A few weeks ago, John made a to die for cake for his friend's dinner party. And when I say to die for, I mean TO. DIE. FOR. I practically licked my plate at a dinner party, it was so good. So for Mother's Day, we decided it would be the perfect treat for my momma. 

Sidenote: I realize Mother's Day was quite some time ago. Don't judge.

Anyway, the cake is a Tres Leches cake. Tres Leche means 3 milks, so that's what this cake has inside. Here's the recipe (with random photos of my process clunked at the end because Blogger is being stupid and won't let me attach to the appropriate step). 

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup white sugar
• 5 egg yolks
• 5 egg whites
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
• 1 pint heavy whipping cream
• strawberries, sliced

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter and flour bottom of a 9 inch springform pan.
2. Beat the egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar until light in color and doubled in volume. Stir in milk, vanilla, flour and baking powder.
3. In a small bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Beat until firm but not dry. Fold egg whites into yolk mixture. Pour into prepared pan.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 45 to 50 minutes or until cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool 10 minutes.
5. Loosen edge of cake with knife before removing side of pan. Cool cake completely; place on a deep serving plate. Use a two prong meat fork or cake tester to pierce surface of cake.
6. Mix together condensed milk, evaporated milk and 1/4 cup of the whipping cream. Discard 1 cup of the measured milk mixture or cover and refrigerate. Pour remaining milk mixture over cake slowly until absorbed. Whip the remaining whipping cream until it thickens and reaches spreading consistency. Frost cake with whipped cream and garnish with strawberries.

The beginnings of the whipped cream step.
It's so cool how whipping cream turns fluffy after putting it in the mixer! Love it.

Yes. These strawberries are sliced to perfection!

The whipped cream once it had formed soft peaks and was ready to be put on the cake! 

Our beautiful finished product!

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "MAN! Kati used to be so good at making cakes - what is this piece of crap? She didn't even smooth the edges and the cake is lopsided!"

And if you weren't thinking that, then please visit my old blog, katiscakeproject.blogspot.com.

Here's my defense against this cake:

First off, John made the cake so it's his fault it's lopsided! (Love you, babe!)

Secondly, I wanted the icing to look like that!

And third, I stopped making cakes so back off. 

Sidenote: I wish they had a sarcasm font because I'd totally put my three reasons in them. In other words, I'm being sarcastic.

In all reality, it was such a fun relief to make a cake and not have anyone expecting perfection. I got to make a sloppy cake that was to die for (TO. DIE. FOR.) and everyone had fun. 

Even me.

'Nuff Said

Buy it here!

I Have a Good Excuse

I have a good excuse to why I haven't been keeping up with my goal of blogging every day every other day. Why? I went on vacation! Holla! 

I went to Gulf Shores last week with two old friends, Emily and Olivia. We were only there three days but had a ton of fun in the sun. Thought I'd give you a glimpse of what our days consisted of. 

Emily and her drank (sidenote: strawberry vodka + simply lemonade = AHMAYZING)

I like posting unflattering photos of myself. Makes me more human, I think. No? Okay fine. It's just funny.

Emily, me and Olivia on the beach.

Our "spot" on the beach after we figured out we'd need the following from walmart: 3 beach chairs, an umbrella, a beach towel, two floatation devices, a sunhat, goldfish, ice and cups (for our strawberry vodka + lemonade).

Why did it take us until we got there to remember these things? Cause we are dumb. Really, really dumb.

Emily and me.

Anyway, I'm back now so get ready for my awesome posts!

Future Full of "F's"

I know, I know. I've been bad. I haven't updated in like an entire week! My goal is to try to update the blog every day every other day but things have been crazy. Don't worry though. I have TONS of plans for a few future posts. Including (but not limited to) fashion, furniture finds, food, my furball, and a fun fiesta - aka vacation (got an "F" theme going on here, see?)

Get excited. And come back soon.

My Last Five Pins

Wasn't sure what to write about so I thought it would be cool for all of you NOT on Pinterest (see why you should join here) to see what I've been loving. To sum it up I'm going to show you my last five pins! Here we go!

Mackin Ink

1) Seriously, why don't we have danger music? It would be so cool! Just think about it. You're walking down the street and the music from JAWS starts up. Besides the fact that you're probably terrified at that point and have no idea what's about to happen, I feel like the music would lighten the mood a bit - I'd probably scale a wall or something...

House to Home

2) I love this idea for a headboard! So cute. Eliza (if you're reading this) (Eliza is my sister if you're reading this and you're not Eliza), wouldn't this be a cool idea for a headboard for you guys?!? Love!

Fellow Creatives

3) I want this. I want it baaaaad.

A Bushel and a Peck

4) A favorite things party. Seriously, why didn't I think of this? Here's the story from Pinterest: A Favorite Things Party- My friends have started a great tradition of throwing a "Favorite Things" party twice a year. A week before Baby M was born, we gathered at my friends home for the Spring party (they also have a Winter party in early December). Funny enough, I think this may be the only photo of my pregnant belly. Here's how it works: Each person brings their favorite thing (anything you like.. your favorite lip gloss, favorite kitchen tool, favorite gift wrapping supply, a gift card for your favorite frozen yogurt, etc.). It can't cost more than $6, and each person brings five of the same thing. When you arrive at the party, you write your name on five slips of paper and throw them in a big bowl. The bowl is passed around, and each person takes five names (making sure you don't pick your own.. or two of the same name). One at a time each person introduces their favorite thing and then reads the five names they picked from the bowl, passing out their gift to those five guests. After everyone at the party has presented their favorite thing, each person should end up with five gifts to take home. It's always interesting to see what people choose, and some guests have started to bring a notepad and pen to jot down what people love (this is how I was introduced to Trader Joe's Sea Salt Chocolate Caramels, which are nearly my undoing each winter).

The Fancy

5) I don't know how well this would actually work, but just think how cool you would look pulling it out of your suitcase on a trip? Or maybe even using it in the car on a trip? Now there's a fancy idea!

What have YOU been pinning lately?

A Wreck

In February, we had some crazy weather. Not crazy tornado-every-night-for-two-weeks weather, but you know, winter crazy weather. Like snow. And coldness. It was so bad we got off work for a few snow days (hooray!) I am like a small child in the fact that I cannot get my excitement together to act like a grown up when I have a snow day. It's why John loves me.

Anyway, this story takes place after the snow had melted a bit and we had started back to work. After one particularly long day, with the sky darkening quickly, I ran to my car. We park on the top of a deck, so there was still quite a bit of snow on there that hadn't melted all the way. I got into my car. Put it in reverse. Backed up while looking at my awesome rear-view camera. And I heard a crunch. Assuming it was a large pile of frozen snow under tire, I continued backing up. Then I noticed the car to my left. I had hit it. Great.

Really, it wasn't that bad!

I left a note and left. It was freezing. That weekend, I went out of town. I kept my phone on me, waiting for an anxious phone call from the owner of the vehicle, but it never came.

I waited. 

And waited.

And waited.

Nothing.

So life continued. Sure, I had a little scrape on my newly purchased Nissan, but heck I could live with that. I celebrated Valentines Day. I got a dog. Moved out. Started a new blog.

Then yesterday (yes, yesterday) I got the call. 

"Hi, Kati? Yes, you hit my car?" I was a little irritated that this was happening so I rudely said, "Like...TWO MONTHS AGO???" The guy was really nice, saying he hadn't thought the repairs would cost much. $20 maybe. But that yesterday he took it in and it was $150. $150!!!!

So I'm meeting him today to write him a check for the damages. I'm going to write it soooo slowly because I have no money right now and this is just icing on the cake. 

That's really it. Nothing fun to write about or inspiring. Just ramblings.