Haunted Trails

Story time:

The Haunted Trails is an annual Halloween Maze in Balboa Park. It being my first time, I warned everyone that I get very scared--- did I mention extremely easily?

But I decided to challenge my fears and go regardless and take it a step further by paying an extra $5 for the haunted "walk-in" maze. Ok, good idea and bad idea. Although I was scared out of my mind, especially when Freddy came out of the bus.

Hands Down

Goods @ Milk & Eggs Co. $3

Because actions speak louder than words, consider the language you speak using your body. What are you really saying without spoken language? I have found myself thinking about the fact that there is often a broken connection between the two. I, too, have demonstrated that this is sometimes the case in my own ways of communicating and have realized how important it is to be consistent in all forms of communication.

The thing is, communication today is mediated through the unspoken language more than ever before. So next time you might feel your body is doing all the talking, ask yourself: is this what I'm trying to say?

Hot Nails

Nails surprisingly say a lot about who you are.

I have especially noticed that whenever I am around my friends and family, their nails are one of the first few things I notice. Whether they are painted, chipped, filed or dirty--it's just something that I feel says a lot about your personality.

I usually stick to colors that represent the mood I am in, lately it's been nudes, light pastels and pinks. But my younger sister introduced me to a new way to cover your nails.

Nail Marbling How To

What you'll need:

1 small paper cup filled with water

3-4 different colored nail polishes

Vaseline or any type of petroleum jelly

Q-tips and nail polish remover

1 toothpick

To begin, cover your finger around your nail with a thin coat of vaseline. This is so clean-up will be much easier as you will be putting your fingers the patterned marbled nail polish. Choose three or four different nail polish colors to use to create the marble pattern on your fingers.

In the cup of water, drip a drop of nail polish and place each drop on top of the each other. Using the tooth pick, swirl the drops into any pattern you can create. When you're happy with what you see, using one finger at a time, dip your nail in the pattern and immediately take out of the water. Use q-tips to wipe away access polish that ends up on your finger. Continue with each nail until your complete and use clear top coat as the final touch.

SO COOL!

For a step by step instructional video, I found this great one on Youtube but using tape instead of vaseline. Check it out HERE.

Pump.ed.kin.

It's October and this year I decided on changing things up a bit.

First, I purchased a green pumpkin instead of the traditional orange. For me, carving pumpkins is not really about the jack-o face, rather I have more fun coming up with new baked pumpkin seed recipes!

I am looking forward to making my favorites, but I am going to try to experiment with some new ideas.

First Place

Lombardi Ranch Annual

Scarecrow Contest

Broken Bananas--Baked Version

This recipe was created by my roommate. The first time she experimented with bananas was on the grill, where my mouth encountered the most delectable combination of rich dark chocolate, melted brown sugar & brandy--did I mention this was all cooked inside a delicious banana? Oh yes. I am not even kidding you, my mouth nearly orgasmed when I took the first bite. Here's how to experience one for yourself:

What you'll need:

1 oven safe pan

2-3 ripe bananas (slightly freckled is even better)

1 bag of dark chocolate chips

1 cup brown sugar

vanilla icecream

Brandy*

whip cream*

*use of this is subjective to how much you would like to add, I prefer just a little, but tickle your own fancy!

To begin:

Preheat oven to 350. Set bananas in oven safe pan and cut one slit along the side. Wedge chocolate chips inside banana and sprinkle brown sugar on top. Pour light coat of brandy over bananas.

Baking Instructions:

Place in center of oven for 15-20 minutes. Cook until melted and banana peel is brown. Top with vanilla icecream and whip cream & Enjoy in a bowl!

Blog Lovin!

Follow my blog with bloglovin

What a Hoot

It could be because it's raining, or because I have recently purchased a new umbrella that has helped to make the rain a lot more enjoyable--regardless, I am really into the nature & owl trend right now and wanted to blog about it.

How cute are these treasures?!

Owl-t On a Limb MOD CLOTH.COM $17

The Lily Suit // Fong's Studio $22

Whoo Owl Ring // Idlehandsdesigns @ Etsy $37

Recycled Owl Brooches via Recycled Fashion.com // Moobear Designs $Free

Cheese, Eggs & Things

Eggs!

Considering my life has been all over the place in the past few weeks, I have been cooking less and therefore not blogging about one of the things I love the most--food. Last night, I spent the evening with fabulous company at the Downtown location of Extraordinary Desserts for their weekly Wine & Cheese Night. After indulging in some of the most delicious cheeses from all over the world (my favorite was the French Double Creme Brie!) I was inspired to get back to cooking.

Today's experiment was with breakfast. I have never been a huge fan of scrambled eggs, so I decided to create a better version, one that I would actually eat and that others can also enjoy.

This experiment was a success!

What you'll need:

1 frying pan

2-4 large eggs

1/4 cup half & half (soy creamer also works)

dash of salt, pepper, ground cumin

1/4 cup graded cheddar cheese

handful of tortilla chips*

ground cayenne pepper*

sour cream*

To begin:

It's easy to work with this recipe if you already have pico de gallo pre-made, but here is an easy recipe that I use.

First heat frying pan, add cracked eggs and begin to scramble slowly and continuously add in the 1/4 cup of cream until eggs cook. Add salt, pepper and ground cumin. Mix, then add cheese on top and continue to scramble until completely cooked (you will be able to tell because the eggs are no longer runny).

To complete preparation, add pico de gallo and tortilla strips on top of eggs while still hot. Enjoy!

*optional ingredients

Approximate prep/cook time~ 10 minutes