DIY Friday: Banana Bread

This past weekend we had a potluck at church as a sort of belated welcome for the new pastor. I made my world famous banana bread and figured I'd share the recipe with you guys.

Granted, I figured this out about halfway through mixing it, but its not that complicated, I'm sure you can figure out without pictures, right?

I just wing it normally, but for posterity here's a sorta recipe:
* Note: I doubled this recipe for banana bread pictured.

Tiffany's Fantastically Wonderful Banana Bread
4 ripe bananas
1/3 c melted butter
1 egg, beaten
3/4 c sugar
1 tbl vanilla
Cinnamon (this particular batch probably wound up with 1.5 tbl maybe)
1 tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt
1.5 c flour
nuts if you so desire (some people are allergic so I didn't include any this time.)

Preheat oven to 350.

Mash bananas in a bowl. I use a potato masher. 

Mix in the butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla. 

Sprinkle cinnamon over the top until it looks good to you. Then sprinkle in salt and soda. 

Mix in the flour last. 

Fun fact: My mom owns a sifter. I love sifting flour when I bake. IDK why. Theraputic I guess. I hated having to do it waaaaay back in Home-ec in middle school, but I can't get enough now. Weird!

Put mix in whatever baking pan you want. I don't like to use legit bread pans because then it takes FORever to bake. 

Place it in the oven and wait for it to bake. This one took about 45 minutes. Under normal circumstances you want it to be lightly brown. Gooey in the middle is not kosher. If you bake the normal amount in a square pan it takes like 30 minutes. 

Take it out of the oven. Let it cool. Butter it and chow down. 

Delicious! 

I chose this picture because of the orb in the upper left there. Normally this guy haunts my brother. I guess he wanted to be in my blog so he was monitoring my banana bread experience. 

Yes, in my free time I am an amateur ghost hunter. 

This particular batch had a lot of cinnamon in it which I love, but is not for everyone, I know. For example my brother, but who can blame him after going through this: 

Yeah, teenage boys are still idiots. You've gotta love them though (only because they're related to you)

Thrifty Thursday: Bust a Move

EDIT: My bonehead had this dude down here mislabeled as Tolstoy... Its Tchaikovsky... doi!

I spied the Tchaikovsky and Brahms at Kiwanis one day last year and decided they would be perfectly classy bobble head types in the car. 

Ricky found the Liszt one at a thrift store in Naples that I've always wanted to go to but have not yet managed to get to. It's called the White Elephant and I'm convinced it is a magical thrifting paradise. Obviously this is the case considering he found a giant Liszt there. 

I nabbed the Verdi last week and sad me has to look up who Verdi is. Shhhh don't tell anyone I'm not as classically music educated as I pretend to be. I only knew about Liszt because of Phoenix. Don't hate me! Oh doi, Verdi! Italian composer dude. Uber talented. Riiiiight on. 

Anyways, I could collect the rest of these guys off ebay at the snap of my fingers but its way more exciting to randomly spot them in a thrift store. Someday I'll collect them all. They're like Pokemon or something. Why don't they make scientist busts? I could totally rock some Einstein and Schroedinger and Mendel and shit, the periodic table Russian Standard guy... Dimitri Mendeleev. Yeaaaah, that would be hella cool. 

Okay, I need to do a major blog overhaul. I'm not sure if I'm going to take it down or not, but there will be changes soon!

Regional Dialect

Dudebros. I finally did the regional dialect thing so here's the one good one. 

Chances are if you read this blog you're doing it because you enjoy me for some reason or another, so enjoy the outtakes too! Haha! I never realize I have a sorta lisp until I hear myself recorded. Weeeeeird. 

You should do this thing too & let me see! 

 Say these words:

Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

Now answer these questions:

What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?

What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?

What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?

What do you call gym shoes?

What do you say to address a group of people?

What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?

What do you call your grandparents?

What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?

What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?

What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

WIW Wednesday

Logo-a-gogo was my photographer for this one. He's doing pretty well. The boy has potential. I'm training him on a point-and-shoot as we speak. I think by 7 he'll be able to handle a DSLR perfectly. 

I've had this shirt forever and I love the colors and the flutteryness of it, but it had these ruffles all down the front that were pretty overwhelming. Finally this week I was just like eff it and cut them all off. You can barely tell and I think with a few more minor adjustments it will be perfect. 

Top: Bealls (Clearance Center) Jeans & Shades: Bealls Tank, Shoes & Headband: Target

It was ridiculously windy when we were taking this pictures. Fun times.

I finally got my brown flower headband and I positively love it. It lives on my head. It doesn't squeeze my brains like some headbands do y'know, and it matches my hair color pretty well so it's just a little pop of something. 

I even have a remix because I just love this shirt so much I had to wear it again in the same week. I think I really dig it with the vest. I want to try and put a belt or a tie around the middle so it brings the waist in and doesn't look so poochy. 

Vest: Kohls Skirt: Thrifted and dyed Tights & Boots: Target Socks: Dollar Tree! (yes, I found socks at the Dollar Tree, that place is amazing!)

music monday (on tuesday...)

It really works out well since I was planning to finish Pere Goriot this week and review that but unfortunately a drink was spilled on him and he was completely ruined. No fear though, I am borrowing a copy and will review next week.

I've been super digging Camera Obscura lately. I looooove the sound they have. If I could singing talent and it couldn't be like Zooey, I would love to sing like this lady. Actually, she has that vibe, her voice is just a bit higher. They're from Scotland (represent!) I guess they're big song was French Navy which is completely fabulous, but I honestly love all 4 albums they have released. Such amazing chill music. I guess it has a kinda 50's feel to it. I can't sing their praises enough, you have to check them out!

I'm beyond excited

They just released the Bonnaroo 2011 lineup and I'm hyperventilating. I also pooped myself a little. Either way, I'm dying to go and am really glad I didn't get rid of my festival dresses when I was going through the closet overhaul a few weeks ago.

SQUEEEEEEEEE!!!!

2011 is sort of turning out to be the best year ever in a round-about way. It best stay this way, or else!

I'm a little glad Sasquatch! is unaffordable right now. This will kick ass.
I'll be back later with legit blogs.

hugs and kisses,

Its Porno for Pyros

If you've ever taken a kid to Wendy's you know their kids meal toys leave something to be desired. I'm not complaining. I love Wendy's. Their $0.99 menu rules the world. But their kids meal toys are generally meh.

 I was kind of excited last time that they were giving out Yogi Bear toys. Turns out Logo got the Yogi Bear glider plane or something.

 OMG! This thing was an absolute NIGHTMARE to put together. You have no idea how many Xanax I went through. SRSLY. I can't imagine a child ever being able to do it. 

Anyways, so I got together as well as I could without having an aneurysm and then Kyle had the bright idea to light it on fire. So we doused it in lighter fluid and laughed while poor Yogi and Boo Boo burned.

 Overkill? Maybe. But it felt kind of good putting that thing through the hell it put me through. 

Burn, baby, burn. 

Disco inferno.

Randomocity

1800flowers

Have you guys seen the adorbs flower tights Target has just put out? 

I saw them in the store but can't find them on the site (probably because I have no patience for it.) How is it possible for the store to be so much fun, but the website to be the complete opposite? 

Anyways, sweet flower tights, I covet thee. Have no fear, I'm sure they'll be on my legs quite soon. I'm so adoring little flowers for spring!

The INDIE conference started today. I'm seriously stoked about it. I'm already learning so much and getting so many ideas. I'm also finding other gorgeous bloggers to follow. All around ginormous win. 

Sign up here if you haven't already. 

I need to work on focus for my blog. Its pretty scattered, huh? 

Like my brain, in all honesty. My mind is all over the place anymore. Its driving me absolutely bonkers. Every afternoon I have some sort of melodramatic meltdown too. Its so ridiculous. And I realize it, but can't stop it. I'm an emotional roller coaster freak. Coupled with the zombie like state I seem to be in a lot and the turning into an ice cube after I eat a meal, I wonder if I have some crazy disease or something. Maybe I'm preggers (impossible) or menopausal (pretty doubtful). I'll call my disease SARS-West-Nile-Lunaticular-Cancer-H8N7-AIDS. Oh lets add hypochondriac to my list of ailments, shall we?

I went treasure hunting this week and got some stuff for the store that I'm planning on opening soon. I realized today, however, that only buying things you're in love with makes it difficult to part with said things. Tiffany, you must stop falling in love with your clothes! Its hard though, when your closet is one of the funnest places in the universe! Ridiculocity! 

More random: Can I tell you how much I adore google reader? It is like, the best invention ever. Mostly because I have a silly messager phone and not one of those new fangled smart things, so it enables me to read all the lovely blogs I follow all day long. Granted, I don't necessarily know that you can legit read full blogs on smart phones, but in my imagination you can. 

How is it possible for a girl to be so incredibly blow dryer dumb? I can't figure out for the life of me how to blow dry my hair with a round brush. You know, like every other person in the world can do and make look so fantastically easy? I'm going to blame my seriously weak arm muscles. They can't handle a blow dryer and a brush. #lame

Oi vey, I must get off of here. I have a million half finished projects that I must complete ASAPity. 

I'm making up such fab words today. My spell checker hates me.

I leave you with a picture of Logo looking completely insane with a pink cupcake. Enjoy!

Xs and Os boys and girls.


PS Thanks so much to my friendly neighborhood Lynksys4 for being unsecured. I heart you long time since the d-link has magically disappeared. I'll bake you cookies someday, promise!

Thrifty Thursday: Owl Edition

I found these guys at this great thift shop in Lyons, Ga. That's a tiny town near my grandma's house. They were like $6 and are gigantic and heavy! 

When I was at Goodwill the other day I spied this fantastic owl clock!

And the matching lamp!

I was on the bus so hopefully they'll still be there when I go back.

I probably won't count on it though. My orange chair missed connection is still out there. 

dear whoever got those fabulously-awesome-best-most-fantastic-love-at-first-sight-chairs from the goodwill on daniels,

i hope you are enjoying them. i hope they look absolutely divine in your living room or wherever. i hope you treat them right and don't get peanut butter and jelly or spoodge stains on them. i hope every time you sit in them and they cushion your bottom you know my heart is broken into a thousand million pieces because they belong in my living room, not your stupid house. i hate you and they hate you too. i've never even felt this way about a man, how can you deny a love like ours? please, if you have any soul at all post them on craigslist.com so they can be united with their rightful owner.

sincerely,
tiffany ( the one who belongs with orangeish paisley plaidish armchairs)

Oh well, I use the 'if its meant to be' philosophy a lot in shopping. Silly? Maybe. But it works for me and occasionally saves me money. 

WIW Wednesday

I've been wearing this outfit a lot lately. I like the orange and buttons. I looooove the boots. They're totally replacing my grey ones. Which is hard because I love those grey ones but I rarely wear them because they do this funny bunch up thing in the back. These ones are super awesome though, so, thats how it goes, I guess. The grey ones are so 2009/10 anyways.

We were wandering around downtown the other day and noticed this cute train-esque thing and decided it would be good for outfit pictures. How I miss my photographer. He does such a good job.

Sweater: Thrift  Leggings: um? Boots & Bag: Target

In our adventures, we came across this wicked cool bear paw at Big Lots. Sadly, I only found one and no price tag so it didn't come home with me. It was very soft.

We also hit up this new kid place called Escape Zone. It was super fun. They have a skating rink so we tried it out.

I wasn't so good at it. Logan was even worse (think Bambi on ice, but more akward). He's still young, so I hope he gets the hang of it someday, hopefully at a younger age than me. Ricky was a total pro, but I'm pretty sure he's just naturally good at anything like that. He makes this stuff look so easy. I think I'm a really petite girl in this giant body, I'm always akward at everything. Or maybe that's just insecurities and I'm the least athletic person ever.

The Escape Zone also has bounce houses and a 'movie theater' type area, arcade games, and lots of playground type stuff. Lo's favorite part was this section that has these big gun things that you load balls into and shoot them at peole and walls and stuff. Fun times. He played in that part alone for hours. It's really inexpensive, we'll def be going there again.