Owning up to the lifestyle blog, with a recipe

Aug 19, 2011 By Shann in Food recipes Tags: hummus, recipes

Thanks so much for your comments on the House&home post ladies. Some of you brought up including the home posts and letting this be more of a lifestyle blog. This is something I have been thinking about and it’s an over due acknowledgement that the Lifestyle Blog is where this site has been heading for a long time. I’ve tried to keep my various interests seperate. I don’t know why. I guess I felt like I owed it to original readers to stay on the topic of fashion. But there’s so much more to life.

I’ve been really pleased with how the blog has developed over the last few months, since I’ve opened up more in my writing. I feel like there is a little group of us that really connect and that is so much more full filling than 1000 anonymous followers. So thank you for that

In honor of embracing all topics and interests on this blog, today I bring you what may be my family’s favorite recipe, Hummus. I originally shared this on my short lived food blog. I enjoyed my stint as a foodie but I soon found being completely focused on food was making me fat LOL. I’ve made a few changes to the recipe since then and it is even better.

House & Home

Aug 17, 2011 By Shann in home remodeling Tags: home remodeling

The last few weeks fashion and my closet have taken a back seat in my thoughts. I am newly consumed with ideas of home remodeling and decorating. Home remodeling has actually been a big part of my life for the last 6 years. But it has been a chore, not a joy (more on that in a minute). Dh and I have suddenly decided it’s time for a new house. We weren’t actually looking to move but a house went up for sale just a couple doors down from us and we want it badly. It’s very much up in the air right now though, because it’s a foreclosure. Even if that doesn’t work out, we will be moving eventually. Our current house is just too small.

The house we are looking at needs a lot of work. It was built in the 1920s and still has the wallpaper to prove it! But it is really only cosmetic work, which is much funner than rebuilding a house from the foundation up. My head is swimming with ideas for it and I’ve become a little obsessed with Pinterest for keeping those ideas organized. However, I am trying NOT to get too attached to this particular house. What ever happens one thing is certain, I have to stop spending willy nilly on clothes and save up for a down payment. So sad to say, you won’t be seeing many new goodies posts from me for awhile. Unless it’s house goodies.

Now when it comes to home remodeling Dh have gained a lot of experience over the last few years. We started out not knowing a thing but were forced to learn quick. Nothing a new house needs daunts us at all because the house we are living in now, needs it all!

Dh and I both grew up poor. When we started life together in our very early 20s, we had nothing. Nothing except for a beat up, leaking waterbed and a few garbage bags full of belongings lol. We lived in an apartment for several years but then after our DD was born we needed a house. At the time, we had basically no money. Luckily this was back in those days were you could get an 80/20 home loan and didn’t need any money to buy a house. Still, we wanted to play it safe and bought the cheapest house we could find that was an actual house and not a manufactured home. The house we bought and the one we are in now, is tiny. Plus, it didn’t just need remodeling, as we thought when we were foolish kids, it needed rebuilding! But it was cheap, in a good neighborhood, and has a beautiful view of the water.

We’ve been living in said house for the last…7 years? We have come a long way and our little mortgage to match the little house has allowed us to buy a lot of toys and visit Europe twice. But now it’s time to move forward. Besides just not having enough space to live in, we have reached the point in our remodeling where we cannot LIVE in the house and redo it at the same time. We simply have no where to put everything that needs to be moved out of the way to redo the carpet, walls, cabinets, etc. That is where this new house comes in. We can spoof up that one, move into it, and then have the space to finish this one.

Denim reviews: Paige, Joes, JBrand, JCrew, plus those Checked crops

Aug 11, 2011 By Shann in All Anthropologie, All J.Crew, Anthropologie reviews, J.Crew reviews, Other brand reviews, Reviews Tags: anthropologie checked crops, jbrand bette, jbrand lovestory, jcrew high rise skinny, jcrewbootleg, joes skinny, joes visionaire, paige hidden hills

I have been trying on a lot of jeans the last couple months, in search of a great pair. Posting denim reviews is kind of useless since they fit so different for each person but I thought I’d share anyway. This is a long post, prepare yourself lol.
This first batch of pics are crappy because as you can see, I am using my phone and it is the suck. Pics get better later though.

JBrand Bette sz 27
I sized up to a 27 in these jeans because that is my new MO to prevent thigh gripping in most brands besides Joes. As you can see they are way too big! I need my regular size 26 or maybe even size down to the 25. Keeping the size issue in mind, I quite like these jeans.

J.Crew Schoolboy blazer review

Aug 1, 2011 By Shann in All J.Crew, J.Crew reviews, Reviews Tags: schoolboy blazer

First off, in case anyone is not familiar here are my measurements and such for reference

5’4″, about 120lbs Curvy figure with a high waist, 34 c or d chest, waist 26.
I tried on the J.Crew Schoolboy blazer in Pearl Grey wool flannel, size 0 regular.
I saw the Heather Caramel in my store but it was too caramel for my liking, too orangey warm. Did not see any red blazers.

First off, the fabric is thinner than J.Crew blazers of the past. But it does not feel cheap thin. It’s not stiff and papery, nor is it so thin it has no body to stand up. I didn’t mind the thinness. It’s a blazer for early Fall, late Spring. It’s not a thick, textured, winter blazer. The fabric has a small amount of fuzz but otherwise completely smooth.