Things that Make me SAD

Late last night, I went through craigslist.com and found a few garage sales I wanted to stop by this morning. The last time I went to a garage/yard sale was probably this time last year, and I wanted to see what treasure I would come across today. The plan was to bike to 3 different garage sales, but plans changed because my sister and her man-companion also wanted to go treasure hunting. We decided to drive and then go grab some free samples at our favorite Costco. The horrible surprise we found as we walked to the car...my diver side mirror was dead (broken and hanging by it's thin plastic wiring). I'll be the first to confess that I don't love my car was much as some guys out there do, but this made me really sad. And then mad. And then sad again, because I have to money to repair this.

After a few calls, to my insurance, then my dad, then the police, and back to my insurance, then my dad, I am now just one sad lady with a broken mirror mount. :(

So since I have no collision coverage, thus no money from the insurance company to help me pay to fix my car, here's the quick fix: lots of gorilla glue! My very own Mr. Handyman glued the two broken parts together, and for over 40 minutes, he held it in place. Oh, what would I do without you and your very strong arms? My mirror would just fall back to its doom without you.

I guess we'll try again tomorrow to go rummaging at the local yard sales, but today we'll just watch glue dry (literally).

**And to the evil person who broke my mirror...you should have left a note, now I have an ugly mirror. And if you read my blog, please fess up so I can report to my insurance who you and and get my mirror fixed. Thanks. Oh, before I forget, I HATE you. :)
Update

The glue has dried and the mirror has survived a week of driving without falling off! YAY!!!
Here is what the mirror looks like today. It's still not as pretty as it used to be, but it works so that means this cheap fix will have to do until I save enough money to buy a new mount.

Summer Dresses and Jumpsuits

Aside from shorts and sandals, the one thing that screams "summer" in one glance is a floral summer dress. One of the best thing about summer dresses is how vibrant the colors are, and no matter how much I may avoid color throughout the year, color always finds me in the summer. This particular dress is very colorful and has a very playful print that really says "summer" in a dress. The clear buttons on the dress let the dress stands on its own and the length of the dress is just right, not too short and not too long. There really is no shape to this dress, but that's one of the beauty of the dress, because you can cinch it wherever you want. I personally like to cinch dresses at the hips, but wearing belts at the waiste is growing on me too. The belt I decided to wear with this dress is a double-braided tan belt. I wanted something more casual mostly because the shoes I really wanted to wear were quite casual as well.

Price breakdown:
Dress:$2.00
Braided belt: $1.50
Mossimo Supply Co. olive heels: $6.00

Total: $9.50

This second outfit doesn't instanly say summer, but it can work beautifully for summer. The beautiful teal color always reminds me of mermaids and for that reason, it's so fitting for beaches and summertime. This jumpsuit actually came to us from a thrift store that we don't frequent, so it was a great find. Its intended purpose was a night out outfit, but it can be worn as a day outfit as well, a very versatile piece. The jumpsuit is paired with some very big earrings. These earrings are actually very heavy, they were certainly worth the money spent, so they are rarely worn. Even for today, the were worn just for pictures. But they are so beautiful and I love them, even if I do just get to look at them and nothing more. The shoes that complete the outfit are my very dangerous royal blue (with silver lining) heels. These heels look painful, but they are actually not too bad. The extra height always makes me feel sexier, and that's always good.

 

Price breakdown
Jumpsuit: $3.50
Earrings: $6.00
Heels: $20.00

Total: $29.50

We're going to be bringing on the color, so don't be surprised if one day this summer our blog becomes a rainbow of summer dresses and sheer blouses. And may you also brave color along with us and shower yourself with the different hues of sunshine awaiting us this summer! Oh, and don't forget to hunt those thrift stores for summer steals! We will and we'll share whatever finds we make.

Blast of Blackberry

On our way home from Costco, we stopped by our secret roadside blackberry bush and picked ourselves some free blackberries. And what can you love more than free fruits? Free fruits that you can turn into a cocktail!

In the heat of summer, you can't beat fresh berries and ice cold drinks. So as a salute to summer, drink up!

Blackberry bliss, makes me smile.
Note--the top right corner picture is my lemon-infused syrup, the syrup left over from the last time I candied lemons.

Blackberry Mint Cocktail

40 mint leaves

1/3 cup blackerries

2 tablespoons simple syrup

1/2 lime, juiced
1/2 lime, cut into wedges

4 ounces vodka

club soda or lemon-lime soda

1. Muddle mint, lime wedges, and blackberries in a tall pitcher.

2. Add simple syrup, vodka, and lime juice and mix well.
3. Strain into glasses filled with ice.
4. Top with soda.

I love blackberries and wanted to make the most out of our loot. I've always loved blackberry pie and have never made it so I thought, why not? A really good friend of mine got me a pie book last year for my birthday, so I looked up a blackberry pie recipe from the book and ran with it.

 

Blackberry Pie

1 pie crust (recipe follows)**

1 cup blackberries
1 tablespoon flour

1/4 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon butter

1. Preheat over to 375 degrees.
2. Mix blackberries, flour, sugar, and lemon juice together. Set aside.
3. Divide pie crust. Roll out one pie crust and line pie dish.
4. Spoon blackberry mixture into pie dish.
5. Sprinkle butter on top of blackberry mixture.
6. Cover blackberry filling with second rolled out pie crust. Sprinkle pit crust with sugar.
7. Crimp the edges to make sure the filling will not seep out during baking.
8. Bake for 1 hour.
9. Let cool before serving.

Pie Crust
1 1/2 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup butter, cut into small cubes
1/4 cup vegetable shortening (I just used vegetable oil)
1/4 cup cold water

1. Mix flour, salt, and sugar in a large bowl.
2. Add butter and rub until mixture resmebles coarse sand. Work quickly so you don't melt all the butter.
3. Add vegetable shortening and mix with a fork.
4. Add cold water and mix until incorporated.
5. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
6. Divide dough into 4 peices and rool each piece out to 1/8 inch thick.

**For the above blackberry pie recipe, I made 3 mini pies (using a large cupcake tin) and used only 1/4 of the pie crust recipe for all 3 pies.

So, if you have a blackberry bush to pick from, do it and make something delicious out of it. And when you do, let me know what creations you think of and hot it turns out. Happy summer!