A Thai Recipe

Good evening, it's the pink-eyed freak here. Darn eyes are still red...

In more exciting news, I have a delicious, healthy recipe to share. I was hesitant at first because of the long ingredient list but soon realized I had most of it in my cabinet. Score. The best part was it took very little time to prepare partly because I bought a mixture of fresh vegetables already chopped and ready to go.

It's Thai Peanut Noodle Stir-Fry. The picture on the recipe does not look appetizing, but luckily my version came out looking and tasting gooooood.

sick but grateful

So Tuesday I got a cold. Stuffy nose, congestion, basically the works. Wednesday I was lucky enough to welcome a new addition, the cough. The kids said, "Mrs. Douglas, are you okay?" Yea, yea it's just a cold. They were very cute to say "bless you" every time I sneezed.  Wednesday night I could barely get off the couch and oddly began to notice my eyes were getting red. I assumed it was  part of the cold and went to bed.

When I woke up this morning (Thursday) my eyes were bright red. I told myself it was just because it was the morning. You know when you first wake up you always feel awful, but it gets better as the day goes on...

For as long as I can remember, my mother has taught us to be punctual and always be where we need to be. I'll never forget in college when I got into a pretty major car accident and my mom said, you better get to school (I was student teaching) so I drug my crying, emotional, just-got-hit-by-a-mini-van self to school. When I showed up and explained what happen, my teacher immediately sent me home.

So today when I showed up at school looking high as a kite, everyone was hounding me to leave and go the doctor. I finally did and left at lunch.

So now I'm just chillin on the couch blowing my nose, resisting the urge to scratch my eyes, and coughing every minute or so.  And just because I think it's pretty interesting, here's what someone with double pink eye looks like...

Wow, don't I look great?

All this leads me to say I have the best husband a girl could ask for. Monday I had class and didn't get home until 8. Tuesday I had class and didn't get home until 10. Wednesday I was sick, and Thursday oh yea, still sick. He cooked, cleaned, waited on me, and had me laughing so hard. What a guy. Seriously, he's amazing.

christmas print

Remember back in my Christmas post, when I was anxiously waiting my custom-ordered--not-so-cheap frame?

Well, funny story. It came and I hated it. It made the print look cheap and the colors less than their bright and bold self. On to plan B..figure something out Moll because we're not spending any more money. So I attached it to the piece of foam it came with and stuck it up frameless on the wall. JD was kind to ask me, couldn't we have just bought a piece of foam board from Michaels for $5.00? Well, yes we could have...live and learn I guess.


Anyway, I love how it looks and it makes a bold statement in our living room.

Onto other news...did you see the new header? I'm not sure what compelled me to make a new header the same weekend my final project AND report cards were due, but I did. I've been longing to buy Photoshop but because of its $500 price tag...need I say more. I was on the hunt for something else. I stumbled upon Piasca and love it! I am more than satisfied with this equally cool and free program. Have you heard of it? Google makes it and it's pretty awesome. I've been playing around with making collages and adding different effects to pictures.

I've also been tinkering with the idea of changing the URL address to The Douglas Duo instead of High Style on a Small Budget. Since it's kind of morphed into capturing our lives, along with DIY projects, recipes, etc.

I would make a survey for you to vote but honestly...I have got to get back to my report cards. Please leave a comment with your suggestion.

we love these two

JD and I got to spend this past Saturday with two of the cutest little kids around. Tommy and Aubrey  our adorable niece and nephew. And without question they both love their uncle JD. Here is a video from when Tommy first learned to say his name.

 

Besides the few they brought along, we were pretty limited in the toy department, so we got creative.

First up, a tunnel made from couch cushions.

Next, we made a secret fort under the table.

We made some car tracks out of books and did you see my sweet tissue-box ramp?

We had a blast! Thanks for coming guys!

christmas...better later than never

Just the other day I was looking through old posts and I realized how important this blog is to us. Yea, I do enjoy sharing it with others and reading the comments, but it's really about memories. This post says it a lot better than I can. So even though I'm a bit behind, here's our Christmas.

JD and I exchanged before we left for Pennsylvania. Interesting enough, we got each other art. Map of the world for me and a cartoon Skyrim print for him. I had to order a custom frame for mine and can't wait to pop that baby on the wall. The frame is taking forever and the wait-time is killing me...patience, patience, patience.

I guess it's safe to say we like color.

On Christmas Eve, we celebrated with the Hessen's. Santa Hessen came and dumped his and (her) sleigh. big time. My parents are very giving and we're genuinely thankful. Not just because of the gifts, but because of the feeling of "going home" and finding love and support in any situation. I couldn't ask for better brothers or sister-in-laws either.

On Christmas day it's another full day of fun. This time a round, it's off to the Douglas'. We spend the morning with JD's dad and always enjoy a gourmet breakfast.

Vanilla-Brown-Sugar Body Scrub

Each year I strive to make homemade gifts. Not sure if you remember, but last year I made caramel popcorn and honey cinnamon butter. This year I made a body scrub. Vanilla-Brown-Sugar body scrub to be exact. It's super easy to make and all the ingredients come from the kitchen. I was pleasantly surprised at how soft it made my skin. I bought the little jars from amazon and 1 batch filled 7 1/2 jars.

Ingredients:
2 cups of brown sugar
1 cup of granulated sugar
1 tablespoon of vanilla
1 cup of sesame or sunflower oil

Begin by mixing all of the sugar together until there are no lumps. Add in 1 cup of sunflower or sesame oil and 1 tablespoon of vanilla [I like to use sunflower or sesame oil for this body scrub because it does not carry the strong scent that olive oil does].

I added some ribbon and a tag and it was ready to go.

You can use on your hands, feet, elbows, legs, or anywhere really.

Happy exfoliating!

Peanut-Butter-Stuffed Ginger Cookies

When I saw this recipe in the latest Rachel Ray magazine, I couldn't wait to try it. For some reason, we've found favor in ginger snaps recently, so I couldn't wait to make this rendition with a surprise middle.

We have been trying to be intentional about starting traditions for the two of us. We're making progress, slowly but surely.

We go out to breakfast every year on our anniversary
We get a real Christmas tree every year (and have actually gone to the same place all 4 years)
We exchange gifts on Christmas Eve (that started back in high school)
We just added another one...baking a new cookie every year. So I was proud to document it.

Anyone else have special traditions?
Happy cookie baking!
If you're interested in the recipe, [click here]

A Christmas Sign

I'm excited to share my first project in about 5 months. I wanted to display a Bible verse depicting the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of Christ. Don't get me wrong, I love my Christmas tree and glitz and glam decor, but it's easy to get lost in it all. I'm thankful for the birth of Jesus, his living testimony, and his death on a cross that paid for my sin. 

Back to the sign...

I mod podged book pages to a piece of cardboard I already had.

 

I didn't take pictures of each step, but after it dried overnight...

• I used stamps to print on the Bible verse
• bought wood from Home Depot
• glued the wood together (it was very light particle wood)
• spray painted the frame red
• attached the cardboard to the frame
• attached a mounting bracket to the frame
• hung it up

Please bear with the lighting and photos. It's not near any windows and it was difficult to fit into one photo and still see the details... 

Right side

Left Side

The verse reads, all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet, "the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Immanuel." Matthew 1:22-23

Here's the best all-in-one-photo I could get. (taken at night, poor quality)

Merry Christmas!