Glitter goods
My scores from the Goodwill Glitter Sale! Compared to last year, I’ve already worn 4 out of 5 of the items I snagged. I’m even rocking these drop earrings today! I was trying to be a more realistic and practical shopper this year š
Life
Tday break down
This year, I snagged an all natural, organic, free range yadda yadda yadda turkey from the co-op on Capitol Hill AND carried the 18-lb. bird home with me on the bus. I’m a commuter not to be messed with I tell ya!
Cooked up this bad boy on Friday (there are never any leftovers from the fam Tday), sliced and diced it up and froze the cooked meat (with some chickens stock) in small portions to enjoy for the next few months. Turkey sandwiches in January sound mighty nice!
My preferred method of bird cooking involves a Reynolds oven bag. These things are pure genius! You basically put the bird in it, tie it up, slap it on a pan then throw it in the oven. No basing, no checking and the top gets nice and golden too. Highly recommended if you aren’t a whiz in the kitchen or are just plain lazy. Plus, they tend to cook faster in the bag. Ahhh, cooking science – gotta love it.
I also had first attempt at making cranberry sauce. Usually we do the can thing, but I came across a few recipes that seemed way too easy so it was game on! Decided The Pioneer Woman was a safe bet and made this:
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| Pomegranate Cranberry Sauce |
While I was in the holiday spirit, I dolled up this veggie and pickle tray with inspiration from Pinterest. If you’ve gotta eat veggies, they might as well be in the shape of a bird – duh.
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We also had a little turkey quiz made by yours truly. The Sugiura/Heuer clan is a competitive group – sadly, peeps didn’t study up on their holiday facts. The big winner got 5 out of 11 correct.
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| Holiday quiz time! |
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| Big winner: Aunt Susan š |
Hope you and yours had a lovely Thanksgiving!
My weekend in review….
It was a jam packed weekend, so jammed in fact that I hardly had time to take any photos. Seems like every time I wanted to snap a shot, I was 1) in a sad looking church, 2) floating in a tank of salt water or 3) balls deep cooking 4 meals at once while simultaneously being a photographer’s assistant…..you know, the usual things people do on the weekends š
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| Popcorn Friday! |
I started off my weekend with a canning class on Saturday. I was all ready to get hands on – I’ve helped my grandma make jam before but she seemed to skip steps, which made me a bit nervous. I wanted to see what an expert had to say and learn a few tips on how to pickle vegetables.
Unfortunately, I didn’t pay close attention to the fine print and on the way to class, I noticed this was more of a lecture class and less of a demo class. Womp womp. Regardless, I was committed and made my way to class in an old church in SLU. Yeah, this class was nothing like I had pictured. Let’s just say it was a bit, um, ghetto hence the lack of photos – it def was not the scene to be busting out my phone. BUT, I did learn a lot and do feel comfortable tackling my first canning project: pickled green beans and/or asparagus. I know, I know….it’s totally out of season but I just want to try it once so I’ll be ready to really can come spring!
After the canning class, we had a late lunch at Brave Horse Tavern, one of Tom Douglas’ newer establishments. Yeah, yeah Tom Douglas blah blah owns too many restaurants in Seattle….but WOW. I loved this place – communal tables, 2 shuffle boards!, endless beers on tap AND the best warm pretzels around. This restaurant makes me want to move to SLU just so I could waste away my Saturday afternoons there. Nuff said.
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| Brat for days at Brave Horse. |
We capped off the afternoon with a complimentary ‘float’ at our friend’s new business venture, Floasis, in Greenlake. Also known as floating, floatation therapy, sensory deprivation and/or isolation tanks, floatation involves lying in a super-saturated Epsom-salt solution about 10ā³ deep. The salt-water solution is heated to skin temperature (93.5Ā°F). Once you are settled, it’s pretty hard to tell what parts of you are in the water and which aren’t.
The float tank looks like a large, enclosed bathtub. They are specifically designed to block out all external distractions, such as sights, sounds, tactile sensations and gravity. A private shower is provided in each room to clean yourself before entering and remove salt upon exiting the tank, which I did not seem to use properly. I kept finding patches of dried up salt on me the rest of the night. Note: always rinse well.
I must admit, I spent the first 15 minutes of my hour long session giggling. That complete feeling of weightlessness was strange at first, but I did finally settle in and found the latter part of my session to be quite relaxing. I can see how it would be really beneficial for people with chronic pain or high levels of stress.
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| The float tank, womb-like. |
Sunday was spent at my parent’s house where I simultaneously prepped 5 dinners for my crockpot while also helping out my fav pet photographer, Jen Hutter, with her holiday shoot. We had lent her the garage space for the day so she could accommodate all of her clients for holiday card orders and such.
It was pretty freakin’ fun to watch all of the dogs parade through. French bulldogs, poodles, mutts, retrievers…they donned Santa hats and posed their mug shots. You think your dog is well behaved but once you get them in front of the camera, it’s a totally different story! Jen had to kick quite a few owners out of the space since they were too distracting š Of course, Stella got her camera time and did quite well. Obviously as soon as I get those pics, they will be posted STAT.
Hope you all had an enjoyable weekend! Was it as nuts as mine?
All that glitters……
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| 5am arrival – just an hour later than we had planned – NBD |
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| Posted up |
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| Glam Bum Chic |
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| Spiced cider spiked with rum – keeps a gal warm |
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| Only 4 more hours to go…. |
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| Behind us – suckas! |
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| In front of us š |
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| Ticket to entry – not bad, not bad |
So, we did it! We woke up at the butt crack of dawn to get in line for the Annual Goodwill Glitter Sale in Seattle. We arrived last year at 8am and were 1,000th in line so we stepped up our game in 2012 and planned on a 4am arrival figuring we’d be first in line. Well, 4am became 5am and sadly we weren’t first in line. Womp, womp. But we did manage to sit nice ‘n pretty in the low hundreds which guaranteed us entrance with the first group of thrifty shoppers. Go us!
We tucked ourselves into our camping chairs, drank warm things, gossiped and watched the sun rise over Beacon Hill. Soon enough, it was time for us to get our shop on. The layers of warm clothes came off and we walked right into the shopping chaos that is the Glitter Sale. My focus this year was on purses, scarves and, as always, jewelry. The purse area was out of control (way too many elbows being thrown for my liking) so I refocused my energy on shoes. Unfortunately, the shoes were sorted by color and not size so it was difficult to browse efficiently.
Luckily, our low entrance numbers gave us access to the coveted jewelry counter pretty quick so I teamed up with a volunteer and nosed my way through the endless amounts of sparkling goodness. I worked up a pretty good shopping sweat picking out the eye catching baubles (something about the crowd and the pressure can really get to a gal….) I ended up with 2 pairs of earrings, 1 necklace and 2 scarves. Not a crazy haul, but I got some sparkly swag that has already been incorporated into my wardrobe. So incorporated in fact, that I will have to dig it all out to take some pics so you can see exactly what I got!
Photos of the goodies to follow……
