the giraffe life

I'm not big on presentation. By that I mean - I can appreciate a gorgeous plate of food, but I have a tough time making food look that tempting at home. As long as it tastes good, I don't spend much energy on how it goes on the plate. And usually when I make something from a recipe book or website, my creation only has a slight resemblance to the original. (That might have something to do with how often I make substitutions while cooking, hmm.) So, when we bought a doughnut mix to make as a special breakfast on Christmas Eve and they turned out almost exactly like the picture on the box - we were both surprised. In this house, that never happens! And, I even found a recipe online so I can make them without a mix next time. Score!  Have you ever cooked something that looked like the picture? Is food presentation a strength for you?

I love end of year posts - how people did on their goals, a reflection on the year as a whole, big events. But there's a special level of excitement that I save for posts about the best books of the year! I have end-of-year posts to thank for many of the wonderful books I read early this year. And of course I want to throw my opinions out there too, so here are my top five books for the year, in no particular order: And a slight clarification before we jump in - these are my favorite books that I read in 2013, not books published in 2013.  If I Stay by Gayle Forman - Heart-wrenching , but so good. Mia and her family are in a terrible accident one snowy morning, and Mia finds herself transported out of her body, watching the aftermath. She figures out that she has to decide if she wants to stay or die before she'll return to her body. This is not a plot-driven story by any means. It's all about the characters - who they are, who they were, what part they played in Mi...

I hope you unwrap something you like today! You can see Dottie did ;)

Usually my husband and I don't buy each other gifts for Christmas. Rather, our tradition for the past four years has been a late November day trip to New York City. That trip didn't happen this fall for a variety of reasons (I'm holding out that we can make it in the spring!), so we had a local Christmas date night instead. My husband's idea was simple: bowling and dinner out. I loved it. So, that's what we did.  I wish all decisions were that easy! For $31, we rented a lane and shoes for one hour. Here's one of our scoreboards (please excuse the steamy penguins and kitten - they were the only sticker options in my photo editing program that would cover Mr. G's name): We hadn't been bowling in ages, and it was so much fun! (88 was my high score for the day - I'm terrible!)  Our super fashionable rental shoes: Dinner was great. Steak for Mr. G (and I didn't have to go near it in its raw state - win!) and fried greens beans with a salad...

Another update for Sarah's +1 Walking Challenge . . . Previous stats for this month: 60 minutes yoga, 50 minutes walking Dec. 9 - yoga Dec. 10 - 21 minutes Dec. 11 - yoga Dec. 12 - 17 minutes Dec. 13 - lazybones, so nada Dec. 14 - Cookie Day - I figured 7 hours of mixing, bending, and standing earned me a day off from walking Dec. 15 - 29 minutes Dec. 16 - 19 minutes Dec. 17 - 32 minutes Dec. 18 - yoga Dec. 19 - 28 minutes New totals: 210 minutes yoga, 196 minutes walking I'm still working on the Hattie Big Sky audiobook and that seems to be distracting me enough to lengthen my walks (especially since Hattie is dealing with a Montana winter in 1918 - that means living in a shack and using an outhouse, eek!). But I also feel busier and busier as Christmas draws closer. Lots of parties and things to do . . not a bad thing, just a busy thing ;)  But I'm happy with the amount of time I've been getting out to walk anyway. It's hours more than I woul...

On Pinterest, someone shared  this website  that lets you make a color-coded map to show the places in the US or Canada that you've visited. Pretty cool, right? I might make another of the places my husband and I have gone together and print it out to hang somewhere in the house. linking up for wordless Wednesday

My family always makes cookies for Christmas. It's one of my favorite traditions. This year, we ended up baking 5 batches of cookies - peanut butter, chewy chocolate chip , Black-Eyed Susans, oatmeal (minus the raisins), and chocolate chip . While that's certainly not setting any world records, we had fun without the stress (which is what happens when we try to make 12 batches in one day). My ever-present inspector I thought I'd share one of my favorite cookie recipes - Black-Eyed Susans (I also love  the plant ). They're made with peanut butter and chocolate so this is just the perfect recipe for me. They'd be great for spring parties too. Aren't they adorable?! Black-Eyed Susan Cookies • 1 stick melted butter (1/2 cup) • 1/2 cup sugar • 1/2 cup brown sugar • 1 egg • 1 1/2 tablespoons warm water • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract • 1 cup creamy peanut butter • 1 1/2 cups flour • 1/2 teaspoon salt • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda • chocola...

I remember helping my grandmother wrap presents and being amazed by how neatly and beautifully she could manipulate the boxes, wrapping paper, ribbons, and gift tags. She did every step with ease and it turned out gorgeous. Now that I've been wrapping presents for about 10 years, I would say I can adequately wrap a gift if it's an easy shape (rectangular prism, please!) but not with the same fluidity as my grandma. I also don't get the same pleasure from crafting a wonderfully wrapped present. And it kinda bothers me that all that my hard work gets torn up and tossed to the side in about 12 seconds flat.  So for the past few years, I've been using more and more gift bags and boxes because they are super easy, can be reused from year to year, and look just as pretty when the opening is through. Here's part of my stash: Paper and cardboard gift boxes, fabric and paper bags, giant fabric bow, and free wrapping paper (a charity mailed it to me in hopes of a dona...

We had our first snowfall of the season over the weekend - about 7 inches (18 cm) in the end. linking up for wordless Wednesday

Normally, December begins about a three to four month stretch where I don't spend much time outside for leisurely activities. When it's super cold, all I do outside is walk into a store or work, get the mail, and shovel snow. But   Sarah's hosting a walking challenge this December. I adore this idea! Basically, the goal is to walk a minute more each day by getting up a minute earlier. Since I wake at 5:30 (when it's pitch dark), I really don't want to get up any earlier, so I'm trying to fit in my walking minutes after work. I'm happy to do my walk in the morning on the weekends though (less excuses that way)! On Wednesdays, I'm giving myself a free pass off from walking since I take a yoga class ;) Dec. 3 - 11 minutes Dec. 4 - yoga Dec. 5 - 12 minutes Dec. 6 - pouring rain, ugh Dec. 7 - 23 minutes Dec. 8 - snow, 4 minutes  On Friday night, I downloaded an audiobook from the library, Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson, to encourage me to walk ...

Inspired by Kelsey , I thought I'd share something making me happy this week. picture credit: delias.com Jeans on Friday!  I got a new boss this past August and she decided that only being allowed to wear jeans on the last Friday of the month wasn't enough and changed the rule to every Friday. It's lovely! Fridays are already a pleasant day (everyone seems much more laid back on a Friday than a Monday) and this puts a smile on my face when I'm getting dressed. (Am I the only one who thinks it's much simpler to get dressed when you can wear jeans? Anything matches!) What's making you happy this week?

Hubby and I decided to skip the large Christmas tree this year in favor of this little Charlie Brown tree. But it wasn't safe in the living room, and as it turns out, it's not safe on top of the fridge either . .  I've heard comments are being eaten at an alarming rate - sorry! Mine are disappearing too. The only browser I've found that allows commenting is Safari. I'm working on it!  linking up for wordless Wednesday

Welcome to December! :) My on-going goal (since August) has been putting extra money toward my mortgage principal, and here's my final tally for 2013: I am thrilled to have been able to send an extra $1550 to the loan company, especially since that exceeds my original goal of $1k! Now, let's talk about November: Yoga : This one's complicated. I found 4 nearby yoga classes. But two of them cost $5 for the hour-long class, and the other two are $15 and $20 for an hour-long class. Easy choice, right? Between the two $5 options, there were 5 classes in the month of November (the class schedules were cut short by Veteran's Day and the week of Thanksgiving). Then two were cancelled! I decided not to fret. I could've gone to one of the more expensive classes, but why spend $20 on one class when I could just wait and use that same amount for four classes next month? So, technically, I failed for the purposes of this goal, but I'm counting the 3 yoga cl...