Happy Memorial Day

I've been having a lovely memorial day. I took about a jillion pictures but I'm updating from a foreign computer so I can't share just yet. I'll be back tomorrow with a real update but I wanted to stop in and say happy Memorial Day! Now, get off your computers, head outside, and eat some BBQ. Or whatever it is that you do with your Memorial Day. In all seriousness, remember the people who have died for our country. It's a great place to be!

xoxo
Malori

Sugar

This is going to be a short sugar post because I'm using an ancient computer and I'm already frustrated. I've been cooking a lot this week so for your sugar I'm going to share some recipes that I have yet to try. We can try them together!

Jerk Seitan


Rustic Rhubarb Tarts


Thai Lettuce Wraps
(I can't get a picture to upload for this guy!)

Orange Cupcakes


Have a wonderful Sunday, I'll see you tomorrow for Memorial day! Don't forget about the giveaway. And I've also been having a lot of fun on formspring recently. Ask me some questions :)

xoxoxo
Mal

This is my 200th post!

Congratulations to me! I'm such a dork... But this is exciting stuff! Thank you all so much for reading. I know there's just a handful of you compared to some other bloggers, but I think you're the best readers in the whole wide world!

Last night I spent time with my grandma. We got some dinner and then saw Sex and the City 2. I have mixed feelings about the film but overall I enjoyed it. The clothes were fabulous (of course) so I'll probably end up seeing it again. I'm a mess :).

Here's what I wore:


cardigan: nordstrom (can't remember the brand, sorry kids)
dress: ZiZiBeh
shoes: Steve Madden

Today I'm going to poke around a few antique shops and hopefully find some pretty embellishments for my knits. Speaking of which, enter my giveaway!

See you tomorrow
xoxoxo
Mal

Yesterday was...

Wonderfully productive :). I knit up some goodies, cooked a DELICIOUS dinner, and got your giveaway ready to go.

I'll start with the giveaway, since it's really the most exciting!




I've been trying to knit some embellishments for my winter knits to make them more cheerful. What better way to do that then to add some flowers? Since flowers also scream springtime, I decided that I'd make one into a hair clip and give it to a lucky reader.
Here's how you enter:
1) Comment on my blog telling me your favorite thing about spring
2) Become a follower of my blog
3) Post about this on your blog
4) Tweet/tell your facebook friends about this giveaway
5) Become a fan of Sunday Morning Sugar on facebook

If you do ALL of the following things, you could have SIX chances to win. Please leave me a separate comment for each entry. If you are already a follower of my blog, simply leave me a comment telling me your favorite spring thing and then another saying you're a follower. So exciting! I'll leave this open until next Thursday at midnight. I have no idea what time zone I'm in so when my clock strikes 12, that's when I'll call it a day haha.

Moving right along, last night I made one of the most delicious things I have cooked OR eaten in a LONG time. This recipe is officially a staple in my diet. It's super healthy and pretty easy to prepare. The recipe is from my favorite cookbook in the whole world, Vegan with a Vengeance. Everything I've made from this book has become an instant favorite. Even if you aren't a Vegan, the recipes are still fantastic. My roommate who hates all things vegetable and even remotely related to tofu or health eats some of the goods that I make from this. Okay I think I've talked it up enough :).

Stuffed Bell Peppers

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups finely chopped fresh mushrooms
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup quinoa
4 large red bell peppers
1 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 teaspoon pure maple syrup
Chopped fresh cilantro for garnish

In a saucepan over medium heat, sauté the onions in olive oil for 3 to 5 minutes, until onions are translucent. Add garlic and mushrooms; sauté about 5 minutes, until the mushrooms have released their moisture. Stir in the chili powder and salt. Add the quinoa and 1 cup of the tomato sauce (reserve the rest) and the water; lower the heat and cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring once.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350º F (175° C), and prepare the peppers. Boil a pot of water. Cut the tops off the pepper and remove the seeds. Boil the peppers for 5 minutes, and then drain them.

Combine the beans and maple syrup with the cooked quinoa mixture. Stuff each pepper with the filling, and stand them upright in a baking dish. Pour the remaining tomato sauce over the peppers, and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven; garnish with cilantro, and serve.


See you tomorrow!
xoxoxo
Malori

BEST ROAD EVER

Yesterday was actually surprisingly fun (considering my solo road trip). I decided since I still haven't given you a May playlist, and I'm pretty much out of time, that I'd share the absolutely ridiculous playlist I listened to while on the road. Well, actually just part of it since I got carried away and put over 400 songs on it :).

I'd like to preface this by saying that someone who really cares about classic rock is probably rolling over in their grave knowing that I put Ke$ha alongside Grand Funk Railroad. Oops!

1) Booty Call By: Ke$ha
2) Mean Mistreater By: Grand Funk Railroad
3) Ridin Solo By: Jason Derulo
4) Pride and Joy By: Stevie Ray Vaughn
5) Tiny Dancer By: Elton John
6) Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You By: Led Zeppelin
7) Feel Like Makin' Love By: Bad Company
8) Bullet and a Targe By: Citizen Cope
9) Animal By: Neon Trees
10) One Way Out By: The Allman Brothers Band
11) 99 Problems By: Jay Z
12) Like a Boss By: The Lonely Island
13) Some Kind of Wonderful By: Grand Funk Railroad
14) Ten Days By: Missy Higgins
15) Owner of a Lonely Heart By: Yes

Of course, there was a bunch of Maroon 5 on there as well, but I feel like I always give you Maroon 5 so I changed it up :). I always feel the need to reiterate that my musical taste is ALL over the board and my playlists rarely flow together "normally". Having said that, I hope you enjoy some or all of it :)!

Also, while I was on the road, I came across what is possibly THE BEST ROAD EVER...

are you ready...?

BUTT ROAD! Yes, I pulled over to the side of the road to take a picture of this road sign because I was laughing so hard I probably would have wrecked the car had I kept driving. What would it be like to live on Butt Road?! SO FUNNY! This is gold...

Another funny roadside sight (although not NEARLY as hilarious as Butt) was this little guy...

This tree was hairy in the wrong places. Poor little guy, probably gets ridiculed by all its tree friends for being a weirdo.

That's all I have to share from yesterday :). I'm on a bit of a schedule with my knitting so it's back to work for me! I'm sure I'll want to take breaks so you can feel free to ask me questions on my formspring. I love to answer them. Also, someone asked how they could go about buying one of my knit hair flowers. First let me say I how excited I am that someone wants one. I may have squealed a bit with glee when I read that comment. When I get a few done I'll be sure to post some for sale in my Etsy shop for those who want to purchase one :).

See you tomorrow!
xoxoxo
Malori

On the Road Again (and again and again)

I'm headed over the river and through the woods today. If all goes well, I'll end up at grandmother's house :).

I'm sad to be leaving Chicago (as always...It's just so wonderful here!) but I'm ready to get a lot of work done! I'm in a great place emotionally and mentally which is EXTREMELY refreshing considering the events of the past few weeks. I've been a bit of a basket case, but I'm getting myself back together.



Projects on my to-do list for this week:
-knit hair flower giveaway
-knit turtle for bro
-knit 3 hats
-knit 1 scarf
-knit 3 ear warmers
-find vintage buttons for embellishment

Wish me luckk!!! My hands are going to be VERY busy.
What are your plans for the week? Anything ambitious or fun going on?

xoxo
Malori

Shop Talk

(one of the few reasons I like the country. super cute pictures like this)

For my last day in Chicago, my lovely roomie (and three of her wonderful cousins) and I went shopping. Sounds like my idea of a good time :). I spent WAY too much money but I only bought sale items (except for ONE cardigan...shame shame Malori) and I think I definitely got a lot of bang for my buck. Yes, I just used that phrase. I can't wait to share outfit photos with you of some of the goodies I scored today.

In other news, I feel like my summer has officially begun. I went to a fun party (of the birthday variety), shopped, and enjoyed an excursion to the beach. That's what makes summer...right? This week is devoted to building the inventory for my store. I closed it for a while and right now, I'm hoping to have a grand re-opening on September 1st, just in time for fall and back to school fun.

As for plans for the blog, I have about a billion. As always, you can show your support by putting one of my buttons on the sidebar of your blog. As soon as I get to 100 followers I'm going to host a sweeeeet giveaway, so if you aren't an official follower yet, hop to it! Also, later this week I'm going to post a mini-giveaway for a sweet little knit hair flower. Perfect for summer!

This has been quite an informational post, I apologize for that! I just like to give you an occasional update on the behind the scenes stuff :). I'll be back tomorrow, posting from Ohio once again!

xoxo
Malori

p.s.
Image found on weheartit

Beach Day!

"I thought I was going to die...on beach day"


I love this episode of the office. It is HILARIOUS, definitely one of my favorites. My beach day didn't quite go like their beach day, but it was fun nonetheless.

My lovely friends Eric, Clinten, and Jason picked me up from my roomie's house and we were on our way! After a longggggg drive (we may have gotten caught in HORRIBLE traffic) we finally found a place to park that was pretty close to the beach.

The sun was starting to hang low in the sky so we took advantage of the last few rays. We dipped our toes in the water (because it was FREEZING) and splashed around a bit.

and a bit more...

Then we relocated to meet up with more of our friends.

The view from the beach was so beautiful!

We spent the rest of the evening playing in the sand and laughing oh so much.

It really was very lovely. I adore the beach and I think it would be fabulous to live in California someday. For now, I'll have to settle for playing by Lake Michigan.

xoxoxo
Malori

Sugar!

Whenever things get tough for me, I turn to the blank pages of my journal. I have so many notebooks filled with my rantings. Recently I've been writing up a storm and in the spirit of that, I decided to share a few cute journals from Etsy with you for your sugar!


source


source


source


source


source


source


source

See you tomorrow
xoxox
Malori

Had a Lovely Day!

Today I FINALLY made it to Nina knitting. I can't describe how much I adore that store. It's a little bit ridiculous. I bought some yarn to make a baby beanie (for a friend) and some really fine yarn so I can experiment with hair flower sizes. I'm quite excited.

(outside nina...RENEGADE KNITTERS)

After Nina, my friend Eric and I walked around and popped into a few other stores. While I was flipping through a rack of clothes, an extremely vicious hanger lashed out and CUT ME OPEN! There was blood EVERYWHERE. (See below)


When I finally found a napkin to slow the bleeding (okay so it really wasn't that much...), we stopped into Renegade Handmade and had a blast looking at all the cute handmade goodies. Eric bought a chocolate mustache but I left empty-handed. I'm trying to control my spending!

Tonight is one of my good friend's birthdays so I'm going to be a college cliche for a few hours. Then it's back to my regular self :).

xoxo
Malori

I got my camera!

AND I'M BACK IN THE CITY!

These two things are THE BEST!! It was rainy most of yesterday but I did manage to snag a few pictures of my grandma's beautiful flowers. They're so pink and pretty! I'll say a lot of negative things about the country, but things grow so well there!


I have no idea what kind of flower this is. But CHECK OUT THAT PICTURE QUALITY! I am by no means a photographer. However, I could not possibly be more excited about my camera and learning as much as I can about it.

Also, my roommate creepily took a bunch of pictures of me and these ones made me chuckle so I figured I'd share.



In other news, I started knitting a turtle for my older brother last night and it's going to adorable. When it's finished I'll take some pictures of it (WITH MY NEW CAMERA) and show you :). You'll get to see it before him lol.

Also, I found this HILARIOUS site that tells you what to make for dinner. You can find it here (fair warning: profanity runs amuck on this site).

I have a couple secret knitting projects in the works. After I give them away I'll post pictures so you can see. They're SO CUTE and I'm beyond excited about them. Also, I've officially decided to give away one of my knit hair flowers (they're too cute to keep to myself) so stay posted for that. I'll get that up after my mini-vaca.

That's all for tonight kiddos.
xoxoxo
Malori

Due to my internet issues

I have to come to this cute coffee shop every day to post. I'm not really complaining because it's pretty adorable here, but when I come here I always seem to forget the cord to connect my camera to my computer and I also always end up spending about $5 on drinks and other coffee house goodies. So, in short, I'm going to be really poor because of blogging. I'm choosing to blame all of you. Good job...

In other news, I made my ratatouille and it is DELICIOUS! It was a lot of work but I'd say completely worth it. When I finally remember to put the pictures on my computer, I'll be sure to share. It looks really pretty (the picture quality is not so good due to my grandma's distracting granite counter tops) but you'll get the idea.

I've had a lot of time to get dressed in the mornings so here's a quick outfit picture.

dress: online (I can't remember where! I bought it last summer)
tights: Forever 21 (you can't see these)
shoes: Steve Madden (you can't see these either tee hee hee)


I'm going crazyyyy here in the country so I've decided to head back to Chicago for the weekend. I CAN'T WAIT! Man alive, I love that city :). I think it's supposed to be a bit of a surprise but I'm really bad at containing secrets. Especially when they make me this happy!

Today I have to get the oil changed in my little car, find a yarn store (or maybe I'll just wait till I'm home and go to Nina knitting or Loopy), and get some knitting done. I read a WHOLE BOOK yesterday in one sitting. I'll put the information up on my sidebar (I realized I'm running a bit behind on the updates there) when I have the book sitting in front of me. I'm SO determined to read all the books I need before my birthday. I may have set my goals a little TOO high. But it's better than not having any goals at all :). In sociology my senior year of high school I learned that people who set goals (whether or not they achieve them) do better in life [than people who do not set goals] because they are at least trying. I definitely took that to heart.

Alright I do believe that about sums it up for me today. Due to the excess of time I think I've been giving you WAY more information than you care to read. I'm thinking about knitting up some more hair flowers and I may have a mini giveaway of one of them soon. I'm just so excited about how cute they are!!! I'll see you all tomorrow (hopefully).

xoxoxo
Malori

Coloful Coffins...?

Seriously, every time I look at Design for Mankind I am beyond inspired. Today is no exception. What I found today was a link to a website where a collection of wonderfully talented artists have decorated their own coffins. Yes, you read that correctly. Does it get any cooler? I doubt it...

Here are a few of my favorites:

Kate Slater

Estibaliz Hernandez

Alexandra Hedberg

Abi Daker

Natsuki Otani


SO BEAUTIFUL! I'm absolutely fascinated with death (yeah I know, that's not normal. Blah blah blah) and this is right up my alley. In other news, I'm expecting to get my camera today (CAN'T WAIT) and I'm hitting up a couple thrift stores. Someone asked me where in Ohio I was, I'm near Lima. Not a whole lot going on here... Still contemplating that road trip :).

I'll be back in my coffee shop tomorrow updating you all on the small town happenings.

xoxoxo
Malori

Hi small town coffee house

I am a city girl. I like the sounds of traffic, the constant motion, the skeezy strip clubs next to the schools. I love being surrounded by weird people and concrete. I love that the only green I see has been planned by someone. I love the organization of the buildings and the grid-like structure of the streets. I adore the cold looks I get from people on the subway and even the weird sticky substance I stepped in two weeks ago. I love that you can see the skyline of the city from far away and I live for the views from the tops of some of the buildings. I belong in a city.

The country however? Not so much... I hate when people give you directions that end with "if you see the blue house next to the above ground community pool, you've gone too far". I despise the winding roads full of diverse houses that all seem to loop together. I hate the closed minded individuals who shamelessly look me up and down as I walk the street in my heels and dress. I hate the bland restaurants and the complaints from elderly customers ("You have TOO MANY OPTIONS"). I can't stand the lack of a night life. I loathe just about everything about it actually. There are some things I enjoy about small towns though. I like the mom and pop shops. I like that everyone seems to know everyone (I also hate this. No privacy!). I like the odd kind of culture that comes from people living their whole lives in the place where they were born. It's rather interesting... I guess I can't complain about the scenery either. It's rather beautiful.

I'm not sure if I'm going to go crazy being here or if I'll find a way to be ultra productive. I have a lot of knitting to get done before fall rolls around and it's time to re-stock my shop. I closed it down for the rest of summer because when I moved out of my dorm I had to put my completed goods into storage. Have no fear, I'll have everything up and running in time for the colder months! Any requests? I want to cater to your needs :). I know what I like, but I'm always open to suggestions and criticism. If you're too shy to criticize me openly, feel free to comment on my formspring.

Right now I'm working on some of my goals for my 20 before 20. I've been SERIOUSLY slacking due to the insanity that was this past semester at school. Sadly, I don't think I got straight A's (Damn you art history and your dates that I can't memorize). But I think that all A's and one B is pretty darn close so I'm going to give myself that goal. Congrats woman! I'm going to try and crochet a little something so that I can cross that goal off the list and if I can find a cute felting project I can knock that out too.

One of my dear friends (one of my oldest friends too!) Nick lives in the lovely Washington DC. Since I'm a relatively short drive away from him, I'm considering making the trip out to see him. I absolutely love road trips and it's been way too long since Nick and I have spent any quality time together. I really miss that boy. If I do decide to make that trip, you will all be bombarded with a billion pictures of our trip. I'm still on the fence about it (and I have to get the okay from my parents) but it's a possibility. I'm excited by the prospect of it!

Alright, I think I've written MORE than enough for one day. I'll be back tomorrow, updating you on my life from my little corner of this coffee house :). For now, I'm off to hit up a thrift store or two and get some groceries. I'm making ratatouille!

xoxoxo
Malori

In Ohio

Hey kids,

Today was another long day. I slept in because I was exhausted from all the moving yesterday but pretty much right after I woke up, I hit the road. Now i'm in Ohio visiting some family. I'll be here for a while and I was wondering if anyone knew of any great thrift stores I could shop at? I have nothing but time on my hands so I'm willing to drive a while if you think it's worth it. Anywhere in Ohio!

(weheartit)

For some reason it always seems to rain when I make road trips. Today was no exception. The whole way here it poured and it's still raining right now. I'm an Arizona gal and since school is over and it's summer, I feel like it should be warm...no? I really dislike this weather... It's bringing me down! Do you have any tips for staying positive despite depressing weather conditions?

I'm going to try to stay as regular as possible with my posting, but I'm having serious internet issues so I can't make any promises :(. Hopefully I'll get everything fixed soon!

xoxoxo
Malori

Moving day

I'm FINALLY moved out of the dorms. What a process that was, eh? Moving by yourself is DIFFICULT. But it's okay because I'm done so let's move along. I want to give you some sugar today, so here goes :)












xoxoxo
Malori