Fargo fun! :)

So, having just relocated myself and two 50 lb bags to Fargo for a couple of months, I've been applying for jobs/ exploring the downtown area where I live for the past few days, and today I stumbled across this awesome antique/ junk store! I should have taken pics of the store front, but honestly I didn't expect it to be so cool. It looked teeny-tiny from the street, but then when I went in, it went alll the way back to the end of the block! Awesome sauce :)

Mostly tea sets, records, etc, but then I discovered a ton of old clip and screw earrings which I thought were pretty rad:


And then! I wandered upon the mecca of tantalizing tarnished treasures- tacky salt 'n pepper shakers of all kinds! boxes and shelves of them! It was a hard decision, but I think, ultimately, I'll go for...







The dead bear family. Tacky, morbid, and kinda cute, all at the same time! Now all I need is a job to pay for them and roommate approval to let them into the house! ;) Good times in Fargo, I'm for sure going back to that store sometime soon, with some mad money! :)

Really?

So here's another one- not only is it annoyingly sappy, but they got the whole phrase wrong; what the heck is a bo-bo?!

oh, dear...

So, you'd think if you were going to have something carved in stone, you'd be sure and have it correct, right? Maybe these people just haven't read the books yet:

Prolific Procreators :)

Alright, there's something in the air right now. As of today, these friends are currently pregnant;

1. Adrea Ricke
2. Cammy Engler
3. Kim Shellenberger
4. Angela Messinger
5. Malitha Nguyn
6. Sara Ekins Castillo

alright, so 5 isn't a lot, I swear there's more...
and now there's 6!!! eeek! (but in a good way)

Eureka!!! :)

After a full day (not the most patient person ever) of brainstorming bakery names and rejecting most of them as too cutesy, I've hit upon the perfect one! It has a good sound, would lend itself well to a nice iconic sign and logo, and also has a sentimental attachment as well. Before I unveil this great name, (which you are not allowed to borrow and/ sell to anyone else, or I will find you!), let me tell you the rejects so you too can marvel / cringe at what might have been: (you can steal these, have at it ;)

Berry Basket Bakery- Pies & Pastries (I like alliteration ;)

The SnowGlobe (I'd just finished watching Coraline, where snow globes play an important role)

The Cookie Jar (this was my fav so far, although it wasn't sweet enough yet for me...)

Serena's Kitchen (yeah, wanted to create that homey countrified feel, but it also made me envision hot and sweltery kitchens and stoves.)

Sugar & Spice Bakery (not bad, kinda overdone)

Sweet Nothings (sounds more like a lingerie store- maybe you get a free nightie with every order? ;)

Sweet & Sassy Bakery (ehhh, too much like sugar and spice, just Sassy would have been enough)

AND FINALLY, the eureka moment that hit me as I was driving home from the gym and gong past some of San Antonio's regal but crumbling old manor houses:


The Orange Blossom Bakery (& Cafe, in the future)

isn't it perfect?! alright, maybe you don't see it, but I think it sounds perfect- warm and fuzzy, sweet and simple (maybe I"m getting too into the adjectives here), and plus it reminds me of my roots- our big orange VW camper van was named, guess what?, Orange Blossom. :)

So there you have it, folks, the name of my future bakery :) Now it may be off in the way distant future that this finally comes to fruition, after I've gotten some bakery experience to make sure this is what I definitely want to be doing, plus maybe some culinary schooling, not to mention raising a substantial amount of money to start my own business, but still, there's one part that's finished. :) Now who wants a cookie? ;)

This post is cheating, but oh well ;)

25 Random facts about me, in no particular order:

1. The whole concept of marsupials creeps me out- they give birth, then the incomplete baby worms its way around the its mothers pouch?!! awkward.

2. One of the coolest facts I remember learning in college was that black pepper is considered a "negative calorie", in that it requires more calories to burn the pepper than are actually in the pepper in the first place. This endeared pepper to me forever after. It's also sadly true that I learned this neat fact in the lunchroom, not the classroom. Yay, tuition! ;)

3. I have several grandmotherly-type hobbies; knitting, scrapbooking, baking, making greeting cards, and reading an excessive amount of novels. Sometimes I've been known to do several of these at once.

4. I first got interested in baking as a survival skill- my mom not being big on cooking, the baking sections of cookbooks were the simplest recipes for me to follow. Just mix all of these things together, stick in the oven and presto!, hot food :) plus I kinda have a full set of sweet teeth...

5. I first tried sushi this past summer and Juneau and wasn't really a fan, but Wasabi is amazing! I was so excited that I scooped up too much with one bite, and had the unique experience being slightly paralyzed as it cleared all of my sinuses!

6. After living in both Washington state and Alaska, I have yet to go kayaking, or be on the water in anything smaller than a catamaran. Must remedy this..

7. I may someday be persuaded to go skydiving, but only after I've done everything else on my life to-do list, and would be relatively okay with dying. Like at 90 or so...

8. If you've read or watched "The Golden Compass," remember how the humans all have daemons that are their souls in animal form, and usually embody the main characteristics of the person? After careful and truthful soul-searching (ha!), I'm pretty sure I would be a fluffy hamster.

9. I'm a big fan of puns and cheesy jokes, the more obviously terrible the better :)

10. I always wanted braces like all of the "cool kids", but alas not to be. They could change their bands to match their outfits or the season, how awesome is that?!

11. Cinnamon is the most heavenly smell I know of. Also good are roses and honeysuckle, gasoline and yeast.

12. I would always rather play games with children than do "adult things".

13. I head straight for the comics in the newspaper first, and then sometimes read the news articles later, after being fortified with Mutts and Pearls Before Swine.

14. I'm in love with pies :) First berry pies and crumbles, then pumpkin, peach and pecan.

15. My dream future includes a small farm with big farmhouse kitchen, veggie garden, many barefooted happy children, chickens and a goat. As self-sufficient as possible.

16. I collect stamps. Not postage stamps, but rubber stamps with wooden handles. silly :)

17. My favorite game is all variations of hide-and-seek; sardines, easter egg hunts, treasure hunts, capture the flag?, and any wrapped packages, they all count.

18. My friend and I used to have an imaginary elf friend- his name was Pinky, he fit in your hand, and when she moved we "mailed" him back and forth in envelopes..

19. I have a memory for real events like a leaky sieve, but I can quote movies, especially animated films, like nobody's business.

20. I would live in pjs and fuzzy socks if it was even mildly socially acceptable.

21. I never went to camp when I was little, but was a camp counselor the summer after my first year of college. My camp nickname was "moo", because I was in charge of the camp pet farm, which included 2 baby cows. Teaching those calves to nurse from first a bottle and then buckets on my own was one of my proudest lifetime achievements :)

22. I'm a stickler for punctuation and sometimes spelling, it drives me crazy when people use "there" instead of "their". I will judge you quietly, so sorry!

23. I would love to learn how to dance, but I have absolutely NO rhythm! it's bad.

24. I'm pretty sure I could happily live off of bread and cheese for the rest of my life.

25. And I've recently determined that until I get married and have babies, I really want to be a baker, and have my own little bakery and tea room :) we'll see...

Blog on! :)

So I hope you all know, I live vicariously thru my friends' blogs...

When I'm online (about 2-3 time s day) first I:

1. Briefly glance thru e-mail, save the letters and junk most everything else, 5 min tops.

2. Spend most of my time on facebook, wasting goodness knows how much time reading posts to my page, send out the requisite superpokes, then check updated statusii, (sure it's a word), and then sometimes depending on my boredom that day, I will pick a random person and look at ALL of their pictures, postings, etc. Well, at least until I can't justify any more facebook time...

3. And finally, I check blogs. I love having this insight into my friends' lives, especially when you all post pictures, and just talk about the quirky things that happen in your lives that I'm missing by not being around each of you every day.
Ideally, I would like to read at least one new blog per day, and since I have 10 blogs that I follow regularly, that means each blogger needs to create a new entry less than once a week. That's not so difficult, right?
Well worth it to save me from the exquisite boredom of living in Texas and only knowing my family. Yay. So.... start bloggin! :)