jamie ann

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I’ve been feeling a little off, so a list of favorite happy things are in order. Well, minus one of them.

• The Pioneer Woman’s book – Black Heels to Tractor Wheels. I read it in one afternoon with a swoony smile permanently on my face. I’d like a cowboy, please.
• But instead of a cowboy, I’ll take Tim Riggins. I think my new goal in life is to find a Tim Riggins and keep him forever because THAT IS A PERFECT MAN RIGHT THERE.
• The fact that the bar I went to Friday night played Tearing Up My Heart and MmmBop. I just about died.
• Finding a new job. Job hunting is the most frustrating and exhausting thing ever. It’s like, you don’t want to just settle for any job thrown your way because you know a great job is out there for you. It just can get a little disheartening sometimes.
• Music-wise, I’m on a Yeasayer, Tapes n Tapes, The Weakerthans and The Get Up Kids kick.
• Pinterest. Dude, a site dedicated to pretty things is bad news for me. I legit spend a couple hours on it throughout the day. A girl can get lost!
• Making a list of Chicago places I still haven’t been to and finally going to them. It’s ridiculous when I think of some of the places I’ve never been here.
• Party Down

Now I’m off to straighten my hair and paint my nails before getting back to the grind because even if I feel off my game, I’m going to at least feel pretty.

SO TAKE THAT, LIFE.

When it’s your bestie’s birthday and you know how much she loves bubbles, you do awesome things like bake cupcakes WITH bubbles for her.

I recruited Dani, my baking partner in crime, looked up some recipes and finally decided on this one. We also bought stuff for some chocolate mango rum cupcakes, but we got distracted polishing off the rest of the champagne and another bottle of wine before heading out for a night of dancing and late night tacos. Ooops!

I think we need to work on some frosting piping skills to make cupcakes even cuter. But they came out pretty tasty, so I thought I would share the recipe!

Sparkling Wine Cupcakes (makes 20)

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2/3 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 3/4 cup sparkling wine
• 6 egg whites

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a cupcake pan with paper forms.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until very light and fluffy. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together, and then blend into creamed mixture alternately with sparkling wine.

In another large clean bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the whites into batter to lighten it, then fold in remaining egg whites. Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Sparkling Wine Butter Cream

• 6 cups powdered sugar
• 2 cup butter at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4-6 tablespoons champagne, at room temperature

With an electric mixer, beat together sugar and butter. Mix on low until well blended, and then on medium for another two minutes. Add vanilla and champagne, beating on medium for another minute.

YUM.

I was asked to write about online dating for Clever Girls Collective and My Life Scoop not too long ago. It was something I had never done before, so I signed up for a few sites. My first impressions were posted today and although I have SO MUCH MORE to say about the subject, there are things like word limits and I’m far too wordy so I had to chop it on down.

Best Dating Sites For A New Online Dater

You should go check it out and let me know your experience with dating sites. Is it something you have done before or are you against it? I want to hear your horrible date stories and the happily ever afters!

I might share a little more about my experience so far and what’s happened since the article deadline on here. I’m not sure yet, but we’ll see!

Cranberry drop stitch infinity scarves are rad. No makeup and hair looking a hot mess are not.

I’ll try to share pictures of some of the other stuff I’ve been making, but the lighting at my house totally sucks. I’m hijacking someone else’s living room (Hi Kate!)  because the lighting is great and I literally just finished seaming this cute little number.

P.S. Add me on Ravelry: jamieann

I wasn’t feeling very Christmasy until today.

I guess sometimes it takes a cute little silver tree with hot pink sparkly ornaments and a purple glass owl to help get you in the holiday spirit.

Happy Holidays!

(For the record, it also helps if you buy yourself season one of Friday Night Lights because it was on super sale and your sister wraps it and puts it under your tree for you to open. Everyone should get Tim Riggins for Christmas!)

(Okay not everyone, just me.  I don’t think I can share him. Sorry.)

(ALSO, TAMALES!)

Just in case you were wondering (which I’m sure you were) what a gal like me might want for Christmas, I thought I’d give you a few (not so subtle) hints.

First up is this fantastic KitchenAid Stand Mixer. Sexy, isn’t it? I’m pretty sure that boysenberry color was made just for me. Just imagine all the super yum things I could make with this. Okay, stop drooling. Ew. But really, delicious things and instead of cookies next year, I’ll leave you a cake. And cookies. And cheesecake. AND EVERYTHING YOU COULD EVER MAKE WITH THIS.

I would also love a bunch of super bulky, fantastically bold yarn, so I can continue to make pretty things. Oh and maybe a set of Clover knitting needles (circular and/or straight) so I can stop going to the craft store every other day because I need new stuff to start projects. No, I’ve not suddenly turned 80 years old. Knitting is the new black, haven’t you heard?

(And it’s good for surgical dexterity according to Meredith Grey, but she was celibate and a surgeon and also fictional and I’m none of those things, so I guess that’s a pointless but very important tidbit and this is a ridiculous run on sentence, but you Grey’s fans totally feel me on that.)

One of my favorite things in the world is my Matt & Nat bag. I would love a smaller cross body bag so I can switch it up every now and then. This one is pretty much perfect.

I’ve been super crushing on Hunter boots since basically forever. I need some in my life, preferably in this violet gloss. Or maybe even red gloss. There are many puddles that need to be jumped in and I need to be completely prepared.

The next one I don’t really have a picture for, but I would really like a new job. I really dig the whole freelance and work from home thing, but I could really use something with more stability.

But really, I would just like you to bring me a bad ass 2011. This past year could have been a lot better, so I think we need to step it up a bit with the general bad assness of it all.

Sound good?

Cool.

Talk to you soon, Santa.

Love,

Jamie

P.S. I also wouldn’t be mad if you decided to give me Zac Efron for Christmas.

P. P. S. Holler at me on Twitter: @jamielovely

This is what I see pretty much every waking second I’m that I’m home and not working.

Whatever knitting I’m working on, my macbook with itunes up (probably playing The National) and tweetdeck in the background. I’m also desperately in need of a polish change.

I’ve really taken a liking to knitting. It’s been theraputic and keeps me focused. I don’t have to think much outside of trying not to drop a stitch or remembering if I’m knitting or purling. I like that a lot.

So there’s that.

Last night I had “book club” with some gals.

But really book club just meant talking about pretty much everything BUT books and eating Belgian chocolate and strawberry crepes. And I’m perfectly okay with that because anything that comes with mini umbrellas and a scoop of ice cream is pretty damn awesome.

On another note, a couple days ago my MacBook decided to be a huge bitch and only charge when it wants to, which is like 2% of the time and it’s kind of ruining my life. I was being all, whatever, internet I don’t need you and laying low and then when I couldn’t have the internet when I wanted to, I was all, INTERNET, I NEED YOU. That probably doesn’t make sense, but that’s where I am at right now.

Anyway, hopefully it is a quick and cheap fix and my MacBook is up and running again soon. I don’t want to shell out lots of money when I’m trying to save for a new one.

Or I’ll just start accepting applications for a sugar daddy that will shower me with brand new Apple products.

Whatever.