A new blog name and some funny stuff

I always knew a new blog name would be coming.  I just didn’t know when necessarily and I’m notoriously bad at naming things. More importantly, I wanted the name to actually mean something. If you've been around for more than a few weeks, you'll know that this name is certainly meaningful to me.

I’m not sure what to make of my blog most days.  It’s not a married life blog. It’s not a food blog. It’s (certainly) not a fashion blog. It’s just my blog.  So I started looking for words that encompass “me”.  Well, it took awhile. I couldn’t settle on anything.  I tossed some ideas around one day while I was sitting in traffic. I wanted something that was familiar to me, yet didn't label me as a certain type of blogger.

So this will be familiar to you, familiar to me, and I think will allow me to do all the stuff and things I want to with this space. Also, I bought my domain after FIVE years of blogging. So, yay me.

And let's thank Angi because her help is invaluable and I always seem to come up with these crazy ideas on Fridays and she always has everything done for me by Sundays. She's ridiculously good at design and you should ask her to reopen both her Etsy shop and her blog as soon as possible. 

So, onward and upward, yes?

Because it's Monday.

Because I have a class to take this week on "document-based questions, grades 3-6".

Because we are nearing the end of this deployment. I feel weird calling it a deployment.  5 months rotating around Europe does not a deployment make, you know?

Because there have been some funny ones on Pinterest lately.

 Like, I hate him. But still.  I kinda like him.  This is a motto everyone should live by.

If you're falling into the comparison trap, think of this.

Amazon Prime has been my drug of choice lately. 

I'm almost done with Grimm and I don't like the feeling.

With back-to-school season comes the judging of font choices.  

Someone commented on this with "I want to know who pulled off that lie with a straight face".  

I can't stop laughing. 

 All pins can be found on my Pinterest board. 

Literary Ladies Book Club Challenge

I swear, I don't do book clubs and/or book challenges online because they just seem like a lot of work.

However, when I read this introductory post by Kristen at See You in a Porridge earlier this month, I thought it was interesting enough.  Then I was like, "No, you don't do this stuff, Kristin."

And then I kept scrolling and reading and I saw that she gave ME a shout-out as someone who would be competent of recommending a book if you're not sure what to read.

Well.

Now I have to do the challenge.

Notice I wrote in pencil because I've begun quite a few books lately that have been too dull for me to finish, so I don't want to punish myself.  It's summer vacation after all.  

The hardest one for me was #9 Book About Summer.  I just took one of Kristen's suggestions because I did some googling and found nothing interesting.  

The asterisks mean I would prefer to get those books in audio form.  I listened to an excerpt of Rob Lowe's memoir last year and loved it and have been meaning to read the rest ever since.  Also, any audiobook by Liane Moriarity, I'm sure, trumps the paper form.  #1 and #5 are books that I can never find at the library, so they've been on my list forever.  I've been trying to read #4 since 2011-ish and I'm hoping to find it on audiobook too.

Note: I've already changed some of this.  Here is the updated list.  I didn't feel like taking another picture.

YA book: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Non-US Author: Three Wishes by Liane Moriarity OR One Plus One by Jojo Moyes (depending on which one I can get my hands on first...likely I'll read both this summer)

Book Recommended by a Blogger: The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay (I can't find this anywhere...might have to buy it via Kindle)

Book on TBR list for a year: Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris (has been in my nightstand for 2 years...so has Dead Ever After) I'll likely read The Graveyard Book too, if I can find it.

Book with a kick-ass female character: All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin (YA book, can't find it anywhere...)

Book to movie: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Memoir: Stories I Tell Only My Friends by Rob Lowe

Book with One-Word Title: Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Book about Summer: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Suspenseful Book: My Friend the Enemy by Dan Smith

I'll be including these reviews in my monthly book round-ups and adding in others too.

Time to go to the library.

What do you think?  Are you willing to join in?

Maple Scones

Recipe challenge, week twenty-two (which was supposed to be last week)

I don't bake much anymore.  There's a plethora of reasons why and why not.  It probably has to do with the fact that I'm always doing eight things at once so it's really hard to complete a task within a given timeframe.  Baking requires that.  

I honestly have nothing to say about these other than they are good.  I mean, really GOOD.  I made them, ate three, and then took the rest to school and dropped them off in the lounge.  They were gone in an hour.  These scones are both chewy and flaky at the same time.  I don't know how I achieved that but it was pretty remarkable (if I do say so myself).  

Maple Scones

3/4 cup milk (I used unsweetened coconut milk)

1 t. apple cider vinegar

1 egg

1 t. maple extract

2 t. vanilla extract

2 1/4 cup flour (plus more for rolling)

1 T. baking powder

3 T. COLD butter, diced

1 egg, beaten

1 T. sugar

In a large bowl, whisk together the milk, vinegar, egg, and extracts. 

In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking powder.  Cut in the butter using a pastry blender, a potato masher, or two forks.  If you feel like getting fancy, you can use a food processor or blender.  You just want the butter to be in tiny chunks, mixed in with the flour. 

Using a wooden spoon, mix the flour/butter into the wet ingredients just until blended.  Don't over mix.  On a floured cutting board, roll it out into a 10 inch circle (a lot like pizza dough).  You want it to be about half an inch thick.  Place it on a greased cookie sheet and slice it into wedges (I use a pizza cutter).  Brush the top with the beaten egg and then sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 375 degrees with 18-22 minutes until golden brown. Allow it to cool and then drizzle with the glaze. 

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 t. maple extract

1 t. milk (or enough to give it a smooth consistency)

Whisk together the sugar, extract, and milk until very smooth. 

Store these scones, covered, for up to a week.  

Stuff and Things 10/2

In honor of The Walking Dead's return next weekend:

As always Rick, thanks for the inspiration.  

Mail your boxes by tomorrow if you're Pumpkin-swapping!

Since we've made some major home purchases at Home Depot in the last few months, I get electronic receipts sent to my email.  Because we lose things.  So now, when Scott goes to Home Depot, I get to see what he bought/where he was before he even gets home.  It's fascinating.

I have no idea how Angi knew I had a fall surprise package ready to mail to her, but when I got this fun and sweet gift from her in the mail on Tuesday, it made my day.

Candy corn!  And pumpkins!

She sent a bag of real candy corn too and it's already gone (obviously).  

No Starbucks September ended well!  I haven't been to Starbucks since some time around the end of August and I've only been to Panera twice.  I'm making it an October goal to hold it to one coffee out per week, Starbucks or not.  I've been drinking a crazy amount of jasmine tea and it keeps me occupied on the way to work, when I'd normally be itching for a drive-thru window latte.  

Skirtember Challenge

In case you missed it, I'm having a blog sale.

For September, Chantal and I are going to initiate a challenge.  I hope you'll give it a try!

What's Skirtember?
Try to wear a skirt every day in the month of September, snap a picture, and show off your fashion choices in our weekly link-up. You can show 7 days of skirts/dresses, 5 five days, or even 1 day.  Whatever you've got to share.  The challenge begins on Sunday, September 1st, and our first link-up will be Monday, September 9th.  

Guidelines
1.  Try to wear a skirt or a dress as many days in September as you can.
2.  Mix and match.  Get creative!  If you wear skirts often, re-mix what you have.  If you never wear skirts, maybe check out a summer clearance sale and try a few out. When you have to think outside the box, you'd be surprised at what you come up with!
4.  This is not meant to be an "all or nothing" challenge.  It's a challenge to try something new and different.  Forget to wear a skirt one day?  Don't worry about it!
5.  We'll host a link-up every Monday during September where you can showcase your skirts/dresses from the week before.
6.  Link up, share the button, spread the word!

I wear a lot of skirts.  Chantal likes to wear jeans.  I do not like to wear jeans.  So we figured we'd be the perfect odd couple to host this challenge :)  I had a little too much fun putting together some examples.

You can make up a collage if you're feeling crafty.  You can link up some Instagram photos to the hashtag #Skirtember.  Even send a Tweet!  @ScatteredCShels @KristinskNook

Who's up for a challenge???

Sharing at Mingle Monday and Funday Monday

The Easiest Pizza Dough You'll Ever Make

Scott does not like thick crust pizza.  I agree that a good thin-n-crispy is usually the way to go...however, sometimes, the chewier the better (and there's less crumbs for clean-up too..that's a bonus).

So when I finally decided I should try this recipe that I'd been hoarding in my inbox for a couple of months, Scott decided it'd be wise to take one look at the pizza and say, "Couldn't you roll it out a little thinner?"

No.  I couldn't.  Because I didn't want to.

"It's a new recipe."

"Oh, what about the one you always make?"

"The one that takes 4 hours?"

He didn't see why I was interested in a 30 minute homemade pizza crust.  I guess it was because he never watched me make that other crust.   I always doubled the batch and then froze balls of pizza dough for later.  And it always takes about 4 hours.  I usually saved it for a weekend project when he wasn't home because it was, indeed, a project.

Let the record show he loved this crust.  It's my new go-to.

It is, without a doubt, the best pizza dough I've tried to date.  I know, I know.  I go on and on about pizza and pizza dough recipes an awful lot.  But that's because I love pizza and could eat it everyday and nevereverever get sick of it.  Maybe not anyway...

 But this is one you HAVE to try.  I was shocked at how simple it was.  It's the easiest pizza dough I've made..in two years of trying to find an easy pizza dough.

Quick and Easy Pizza Dough

makes 1 super-thick crust or 2 regular crusts (pictured above)

slightly adapted from Alison

1 1/2 cups of warm water

1 packet yeast (I used pizza crust yeast) 
1 T. honey

Mix those 3 ingredients together in a large bowl, cover with a towel, and let it sit for 15 minutes (the yeast should be foamy).

Add:
2 t. salt
Dash of olive oil

Stir!

3 cups flour (I used bread flour.)

Add one cup at a time, combining well.

Knead for 10 minutes.  You'll need another cup or so of flour for the kneading.

Let rise in a greased bowl for 30 minutes (Alison says you don't have to do this if you're short on time!)

Roll it out on a pan (I used a pizza stone), top it, and bake.  I've tried it at 450* and 475* (again, on the stone). Both work.  I generally bake it for 10 minutes before I put the toppings on and then finish it off with the toppings.  I'm also known to change the temperature mid-baking.  

New month, new look!

Hello there!  This is my new look!  What do you think??

I'm so excited about this blog design.  I'm head over heels in love with it.  It's the honeymoon phase...where I'm clicking to my own blog just to marvel over how pretty it is.

Okay, I'll stop now.

For the last few months, I've thought, "I should do a new design. I know nothing about design. Never mind that."

Then, it got to where I wasn't excited about blogging because I didn't like what I was looking at everyday.  But I kept going because I so love talking to all of you.

Finally, on Friday night, Scott was out fishing and I was sunburnt on the couch, watching re-runs (or something equally exciting).  I thought, "Dang it. This has got to change." In particular, the 3 column design was driving me crazy.  I wanted more space. I felt claustrophobic and you all know I really don't like clutter.

So I emailed Angi and asked her if she could re-do my blog design.

Dealing with a blog re-design can be stressful, especially if you have no idea what you're doing.  Luckily, I have many blog friends who are awesome at design.  I knew Angi, in particular, probably wouldn't mind my millions of questions and specific requests.

That was Friday night.

Today is Monday.

It's done and you are looking at it.

I think you should hire her if you're in the market for a blog design.  Not only was it quick and painless, but she truly loves design.  Check out her shop.  This girl knows what she's doing!  Thank you Angi!

*Also, if I could direct you to the header (don't you love it?), there's Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Bloglovin' buttons.  Follow me if you'd like!  

**Oh, does anyone want to continue the button swap for July or begin a button swap?

Friday Things

1.  Plaid.

Shirt: Old Navy // Pants and Boots: JCP

2.  Haircut.  See above ^.  That's almost 3 inches off.

3.  Guess who secured themselves a rental in Missouri?  That's right.  It was a busy week.  But we are moving and I'm thankful we have somewhere to move into when we get there.  Granted, we're renting "sight unseen".  I suppose that's better than 10 days in army lodging desperately trying to house-hunt, right? (Just tell me it's alright, please.)

4.  Breaking Bad mugs.  Thanks Natalie!  How awesome.  Speaking of...we finished the last episode of the first half of season 5 the other day.  Yikes. 

5.  State testing week in 4th grade is over.

Guess what I did while the kids were testing?  Wrote out a brand new resume from start to finish.  That actually felt really good.  At least I can cross it off my "to-do before we move" list.

Happy weekend!  I think I'll go shopping.

Sharing at High Five for Friday

My weekly gratitude

Would you believe that I had a post all written up for today about how depressed I am?

(Yeah, you'd probably believe that.)

Granted, the majority of that post was making fun of Alaska...but this week wasn't nearly as sucktacular as I thought it would be.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I am still in Alaska.

And last weekend was rough on me.  I was sickish.  Our Army life keeps getting effed up.  I'm stressed a bit over situations beyond my control.  And I still have to show up for work everyday.

But then, some good things happened to me, so we'll talk 'bout them, okay?

#1  The season 1 Breaking Bad finale arrived from Netflix TWO days early.  4 more seasons to go...

#2  The glorious boots that Kelly unselfishly snagged for me at the Mall of America arrived in the mail. This chick is awesome.  I commented that I loved her boots just last week and asked her where I could find them.  She said she'd go pick them up for me at the mall and ship them.  In LESS THAN A WEEK, I had new boots.

They were cheap too!  Paying her for shipping + the cost of the boots was less than I could find for just the boots online.

 I cannot say enough good things about Kelly.  She rocks.

Steve Madden via Journey's via MofA via Kelly :)

#3   Scott sent me flowers.  Orange tulips are my favorite.

He knows to send tulips.  ALWAYS tulips.
This is, like, bouquet #4 from ProFlowers in the last 6 months, but I remember he also bought me flowers a year and a half ago after he decided it'd be a good idea to gut and skin 15 snowshoe hares in my kitchen.  I think he learned his lesson after that one.

#4 After a rainy, hellish week in 4th grade last week, this week wasn't half bad.
Granted, "not quite hellish" shouldn't be my goal.  But it's something.

#5 I never thought I'd be this person...but I must say that when I have news (good, bad, or indifferent), the first people I want to share with are my blog friends.  You guys "get" me, and I'm so grateful for you all.
That's something that Facebook could never do for any of us.  Facebook is about people trying to one-up each other.  Blogging is about supporting each other.  Also, Facebook is like a gossip magazine that you glance through at the grocery store checkout.  You want to skim it, but do not want to buy it, and certainly don't want your name anywhere in that train wreck.

Is there anything you're particularly grateful for this week?  

This lady (and her optimism) was my inspiration for this post.  She always has a kind word of encouragement for me and THAT is why I love my blog friends.