Mesa's Place

When I was a little girl I wasn't afraid of anything.  I would run down the sidewalk at full speed, literally fall flat on my face, get up and keep running.  I tackle some aspects of life that way still, but as I got older, so much of that bravery faded. I blame a lot of it on society though it's my fault as well.  As hormones began to rage, looking and acting a certain way became important, and dancing like nobody was looking was frowned upon.  I held my head high, but became a lot more scared to take those risks I had always been so keen to on.  I became clinically depressed.  I would lock myself off from the world at times and just sleep my life away.  I lost that spark in my eye, that "go get'em" attitude and why?  Just so I would fit the mold that I thought I was supposed to.  I was afraid of looking 'wrong', acting 'wrong', saying the 'wrong' thing and so I closed myself off in a little bubble- a safety zone if you will- and cauti...

I have a ton of pictures on my camera and entry ideas up the wazoo but for some reason I just haven't felt motivated to go there.  I can tell you that part of that is because most of my life is at my apartment, but my body is at boyfriend's house.  Roomie and his kids move out in about 2 weeks, give or take.  Then we start the process of arranging boyfriend's furniture where we want it, tossing the old stuff and moving my stuff in.  We figured it was best to avoid having to maneuver 3 almost complete households around each other so we've got all of April to get me out of my place and have it spotless.  Plenty of time. The other deterrent(s) for me [to blog] are Pants and Sauce.  As a single chick, without kids, having to adapt to daily life with a 9 year old and a 7 year old (not to mention another 9 year old and an 11 year old when Roomie's kids are at the house) has been quite exhausting.  I find my evenings flying by between dinner and chaos and...

Sometimes before you have specific plans like dates planned, budget to spend, firm ideas, you just need to jot down ideas.  I made a few little printables the other day that I thought I would share.  Clearly hot pink and black is a color scheme that I am drawn to so I also decided to make some variations to meet other's needs.  Enjoy!! [Hot pink 'Activity Ideas'] [Hot pink 'Blog Ideas'] [Hot Pink 'Project Ideas'] [Green 'Activity Ideas'] [Green 'Blog Ideas'] [Green 'Project Ideas']   [Blue 'Activity Ideas'] [Blue 'Blog Ideas'] [Blue 'Project Ideas']

I'm in love with printables.  Massively and obsessively in love.  If they are free, they are (for obvious reasons) that much more amazing.  I love all the different creative ideas... I can't tell you how many 'To-Do' lists and menu planners I have printed out just from the various sites.  Then I realize, "Hey, I could do this!"  So I thought I'd give back. I have this journal that I've kept since high school where I write quotes and lyrics that I love.  I dug through there and found the little gem that was the inspiration for today's treat.  Enjoy!! GET IT HERE

A couple months ago I was surfing the webs for recipes involving bacon because, let's face it, to most men it is considered its' own food group and my boyfriend is no exception.  I found this delicious looking recipe for Bacon Chicken Dumplings, promptly printed it out and purchased the ingredients for us to make that night. Long story short, it was delicious... and enough to feed an entire college campus at 2am on a Friday night.  We were juggling pots and pans like the Ringling Brother's Circus !  "But the recipe says a large skillet," Boyfriend had said as we pulled out a third pan to accommodate the growing proportions. The boys (Sauce who is 7 and Pants who is 9) loved it.  Pants is a very picky eater and not usually a fan of chicken unless it is deep fried and covered in ketchup but he devoured his serving and even came back for seconds.  After the overwhelming response, Boyfriend and I decided we needed to make the recipe again but we made some c...

I have been completely consumed with Pinterest lately.  I go through phases where I surf the interwebz obsessively looking for artsy fartsy things, activites, cool whatchamacallits, and do hoppers.  StumbleUpon was a pretty great source of all things amazing but then the online cork board showed up and won my heart. Prior to October 2011, cooking was exhausting because it was only for myself.  I lived alone in a one bedroom apartment with my cat and fish.  Yes, I'd have company sometimes but not often enough to really try a lot of new recipes.  Enter my boyfriend and his 2 kids.  It seems over the last few months I practically live at his house (and will be officially moving in end of April) which has allowed me to flex my love for cooking and baking.  Not only that, but my itch for organization and forms has been happily scratched with meal planning, schedules for when the boys are with us and when they are with their mother, etc.  My arts ...