Talkative Tuesdays-an old friend

"Sometime people are beautiful,

 not in looks, not in what they say, 

just in the way they are."

-Anonymous 

Currently listening to: Alan Jackson- "Drive" 

Here goes the second installment of Talkative Tuesdays and today's talkative topic is this purdy little lady Nicole, Nikki, Nikita. The reason I'm dedicating this post to her is because she's coming home for the first time in a long time and I couldn't be more excited. She joined the Navy after graduating and has been in Texas for too long. Tomorrow will be the first time in a long time that she will be home. :) I'm still running off the excitement from the news when she told me this past weekend. Bria and I are driving down to Milwaukee right after class and picking her up at the airport. The airport scenes from movies continue to play through my head. The tears, the joy, and the laughter that will come when she steps into view...so exciting!  

So, of course, here's a little play by play of our beautiful life together. (How romantic)

  Nikki is my brother from another mother and has been since we were little munchkins playing state tag in the schoolyard. She's like my own personal Snookie (because of her height, not her ghettoness). We spent countless summers together going to the mall to shop but ending up only buying food, we were fat, no need to hate. Having my best friend live right down the street from me was probably one of the best things ever. Walk five minutes and ding dong, I'm there. Movie marathons were a weekly thing for us, many consisted of the crappy low budget horror movies. 

Side note: do not rent/purchase/watch The Bog Creatures!! 

Our friendship continued through middle school and into high school, through boyfriends, horrible teachers, and laughing silently like a retarded seal. Of course we had our fall outs, what friendship doesn't? But that doesn't matter now because all is good. I'm picking her little five foot booty up tomorrow and I'm going to give her the biggest bear hug that she's ever received. 

There's a million different stories I could tell you guys that involved Nikki. One night, we stayed up for hours laughing about different types of laughs. Like who does that? We were psychotic back then, I understand it now. On a camping trip with the fam fam, somehow I ripped a chunk of Nikki's hair out and juice boxes were flying everywhere. Or crying over Lost characters when they died or went missing, we were OBSESSED with that show. Watch it now, you'll be addicted. I could go on and on and I'm hoping the second we're reunited we can continue to make fools of ourselves and make memories. :) I miss you like crazy dude. 

Cinnamon and Pecan Monkey Bread

"Yummy yummy, I got love in my tummy" <3

By far my favorite recipe I have yet made. My bestie Bria helped out, which made it quite interesting. If you're on a diet this is definitely not the recipe for you, because there's more butter and sugar in it than in anything I have ever seen. But if you're looking to indulge for one night or two, stop drooling and get to it!

Ingredients needed:

3 packs dry yeast 

3/4 warm water

3 3/4 warm milk

1 c butter

3/4 c sugar

6 eggs

3 tsp. salt

9 cups flour 

bundt cake pan 

2 bags of chopped pecans

Caramel Sauce

2 c brown sugar

3/4 c butter 

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Sugar Mix

3 c sugar

3 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 c melted butter

(These measurements work for 2 pans of bread!)

First, you may see that the measurements for all the ingredients are kinda messed up. That's because we kinda played around with them to see what would work best. These measurements work for 2 pans so cut in half if your wanting to only make one.

Alright lets begin :)

1. Dissolve the yeast in warm water. Then slowly stir in the heated milk, making sure not to 'kill' the yeast by adding it too fast. Then add the beated eggs, sugar, salt, and melted butter. Add the flour until dough is firm. Knead for about 6-8 minutes or until smooth then roll into a ball and throw it in a bowl, covered. Let it rise until it has doubled, about 2 hours. 

2. While waiting you can mix up the caramel sauce and sugar mix that you'll be using later. Bring to a boil the brown sugar, butter, and heavy whipping cream. Set aside. Then mix together the sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.

3. Once the dough is done rising, beat down the air bubbles and starting forming into balls. It really doesn't matter the size. We made large ones and small ones, so whatever you like. Grab your pan and spray it with some non stick cooking spray then pour a small layer of the caramel sauce on the bottom. Take the dough balls and dip them in the melted butter then in the sugar mixture. Cover the bottom of the pan then cover with the caramel sauce and sprinkle with pecans. Repeat this with another layer.

It'll look something like this when your done with these steps. YUMMY!!!

4. Cover again and let rise for another 45 minutes or so. Once done, throw in the oven at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.  

Tip: We might have wanted to overload on the caramel sauce, but we saved some for when the bread was done and poured it over the finish product. 

If you try this out I hope you have as much fun as we did. It gets super messy but the turn out is SO GOOD!!!

Bottle Cap Magnets

WOOT WOOT, another tutorial!!

I have a whole shoe box full of bottle caps. Why, you may ask, because I'm a alcoholic. Blame it on the a-a-a-a-alcohol....kidding, I had my parents collect them from their favorite restaurant that they always go to. Not that   I had any idea what I was going to do with them, I just knew I would need them sometime. My first craft with bottle caps was making necklaces. I would drill some holes in the side and string some hemp through them. Those were probably my staple jewelry item of the year, I was obsessed with making them. I attempted at making coasters, but I'm not even going to discuss those. They were an epic fail. 

Story time!! 

I bought a magnetic whiteboard calendar a while back that only came with two blah boring magnets. I had more than only TWO pictures that I knew I wanted to hang up. So I thought to myself, 'Kelly, you have a whole shoe box of  bottle caps that are dying for your attention, use them!!' 

And look what fabulous creation was created!!!! 

These little babies are so simple to make (I say that a lot don't I?). Any who, all you do is glue a magnet to the backside of a bottle cap.When dried, print out your favorite pictures and cut them out in the shape of the bottle cap. Before doing this though, make sure the picture will actually fit inside the bottle cap, remember you don't have a lot space to work with. Shrinking the pictures before printing works really well, obvious  i know but I thought I would throw it in there anyway. Glue the picture on the inside of the cap and then slop some mod podge in there to seal in the goodness. You're finished!

Of course, there's hundreds of different ways you can do these. And think about it, if you don't have any bottle caps, go out and buy a six pack and drink until you do have some. :) Then you'll be super creative...