Kim Schmidt Photography LLC | Northern Virgina Family Photographer

If anyone knows me, they know I love to cook. There is a pleasure that comes with me being in the kitchen. It may be because growing up my family rarely sat down to dinner at home. When I was much younger, my father started his own pharmacy. He was gone a lot and to get to see him involved going out to eat with him. Even now that the pharmacy is well-established after 20+ years, my parents still go out to eat every night (see I’m outing my parents out – sorry mom!). Monday is Van’s Pig Stand night, Tuesday is Mazzio’s Pizza Buffet (which I really do miss that pizza!), Wednesday is another BBQ place, Billy Boys and then the rest of the week is switched up among going to the country club, two steak houses or into Oklahoma City to eat. It’s not healthy and I was determined to cook at home when Anthony and I got married close to 4 years ago. Watching Rachael Ray‘s 30 Minute Meals in college really gave me inspiration to think outside the box when it comes to cooking. Now I can’t stand watching Rachael, but I do owe a lot of my cooking style to her. I know you are thinking why am I telling you all this. Below you will see an “omelet” pan from Calphalon. They have a lifetime warranty on their pots and pans (which they should be since they are so darn expensive!). Our little pan lost its coating a month or more ago. I sent it in and now we have a brand new one! Thank you Calphalon! Be expecting our little sauce pot next since its starting to lose its non-stick coating as well. This just goes to show you how much cooking I do (and I hand wash them so they aren’t ruined by the evil dishwasher!)

Around the same time as our pan incident, my sonicare toothbrush stopped working properly – it was vibrating uncontrollable and my hand hurt after. During this time, Anthony and I had to learn to share an electric toothbrush (we used our own heads, we aren’t that gross!). At times it was difficult because we don’t share a bathroom so one or the other had to go to the other side of the house to get it (we aren’t lazy, I promise!) or one is brushing their teeth when the other wants to – you get the point, right?  I’m just glad that yesterday I received a brand new toothbrush. No more sharing! I even put a little mark on it so I know its mine and Anthony can steal it, hehe.

Last piece of good news: Anthony and I had lunch together the other day in downtown Princeton. We parked right outside of Banana Republic (which can be very dangerous with the two of us!) and then enjoyed our Subway sandwiches. We sat by the window to people watch and a lady walked by with a red coat. I leaned over to Anthony and used my sweet voice to explained my desire for a red or green winter coat. Anthony looked at me like I was crazy. On the way back to the car, I mentioned stopping into BR to browse. Sure enough, I’m in the sale area since they have all their spring stuff out, and I spot a red winter coat. You can imagine the pure joy I was feeling inside when I picked it up and it was my size! The price tag said it was $75 but they were taking an additional 30% off, I scored this originally $250 coat for $55. Here is a picture of it in black. I’m meeting up with some photographers tomorrow. I may bring it and have one of them take a picture so I can show you the red!

Anthony is finished with his first semester at PTS. He had three papers due on Friday and they are complete. It was a rough week for both of us, while he was locked up in his room writing and editing away and I was bored. I did read a lot (almost finished The Hour I first Believed by Wally Lamb) and that’s about it. It was so nice after he turned the papers in – we went to dinner and a movie (saw Frost/Nixon). Before the movie we walked around Market Fair Mall and found a calendar/game store. Anthony purchased a 1000 piece puzzle of the Tower of Babel. Below is a picture I found on the internet and the progress we have made in less than 24 hours.

I spent this afternoon playing with the sewing machine my mother gave me for my birthday. Its the first time I got it out of the closet and surprisingly enough it worked out for me. The reason I got it out was to let out the hem of the pants I wore to church this morning. They were too short and my mom taught me to sew the hems while home for the holidays. It was painless and now my pants are longer. I was going to hem up another pair of pants I got from Banana before Christmas but I don’t have the right color thread to do those. So that pair will have to wait a little longer. I edited these in photoshop a little different using The Pioneer Woman’s Actions Set 1 (slight lighten and boost) and Set 2 (seventies, reduced opacity). The images needed the vintage feel!