A blog by Cameron and Shannon

I am on a cleaning rampage. One room down, two rooms to go.

Also, today is technically the beginning of fall, yet it is 85 degrees outside. Bring on the 55-75 degrees, please. The sooner I can turn off the air conditioning and open some doggone windows the better.

Also, Nashville is undergoing a gas “crisis.” And by crisis I mean we’re apparently the only city in the ENTIRE NATION that is having serious fuel issues in the wake of Ike. So even though we tried to wait things out as long as humanly possible, we still had to wait in line for gas the other day. Which I have done when other hurricanes have come/were coming, no big deal - however then, I lived in FLORIDA. Somehow Nashville is convinced we’re post-apocalyptic alls of the sudden. I’ve come to the conclusion that our city would not be so short on gas if everyone (EVERYONE) did not rush to fill their tank up every five minutes. COME ON PEOPLE. Edit: It is, in fact, now making national news that the gas shortage in Nashville is indeed due to an uncalled for and irrational run on gas.

Also, today I am making a new recipe for Jambalaya (unfortunately I am not Cajun and sadly have to use RECIPES to cook things like Jambalaya - for shame) so hopefully that goes well. It’s an Emeril recipe and he’s never steered me wrong so far. So I’m pretty excited - I’ll post with pictures on how it goes. Originally, I was going to make cioppino, but I’d really like it to be a little cooler outside first.

Is corduroy back in? Is it back? For realsies? Because I am seeing it everywhere.

And I love me some corduroy. Specifically that brown-sorta-burnt-sienna-70’s corduroy and that greyish-bluish corduroy that everyone had in 2001 and I never got to buy.

Currently I am sitting in my office, becuase for like the first time out of a million, Cameron is getting out of work later than I do, and wondering how (HOW?) I could be starving after lunch and two (TWO!) nutri-grain bars today. Yet I am.

Speaking of food, I am planning on celebrating the first week of fall with some serious fall cooking, including stews and baking with pumpkin. And eating a lot of Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins. Good grief don’t even get me started on those things.

And don’t forget the horror movies.

Sigh…a week and half until autumn begins!!

In the meantime, if anyone has the magical best recipe for cioppino, let me know! Apparently it typically has fish as well as other seafoods in it, but I am looking for something with just the other seafood. So let me know if you find that.

Can anyone tell me where to find a nice light yellow sweater? Not that I don’t love mustard yellow or golden yellow. But…

Please?

Anyone?

(Needless to say that is what I would like to buy today*)

*Not that I really need to buy anything since several very lovely birthday gifts were bestowed upon me as of late :)

Pumpkin Spice Latte Time is NOW.

I am having one right now.

And I didn’t even spend any money to buy it because I got a giftcard for my birthday.

It is a good day.

It’s been 3 weeks since I bought anything!!!

Today I would like to buy a miniature wirehaired dachshund puppy. Have you seen those guys lately?

Now, on with the cupcakes!

This recipe is from the Magnolia Bakery of New York fame, via the “More From Magnolia” Cookbook. There are recipes for chocolate and vanilla, but vanilla have been the bigger hit by far, so I’ll post that recipe.

• 1 1/2 cups self rising flour
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

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In case you were wondering, I still have not fully recovered from Labor Day festivities which involved traipsing over to, and all around, Upstate South Carolina. And eating Chik-Fil-A several times.

We also stopped at some outlets, during which I was preemptively writing my confession blog in my head (Labor Day sales, people), but - get this - I didn’t even find anything worth buying.

I recently made a list of the stuff I’d like to add to my wardrobe this fall, and I found that once I really laid out the things I wanted/needed, it wasn’t hard to stay on track and not buy anything else. No matter how good a deal it was.

Here’s the list of things I did not find at the outlet, aka, my fall fashion wishlist:

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Today I wish I was buying this:

Because who doesn’t need some S’more ice cream every now and then?

Sadly, I cannot find it anywhere right now.

One of these would do as well

But do they even exist anymore? Sigh.

Today, I wish I was buying this:

Murad Energizing Pomegranate Cleanser.

And by “wish” I mean I totally already bought it.

BUT! It doesn’t count in the no buying plan because it was very, very necessary to good hygiene.

Why, you may ask? Because my beloved Philosophy turned on me! Everything was fine, and then suddenly my face looked like a twelve year old’s.

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I’ve already mentioned that I would like to be sitting in the park in the fall with a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte (day 9), in a sweater (day 11), reading a book. Perhaps this book:

Sweet crackers, I love these books. And I MUST READ THIS ONE! How do I explain this? I have NO IDEA why I keep reading these books.

Stephanie Meyer (while I love her dearly for bringing these sweet sweet pieces of crack reading into my life) is not exactly the author of a generation. And I kind of hate Bella and Edward most of the time (hello, unhealthy relationship). And why didn’t someone, dear sweet Lord, SOMEONE, involved in the writing/editing of this novel use a thesaurus?!

And yet, much like how any time there are Cheetos in a room I must shovel them into my face, even though I HATE Cheetos, I KEEP READING THE BOOKS IN THIS SERIES.

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Whoo hoo! I am almost halfway through not buying anything. Or a third. Shut up.

Currently I am trying to scrape up the self-motivation it would take to either clean my house or go to Borders (i.e. Do Something), which of course actually motivates me to blog. Of course.

The thing I wish I was buying today is another item brought on by my current obsession with fall GETTING HERE, LIKE, NOW.

Nashville has now reached the point of the summer where all the water begins to smell severely suspect, apparently due to the “chemicals that make it smell good” evaporating out of the water when it gets really, really hot outside. (Doesn’t that make you nervous/want to hurl? That’s totally what the maintenance guys told us last year when this happened and we were convinced that somehow a sewer line had gotten into our water pipes. Yes, it really is That Bad.)

So, in the spirit of wishing for fall, I’d like to buy this merino v-neck sweater from J. Crew.

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Something really fun about August and September for us is that that THIRTY PERCENT of our family members (including us) have birthdays during this time.

I love buying gifts for people. (Sending them on time? Not so great at that.) However, the forthcoming birthday madness, combined with a minimum of 2 trips we have coming up in the month of September, have motivated me to go on a 30-day purchasing hiatus.

Which means unless there is something that is absolutely necessary to my survival (conditioner counts), for the next 25 days or so (I started last week), I will not be buying…well, anything.

And as a warm-up/preview to Stufftacular, for the remainder of the 30 days, I’ll be posting about the things I wish I was buying.

The hilarious thing about this is I’m not sure what’s more pathetic: that I think going 30 days without purchasing anything unnecessary is a big deal, or that I am certain that I really will be able to find at least one thing every day that I wish I was buying.

I’ll admit I’m kind of intimidated by this. Not because I don’t think I will be able to find stuff (ha!) but because I’m scared of what people (read: my inlaws and my mother) will think when I reveal how much I really think about BUYING stuff. And how much stuff I BUY. Because after this 30 days? Oh, yes, there will be buying.

Then again, you know what is almost more fun than actually buying things? Talking about the things you want to buy!

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They keep taunting me, because I know I have been promising them for quite some time, and because the photo of said cupcakes is on The Digital Camera, which exists somewhere with the depths of Cameron’s Work Stuff/Bag/The Dining Room Table? And I CAN’T post the cupcakes without the cupcake PHOTO and it’s just so EXHAUSTING knowing I owe you all some CUPCAKES. So I will really post that soon. Really. Just not tonight.

Tonight I put all my photos from high school through the end of college into one giant photo album and then had a hyperventilation fit about the fact that in TWO WEEKS I will be TWENTY-FIVE.

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I realize I’ve not written about any cupcakes yet. This is for a couple of reasons:

1. Digital cable/On Demand was installed at our house on Friday.
2. Rock Band.
3. Mad Men.
4. Cameron’s birthday.
5. I am making chocolate AND vanilla cupcakes for an office function on Wednesday and I’m waiting it out until I can share the results of both recipes.

Cupcakes, birthday wrapup and more to come soon!