works cited

{skinny jeans, skinny belt, fake glasses -forever 21; tweed blazer -jcrew; otk boots -modcloth; flannel shirt -his, ralph lauren; honors pin -vintage}

I stole this outfit. Not literally, from its respective retailers, but from a more legitimate blogger. See, it's not technically stealing if I cite my source, which I now have. This is all so clever because I'm chit chatting about MLA format and what-nots and I look all collegiate and important in my (fake!) glasses. Also, I live in College Town America, USA and the old Hubs teaches freshman English.

full disclosure: he is currently cringing at my inaccurate use of commas. I'm sorry baby!

fuller disclosure: I have access to the smartiest pants man on earth and still my blog is one grammatical mistake after another. What a jerk I am. A very lazy jerk. I'm sorry baby!

Lets keep things positive, shall we? Can you see the honor pin on my jacket? That was my great-grandmother's, isn't that awesome? It has her initials engraved on the back and the year 1926. Hello! What a steller gene pool to be swimming in.

All for now

xo's

-mc
ps: this is the 100th post on imagemonsters!!!

duck huntin'

{duck boots -bass; otk sox, watch -target; cord skirt -jcrew; denim shirt -forever 21; gold belt -old navy; motorcycle jacket -mango; scarf -lands end via my father-in-law; sunnies -ray ban}

Well shoot,

I am so happy about this outfit I could just scream. The socks, the boots, the scarf, I am in love. The socks, because they're so fun and yeah, trendy. The boots, because they're so practical and rugged. Lastly, the scarf because it's so soft and I love the colors. Also, I think it actually belongs to my father-in-law. (Sorry Gary!)

The Hubs and I took these pictures in the parking lot of our new favorite Jamaican restaurant. They actually do most of the grilling right there in the parking lot-what could be cooler than that?!

I'll try to be a better internet fashionista next week. If this outfit is any indicator, I'm going to kick some serious cyber style boo-tay. Until then, xo's

-mc

my favorite things

{bow skirt -forever 21; white tee & trench -target; bracelets & earrings -JCrew; cityscape heels -Camper; sunnies & scarf -nyc street vendor; clutch -vintage}

Yesterday I busted out all my favorite items. Why you ask? Where do I start....

I spoke to K Lou early yesterday morning, so when the phone rang downstairs, I knew it couldn't be her again -and who else would be calling?

I thought, "holy mackeral... this is it." I grabbed my phone, and sure enough, it was an unrecognizable number.

I answered with a very enthusiastic "hello!!"

the voice on the line said, "is this Molly, how are you?"

It depends, I thought.

"Well, this is Chris. We'd like to offer you a position with our company...."

I actually didn't hear the rest. I thanked Chris about a thousand times, called K Lou and the Hubs, and got dressed in all my favorites.

The Hubs took me to a delicious lunch at the national, then rallied all our new friends for a happy hour celebration. It was a pretty awesome day. I'm pretty darn stoked. This whole Athens thing is really getting good.

cheerfully,

mc

jesus saves

Jesus Saves is also the name of a Slayer song. Coincidentally, Brad and the Hubs went to a Slayer concert this past weekend... and had the time of their lives.

(photo cred: B. Holland)

Athens is a real deep-south town. When driving through town this weekend we spotted this awesome old sign in front of a Baptist church. The Hubs decided it has been around since at least the 1950's. I like it because it looks like a prop from True Blood -maybe Eric is nearby?

{cord shorts, army parka -JCrew; white tee, silver watch, tan flats -Target; military hat -Banana Republic; silver necklace -the Tiffany bean}

I also want to brag, I mean share, with you the carnitas I recently made. I recommend you try this reciepe for two reasons:
1. It's pretty hard to botch up.
2. It tastes really good.

You'll need a 3.5/4 pound pork shoulder (cut into 2" pieces), 1 tsp ground cumin, an onion (halved), two bay leaves, 1 tsp dried oregano, 2 tbsp lime juice; water, an orange halved. Put it all in a pot in your oven at 300 degrees until it's super tender -2 hours, ish. Before you put it in the oven it looks like this:

Once your meat is tender take the solids out of the pot. Put the meat in a bowl and throw out the onion, orange, etc. They've done their job. Put your pot on the stovetop and cook the liquid down until it looks like this:

this part takes a little while, but I wouldn't lie -it's worth it. Once your liquid has reduced to a syrupy consistancy pour it into the bowl with your pork and toss. All of this stuff can be done in advance. When you're ready for dinner warm some corn tortillas and pre-heat your broiler. Put a wire rack over a baking sheet and lay out the pieces of pork on the rack. Broil until everything looks super delicious.
But holy hell, watch it. If you burn it now, you'll be super bummed. If you don't burn it, slice up some radishes, onion, and serve with sour cream and guac-a-molly.

a new york affair

I mentioned that the Hubs and I recently returned from my cousin's wedding in upstate New York. Finally, some sweet pics from the so-sweet, so-fun event.

K Lou is in her element with all her brothers and sister. (No, that's not De Niro -it's Uncle Mike, father of the groom) {clockwise from the top left: my grandpa, moi, and the Hubs; the newlyweds; the Hubs and I; K Lou and the beautiful bride; my grandparents -cuttin' a rug}

-a few fashion notes:
*Check out K Lou's dress: Zac Posen for Target. She looked so amazing

*Such a beautiful bride -and have you ever seen better teeth? No braces for those babies

*I know everyone says this, but I seriously have the cutest grandparent alive. Check my grandma's steller stilleto spectators, killer. Also, my grandpa climbs mountains -daily. I can literally barely keep up with the man.

I'm so fond of my family, I really think they're all just great. We left every event with sore tummies from laughing so hard. Best wishes to the new Mr & Mrs!

cheers,

mc

more wine please

This is not a "poor me, I don't have a job post." This is a "hooray, we found a place that serves $10 bottles of wine on Tuesdays" post.
Awesome, right? I thought so. Our new friends (yes, that's right we're even making friends) invited us to $10 bottle night and it was such a blast.
Also, check out last night's dinner: Stuffed Peppers -my new get-rid-of-all-the-left-overs solution. I blanched the peppers first then stuffed them with leftover rice and beans, threw em in the oven and topped them with sour cream and my famous gauc-a-molly. Yeah, that's right gauc-a-molly.
I also whipped up a couple loaves of focaccia bread -which turned out awesome! I was a nervous nelly about the whole "will this yeast rise?" situation, but it was delicious. (I froze the other loaf and it defrosted beautifully)

I've been hoarding this top for almost a year and I'm not sure why, turns out -it's super cute. A good transitional outfit from Summer to Fall -around here it definitely still feels like Summer, but I'll be rocking some tweed soon enough.

{grey top -Marshalls, jeans -forever 21, flower shoes -Island Passage, tote -banana republic, gold watch -target, gold belt -Old Navy, Jade polish -OPI}

cheers,

mc

betty homemaker

{dress: macy's; apron: shower gift from Karen; purple croc ballet flats: banana republic; purple flower stud earrings: forever 21; lobster roll recipe: TK's Ad Hoc at Home; Spice Cake recipe: Cooks Illustrated}

In an attempt to avenge my Sunchoke fiasco, I oh-so-cleverly convinced the Hubs to (finally) make me my (May 4th!!) birthday dinner. He pulled out Ad Hoc: At Home and whipped up the best darn lobster rolls ever (which is how I roll). I got all gussied up and made Grandpa Gerry's favorite spice cake with cream cheese frosting -delish.

Overall, a great night and a nice break from the j.o.b hunt.

cheers,

mc

CSA send off

This summer the Hubs and I participated in a Community Supported Agriculture program. For the last eight weeks all of our produce has been local and organic (and so delicious). Check out our final CSA meal -complete with local blueberry pie for dessert! Mmmm mmm.
-hearing one's own voice is a humbling experience. Every single time I hear my voice I think to myself "really? Do I really sound like that?"

{slow roasted pork shoulder* with local peach bqq sauce *courtesy of Moregano, local collard greens, cream corn, mini blueberry pies}

all the pretty monsters

omg, omg, omg. Lady Gaga. omg, omg, omg. She rocks my world. MSG + my bff's + the most insane outfits ever = awesomeness to the max. This was life changing stuff. A Lady Gaga show is pretty much like Halloween -girls can dress like skanks and it's a-okay. I say girls, but everyone was dressed like skanks (there were definitely child-skanks hoe-ing around). The show was amazing. We completely missed the opening act (wah-wah), but the people watching was everything I hoped for and then some... Love love loved it.


As you can imagine people were stopping SSR in the streets to take pictures of her. She absolutely won the award for the best look. Plus, as usual home girl worked it.
I'm still blown away -a week later.
Cheers,
mc

sunflower fields forever

So, lately I've been hearing a lot of smack talk regarding Sunflowers. I'm just now finding out that some people think they are tacky?! (WHAT?!) I find this genuinely shocking; I really actually love them -they're in the top three favorite flowers of mine. I think Sunflowers are pretty friggin' amazing so you can only imagine my excitement when leaving Athens the hubs and I came across a friggin field of sunflowers!!! I pretty much had a heart attack on the spot. Needless to say -I was elated.

We stopped to frolic in the field, I even convinced the Hubs to do some posing. (I think the long car ride may have contributed to his willingness to strut his stuff). I think he looks like a total babe. {pants -jcrew bowry; straw hat -jcrew, sunnies -from a gift bag from Hallelu}

We spent the day in Athens looking at what felt like a hundred places to live. We were in and out of the car all day and it was a scortcher. I knew the Georgia heat would be raging so I kept it cool with a sweet sundress. Since it was a holiday weekend, I wanted to stay festive so I opted for a patriotic print and floppy sun hat. What could be more American than that?

{dress -forever 21; floppy hat -Helen Kaminski, watch -target, sunnies -wayfarers, }

If the field is a sign of things to come for our new Georgia life, I think we're off to a great start!

Cheers,

mc