SLW pick me up

Happy Almost Christmas but more importantly Happy Single Lady Wednesday!

First things first. I've been cracking up over this video for DAYS now and need to share it with you. It's an oldie but so... SO good. Also this may describe a lot of single lady lives. Leeeeet's be real.



It's definitely been a busy holiday season over here at my house and I'm trying to keep busy to avoid the terrible syndrome that befalls single women. It's called winter. Winter induces such exaggeration and ridiculousness in my life. I'm the only one alone. I'm going to DIE alone. of hypothermia. in a snow bank. Did I mention I was alone? It just piles on. Like the snow I'm going to die in.

In the meantime I have thrown myself into giving gifts, baking and even knitting a little bit *gasp!* to keep my mind off of traveling over to the deep end of things. I've also started to look forward to the new year and what it will bring. Either way, I'm ready for it and excited to share lots and lots of single lady anecdotes with you here.

Happy Wednesday again!

p.s. check out my sweet Christmas cookies on Katherine's blog! They're STUPID easy and perfectly tasty.

Once a Night Owl Always...

I seem to be the most awake at night. My body has never been programmed to be asleep early even when I was little. All the best adventures happened at night. Bowls of ice cream were ALWAYS snuck at night. All of my senior show was ONLY created between the hours of 11pm and 3am. Night Owl Bakery (the bakery in my brainz) came into idea being when I realized I bake ONLY AT NIGHT.

It's how I operate.

Tonight I...

- practiced a little brush tip calligraphy while being impatient for my new supplies to get to me (my new endeavor is calligraphy. we'll see how long that lasts... Hopefully I don't grow bored of it cuz it's the most beautiful art. My love of letters hasn't gone away so we will see...)

- killed a fly using the most stealthy of tactics. Standing on my bed. Turned into jumping on my bed. Turned into some kind of Bollywood shakedown dancing ON MY BED. But that fly is DEAD.

- ate Cocoa Puffs. 

- found out I really like Sierra Mist Cranberry

- started organizing my iTunes library for REAL

Honestly I make no sense. But all of these activities seem okay to do... right now. 

I know there are other night owls like me out there right??

SLW Catches Up

Hey guys! It's been so long! This is the first Wednesday in a month that I haven't been working and it's WONDEROUS.

Let's see... what are the HAPPS:

- I had a cat! Had being the functioning verb here. I don't have a cat anymore. I returned Winston to his foster home because it wasn't a good fit. I don't think I would have known that had I not tried. I'm glad that there were no hard feelings from the foster parents either. They're kind of the coolest people ever and I'm secretly hoping we'll be friends.

- I got commissioned to make another cheesecake! Whoa now! Whoa. Things are happening... Somebody get me some ham! (Liz Lemon.) Is using the word 'commissioned' okay in a food sense?

- I have not exactly felt like myself lately - a few things happened that really shook me and took my confidence way way down but I'm starting to make a comeback. Someone asked if I had a boyfriend because I was so chipper yesterday. I laughed for approximately 14 minutes and then responded, "No." Who needs a person to make them happy? Pfft. That's sooo not the SLW way.

- Pretty addicted to doing laundry. No lie. What is going on. Send help.

- My bike has become a very expensive, yet effective, bra drying receptacle. I'm starting to think I should sell it. : (

That is my life so far... laundry and cheesecake. I was a cat lady for 2 days until I realized I'm not a cat lady. I'm just a lady who enjoys the company of cats and then maybe I leave them at the house in which they live. I am going to start on this cheesecake with Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" which seems so appropriate seeing that winter is creeping it's icy fingers into town.

Also, on a random note, I'd like to get coffee and scones with all of you. Let's make that happen sometime in the next few months. As it turns out, I quite love you all.

Happy Wednesday

Winston

Everyone? Meet my newest little friend, Winston. I've never had a cat before and so far he's really cute... and really spoiled. He wants to cuddle no joke ALL THE TIME and he sleeps on your collar bone. He's 8 weeks old and he has a cold so he sneezes. It's quite possibly the cutest thing alive. Real talk? He's kind of a jerk. Like... when you have a kid and you love them so much but they're the most obnoxious jerky people as toddlers? It's like that. We're definitely getting used to each other.  

Find me on Instagram at abbyblujay for more photos of Winston... probably every day forever. 

a moment for thanks

This past week has been really rough. One of those weeks that lays me low and makes me want to never leave my house again. But that's not real life.

It takes a really good friend to give you helpful advice and encouragement... and remind you that there are Snickers ice cream bars in the world.

And I am really thankful for that.

Here's to a better week and a freezer full of love.

Adventures!

I've been commissioned! For food that is. I'm making a friend's wedding cheesecake (CHEESECAKE) for her impending nuptials this weekend and I am exCITED. I can't even fully talk about it... I just keep smiling and nodding and showing people THIS PICTURE of the tester cheesecake. and then smiling and nodding. Such is my life.

Bacon caramel chocolate cheesecake that shouldn't make sense but it does. It makes ALL of the sense that has ever been made ever. This should be it's own category really.

Can you tell I'm slightly excited?? I'll update with how everything turns out after Saturday.

Here's to new adventures!

Single Lady Talks Real II

Respect yourself enough to be well satisfied with how you look when you leave the house. If it means you HAVE to shower then you need to get up earlier. I don't always shower daily - who does... DON'T JUDGE - but you will never EVER know it. If I'm running to get something from the store, even if I'm out for 5 minutes, put on skinny jeans not sweatpants, earrings not a hoodie.

Do your hair. WASH your hair at least. Your limp noodle greasy high school zero period hair no longer cuts it as a lady in the real world. 

Not a huge make-up fan? I totes am NOT. But! Tinted lip balm is a thing that is awesome. Heck VASELINE works as lip gloss. Just do it. 

Know these things and have them in your arsenal of power. They'll never fail you.

You deserve to be respected. Respect yourself. 

is it okay that i think having an arsenal of power is thing that needs to be real? yeah... 

(the only acceptable time I've found running out in pj's is okay is for emergency ice cream. EMERGENCY. ICE CREAM. is REAL.)

SLW does shopping

Sometimes you just have to get yourself up, get yourself to Starbucks in spite of the sky looking like it's going to rain down terrible things on you and GO SHOPPING. Turns out I'm REALLY good at shopping too. I got all sorts of unnecessary but DEFINITELY necessary goodness.

Like...

...the worlds most perfect mustard yellow cardigan known to man. Thank you Arissa for your infinite widsom.

...a shake... from Godiva chocolate. Yeah... next to the chocolate covered strawberries and behind the champagne truffles they make SHAKES. You know what I think they put in it?  HEAVEN. 

...Well this one is fuzzy because I walked into Paper Source and I BLACKED OUT. And I woke up outSIDE of Paper Source with a giant bag of things. I'm gonna leave it at that. 

......the same thing happened at Sur La Table! Wouldn't you just know it.........

... I decided not to get anything from Lush because their sales people are all up in your face! What's up with that... even at MY job we don't do that. I get that your bucket smells like ROSES but please. Back up off. I think if I had a tub that was big enough for baths I'd like it more. 

check that cardigan action!

All in all it was a good, MUCH NEEDED day.

Happy Wednesday!

p.s. - I wore my blazer today! I mean WHAT!? I had on jade green pants and a BLAZER. Who am I?!
p.p.s. - I need to change my girls clothes up there. It is NOT tank top weather anymore...

What to do when you have to poop at Target

1. You ignore it. You keep walking, picking up that knitted throw blanket with interest. There is no urge. I don't even know what poop IS.

2. You start running through aisles knocking everything into your cart that you think you need, but have totally forgotten cuz all you can think is that you need to poop. "I HAVE TO GET EVERYTHING RIGHT NOW. AND TAKE IT HOME. DO I NEED THESE DOG TREATS?! I DON'T HAVE A DOG BUT I'M GONNA GET THEM. *keeps running* JUST GET IT IN MY HOUSE AND RUN TO THE BATHROOM."

3. You stop randomly in the middle of aisles, just WILLING your intestines to not feel what they're feeling.

4. You justify it. You're a grown woman. THIS is a NATURAL part of LIFE for Pete's sake! You walk briskly to the bathroom before you poop your pants because this is an actual thing that may happen at any moment.

5. When another woman walks in and does the same thing you think, "I don't judge you. We are kindred. We are HUMANS. This is natural. HUZZAH TO YOU."

6. You continue shopping leisurely, contemplating whether or not to get BOTH colors of washi tape. And you do... you do.

** this may or not be a real story based off my life

SLW: grey days

I am READY for today. The past week has just been customers yelling at me because I can't MAKE an iPhone from scratch to give to them and lots and LOTS of things to fix. It ended with me lying face down on my living room floor. Adult temper tantrums are real guys. They're SUCH a thing.

Today is a quintessential Chicago fall day. Grey skies and the trees have officially turned all my favorite colors. Though if the trees could turn mint green I would really enjoy that...

Today is...

...a day to lay in bed and play Bejeweled until you can actually feel your stomach eating itself.

...a day for a large cup of coffee... only to pour that cup into a LARGER cup of coffee. and pour more coffee into that larger cup

...a day for Rainbow Cake (I will have to break down the anatomy of this cake) AND ice cream. For breakfast. VALIDATED.

...a day for TARGET. To browse the aisles slowly, not looking for anything in particular. Except maybe more things from Patch NYC. 

...a day to listen to the church bells that play 20 feet from my apartment at 12 and 6 every day. It makes me feel like I'm in a movie - it CAN'T be real right? 

...a day to find Diary of a Mad Black Woman on tv and sincerely enjoy watching all of it unabashedly. I'm not even a little bit ashamed!

...a day to listen to my Temper Trap & Passion Pit playlist on shuffle all day long. 

...a day just to take some quiet time for yourself... when the entire week has just been one long yell. And remembering to be thankful always. 



Happy Wednesday everyone! Slow down just for like 5 minutes today. Have popcorn for dinner. No one's judging!

p.s. if you follow me on Twitter sorry for all the yelling gripes this week. Was I kidding about the adult tantrums? I was not. It's a new day though : )