Mixer & Mingle Friday : Easiest Spiked Cider EVER

The temps are finally turning chilly here in the middle coast, and that means it's time for spiked cider!

This is my favorite and easiest spiked cider EVER! Many a Sunday tailgate has been warmed up by this stuff

Just add a shot of Dekuyper Hot Damn to your apple cider and enjoy. Or you can do what we do, and make an entire batch in a gallon jug & transport to the party spot!

See, simple. Told yah!

Now go ask me some fun questions, silly girls!

Hey Miss Chelsea, lemme ax you sumthin

One time, a blog friend randomly asked me how tall I was. It made me giggle, but now I seriously contemplate the height of every blog author when I see pictures of her. (5'6", by the way)

I pretty much am an open book, I have a whole 'about me' page, and I tell you guys all sorts of not-so-cool things about myself but maybe I have missed little details along the way?

But now I'm curious if there is anything you wanna know about me? I'll answer! Honestly! Except if you go and ask something creepy, like what color underwear I have on... I once had two guys that sat behind me in Chemistry lab that tried to guess. I asked my teacher to move seats promptly.

Wonder what sort of shampoo I use, or the most embarrassing song on my ipod or what my favorite grocery store aisle is (yes, I have one) or when Jamaican Hubs and I are going to have our first 'chocolately smooth' baby?

Anyways, ask! Don't be shy!! If you come up with a particularly good one, I may even send you a little treat. Justsayin!

I'll write up a post next week with answers! (PS I know there are well over 200 of you out there... I can only imagine the sort of questions that will be coming my way ha!)

A sign, a lesson

Last week after mowing my grass I was doing some things outside and noticed the largest praying mantis I had ever seen perched on the fence leading into my backyard.

Of course, I snapped a picture and joked about how it was big enough to eat me alive. Mantis' aren't something you see everyday around Indiana.


Imagine my surprise when I was closing the windows in my sunroom this evening and saw her perched on the screen. Mind you - my sun room is on the opposite side of the house as where she graced me with her presence last week. 

Curious as to what these run-in's could mean I took to Google & was surprised by what I found...

The mantis comes to us when we need peace, quiet and calm in our lives. Usually the mantis makes an appearance when we've flooded our lives with so much business, activity, or chaos that we can no longer hear the still small voice within us because of the external din we've created.


After observing this creature for any length of time you can see why the symbolism of the praying mantis deals with stillness and patience. The mantis takes her time, and lives her life at her own silent pace.


The mantis never makes a move unless she is 100% positive it is the right thing for her to do. This is a message to us to contemplate and be sure our minds and souls all agree together about the choices we are making in our lives.
Overwhelmingly in most cultures the mantis is a symbol of stillness. As such, she is an ambassador from the animal kingdom giving testimony to the benefits of meditation, and calming our minds.


An appearance from the mantis is a message to be still, go within, meditate, get quite and reach a place of calm. It may also a sign for you to be more mindful of the choices you are making and confirm that these choices are congruent. [Source]

Rather fitting considering everything that has been going on the past few months, huh? I used to be afraid/grossed out by praying mantis' but now I'm glad she's crossed my path a few times and I hope she sticks around a little while longer!

These jeans

Saturday morning I woke up, threw these jeans on and headed out the door to go help my aunt & uncle paint a bedroom.

I didn't think much of it at the time, but these jeans have some serious memories attached to them!

They're Hollister jeans. Pretty sure I got them my freshman year of high school. They were the first pair of "brand name" jeans I had, you know - the big step up from LEI and Mudd jeans.

They didn't always look this ragged. All through high school they were my favorite jeans. It wasn't until college, and all those art classes that they began to develop a personality.

Every hole and paint splatter was my own doing. I practically lived in these jeans from November to January of last year. Everyday I'd get home from work, strip out of my dress clothes, throw on leggings and then pull these jeans on (hence why nearly all my leggings have strategic splotches of paint on the knee) and work on my house.

There's a little bit of every room in my house on these jeans. A little bit of my lawn, a little bit of my basement and a little bit of others homes.

They might not look very pretty, but they make me smile. Cause every time I look down at em I think of all the things that were made pretty while in these jeans!

Little letters

Dear Columbus,

If you could do it all over again, please fill the Nina with vodka, the Pinta with gin and the Santa Maria with whiskey. That way my place of employment would deem it suitable to let us have the day off in celebration of your accomplishments.

Dear Mom,

Thanks for replacing my broken coffee pot. It was nice being able to finally make my own coffee again this morning. When I jokingly asked how long you thought this one would last, it made me smile that you guessed it would be around for awhile, because you had a feeling my next relationship would be a good one.

Love you!

Dear Indy,

Thank you for hosting a food truck festival Friday evening, that we randomly stumbled upon. I really love our downtown and the way you always have little surprises up your sleeve like 15someodd mobile yummies all parked in one lot.

Dear Chase Bank,

You’re on my shit list. I’ll just leave it at that for now. Why you are punishing me for paying down my car loan is beyond my comprehension!?


Dear bloggers who have Captcha enabled,
You guys are on my shit list too. Can you please take it off? I don't think there is anything more annoying.
Although having no email address linked to your blog comes in close 2nd.

Dear Russell,

Even though you do many things that make me giggle, your newfound ritual of peeing on the floor every other morning is not gonna fly. Don’t make me take you back to where you came from.

Dear guy-I-had-a -crush-on-in-high-school-who-now-manages-an-ATT-store,

I’m glad we never dated in HS because it would have probably been a bad breakup and then you would not be nice and remember that I mentioned I wanted a white iPhone so you randomly reserved one for me. You kinda rock and I cannot wait to come pick it up Friday!

Dear girlfriendcookies,

You were a big hit at tailgating, my cousin said you tasted like the one’s Elvis made. Well, that’s what we thought he said but apparently he meant “elves”, as in Keebler.

Dear jello shots,

You were also a big hit at tailgating. But then again, you always are. I think there may have been a few too many of you though, we all got pretty happy there towards game time.

Dear soccer,

I used to think you were the worst sport ever. After this weekend I may have a different opinion. I guess you aren’t SO bad.

Dear driveway-sitting-neighbors,

You guys have now adorned your driveway with one of those CocaCola plastic gas station coolers. Really? REALLY? Stay classy neighbors, stay classy.

Dear tires,

Can you magically grow some new tread? Please? I priced your replacements out last week and it's gonna cost me nearly a thousand bucks... sos.

Dear birthday,

You’re next week… and I’m not really looking forward to you. 24 just seems so old to me, compared to 23 and I don’t think I’m ready for it. Can you hold off for a few more months? 

Dear blog,
Where did all these new readers come from?! I happened to notice there's nearly 300 of you guys?! Sheesh I feel serious pressure to actually write something decent one of these days ;)