Moonshine & Wanderlust

... a cosmopolitan view from a southern perspective

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Showing Love

February 15, 2014 by patty lauren 1 Comment

Love languages… What’s yours? Do you enjoy giving gifts? Do you think a hug is better than a written note? Or, maybe doing something well planned and thoughtful is more your style. Whatever your language, love is more than a word. Love is action. If you’ve ever taken the Love Languages test, it’s a good gauge to find out more about yourself and also to learn not to put pressure on those around you just because they don’t share the same type of love showing skills you possess.

You know a great way to show your love? Baking! And, you thought all this blog was gonna be about was… What did you think this blog was going to be about? 🙂 Food and cooking and baking are all big parts of my life and seem to make for good stories… If nothing else, maybe a good recipe to be tucked away for later.

The menu for Valentine’s Day? Mochaccino cupcakes! Cupcakes are seriously the easiest dessert to make and I love it because they make great gifts.

I’m kind of a baking snob and like to make all my goodies from scratch, but hey… Sometimes you just need a night of boxed brownie mix. No judgments. This recipe is simple and calls for ingredients most people have in their kitchen.

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The recipe calls for this amazing buttercream coffee frosting. The cupcake mix also has coffee in it – the great thing is you can choose a unique coffee flavor to give the taste a little pizazz. I chose a S’mores flavored blend for this recipe.

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The toothpick hearts were my own idea. All you need is some paper folded in half, a pair of scissors, toothpicks and a little tape.

Love doesn’t have to be expensive or extravagant. It just has to be present… in however you choose to show it.

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Filed Under: Entertaining, Food, Home, Lifestyle, Writing

Unintentional Mudding Pt. 1

February 14, 2014 by patty lauren 1 Comment

There is this thing called “mudding” in the South – I’m not exactly sure what it is, honestly. I think it’s when people who have “bad ass” 4 wheel drives get out and drive around in the mud. Maybe? Someone enlighten me if I am missing it. What happens when you get a girl in a car that is not made for the winter elements and stick her in some mud? Some crazy things happen. I’m not sure where to start, but the beginning is never a bad idea.

I set out yesterday morning to visit my friend who lives out in what I like to call the “boonies.” The roads were clear so I wasn’t particularly worried. I’m a “I can do it myself” stubborn fool to the core, so even if they weren’t clear I wasn’t going to let anyone tell me any different. I shot my car straight up her snow covered gravel driveway with ease. Okay, maybe some determined and chugging ease, but I got up there. I convince my friend to go with me to take some pictures. As I backed my car up into a cutout in her driveway so I can go back down the “proper way”, I incurred a slight problem. My car will not drive forward – my back wheels had suctioned to the mud tighter than two fifteen year olds making out in the back of a van.

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In typical white girl fashion, our minds start cataloging through all of our very helpful Pinterest pins that are supposed to help us in times like these.

“Kitty litter! But, I don’t have a cat.”

“So, the kitty litter thing isn’t gonna work.”

“Maybe the neighbors have kitty litter…”

We scrapped the litter idea. You must understand my friend, D, is a real go getter. So, she runs back up to her house and brings out four wooden shelves she was going to hang up in her house. I felt awful, but she insisted they were free and getting my car out of the mud was more important.

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Anytime I tried to advance the car, I just slid further down the hill (sideways, mind you – all I could envision was my car landing on its top at the bottom of her driveway.) We pushed and pushed but the car was not budging. In a last ditch effort, we sheepishly walked over to the neighbor’s house. Okay, I sheepishly walked – D stomped with the fervor of a one woman army. She banged on the door and what followed was the piercing bark of several dogs.

“Hush!” came a woman’s voice from inside. More barking. “I said shut up!”

I dug my foot around in the stack of snow covering the porch. “Have you ever talked to these people before?”

“Nope.”

“Great.”

The woman’s voice came from around the corner, “Yeah! What do you need?”

We walked back down the porch around the side of the house. Why do some women not believe in wearing undergarments? I’ll never know.

We explained our situation and the woman muttered something and disappeared back inside of the house. D and I walked back to my car. I sat inside, staring… I was contemplating calling my AAA service or walking to the store to buy that damn kitty litter. More minutes passed and finally an older man walked over to us and gave my car a once over. He was a man of little words. Getting behind my car, he and D gave it a shove and I gassed that sucker, er I mean my precious baby, until her wheels popped right up out of the mud and sent me effortlessly sliding down the hill to a stop.

This is what you call a look of triumph:

Okay, I was going to post a picture of our thumbs up but honestly, we looked scary as hell after that whole ordeal so I will just say we were extremely excited to be free and on our way.

After the mud situation, we met our friend, K, for coffee. Of course, I still wanted to go take some snow pictures so we set out to find unmolested snow as the sun began to set. We had a good snowball fight and I made them be my models for the afternoon. Check out that adventure here.

After our impromptu snow pictures, we were on our way… except, we didn’t anticipate what would happen next. I’m surprised my car is still in one piece after the events of yesterday. Pt. 2 coming soon!

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Filed Under: Lifestyle, Writing Tagged With: adventure, car, friendship, fun, mud, pax, photographs, snow, snow day, storm, women

The Day the Town That Never Got Snow Got 9″

February 14, 2014 by patty lauren 3 Comments

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I think I jinxed my town. After hearing about nothing but the upcoming snow storm for a solid week, I was in a deep state of sarcasm and skepticism. A couple of weeks after we got an unexpected drift of snow that sent our town into one big, crash of a mess, I was highly doubting the occurrence of snow again. “If they say we’re going to get snow, we’re not going to get it.” That was my story and I was sticking to it. Around 6pm yesterday, the snow started to fall… and fall… and fall – this morning we woke up to 9″ of snow. It was beautiful. I’m not a fan of winter weather, but I will say this snow fall was lovely. It didn’t hurt my offices were closed today so I was able to enjoy some time with friends. All good mornings start with breakfasts at Cracker Barrel and end with crazy adventures. So, thanks, Snow, for slowing me down and helping me make some wonderful memories.

Two of my bestest girlfriends and I set out to find some adventures… we got more than we bargained for (more on that in my next post) However, before we got in trouble, we played around in what was left of our overnight visitor…

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{me & my best friend. this is the epitome of our friendship}

And, of course… some of my girl

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… a good time was had by all

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Filed Under: Grace Kelly, Home, Lifestyle, Photography, Writing Tagged With: adventure, dog, friends, fun, life, pax, snow, snowpocalypse, snowstorm, winter

it’s cold again

February 10, 2014 by patty lauren Leave a Comment

How do you know when you’re lying to yourself just to protect yourself or if you’re really sure of your words… if you have found a way to skate on a seemingly perfect pond of glassy ice, only to trip on a break in the frozen mass and when you regain your footing, you find your blade loose. You still skate, but you’re less sure than you were before. How do you know? Keep skating, I guess. Eventually, you fall or you find your way to the other side.

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Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: confusion, life, new start, past, present

meet my baby

February 9, 2014 by patty lauren 3 Comments

I never have been a woman who has felt like if she never had a baby, she would feel incomplete or wouldn’t feel like a woman. I’ve heard a lot of women, especially around my age, who have expressed those feelings. Don’t get me wrong – I love kids, I’ve taken care of children my whole life and if I have one or a few of my own some day, that will be lovely. But, if I don’t, I think I will still be happy. I feel complete already – anything else is just a bonus.

 

But, I already have a baby… her name is Grace Kelly and she will be two years old in April. Image

{this was the first day I brought Grace Kelly home… from some crazy lady named Virginia who wiped her down with Clorox wipes before handing her over.}

 

I’ve wanted to blog about GK for awhile – she’s a big part of my life and some of the crazy things that happen in it, so I think she deserves her own spot. It had been about five years since I had had a dog – we had a family dog that died of cancer in 2008. That was the worst day of my life – we held him in the backyard and made paw prints on paper before he died in our arms. It was a long time before I even thought about getting another pet. But, one day… I knew it was time.

 

Within a couple of days of bringing Grace Kelly home I found this underworld of other crazy puppy moms on Instagram. So, GraceKellytheCavalier was born into the Instagram world… She’s striving to hit her 900th follower mark soon. Of course a lot of my friends give me hell for it, but they all follow her – it’s just part of my life. But, seriously… she is the best companion. Dogs are amazing – it’s no wonder they are man’s best friend. Aside from being companions, I think we can learn a lot from our four legged friends… true love, compassion, happiness. There is a beautiful reason for their existence. This isn’t meant to be a heavy post, so without further ado… a few more pictures. Enjoy!

 

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{Cruising is a favorite summer activity for us… and yes, pink is her favorite color}

 

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{this is what I like to call her Muppet face… of course, you can tell she is totally in love with me. Right?}

 

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{she’s a big fan of sleeping in the nude}

 

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{like her Momma, she loves to travel… She was my beach companion this past winter. She now wants to live at the beach}

 

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{she’s the perfect workout partner. No complaining and keeps pace.}

 

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{she shares my love of Starbucks}

 

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{…and, my fetish for shoes.}

 

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{this is her professional headshot… courtesy of Sara Renee Photography}

 

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{me & my girl… courtesy of Sara Renee Photography}

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Filed Under: Grace Kelly, Home, Lifestyle, Writing Tagged With: cavalier, cavalier king charles spaniel, companion, dogs, friendship, girl's best friend, pets, puppies, spaniel, true love

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I'm so glad you decided to stop by! I do hope you'll stay a little while at Moonshine & Wanderlust - a southern lifestyle blog centered around home life, travel, life musings and an occasional appearance by a little pup named Grace Kelly.

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