Tales of tilapia: Part 1

Fish and I have not had a strong history.  I'm pretty sure I never even heard of tilapia until like 6 months ago.  My childhood fish consumption consisted of fish sticks during lent and the occasional tuna sandwich when we were out of bologna.  Somehow I started to eat it regularly over this past year. (I'm sure this has something to do with the cheap prices and me being a broke grad school student.)  .

I usually just bake it and have some rice with it, but I've been getting bored with that.  Unlike some people (shout out to my sister, Stacey), I get really bored with the same foods over and over again.  My current favorite way to eat tilapia is to put it in a grilled cheese sandwich.

Just bake the tilapia filet first and then put it on your grilled cheese sandwich.  Add avocado because avocado makes EVERYTHING better.

And now just grill it like you would any other grilled-cheese.  UH-MAZING I tell you. 

No, I did not burn it.  I just really like it black.
Just kidding, I burned it. 

Let's take a moment to remember where this great meal came from.
                                         
                                                 

Thanks for reading!!

Antioch Park

I know, I know... "Not another park post!!"  Sorry, but  these are the parts of KC that I would really like to remember, so deal.

Not until recently have I really appreciated fall.  I have always associated fall with the end of summer, start of school, and intro to winter.  No thank-you to any of those options.  But fall is just so pretty down here, and it's the perfect running weather.

Antioch Park has always been my go-to.  It's really close to my apartment and it's always buzzing with people.  It was actually one of the reasons I picked the apartment I'm living in.  I see at least 5 engagement/family/kid picture sessions every time I'm in the park.

And then, of course, there is this adorable little town for the kids to play in. 

Ice Age anyone?

 And this is where I get to run almost everyday.  How cool :)

P.S. Wanna hear a really awkward story?
So yesterday I went running at Shawnee Mission Park.  I'm just minding my business and running my normal route when I put two and two together and realized there was a half marathon going on.  I figured it was fine and I'd eventually run off their course.  I'm passing all of these people (which is NOT normal for me btw) when I see a sign that says "1 more mile to go."  Wow, I felt bad.  All of these people were on mile 12 of their half, exhausted out of their mind, and some rando girl passes them whom they assume is also on mile 12.  Talk about a buzz kill.  And to top it off, some of them were even cheering me on.  So in order to not accidentally cross the finish line, I had no choice but to turn around and start running back the other way.  Run of shame.  The people that were cheering me on just looked at me so confused.  Most awkward run of my life.  

DIY: Lululemon headband

I have always been jealous of those people that can wear any headband and it magically stays on their head.  This has never been the case for me.  Remember in high school, when it was cool to use pre-wrap as a headband? (Maybe it still is??)  Yeah, it would fall off my head in about 0.785 seconds. So I had to be the awkward one on the basketball team that didn't get to wear one of the cool pre-wrap headbands. (I'm sure there were many other reasons that led to my awkwardness.)

A few years ago, I discovered the headbands at Lululemon and I have been hooked ever since.  These are the only headbands that will stay on my head.  I absolutely think that they are worth every penny.  They stay put, last forever, last through washes, and look adorable.

I have a couple solid colored ones I wear for my runs.  I never want to wear the patterned ones because I would hate to sweat through them.  I have been wanting to try to make them for a while, but could never figure out what fabric to use.

I happened to stumble across the activewear fabric at JoAnn's one day.  I think that you can make anything as long as you have the right fabric. The reason that Lululemon's stuff is so great (and expensive) is because they use the best fabric possible.  That makes all the difference.


And here is the tutorial.

Supplies:
-fabric for the headband (I used a polyester/spandex blend.  This seemed to work the best.  I also tried a cotton/polyester blend, but it seemed to stretch out really easy.)
-Coordinating thread
-Hot glue gun
-Iron

1.  Cut a 19" x 5" rectangle out of your fabric.

2. Fold and pin your fabric together lengthwise (right sides of the fabric together).

3. Sew along the long edge of the fabric.  Start and end about an inch from the edges of the fabric.

4. Press the seam open.

5.The side that is shown in the picture above is the wrong side (the side you want on the the inside of the headband.  You want to slip one end of the tube inside of itself so both ends are together with the right sides together.  It works best to take your fingers through the tube, grab the end, and pull it through.

6. Now sew the width side together with the right side together.  Again, don't sew all the way to the ends.  You'll need this gap to turn it right-side-out.

7.  Nice work! That's my least favorite part.  Now you want to find the gap that you left open and turn the headband right-side-out.

And it should look something like this.

8. Now the only sewing left is the finishing stitch.  I folded my headband so the seam I sewed was in the middle of the headband.  You will be sewing over this anyway.  When you get this in place, iron.  I usually put a couple pins down so I don't loose my shape.  

Take the loose edges of the fabric and fold them under so they match up with the rest of the seams.  Pin this down like crazy.

9. Now you are going to sew over the seams.  This is how you will finish those loose ends.  The seam gives you a perfect guideline to sew along so both sides will look perfectly straight.  I picked out a wide stitch from my machine to use.  If you have a sewing machine with lots of stitches to choose from, experiment with them to see which one you like.  If you have a standard machine, just use the zigzaq stitch.  You can change the size and widths of the zig zag.

I sewed the width seam first.  I thought this helped to stabilize it.

10.  One last step! The grippers!  I have no idea what Lululemon uses on their headbands, but I found that using hot glue works just as well.  I practiced using the glue gun on a scrap piece of fabric.  I tried a couple different patterns (dots, line, zig zags, etc.). Personally, I thought the dots or the zigzags worked the best.  It gives the headband room to stretch.  Keep the glue to a minimum.  Less is more.  Big globs of the glue will just give it a better opportunity to fall off.

Lay out one side of your headband and carefully apply your preferred grippy pattern.  Make sure you let it completely dry before flipping over to the other side.

Let dry and flip the grippy side in.
And you are DONE!

I went running in it after I made it and it stayed put the whole time!

If you don't have a sewing machine or aren't the crafty type, I'm selling them in my etsy shop  Hopefully I will get more colors soon.

If you try to make one (or many) I would love to see pictures or hear any suggestions you have.

Happy crafting!

Step Up, Stand Out

For today's throwback and in honor of the national FFA convention going on right now, here is a picture from my freshman year of college when my team competed in the national floriculture competition. I love flowers, but this competition was way too many flowers.  Very happy that's over.
Shout out to all the FFAers!  This was, hands down, the best activity I was involved with in high school.

P.S. Happy Halloween!

Thanks for stopping by!

My last ever fall break

And so last week was the last fall break I will ever have (because I absolutely refuse to go back to school after this).  It was absolutely marvelous!!  (That is until I realized I should have done LOTS more studying for my musculoskeletal test Monday morning.  Oops.)  I was able to sleep in, bake, ride in the combine, see my horse, my dog, and most importantly my family :)  Patrick also flew back into Nebraska for the weekend. It couldn't have been any better.

And here are the pictures I know you're just dying to see.

Sunset on my drive back to Nebraska.
This was before I was pulled over.
 I guess it's illegal to drive for more than 5 seconds in the left lane in Missouri.

This is our bucket calf, Gigi! She follows you everywhere!

This is my beautiful horse, Gabby.
She definitely holds the honor of having the the most pictures in my phone. 

Doesn't the sky look amazing?!

This is our dog, Hallie.
Also known as: Boots, Puppy, Hallers, Shep Shep, and Puppy Paws.
She is usually very camera shy, so this picture is a gem.

One of my favorite things to do during my time home is play with Hallie.
 She loves to chase a basketball around.
She also recently got this whale toy that she LOVES to play with. 

I was able to go to Jill's volleyball game.  It's probably the last I will ever see her play.
She was a rockstar!
This picture cracks me up.

My specialty: lemon meringue pie.

This is Kara's horse, Stormie. (Also known as "Mister." (That needs to be said with a lisp.))
He's a little more rider friendly than Gabby.

This was Patrick's first time riding a horse.  He's a natural!

Looks like Matt Dillon, right?

Saturday was Kara's homecoming.  Didn't she just look gorgeous?

Saturday was also Jill's last band competition.  It was freezing, but amazing!
Their theme was Coldplay.  They played a great Viva La Vida.
This also marks the end of the Brichacek marching band era.
Stacey started marching band in 1998, and we've been going strong since then.

Can I just do last week over again?

Hasta La Vista, Barista

Yesterday was my last day working at the Target Starbucks.  I have been working there since April and will definitely miss being a barista.  I decided to stop working because it  was becoming pretty difficult to juggle with school.  I wasn't able to work at all during the school week, so that left only the weekend for work.  Between doing homework, school weekend activities, and getting to see my family and Patrick, it was hard to find time to work.  I'm moving in less than 2 months anyway (and this was the only way to NOT have to work Black Friday weekend).

What I will miss:
-all the nice people I met there
-making money
-Target team member discount
-making coffee for people!!

What I won't miss:
-Starbucks snobs ("I would like a triple grande vanilla latte, with half of the pumps of vanilla, 1/3 whole milk, 1/3 2% milk, and 1/3 skim milk, just a little whip cream, no foam, at 147 degrees, and a half a pump of chai....oh and I would like it right now.")
-trying to work around my schedule
-my horrible nails after using the sanitizer all day

The Pharmacist that works at Target (Michelle) found out that it was my last day yesterday so she bought me this cute coffee mug and gave me a card with it.  She is just the sweetest. I didn't know her very well, but she knew that I was in OT school and she would always ask me how school was going every time she saw me. I think we must have shared some kind of grad school bond.  Hopefully I get the chance to pass her kindness on someday.

P.S. I bet you can guess what I'm going to be for Halloween this year :)

Thanks for reading!

Polished

I am obsessed with all of the blues this fall!  Here are my favorite nail colors right now:

This is "butler please" by Essie.
 I used strips of washi tape to help me paint the gold stripes.
The gold is "big spender" by Ultra Pro.

This is "boxer shorts" by Essie.
The party nail is "afterhours" from Urban Outfitters.

 I have been wearing these colors non stop for weeks now because I just can't get enough of them!



On another note, I have to share this amazing salsa recipe my friend, Alexa, put on her blog and I tried.  Hands down, best salsa ever (and REALLY easy).  I added chicken to mine and mixed it with a salad so I could just use it for lunch all week at school.  Here is the link to her recipe: Alexa's Fiesta.

Thanks for reading!