Pittsburgh

Cats, cookies, and more

This post is going to be r-a-n-d-o-m. Sorry! First things first, I have to share this video of Jimmy!

Mine and Jimmy’s friend, Brett, studied cinematography at Point Park University and he purchased a new camera a while back. He decided to film Jimmy welding, with a little (furry) surprise at the end!

Speaking of furryness (<– totally not a word), I was crazy excited a few weeks ago when a new pet sitting client asked if I could watch his cats! I pet sit dogs on the daily, so getting to watch two cats was a nice treat. I took care of Taco and Huey this past week, and it was lovely.

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Taco and Huey are litter mates, which is pretty neat. They’re a little over a year old, and super playful. I adore cats, and miss living with my parents’ cats, Lily and Felix.

Speaking of work, I got to do something really fun last week. As I’ve mentioned before, I work as a personal assistant for a family. I do a little bit of everything–cooking, cleaning, bookkeeping, errands, baby sitting, etc.–and last week I had to make penguin cookies for the youngest child’s birthday party. I went on Pinterest, typed in “penguin cookies” and hoped for the best. I used two different recipes; one featured Oreos, and the other was made with crackers and peanut butter. They both looked pretty similar, though. Here’s they came out…

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While I was making the cookies, I was listening to Christmas music and just jammin’ out with the family’s dog by my side. I kept thinking how blessed I feel that I get to do things like this for my job. When I graduated from college a year ago, I had no idea what was in store for me work-wise, but I would have laughed if you told me I’d be making penguin cookies in someone else’s house on a Friday afternoon. I can’t imagine life any other way right now, though!

Since we’re on the topic of food, I thought I’d share a soup recipe I recently made. I found this chicken and parsnip soup recipe online and gave it a whirl. Jimmy wasn’t a huge fan–I think the parsnips freaked him out–but I really enjoyed it. I loved that it was different than a basic chicken soup recipe because the parsnips added a nice kick. It goes great with corn muffins, but I’m probably biased because cornbread is one of my favorite foods.

Continuing with the randomness… guess what! Jimmy and I bought new windows for our house! They were much needed, and we can already feel a difference in heat retention overnight. Though, we didn’t have a problem with cold weather today. I took a snapshot on my phone of my weather app while I was walking Lola today.

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70 degrees in Pittsburgh. In December. Wow! I’ll take it 🙂

Alright, that’s enough randomness for today. I’m off to print cookie recipes. My mom and I are baking cookies together next weekend to assemble cookie trays to give to our neighbors as Christmas gifts. I’m so excited!

How is the weather where you live?
Tell me something random!

Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival 2015

If you’ve read my blog for the past few years, you probably know that I thoroughly enjoy the Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival. Jimmy and I went in 2011, 2012, 2013, and were able to finagle my sister and our friend, Caleb, into going with us this year!

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The renaissance festival is a celebration of the 16th century and all things medieval. It’s been wonderful to see Pittsburgh’s festival grow since Jimmy and I began attending in 2011. This year’s celebration included jousting, comedy shows, a marketplace, glass blowing, fire swallowing, acrobatics, music, food, games, and so much more.

If you’ve never been to a renaissance festival, I definitely recommend checking one out if you ever get a chance. I didn’t know much about medieval celebrations prior to 2011, and I have no clue how Jimmy and I first heard about the renaissance festival, but I’m glad we started going each year! It’s a lot of fun, and I truly feel like I’m in another time period during the time I spend at the festival every year. It’s simply amazing.

Here are some pictures from our visit on Sunday…

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When we walked through the marketplace, we came across a huge welded statue of… I don’t know what. It’s the top picture. What do you think it is?! The last picture above was taken during a jousting match. It was somehow goofy and intense at the same time.

We really got into the spirit of the festival when we decided to have our picture taken in costume. We just couldn’t resist! We went into a booth-like structure and workers picked out outfits for us to wear. Hannah’s laughter (and gasps) are still ringing in my ears today. She didn’t understand how a corset worked, and the worker tied hers nice and tight. It was pretty funny :). She couldn’t stop saying how glad she was that we live in an era of hoodies and sweatpants!

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The boys were wizards and us girls were wenches. The photographer was asking us how we all knew each other and was so confused by how we were all related (sisters, husband and wife, friends, etc.), and honestly didn’t believe that Jimmy and I are married. It was awkward and–now that I can reflect on it as a past event–amusing.

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We also enjoyed trying knife throwing (which I was terrible at), looking at pottery (I want to take a pottery class now), watching a very skillful acrobat, and taking pictures with mascots of the festival’s king and queen walking around. All in all it was a very enjoyable day!

Have you ever been to a renaissance festival?

Do you enjoy anything pertaining to the 16th century?