We were bored, so I curled Taylor's hair.

it got really weird, really fast. 

but hey, at least I didn't put make-up on him.

wifed up wednesday: best pizza dough ever + DIY Fat Sticks!

yo yo yo. so today i am bringing to you a fail-proof pizza dough recipe which I found on pinterest from the website  "Lauren's Latest".  Unfortunately this blog post will not help you lose weight and it's really long but I've got TWO recipes up in here and I promise it will be worth your time. If you're into this sort of thing.

She has a pretty awesome and easy tutorial to follow if you click that link above, BUT I made you a tutorial too. They really aren't that different except a couple of things. FIRST, her tutorial is using a kitchenaid stand mixer, which I am poor and do not have, so mine involves a hand mixer with dough hooks. SECOND, her recipe on the tutorial for the garlic cheese breadsticks, is different from mine, I made some adjustments as I don't really love garlic or handling things such as garlic or onions.

Here is what Lauren said you need to know about this pizza dough:

"{1} I use warm water-not hot, not cold. Pleasantly warm. Yeast likes warmth. And I don’t ever use a thermometer because thermometers are annoying for this kind of stuff. Don’t over think this step. If it feels nice and warm like baby bath water, then you’re good. {2} I use honey- I seem to get better results with honey. I don’t know why. You can use sugar if you prefer. {3}Bread flour- you must must must use bread flour. Bread flour means more gluten. More gluten means chewy crust. Chewy crust = good. The end. {4} Knead, knead, knead. Kneading means gluten! And we all know what gluten means. Knead  your dough for 6 minutes pretty please. {5}Use a pizza stone if you have one. Put it in your cold oven, and then crank that baby up to the hottest temperature it will go to. For me, it was 500 degrees. That will really give you a crispy bottom, like you get at the restaurants"


So, this is the third time I've made this recipe. I want to tell you that I know for a fact that it is the best. I know this because 1) Taylor loved it, and he is SO particular, and he never likes homemade pizza dough. 2) April and I tried a couple other recipes and none beat this one.

Let's get started, first, here's what you'll need:
[this makes about 1lb of dough. which is enough for two 12-inch pizzas]

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (You have to use active dry and not fast rising, it makes a difference)
1 tablespoon honey (or sugar, like Lauren I also used honey)
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons  olive oil
3 cups bread flour (give or take 1/2 cup depending on head and humidity)

In a large bowl, add the yeast and honey (or sugar) to a cup of warm water. Let it sit for about 5-10 minutes until the yeast starts to bubble and foam so you know it's alive. Pour in the salt and oil then add about half of the flour.

This the part where if you have a stand mixer you can use it to do all of the work. Other wise, pull out your dough hooks for your hand mixer. (Just so you know the first time I made this, I didn't realize that I had dough hooks so I just used the regular egg beaters to initially get the flour incorporated then I hand kneaded it to avoid burning up the motor. It was a pain in the butt, but it worked.)

Then gradually add the rest of the flour until the dough is at the right consistency. It should be slightly tacky but it shouldn't stick to your fingers when you touch it. When you get here it's time to KNEAD!! Knead for 6 minutes with either your hand mixer or stand mixer or your hands. After I discovered my dough hooks, I kneaded with those and then kneaded for an extra minute with my hands, just to cover my bases.

Once you are done, the dough should be smooth (like a baby's butt!) and easy to work with.  Lightly grease the bowl so the dough doesn't dry out and cover it with plastic wrap and let it rise 1-2 hours.

While you are waiting, clean up your mess right away. It makes life easier. it also makes you seem like an awesome wife. ...or husband.

Then you're done and you can do whatever you want with the dough. You can also keep it in the fridge for a few days until you're ready to use it and I haven't tried to, but I'm sure you can also freeze it.

Today, we're going to make what I like to call "Fat Sticks" fat sticks are cheesy bread sticks that they serve at the pizza place (Roy's Pizza, formerly: FAT JACK'S) in my hometown. Sometimes when I'm homesick and reminiscing, I think of them and drool. This recipe is pretty close, and I kind of made it up.

Ingredients

1/2 of the pizza dough you just made
1/4 pound of grated mozzarella cheese (let's be honest, you can be much more generous w/ cheese if you want)
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder (or more if you like garlic, or you could use minced garlic if you want)
salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees with your pizza stone in the oven. (If you don't have a pizza stone, you can just flip a cookie sheet upside down.)

Prepare your dough on some parchment paper (makes it easier for transferring to stone or cookie sheet) and flatten it out to about 12 inches (if can be a circle, a square, a heart, a misshapen blob, it doesn't matter.)
*Here's a fun tip, if you're a poor newlywed without a rolling pin, you can just just use a round cup instead. That's what I do, because every time I go to buy a rolling pin the cheap ones are out of stock and then only have the 20 dollar ones.

In a small bowl melt the 2 tablespoons of butter in the microwave. (about 10-15 seconds on high should do it) once butter is melted add the oregano, garlic powder, and salt&pepper to butter and stir. then dump the butter mixture onto the flattened dough and spread it all over that baby. (i recommend doing this when you make pizza too, it makes the crust better)

 

Then sprinkle the cheese all over and pop it in the oven for about 9-10 minutes or until bubbly and golden (I think you'll know when it's right.) Let it cool about 2 minutes before serving. Serve with marinara or my personal fave, ranch.

So, I accidentally bought reduced fat mozzarella (don't do this! gross.) and it did not cook pretty. I refuse to show an unappetizing picture of this. So I'll so what it's supposed to look like instead.

                             

Let me know how you like it!

a valentine's public service announcement.

Happy Valentine's Day, cute people.

Isn't this the cutest thing?

Today, we are poor so we are not giving into the commercialism of Valentine's day. I'm not really sure that Taylor will even do anything cause if he can't buy me stuff, he is completely hopeless. (He's SO romantic) Last night he did the dishes (we don't have a dishwasher, remember, so this is a big deal) and cleaned the kitchen and declared "THIS IS PART OF YOUR VALENTINE'S PRESENT." I'll take it.

Whenever I hear stories of girlfriends and wives getting offended that their man forgot Valentine's day, I think that's silly. Don't get me wrong, I like Valentine's day, but I don't like the sense of entitlement (or lack thereof) that it gives people. I don't like that it's a day where people expect gifts because they're in relationships or they feel sad because they aren't romantically involved with anyone. It's should be a day about ALL KINDS of love, cookies, and cutting out paper hearts. It should be a day where you get to creatively and openly express your love for the people in your life, whether that be your spouse, sibling, grandma, cat, child etc. 

So, you feel like this is Singles Awareness Day? Instead of focusing on yourself, and what you feel like you're missing out on, focus on the people you do have in your life. They love you. And you love them. And that is a wonderful thing.

If you just flat out hate Valentine's day and don't celebrate it. That's fine. But I think you should still take every oppourtunity possible to let the people you love, know just HOW MUCH you love them. Not JUST because you never know when you'll never get a chance. But also because it helps them feel good. I know I feel good when people tell me they love and care about me. Don't you?

Oh, and it just wouldn't be a married blogger valentine's post if I didn't say, OMG, I LOVE MY HUSBAND! I also love my dog. She is the cutest.

I love all of you, too!

Giveaway Winner: ANNOUNCED

First of all thank you all soooo much for your participation. All you guys waiting until the very last second are procrastinators after my own heart.

Anyway, I did this the old fashioned way as promised but, with a little twist, I let my dog pick the name out of the hat (beanie). I wasn't sure that she would be able to actually just grab one name out but, SHE DID. It was awesome.

                                            

AND

THE

WINNER

IS.....

JENALEE JOHA!

This was Jenjamin's submission which was super presh and awesome of her perfect child Gracie:

Congratulations Jenna, I hope you and Spreej use your fandango gift card wisely. 

Thanks again to everyone who participated and if you missed the deadline for the giveaway just know that you can submit an art is picture anytime you want on the Victus Creus facebook page.

"remind me of your name again?"

So last Friday we went to the Chili Cook Off at the church. We've actually gone to quite a few church activities which I am pretty proud of myself because I am normally a church anti-social. Where I come from I didn't need to be friends with people at church cause I had my own friends, also where I come from people at church suck. Here, people are friendly and cool/interesting.

Anyway, we've been in the ward for about... 4 months. Long enough that we're not really new. Long enough that we've met the same handful of people enough that we should remember their names, because they definitely remember ours, but for some reason my HUSBAND, can not remember anybody's names.

I was so embarrassed of him at this particular church function because people would be like, "hi taylor & kynslie" and Taylor would be like, "Remind me of your name again..." in a friendly tone, of course. But the time limit has passed where you can ask these people that without sounding like, "Hi, I'm an arsehole and you weren't significant enough to remember." I started keeping count in my head of how many times he said this to people that night, I got to 9 times and then got distracted.

He would even say that to people that we had never even met. Like instead of just saying, "Hi, I'm Taylor, what's your name?" He would say, "I'm Taylor, Remind me of your name again." and I just stared at him. I was in such awe of him, awe and embarrassment. There are other ways of talking to someone who's name you forgot. First of all, we're at church so you can just be like, "Brother" and "Sister" which to me is weird and what old people do, but it is acceptable, at church. There's also, buddy, guy, sir, ladyguy, ladysir, dude, bro, champ, sport, madam, girl, etc.

I'm not really sure how Taylor thrived and flourished so well in the single's ward before I came a long, with his blatant disregard for important personal details like someone's name. Maybe he lost his tact after he married me. Or maybe it was because he put out.

If you are reading this, and at some point this man of mine has forgotten your name, just ignore him. He called me Kinesly (pronounced Ka-eye-nz-lee) like the second time I met him, and I still married him. So he's obviously got some good qualities too.

wifed up wednesday: sigh, tissue pom poms.

today i realized it was wednesday. i came home from work and i got distracted by video games. because i'm not really a good wife, i just pretend.

i was going to do a picture tutorial like last week but then some other things happened so i made this video. i realize that probably everyone on the planet knows how to make these.

sorry that i look disgusting and sorry that i'm so large. and sorry about my weird hair. and sorry about my dog. but really i'm not sorry about any of it. but i'm truly sorry for the aeropostale hoodie, I don't even know where it came from. i think my friend's exboyfriend. awkward.

here you go! enjoy. next week will be better, i swear.

Tay edited this video for me. I am grateful but I wasn't supervising so weird things happened.

Also, I took way too long and the camera cut off so there's no ending. but here is the end result, in my mouth:

i really hope i don't make a habit out of this video thing or it will defeat the purpose of a blog...

the time Taylor's neighbor got shot.

throughout our travels i have found that when men tell stories to a group of people, their women (wife, girlfriend, fiance) like to "help" them tell the story. even, though, typically, it's a story that the woman was not around for, so most of the time their additions are either embellished or completely inaccurate. and so when this happens, it takes at least double the time for the guy to get through the story because she interrupts, or he has to constantly correct her.

in this video, Taylor tells the story of the time his neighbor was shot in the middle of the night. This was several years ago before we even met, but I help him tell the story anyway.

and sorry, a couple of times I almost busted up, because I think we are so hilarious.

ENJOY. (Nice thumbnail huh?)

 

don't forget about the GIVEAWAY.

HURRAY! A GIVEAWAY!

Yes, you read that right. I'm doing a giveaway.

You see, my brother and his friends have started this company called Victus Creus. The main goal of their company is creating empowered, authentic art.

Here's a little tid bit about what they do:

'We accept art submissions from anybody who wants to contribute, that means you! We have a space where you can submit a scanned in copy of your piece along with a written statement of what the piece means to you, how it empowers you, etc. and your name (contact info if you’d like) and we’ll post it up for sale once it gets ten votes. Thus creating exposure for you, and creating a network of creativity that this whole community can benefit from. And the beauty part is that you can do this at any age or skill level! We want to help you on your path to a creative and empowering lifestyle!


Every piece comes with information about the artist. That means whether it was created by you or one of our other contributing artists, every piece (t shirts, hats, prints, that’s right, all of them) will come with a card like one you might see next to a painting in a gallery. These cards all contain written statements by the artist about what went through their head when they did the piece, why they did it, how it empowered them, etc. The cards will also come with contact info if you wish to include it. It is optional but we strongly recommend that you at least give a facebook page or email that people who buy your art from our website can reach you at. We want people to know that all of our contributing artists are important to us, and we want to support contributors in any way we can. Word of mouth advertising is important, so the more that people know about where their art pieces come from, the more support the artist gets. "

Anyway, currently, Victus Creus is working on a project called, "Art is....." They are asking everyone and 

anyone to complete the sentence "Art is..." and write it on a piece of paper and take a picture of yourself (or have someone else do it) and post it on their facebook wall.

Kinda like me:

Obviously, you don't have to write it on a record, but you're also not limited to paper. You can get creative! 

Now to the the fun part! The details of the giveaway:

 I'm going to be giving away a $15 Fandango gift certificate! I know, I know it's not that crazy or cool. But, FREE MOVIES! Plus,  I'll be drawing the name on February 13th, and the gift certificate is electronic, so you'll get it immediately, just in time for a VALENTINE'S DATE! (or whatever you want)

HOW TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY

1. Go "like" the Victus Creus facebook page (it can be found HERE!)*

2. Post your photo to their facebook page finishing the sentence "Art is..." (if this task is too daunting cause you're new at facebook, you can just email the picture to me and I'll get it to them: kynslie@gmail.com)

3. When you post the picture, tell them Kynslie sent you (So I know to enter your name in the drawing).

4. Tell your friends about the project and the giveaway! (you can just send them the link to this blog, to make easy on you)

5. If we get AT LEAST 10 submissions from this, I'll do the drawing. (So seriously, be sure to tell your friends!)

6. Check back here on February 13th for the announcing of the winner!

I'm not going to make any rules about how you have to follow our blog, but you're always more than welcome to, if you're not. We're not always the most exciting people, but there's always wifed up Wednesdays!

I'm just gonna do this the old fashioned way and put all your names in a hat, and whoever I draw out, wins!

Please don't feel like because you're not good at drawing or painting that you can't participate. I am seriously not good at anything . But art is everywhere and is part of everything, so this project is applicable to everyone! If you need to get inspired you can check out the other submissions by clicking riiiiiight here.

Plus, if you are one of those people who always takes pictures of yourself, this will be the easiest thing you've ever done.

*Why yes! I do also cater to time travelers: if you're old fashioned and don't have a facebook you can still participate by sending the pictures directly to my email!

by the way, we went kayaking.

I can't believe I totally forgot to blog about this, cause it was kind of a big deal. Last month, we went kayaking on the river here in Savannah.

Let me tell you why this was a big deal, because Kynslie, does not like outdoorsy stuff. I like to fish, and I like to camp in a place that I didn't have to hike to. That's pretty much it. I mean, I like being OUTSIDE for like, the beach, picnics, four wheeling, tennis, outdoor movies, and being on yachts. But basically, anything that someone might wear Teva sandals, hiking boots, and/or eating granola for energy while doing, it's pretty safe to assume, I'll hate doing that thing.

Back to the kayaks. So, we went kayaking because April really wanted to, and everyone else was cool with it.. I really did not want to do, I didn't know how, and I figured I'd probably die and/or sink the kayak with my fat body. But it turns out that Taylor's aunt Martha's neighbor used to be a kayak instructor and she had like 30 extra kayaks, and since she loves Martha, she let us borrow hers, for free. So it was me, Tay, April, Jamie, and Jeff. Everyone had been at least once, except me. But she taught us some stuff before we got on the river.

me, looking like a boy, waiting to get pushed in.

First, Jamie went out, then me, I started to drift down the river slightly and Jamie had started to drift almost all the way across the river, everyone was yelling at her to come back thinking that she couldn't hear but really she was struggling to turn around. While everyone was focused on her, I started to panic because I was going down the river and couldn't turn around. Then everyone started yelling at me to come back. After much struggle and panic. some kind of miracle happened and Jamie and I both made it back. The kayak lady made us wait on the shore while she watched the others practice, because she no longer trusted us.

after i finally started to make my way back after almost drifting out to sea.

Finally, we were on our way, and I was surprisingly, pretty good at kayaking once I got the hang of it. I wasn't the fastest, but my kind husband kept my pace so I had someone to talk to. It was hard work. I was hoping that because we were traveling with the current that the river would do most of the work, WRONG. Also, poor Jeff and Taylor are so giant that the kayaks were not made for men of their stature and they both pretty much instantly lost feeling in their legs.

The entire journey took us over an hour, maybe more, it felt like we were traveling for days after awhile. ESPECIALLY when we got to the mouth of the river and the waves were crazy and I thought I was going to flip.

The lady dropped us off at our start location and then picked us up at the Isle of Hope Marina so we didn't have to fight against the current (I'm pretty sure I would have died.) While April was helping the lady pull the boats of the water her phone fell out of her jacket and into the river. It was funny. But she upgraded to iPhone so I don't feel bad for her.

The next day, my arms felt like they were going to break off of my body. But I was very proud of myself because I didn't complain, whine, cry, die, flip, or kill anyone or anything in the process. Hurray for doing new things! It was a cool way to start the new year.

wifed up wednesday: reusable dryer sheets

are you ready for wifed up Wednesday round 2? I hope so, because I put a little more effort into this one.

This is something I actually learned about long ago, and something we have [kinda] been doing since our entire marriage. (A WHOLE 10 MONTHS!) 

A while ago when we were still dating Tay bought me this craft book at Urban Outfitters. I must confess that I have done next to NONE of the crafts in the book yet (but I marked the ones I would like to try. That's what life was like before pinterest.) Except for this one thing.

reusable dryer sheets.

So, here's the run down. Basically, dryer sheets are made of the same stuff as fabric softener. Therefore, all you need is some kind of vehicle to get the softener up in there with your clothes while they're in the dryer. To do this, most people just go to the store and buy dryer sheets. Does this sound like you? Because it was me. But we can change that! Wouldn't you like to save money and help the environment just a smidgen? (It's really a win win.) You would? Then keep reading.

To do this, here's what you'll need:

One yard of cotton fabric

or random pieces of fabric that are big enough to cut out 8X8 squares.

Scissors, or rotary cutter

or laser cutter, whatever, just some way to cut the fabric.

Sewing Machine or Serger 

Don't get discouraged, this is actually optional

Bottle of your favorite fabric softener

or the cheapest, or whatever kind you have.

Empty spray bottle 

They can be found for like 99cents in the travel sized item section at Target

Choose your fabric.

Cut your fabric into 8x8 squares (don't worry if they're not perfect.)

This step is optional, but I ironed my squares, to make sewing easier.

rather than just leaving the squares as is, like in the book, I chose to double up on the squares. I did this because reasons. You don't have to do this, and obviously you can't if you're not sewing.

Then I sewed the edges for two reasons, 1) to sew the two pieces together. 2) to keep the edges from fraying over time. You can also use your serger on them. If you have one.

I have a serger, but it's in the garage, so I just tried out some of my different sewing patterns.

Then, you fill your spray bottle up with softener, keep the sheets and sprayer near your dryer. Right before you start drying a load just moderately spray your sheet and toss it in with the clothes. Pretty simple right?

*WARNING: if your laundry room has tile or hardwood floor, careful where you're spraying because the softener WILL make your floor slippery. I learned this the hard way.*

I actually came across a blog where they posted about the reusable sheets but instead of spraying they soaked the fabric in softener and water for like two days. I'm sure it works but that seems like a unnecessary amount of work. Whatever floats dat boat, I guess.

When we first got married and into our first apartment in South Carolina, I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get all of our household items under control. I had remembered the reusable dryer sheets idea, but I didn't have any random fabric so I decided we could try to use some cheap wash cloths  instead. It actually worked pretty good for awhile until the wash cloths started to be used for other things like cleaning. So I think if you wanted, you could just use cheap wash cloths, or even cut up an old t-shirt. Get creative. I just felt like making something pretty.

A lot of people ask if this also eliminates static like dryer sheets, I can't really say YES IT DOES! But since we've been doing this, we haven't had any problems with static. So.

Try it out, and tell me what you think!