Marines, Monuments and M&M's

Happy Monday everyone! I hope everyone on the East Coast is staying safe and dry.
This past weekend nearly 30,000 runners participated in the 38th annual Marine Corps Marathon, including my Dad! My younger sister, Emily and I spent the day in D.C spectating the race and we had a good time. This was our first time at the MCM and it is already on my list of favorite races to spectate. The view was beautiful where we were and the crowd was awesome!
I love spectating and cheering everybody on and on Sunday we saw a lot of fun costumes and signs. I am always amazed at how runner's manage to run 26.2 miles in some crazy costumes. Some of my favorites were:
1. The M&M's (there were at least three of them)
2. The classic tutu (it seems to be a really popular marathon costume, I even saw a guy wearing one)
3. One of the most accurate Spider-man costumes I've seen all week
4. A banana
5. Batman and Wonder Women
6. Waldo

Some awesome signs we saw said things like:
1. Run faster Sandy is right behind you
2. Why do all of the good guys run away?
3. Worse parade ever!
4. Cuz 26.3 would just be crazy!

I would like to thank the mega phone guy for "motivating" all of the racers and strongly encouraging  them not to sit down because of the paper work involved for him. Thanks to the coffee shop at the finisher's festival for providing thousands of cranky spectators with breakfast and reminding us of why we were awake in the first place. Also thank you to the police who kept the crowds at bay and everybody moving in the right direction down in the metro stations.

Here are some pictures of Emily and I chillin in D.C. we had a ton of fun!

Congrats to all of the finishers of both the 10k and marathon, you guys are amazing! Semper Fi

One Scarf Seven Different Ways

Happy Monday everybody! Cold weather is starting to set in, and with cold weather comes one of my favorite fashion accessories-the scarf! The scarf does have it's downsides though; I can find myself finding a style I like and then wearing all of my scarves that way for the next six months. So here is a little video I put together with a different way to tie your scarf for every day of the week.

So, which version is your favorite? leave a comment below and let me know.

P.S. The song in this video is "Colors" by April Smith and the Great Picture Show

Pumpkin Ice Cream

A few weeks ago I attempted to make pumpkin ice cream and recently someone asked me to post the recipe I used. This is actually not the first one I used, it took several attempts to find the right one. This recipe  turned out really well and tasted soooo good! So here it is, try it out and let me know if you liked it. 

Ingredients- 1 1/2 cups whole milk 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream 1 tsp. vanilla 3/4 tsp. cinnamon 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg 1/4 tsp. ground cloves 3/4 cup brown sugar 6 egg yolks, lightly beaten 1 cup pumpkin puree  Directions- In a large saucepan over medium heat combine milk, cream, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and brown sugar. Heat until scalded, but not boiling. Add a small amount of cream mixture to eggs while whisking. Return egg mixture to saucepan,mix well. Cook, while stirring, until mixture is thick enough to coat a spoon. Remove from heat. Stir in pumpkin puree. Remove from heat. Pour the cooked cream into a durable container, and place it in the freezer. After about 40 minutes check it to see if the edges have started to freeze. If so, stir the cream vigorously with a spatula or whisk OR mix it with a handheld mixer to break up any ice chunks. Return it to the Freezer. Keep checking it every 30 minutes or so, giving it a really good mixing each time until it is completely frozen (about 2-3 hours). Your ice cream should now be ready to serve or stored in a sealed container.  Enjoy!

Sarah Was Taken To The Movies

SPOILER ALERT: If you don't want to know ANYTHING about this movie then you probably shouldn't read this post.

Happy Monday everyone! This past weekend I saw Taken 2 in theaters. Here are my thoughts and a review.

I feel really bad for the Mills family, that can't go anywhere nice without getting kidnapped! After finishing an assignment Bryan Mills invites his family to join him in Istanbul and they enjoy a nice vacation for all of like 30 minutes before Bryan's ex-wife Lenore gets kidnapped. I was kind of disappointed, everything seemed really easy this time around, Liam Neeson's  character had a phone while he was being held hostage, so all he had to do was call his daughter and she managed to get him out by throwing a bunch of grenades around Istanbul. Also nobody in Istanbul seemed to have a problem with Bryan and his daughter driving around and blowing things up on their streets.
During the film Bryan helps his daughter Kim master a stick shift car while being chased by the authorities. Recently I have been trying to master the family stick shift- I am thinking that maybe my dad and I should take a trip to Istanbul because (*spoiler alert*) Kim aced her drivers test without a problem.

I'm going to be totally honest, when I first saw the trailer online I thought it was a joke, so naturally I didn't have very high hopes for the film. It ended up being mostly a remake of the first movie without the gripping suspense. Also, the lighting and effects were dizzying and kind of made me sick. The action was good though and it was kind of fun to see the roles reversed.

Anywho, the movie was unintentionally hilarious and all around kind of disappointing. Personally I think that you are better off just sticking to the first movie.

Music Monday: Covers

Happy Monday everyone! Anybody do anything fun this weekend?
 As I have mentioned before I love music and one thing that I really love about music is that it's always changing. People are constantly recording new music and putting a new spin on old songs.  An artist may die but their song will live on forever,and for some reason that fascinates me.
Here are some of my favorite spins on one of the most poplar songs on iTunes right now:

So there you go four very different versions of one song. If you would like more information about any of these artist you can check out their channels below.   

http://www.youtube.com/user/sdstever

http://www.youtube.com/user/KurtHugoSchneider

http://www.youtube.com/user/gootmusic

http://www.youtube.com/user/LisenerMusic

If you haven't already, please follow my blog on twitter, and join this sight to subscribe to my blog, thanks:). Happy listening everyone! 

Pumpkin Craze

Happy October everyone! Not going to lie, I love fall. I love seeing the trees change color, I love wearing scarves and I love pumpkins! Not only is pumpkin pie, cake, bagels and cupcakes delicious but there are so many awesome things that you can do with pumpkins. Here are a few of my favorite suggestions for how to put your pumpkin to good use this fall season.

1. Make food! (roast the seeds, bake a pie, or you could just eats the guts but i don't think that would taste very good)
2.Set up a pumpkin catapult (in a safe place please)
3. Make a pumpkin  man

4. If you are in a really destructive mood you can just take your pumpkin out back and smash it with a baseball bat.
5. Turn your pumpkin into a sick  new sound system

6.Give your pumpkin a face and take him on a walk around you neighborhood it's sure to get your neighbors talking (or maybe they are already talking, i don't know)
7. Put a baby in it

8.Make a moisturizer (apparently pumpkin hair is great for your pores)
9. Throw a pumpkin carving party
10.Glitter it out!!!

So if you were worried before about what to do with your pumpkin now you should be VERY inspired. If you do happen to do something cool with your pumpkin be sure and send me a picture.
Writing this blog post inspired me to make some pumpkin ice cream! It didn't turn out quite like I wanted it to but I think I might keep trying, there are like a gazillion recipes out there for making ice cream.
Alright now I am going to go and try my ice cream now and see if it's edible or not. Have a great week :).