What I Wore Wednesday: USA Catch-up

I've been a bad, bad blogger. I managed to go a do What I Wore Wednesday for a full year (how did I miss that anniversary?) and only miss one week and then I went and missed two in a row. Sometimes life gets in the way of blogging and that was certainly the case since I had plenty of outfit photos.  Unfortunately my Grandma ended up in the hospital and while she is home and fine now it meant I missed WIWW and then last week my flight was delayed back from London and I was exhausted when I got home and just couldn't pull it all together. So apologies! 

We had a great time at home spending time with family and friends and eating far too much. It was a great trip home and I'm so glad we were able to spend as much time in Cincinnati as we did. Three weeks went so fast! So here is our trip in round-up photo style.


This was the first year Blondie Boy picked his own Halloween costume. We asked him fairly early on what he wanted to be and his answer never changed so he was a pirate! I'm totally that Mom who dresses up to take their kid trick or treating so I was a pirate too!

We had this stuffed Blue (from Rio) already in the house so I sewed it on to the vest Blondie Boy wore to my sister's wedding last year along with the tux shirt, some striped PJ pants, a bandanna and his requested moustache and his costume was good to go! The only thing we bought were his skull rainboots which I'm glad we did because it was a wet and cold night.

For my costume I borrowed a white button down from my dad, tied my skull scarf around my waist and raided my Dad's attic (which is full of costumes) for the hat and jacket.

We went trick or treating with my friend Allyson and her son Parker again this year but I somehow didn't manage to get any pictures of the two of them! Parker was such a big help holding Blondie Boy's hand going up and down steps and was just really sweet. BB was a major trooper and stayed out the whole two hours! Apparently the "thing" in my hometown now is golf carts and I thought it was rather telling all the older children being driven around on golf carts while my two year old hoofed it.

The very next day by best friend Sabrina and her son Landon flew out to visit us from Maryland. I'm so lucky to have someone willing to schlep to Cincinnati for me and the boys had so much fun together playing with cars, laughing about burps and we even had a trip to the Cincinnati Zoo. I love the Cincinnati Zoo and it's ruined all other zoos for me because it is SO amazingly awesome.

BB, Me, Sabrina & Landon

When Sabrina and Landon left NotBlondeHusband, my Dad, my step-sister's boyfriend Drew (who you might remember from the Light the Night post) and I went to watch the UC vs. Syracuse game. Both my Dad and I are UC alums but I think we were all really excited for the game; it was crazy how much the campus has changed in 9 years. The weather was frankly awful, but our seats were AMAZING. When it started sleeting we decided to give up but the Bearcats won so all was okay!

Nippert Stadium- Home of the Bearcats!

NBH, Drew and I

We went immediately from the game to meet my sister and her husband and drive up to Dayton for my Grandma's 90th birthday party. Unfortunately I have no photos as the photographer on the day had her camera stolen. How crappy is that? I do have a shot of one of the cute cupcake toppers my sister made though.

Bess rocking a Bikini back in the day

Next up was voting! I'm a huge political nerd so I loved being home for the election. This was the first time I ever voted in person in a presidential election; I've always voted absentee since I was living in DC for university or in Scotland. Since Ohio is a swing state we got upwards of ten phone calls a day at my Dad's house and I had a LOT of fun telling certain callers that I would under no circumstances be voting for their candidate.

Blondie Boy got super excited about voting but that might of just been because he got stickers and candy.

If you are wondering about the cookie every presidential election Busken Bakery in Cincinnati does a Cookie Poll and predicts who will win the election based on which candidate sells more cookies. It has never been wrong!

Since my Grandma ended up in the hospital we got to spend more time with my Mom (who lives in LA) then we thought we would which was nice although not the best circumstances. Luckily she got home quickly and got to spend some more time with Blondie Boy. She'll probably kill me for posting a photo of her without make up but I don't care I think it is super cute!

Blondie Boy and his GG Bess

My Mom, Sister and I

It was great spending so much time with my family and my Dad and my Step-Mom decided to have Thanksgiving early so we could be there! So we had a big family Fauxgiving the Saturday before we left. Blondie Boy had a great time playing with some of his (3rd?) cousins and we all indulged in too much amazing Thanksgiving food. I wish I could take credit for these photos but my sister stole my camera and took way better photos with it after a few minutes than I have all year.

My cousin Betsy and her gorgeous girls

My Grandma Jane and I

My cuzfriend (cousin+friend) Laura and I

I've just realized I have no photos of my Dad and I or my Dad and Blondie Boy. I'm honestly not sure how this happened! Sorry Dad! I went straight from turkey to go see a midnight showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show with my friends Allyson, Dana and Candi. We went to see it at the theatre I first saw it at over fifteen years ago! I took advantage of the post Halloween sales and got a french maid costume to be Magenta.

Dana the Transylvanian and Magenta Me

Allyson and Riff Raff

You can't tell but I wore my flowered Doc Marten boots that I've had since I was 15 as part of my costume. When Dana saw them she was surprised they still existed because that is how much I wore them back in the day. I was going to spray my hair red but I had a big presentation in London in two day and I didn't want to risk accidentally staining my hair.

 We had a great night and it just reminded me so much of how you know a good friend when you don't have to see each other all the time but you can just pick up where you left off when you do see each other.

We had such a great trip home and three weeks flew by really quickly. I flew straight from Cincinnati to London for work and then Blondie Boy got sick and then I got sick and I'm off to London again tomorrow but I'm sure when things calm down I will get properly homesick. It was so nice being with my family and seeing Blondie Boy play with his Papa and Mimi and Aunts and just having a great time. Plus I really do love my friends and I hate that I'm so far away from them. I hope they know how freaking amazing they are and how much I miss them.  Don't get me started on Cincinnati food or I'll be here all day. I know we can Skype and Facetime and GChat but it's not the same as being face to face y'know?

Do you live near your family or do you live near where you grew up? 

Blondie Boy's First Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Menu

Teriyaki Potato Skins
Baked Camembert

Pioneer Woman Thanksgiving Stuffing (including her skillet cornbread)
Donna Taylor's Famous Sweet Potato Casserole
Mashed Potatoes
Green Bean Casserole
Pennies From Heaven Carrot Coins
Cranberry Sauce
Turkey
Gravy

Chocolate Turkey Cupcakes (also used as place cards)
Pumpkin Pie


Thanksgiving didn't exactly turn out as we expected, but what can you do. We knew we'd be having less guests than we originally thought, but then two of our friends got snowed in* today so it just ended up being 5 of us and a LOT of food. Oh and as of last night the turkey was still frozen, but I'm not getting into how we gave the turkey a bath.

We managed to leave a bag of groceries in Glasgow so that meant no marshmallows for the sweet potato casserole and no canned pumpkin for the pumpkin pie. I was also going to make Blondie Boy a turkey onesie, but I forgot the brown felt as well. He also was going to have a cute shirt and tie, but since it was just family we had a more casual dress code.

Since there was only 5 of us we scratched the baked camembert starter and just munched on the potato skins midday. I probably would have cut out at least one other side dish, but I'd already started the stuffing on Friday and both potato dishes last night.

My Mother-in-Law set the table with a red, white and blue theme complete with an American flag. I used my tasty American Soda sponsored Turkey cupcakes as place cards. I used Texas sized silicone cupcake molds so it was more like individual cakes than cupcakes. The aerosol white icing wasn't as easy to control as I'd like, but I think the names don't look that bad.

I'd never made stuffing from scratch (or cornbread from scratch) before and I think it turned out really well. It was good it was all tasty because even after making up a big plate for both NotBlondeHusband's Mom and her partner there is a ton left. We'll be having leftovers for several days and I think I might try the Sunday Baker's Turkey Wild Rice Soup, too.

Blondie Boy even had his own wee plate of Thanksgiving dinner and really seemed to enjoy it. He had a taste of stuffing, cranberry sauce and sweet potato and his own plain mashed potato, carrots and turkey. He really seemed to enjoy his first Thanksgiving!

I've linked to all the recipes I've used that are online, but if you'd like any that aren't listed I'd be happy to send or post them for you!

As per the deal I have with my Christmas loving Mother-in-Law, now that Thanksgiving is over she's allowed to go nuts with Christmas stuff, so I put Blondie Boy in his Christmas pajamas after dinner as a special treat. Somehow the lucky boy got an early present, a snazzy light up and spinning drum!

The holiday season really has begun! Next up St. Andrew's Day followed shortly after by Chanukah and then Christmas, New Year's and Blondie Boy's first birthday. It's going to be a busy few weeks!

*For those who don't know we got 4+ inches of snow in Glasgow late Friday night and who knows how much more today (we are in Troon, but I've heard at least 4 more); more on the snow in a later post!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gobble Gobble

I love baking, especially holiday baking so I was super inspired when I saw these turkey cupcakes and decided we had to have them this Thanksgiving. I used slightly different techniques than the original, but I think the result is still the same I did a test batch today and I think it came out super cute, what do you think?

You could make your own cupcakes from scratch or use a mix like I did. Here is what you need:

-Betty Crocker Triple Chocolate Cake Mix

-Betty Crocker Whipped Chocolate Frosting

-Betty Crocker Cupcake Frosting White Cloud

-Candy Corn

-Black Icing Gel


1) Bake the cupcakes as directed on the box and allow to cool.
2) Roll out a large ball of frosting in your hands (it's best if it's been in the fridge for this) and place on top of the cupcake and then top with a smaller ball. These are the turkey's head and body.
3) Arrange the candy corn around the back of the large circle to create a fan like tail.
4) Cut a candy corn in half and stick in the small ball (head) as a beak
5) Carefully/slowly pie on two white frosting eyes and add two black gel pupils.
6) Gobble up your masterpiece!

I got my ingredients from AmericanSoda.co.uk which has the largest selection of American food and drink in the UK! I often struggle to find the right ingredients in the grocery store and find a lot of great recipes online that call for American ingredients that UK stores just don't carry.

I think any expat would agree with me that the selection of baking supplies abroad is tiny compared to the US and the handful of mixes the big groceries do stock just don't taste the same. Maybe I'm a baking snob, but I want the real thing!

AmericanSoda.co.uk has everything I need for a taste of home in one place!

Check them out for a real taste of America in Europe!

Transatlantic Blonde was provided these ingredients to create this recipe