When style fell out of the minivan...

When chatting with a girlfriend last year, I shared that I felt like my fashion style had fallen out of the mini van and been lost along the roadside during my years of motherhood! 😂 And now that the nest was for the most part empty -- I really wanted my STYLE back!!  (And hey there is plenty of room in the nest for it now!😏)

Unfortunately, I was not feeling my over 50, mother of 4 body was exactly high fashion material.  Yet I began my search to rediscover myself and my fashion sense.  The internet can be both a great resource and also an evil promoter of ridiculous feminine stereotypes.  So in my quest for information on how to determine my own style and shop smarter ...I discovered some great tips and some crazy overpriced online "style" classes!  I thought I'd occasionally write about some of my findings here to help any other women out there who maybe feel a little bit lost like myself.

It's crazy to discover how tied up our fashion sense is with our self esteem and body image!

I feel like this process in my life has been so helpful in discovering what helps me feel pretty, confident, and authentically me!  After all, this is our life ...it's not a dress rehearsal and we won't get a "do over" here on this planet.  COVID should have made us appreciate that!  So I won't get those years back that I spent worrying that I wasn't skinny enough, or curvy enough or didn't have the money to spend on expensive trendy fashion.

Now, I have given myself permission to wear bight red lipstick if I want ... and matching red Converse shoes with confidence! (or maybe those leopard print flats!) 😉  So if you would like to join me on this STYLISH journey, check back occasionally for new inspiration and ideas.

I will try to suggest style silhouettes and accessories that flatter most every body type and age.  I will share 3 things to consider to make all your outfits "remarkable".  I will also share how to coordinate colors, prints and patterns to flatter your own personal coloring and style preferences.  These lessons and tips have really helped me create more stylish and pulled together outfits and I want to share these ideas with you. I hope you find your own personal style tastes and discover the joy and self confidence it builds when you feel "remarkably" fashionable!  And we will discover a lot of it already hiding in clothes you already own!


STYLE TIP # 1

The V neckline is the most flattering on most women!  No matter your size, the V neck tends to make everyone look taller and slimmer.  Even adding a long pendant necklace can visually create a V line on a dress or top without the actual V neckline.  So consider this tip every time you get dressed!  Have you got a V shape on top??!


 

Let's go be confident and uniquely us dear friends!

~ Connie

Apple Pear and Romaine Salad

One of my favorite salad recipes is one shared with me by my grandmother.  She was a wonderful cook and I have lots of awesome recipes from her.  This salad is so colorful and tasty that it has become one of my all time favorites!  I hope you will give it a try soon.

Apple Pear and Romaine Salad

1 pear and 1 apple, chopped

1 cup salted cashews, chopped

1 head romaine lettuce

4 oz shredded swiss cheese

1/4 c. dried cranberries

Mix all together

Dressing - 

1/2 c. sugar

1/3 c. lemon juice

2 tsp finely chopped onion

1 Tbsp dijon mustard

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp poppy seed

2/3 c. oil

Mix together and pour over lettuce mixture (use whatever amount you desire ...this seems like a lot of dressing to me!) Chill salad 1/2 hour before serving.

Hope you enjoy this as you wish for Spring! 

~ Connie

Just a few balls of yarn ...

 

Both of my grandmothers were quite crafty, one was a knitter and the other enjoyed crocheting. My mom claims that gene skipped her.  Despite my mom's non interest in crafting, I am happiest when I am creating a project. Guess that is why I studied design in college!  When I was young I learned to knit and sew, and I did both of those crafts when I was a young mom too.  Life got busy and I did not do those hobbies very much once I had older, active, busy kids or during those years when I did a lot of freelance design work.  Lately I have been enjoying exploring those hobbies more once again. There are a few new babies expected in our extended family in 2024 and I have been knitting up booties, hats and baby blankets.  Knitting is a great winter craft and there are plenty of free patterns and youtube tutorials out there if you want to learn a new hobby.  Here are a few of my project.

                                                            Little Deer Baby Blanket

                                                                       Baby Booties

                                                            Baby Lamb Hooded Blanket

Korean Beef Bowls

 This is a wonderful quick and easy recipe for a mid week dinner!

INGREDIENTS

• ¼ cup brown sugar, packed
• ¼ cup reduced sodium soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• ½ teaspoon crushed red-pepper flakes, or more to taste
• ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pound ground beef
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced
• ¼ teaspoon sesame seeds
• white or brown quick cook rice

INSTRUCTIONS

• In a small bowl, whisk together brown sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, red pepper flakes and ginger.
• Heat vegetable oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add ground beef and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the beef as it cooks; drain excess fat.
• Stir in soy sauce mixture and green onions until well combined, allowing to simmer until heated through, about 2 minutes.
• Serve immediately with white or brown rice, garnished with green onion and sesame seeds, if desired.

Finding our story . . .

 

Those who know me, know how much I love family genealogy and family history.  This hobby was passed down to me from my parents and I was probably a grade schooler when I first started filling out my first family tree.  My husband also loves this hobby and his computer focused brain has certainly helped us keep our info organized over the years as we have merged research covering both his ancestry branches and mine.  Before my Dad passed away early in 2022,  my parents passed the torch to me as the family records and photo keeper.  With memory issues, my dad was worried about accidentally deleting branches of his family research records. He had spent years compiling information so I understood his worry!  It kind of worried me too.

My mom is still actively helping me work on our family tree and I think it will provide some opportunities for us to travel and research a bit together this Spring.  Our family history is something I usually work on in the winter months.  Gardening consumes a bit of my Spring and Summer, but those milder months are better travel times for research trips.  So I always have access to our tree information on my phone!

Since I don't want to leave my genealogy records just as lists of names and dates for my children and grandchildren, I have begun the task of trying to write profile bios for members of our tree.  Some day I hope to compile these biographical sketches into a book but for now each sketch is written as a stand alone profile.  

If genealogy is your thing too, I encourage you to write down your ancestors' stories and share their photographs.  Start with people you know best.  For me I started with my grandmother, my mother's mother.  My grandmother died in 2014 but my own children did remember her and I could focus on writing my story about her for them.  It was fun to share her life as a young person and find photos of her in those years that I could share.  Creating a timeline of her life let me outline the decades of her life and compare them to the historical events happening in those decades.  This timeline helped me focus on things I wanted to mention about her life and also events happening around her that influenced her choices.  

We might think our relatives were just boring and ordinary, but they have all lived through interesting times and challenges.  There ARE stories to be shared and I encourage you to start.  I wish I had started these sooner and had been able to share more of them with my dad, but I know he is proud that I am continuing to work on them.

One of my goals for 2024 is to write more.  Some day I won't be here but perhaps my words will be.  I will leave them in this blog, in my ancestor profiles and in my children's stories and board books.

You too have a story to tell... go out and tell it! 

~ Connie

Grandma's chocolate chip cookies

This cookie jar is a twin to one my Grandma always had in her kitchen.  It was always stocked with homemade cookies ...usually chocolate chip which were my Grandpa's favorite!  I searched for quite a few years to find this Pig. So every time I see him in my kitchen I am instantly reminded of my wonderful Grandma Catherine.  I have tried many chocolate chip cookie recipes over the years but never found one that seemed like her cookies.  I even have her exact recipe but they never turn out like hers always did!!?? I don't know what her special secret was.

I have however found one that I love ... and it seems like they are a close taste and texture match!

So I am pleased to stock my Pig with these yummies!  If you like to bake, give them a try soon.  Your family and friends will appreciate the results.


Chocolate Chip Delights

1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 stick margarine (softened but not melted)
1/2 cup canola oil
1 egg
1/2 tsp milk
2 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips or mint chips

In a stand mixer cream sugars, margarine, oil, egg, milk and vanilla.
Add dry ingredients until mixed in.  Add chocolate chips.

Bake on parchment lined baking sheets at 350 for 11 minutes.
Let cool for 3 minutes before removing from trays.  Makes about 3 dozen.


Hope these are memory makers for your family too!

~ Connie

Down a gravel road ...

Hi-
My name is Connie and I'd like to Welcome you to my Blog - PrairieChickNotes.blogspot.com.

I have decided in 2024 to revive my blog.  2024 is my 60th year of life, so I have been telling myself "Go Big, or Go Home!".  This life is NOT a dress rehearsal.  It's the only life we've got here on this planet.  In case you are keeping track, my 60th birthday will be on 12-31-2024 and I like chocolate or flowers! 😁

The "Prairie Chick" refers to myself and my return to rural life in Iowa a few years ago.  I grew up in Iowa (not on a farm) but as a small town/somewhat rural area girl. 😉  After college at a large mid western university, I was excited to move to my "big girl" life in Chicago!  I worked in both the city and the suburbs as an interior and graphic designer for over 28 years.  All the while, my husband and I raised our four children in the charming suburb of Glen Ellyn, Illinois.  We led your typical crazy, busy suburban lives with jobs, friends, kid sports, church activities, piano lessons, etc.  It was a great life, but as our kids headed off to their colleges and the nest started to empty ... we began to think about our next adventure.  We had long talked of moving out of suburbia and dreamed of owning some place out in the country.  

My wonderful husband works in the technology industry and is able to work from anywhere.  And over the years I have transitioned from corporate design work to freelancing from my home.  So with the kids finishing up high school and moving on to college, we began to explore the possibility of finding our dream home out in the Iowa countryside.  Within the span of four months in early 2017, we found our dream property,  sold our home in Illinois,  worked out the details of working remotely and moved 10 miles outside a small town in central Iowa.  

We still wake up every morning and can't really believe we made such a life change.  And we still sit on our front porch or by our cozy fireplace most evenings and are so happy that we did it!

As I reflect on what my blog could be, I know it's going to be hard to narrow down the focus... but then again who says I have too!  I am a person with a lot of interests (thanks Dad) 😉 so I may just write about them all.

I think I will be sharing easy recipes (featuring some fresh goodness from my garden), art and design projects that I am working on and my other interests in reading, genealogy, sewing, writing, photography, fashion and knitting. I hope you'll come along to see what's happening down our gravel road! 😉

Love & Hugs,

Connie

contact me by email - prairiechicknotes@gmail.com