Who Remembers Hair Timelines?

Back in the livejournal days, hair timeline posts were a big thing. At least in the community madradhair, of which every girl was a member, right?? Anyway, I miss that, and I've just changed my hair, soooo HAIR TIMELINE!!!

This is the oldest one, from probably 2002 or 2003? I'm bad with dates.

This is from 2007. I loved that haircut.

2011, when I was pregnant and my hair was thick and long and lush and glossy and gorgeous

Then I gave birth and got a haircut in 2012!

Later 2012. I dyed it dark red for a while and let it grow again.

February and March of 2013. Still growing, trying to let my natural hair grow out and fade out the red.

Oops, I skipped a chunk of time. I had the red stripped out and was basically blonde for the rest of the year and let it grow out past my collar bones. Then in March of 2014, I cut it short again and went lavender!

After a few months of that, I started adding turquoise. This is summer of 2014.

Late Summer 2014, I went turquoise, then green, then I cut bangs again. I can't stay away from them.

Spring 2015, the hair got longer and mintier.

Pink bangs! Late Spring/early Summer 2015

In July, I bleached it all out and decided I kind of liked it platinum for a minute.

I dyed just the ends of my hair in late July, but the pink side didn't take very well. I loved the chartreuse, though.

I really missed the green, so I went back in September.

In October 2015, it was longer and mintier and I stopped touching up my roots.

Also in October, I went grass green! I really loved it, but I didn't do it again for some reason.

December-February 2016, my hair kept growing and my roots got longer. I loved the mint chocolate look. I also started wearing it in pigtails almost all the time, because it was just so unruly.

In March, I chopped it off again! It feels so much better again. I really really loved the way my color looked, including the roots, but it was time for a change.

So I went pink! I've never had pink hair before, and I had previously had bad luck with pink taking to my hair and holding. But this really grabbed and turned out SO BRIGHT! It has mellowed just a tiny bit after being washed a couple times, and I'm really loving it. I didn't have enough developer to mix up enough bleach for a good coat, so the darker areas and the back are still a bit orangey. I'm going to do a second bleaching this weekend to even it out, so hopefully I can get it to the perfect shade soon.

Okay, this was fun! Have you guys done anything fun with your hair?

Lucky Charms Cookies!

See this binder here? That's my favorite cookbook in my collection. It's full of hand-written recipes, printed emails, magazine clippings, and recipes cut from the backs of boxes and packages. There are Santa Claus shaped sticky notes sticking out from all sides, marking my very favorites. Some I know by heart, but I get out my binder anyway just in case. My oatmeal cookie recipe is one of those recipes. I've made probably hundreds of batches over the years, and I've honestly never had better oatmeal cookies. I've waffled about sharing the recipe, not just because it's MINE, but because I don't really measure things, and so much is just based on taste and eye. If I give you the recipe, will your cookies turn out anything like mine? I honestly have no idea! But, really, I'm probably overthinking it and they'd be delicious no matter what. So here you go!

Brittany's Oatmeal Cookies

2 sticks of softened butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 heaping tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 cups old-fashioned oats
stir-in of your choice (chocolate chips, raisins, craisins, white chocolate chips, etc.)
Optional Lucky Charm marshmallows for the tops (I ordered mine on Amazon)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat together the butter and sugars until creamy, then beat in the eggs and vanilla. Stir together the dry ingredients, then slowly incorporate into the butter mixture. I like to give the dough a little taste here to see if the cinnamon, vanilla, and salt levels are good. I personally like for the salt to be noticeable, and I like a lot of cinnamon. If it's just right, slowly add the oats and then the stir-in(s). In the case of these Lucky Charms cookies, I stirred in white chocolate chips.

Scoop the dough into walnut-sized balls and place on parchment-lined sheets. Bake until the cookies have spread and puffed lightly and are no longer glossy. Personally, I like to catch them before they start to brown. There's a narrow window for me between perfect and overbaked, but most other people don't seem to mind so much when they get a bit toasty and crispy around the edges. If you are using the marshmallows, pull the cookies out about halfway through, once they've begun to spread a bit but are still very glossy. Press a small handful (about 5-10 marshmallows) into the dough and put them back in the oven to finish baking.

Let them cool completely before packing them up. They will sort of sink and get crackly as they cool, which is good! That means they will be perfectly chewy. The marshmallows melt into the cookies just enough, and get lightly toasted across the top, for the perfect crispy/chewy texture.

These cookies are perfect no matter what you like to add to them. My favorite way to have them is with even more cinnamon and a ridiculous amount of raisins. My uncle doesn't like raisins (what is wrong with people who don't like raisins? I could put raisins in everything), but he loves them with chocolate chips. The first time I tried them, they had been made with Craisins and white chocolate chips. I don't normally like white chocolate, but the combination is heavenly.

Let me know if you try them and how they turn out for you!!

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hiya! So today, I've been on a baking spree getting orders ready for my March cookie sales. Today, I baked my mint chocolate chip cookies! I've been using this recipe for many years, and I've done a lot of variations on it. It's originally a Martha Stewart recipe, but I've slightly adapted it for my tastes. You can make these with milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips, caramel chips, dried cherries, raisins, nuts, candies, whatever. All of these variations change the cookie completely! My favorite variations are what I call Black Forest cookies (dark chocolate chips and dried cherries), Salted Truffle cookies (semisweet chips, with chocolate sprinkles and sea salt on top), and these Mint Chip cookies. I like to use Andes Mint chips, but I didn't have enough to make the three batches I needed to bake today. I happened to have some Nestles dark chocolate mint chips, which have a mint filling, so I mixed them together in a bowl and used my "custom blend".

Here's the recipe:


1 stick of butter
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
~1 tsp sea salt
1 cup chips/dried fruit/nuts/candies/whatever

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Melt the butter and 1/2 cup of chips and stir until smooth. Mix together the melted chocolate, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until smooth. Stir together the flour, soda, and salt, and add it slowly to the chocolate mixture. Once it's all mixed well, you can stir in whatever you're choosing to stir in.

Scoop the dough into walnut-sized balls and place onto parchment-lined cookie sheets. I'm sorry that I don't ever time my cookies, so I can't tell you how long they need to bake!! I always time things visually, so these are finished when they are lightly puffed and no longer wet looking. They will be sort of dull in finish. Because of all the chocolate in these cookies, they will be very soft and sticky until they fully cool. Leave them on the tray for a couple minutes before sliding the parchment onto a cooling rack. Let them cool completely before attempting to move them or stack them up. Be sure to use a spatula or something to lift them off the parchment, or else they may stick or break.

They are a very rich and fudgy cookie; the type you can really only eat one or two of at a time. I'm normally the type to scoff at things like that, because I can eat a lot of cookies. But really, they are rich! You'll at least need a glass of water and something salty before you go back for more.

Enjoy! Let me know if you try them, and what you decide to put in them.

Introduction!

Hello everyone!

The best way to start a blog is probably to tell you guys who I am, right? Well, I'm Brittany, a married mother of two living in southern Indiana. Here's me, for visual reference:

Here's my cast of characters, since I'm likely to mention them from time to time:

My husband Aaron:
A

My kids, Marshall and Ramona:

And our two cats, Cecil and Breadstick:

I currently work part time in the Clerk's Office doing voting/election stuff and filing/fill-in stuff in between. I've actually worked in the office for a shocking 9 1/2 years, but I've only been part time since 2014. I'll honestly probably never fully get away from there, haha! Even if we get financially stable enough that I can fully quit, I'll probably still go back to work the elections in the Spring and Fall.

During my home days, I do my homemaker stuff, plus managing my three businesses. I make polymer clay ring dishes and earrings, do custom cross stitch embroidery, and illustration, plus I bake and sell cookies on a monthly basis! I'll be talking a lot about these things, and providing a peek into my creative processes and some of my recipes. I'll actually be baking this month's cookies tomorrow and Friday, so maybe I'll try to do a recipe post while they bake. Would you rather see me talk about mint chocolate chip cookies or lucky charms cookies?

When I have time for other things, I like to sew for myself and for my daughter, quilt occasionally, do crafts, etc. I'll be talking about those things as well. I also like to think I look cute, so I'll post about my hair and outfits every once in a while. I'm also on periscope now, so if anyone wants me to do anything there, let me know!! I might use it to do a house tour, actually, so go follow me so we can do that. Here are my other accounts:

Periscope: brittkett
Instagram: brittkett
Facebook: Brittany Ketterman, Ketterman's Kitchen, Glitter House
Tumblr: pleasantoldmeninpinkshirts
Etsy: glitterhousetrinkets
Storenvy: www.glitterhouse.storenvy.com
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/britt_kett/

So yeah, look me up, and keep watching this for more actually exciting posts!

Hi!

Well, I did it! Sort of. I set up a new blog, but it is so bare bones right this second, obviously. But! I'm at work and shouldn't really be doing this right now anyway, I guess. Does blogger have an app? This would be so much easier if I could post from my phone. Particularly for adding photos, since they're all in there and definitely not here on my work computer. Annnnnyway, I'll be using this to talk about the different things I do, such as baking, cooking, making my dishes, sewing, crafting, getting dressed for the day, cats I'm petting, whatever. Whatever desperately needs to be documented. I will also promote my shop a bit, plus any other makers and shops I'm currently loving. Anything else you'd like to see me post about?