Christmas | 2012

All our presents are wrapped and stowed safely under the tree. Two pecan pies are cooling on the counter and Scott is playing dodgeball with his friends. Yup, it is definitely Christmas Eve.

Here's a little peek around our house this Christmas. 

 I used boughs from our Christmas tree all around our house to decorate. Scott was concerned that a spider was hiding in the ones above our bed though.

 

Fake tree in our bedroom which is Mia's favorite toy. Thankfully, I put non breakable ornaments on the tree. She achieved her goal and knocked it over yesterday.

 

 Christmas balls and wine corks for fillers. 

Clothesline Christmas card display in the kitchen

Told you they were wrapped!

My mom gives us ornaments each year. This is mine.

 And this is Scott's! (shocker, right?)

 Mia loves Christmas too! 

Merry Christmas! 

crafty friday finds

Last night, the bible study I’m a part of for medical school wives had an ornament making party. We had a lot of fun! I think some people found out they really are crafty, even though they say they aren’t! At least that’s what I think from seeing their finished product. Anyway, making ornaments made me get into a creative mood. I’ve been scavenging the internet (pinterest, blogs, etc) for more Christmas craft goodness. Here are some fun ones I found and thought I’d share with you. Hey, maybe this will turn into a weekly thing, you never know...

 

Watercolor Woodcut Ornaments

Recycled Paper Twiggy Tags

I made this crock pot apple cider recipe last night. so good!

 

DIY Holiday Plaques

Now go out there and get crafty!

christmas songs + favorite part of married life

 I was sitting listening to Pandora at work yesterday and on pops "Baby it's Cold Outside". I love that song!  It's one of my favorite Christmas tunes. (Is it really Christmas though? I guess it's a winter song.) It made me think about when Scott and I were dating. You know way back in 2007.  The worst part EVER was when we had to go our separate ways for the night. But in the winter time it was even worse! We'd be all snuggled up and warm watching a movie (we were TOTALLY watching the movie) and then it would be time to go home. I don't know how many failed attempts happened on average but eventually one of us would muster up the courage to face the cold night (and car) to head home. Once we got married and our first winter came upon us, I'm pretty sure Scott asked me what my favorite part of marriage was so far. My answer? My house being his house! He totally agreed and to this day it's still one of my favorite parts of being married to Scott. I get to stay snug as a bug in a rug with my hubby! No cold car involved.

Oh, and just in case you were dying to know my favorite Christmas songs, here they are:

1. Baby It's Cold Outside
2. All I want for Christmas is You
3. Santa Baby
4. White Christmas (Specifically by The Drifters)
5. White Christmas (Bing Crosby)
6. It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas
7. Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
8. The Christmas Song
9. Twelve Days of Christmas
10. Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer

What's your favorite Christmas song?

Christmas Tree Hunting

On a whim this past Sunday, we decided to go pick out our Christmas tree. My parents and sister, Annalee, wanted to get a tree too so we went together. We headed to Spruce Ridge Christmas Tree Farm in Newport, VA. This was the first year Scott and I actually cut down our tree. I don't think we'll ever go back to buying them from a roadside vendor. We had a lot of fun wandering among the trees and finally picking "the one"!

And I'll leave you with this jewel....

 

(i) never stop improving

It is inevitable. Whenever Scott has a break, one of the two of us initiates some kind of home improvement project. I'll fess up and say it was me this time (It's probably always me). I have issues with being content with our house. It is ever changing and evolving... and I like it that way. The issue is, I don't always have the husband power available to make the changes I want. I'm all about DIY and if I could I would do it everything by myself. But less face it, I do not have the upper body strength to move a piece of furniture up or the down the stairs and if I tried I'd do more damage than good! Somethings you have to save for the beefier sex.

This break I want to rearrange our living room. Our living room is an awkward shape, at least to me. It's basically a rectangle and I cannot make it feel cozy. Our TV has dictated the layout because the cable hookup was on one wall. Now the cable is gone. (Scott is kind of mourning the loss because of football but he NEVER watches television, like ever. I guess he liked to know that he could if had time. Oh well!) I want to put the loveseat where the TV is and the TV where the amoire is, and use a chest for a coffee table, and use a bench from parents over where the loveseat was. Oh and don't get me started on the walls... I have big plans but I'm not sure when that will come to fruition. Also, I'm going to try my hand at making curtains. I can do all that without Scott's help, I have to make the most of his time off, i.e. move furniture.

As of today this is what the living room looks like...

 Hopefully, I'll be posting some after pictures soon.

Next item on the list will be fixing the hole in the drywall in our guest bathroom. It's been there for too long. It was there when we moved in over two years ago. The main reason we haven't tackled the bathroom is, EVERY -SINGLE -TIME Scott wants to just rip the whole thing out and make it all fancy. We a.) do no have the money for it or time (let me rephrase... he does not have time) and b.) I don't think we would get a great return on that investment for where we live. I think it would make the bathroom(s) too nice for the neighborhood. Don't get me wrong, I love, love, love that he is a dreamer but in this case I have to bring him down earth. The next house he can gut the bathrooms. Anyway, once we (fingers crossed) fix the hole I want to slap on a fresh coat of paint (leftover from our dining room/kitchen) and put some more flooring down (I think we have leftovers of what is there now).

On another note, we are staying in Virginia for Thanksgiving. Our first with Scott's family since we have been married. I'm looking forward to some down time (not sure how much we'll have if the above happens) but I'm definitely going to miss my family in Georgia. It helps to know I'll be down in a little more than a month. I'm going to make desserts for Thanksgiving. I'll hopefully post the finished products.

Oh and Mia says good night!

four generations

Do you have a flour sifter? Well, I didn't for over two years of my married life. It made things difficult when I was baking but I made due. One day I was in Target and there was a flour sifter! So I scooped it up and put it in my basket. (Probably along side some other random items. That seems to always happen when I go to Target. It  looks like a schizophrenic was wondering the aisles!) I got home and I was so excited. The next time I baked something, I whipped that sucker out. I put the flour in and soon realized that I would be sifting flour for the next two weeks. IT TOOK FOREVER! I decided it was better for dusting sugar on a cake then for sifting 4 cups of flour. So my search for a flour sifter continued, and you know what? A good sifter is hard to find my friends! I told my mother my dilemma and she said that I could have the one she uses because Mema (my grandmother) was giving my mom a much larger sifter that Mema doesn't use anymore. Hallelujah, my search was over!  So on my birthday last week, my mom gave me the flour sifter. The cool thing about it is, the sifter was my great-grandmother's, Claudia Elizabeth, whom my mom and I are named after (The middle name that is). I'm almost positive, Mema used the sifter as well. It's pretty cool to think that four generations have used this mundane kitchen utensil. Well, I say "have used" it but I haven't actually made anything with it yet. Don't worry I will!  I love the design on the sifter. It's so happy with the yellow and green flowers!

Do you have something that has been passed down through your family?

30 before I'm 30

It's official, I'm half way to 50 and in the grand scheme of things I'm really close to 30. Since that is the case, I thought I'd make a list of things I want to accomplish before I turn the big 3-0 in five years. I'm not always the greatest at executing list such as these (See Summer Fun List) but I have some time to accomplish this list. So here goes!

1. Put at least one stamp in my passport
2. Restore an antique piece of furniture
3. Read the Bible cover to cover
4. Visit New York City with Scott (We've never been together) 
5. Have a kiddo? (Don't get your hopes up! Scott will be in the throws of residency by the time I'm 30!)*
6. Go on a missions trip
7. Ride a roller coaster
8. Make a recipe from the Art of French Cooking 
9. Sponsor a child 
10. Run a half marathon? *
11. Go to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington D.C.
12. Dance in the rain (Ok. I have done this but it's been a long time) 
13. Visit the Grand Canyon 
14. Go ice skating 
15. Give away 30 things that are not clothes
16. Cut my hair short... really short. 
17. ROAD TRIP! 
18. See the Tsavo Lions at the Field Museum. Long story. 
19. Make our wedding album
20. Decorate a cake. Like REALLY decorate it. 
21. Visit Disney World
22. Decorate our guest room 
23. Finish Atlas Shrugged
24. Redo the guest bathroom 
25. Make a terrarium   
26. Go to a Major League Baseball game. ( I know, it's sad! I lived in the Atlanta area for 16 years and never saw a Braves game!) 
27. Read all the Harry Potter books.  
28. Give blood. 
29. Try out a new skill... specifically calligraphy  
30. Learn a Second Language... I understand the likelihood of fluency is slim to none but I would like to know some basics of another language (besides Latin that is... Et Tu Brute?)

Whew! DONE! It was really hard to think of realistic stuff to put on here. I understand this is a list and the point is to cross things off but I don't want to be so absorbed in crossing off items that I miss the journey. Here goes nothing!

* Disclaimer Alert! Things I'm not sure will happen but in an ideal world would. 

i mustache you

Scott turned 27 almost two month ago. (I'm a little behind) He is one year closer to the big 3-0! Anywho, I decided to throw him a party this year. I had tried to include him in planning a get together for his birthday in the past and they NEVER came to fruition! I totally blame it on him and his modesty. He didn't want to be the center of attention. This year I took matters into my own hands. Mwahahahahaha! I took Scott out of the equation. His party would be a surprise! I mean who doesn't like a surprise party? Probably Scott but too bad.

My next step, after deciding to exclude him from the planning, was what kind of party should I throw. Scott is a kid a heart so a themed party was a must. I thought about a western theme for awhile and then it hit me. A MUSTACHE PARTY! Scott loves facial hair, especially mustaches. If I let him he would sport a stache at all times. I knew it was perfect for him. Thankfully, everyone and their brother loves mustaches and mustache parties so there were lots of resources. Pinterest was my friend to say the least. I got a lot of ideas from The Story of Pat and Lindsay.

A few things we did at Scott's party

• Everyone wore a stick on mustache - I got them from this site. (I was totally freaked out about ordering them from China. I know, I know, everything comes from there but i don't generally give them my credit card info. The above blog I linked ordered them from the same place so that made me feel better.)
• I had a game called "Name that 'Stache"  I downloaded the pdf from the blog above. I didn't think to buy a prize which was a fail. Sorry friends!
• I got Scott's mom to find me pictures of him through the years. I scanned them onto my computer and added mustaches to the pictures with Microsoft paint. (Thank goodness for Google!) I bought frames from the dollar store and spray painted them. I put them on the tables and I hung the extra with clothes pins on string. 
• We ate pulled pork bbq with cole slaw, potato salad, salad, and chips. 
• We had carrot cake for birthday cake, chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese icing, and sugar cookies with icing. 

It was a blast celebrating my hubby's birthday. Everyone looked hilarious with their mustaches on and it was fun just hanging out. Check out some pictures below courtesy of my friend, Whitney! 

It's not a party without Diet Coke. 

Yes. I cut all those staches out. 

Mason jars for cups!

Scott's favorite - carrot cake!

I used vases from our wedding and roses on clearance from Kroger. (Yes you can tell they were a few days old but it was WAY cheaper) 

Along with Diet Coke we had water and sweet tea! 

Some more birthday decorations....My friend, Sarah, and I made these. 

My Microsoft Paint skills

Got him! 

Surprise Birthday Party hugs

Our lovely friends and family! 

Thank you so much to Hudson and Whitney for hosting the party at their house and taking pictures, to my friend, Sarah, for helping me get everything together at the last minute, my mom and dad for making the food,  my mother in law, Judi, and sister in law, Whitney, for helping me setup, and for all our awesome friends and family for coming! You guys rock.

Photo credit: Whitney McGinnis 

gifts from the west

Scott just got back from San Diego yesterday. He was out there for OMED, an osteopathic convention. He had a great time but didn't forget about his wifey on the east coast. He brought back the cutest present! 

 Some lose leaf tea from Teavana, a tea cup that looks like Miss Mia, and a honey spoon.  

 Cutest part, the cup has a tail! 

I have yet to try the tea but I'm so looking forward to it. What I'm looking forward to even more is spending time with Scott this week. He is on block break (His year is divided into four blocks and he gets a week off in between) and I have the rest of the week off!