New Years Eve!

It is almost a new year. I have so much to do around the house but I have had a nasty cold for the past few days and just can not muster up the energy to take down the Christmas decorations. I think I am going to wait until the weekend and just work for two days straight on taking down Christmas and cleaning. We have decided to stay at home for New Years Eve and I am actually excited about that. I am just not in the mood to get all dressed up and hang out with loud music and loud people. We are just going to hang out here watch movies and stuff. I am going to work on my to do lists and get organized mentally for what all I need to get done before heading back to work on Monday.

I'm in mourning...

Last night we were getting ready to go to a friend's birthday dinner at the Mexican restaurant here in town. I was tossing my phone onto the bed (like I have done a billion times) and it apparently didn't get far enough up on the bed and it hit the floor. It must of hit just right in the corner because my screen is busted. I had a sick love affair with my phone and I am seriously distraught over this. I am going to be without a phone for a few days and then I have to pick up a cheap phone to use until my new phone comes in. The one good thing that comes out of this is I now get to order this:

Merry Christmas!

Christmas rush!

I only have to work today and half a day tomorrow and then I am off for FIVE WHOLE DAYS! Although I am off from work, I don't actually get to lay around and rest. After I get off work today I have to head to Tuscaloosa with Buck to finish up his Christmas shopping. He always waits until the last possible minute to finish his shopping. Tomorrow after I get off at lunch I have to run a few errands and then Buck, my brother and myself are headed to my dad's for our Christmas supper with him. Wednesday is Christmas eve and we always spend most of the day with my mom and stepdad. Then Christmas day we spend the day with my husband's family. Basically the next few days will be a blur of presents, ham, turkey, dressing, etc!

Christmas Candy

Two posts in one day! I had to make Christmas candy tonight even though I am exhausted. We always send candy to the Stockyard where my husband works. I send little packages to each family and then to the single men. I was a little lazy this year though because I only made one kind of candy. I usually make peppermint bark and fudge but this year I only made the peppermint bark. I used some Martha Stewart packages this year for my candy. They turned out really cute!

I survived...barely!

We made it through our family Christmas on my mom's side. It is probably the biggest gathering that we have every year and it also is the first of every season and kicks off about two weeks of marathon Christmas parties!

I did decide to do a wreath in my guest bathroom. I made it using travel sized shampoo, conditioner, soaps, etc and decided to keep it all green with green Christmas balls and ribbon. I think it turned out pretty cute.

Time flies!

It has been a few days since I last posted but I have been so busy around the house and at work. My mom's side of the family's Christmas is this Sunday. She and my aunt (mom's sister) take turns hosting and since it is mom's turn to host and they are still in the trailer while waiting to build their house, we are actually having it at my house. I will have approximately 33 people at my house on Sunday. Nine of those are under 10 years old! It is always crazy and hectic but so much fun!

I have finished all of my inside Christmas decorating except for the guest bathroom. I can't quite decide what I want to do in there. I have seen a few pictures where they hang wreaths on the inside of the house over a window and I really like that idea. It is simple but still pretty. I may work on a wreath for that tonight. Buck and I worked on the front porch last night and I am almost finished with it. I just have to finish the wreath that hangs on a double window on my porch (like the fall one in the pictures of the fall decor). I started on it last night and have everything planned out and put where I want it so tonight I just have to glue everything in. I also have to buy some garland to hang around the door when I go shopping tomorrow. I had garland previously but I changed all of my decor that had lights from color lights to white lights.

I am hoping to finish those projects and get most of the house cleaned tonight. I am not doing floors (sweeping, moping, etc) until Saturday because the weather has been wet and nasty and with a husband and two dogs, I would just have to do it twice. I can at least get the bathrooms cleaned, rugs washed and everything dusted tonight so I can begin baking when I get finished shopping tomorrow.

I am working on my lists now for everything to be finished by tomorrow and then my list for shopping so maybe I can stay on track and not be rushed! If all goes as planned then Saturday should be just simply finishing up food items and setting up all the tables and chairs and all the little things like that.

I hope to finish up a couple rooms and take some pictures tonight so I will post more when I get another break!

SEC Championship Game

Tonight was the SEC Championship game between Alabama and Florida. We got beat but I am still really proud of the way our team played this year and of the way they held their heads up even while we were criticized for being put at the number one spot. No one thought we deserved it, but I think after holding our own in the game against Florida, we proved we are a good team that is only going to get better! I can't wait until the Sugar Bowl and of course until next year!!! Roll Tide!

Kurdt

I already showed a picture of Kurdt's stocking so here are some pictures of his ornaments! I don't want him to feel left out! I have his new one for this year but I still have to paint his name on it.

Fa la la la la!

These are some of the individual ornaments from the tree in our den. We have a total of 110 ornaments on there this year. Yes, I counted the ornaments as I put them on the tree. Why? Because apparently I am that big of a dork!

This is our cowboy snowman. Isn't he a cutie!

This is our summer time Santa. Buck and I got him on our

first trip to the beach together!

This is a cowbell. These were the favors at our wedding last year and I kept one and made it into an ornament.
These are just some of the colored ball ornaments on the tree. Last year I retired all the ones that we had that were hand-me-downs and bought all new on Black Friday. I have pink, green, blue and red. I love the new vibrant colors vs. the older traditional colors.
This is probably one of my favorites! My mom bought it for me several years ago.

How do I love my husband...let me count the ways...

Sometimes my husband can drive me completely insane. It seems that every time he is about to drive me crazy he does something really sweet and I instantly forgive him for everything he has ever done. Today we had our Christmas Open House at the flower shop and a friend of my mom's came in with a really cute purse. It looked almost just like the one I had been wanting from Fossil. Only thing is, the one from Fossil cost over $300 and being as we are like the rest of America and broke I knew that purse was out of the question. But anyway, she said there was another one just like it left at the store and it was waaaaaaaaay cheaper than the Fossil purse AND 20% off! Well since the hubby was up there with us at the Open House I told him he should go get it because it would make a really nice Christmas gift for me. Of course he said no and so I decided since the price was so good that I would just go get it for myself later when I got off. After the Open House, my mom and I closed up and got in the car and headed up there. When we went in mom started looking around and I went straight for the purses. It was gone. The girl at the counter told me they had just sold it. I was so upset and mad that Buck didn't go get it. Well after shopping around for a while I headed home and had to run in and change because we were supposed to head to his sister's house for a late Thanksgiving dinner. When I got to the bedroom (after storming through the house and not speaking to the hubby!) this brown bag was on the bed and the purse was inside it! Some how he had snuck out of the shop and gone and bought it and had it waiting for me at home. Of course he didn't make me wait until Christmas to start using it. I absolutely love it (and him)!!!

Isn't it pretty?!?!?!?!

Roll Tide!!!!

Yesterday I worked at the flower shop all day helping prepare bouquets, corsages and boutonnieres for a wedding. Today we had to take all of the flowers and decorate the church. But this afternoon was the Iron Bowl!!!!! It was an awesome game and I am so glad we won! Not only did we win but we totally shut out Auburn! Roll Tide Roll!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today we went to Buck's grandmother's house for lunch. She always has a huge crowd. Then we traveled to my uncle's house to have supper with he and my new aunt and her two sons, my mom, stepdad, stepbrother and his wife and new baby and my brother. We had way too much to eat today but had a really nice day with family!

These are a few of my favorite things!

These are some close up shots of the Christmas decor on our mantle. This ornament was given to me by my mother several years ago. It is one of my favorite pieces to put out at Christmas.

These are our stockings. I love the colors. Mine is the white/pink one and Buck's is the red/brown one. I found them at Old Navy a few years back. The cute one in the shape of a paw is Kurdt's stocking! (Yes, Santa brings presents to canines too!)

Oh Christmas Tree!

Here is our Christmas tree that is in the den. This is my favorite tree because it holds all of mine and Buck's ornaments that we have collected from when we were children on up until we were married. We add a new ornament each year for each of us and for Kurdt, our dog. I put a bow at the top of the tree and like change the ribbon just about every year. The colors in our den are all shades of brown and then accented with a turquoise blue color. The close up picture shows the ribbon I used this year. This is my favorite room because of our fireplace. I love snuggling on the couch and watching TV (which is hidden in the armoire) and lighting up the gas logs in our fireplace. There is nothing more relaxing!

More Autumn Decor!

Now that is it time to take down my fall decorations and get ready for Christmas, I finally took some pictures of my front porch. This is my front door (that no one ever uses). As you can see my door is painted orange and the house is stained a dark brown. I hung a leaf garland with amber lights around the door frame. The "W" stays on the door year round. The pumpkins beside the door are an idea I got from Southern Living magazine. They were actually super easy to make and they have Christmas lights in them so at night they are really cute.

These are my rockers that sit to the right of the front door. The wreath on the windows is actually from our wedding last October. I love the colors and leaves and feathers. The candles sticks were given to me by a cousin and I love how they look with the chairs.

Baby Shower

I helped co-host a baby shower for a friend of mine yesterday. It turned out so cute! We did a brunch shower so we did breakfast foods. We had breakfast/hashbrown casserole, pumpkin spice muffins with a cream cheese filling, grape salad, cheese straws, sausage balls and of course cupcakes for dessert. I made the cupcakes and just did simple fondant decorations for the tops. I think they turned out pretty cute. She is having a little boy, so we did the color scheme to match the nursery which was blue and brown. Here are a few pictures of the food table, the sign in area and of all her wonderful gifts!

Gone With the Wind...Christmas style!

I thought I would show this tree first. I collect Gone With the Wind memorabilia. I love the movie and I love Scarlett O'Hara. But then again, what girl raised in the South doesn't dream of being Miss Katie Scarlett? I have been collecting GWTW ornaments for a long as I can remember and this year decided that I wanted to move them from the main tree in our den to a tree of their very own. I put it up in the guestroom for two reasons. One, I have my GWTW movie poster hung in there and all of my collectibles are in the armoire you see in the picture below. Two, this room is closed off so I don't have to worry about the dogs or small hands getting to close to the tree and breaking any of the ornaments! I counted as I was hanging and currently I have 46 ornaments. I went with the gold shear bow on top because any color ribbon I tried to use took away from the pretty colors in the ornaments.

Busy as usual!

I haven't been able to post for a few days because I have been busy at work and then I actually worked through the weekend and was in Court on Monday, Tuesday and half a day today! It is always hectic when I have Court coming up so I usually stay stressed out during the week and weekend before. I got a good bit of my Christmas decorating done in that time though so I am going to post pictures of the house and some of my trees tomorrow.

Christmas time's a coming!

Well Halloween is behind us and now I am ready to start putting out my Christmas decorations. I have a baby shower that I am co-hosting coming up at the end of November and I would really like to have my house decorated for Christmas before the shower. Yesterday I packed up all the Fall and Halloween decorations from inside the house. I decided to leave the outside Fall decor up until after Thanksgiving. I don't want my neighbors to think I am completely crazy! I got all of those boxes back in the storage shed and started pulling out my Christmas boxes. I love getting everything out and looking through it. Sometimes I forget about things that I have. I am also going to add two more trees to my decorating this year so I seriously have to get a jump on things!

Halloween 2008

I spent most of last week getting ready for our Halloween party. I got the house all cleaned up on the inside and Saturday morning Rebecca (my sister-in-law) and I cleaned up the yard and cut the grass, blew off the porches, etc. Then I got the food ready and got into my costume. Here is a picture of me as Elvira and Buck (my husband). He doesn't "do" costumes.

We had a good turn out. There were several people that didn't get to make it but we still had a pretty good time. We had a few people in costumes and they were so cute. Overall I think everyone had a good time.

One year! Yay!

We made it to and through our one year mark! It seems like time just flew by this past year. To celebrate we went on a date Saturday night and ended up staying for the night. It was nice to have a night to ourselves without any interuptions. Sometimes we get so caught up in our daily routines that we forget to take time for each other and just enjoy being husband and wife. All in all it was a pretty good year and I am looking forward to many more!

Gratitude

Five things I am grateful for today...

1. my husband because he can make me laugh even when I feel like crying
2. my doggies because they always love me unconditionally
3. my mom because she is my best friend
4. my home and the fact that it is currently heated!
5. my ability to laugh at myself

Cupcakes!

Here are some pictures of some cupcakes I did tonight to take to work tomorrow. I had some leftover chocolate mousse buttercream so I decided to bake some devils food cake cupcakes and just play around with some of my cutters and some fondant. I did some Fall inspired and then a few with pink and brown and the breast cancer ribbon on them.

Our First Wedding Anniversary

My one year wedding anniversary is coming up on October 27, 2008. We have been husband and wife for one whole year! It is funny because I feel as though we have been married forever. That may be because, although we have only been married for a year, we have actually been dating for ten years. Nothing like taking it slow and making sure you are with the right one before marriage, right? Anyway, I have been trying to think of something to do for our anniversary. I really wanted us to stick with the traditional list and come up with something creative. Well I finally figured it out!

My husband is a Nirvana/Kurt Cobain fanatic. I have over the years bought him various gifts, such as CD's, posters, t-shirts and even a certified autographed CD cover insert signed by Kurt Cobain himself. For his birthday one year I got on ebay and found every CD put out by Nirvana. I ordered them all so he would have one complete set of their CD's that were still in their packaging.

Today I was thinking about our anniversary again since we are just a week away. The one year gift is paper. Well of course I am pretty sure my husband will probably give me money or a card. He is not so good at the gift giving. He would rather give me money and let me go shopping and pick out something I really like. But, I digress. I mean, sure, he could surprise me with a present, but I'm not exactly holding my breath. As I was searching around on ebay, I finally figured out how to buy him something he would love and also stick with the traditional one year anniversary gift.

I have bid on and won three magazines from the year Kurt Cobain died. They all have Kurt Cobain on the cover and several pictures and articles about him inside. I also found a painting of Kurt. All four items fall in the paper category and they will be something he will truly love. I can not wait for them to come in. I just hope they make it here before next Monday!

I love this season!

I thought I would post a few more pictures of my fall decorations. I like to take pictures of each season so I can remember what I did last year. Some things I like to keep the same from year to year but others I like to change up! Here is my dining room. We never use this room so I put the small bistro table in here. The black buffet is a piece that was given to my step-dad and his brothers and sisters when their mother passed away which in turn was given to me. It was a brown color and I repainted it and put new hardware on it. It currently houses my china since I don't have a china cabinet. I would like for it one day to be in a baby nursery to use as a changing table (that is, if I have a china cabinet by then).

I love my fall runner. I found this on sale at Dillards when they were going out of business. It was originally around $35 and I got it for $3! I love bargins like that. I just used one of my silver serving trays to put some pumpkins and small gords on. On the table I used a trifle type dish and just layered dried beans and lentils around a pillar candle for a centerpiece.

Busy!

Well the cookies turned out great. The cookie icing...not so much. I couldn't get the right consistency. Mom gave me a few pointers and I might try it again later. I will have to bake a new batch of cookies though because the hubby has just about finished off the ones I baked Saturday. I did get some cupcakes made and the icing put on them. I made spice cup cakes and cream cheese icing.

We went to my husband's step-sister's wedding on Saturday. We had fun but we stayed out way to late for me. Sunday we were pretty lazy and just layed around and watched movies all day. All in all it was not a very productive weekend!

Today I have mountains of stuff to do on my desk but just can't seem to get motivated. I seriously hate days like this. I am not normally a lazy person but there are some days I wish I could just stay at home and lock the doors! When I get off work I have to run a few errands and then I am headed to home to pick up the house, wash clothes and pay bills! Doesn't that sound exciting?!?!?

My husband and I will also be celebrating our one year wedding anniversary on October 27th. I am wanting to do something to surprise him but I am coming up short on ideas. I am hoping to brainstorm on that tonight. I am also going to be working on my task lists for three parties I have planned in October and November. I am hosting our annual Halloween party on November 1st, a house warming party for my sister-in-law on November 9th and co-hosting a baby shower for one of my best friends on November 22nd! Needless to say, I am going to be super busy for the next couple of weeks.

Day Off

For the past several weeks, Saturdays have mostly been consumed with watching Alabama football. They have an off week today and I am not quite sure what to do with myself! I have a couple of recipes I have been wanting to test out. I will more than likely spend the rest of the afternoon in the kitchen.

My husband works at a stockyard and several of the people he works with have children. I always send some kind of goodies with him to work on holidays for the kids. I thought for Halloween this year I would bake something instead of the containers full of candy like I usually do. My mom bought me some cute Halloween cookie cutters because she knows how much I love Halloween. I think this afternoon I am going to test them out by making some sugar cookies and using the poured icing recipe that I have been wanting to make. If they are easy enough I will probably make them for the kids and wrap them up for the kids treats.

My newest creation!

This week I had to make a baby shower cake. She really liked the one I had done before with the cute fondant baby on top. I changed the colors of the borders. I did this one in two shades of blue. This one was pretty easy to do because I have already done it one time before. I had a lot of fun making it!