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!

Autumn

I love this time of the year. I love the weather getting cooler and being able to turn on the heater. I love being able to sit in front of the fire place with Buck and watch movies. I love the leaves changing colors. I LOVE pumpkins. I love to watch Alabama football on Saturdays. I love wearing old comfy sweatshirts around the house. I love my down comforter. I love the colors orange, brown, eggplant, mustard and red. I love giving out candy to all of the kids that trick-or-treat down my street. I love throwing a Halloween party every year with my friends. Basically, I love, love, love absolutely anything to do with this season!

my mantle in my den

my centerpiece on the kitchen table

my centerpiece up close and personal

Hunter's Skateboard Cake

I did manage to find a couple of ideas about how to make a skateboard cake for my nephew. (Seriously, I don't know what I would do without google!) Here is what I came up with.

The cake is just basic white cake. I baked the cake in a rectangle pan and a circle pan. Then I cut the circle in half and put each half on the ends of the rectangle cake to make the skateboard shape. I did a layer of butter cream icing on the cake to help smooth it out and connect all the sections of the cake. Then I covered the whole cake in a layer of fondant. The designs on the cake were all cut out of fondant. Some (like the cougar paw) were as simple as using a cookie cutter. Others (like the Alabama "A" and the skateboarding brands) I had to draw on paper and use it as a template to cut them out of the fondant. I made the wheels and axles out of pirouette sticks and chocolate donuts. I covered the board that the cake is on with a thin layer of icing and put crushed up oreos and chocolate sprinkles on it so that it would like like pavement.

All in all, I think it turned out really cute and I am very proud of it!