Our Christmas Cards

I don't normally send out Christmas cards... but this year, I am going to do it. I may mail some of them but the bulk of it will be sent electronically. :)

I wanted so much to send everybody something handmade. However, time just slipped away... [and we are moving!] So I had to get creative. And think quick! I wanted to send everyone a piece I made or put together, [but I thought] it didn't have to be a handmade card either.

Instead of making everyone a card, after I put my white tree together the other night, I decided I would take a million random photos of it and choose two to send out. I have a themed tree each year. One year, I did blue on white. I have done red on white. I have gone multi-colored.



This year, I wanted to do white on white, silver on white and blue on white. All of those together results into this fresh-looking, merry and bright tree! I LOVE IT! I stare at it in the morning when I get up and at night when I light it up.

Here are my cards!

That's my reflection on the ornament. I didn't notice me on there until I uploaded it on flickr. John says it looks intentional. At any day, I would say I intended to put me in there, but honestly, this time I didn't. My eyes are so bad I don't see very good with the view finder at night. So I had no idea I was in it when I took the photo.

In exactly ten minutes, I had a card for every person I know. I am so patting myself on the back right now. LOL And yes, I timed myself! Now if only I could get caught up in everything else. I still have to go get my sister's camera but of course I haven't gone out of town in what feels like forever and that is where it is... I have to pick out a couple furniture pieces for my living room so I can get rid of this squeaky clean but frat house-ish look at the moment. LOL

I tell ya, this has been the busiest we've ever been! This is our fourth house, but we have not been so tired like we are this time. We have less stuff now too, because we have let go of a lot when we bought the other house. And moving in the dead coldest time of fall is nothing new to us, we have always moved at the most inconvenient, coldest, windy-est, stormy-est time of the year. That's just always the way it's been! Thank God for friends who [after a little bit of arm-twisting and bribing] have helped us and moved us every single crazy time. :) 

Speaking of GREAT FRIENDS, I do have treat boxes and cookie tins to fill!!! Gotta dash!

Stay warm friends!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We are getting close to getting all moved in to the new house. We haven't done a lot of moving this week, since Thanksgiving weekend is almost here and I have been in such a great mood and have been cooking and baking a whole lot.

A couple of days ago, we celebrated our Aunt Betty's 88th birthday and I made her a buster bar dessert/cake. I am not a big fan of making those because they take days to make, but I would do anything for Betty and months ago when I asked her what she wanted for her birthday she asked for it, so that's what she got. :)

This week, I thought I would try anything pumpkin. So last night, I made some pumpkin snickerdoodles. It's that huge stack of cookies in the background of the photo above. Grandpa R and Uncle Charlie both love pumpkin and snickerdoodles respectively. Turns out, if you put pumpkin puree and some other spices in snickerdoodles, it takes it to a different level of awesomeness!

Tonight, I made pumpkin cupcakes with vanilla cream cheese frosting. [Photo Above] John and I both tried them at the same time, and also at the same time as we took a bite, we couldn't help but do our happy dance because that stuff is Mmmm... Mmmm... Good!!! It's good with milk, chocolate milk and coffee. Don't ask me how I know... [maybe because I tried them all!]

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. We sure are looking forward to ours!!! :)

We Are Moving... Again!

Two years after we purchased our yellow house, John and I got a text from his parents saying that their house is ours if we wanted it... I wish I could've taken a picture of our faces. We were in different places when we got the text messages... But I am pretty sure, we had the same expression on our faces and I am sure we said the same thing, "WHAT?!" 

Apparently, they have been discussing this a while with Aunt Betty. Guess it finally made sense and they finally all admitted to each other that there was no way they will be able to go through selling the house to a total stranger. So they took it off the market, discussed the details, gave us the keys, and said, "Knock yourselves out, kids! You deserve it!"

So here we go again... Packing our bags... Loading my whole kitchen in an itty bitty car... Moving... Again! There is not much to change in this house other than it needs fresh paint. I have managed to move my kitchen by myself, a few trips at a time. I was itching to cook in this kitchen to get rid of that empty house smell. I hate that! The house has been on the market for about a year, and it has been sitting empty for about 9 months... So I have been baking and cooking and have had all my tart warmers going for about 2 weeks now [in this kitchen] and it is now smelling like people actually live in it. [picture of the kitchen above]

I don't have pictures to share yet, but I should be able to post some soon. John's schedule has been so tight because of marching band season, he has not been able to do anything but eat what's being cooked in that kitchen. LOL And the MIL and I have been busy with our 87-year-old Aunt Betty keeping her on track with doctor visits and the other things she needs done. Old age and Alzheimer's aren't being nice to her these days so we make sure that we help her remember important dates and make sure she takes her meds on time at the right time. So other than my kitchen, nothing much has been moved at this point. 

There is really no hurry. The only thing is, the sooner we put our current home on the market, the sooner it will sell. :) And the sooner we take out unnecessary furniture out of it, the sooner we can clean the whole house up and prep it for stage-ing to get it ready to show. 

I'm not too worried about the house we are moving into. It is move in ready. Funny thing is, almost all our furniture came from that house, so I know I will have no trouble getting them back in there. In a year or so, I know John will find something he will want to re-do. :) My husband never sits down, and he is never content. He is always out there looking for a good DIY challenge. 

So, til the next post, folks!!! 

Reward and Punishment... and What's Brewin' Around Here

John and I are Skinnerian's. We believe in Reward and Punishment. :) It is easy and it mostly works done the right way.

I don't know how many weeks ago it's been but John's drumline did a really awesome job at a competition they didn't think they could win. These kids have worked so hard and have put in so much time rehearsing and memorizing their parts that I knew when I found out that their section had gotten first place, I knew I had to come up with some kind of reward... And here it is:

I made them a chocolate french silk cake.... Made it out of my favorite Lindt Smooth Dark Chocolate and Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate and fresh whipped cream. I am not a big fan of Cool whip, but you could very well use it to make this cake. :)

I can't promise I could share the recipe because I have totally had to eye ball everything because I had to use the biggest spring form pan I have so I could feed all 16 kids [that includes John and John, the directors] Yes, their names are John. 

We are getting ready to do some major overhaul in our house, so you may not see me here very often like you haven't been the past how many weeks. We are getting ready to put our house on the market and move into a better house [read: house with a big kitchen]. So we got to get our house sold fast because the faster it sells the faster we could move in to the new house and play. 

We have been anticipating this in the past year, but it is just recently that we and the family have made the decision about this. This is going to be a very slow process. This is the 4th house John and I will be moving into since I got here. So we know how stressful moving is. We know better than rushing into things and moving everything all at once in one weekend. :) We are just really thankful for friends and family who have been patient and moved us in and out of all the house we have lived in. 

I will see you all very soon. We may be posting updates here and there when we get a chance. :) Our new home doesn't need much but a fresh coat of paint. And we are so looking forward to not having a house payment, not to think about major remodels and all that goes with it all. LOL $0 house payment alone makes it a much better deal. :)

Living Room Update

Remember this? 

It looks like this [check out the pic below] now. I still haven't done anything about my photo wall art, but I did change up my end tables, and I like these two Broyhill ones. They are not really new, I have had them forever with a different living room set we used to have. I went ninja on them and ran John's Dremel tool on them to sand them a bit and picked up some Rustoleum paints and I have two mismatched end tables like I always wanted! Ignore the Sterilite things underneath my end tables. I was trying to get an idea what size basket I am gonna get so I put them there. But they are not staying. 

I am also scouring the internet for new lamps. :) I am thinking about moving those two in my bedroom. I have such big plans for them in there. The cornice/valance was a great DIY project. It was easy, inexpensive and totally totally dressed my windows up. The fabric, I got from fabric.com for $5.98/yard I only used a yard. John built the frame with an 8 foot 1 x 6 piece of pine for $6. I ran self-adhesive velcro all the way across the frame so if I do get sick of my curtains and the valance or when it's time to wash them, I can just take them down and put a new set up without having to pull staples out!!! Clever huh! 

The silk drapes I totally didn't pay for. : ) They were from my Mom-In-Law. She has very good taste in window treatments. Can you tell? The thermal roman shades, they are JC Penny but I didn't buy them from JCP because I didn't want to pay $39/piece. I got them from ebay. Lucky me, someone bought too many of them and the person listed them on ebay when I was looking for them! I got both shades for $20 + Zero shipping.

It took me about three weeks to get all the stuff in the mail, but it sure all was worth the wait. It is still not over yet but it is getting there. I have been blessed with a 25-foot living room, there is still this big long wall to dress up and a drop ceiling we are wanting to address. We had someone come and look at it so we can know how much it would cost to get rid of it and we should get an answer very soon. The drop ceiling is nothing urgent at the moment, but we just wanna know so we can plan on it.

All this for the love of older homes and their character and history. : )

Be Nice

Here's a thought we would like to share with you today. We try to live by this every chance we get. :)







Hope your weekend was wonderful!!!

This is What's Bubbling in my Kitchen Tonight

Well, here it is. I made chili. I am not the chili maker in this house, John is. And he makes a mean chili. But this girl was too hungry to wait until 4 [when he gets home] so I went to the store got the makings and voila!!! I got chili. We got chili. :)

John will just have to suck it up and eat the stuff because it is made. Not that it is any different from what he makes... I know what he puts in his chili, I just put a little bit more kick to it than he would want. John isn't one of those people that like spicy stuff, but I do. I love my food to kick me right in the nose the second it touches my mouth. This chili though isn't too spicy. I just put a tad bit more of chili powder in the mixture and a few other wonderful things. 

I would love to share the recipe but this is my husband's, and he has been trying to perfect it for 2 years now. So unless he says I could share it, I won't be posting it. :) But feast your eyes on this masterpiece. I am eating from that same mini crock as of this writing. It is Mmmmm... Mmmmm... Mmmmm... good!

Hope you all have a wonderful dinner!!! :)