Overwhelmed.

Christmas has overwhelmed me this year, I've never felt as woefully unprepared as I do this year. I do a lot of homemade goodies, and there just isn't enough time this year to do all I want. I luckily made just enough Limoncello to give to family - there is not even enough left over for us! But they sure do look cute, huh?



It was a jam-packed weekend. Made a HUUUUUUUGE dent in our Christmas shopping (and our checking account - eek). We're down to just two more things we need to buy.

I have two - count em, TWO- holiday decorations up (one that I got from our "Dirty Santa" exchange at work). I feel like a major failure. No lights, even though I really wanted outside lights this year. :( Sigh. The mailman, our favorite neighbors and friends will NOT be getting any cookies. Sorry. I've wrapped exactly ONE gift.

But here is the good stuff - I will get to see SO much family! Going up to Ohio to see all my peeps, then two Christmases with Josh's peeps when we get home (one that we are hosting). I'm so excited to see my brother-in-law and sister-in-law who are coming in from Colorado. And you know what? The only person who is going to know how unprepared I am is me. So I better just get over it!

In addition to my whirlwind shopping weekend, I got my "hairs did".



(my face looks so skinny here. I'd be lying if I said I didn't love it!)

My hairdresser really helped to thin it out with layers (my hair is ridiculously thick and there is a lot of it), but it is still plenty long. So long in fact, that I had to stand up when she trimmed the back of it. Josh absolutely loves it and had to snap this pic of me with a dog butt in my lap last night.



Also, I needed a new coat badly, so I was thrilled to find this one at TJ Maxx that makes me look and feel super skinny.... for 24 bucks. Small price to pay for such a big ego boost, haha!



Wishing everyone in blogland very happy holidays!!!

What's been going on...

In no particular order:

This guy had a birthday:


My dogs are still cute (our Christmas card this year is similar to this):


We had a Halloween party:




I attended a cookie exchange:


My neighbors got a puppy (they say it's a chihuahua/terrier mix - who wants to break it to them that that dog is a boxer?):


I co-hosted a baby shower:














As you can see, it was bee-themed, as we don't know what baby will "bee" yet (though most of us are betting it's a boy)! We'll find out on December 29th!

Josh is overwhelmed with school and finals for this semester (after Friday he has about 2-3 weeks off, Hallelujah).

I feel overwhelmed by life in general. I am slacking in every area (not just blogging), even the ones I enjoy most (cooking, reading). I'm 2-3 months behind in my magazines, even - and you don't even want to look at my DVR... there aren't enough hours to watch it all!

In somewhat-uplifting news (?) I have been having increasingly intolerable stomach issues since July, and I may have finally found the cause! After more Pepto-Bismol than I want to recall, countless doctor's appointments (and three doctors who all seemed to really love prodding my stomach with their jabby fingers and making it worse), and several tests of all sorts... it's been determined I have a hernia. I am on a few different medications now, and my problems are much less severe. I've only had really bad pain from it maybe two or three times since my diagnosis. I don't know if that means the meds are working or if it's the side effect of not being hungry (and therefore not eating much to aggravate it) that is doing the trick. In any case, I'll take it. Plus I've lost about 9 lbs and that is a nice bonus. I deserve it after all those co-pays! ;)

Hope everyone is well in blog-land. I'm hopelessly behind on Christmas and everything that goes with it, and in 9 days we'll be starting our celebrations, so maybe I need to get with the program??

Halloween... Part 1. (Better late than never?)

We had a party, and I will post about that later, but first here are some decor details.



When I was snapping photos of the outside of the house, I noticed one little guy fell from his perch. Oops.



He was originally on the door...















Halloween is probably my favorite holiday, and once again it didn't even come close to looking like I had envisioned (nor did I even get it all done), but like I tend to say.... "There's always next year!"

Gardening with Pablo

Yesterday, Farmer Bleat (AKA Pablo, Pablito, Bleat-Bleat) and I went out to the garden. It's past it's prime (and was pretty neglected this year, I am not going to lie), but I thought our withered peppers with their crinkled leaves still held a certain amount of beauty.



Don't you agree?

Farmer Bleat decided to test them out:



See all that feathery-ferny stuff? That's asparagus. For the first two years you let it grow up like that (only cutting it back around Feb-March) and don't eat it. It makes the root system stronger. Next year we actually get to cut it and eat it!

Pablo was overjoyed that I found one last (unripe) grape tomato hanging out. I only got to pick a few this year because he ate them all. I'm sure I'll grow them again next year just for his enjoyment! I get a kick out of seeing him picking them off the vine himself.

"Please, Ma?"



"THANK YOU!"

New Bedding!

Remember the day Missoni broke the internet, caused catfights in Target stores, and got all their inventory wiped out in about 4 hours? Yeah, that day.

It was was weird, because I had somehow gotten wind of some of the stuff they were going to have and I liked so much of it - I never get excited about these kinds of things or really even pay attention, to be honest. I even made a post about it here.

I had no idea everyone else in the world was counting down the days for it to arrive, too, and that there was going to be so much hysteria. Well, needless to say, it's near impossible to find much of anything left of it in Target, all these weeks later. But last week, I spied this duvet set.



At the time, it never crossed my mind to buy it, only that I liked it and that it would probably be gone in a flash.

For some reason though, I couldn't get it out of my head. I loved it. All the colors, specifically that cantaloupe color that is in it (I'm feeling a real affinity for that color and also deep peacock these days). I especially like that the pattern is so small that it reads more "stripey" than "chevron". My lord, I am sick of the chevron madness. I don't even like the word. But by George, I wanted that duvet set. I made up my mind that even though I didn't really NEED it, if it was still there this past weekend, it was supposed to be mine. And it was. So now I have it.

I don't know where we're going to put it, to be honest. We may save it for the next house, or I may feel like redecorating one of the bedrooms come spring. All I know is I love it, and I am glad I made the decision to make it mine!

Ladies' Lunch

A few weeks ago, I selected a small handful of neighborhood ladies that I don't know very well to come over for lunch. A couple of them cancelled at the last minute and there ended up just being four of us. It turned out better than I hoped... The smaller group was really fun and we were able to dig deep and have real conversations instead of surface chit-chat, which probably would have happened otherwise. It was a great afternoon and we had a good time eating, drinking, being merry and moving from  dining table to porch to enjoy the day.

Speaking of dining tables, mine is functioning as a desk for a certain nursing student/husband these days, so this was the last time I got to see it look pretty. Let me bask in it for just a moment.



I put a jar of peach and ginger jam at everyone's seat:



And here are the lovely ladies... you can tell how sweet and fun they are just by looking at them, I think.



I was so grateful to get to know them a little better and I look forward to getting to know even more of my neighborhood gals on a more-than-surface level soon!

On the menu was:
Pineapple/strawberry/limeade punch with strawberry vodka
salad with blue cheese, cranberries and balsamic vinaigrette
vegetable pizza (croissaint crust with cream cheese/ranch spread a topped with cheese and veggies, served cold)
Penne with  roasted butternut squash and goat cheese
roasted veggies
sausage balls (brought by one of the guests, who is the perfect gracious southern lady from her sausage balls to her thank-you notes... She's one of a kind! Love it!)
And two desserts: Chocolate chip pie and Gooey Butter Pumpkin Cakes.

It's safe to say no one left hungry!

I'm terrible!

Obviously I am very bad at blogging these days.

Here we are 2/3 through October - my favorite month of the year, and I don't feel as though I've even had a chance to enjoy it! We have a Halloween party coming up, which I feel completely unprepared for. Our decorations aren't even completely up yet. I'm trying to just roll with it all.

Last weekend, we carved pumpkins at my mother-in-law's. Here are some pictures, it's all I have to offer right now. Haha.



My brother-in-law and sister-in-law moved to CO, so this is how we get a family picture these days. Thank you, Skype! Our connection wasn't that great, but it was fun anyway.



Here are our pumpkins:



I look like absolute death warmed over, felt like it, too. Still do. The show must go on!

Hope everyone is doing well, I have 2 weeks worth of blog posts to read. Oops!

I'm making myself do this, starting today.

I found this little gem on Pinterest, and starting today I am going to make myself do this every day that I don't go to the gym or yoga. I'm not a runner, by any means, but I figure I can amend that to hopping on my Gazelle for 10 minutes - much easier on my knees!

Yes, I'm very bad at blogging lately. Thought I would do better once I got my camera, but no. I'm using it a lot, definitely, but I'm not so good at getting them uploaded to the computer. So keep expecting more iphone photos in future posts. ;)

Have a happy week!

All I want for Christmas is....

New covers for my couch and ottoman, in this color (this is the same couch and ottoman we have):

The dark brown we have was a bad idea... I feel like it sucks the light out of the area of the living room it is in, not to mention it shows (and thanks to the large, rough, weave of the fabric, traps) every single dog hair in a 20-ft radius.


Taking the stuff apart to change out covers will be a pain, but at least it won't be slouchy-looking like a throw-over slip cover. And not having to keep a blanket over the couch to keep all the dog hair off will be a welcome treat.

Come on, Santa... Please?

What's going on...

I've been a very bad blogger as of late. Not much to report, just a couple of little things, but here goes.

We'll start with the big thing. Big to me, anyway. I got a camera!

It's a Lumix FZ40 and I am in love with it. I have only had two digital cameras in my life. The first was a 2 megapixel point and shoot that I got around 2004. It finally died in 2009. Josh bought me another point and shoot in 2009 and it died within about 6-8 months. So I've been without a camera for a year and a half. I do love all the things I can do with my iphone, but I really needed a REAL camera. Granted, this is still a point and shoot, but it's stellar. There's a lot of manual modes I can use, too, but it is going to take me a while to master them. The lens is fantastic and so is the zoom... It is great in low-light, too, which is good because I am not a big fan of using flash unless I have to!

Here are two photos I have taken with it.





I did edit those in picnik for my own personal jollies, but you get the idea. Here is another one, but it's not good quality, because I snapped a pic with my iphone of the back camera display and then edited it through instagram (on my phone). It's just such a cute picture, though.



In other news, I tried to copy an idea I saw on pinterest, and I don't know if I am exactly thrilled with the results.



Could be worse, though, I guess.

Ooh, I created a facebook group to get to know my neighborhood ladies better. I added about 10 or 11 people to it and by the end of the first day we had over 50. One of my neighborhood friends graciously offered to host our first "official" gathering at her house. We had a potluck brunch and a total of about 22-25 ladies! I even got to meet a fellow neighbor-blogger, Jane! Just adore her and I am so grateful to have such great folks in my neighborhood. This is just a fraction of the food we had.



Getting to try one of everything was impossible, of course because there was so much! I look forward to our future gatherings.

Speaking of food, this has been our weekend breakfast for the last couple of weeks.



Butter a muffin pan, melt butter and syrup together and brush on both sides of flattened bread and put into muffin cup. Add some (mostly) cooked bacon (it will continue to cook when it bakes), crack an egg in it, top with cheese if you want, and bake it for about 20-25 minutes. Yum!

Time to catch up on blog reading - hope everyone is well!

Anniversary!

Josh and I celebrated our first anniversary last Sunday (September 4th) and it was a lot of fun. We decided to relive our first two dates to celebrate. On our first date (our first time meeting in person) we met for coffee. On our second date (2 or 3 weeks after the first) we had dinner, and then he came over to my house and we watched True Blood. Romantic, aren't we?

We started off Sunday morning by opening our cards and gifts. My gift for Josh arrived beautifully packaged (from here).



This is what was inside.



The inscription refers to one of "our" songs, "You Are The Best Thing" by Ray Lamontagne. He gasped when opened it. He loves it, and it now lives on his nightstand.

He wrote such sweet things in the card he gave me that I cried. And my gifts were just as great. A vintage map bookmark with Tybee Island and Savannah on it (where we got married/honeymooned).



And a wine bottle stopper (like cloth napkins and napkin rings, fun wine stoppers are something I cannot get enough of) with Nashville on it, including the little town where we reside.



Both are from this etsy seller. I have a "thing" for maps (I collect globes) so I foresee having many more things from here on my  future wishlists!

Later in the day, we got dressed and headed out to Batter'd and fried for dinner. I apologize for the poor lighting, it was a weekend of dreary weather!









I had the fried scallop sushi roll (two of them, actually) and they are really the best thing I've ever eaten. First you taste the scallop, of course, then the cilantro and avocado hit you and it finishes off with a note of spicy sriracha. It the perfect blend of flavors.



I could not eat it all and I regretted that I couldn't because I knew I'd be craving it again within 24 hours, and I was right!

After dinner, we went to the coffee shop where we met.



He insists this is the table we sat at on our first date:



I had the Mochahontas (a hot mocha with vanilla and cinnamon) and he had the Indian Latte. Unfortunately, he said his tasted like a cough drop.



We then went home and ended our evening with two episodes of True Blood, our wedding cake, and some laundry that needed folding. ;) Ah, married life!

However, I have to say our cake was great - you could not even tell it had been frozen. It was still as moist and delicious as it had been on our wedding day. It was poundcake with buttercream icing, and pound cake freezes well, so I am sure that had something to do with it.



Great day! Can't wait for the next one!