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Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts

January 4, 2015

Fashionably Late for 2015

Well hello! Happy 2015! I hope everyone had a Merry Holiday and a wonderful start to the New Year.

It's been a crazy couple of months but we've rounded out the Holidays with several days of much needed rest (i.e. being completely lazy) and I feel like my batteries are recharged and I'm ready to take on 2015.

Here's what we've been up to in the mean time:


We made our annual trip to Paul Michael's - where along with new Christmas baubles, we rode a giant rooster. 


 
 Paul Michael Company is where I also inherited these sweet foxes. Since EH won't budge on a second dog, I suppose I'll just have to pretend. 

December was full of Christmas Parties which are always good and fun but the pinnacle of events was seeing Garth Brooks live. A concert where I had so much fun that I both teared up, got in trouble by Security for dancing in the aisle, and danced and sang my little heart out until I lost my voice. Hence the lack of pictures!


Jury is out still if my hair was oddly lumpy up top or if someone was standing behind me but regardless - I wore a sequin maxi skirt, danced and sang my heart out and had the time of my life. Hair style be damned!

Gearing up for the Holidays, I rallied to keep two Christmas trees in the living room. Something about symmetry just soothes my soul.


I lost this one but maybe one day - who can resist twinkling lights? What we ended up with was pretty spectacular though so my disappointment was short lived.


I did win on scoring a larger tree this year - which was all thanks to a very kind and generous Target manager. The story is very sweet in my mind but probably boring to anyone else so I will spare you. Just trust that there are still very helpful and kind people out there, even over the most trivial of things.

Before I forget, we also attended an event to benefit the Arts Center from EH's hometown - great food, drinks, live auction and bonus! Sequins were encouraged.


With all of the cheer and excitement from the Holiday season, there was still a lingering cloud above our heads. EH took his Professional Engineer exam back in October - anyone remember? I certainly do. Hours each night studying and just stresses all around. Well, I'm ecstatic to say - HE PASSED! As I knew he would because EH is the most wicked smart person I know. But to say we weren't both extremely relieved would be an understatement.

We celebrated several times but my favorite were drinks at the Pantry Crest - where the food is not only delectable but the drinks are a work of art:


We also celebrated with Moose cuddles - because without him I don't think either of us would have made it through the long months of studying and worrying.


It all deserves an entire post of it's own, but EH is as humble as he is smart so I'll leave it mixed in with these random updates. I'm so proud of him - though never a doubt in my mind, it's so inspiring to have known this guy since before he even thought about Engineering, to have passed all the initial exams, landed a great gig with an awesome company, and now he has the stamp to prove it. And he's so handsome! Lucky girl right here. 

After all of that excitement, I really didn't think I could be any higher until Christmas came. Which brought Santa!


A very convincing Santa Claus, and just my type - though he did seem to prefer Miller which was disappointing.


The guy to the right was just as excited as Santa after a long day of ...making toys? Who knows what this Santa was really up to.

He did make time to stop by our house Christmas morning though. 


Since then it's been a whirlwind of parties, duck hunting, Harry Potter movie marathons, taking it easy and getting the house back in order. 

It's still too early to call, but 2015 has been pretty terrific and I have a feeling that the rest of the year will be the same.

April 21, 2014

Hoppy Hoppy Easter!


I love Easter weekends - especially because my office lets us out for Good Friday. Since Engineer Husband had to work still, the Mooser and I decided to sleep in (just a little bit), then get a move on with our spring cleaning. I just love the feeling of a house that is clean from top to bottom!

After a Friday night Game of Thrones marathon (we're trying to catch up - almost done with season 2!), we woke up Saturday to get ready to head to EH's hometown for Easter Dinner at my SIL's. To prepare, I made my go-to salad and also tested my baking skills by baking some cupcakes. 


Terrible picture but you can spot my cupcakes and also the salad we brought in the large wooden bowl.

For the salad, I throw together-

Baby spring greens
Almond slices
Dried cranberries (or craisins? I had to ask EH what they were called and we're both clueless)
Bacon Bits (Best when you actually cook bacon but I cheated and used the pre-ready kind)
Feta cheese

And the dressing-

Balsamic Vinegar
Olive Oil
Dijon Mustard
Honey
Salt & Pepper

And voila! Easy salad that you can easily swap out ingredients for to keep as a side, or even add grilled chicken for a main dish. I make this salad all the time and it is always a big hit.


Next were the cupcakes! And y'all. I had such big plans for these cupcakes. I was going to make two different flavors from scratch totaling to 48 cupcakes (for 10 people, what was I thinking?) but on Saturday morning it was just too easy to lounge aroud the house still. Plus EH put on Frozen so I kept getting distracted. Let it go! Let it goooooo!

Anyways! So boxed cake cupcakes came to the rescue! But they were double fudge, so maybe that makes up for it. I'm not a big dessert person myself but EH gave me the thumbs up. 



The cupcake decor was just a can of green frosting, bright blue bunny peeps on top of some, and Starburst jelly beans arranged on the others. My green icing skills are a little hit or miss, but they were pretty cute when all lined up!


The weather here is officially warm, which brings the beautiful blossoms everywhere but also the abundance of pollen. Nothing a Claritin a day can't help, atleast!

Though our Easter this year was a little different than our usual Church-Sunday brunch with ham type affair, I still enjoyed every minute of it. 

Now my focus has shifted to getting ready for our Gatsby-themed party this upcoming weekend. I've got the dress and the shoes and I can't wait to start playing around to pull the whole look together. Look forward to details on that!

Thanks for stopping by and hope you and yours had a wonderful, HOPPY Easter!