Winter Wonderland

Brett and I awoke this morning to a winter wonderland outside! You know what that means....

No, not snowball fights and cocoa by the fire... time to shovel the sidewalks! This is the first time (believe it or not) that it has snowed since we moved to our house, and we no longer have the convenience of 5 am snow clearing that we had at our apartment. One more reason to look forward to heading back to San Diego!

Happy Birthday!

I was going to blog about my birthday... aaaaaaaand then I completely forgot. We did take plenty of pictures, so if you would like to check them out (complete with captions) you can go here. :-)

My New Camera!

My big Nikon camera just got a new little camera sibling! Brett suggested that I take advantage of the holiday sales and some birthday gift cards and spring for a new point-and-shoot camera. Naturally, I didn't argue with him. ;-) I got a new Plum colored Nikon Coolpix today. My old point and shoot was such a dinosaur, I honestly couldn't even tell you where it is right now. Plus, it will be nice to have something lightweight and convenient that I can just stick in my purse and not worry about so much.

Thanksgiving Weekend

This year for Thanksgiving we headed over to our friends Keven & Tiff's house. We had a really great time just hanging out and relaxing with good friends. After our delicious Thanksgiving feast, we all kicked back for some board games: Apples to Apples and a rather heated round of Battle of the Sexes.


On Friday morning we got up and made the annual pilgrimage out to Milan, IL to Jack Frost Pines tree farm to chop down our very own Christmas tree. I had a total Clark Griswold moment when I saw this tree:


But since we don't have 20 foot ceilings, we opted for this more practical tree next to it:


We then went home and trimmed our tree and decked our halls for Christmas. Later that day our friend Kelly dropped by so we had her take our picture in front of our Christmas tree.


For dinner on Friday we cooked our very own Thanksgiving dinner, that way Brett can enjoy his leftover turkey sandwiches for a few days.

This extra-long weekend has allowed me some time to work more on my Christmas crafts. I made some glittered snowflake ornaments (inspired by Homemade by Jill). I think they turned out quite nicely.


[Let me tell you, if there were a list of things that I never thought I would spend $10 on, at the top of it would be a single tube of Martha Stewart extra-fine Antique Silver glitter. But, what's a girl to do? If there was a list of things I'm glad I didn't spend $10 on, on it would be the Martha Stewart make your own tissue paper flower kit (found next to the glitter)... I think I handled that one pretty well on my own.]

Today we headed to Coralville, IA to check out the Coral Ridge mall. It is much larger and nicer than any malls we have here in the Quad Cities. We successfully managed to get the vast majority of our Christmas shopping done, which is a relief.

Now our evening plans involve watching Wall-E and wrapping some Christmas gifts. Tomorrow it is supposed to snow, so I think we will stay in and avoid the crowds and the cold. :-)

My Drinking Team Has a Bowling Problem

...At least that's what my shirt says. The ironic thing about this is that I pretty much don't drink, but that doesn't mean I can't be the drinking team's designated driver. ;-)

Palmer League Bowling has officially begun again. Thursday nights from now until March we can be found at the bowling alley, sucking most of the time, but having fun nonetheless. Our Bowling Team:

Our neighbors Clay & Jess, our friend Amber, and us.

New Hair!

I got a new haircut today! I was going for that whole side-swept bang thing...

What do you think?

Michelle's Baby Shower

Let me just say that if you were in Davenport this weekend, and you were not at Michelle Sheldon's baby shower, then you were missing out. I'm pretty sure everyone, men included, had a great time. My fabulous co-hostess, Meggan, and I made carriage shaped cookies...

And we constructed a diaper cake...

Remember those tissue paper flowers from last week? Well here they are!

Meggan was very ambitious and even made chocolate covered pretzels!

Cupcakes anyone?

We played "Guess the Baby Food," "How Many Peanuts in the Baby Bottle?" and of course, "Baby Gift Bingo"...

We also guessed the size of Michelle's tummy using toilet paper...

The fabulous, adorable, and famous Abri Thompson was even in attendance...

It's hard to believe that almost this time last year we were having a baby shower in her honor!

Michelle got to open many fabulous gifts, including another pair of adorable cloth baby shoes made by yours truly...

And a super-sweet baby quilt (also made by me)...

...I think she might have liked it. ;-)

If you would like to see more pictures, you can check them out here.

Congratulations Dean & Michelle!

Tissue Paper Flowers

I started making some tissue paper flowers last night. I was pretty dissatisfied with the tutorials that I found online, so I decided to wing it, and make a blog post about how I did it.


First, I cut a standard sheet of tissue paper into 6 equal portions. Then, I accordion folded the sections and rounded the ends, to help make the petals.

The instructions I found said to use floral wire for the stem, but I used a coordinating drinking straw because it seemed way more practical, and I already had them. Next, you can either cut the section in half and wrap the petals around the straw, or you can cut a hole in the center of the paper and then scrunch and fold the petals around the straw. I did a little bit of both.
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Tape the petals to the straw in layers until you get the look that you want.

Then, trim between the petals to separate them.

And voila!

You're probably wondering why I am spending my time making tissue paper flowers. Well, you'll just have to stay tuned to find out!

Winter

I think I blinked and missed fall. I had the best of intentions and was planning on going out and taking some pictures of all of the beautiful fall leaves... and before I knew it they were gone. This was the view out my front door this weekend. Can you make out the tiny snow flurries? I promise they are there.

To get into the spirit of the season, I decided to make an apple pie from scratch. A patient brought us some yummy apples from her very own apple tree. I think I get two points for using locally grown apples. ;-)

And here is the delicious end result (a-la-mode, of course):

I totally have to make this pillow

Our couch pillows are looking kind of tired, and I think this pillow pattern would be the perfect couch pick-me-up for fall & winter. Maybe not in white though, that sort of seems like a recipe for disaster...