A Year of Stuff

It's a bit baffling to imagine that it has been 15 years since Y2K!  Time just seems to fly by when you think about it too hard and I can remember working hard at my job making sure that our computer programs all integrated seamlessly....amazing the amount of things that have happened since then...some very sad, some very happy and all are just.....life.

I imagine that 2015 will be an interesting year for us.  The husband will continue to do well in his career and have lots of opportunity, the kid will be continuing on his college education and earning a few bucks working part time, and me? 

Just not sure yet....I'm not bored, so I can't seem to focus on one thing.  I start another business class in a couple of weeks at our local community college, this one is a small business management class that I'm hoping will be valuable if I decide to start or buy a small business....but in addition to that, my immediate goals are to work on some of my home based business ideas, so that I can fund a trip for my family to Spain & Italy, so as soon as I get something   I'll be sure to post it here too!

Thought I would share on this posts what I found to be some of my favorite things of 2014 -

Movie

This movie was so much FUN!  The characters, the story and OMG....the soundtrack....total 70's.....a whogachugga, whogachugga....and who doesn't love Chris Pratt?

Book
This year it was a tie and not surprisingly, the authors are father and son.

Both books were so good and I was especially impressed with Doctor Sleep.  Forty years have passed since "The Shining" was written and at the time it was written Stephen King was a drunk and for him to write a sequel forty years later sober as seamlessly as he did was amazing.

Music
I'm an old school rock and roll chick that usually doesn't venture too far off her favorite genre of music but I'm open to exposure to other types too.  I've probably listened to more Black Stone Cherry because they had a new CD drop this year and they had other CDs I hadn't had a chance to listen to once I discovered them and their amazing CD "The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" a couple of years ago.  I also liked new music from AC/DC, Seether, Foo Fighters, Counting Crows and even Taylor Swift.  :)

Food
Last year was the year of the "grilled asparagus/grilled zucchini/squash" (which I still love), but this year was the year of the "stuffed mini peppers/bacon wrapped stuffed jalapenos"

We loved grilling both of these peppers and I even liked the mini peppers raw.  I was also happy to be able to get a vegetable on our dinner table without noses turned up.

Home and Décor
In anticipation of my retirement, there were a few things that we needed to get purchased in 2014 before my income was reduced.  First off last February was new appliances, well, a new stove, microwave and dishwasher.  It's been ten years since we moved into our home and the contractor put in the cheapest appliances he could (of course!).  Our refrigerator isn't as old, as we replaced it a a few years ago with a French door freezer on the bottom model.  We had a gas line run to the stove and switched out our flat top electric to a five burner gas stove.   The dishwasher is whisper quiet and the microwave is also convection, as is the stove.

In April we decided to FINALLY get a new mattress and a KING SIZE one to boot!  in addition to the new mattress, we bought new pillows....good pillows and between the mattress and the new pillows, we both have experienced much better sleep, especially the husband.  Prior to buying the mattress, he rarely slept all night in our bed because of his back problems, since then....I think he has went to his recliner maybe twice in nine months.

We also bought a new dining set and this time we bought a good one.  Over the almost 28 years of marriage we have bought cheap sets, although the last one lasted a good long time but it was most definitely showing wear.  In fact, last year I tried to extend it's life by painting it, my blog post about it is here, but the fact remained that it was time to replace.

TV
We're a big movie family so we don't watch a lot of televisions show and no sitcom type shows.  I think the only network shows that we DVR is "Sleepy Hollow" on Monday nights and "Parenthood" on Thursday nights.  We're going to be bummed when this final season of "Parenthood" ends as we have enjoyed watching it from the beginning.   Shows that we typically DVR to watch usually consist of reality competition shows such as "The Voice", "Survivor", "Top Chef", "Project Runway" with a dose of my guilty pleasure of the "Real Housewives" franchise, but I only watch OC, Beverly Hills and NY  {{hangs head in shame}}

Libations
Before anyone gets the wrong idea.....we don't sit around and drink 24/7 at our house, but I'm not going to lie and say we don't enjoy our beverages of choice, which for me is usually beer or wine with the occasional hard liquor thrown in.

This year I really enjoyed the hell out of this -

and after all of our wine trail travels......my favorite Iowa wine so far is Jasper Winery's Lucy Lane.  I cracked a couple bottles of that over the last year.

The husband on the other hand, loves to imbibe a bit in rum and tequila, specifically these -

 

I've got some resolutions and goals to share with you soon, but until then, I hope you and your families have a Happy 2015 with great things coming your way!

It's hard for me to believe......

I can't believe that I'm a mother to a 19 year old!  This past weekend, our son turned 19 years old....and let me tell you, that 19 years went by in the blink of an eye.  The kid wasn't due until January 8th....Elvis's birthday for anyone that cares, but the little stinker came two weeks early on the 27th of December.  I do give him credit for arriving at a decent hour where I could still have take-out Tasty Tacos for dinner and sneak a Corona with lime.

We've always tried to keep his birthday separate from Christmas and for the most part, the rest of the family does also.  It doesn't seem to bother Connor too much that his birthday is that close to Christmas.

Birthday cakes are a big deal in our house and that is one thing that Connor has always had for his day.....a birthday cake of his choice.   When he was little, we did everything from Winnie the Pooh to Thomas the Tank Engine and as he got older he wanted giant cookies with frosting, because you know that the cake or cookie is just the vehicle for the frosting.

This year our son requested that I make a "rainbow cake" for him.  A rainbow cake is a layered cake that every layer is a different color.   Betty Crocker as a recipe out there that looks pretty easy but my problem is time.

As soon as he told me (the weekend before Christmas, by the way), I immediately thought to myself..."No way in hell am I going to have time to create that!"  We were hosting Christmas Dinner on Thursday, which left me Friday to try and make a multi-layered cake.....uh.....no.

So, as the old saying goes I let my fingers "do the walking" and I picked up the phone and called Brick Street Market in Bondurant, about a 10 minute drive from where we live and a wonderful small town grocery store with a great cafe, deli & bakery.   I was so happy to hear the bakery manager tell me that "Yes, we can make the rainbow layer cakes" and I promptly put in a order for a four layer cake with the layer colors of purple, blue, green and orange per the son's request.

I'm happy to report that they did a great job with the cake!  both in appearance and in taste and Connor loved it!

Here's the kid with his cake and a much needed hair-combing.

and I'm just going to have to get used to being the mom of a 19 year old.

My Favorite Part of Christmas

My favorite part of Christmas hands down is the Christmas tree.  I LOVE having a Christmas tree in the house so much that one year I continued to decorate a small one that I displayed behind our sink in the kitchen in the various holidays of the year.   In years past, we've put up multiple trees in our home, but this year in keeping with simple, we settled for just the main tree.

For most of our marriage we have had artificial trees.  We have probably gone through four of them and when it was time to toss the last one, we decided to buy live from then on which this year will be the fourth year of a live Frazier Fir.

I did buy a new tree topper this year that I found on clearance at Kirkland's this year.  A red velvet top hat.  I think our tree could have been a bit bigger for the hat, but I still adore it and even more surprising is that the husband and son LOVE it and never comment on this kind of stuff.  Win/Win!

I wanted to share a picture of our tree before there were any presents to show you the tree skirt that we use and can't imagine using anything else.  It's a quilted tree skirt that my mother made me years ago.  It's absolutely gorgeous and she had to have used 25 different Christmas fabrics in it.  It's easy to take care of and I have a special box it goes in for storage the rest of the year.

We've acquired a couple new ornaments this year.  Had lunch with one of my bffs a couple weeks ago and she gave me this darling ornament that coincidentally matches the new tree topper.  Thanks so much Laureen!

I also picked up a new ornament for our tree at Everts in Ames....a cat snowman!  Of course it had to come home with me!

This year I decided to display another one of my favorite Christmas things on the easel that normally displayed our son's senior picture.  It's another cross stitch gift from my mother that she did for me not long after I moved back to Iowa.  Not only is the cross stitch picture priceless, but the way she had it matted and framed makes it even more special and I love to display it during the holidays.

Here's our 2015 Christmas tree with it covered in presents...and actually, I think there are even more that the husband and son put there after I took the photo....it's whimsical, funky and chock full of memories with the ornaments we use.  There's a story behind 90% of them.

 

Bet you can guess what this ornament honors.......a family favorite and probably one of yours too.

With only a couple of days left before Christmas, I'm happy to say that other than preparing the food for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, everything is else is done.....including the mandatory mani/pedi for myself.  :)

Christmas Eve we're doing lots of finger food - a couple favorite cheeseballs, artichoke spinach dip, bacon wrapped smokies, crab filled phyllo cups, brie & raspberry filled phyllo cups, chilled shrimp and a Spicy Italian Crescent Ring Sandwich.

Christmas Day is dinner with my sister's family and a family friend and I'm making the Hickory Smoked Honey Ham, homemade macaroni & cheese, cherry fluff and cheddar biscuits....along with a baked crescent wrapped round of brie and a cheese plate.  My sister is bring the mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, more chilled shrimp and the Swedish dessert Ostakaka.  Our family friend is responsible for the dessert which will probably be brownies because he's are awesome!

Spent some time the other night putting together the baked good packages that we give out as gifts.   Found the ribbon in the huge stash of Christmas ribbon that came home with me after my mom passed and it worked perfect for this.

Thanks for stopping by during the holidays and my family and I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Check back sometime in the next week for my "best of 2014"......

The Spirit of Christmas - Part 2

It's the last few days before Christmas and I don't know about you, but I'm staying completely clear of any stores this except for a grocery store from here on out.

The husband and I went out last Friday for a couple of hours to pick up the last of the gifts we needed to purchase and last night I went out for a while with the kid to finish up.   All I have left is to shop for the food we'll need for our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals.  Even though I did do some wrapping earlier this week....today is the main event!  and the husband is here to help. 

This year when I decided to re-do some of our Christmas décor, I knew the staircase garland was going to be one of the things that needed to be redone.   I was tired of the staircase garland we have used since moving into this house 10 years ago.  I also wanted to change up the hallway table that sit just opposite the staircase.

Rather than using wire to tie the evergreen garland to the bannister (which btw, I'm looking to replace this spring), I used jute rope. 

I found some really cute burlap bows at Kirkland's that I tied on to the length of garland.  The only problem with the bows is that a certain female cat in our home also likes them and finds it fun to jump up and grab one and drag it off the garland.

(See.....she's eyeballing it in the photo above)

For the newel post at the bottom, I went to my craft room and found a roll of burlap ribbon and made a bow that I also used a pinecone and some fake berries to finish the bow off.  I also had a spool of some textured burlap ribbon that worked perfectly to weave in and around the greenery.

 

It's very simple and exactly the look I was going for.

The hallway table is always decorated for the holidays starting at Halloween and I have switched the décor up on that table over the years, from having some of my collection of Santas displayed there to a collection of funky Christmas trees.  This year I wanted something even more simple that would also tie in with the bannister décor.

I used an evergreen garland we already had and the middle lantern we use on our table on our deck and the other two I found at Gordman's and used a 20% coupon on them.  I bought a couple more flameless candles, dug out some red berry rings I had in our Christmas decoration stash and placed some pinecones in and around the lanterns.  I love how elegant it looks and completely different than what I've done before.

I filled my antique crock from some fake poinsettia and filled my Longaberger bushel basket with more pinecones.

Here's how it looks at night -

Here's how it looks after I added the lighted IKEA vase filled with evergreen and another flameless candle next to the basket of pinecones.

 

This year some of the trees that used to be displayed on the hallway have taken over the top of the computer desk/hutch we have in our den.

Another favorite thing that sits on the shelf of one of our bookcases in the den is my set of gourd snowmen.  Years ago when I sold Longaberger baskets, I earned both of them as an incentive during the holiday selling season and I just love them.

Every year Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without me bringing out one of the last things that my mom made for me just a couple of years before she passed.  Her cross stitch projects were amazing and this one was no exception and such a unique piece....a serving tray.  The detail is amazing!

 

 

I'm still working on my photos of this year's Christmas tree and I'll get those posted just in time for Christmas Eve.

I'll end this post with a picture of what I've been lovingly referring to as our "destroyer cat" Coco.  She's been very naughty this year with the tree and garland and presents and centerpiece, etc. etc. but we still love her.   Just look at this face of guilt and naughtiness.

Have a wonderful week of Christmas!

The Spirit of Christmas - Part 1

The Spirit of Christmas has certainly arrived at our home.  It's also the name of my favorite Christmas song by Ray Charles and for those of you that might not know it, here's a clip -

Most you should recognize it as the song that is being sung in the background of the Clark Griswold attic scene in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.  I've loved the song since the first time I heard it twenty five years ago.   

Outdoor illumination was first and we lucked out on a nice weekend and we're able to get what lights we wanted up in just a matter of a couple of hours.  All the houses in our cul-de-sac put alternating green and red light bulbs in our house light fixtures.  Our house is a very tall two story and it's rare we get up on the second story to hang lights.  We have put both lights and large evergreen wreaths up on the second story but I made my husband happy this year by saying we wouldn't do this year.  This is as good as it's going to get.  :)

 

Of course, as soon as I saw this door mat at Target for $10 bucks, I had to have it.

The Spirit of Christmas is also all through the main floor of our house this year.  Funny thing.....the year that I have the time to spend decorating to my heart's content, is the year I decided to scale back a bit and change things up.   Some years I put small trees up in our master suite and in the kid's room, but decided not to this year.  I think the short amount of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas (or at least it seems like it's shorter) is one of the reasons I made that decision.

When we moved into this house almost eleven years ago, I bought new Christmas décor to mix in with the heirloom/vintage stuff that I had and kept, but here I am eleven years later and I'm at a point where I'm tired of some of it and want to freshen things up.  Don't get me wrong, I still use the things that I hold dear, especially the things my mother either made for me or my family or things she bought me.  I also have a couple of different Christmas collections and decided that I was only going to display one of them this year and this year it's the Heartwood Creek Santa collection -

For the almost three decades I've been married and had my own home, my family knows how much I love all things Rudolf, snow globes and Jim Shore Heartwood Creek Santas, so I've been gifted with some beautiful things over the years, but this year I kept my Rudolf stuff and all but just a couple of the snow globes (I must have 25 of them) safely packed away to be brought out next year.

Here's a couple of my favorite snow globes I couldn't keep packed away -

The snow globe on the left was a gift from my husband and son years ago and not only is it musical but it also has a elf/train scene that goes around at the bottom of the globe.

This year is also the first year in at least a decade that I've had a poinsettia.  I had always believed that they were poisonous to cats, but recently found out that it's not true, so I had a gift card to use at one of our local greenhouses, so I went and bought this beautiful cream poinsettia.  It sits on the small console table in our den.

 

This is our bar area.....which can be one of the most important areas of the house this time of year.  I bought a lemon cypress plant on the left that I tied a woven red bow on and I dressed a bottle of wine in a reindeer costume :)  I have the "Merry Kris Moose" cross stitch that my mother made for me for me almost 40 years ago on the wine rack shelf and the red subway graphic canvas below was a Christmas craft I made last year.

I also like to use things in unexpected places, like his glittery present stake and a cinnamon stick Santa.  They dress up a house plant perfectly for the holiday.

A couple of things I use in the kitchen during the holidays are my Fitz & Floyd cookie plate and mug that I bought for our son's first Christmas.

Last year I fell in love with a serving plate I saw at Pier1 last year, so I waited until after the holiday and got it for 75% off...SCORE!

I think I'll use it for a cheese platter this year....

I've got some other holiday things to share with you, but I'm afraid it will have to wait for another post.  I have to finish up my wrapping and I have a couple more baked goodies to make.

I'll post more later......