Hello 2015

2014 is gone and now 2015 is well underway.  I know I owe a few updates... I'm not sure I know where to begin.

I can not wait until Thomas and I buy a house.  I got some more fantastic kitchen stuff for Christmas, and I am so excited to have a kitchen to put all of it in soon!  We're finally getting the process started, but who knows how long it will end up taking.  I'm so excited though.  I can't wait to get to pick out my own paint colors and design the rooms.  Yay!  My biggest struggle is definitely my impatience.  I just need to keep myself in check and try to enjoy the process and not just the end goal.

Thomas also got me an amazing Christmas gift that speaks to my inner geek and book lover.  You see, in my perfect world, whatever house I had would have a "old world" style library (no matter the style of the house).  It would have books from floor to ceiling, so much so that you'd need one of those fabulous rolling ladders to reach the books on the higher shelves.  There would be a huge fireplace and old red leather high-backed chairs.  And one wall would be filled from floor to ceiling with antiqued maps.

So for Christmas, Thomas added to my collection with a beautiful map of Narnia.   It's a beautiful shadow-box, and the map has beautiful color and detail.  Here's the photo from Amazon.

Of course, I know that our house won't have a magically fantastic library in it, but I will have enough walls to hang my growing map collection!

So long for now!

Woah!

So... it seems that I haven't posted in almost two months.  Woah.  It's been a lot different since we moved to Missouri, and I seem to have a hard time turning my computer on.  It's not that I don't want to blog... I just don't feel like I have much to blog about.  If you follow me on Instagram, you'll usually see the high points of my life in photo form, but otherwise, I just have a pretty routine life right now.

But, here are a few updates from the past two months.

We've been enjoying our two lovely kittens.  Lo is returning to her normal calm and happy self more everyday.  And Luna is as rambunctious and ridiculous as ever.  She feels the need to be attached to me almost every minute of every day.  She is not the most graceful cat in the world.  And she's gotten in so much trouble in the last week for trying to eat all of the Christmas decorations.  I took this photo about two minutes after hanging some of my paper snowflakes on the door, and she had already mangled one.  About 10 minutes later, two others would be destroyed.  And in between murdering snowflakes, she'd run over and try to eat the tree.  She's driving me crazy, but at least she hasn't done any real damage yet.

Speaking of Christmas decorations, our "apartment" is about as festive as it's going to get.  I just love the glow of Christmas lights!

We had our first snow in November, and a couple of frigid days with some flurries and ice since then, but it's certainly not looking wintry white outside yet.  In part, I'm happy for temperatures that are too warm for snow, but on the other hand, it's still really cold so another ten degrees lower so that we could have snow would be nice.

Thomas and I have seen a couple of movies recently.  I can't think of all of them right now, so I'll have to do a review post soon.  But two of them are Big Hero 6 (adorable) and Mockingjay (wow).  So, look out for that post.

We also went to a Blues game a few weeks ago, and it was a really good time!  There were a few very amusing fights, and the game went all the way to a shoot out!  The Blues lost, but it was still a really good game!

I've got almost all of my Christmas shopping done.  Thomas is getting a killer gift this year!  I'm so excited about it, in fact, that it's wrapped and safely tucked away at my parents' house so that I can't lose my patience and give it to him early!

Well, that's all for now!  I'll try to make it less than two months before I blog again!

Back from a Break

Well!  I ended up taking a much longer break for the holidays than I expected.  But life doesn't always go according to plan, does it?!  So here are some updates from the past two weeks!

The reason I ended up taking a longer break was because I got a super nasty cold the weekend before Christmas.  So in addition to feeling awful, I also had to finish getting ready for the in-laws' visit and Christmas!  Yuck!  Thank goodness Thomas was wonderful and helped me clean the house.

So then the sickness continued through Christmas, and I'm still not totally back to normal.  I have a lingering, awful cough.  But, I am so much better than last week!

We had a great visit with Thomas' parents.  Christmas was wonderful.  Since this was our first Christmas at our own house, it was so wonderful to get to set our own schedule and spend the day relaxing!  Thomas and I got to wake up and open our gifts to each other on Christmas morning, then his parents came over and we opened more gifts with them and a great day relaxing!

We, of course, watched the Doctor Who Christmas Special.  Oh, it was sad to say goodbye to Matt Smith, but we are interested to see what the future holds for the show.  Lolo and I were super tired by then, so we cuddled on the couch and grabbed cat naps during the commercials.

Thomas got me a Doctor Who puzzle for Christmas, and I've already completed it and torn it apart.  My parents also got us a puzzle (a much bigger, harder one), and I'm working on that one now.

My parents also got me an adorable scarf hanger for Christmas, so I've already got it hung up in the closet so it's a little bit on display!

Another Christmas gift I got was a creme brulee torch and ramekins.  (Creme brulee is one dessert that Thomas will order without fail at a restaurant that serves it.)  So, I've already made two different kinds, and we are loving it!  Thomas has already decided that creme brulee will be his birthday dessert in February!  Lol!

We spent our New Year's Eve at home, eating pizza and having a movie marathon.  We're old people at heart, so we didn't even make it to midnight.  But who cares!  On New Year's Day, we went out for some delicious bagels for breakfast and spent the morning out, playing with our new outdoor Christmas toys!

Today feels like the first day I've been able to sit down and recap the holidays.  I absolutely loved the change in pace for the past week, but it's also nice to be back to normal!  I'll definitely be making more creme brulee soon, so I can't wait to share a few recipes!

Little Bits of Random {Lundi Little Lovelies}

I couldn't really think of a cute title for today's post because it really is just random.  Several randoms strung together.  So, no catchy title...

Since I did not get around to blogging on Thursday... or Friday... or Saturday... I have quite a few little lovelies to share!  I may save a few for later this week, but we'll just have to see as I go along.

(Also, I still have a recipe all ready to go, but I haven't taken any photos yet, so I'm waiting on that.  Hopefully tomorrow... though that's what I said last Wednesday...)

Little Lovely #1:  I made this on Thursday and Friday.  

 

Just a simple skirt with some a-dor-able aqua/teal linen.  It turned out pretty well; there's just one part that looks a little funny, so I'll probably go back and fix it a bit.  It also needs some more time under the iron, which makes sense since this fabric's been in my stash for... ahem... several years.  It's pretty fun when something I sew comes out well because usually I get in a hurry and take shortcuts so that things don't turn out as well as they should.  I'm pretty impatient when it comes to sewing.

Little Lovely #2:  I sat around yesterday afternoon between Christmas parties and made these.

I've made paper snowflakes each year since we've moved to Florida.  Sometimes Thomas helps me, and sometimes (aka. yesterday) he sits on the floor and plays Call of Duty while I make them.  :)
It's just something silly and fun I enjoy doing.  Since I took this photo last night, I've actually made a few more!  Fun fun!

Little Lovely #3:  Our Christmas boxes from my parents arrived today!  Yay!!!!!  So our Christmas tree has more presents under it, a few new ornaments (presents we got to open early), our stockings are hung, and the nativity scene is displayed (albeit on the dvd case since we don't have anywhere better).

This nativity scene is really special to me, because it was a gift from one of my aunts when I was really young.  She painted all of the figurines herself.  And since then, it was my job each year to set it up when it was time to decorate for Christmas.  My mom surprised me by sending it with our gifts.  So this is the first year (in about 20 years) that it won't be displayed in my parents house, but in my own.  Aww!  It's a little sentimental to me if you can't tell.

Little Lovely #4:  Christmas is on the 10 Day Forecast!!!  Woohoo!!!  And there's only 7 days left until my in-laws get here!  I can't believe it's coming so fast!  I need to finish my shopping!  Yikes!  (Wow, there are so many exclamation points in this post!  And there's another one)

Also, I got to go have lunch with Thomas today!  So that brightens up any day!  All in all, this Monday is going pretty darn well!  And it's a nice mellow day after the crazy Christmas party weekend!

Happy Monday!

Looking More Like Christmas {Wednesday Wins}

(And by looking more like Christmas, I mean inside our apartment.  It is a tad harder to channel Christmas vibes outside of our home because it's over 80 degrees everyday.  Not that I'm complaining... especially when the high in Missouri was 25 the other day.  Yikes!)  Anyway...

Woohoo!  It is Wednesday.  And Wednesday is one of my favorite days right now.  It means trivia night at Buffalo Wild Wings.  And I look forward to it every week!

And this week... with the help of some good friends... we won second place!  Woohoo!!!  Yay!  The winning $30 part was pretty awesome, but we also just had a really good time, and we felt like we played a really good game, win or lose.  So, that's exciting!

Also, I put the first present under the tree today!!!  I've wrapped several others, but some were mailed back to Missouri, and others are just still hiding around the apartment.  

I'm also excited that I'm getting pretty close to finishing my Christmas shopping.  I just have a few more things to get!  I was hoping to finish tomorrow, but I'm not sure if that will happen or not.  We'll see tomorrow I guess!

I'm hoping to have another dinner recipe to blog tomorrow or Friday.  And then I'm sure I will blog about some of my Christmas baking... which really means my mom's Christmas baking (since I make all the things I grew up on).

We also have a lot of Christmas parties in the next few days!  One on Saturday, Two on Sunday, and one on Tuesday.  Wow!  Busy, busy fun times!

I can't believe Christmas is only two weeks away!  Getting excited!

Christmas Music {Sunday Fun Day}

Thomas doesn't really like Christmas music.  So, it's a limited commodity in our home.  I'm also stuck on the same Christmas music that I've listened to for years.  Not much gets added to my holiday playlist.   My favorites include: Amy Grant Christmas (from like forever ago), Point of Grace's Christmas cd (also from years ago), and an odd assortment of Christmas carols in French.  Yes, I actually listen to French music in my free time.

Anyway, I just could not pass up this Christmas season without sharing one of my favorite Christmas songs.  It also happens to be a mash-up of a bunch of different songs, so it's definitely worth listening to.

This has been around for years, but I can't help listening to it over and over each Christmas because it's so hilarious!

Say hello to "Straight No Chaser", a guys a capella group.  Besides being really extremely talented, this song is absolutely hilarious.  They have tons of other songs around the internet, so if you like them, there's plenty more to enjoy!

LOVE it!  Merry Christmas!!!

Guess what?! I'm Back!

Which is funny, considering that I didn't go anywhere!  

So I just got busy the past week.  Tons of cooking and eating for Thanksgiving made me a little short on time to blog!  I loved every minute of it, and I guess I was just too busy enjoying myself to stop and take the time to document it right then.

But, now Thanksgiving is over.  And December is here.  Which means: Christmas time!!!  (I thoroughly believe that Christmas time should not begin until after Thanksgiving is over, so I've just started celebrating!)

That being said, I've done quite a lot in the first four days of December!  I've started my Christmas shopping, Thomas and I got our tree up and the house decorated!  I've already wrapped several presents!  And I'm planning a mini Christmas party for my Life Group girls!

We got a new (bigger) couch earlier this year, so we had to find a new place to put the Christmas tree.  Turns out that we didn't have many options if we didn't want to have to hop over it to walk around the house!  (Our new couch is a lot bigger than our old one... which is exactly why we love it!)

I also hung some icicle lights and ornaments over the sliding door out to the porch because I just love icicle lights!  We have more lights, but I just can't think of anything good to do with them... maybe I'll get more creative as the season continues!

Lolo is pretty good with the tree (we put one up every year).  But so far, she has enjoyed tunneling under the tree skirt and knocking off the ornaments she can reach.

I'm interested in seeing how she does with presents under it this year.  Since we usually travel back to Missouri for Christmas, we don't have many presents under the tree.  Also, Thomas and I are horrible about waiting to open our presents all at one time (we've never been at our own house to open them Christmas morning, so we plan to do it early anyway.), but usually Thomas caves so badly and pleads with me to open my presents as soon as he buys them.

This year, however, I am INSISTING that we wait until Christmas to open them!!!  (We're staying in Florida, so this is our very first Christmas in 5 1/2 years of marriage (and 8 1/2 years as a couple) that we are able to open our presents from each other on Christmas!)  I am ok with opening some presents on Christmas Eve night, but we are at least getting that far!  I am going to stay strong this year!  I WILL NOT CAVE!!!

I have yet to bust out the Christmas music (we always decorate the tree while watching a movie instead of with music), and I haven't baked any holiday goodies either.  I'm also trying to think of some new Christmas traditions we could start since we'll have our first Christmas at home.  More to come on that later though...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!