Catch Up

#4 Letterbox
This is Stephen's "letterbox", and this spring I am going to do some fixin'.  I'm thinking we should paint the post.  Black? Then, add some monkey grass and pull up whatever that half dead plant is...or try to resuscitate it.  Then, add some numbers on the post.  Yeah, that'd all look good.

#5 Something You Wore
I went to my very first country music concert last night, Blake Shelton.  My sister won tickets off the local radio station for her boyfriend who couldn't get off work, so I went! We had a ball! These were what I wore.

#6 Makes You Smile

#7 Favorite
This picture just makes me laugh. It's my favorite one from our New Year's Eve weekend.  It's blurry, sorry.  We were trying to figure out my camera's auto taker thingy. We obviously weren't ready when it snapped.  :)

#8 Your Sky
Just went outside and took this.  Beautiful day.

Four Equal Parts

Today is something I adore.  The things I adore most in this world are my pets.  Though we don't all live together anymore, I still love them as if they are mine.  I am lucky to still have my Maggie.  She's the perfect porch kitty.  I love a good porch kitty.  I got her when I was in 5th or 6th grade (Mom help me out!)? She started inside the house when she was young, grew into an indoor/ outdoor feline, and now she has become a full blown porch kitty (except when it's cold and Daddy isn't looking).  She drools, she's moody, she loves a good brushing with the broom.  She's my may-may.

Next is my Beana-Weana. I got Beamer the summer before I started my Junior year in high school.  I begged and begged for her, and finally Mom gave in.  She was going to go off to school with me, and ride along side me in my BMW convertible.  Neither of those statements happened. I'm glad I left her at home; my mom wouldn't have been able to handle the empty nest, so Beamer became my sister.  Mom made her stay on the screened in porch during the days when she was a puppy...now, we don't go on vacation unless she can come.  She is as much a member of our family as my sister and I are. 

 

Then, of course you know my Pixie. Sweet, sweet Pixie.

 

Lastly, but not least, my newest addition, Martha. Sweet, camera shy Martha.

Er Every Few Days

So my little challenge is going to be every few days...but we'll get through them!


Day 2: Breakfast
I'm not a big breakfast person unless it's really early, and let's be honest, I don't get up really early much anymore.  A lot of times it gives me heartburn, then my whole day is ruined.  However, I do enjoy an occasional cup of coffee. 

 

Now, I want to share a few pictures I've taken over the last few days. 

Challenge!

One of my sorority sisters, who is a beautiful photographer, challenged me to a Photo A Day! Bear with me as I try to make it through this and become more familiar with my Canon.

 

Join me if you like! I'd love to see your interpretation. Let me know!

Day 1.

Camera Straps

I've sewn up a few extra of these camera straps, and I'd love to sell one to you! I can make them with different fabrics, too!

Only $12.00!! Let me know if you want one!

Film Debut

Well, it's taken many months for us to finally get my skillz on camera. Stephen gave me a big ole fancy schmancy camera for Christmas, which takes HD videos, too! It's amazing; I just need to learn to use it.  We were trying to use the video portion on the camera which is why we filmed me.

So, I have one of those "Things I Want To Do Before I'm 30" lists... I'm not going to show you the entire list, because that would be overwhelming.  I am going to show you as I cross them off.  This one was crossed off last summer; better late than never, right?  Stephen taught me to juggle!  It was so fun learning, and he was a great teacher. 

I'm not about to run off and join the circus or anything, but I am pleased.



On another note, I just checked out my classes for this semester.  I hope I have time to do more posts.  I'm a little overwhelmed at the moment with all the coursework, but this too shall pass!

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year

We've been through quite a few holidays since we last spoke.  I hope everyone's holiday season was as amazing as mine. We had the best one yet! It was jam packed with festivities and parties; I loved every minute of it! Guess what! I finally got a fancy schmancy camera to work with! Sweet Stephen gave me that for Christmas, and I am loving learning all about it. It's a Canon Rebel, so if anyone has any pointers please send 'em this way!

Back in December I took a two night sewing lesson back and have fallen in love with it! We made a Christmas stocking, and then I made a second. Matching ones for Pixie and Martha. What do you think?

A Big Thanks to Jama!

Then, I made a camera strap.  My mom doesn't understand why I did this, although she thought it was very cute. I was very proud of this one.

Source

I have some of this material left over, and I think I'm going to create one more little pretty today.

These last few months have been hard.  They've put me out of my comfort zone.  Making the transition into a student and unemployed have been very difficult for me, but this is a new year, full of hope and promise!  It's going to be good.  It's going to be alright.  I'm going to be alright.  Good things are happening.  2012, I'm ready!

Happy 2012 to you all!

Good Old Fashion Flyers

Saturday while watching poor Auburn get their little hineys spanked, a sweet little puppy wandered in the yard. Well, actually I saw her playing with the neighbor, but then the neighbor went inside and left her. I knew that was strange since she has two other big dogs who stay inside.  That told me puppy didn't belong to her.  I went outside, and she came running over to me.  After a few minutes of begging Stephen to come out he obliged and came out to see.  We knew she belonged to someone because she had a nice collar on, but who? I kept checking on her, and sure enough she stayed around. So, we put her in the backyard and named her Puppy. She was so fun and sweet; I loved having a puppy again! But, we had to find the owners. I made a few homemade signs to hang, three to be exact. We asked a few other neighbors if they knew her...nope.  Of course it couldn't be that easy.  Stephen made up some professional flyers, too.  She stayed over night in Stephen's kitchen, and she was so well behaved.  I think he had to get up with her a few times, but she was housebroken so that was nice! Moving to the happy ending, the owners called us Sunday around 5:00! I was so excited! They saw my homemade sign! I love that the homemade sign worked, not the Facebook shout-outs, not the trip to the humane society, not the professional flyers, nope, my homemade sign that looked as if a third grader had made it! That was luck, and I know that all the before mentioned attempts helped as well, but I was just so excited to have her return home. They were so thankful; the mother had tears in her eyes. Their three sons were so happy to see Ethel (we later found out), and we were told Lucy (their other dog) would be happy to see her as well.  How sweet...Lucy and Ethel! It brought warmth to my heart! It was so nice to be able to do something good for someone, even though we may have been put out of our comfort zone for a minute, it was definitely worth it!

Sweet Ethel :)

Bred Into Me

I'm not a big nut gal.  I don't care for them in my cakes, cookies, or brownies. But, this year my pecan tree has produced beautiful pecans! This is the first time since I've lived here that it has, and I am so excited.  Growing up, we always picked up pecans from our trees, and froze them for future use. I never asked why; it was just what we did. Now, I can't help but to pick up and save them. I've even been able to fill up my cute basket I got for picking blueberries... Now, I just need a nut cracker, so I can get them in the freezer for "future use"!

Fall Fail

Halloween morning I got up to get the house ready for Trick-or-Treat night. I decided I need to rake some leaves; however, I have never done this before, so I thought it was a good idea. I raked and raked and was so proud of myself. It was so fun and so fall, until the next morning. I couldn't move, and you couldn't tell I had raked. Fail.

Halloween night was so much fun; it gets better every year. We invited my parents, Granddad, Sister, and her boyfriend over for dinner. I made an assortment of ghoulish treats, but I didn't manage to take one picture! :( It was so busy once everyone started getting there and the trick-or-treaters started knocking on the door.  Anyway, I made mummy dogs, monster mash dip, and deviled egg eyeballs. They were so good and simple! Mummy dogs are hot dogs wrapped in strips of crescent rolls, monster mash dip is a sort of taco dip I created, and deviled egg eyeballs are deviled eggs with a black M&M  in the center. Yum!

excuse my cheesy grin, i was excited!

 We had approximately 200 kiddos, and they were so cute and sweet. I was even known as the "Popcorn Lady"! They get so excited about miniature bags of popcorn; it's so sweet. I look forward to this night every year, and this year I even dressed the part with a witches hat. It was great. Next year will be even better, and I'll remember to take more pictures, so it'll look like more people were there besides me!

Monster Mash Dip
2 cans re-fried beans
1 can Rotel
Colby Jack cheese
sour cream
1 package taco seasoning
-Fill the bottom of a baking dish with the two cans of beans, next add the Rotel (drain mostly), then add a thick layer of cheese.
-Mix up about a cup of sour cream and about half the package of taco seasoning
-Bake the beans, tomatoes, and cheese mixture about 15 minutes on about 350 degrees, then remove from oven and add the layer of sour cream mixture and top with a little more cheese, then return to oven for about 5-7 minutes.
-Enjoy with Tortilla chips! :)

Happy Halloween!

Today is a wonderful day! It's Trick-or-Treat night! I look forward to this every year, and this year I even got special permission to miss my class. My area has tons of kids come, so it's really a big deal. I'm even going to have my parents and granddad over for a ghoulish treat! ;) And, Stephen is such a good sport. He plays along beautifully; I'm a lucky gal! Check out our pumpkins! I love them!

ON HALLOWEEN

The witches fly
Across the sky,
The owls go, "Who? Who? Who?"
The black cats yowl
And green ghosts howl,
"Scary Halloween to you!" -Nina Willis Walter

Happy, Happy Halloween!!!

Update

I'm still here. My life has been flipped lately. I lost my job in August and started grad school the next week. I had already planned to start school before I was laid off, so I'm looking at it as confirmation on my plan. Just wanting to let you know where I've been and what I've been up to. There isn't a whole lot of time (mostly money) to cook, decorate, create, etc. I miss it. I'll be getting back to it; don't give up on me! I'll be back in the swing of things as soon as I get comfortable in my new life. I'm so excited to see what the future holds. Stay tuned to see what unfolds!

I've been working on my crocheting skills. I have a project to show you, but my camera broke... Story of my recent life! :) I'm not letting it bring me down, I have plenty to be grateful for! Smile because it's October! My favorite three months are here! I hosted a Willow House party last week and had so much fun decorating for Halloween/fall. I have some wonderful recipes to share, too!

WINNER

Congratulations, Kat! You won (through random.org's True Random Number Generator) with your comment, "Let's get scrapbookin' with Baby Mine. I love these!" Kat, be looking out for an email from me!

Great news is you're all a winner with this great discount for $10 discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the  MyMemories.com store- a $20 value! Use code STMMMS25865

A HUGE THANK YOU for all of you who entered! You've made my first contest a great success!

Contest

Today's the last day to enter my contest for a free digital scrapbooking software from My Memories!

Enter Contest

Digital Scrapbook Software & GIVEAWAY

I have been so excited to share with you this new software program.  My Memories Suite is a fantastic digital scrapbooking software which offers so much more than just scrapbooking! With My Memories Suite you can make scrapbook layouts, photo books, cards, videos, anything you can dream up! Then, you can either print right from your home computer, send to the professionals, or turn it into a JPEG. I personally think this scrapbook software is awesome and so much fun! I’ve always enjoyed making photo books and online scrapbooks, but they got to be so pricey and time consuming.  With My Memories Suite it was so easy from the beginning and there are so many different options, I think you’d love it! Take a look at my flyer I created.

 

It was so simple to use, and it offers a wide variety of options. There are tons of layouts on their site and many that come with the program. I was pleasantly surprised with how very easy it was to create your own scrapbook pages, photo book, or a flyer all from your own computer!

Now the good part!

My Memories Suite wants to give away their Scrapbook software to one of our readers!

How to enter: Go to www.MyMemories.com and pick out your favorite layout or digital paper back then come back and comment telling me which one by saying “LET'S GET SCRAPBOOKIN' WITH…

Extra entries: you can follow their Twitter, Facebook, or go tell your friends about this contest! You’ll earn an extra entry for each. Comment telling me you did so.

Contest ends on Friday, September 16, 2011 at midnight CST

  

And yes, I really am hosting a Willow House party. I'd love for you to come!! :) 

Everyday Re-Creations Contest

Don't forget to go to www.everdayre-creations.com and enter our contest to have your recipe posted on the blog. Just let us know what your favorite recipe is and why (we don't need all the recipe details yet, so no worries). Once the winner or winners are picked, you can cook it for us and write your own post or we'll do the cooking and posting for your and give you a shout out for the idea and recipe!! We are just looking for your 'everyday' (no pun intended, well maybe a little) dinner recipes. Happy cooking!!!

Go to Everyday Re-Creations now!

Very First Giveaway

I am so excited to be hosting my very first giveaway! Check back Tuesday to see what great deal I will be offering and what my special giveaway will be! 

Get excited and check back!

Go to Everyday Re-Creations Now!

Do you have a favorite go-to recipe? Do you have a great week night recipe that you think the world needs to know? Then enter it! We have a contest going on right now where you can enter your favorite recipe then if picked, you could either write your own post about your recipe or you could come cook it with us!

Go enter now! Everyday Re-Creations

Football and a Wedding

Today I'm stuck in a beautiful hotel room watching football all by my lonesome, but it's worth it! I get to attend the wedding of some dear friends, Blair and Alyson. Stephen is one of their groomsmen, and so he's off doing groomsmen duties. I get to relax, crochet a little, and catch up on my reading all while watching the Auburn Tigers. Oh, and you may not know this, but I am now a graduate student of Auburn. So I can officially say Warrrrrrrrr Eagle, Hey!!

Best wishes, Blair and Alyson!

Celebrity Sighting

A few weekends ago, Stephen and I turned down a weekend at the lake to go see these guys.

If you don't know who these guys are, you should be ashamed of yourself. It's Troy and Jacob Landry from Swamp People.  Swamp People is a documentary- reality style show on the History Channel about their life style of gator hunting. It's fantastic. It's safe to say that it is our favorite show, and Troy is our favorite hunter! So, we knew we had to go.  We stood in line for three and a half hours to get one photograph and an autograph. It made a wonderful memory. I can't believe we did it. We almost gave up a few times, but prospered on! =) I got to speak to him for a second, and he was so sweet! Aww! I just love em!