Darren and Jenny
Saturday, August 16, 2014
Ella's Nursery
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Rainy Day at the Beach
We are so happy to be on vacation! I was watching the local news and weather last night and the weather guy said it will be as bout 10-15 degrees cooler than normal this week. Bummer! It was cold this morning when I woke up at SEVEN. It really is beautiful and we are trying to enjoy the rain. At least we didn't go rent bicycles today!
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Dining room redo
Darren and I finally got started on the second half of our dining room makeover this weekend. Riley is waiting so patiently for it to be finished! I'll have more pictures to post soon.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Easter weekend
We went home to visit my family for the weekend and had such a nice time! It rained like crazy this morning right as we were leaving for church and the electricity went out. Unfortunately, it wasn't back on in time for Easter lunch so we ate at.....Wendy's! Nothing like a frosty and French fries! My sweet Cooper is getting so big! Isn't he just darling?
Friday, May 25, 2012
My Garden
Sunday, February 5, 2012
The start of a new year
Today is Super Bowl Sunday and I decided to be artsy-fartsy and make some cupcakes. They aren't the most beautiful but they taste GREAT! I found out that broken field goals work okay for yard lines :)
I also decorated my mantle for Valentine's day. Next year, the mantel will be above our FIREPLACE! YAY!!!
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Catching up from August......
My best friend from graduate school was married on October 29th! The wedding was beautiful and so was she. I helped out with lots of things, but had the joy of creating the bouquets for the bridal party and the bride.
I made wreaths for the mantle to dress up the place a bit for Autumn. What I learned? NEVER try to make 2 of anything that will be displayed together. It's a nightmare making things symmetrical. I love the way it turned out though.
I also rearranged the furniture in my living room. I wasn't sure initially, but it is my favorite by far! Riley posed in the picture for me :) Any tips for where to put the Christmas tree? There is a sliding glass door to the left side (you can see the curtain in the picture).
Recently, I went on a crock-pot cooking spree. I used it every day for almost a week! I placed a whole chicken in, covered it with an obscene amount of butter, and left it on all day. Darren had to help me take it out because it was falling apart. Instead of pulling meat off of the bones, I pulled the bones out of the meat. DELICIOUS! From the left overs, I decided to make chicken stock. In the picture below, I've put all the bones, gross pieces of chicken, celery, carrots, mushrooms, onions, leeks, and herbs from my garden, along with other spices. I added water as high as I could and let it simmer overnight.
The next day at lunch, I hurried home to strain the liquid and separate it into containers to chill and freeze. It made a LOT! I wish I had salted it a little more, but I'm always wary of adding too much salt to the foundation pieces of my recipes.
For bosses' day, I decided to make pretzels because my boss was trying to not eat sweets. It was fun! I used my bread machine for the dough and did the rest by hand. What I learned? 8" dough makes a lovely dinner roll, not a pretzel shape. I had to roll it out much thinner and longer to have it maintain the shape by cooking time.
Make a twist, then flip the ends down. In hindsight, I should have pushed the ends down a little more to keep them more flattened.
The team pitched in to cover the cost of the flowers. Turned out exactly how I wanted!
Happy Halloween! I was grabbing extra candy at Kroger and saw the wigs. We lean toward the impulsive costumes :) Riley is obviously baffled by our behavior. Too bad we only had 4 groups stop by this year! I blame Monday .....
My most recent adventure! I found the chair at my favorite Catholic Charities Resale store and bought it for around $25, I think. It was U-G-L-Y.
I suckered Darren into helping me take off the nasty fabric along with 1,000 and 16 staples. We found multiple layers.......
I'm finishing up the last of the staples. It needs more TLC.... but for now, it's staying upstairs while Thanksgiving, a trip to Canada, and Christmas take place.
Riley made his debut at the Mockingbird Dog Park! We've made about 4 trips by now, and he is slowly working on his play skills. He always seems confused by the idea that the other dog will sniff back.
This is how he usually looks. Darren and I feel like we're taking our kid to kindergarten every time we go.
Jordan and Mallory, my bro-n-law and sis-n-law, recently moved into their new home. We rode with Darren's dad to help with the moving process. Unfortunately for Doug and Darren, I found a lovely (insert HUGE) china cabinet on craigslist the day after we moved them in. I do love it though! I had to replace the lights and now need to replace 2 pieces of glass to have it fixed back up. I can't wait to put my pretty things inside!
Hoping to post more often in the next few weeks!