Time to catch up....from this weekend anyway

I don't even know where to start! I have SO much to say! Just this week alone I have had about 452 things happen that I could share.....Here are a few (crummy) pictures of the high-(or low-, depending on your perspective) lights of the week.

 It's Christmas time so I had to make a few gifts like this one....it's going to someone special. I hope they like it. I'll try to get a better picture when I make the next one.....and there will be more, it was so simple and came out really cute!!

 If you are what you eat then my cat is probably at least half dog...or dog food anyway....she ended up all the way in the bag! I guess she was hungry!

 We had this guy show up on our porch Saturday....I talked to a neighbor, who told me he had been hanging around a different neighbor's house and that neighbor was "trying to shoot him because he (the dog) went after him" I was a little nervous so I called in the cavalry....Jamie to the rescue! She has a Rotty of her own and so I figured she would know more what was normal behavior and what I should be worried about.

I spent some time with him, I cannot imagine him "going after" anyone unless he was provoked! We named him just a couple minutes after I snapped this quick picture.  I was going through, trying to decide how to keep him fed and cared for when we travel (most campgrounds and trailer parks don't allow Rottweilers) when we decided he should meet our other 2 dogs....that didn't go well....AT ALL!!!! He couldn't stay :( it broke my heart! I'm actually not a fan of animals I don't know, but this guy looked up at me with his one good eye and instantly wormed his way into my heart. It took all of about 5 minutes to realize I was his and he was mine. When someone new would stop by he would look at them and come sit on, yes ON, my feet.  He went to live with a friend of mine who is giving him a great home, and yes, I cried when they left with him. Is it stupid to miss a dog that I had for 3 days?? Oh well, I miss him anyway!

 After getting Bear (the Rottweiler) settled in the barn, Jamie and I went out to wrap up some Christmas shopping. Typical me, I came home with more craft ideas than actual gifts....I mean really, how am I going to pay for a rectangular pillow with strips of fabric sewn to it....I'm pretty sure I can whip this up in about 20 minutes!

 This is another one....It's a pot protector for when they are stored in the cabinet...I'm thinking I need a set for the camper, but seriously! It's a piece of felt cut into a flowery shape!! I can do that! And I have a stack of felt at home.....I'm NOT paying $12 for them!!

Sunday, Jamie, Josh and their girls came to the house to hangout with Bear and I again. Their middle daughter decorated my Christmas tree for me....she was quite concerned there was only 1 ornament on it. I was glad to let her do it....I just hadn't had the mood strike me yet to get the ornaments out. She did a fabulous job!! It looked wonderful!

Then I fell asleep on the couch and was awakened at 3am by a HUGE crash......the tree fell over!

There was busted glass and glitter EVERYWHERE!!! I even found pieces of glass up on the couch. Crazy!
I decided that we just aren't going to have a tree this year....we'll be ok.....right???


Yeah....we all know better! I NEED a tree! I didn't want to replace the crappy broken stand with another crappy stand, so I'm in the process of building a "tree" out of a glass jar, tomato cage and garland. I'll show you as soon as it's done. It's small, a little lopsided, but it's going to be enough this year!

Influenster

Have you heard of Influenster.com? It's this neat little site with HUGE rewards! They just went through a site makeover and, honestly, I'm still adjusting. OK....here's the deal. You sign up, earn badges, review products. I thought it was crazy when I first joined....but it's for real. I have received a VoxBox, I reviewed products, I love the whole idea of this site.

If you know me, you know I'm not always big on change. I like to find a system that works for me and when people disrupt that, I do NOT love it! For example, the Facebook timelines really messed me up for a few weeks. The new influenster site has been an adjustment to say the least.....it's totally different from the old site. Same premise, different layout! I think the changes are great, everything is pretty easy to navigate...I just have to readjust the way I do things, but I'm getting there.

Check out www.influenster.com. Let me know what you think!

Christmas is Coming!!

Christmas is coming! In just 3 weeks! I haven't crafted a single gift yet! I haven't finished shopping for a single person on my list!
I really miss blogging! I don't know why this occurred to me in the middle of the Christmas rush....but it did!

Did you notice that everything I say ends with a ! That is because that's the way life is going for us right now! It seems to just be a series of exclamation points all strung together! I'll try to get some pictures up from this year and get you all caught up on this year's happenings!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pin It!

Are you hooked on Pinterest? I know you didn't just say "what's Pinterest?" Pinterest is just the greatest online creation since Google.....if you don't believe me you HAVE to try it! The site is invitation only, so if you need an invite let me know and I'll send you one.

What Pinterest is is an online pin board. When you are looking at a website or blog and see something you really like and want to remember for later....Pin It! You choose a picture from the site, write a description about it and then it's saved to your pin board so you can easily get to it later.

You can also see what your friends are pinning....and repin their amazing finds.

It's easy to get carried away, lose track of time, and pin thousands of things. Here are some of the amazing things I've pinned lately

Really cute Valentine towels from She's {kinda} Crafty

Beautiful, fun hair color idea from The Beauty Department

This great sign/picture from Etsy

Oh there are so many more wonderful things out there....you really need to check it out. I hope to have some posts soon to show you the projects I've found on Pinterest that I have actually made.

Come join us....happy Pinning!

The end of a season

Summer's official over! There was even a forcast for frost the other night. That meant it was time to pull in anything that the frost might damage.....for us it was basil and some other herbs.  Our basil grew like a weed this summer!! We brought the herbs in, tied them in bunches and hung them from the wooden valance in front of the kitchen windows

How pretty is that?!?!? All the big bundles are basil, the little ones are lemon balm, parsley, and summer savory. I'm looking forward to having all these to cook with this winter. I know it won't be as good as fresh, but I think it's going to be better than storebought

Here is my first foray into fall baking.....frosted pumpkin cookies. They were SOOO good. I took some to a friend and sent the rest to work with Brad, otherwise I would probably have been able to eat most of the batch myself.

I used a little different frosting. It's more caramely

6 Tbsp Butter
8 Tbsp Milk
1 Cup Brown Sugar

1 1/2 tsp Vanilla

2 Cups Powdered Sugar

Put butter, milk and brown sugar in a pan and heat until all sugar is dissolved. Let the mixture cool in the pan. Add in vanilla and powdered sugar.

I dipped the warm cookies into the frosting and then let them cool on a cookie sheet. They are such a wonderful pumpkiny sweet cinnamony bite of cakey goodness.

If you decide to make these....the cookies don't spread much....seriously! They puffed up a bit, but that was the only change in shape. If you like perfectly shaped cookies, make sure they look that way going into the oven.

Happy Fall Ya'll!!

Changes on the Horizon

There are big changes coming soon for us. I'm not ready to tell everyone what's going on just yet, but they are happy changes and no I'm not pregnant (scary how I knew that's what some of you were thinking, huh?)
There are things going on that I can tell you about. The dogs are doing great. My Christmas craft list is started and seems to be growing every day. The garden is about done for the year so we'll be pulling plants and tilling the ground very soon. Our plants this year were gorgeous....however, we didn't get all that much fruit off of them. I keep hoping we get this gardening thing really figured out soon.

Anyway. I'll be posting more details about our coming changes soon. Be sure to check back

Evidently I'm bad at this...

Obviously keeping up with my blog is not something that I'm great at. Let's see if I can get you caught up on our lives pretty quick....

We were told that my car needed the engine re-built....so we decided to just replace the car since we're still making payments. Soooo....I got a NEW car!! Yay! I can't tell you how wonderful a 10 year warranty makes me feel!

Our house "flooded" again. Basically we had water seeping in through the south wall of our house. I guess that's one of the dangers of living in a basement.....We didn't lose anything, no one was hurt, but what a pain! See the bedroom that had water in it is actually our storage room, so there was a ton of stuff to move and dry underneath.

Let's see....what else....lots of work. OH!....the exciting news....We are going on vacation!!! A real, honest to goodness vacation! Our first since our honeymoon, 7 years ago. We are going to the Outer Banks, for a whole week. I can feel the tension start to disolve every time I look at this picture

This is the view from the backyard of the rental house....how wonderful will that be?!?! I can't wait to watch the sunset over the sound!

I will hopefully have some more interesting things to share soon. Oh, did I mention that this year I'm going to be an aunty again? If I didn't I should have. My sister is expecting another boy in June, and Brad's brother is expecting their first baby in August...we actually find out today if we're having a niece or nephew. I also have a cousin expecting this fall.....so there should be baby crafts to show off!