Still Here

Well, I am still around though it doesn't seem like it. I have been taking lots of time to hang out with my family and friends and enjoy the holiday season. :) I have had a really wonderful last few weeks and hope that all of you are getting to spend a lot of time with your loved ones too!

I'll be back in blog land soon!

Everyone Can Paint

In college I minored in Theatre. For one course, we had to draw and paint costumes/sets. When I started out, I was really nervous about the course because I had never drawn well and knew we would be drawing for pretty much the whole semester. Well, the first day of class we walked in and the teacher said, "Do not tell me you cannot draw. Everyone can draw." I was thinking, "OK... I won't tell you, but I don't think I can."

That very day we had to get our sketch books and draw people in the class and draw our own hands. I really did not want to draw someone else's face for fear of making them look horrible with my lack of skills. The teacher said to just draw what we saw and so I followed his very simple instructions and what do you know? The drawing I did actually looked pretty much like the person. It took forever to draw him, but I was glad I did it.

Later on in the semester, we painted as well and I really enjoyed that, but after the class ended I retired my sketch book and paints. A few weeks ago, some friends at work invited me to go to a painting class here in town. They have a different painting each day and they teach you step by step how to paint it. I thought it sounded like fun and it would be cool to paint something again so of course I went with them. :)

We had a fun time and it was easy to follow the teacher's instructions.

Here's my painting!

The original painting had red and orange too, but I left that out so that it would match the color scheme of my house. I love how it turned out and think it's cool cause I painted it myself.

Now I just have to figure out where to put it. Maybe here?

This area is void of excitement, but we'll see where it ends up. Do any of you have this kind of thing in your area?

Halloween

On Halloween at work every year there is a costume contest. Not very many people dress up unfortunately. I think most of the people at my work are too self-conscious to dress up (i.e. afraid of looking silly). I am not at all afraid to look silly so of course I dressed up (as I have done in years past).

I even found a co-worker willing to join me!

For those of you that weren't children of the 90s, there was a magnificent kid's TV show on Nickelodeon called Legends of the Hidden Temple. It was an awesome game show that my sister and I used to watch. My co-worker loved the show just as much as me so we dressed up as 2 contestants. It was great fun, but unfortunately there weren't a lot of people that knew who we were.

After work I visited my family and got to hang out with London! :)

 She was wearing her pumpkin outfit for Halloween, but kept moving so I couldn't get a good picture.

On October 20, my friends Bobby and Kelly got married. :) It was a really fun day and I was so happy to be a part of it. The reception was one big party and it's always fun to see old friends.

Love my BFF! :)

Hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween!

Halloween Decorating

Want to see all the Halloween decorating I've done so far?

Check it out!

Yep, I managed to throw a Halloween-themed dishtowel over the oven handle and put out some candy corn. I am Halloween decorating fiend!!

In other news, I finally bought a rug pad for my living room rug. It was interesting to see the floors with the rug out of the way temporarily.

The rug feels more comfortable now that I put the rug pad under it and it doesn't slide around. Yay!

Tomato Basil Soup

As promised on Monday, here is the recipe I use for Tomato Basil Soup! (From Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

4 tomatoes, diced
4 cups tomato juice
14 leaves fresh basil
1 cup heavy whipping cream (I use whatever I have on hand, half and half or cream)
1/2 cup butter
salt and pepper

In a large stock pot, heat the tomatoes and tomato juice on medium heat. Let simmer for 30 minutes.

At this point I use my immersion blender to blend the tomato mixture with the basil leaves while it's still on the stove (LOVE my immersion blender!).

Then stir in the cream and butter. Season the soup with salt and pepper and heat until butter is melted.

When I make this soup I usually make a double batch and I'll eat it throughout the week (I love carrying soup to work for lunch).

Yum!

Favorite Things About Fall - Soup!

When the weather gets cold one of the first things that happens to me is that I want to eat soup. I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but for me it's just one of those things about Fall. This past weekend I made some soup and now I'll have leftovers to get me through this week. :)

Here are some of my favorite soups that I've shared:

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Cheddared Farmhouse Chowder

Loaded Potato Soup

Tomato Basil Soup

Which I'll be sharing my recipe for later this week!

I love a lot of soups, but these are my go-to soups. It's easier for me to just make my own soups since most places don't have a lot vegetarian options since most are made with chicken or beef broth.

What do you love about fall?

A Navy and Gray Shower Part II

I already shared how I made a yarn wreath for my best friend Kelly's bridal shower and I also shared the food my mom and I prepared for the occasion.

Now it's time to feature the decor for the celebration!

My mom and I set up one table for food and one for gifts. Remember that contact paper I found at Marshall's? My mom and I cut some to be table runners! I thought I was totally brilliant cause I can still use the paper later and of course it was really easy to clean them after food got all over them at the shower.
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We bought flowers at Kroger and arranged them ourselves in some Ikea vases. We also punched circles out of scrapbook paper to make "confetti" which we scattered on the tables.

Some of the vases were arranged on the half wall between my kitchen and dining room along with pictures of the couple.

I made some graphics, the one below with a gray chevron background.

 

 I also made one for the food table with their wedding date on it. I also made bunting to hang up in their wedding colors. I love bunting; it's so easy to make and looks cute.

We bought these navy napkins below at Target. I love their new party supplies line! They have some really cute products.

Here's the gift table as it looked at the beginning of the shower.

 

Below was my "games station".  We played bridal shower scattegories and bingo which I found over at The Thread Affect.

 

Here's the living room all setup for shower shenanigans.

I couldn't resist sharing the details with you guys. :) It was fun!

Random

Soooo.... my birthday was back in June and somehow I never got around to sharing this AWESOME birthday cake that my friends Bobby and Kelly made for me.

Check it out!

We love Mystery Science Theater 3000 so they decorated the cake with Mike, Crow and Tom Servo.

They also gave me a new party game called Bubble Talk!

Here's the inside of the cake:

In the background is a Matryoshka doll I brought back from Russia. :)

And one last thing... Dollar Tree sells Ribeye steaks? Interesting...

Where have I been?

Well, for 2 weeks I attended a training camp for work. It was fun, but we didn't have computers while we were there all day and upon getting home each day I was exhausted and pretty much went straight to sleep.

Meanwhile, I learned how to survive a plane crash in the desert from the camp. Pretty cool!

In other news, last Friday my mom and sister got a new puppy! My family has never had pets before (besides the occasional fish and the bunny rabbit I had for a few months when I was 8) so we were pretty stoked. She is totally adorable and so sweet!

Meet London!

The woman who owned her before needed to get rid of her because she travels often for work and was working long hours during the week so she couldn't spend time with London.

She is a toy maltese/poodle mix and she's 12 weeks old. She's so little! London loves to play, but is cool just chillin' too.

She loves people and gets so excited when anyone comes over. Every time I go to my mom's house she runs up to me as soon as I get in the door and she'll put her paws up for me to pick her up! It melts my heart.

My sister Mallory came over the first day and we all got to hang out.

This sweet puppy is perfect for our family. I'm so happy God decided for her to come bless us. I love this little girl!

A Navy and Gray Bridal Shower

My BFF Kelly is getting married in October and she selected me to be her maid of honor! :) Therefore it was my duty to throw a bridal shower which I was super excited to do. I held it at my house and I can't wait to share all the details with you! I already shared the yarn wreath I made for the occasion.

Here's the beautiful, bride-to-be!

Kelly and I have known each other since junior year of high school. We were in band together and we have been inseparable ever since!

Kelly and I have had so much fun over the years. She will go along with any scheme I cook up and she loves a good dance party just as much as I do.

For drinks, my mom made homemade iced tea and we also had pink lemonade and water. I bought the beverage dispensers at Target and I was really happy with them! They work well and they are inexpensive at $20.

Then we had the food setup.

For veggies, we cut up broccoli and bell peppers. We also had baby carrots and cherry tomatoes with peppercorn ranch dip.

We also served pineapple, cantaloupe, honey dew, grapes, watermelon, blueberries and strawberries. Five servings of fruits and veggies a day keeps the doctor away!

I bought chunk cheese on sale and my sister cut it into cubes and we set out crackers with it. I made pasta salad as well.

There were chips and dip.

The cakes turned out perfectly. We ordered 2 of them at Publix (I love Publix cakes!) and I was impressed with their work. I asked for them to base the cakes on the wedding invitation. We also got some cupcakes too - half chocolate and half vanilla.

And I leave you with this: 

My super cool, little sister McKenna created this little cheese man. I was charmed. :)