Heart Plant Stakes
Valentine’s Day is a month away. In truth, it’s not my most favorite holiday. I like the sentiment, I just think we should let people know we love them a little more regularly than when Hallmark tells us to. That said, if my husband wants to shower me with gifts, I won’t turn them down! Also, my kids love Valentine’s Day, so I’m getting into the spirit of things – on my terms. First up, flowers. I treated myself to some happy yellow roses from Trader Joe’s. $5 in that cute little tin! Don’t mind if I do! Yellow roses remind me of sunshine and definitely brighten up a dreary winter day.…
Gingersnaps with White Chocolate Drizzle
I hope your New Year’s Resolution for healthier eating included a gingersnap exception. It’s the prudent thing to do. A little bit of indulgence helps one stay on the straight and narrow. Or so I imagine. These gingersnaps have a bit of spice and are nice and chewy. I actually already shared the original recipe and drooled over them here. I didn’t really think they needed the chocolate drizzle. It’s like apple pie needing vanilla ice cream. It doesn’t need it, but man, does it push the gluttony flavor experience over the top. That’s what the chocolate drizzle does for the cookies. Does anyone else ever see those cookie decorating…
Tips for Visiting the Dominican Republic
We had the pleasure of visiting the Dominican Republic over Christmas. It was a real hardship, but someone had to do it! Don’t hate me right now. 😉 If you are from the United States and planning a trip to the Dominican Republic, here is some useful information we discovered during our visit. Beach at Catalonia Gran Dominicus La Romana near Bayahibe 1. Currency It was unclear before we left how much currency we needed to exchange into Dominican pesos. Most sites recommended having a mixture of US dollars and Dominican pesos – especially small bills for tipping. We ended up exchanging $100 before we left the U.S. and received…
DIY Chimney Plug
Chalk this DIY up to one of the most random projects we’ve ever done in the name of saving a buck. We have two wood burning fireplaces we do not use. We could, but for a variety of reasons, we really like our forced-air gas furnace. However, the draft from our chimneys was wreaking havoc with our heating and cooling bill. For some unknown reason neither of our fireplaces have a damper. I could stand next to the fireplace in the living room and feel the cold air pouring into the house this winter. Not good. It’s just as bad as one of my kids leaving the back door open. Except this…
Mulligatawny Soup
I’m baaacckk! More importantly, I’m almost functioning at 100%. Just a little more caffeine… Let’s just fake it until we make it, okay? Taking my own advice, I have some jaw-dropping news. Winter finally showed up in Georgia. That means our high might be 50 and our low is 25 degrees of freezing cold air. One region’s winter is another region’s balmy spring. I will cope by making one of my favorite soup recipes – Mulligatawny Soup. Mulligatawny Soup is a curry-based soup with Indian origins. In other words, it is delicious. It also has an odd combination of ingredients that you might never think to combine until you taste them here. Trust me. My…
I Didn’t Expect You’d Read That…
Happy New Year! Woohoo! Until recently we lived on the West Coast and could ring in the New Year on East Coast time. Now that we live on the East Coast, well…there goes a perfectly good plan. In other news, I’m going to be an excellent senior citizen! I’m still enjoying winter break with the kids. They don’t go back to school until January 6, but I’m popping in today to share how dang surprised I was to learn what actually gets read on this little piece of the Internet. My on-going hate-hate relationship with my sewing machine is ironically what created my most-read post thus far in the history of the…
Happy Christmas!
From our home to yours, Happy Christmas! Thank you so much for reading and supporting this blog! It gives me all sorts of warm fuzzy feelings that make me slightly uncomfortable, but also really grateful. 🙂 Photo Credit: Meg Davidson Photography I’m going to take some time off to spend with my family while the kids are on winter break. I’ll be back at it after the first of the year. 2016 here we come!! Share this:
Christmas Entry
When I was pregnant with my daughter, our firstborn, I bought a baby name book and my husband and I would pour over it at night highlighting names we liked. The enormity of naming our child weighed heavily upon us. It’s a good thing I had already selected her first name…when I was 5 years old. That’s right, my blonde-haired Cabbage Patch Kid and my blonde-haired daughter share the same first name. What can I say? I was a 5-year-old with excellent taste. At least I didn’t name her after one of the My Little Ponies. However, we still needed a middle name for our daughter. My 5-year-old self just wasn’t…
Felt Wreath
Some people decorate with oil paintings, animal head sculptures, found objects and let’s not forget that chevron trend. I think I’ve found my decorating “thing” though. Felt. That’s right, felt. I’m a little enamored with these 25 cent sheets of crafty possibilities. Either that or I’m reliving my childhood. No matter! When this trend gets a rollin’, be sure and remind HGTV it started here. 😉 I already showed you my yarn and felt wreath and now I made whatever this is called. How about a stick-it-in-a-frame wreath? I sure am on top of the technical jargon today. To make the felt wreath I first cut out a piece of card stock…
Kid Craft: Tree Artwork
After Thanksgiving the kids helped me with a little holiday decorating project – painted tree artwork. Usually I keep sketches my mom made in fashion design school in the 1970s in these frames (shown below in our last house), but I wanted to switch them out with something more festive for the holidays. My two little artists-in-residence would be perfect for this job. I covered our dining room table in a plastic tablecloth – always necessary when paint is involved – and let the kids go to work painting trees on regular computer paper. It was easier for them (or me) to sketch a tree first and then for them to…
