Smores & WW2

Last night our evening was filled with a yummy meal prepared at Taylor and Jacob's house. We all sat by the fire pit for s'mores and some belly laughs too. It was a great time and I wish I had taken a picture of that fire pit! Taylor's dad made it to give to them for Christmas. Time flew by and it was after 1:30 in the morning when we got home. Who knew a fire pit could be so fun?!
Lee has been interviewing a WW2 Veteran for a paper he has to present at his next drill. It's been neat to hear the stories and checkout the material he has been able to borrow. Lee has since made 3 return visits to talk to the vet. Lee and I have talked about how the man is in his nineties and probably not unlike any of the other WW2 vets; it's important that we spend time with these men and hear their history. After all, doesn't history repeat itself or something???
O-We're going to dinner and to see a movie with our buddies tonight. Happy New Year's Eve! See ya next year. Wink Wink.

Swatch Is Here

I finally received THIS swatch and it's perfect. I will be ordering a few yards of this baby soon. Very soon. Yeehaw for new curtains!

New Pillow

I have stumbled across a new pillow for our living room. I found this gem in Dillard's the other day. I couldn't resist the raised ikat embroidery. Additionally, it was marked down. Marked way down.

Louie

If you're wondering what was in THIS box. Lee got me this!

He had stuck a couple of 5 pound weights into the box to throw me off. I noticed they were missing the other day and defensively he argued, "How do you know something is missing that you never use!" Ha!

Surprise Face

After Jan turned the corner for the room reveal she couldn't say anything. We thought that she didn't like it maybe??? 

But she loved it and waterworks soon followed.

Jan has always wanted the two paintings behind her in this picture to be displayed prominently somewhere in her home. These were the first paintings that she painted on her own years ago. I'm glad we found the perfect place for them both.

Christmas Makeover

Lee and I went into this holiday season with every intention to treat this Christmas like it was our last. We triple checked to make sure the video camera had a full battery and our lists were checked twice to ensure nothing was forgotten before we headed South for my parent's home and then back waaaaay North for his family's home. It was a busy 4 days.
A definite highlight of our trip was the feeling we both had when Jan; my MIL turned the corner to see her bedroom makeover that Lee and I did for her. Jan does so much for everyone around her. Jan's actions always put others before herself. She has to be one of the most selfless women I know. In fact, I would say that she is the very glue that provides the strength for Lee's family.
Her house sits down the hill from Lee's 93 year old Nana. Jan's house has been in the family for years and her bedroom was in desperate need of a makeover. My challenges were the size of the space, 2 doors, and a full wall of closet space. See below for the Before pictures and click the video to see the transformation:

Merry Christmas

This is our nativity scene. It's by Willow Tree and it was a wedding gift. How awesome is that?!
'Tis the Reason for the Season!

I Wish

I  wish this to be for me. A girl can wish, right?!

Elf

Spotted. Airplane Elf on Shelf!

You can read more about this tradition HERE!
Our elf sits here:

Found in Closet

I've got sequined shoes yes I do, I've got sequined shoes how about you?!

$3 Swatch

If you have been following my blog then you know that I have been obsessing over trellis fabric for quite sometime. I told you HERE that I'm adding some orange to our master suite. I would love to add Kelly Wearstler's mandarin trellis, but it's not happening. For over $150/yd I can spend that mu$la elsewhere, right?! 

However, I did find something similar. The tone of the orange is a bit different so I ordered a $3 swatch to see it in person before ordering several yards. To be cont'd!

OFF

I'm off work today and the next day and the next day and the next day. OK. I'm off on holiday and not returning to work  until Jan. 3, 2011! Can I get a whoot whoot!

Driving Me Nuts

I still really want to know what is in THIS box!

B Talks Fashion

My dear little sister cousin has gone to market to help boutique owners in our hometown buy the latest trends for years now. B says that rose gold jewelry, anything lace and sequined ballet flats are big and will be bigger. Don't say I didn't tell you.

Pittsburgh, Boston, Ft. Worth & Back

Last week was cr-cr-crazzzy. Midweek, I flew to Boston to tour a customer's facility. I really enjoyed seeing the "guts" of the operation. We did lunch and talked bzzzness. It was great. What wasn't so great was the fact that my suitcase got lost in transition! I went round and round with the airline's customer service department. It took them over 24 hours to deliver my bag! It was like Survivor-Erin Style at Walgreens in the middle of the night (3am) when I discovered that my bag would not be delivered before my meeting the following day. I took a cab to Walgreens around the corner from my hotel to stock up on drugstore granny panties and cheap-o makeup. I got creative with the layers I had in my possession and bought a few things at a clothing boutique 1st thing the next morning.  Whew!

If you ever go to Boston (and you really should) you def need to checkout Faneuil Hall Marketplace. It's a fun space with old architecture, my favorite stores, and so much more.  I experienced the best crabcake of my life at Kingfish Hall. Faneuil also has many fabulous pubs with live bands to adore. In Boston-I felt very much at home, but with better food.

When I got back home-home (not hotel) Lee and I darted for Ft. Worth to see one of my gal pals from college get married. Her reception was at The Ashton so Lee and I stayed the night there. It was nice to get away and not feel rushed to get back home. We had many belly laughs with Mo, Mal, and their significant others. I'm hoping the wedding photographer took some good shots of us all because we were all very lame and didn't bother much with the camera. When I say lame, I mean having too much fun to care!

We got back home-home (again, not hotel) late in the afternoon. I hurried into my jammies and remained horizontal on the couch until bedtime.

Brrrr

I'm in Pittsburgh again for work. And it's cold. Here's my welcome view when I landed:



Originally, I was scheduled to get here on Sunday, but my flight was canceled due to bad weather. I woke up at 3am to catch my 6am flight yesterday and after being delayed for four hours, I got my hotel room around 4pm. I ordered room service for dinner and tried to look alive so that I could take my final online since I will have no time the rest of the week before it is due. I took a shower and dried my hair last night because I had to get up at 5:30am (4:30am where I'm from) and be in the hotel lobby by 6:15am. I grabbed my coworker and darted for Panera to pick up 3 variety boxes of bagels, 20 muffins, and 20 pastries. We then went in separate directions as I headed to the location of one of our customers to drop off breakfast. After breakfast, I headed to WV to meet a caterer at another customer location for lunch. 'Tis the Season! I'm now back in our Pittsburgh office winding down. Whew. Everyone is grabbing dinner together later. A girl has to eat, but I would much rather go in my jammies.

Holiday Decor

Touches of Christmas from the living room to the guest bathroom all around our house!



Call Me, Mrs. Christmas

Project Elf went great! I only had 15 lists unaccounted for when my deadline for employees passed. Which meant, I took my company card and went shopping to fulfill 15 Dear Santa Letters! This week I have been receiving toys from employees and preparing them for delivery. My week has gone something like this:

I took many carts out to the car.

I unloaded in the middle of my living room floor.

Every toy needed to be organized by each child's list.

All toys were then bagged and prepared for pickup by taping each list to its bag.

All toys are marked with the children's name to prevent the potential return of gifts for store credit. You would love to think that all foster parents are honest, but unfortunately some aren't. Bikes, keyboards, scooters, dolls, clothes, and Leapfrogs oh my! It's so rewarding to be an elf. I like seeing the child's list because it seems more personal to place a name and age with the toy you choose. Love Love Love this part of my job.

Leader of the Pack

I battled a head cold all of last week and the yucky-ness settled in my chest just in time for the weekend. Mom and dad spent the night at my house Friday evening and she brought me a Benadryl to dry me up. I was able to sleep like a rock that night. Note to self: Keep stock of Benadryl in the house.

I MENTIONED Lee being the Platoon Leader this month.  Since the conclusion of last month's drill, he has been carrying out his duties all month and he acted them out this past weekend. He also led the OCS holiday luncheon. My MIL, nephew, mom, and dad accompanied me to have lunch with Lee. It was nice to finally meet the people Lee tells me about each month. Putting faces with names makes everything seem more real, ya know? We played Dirty Santa and ate a stereotypical holiday catered meal. It was a brief 1 hr 1/2  visit. We were then given a boot out the door so the soldiers could carry out the remainder of their agenda for the weekend!

After pretending my cold didn't exist all day, I was ready for a nap when my guests departed. I did wake up to watch my boys beat Nebraska to win the Big 12 Championship. Boomer Sooner!

The remainder of my weekend consisted of homework, homework, and more homework. When Lee got home he seemed like a completely different person since his evaluation passed him with flying colors. I could totally tell his stress bomb had been released. Cheers!

Gift Wrap

I always enjoy selecting our Christmas wrapping paper each year. To me, it marks the first event of the Christmas decorating season. Growing up, my mom always made a big deal about not squishing her pretty bows that coordinate with her perfectly aligned paper on each wrapped gift. She would even make sure the cutoff edges matched the connecting edge of paper when she wrapped her gifts. 
Our paper this year:

O' Christmas Tree 2010

Up On The Rooftop...

...out jumps good old Santa Clause Lee!

The day after Thanksgiving is a busy day for us. We buzz around the house to get into the Christmas spirit. On my way to the store for replacement bulbs, I snapped this pic of Lee:

Bedlam 2010

This past weekend was my Alma Mater's big BEDLAM game. Lee and I were lucky enough to attend. It was a crazy good game. I'm talking edge of your seat intense. Actually, we didn't sit down through the entire game other than for a brief timeout. By the time you squeeze your booty into your designated space on the bench, it was time to stand and cheer. The game was held on our rival's turf this year.  I get really into the football games and Lee couldn't believe that I would yell so loud all the while we were surrounded by orange people. We did manage to smile through our rival's ugly frowns after our team scored!

Mom's Table(s)

The house was full and stretchy pants were adorn. Thanksgiving setting in my parent's home:

Thanksgiving Menu 2010

Lee and I rotate Thansgiving to avoid spending the majority of the holiday traveling between each of our hometowns. This year we spent the holiday with my parents and boy does my mom know how to throw down a yummy meal. Our menu consited of....

•      Hot Rolls
•      Grandma’s Famous Cranberry Relish
•      Turkey
•      Ham
•      Giblet Gravy
•      Grandma’s Famous Dressing
•      Deviled Eggs
•      Mac & Cheese (not from a box)
•      Corn
•      Sweet Potatoes
•      Mashed Potatoes
•      Broccoli and Rice Casserole
•      Chinese Coleslaw
•      Pumpkin Pie
•      Coconut Pie
•      Chocolate Ice-cream Mousse Pie
•      Pumpkin Roll
•      Banana Pudding

What's your favorite holiday dish??? What's mine? Handsdown-my grandmother's dressing. I took very diligent notes this year while I helped her put it together.

Project Elf

You've heard of the Angel Tree charity during the holidays, right? I'm super pumped to share that I'm heading up something similar this year at my company. I'm calling it Project Elf because I feel like an elf. I'm in charge of Christmas! Specifically, the children in our state's care. More specifically, my local community. I have been given a large portion of the lists to distribute. The lists provide a number of things a child wants for Christmas with number 1 being the gift wanted the most. It's getting closer to delivery date deadline and my office looks a lot like one would imagine Santa's Workshop. Who better to host Christmas than Mrs. Christmas herself?! See below for a glimpse of my poster design. I plastered these everywhere on site.

Our Thanksgiving

I still really want the feathered placemats that I saw HERE. C'est La Vie.

Pillow Talk

This past weekend I managed to knock a lot of peeps off my Christmas list. You see, each year the women in my family caravan to Dallas and get a major portion of our shopping for the holidays completed in one fast swoop. (Dad managed to get us the Presidential Suite this year. Go Dad!) However, I did manage to get something for myself! You've seen the "Keep Calm and Carry On" wall hangings and posters. Well...this past weekend I went shopping and bought this pillow:

I first saw this pillow HERE and it fits me so. I had to have it!

HSN-Update

My stockings have arrived and they look super. I really love them. The reds are the same in person and they are all equal in size. Note the angle of the camera.

AND since we're on the Christmas wagon right now, I must share my new gift name tags with you. I love Christmas. Duh! I like to use tulle ribbon to create big bows and I tie name tags to the base of the bow rather than using the sticker kind. I use ties because they're cuter and tulle rather than wire ribbon because we travel from one one end of the state to the other end to visit both our familes for Christmas. Mrs. Christmas must have pretty fluffy bows. Tulle is easy to fluff back to cuteness.

Weekend News

This past weekend was eventful! I was busy completing homework and studying for my upcoming Midterm...

We saw Unstoppable this past Friday night. It was decent, but seemed like another Pelham 123 except Denzel was on a train instead of focusing on the subway. Whatever. I wish we would have watched Morning Glory. (Great, title. Huh, Taylor?!) Still, Denzel is a great actor.

Saturday, I studied my booty off. Lee took a break from his Army chaos to buy me a new vacuum. He knows the way to my heart. Ha! He did very well. I hope this vacuum lasts longer than my last two cheapies. 

 Lee and I did meet Mal and James for dinner. Mal lived across the street from Caroline and me  during our SR year of college. We were Thetas together too. She is my favorite tall friend. Mal and James live in Houston, but came into town to see the Sooners gain another victory. We laughed our faces off during dinner and we're all looking forward to Katie's wedding in December so we can do it all again! Dang. I wish I would have thought to take a picture before we said buh-bye!

Our friend Katie had a bridal shower on Sunday. She opened presents while I drank wine. She looked fabulous. I love going to showers. Baby or bridal-it is always fun to see how my friends are decorating their homes whether it be the kitchen or a nursery.

I couldn't find a cute "Our First Christmas" ornament, but I did find her new monogram. I tied this to the bow on Katie's shower gift.

"Google" It

I have heard that Google is an extraordinary place to work. My favorite search engine really is that great. Here's proof:

Google has given all of its employees $1,000 cash "holiday bonuses" and 2011 salary increases of at least 10%. In addition, Google will also be giving each employee an additional raise equivalent to 1X the employee's target bonus for the year. AND employees will be eligible for additional "merit increases" based on their individual performance.

Enjoy Every Bite - Update

Elizabeth got to go home last night! The doctors are waiting for one more test, but they feel that she is stable enough to wait for the results from home. Should the levels be too high than she'll need to pack up and head back to the hospital. It's too early to make official, but fingers crossed for "it" being the flu!

Enjoy Every Bite

Made a stop yesterday evening at the Children's Hospital to see our niece. She has been throwing up sporadically at school and feverish. She broke out into lymph nodes all over her body the other night too. They have been running tests and fearful that she may have Lymphoma. Sweet girl is a trooper.  She's feeling better and we're hoping her test results come back with positve results today so that she can go home.

Elizabeth was born five weeks early with only 10% function of her kidneys. She received a kidney transplant donated by her daddy (Lee's brother). She has since undergone a complete reconstruction of her bladder. She has been doing really well for awhile now so we're hoping she's only caught a bug. Her bugs effect her ten-fold since her immune system differs from the norm.

I like this pic because you can tell that she genuinely enjoys my cookies! She enjoys every bite.

Drill Weekend

Lee got back from drill last night and we went to the theater to watch Due Date. It is LOL funny. Go see it. Zach Galifianakis cracks my face up.

Also, Lee came home with this:

He is the OCS Platoon Leader for next month. In civilian terms? He is the leader of the pack. He'll be in charge of organizing everything from the way the unit folds their underwear in the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) to every head being accounted for when they receive the mass amount of memo requests from the Cadre (person who trains officer candidates) throughout the month. One weekend a month my A$#. However, I am strangely excited for Lee to have this opportunity. In college, he always assumed leadership positions and totally rocked his role every time. It's exciting to finally see how all of these little-time consuming-Cadre-given tasks add up to something of use.

Lee's next drill is obviously in December and offers family visitation! They are hosting a meet and greet Christmas luncheon for spouses. Secretly, I am excited and nervous. This will be my first time to interact with other Army families and meet his Cadre. If you haven't noticed, we're not involved with his assigned unit/branch/etc since Lee has been in training since we started this adventure. Now, what should I wear??? To be cont'd...

Polish

I've been craving the perfect muddy color for my nails. I've been talking to my pal Taylor about it for a week now. Silly, I know. Well, I treated myself to a mani/pedi on my homework break today and I found my mud. OPI's You Don't Know Jacques is the winning shade. To me, it's the perfect blend of grey and brown. Little did I know, this shade is all the rave for Fall. I googled an image to show you a more true color because my iphone is making my nails look a lot darker than what they really are.

Feather Me Crazy

I'm kinda obsessing with {RE}cycled's table setting look for Fall. I love all the layers and accents that she's added to the table. I want need 8 feathered mats and I haven't found any that are within my ME budget being this close to the holidays. If I find the feathers I like, I just might attempt this crafty look myself.

FABRIC

The fabric is here! The fabric is here! I ordered my 5 yards of fabric from FABRIC.COM and it shipped immediately. I love that. Seriously, it felt like minutes after my order I got a personalized email thanking me for my order and another email with my tracking information. I am definitely using them for future projects. At lunch today, I'm going to get fabric to line the inside of the curtains. During my homework breaks this weekend, I am going to attempt the curtain making process myself.  Maybe. I'm sure it's going to be a lot more attention to detail than THESE updates I added to our living room curtains. Young House Love has THIS DIY technique, but it's not for a pocket rod curtain with lining. I prefer lined curtains and I already have a curtain rod up that I believe is too thick for "clip rings". To be cont'd...

Lake House Bedrooms

I mentioned briefly in THIS post that the lake house is coming along nicely. A bit theme-y, but very fun for a quick weekend getaway from the norm. It's a fun work in progress. Here are a few pictures of the bedrooms! The awesome thing is that we haven't had to do any shopping yet. All items were in our previous lake house or found in my garage. Ha!