christmas decor 2014

Hey y'all! 

Today I am linking up with Kelly's Korner's 

Christmas Tour of Homes. 

It was just the push I needed to get pictures taken of my decor this year. 

My favorite thing in my house is in my library, of course. 

This year I did my first book tree. 

It was super simple to do and only took about 10 minutes. 

I cannot believe I have never tried it before. 

I decided not to do a big tree this year. 

I will be a D's house the week before and week after Christmas. 

So, it didn't make a lot of sense to have two big trees. 

My wonderful landlord gave me this live tree that I can plant after the holidays 

and it was perfect. 

Every year I have to do a different wrapping theme. 

If anyone needs any wrapping paper, 

I have PLENTY to choose from. ;) 

I really liked this brown paper look this year. 

Moving on to my main living space ...  

I have a wooden beam that runs the length of my apartment. 

And this is my second favorite part of my Christmas decor. 

I hung the ornaments with fishing line and it looks like they are just floating in space. 

I love the look of this tray 

It is so hard to get a picture of the whole beam

I got all of my decorations from Hobby Lobby. 

That place gets me every time. 

I swear I cannot walk out of that place without spending $50. 

If you are stopping by from the linkup be sure to say Hi! 

independence day recap

I had a super long weekend 

because I had Thursday & Friday off from work.  

Yay for a FOUR day weekend! 

This weekend was just perfect. 

I will try to be as brief as possible and not bore you with too many details. 

Thursday: 

I had to do a fun patriotic manicure. 

Many of you know about my LOVE of fireworks already. 

This year I got to see fireworks two days in a row. 

Once on Thursday and then again on Friday! 

Wednesday was D's sister's 18th birthday and we celebrated on Thursday. 

We went to a neighboring small town 

and had supper and watched their fireworks. 

Friday: 

I baked an apple pie and brownies 

for D's family gathering. 

At the family gathering, 

we grilled hamburgers & hot dogs 

and spent all afternoon swimming in the pool. 

We capped off a great day by going to see more fireworks! 

Our view waiting on the fireworks show

Saturday: 

D and I went to his cousin's house and went tubing. 

They also had a giant swing off of a dock. 

It was so much fun! 

However, my arms are still killing me. 

I think it's possible they may fall off. ;) 

Sunday: 

D and I had a lazy Sunday morning, 

drinking coffee, eating cinnamon rolls, 

and watching Wimbledon. 

We were both cheering for Federer, but Djokovic won. 

It was still an excellent match to watch. 

Whew! I think I summed that up pretty well. 

I saw most of your recaps yesterday 

and everyone seemed to have an excellent Fourth as well. 

I know it's a day late, 

but I am linking up with Picture Practice. 

SUYL: 4th of July Traditions

Today I am linking up with Kelly's Korner 

Show Us Your Life series. 

This week the topic is 

4th of July traditions. 

Independence Day
is seriously my favorite holiday of the year. 
I love it more than Christmas and Thanksgiving. 

I have always been very patriotic 
and I love anything to do with history. 

But also on a completely different level, 
you get FIREWORKS 
and no obligatory family dinners. 

What is not to love about July 4th?! 

I have never really had any traditions. 
Unless you count mandatory viewing of fireworks as a tradition. 
I have seriously driven hours to see fireworks 
when my local show has been cancelled because of weather. 

D's family, on the other hand, does have traditions. 
Every year the entire family, 
I'm talking 40-50 people, 
gathers at D's grandparents' pool house. 
There is always food, fun, and lots of swimming. 
Definitely my kind of people! 

D and I almost missed fireworks last year because of rain, 
on our FIRST Independence Day together. 
We hadn't been dating quite 3 months yet. 
It was flooding 
where we initially planned on watching fireworks. 
So, D literally sped to get back to town 
and just as we arrived the 
first fireworks were shot off. 

Close call!

My plans this year are to hang out with D's family, 
eat, swim, and watch fireworks. 
Sounds like a perfect July 4th to me! 

all images courtesy of google image search

Valentine's Weekend

Rose from D

This past week and weekend have been crazy busy. 
To start things off I had two snow/ice days off from work. 
The weather got pretty bad here Wednesday. 
The 'Boro only got ice, no snow. 
But that meant my apartment was out of power for nine hours Wednesday. 
I was lucky though, some people were out of power for a few days. 

However, I was freaking out a little bit. 
I was expecting my first out-of-town guests, in my new apartment, to arrive on Thursday. 
And not having power would have put a LITTLE hitch into my plans. 
But, luckily, my power was restored Wednesday night and Isa, Lincoln, and baby Luke had plenty of heat and water on their visit! 

The reason I had guests this past weekend is D was in a play for our local community theater. 
The musical was called Heartbreaks and Hallelujahs and ran 
Feb 13 - Feb 15. 
D did such an awesome job!! 
I know as his girlfriend, I may be a little biased. 
But everyone else, including complete strangers, raved about how well he did. 
In my opinion, he stole the show! 
Friday night, my friends and I attended the play and it was the perfect way to spend Valentine's Day. 
The theater served champagne at intermission and one of the local florists gave a rose to all the ladies in attendance. 

I had such a great time with Isa and Lincoln on their visit. 
Isa and I have been friends for about 13 years and I helped plan/coordinate her wedding. 
Wedding posts ... {1,2,3,4}
Luke is such a happy baby and such a trooper. 
He made it through D's play like a champ Friday night. 
I loved getting a good dose of baby snuggles this weekend. 
They went home Saturday afternoon in order to get Luke back on his schedule after the busy weekend. 

Luke shopped 'til he dropped! 

Saturday night I went back to see D's play again. 
Yes, it was that good! 
His family was there that night as well to see him and they all loved the play. 

D and I were both exhausted after the play and hosting guests. 
So, we slept late Sunday and cooked a nice brunch. 
It was nice to just relax Sunday! 

Sunday Brunch ...
{french toast, eggs, bacon, & cheese grits}

just call me martha stewart

I love to decorate my house for holidays...in theory!

When it comes to my personal life I am the

Queen of procrastination.

For example, last night I just switched out my holiday decorations.



  

Yes, I went from July 4th straight to Halloween.

That's how I roll! :)

I have good intentions to change these frames for

every season/holiday.

Somehow, August & September were forgotten this year. 

happy independence day!

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happy new year!

Wishing you health, happiness, and prosperity in the New Year!

 

God Bless!

{pics via}

playing catch up

My life since Thanksgiving in pictures!

{sorry for the quality, most of the pics were taken with my phone}

I am one of those annoying people that have all of their Christmas shopping done in October.

This year I was actually finished at the beginning of September.

But I did not have time to wrap them.

I had the Monday before Thanksgiving off from both jobs, so I took the opportunity to get all of my presents wrapped. 

I go a little overboard wrapping gifts.

Honestly, it is my favorite part of gift-giving.

I always buy little things to add to the bows, like jingle bells, candy canes, & ornaments.

I baked lots of goodies for Thanksgiving!

Peach cobbler, lemon meringue pie, chocolate pie, & of course pecan pie.

I only got pics of the peach cobbler & lemon meringue though.

We put up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving!

We call it our "funky" tree.

Because all of the ornaments are in "funky" colors. 

My research partner and I delved back into our research for IT Management the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

We finally derived a formula that would work for our research.

This is what the white board in our study room looked like.

I am sure we were giving the poor freshmen that walked by nightmares!

My little man turned 1 month old on December 2nd.

It is hard to believe I have only gotten to spend about a week total with him since he was born.

My sister is really good about sending me a picture at least once a day but it is just not the same.

Especially since I moved in with her & her hubby for 3 months when my oldest niece was born and we lived together when her 2nd daughter was born. 

My sis, the kiddos, and I lived together until my youngest niece was 7 & I moved away for school.

It is super hard to watch my newest kiddo grow up in pictures, but I am going to get to see all 3 of my kiddos for a whole week at Christmas.

I CANNOT WAIT!

 {look at those chubby cheeks!}

 {first Santa picture!}

{I could not resist buying this}

Well, I think that about sums up the past few weeks.

If you made it to the end of this post, I have probably bored you to tears.

Sorry about that, but thank you for your dedication!