recent happenings...

here's what I've been up to lately 

(besides being buried in school work - tonight is my last class! WOO!)... 

please excuse the quality of these photos - all cell phone pics. 

replicating some Dali artwork, circa 1923

cooking the most delicious baked ziti known to man, topped with MY VERY OWN fresh basil

[recipe here]

acing physics exams

creating holiday decor & handmade ornaments 

painted ornament tutorial here

"ribbon" ornament is just strips of curled scrapbook paper 

and the scalloped felt tree was a huge pain in the ass

cuddling with a cute Rhys

drawing my iron reindeer that sits on the bookshelf

painting my nails a very festive green for only $0.99 

spending time with this adorable guy

so yeah... that pretty much sums up why I haven't been around. 

have you been doing any holiday decorating? 

have you been cuddling babies as cute as Rhys? (doubtful)

Happy Monday! 

6 things that make me happy today and a photo

1. we had an amazing time in Atlantic City on Saturday, and the memories that were made were very special... and hilarious. we started the morning off with mimosas (I'm talking 10AM) and didn't end until the bus ride home around 8PM. needless to say, it was a damn good day. 

2. I'm down another 2lbs. I haven't been doing anything crazy, but I've recently started to really watch my eating habits. I've also been making sure to park far away from my buildings at school so that I have to walk further and taking the stairs everywhere. either way, it feels good. 

3. we booked our flights for our friends' wedding in St. Thomas. SO EXCITED. once we get the rooms booked, we'll be all set. 

4. being domestic. yesterday I spent a majority of the day doing things around the house - I scooped the litter boxes, did ALL the dishes, completed a few loads of laundry, vacuumed all the floors, took the trash out, completed this map project, and made dinner that was ready as soon as Sean walked in the door. productivity = happiness. 

5. I finally have a hair appointment set for this weekend and I cannot wait. I'm contemplating doing this. I am not cutting my hair (only a trim), so I figure I can pull this off until my next appointment, when it's faded. thoughts?

6. I'm skipping art class tonight. I didn't do my homework (see #4), and I have tons of stuff I need to do around the house... like hanging said map project, making another canvas painting, and grocery shopping. I'm also going to make this for dinner tonight. Sean is in complete shock that I'm cooking dinner two nights in a row. to be honest, I am too. ha! 

and just so this post isn't completely photo-less, here's what we did all day Saturday. 

what are you happy about today?

Happy Monday! 

tidbits & updates [long post]

grrrr, I caught a chest cold at some point in the last week or so and have been at home in bed for the last 2 days. thankfully, I'm feeling MUCH better and am back at work today. woo! so... now for some updates on what's going on lately... 




SCHOOL
I started fall semester courses last night. I will be taking classes on campus this semester for the first time in 5 years. I'll be at school three evenings a week... Monday nights (Drawing I) from 6-9:45 and Tuesday/Thursday nights (Physics... barf) from 7-8:15. Sean is taking classes on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, and he also has season tickets to Ravens home games, which means that we'll really only see each other and spend time together on Friday and Saturday nights until December. super sad face about that. 


I'm really nervous about the physics class. in high school, the highest level of science that I took was biology, because it wasn't a requirement to take anything further... which means that I never took chemistry or physics or any of that. the instruction is on light & sound, which makes total sense for my degree, but I hope it's not as scary as it sounds. 


the drawing class, on the other hand, is going to be a lot of fun. I went and got all my supplies last night, which included a couple 18x24 size drawing and newsprint pads, a bunch of different kinds of charcoal and graphite pencils, and other tools such as erasers and a portfolio to carry everything in. I wish I would have held onto all my supplies from years ago, and I would have saved a lot of money, haha. the main project in the course is the homework portion, in which we have to do 7-8 drawings a week in our sketch books, totaling up to 100 drawings at the end of the semester... which means my social life can pretty much be thrown out the window. I think it'll be interesting to see how the quality of the work changes from now until December. 




READING 
thanks to vacation, I've been on a roll with getting through my to-read list. I just finished Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah over the weekend, and can't wait to review it. while at the beach, I also finished Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, and am now reading the second book in the series, called Pretties. I'm glad I scaled back my goal for the Good Reads Challenge, because I'm right on track. I'm extremely proud of myself for reading so many books thus far, and I have no doubt that I'll reach my goal of 35 by the end of the year. 


here's a list of what I've read so far this year... 


1. Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
2. A Scattered Life - Karen McQuestion
3. The Help - Kathryn Stockett
4. Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
5. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
6. Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
7. 19 Minutes - Jodi Picoult
8. Something Borrowed - Emily Giffin 
9. Something Blue - Emily Giffin
10. Baby Proof - Emily Giffin
11. Matched - Ally Condie
12. Delirium - Lauren Oliver
13. Love The One You're With - Emily Giffin
14. Dead Reckoning - Charlaine Harris
15. If I Stay - Gayle Forman
16. Where She Went - Gayle Forman
17. Homer's Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned about Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat  - Gwen Cooper
18. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner - Stephanie Meyer
19. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
20. Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me - Chelsea Handler
21. Uglies - Scott Westerfeld
22. Firefly Lane - Kristin Hannah 



KITTIES
Skillet went to his new home on Friday night. I'm going to be honest. I may or may not have cried a little bit. he was that poor little sick cat that, at one point, was being medicated for three different illnesses and had to be quarantined in my bathroom. he grew to be such a little lovebug, and therefore, I grew VERY attached to him. and while I'm very happy to sleep past 5AM without a little purring, I miss him SO much. I know that his new mama will take good care of him, and I look forward to getting updates and watching him grow. 


the other kitties are doing well, with the exception of Pheobe, who is still on eye drops for a little conjunctivitis that she received via Skillet. her eyes are looking much better than they were last week, so she should be off the meds soon. Bear seems to be ecstatic that Skillet is out of the house, and relieved that he is no longer the object of playful torture from a little kitten. 




HOUSE
not a whole lot of updates on the home front. the table we bought from IKEA is still in a box waiting to be put together, which will have to happen soon since I'll need the space for art stuffs. we did finally order roman shades for the windows in the kitchen and dining room, and since they were all custom sizes, they took 7 weeks to arrive. they showed up at our door last week, so hopefully we'll have time to install them this weekend. 


I also want to take time in the next few weeks to get more things on the walls. I have a mirror and a few prints that I bought a looooong time ago that I want to hang in the living room. photographing the gallery wall in the entry wall is on my to-do list as well... especially since the frames actually have prints and photos in them now. 


now that we're not constantly taking care of kittens, we should be able to get quite a lot done inside. what I NEED to do is make myself a list of things that need to be completed in each room and start attacking one room at a time. I'll put "list making" on the to-do list. ;)




HEALTH
as of the 12th of August, I am 10 months smoke-free, and it feels AMAZING! I honestly don't even think about smoking anymore, unless I smell it, and in that case, I think nothing but "GROSS." I still can't believe that I was a pack-a-day smoker for so long, and that it completely ruled my life for years and years. 


I'm still eating pretty healthy... not perfect, but much better than I did a year ago. we eat at home most nights, but will treat ourselves to a meal out about once a week/every two weeks. I very rarely eat fast food anymore, and it upsets my stomach if I do have a craving for a greasy burger. when we eat at home, we eat mostly quick meals like breakfast (eggs, bacon, toast), pasta (usually salad, ravioli, garlic bread), or chicken (marinated chicken with fresh/steamed veggies). we have a bunch of regular recipes that we stand by during the week and usually introduce new things on the weekends. I drink 1 cup of coffee and 1 20oz soda everyday, and other than that, it's water ALL day long. occasionally I'll have a cup of sleepytime tea at night. 


with both of us in school, I'm not sure how dinners are going to work. I brought a sandwich for dinner tonight, but I know that's going to get old pretty fast. if anyone has any easy to-go dinner ideas that don't require heat, they'd be much appreciated! 


as far as exercise goes, I'm sad to say that it's pretty much non-existent. I do work up a sweat doing things around the house, and I've been pretty busy running errands on weekends, but I'd hardly call either of those things true exercise. although because I'm eating healthier and not being AS sedentary as I was before I started my workout program, I've maintained my weight... so while I've not lost any, I haven't gained any either. 


so even though I still eat fast food once in a blue moon, and I'm not working out as much as I should be, I FEEL great, which is the most important thing. instead of coming home and sitting on my ass most nights, I try to do things around the house or stimulate my brain with words instead of mindless TV. don't get me wrong, I still watch TV at night, but I feel much more active in taking care of my home, and my mind and body are grateful for it. 




EARTHQUAKE
this just happened. please never ever let me feel one again. at first I thought a military plane was flying over (I work right outside of DC and next door to Andrew's Air Force Base), but then I realized that I didn't actually hear the plane, and that the floor was shaking. and then my desk... and then the walls. and I looked outside, and the cars in the parking lot looked as if they were bobbing along in a body of water. my heart is still pounding and I may or may not have peed myself a little bit. 






ummm. so I guess that's it, I think. I figured I'd write up a little post for you guys full of updates, since it seems pretty rare that I actually dive into those subjects here lately. I'm sure you'll be hearing MUCH more about school though, since it's sure to rule my life for the next few months!


on a completely unrelated note... is anyone else ready for fall weather? I'm ready to decorate my house in warm colors, and I'm excited for boots and hoodies! 


Happy Tuesday! 

shrimp fettuccine alfredo [recipe]

I know that this recipe may not seem like much for most people, especially those more adventurous eaters. but the truth is that ever since Sean and I have been together, the only sauce we've eaten with pasta is red sauce, because he swore up and down that he didn't like cream sauces, blah blah blah. so finally, he agreed to try to a cream/cheese sauce, and it just happened to be alfredo because we already had the ingredients on hand.

Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo

[Facts]:

prep time: 20 minutes

cook time: 20 minutes

ready to eat: 40 minutes

makes: (6) servings

[Ingredients]:

• 1lb fettuccine pasta
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1lb cooked shrimp - peeled & de-veined
• 4 gloves garlic - minced
• 1 cup half & half
• 6 tablespoons Parmesan cheese (we ended up using more like 8-9 tablespoons)
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley (substituted 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes)
• salt to taste 

[Directions]:

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
2. In a large skillet, saute shrimp and garlic in the butter for about one minute. Pour in half and half; stir. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese in one tablespoon at a time, stirring constantly. 
3. After all Parmesan is added, mix in parsley and salt. Stir frequently making sure it does not boil. Sauce will take a while to thicken.
4. When sauce has thickened, combine with cooked pasta noodles; serve hot. 

[NOTE]: 

don't get me wrong, this shit was delicious, but next time, I'll probably either add more half & half, or cut the amount of pasta in half. I felt like it was way too much pasta for the little bit of sauce it made. we don't need to be cooking a pound of pasta at a time anyway, since it's only us eating.

enjoy! 

and happy Cinco de Mayo, friends!

Friday loves

• this tattoo that I stumbled upon via Pinterest. I've been thinking of getting something that represents the American Indian part of me, and I love this dreamcatcher. it's simple but beautiful. 

if you know the original source of this image, let me know so I can credit it properly!

• the ever so addicting Words With Friends game that I downloaded on my phone. I'm a word game fiend and so naturally, I'm hooked on it. I've been playing with friends as well as random opponents. if you want to play, shoot me an email!

• Mrs. Biscuit's kitty mugs. I need to find them, and soon. I don't know if I can live without them.

• Michael Scott's last episode of The Office. I have no words, other than I AM SO SAD.

image

• this pasta sauce recipe that we cooked last night. we used a lot more cheese than the recipe call for, and it turned out pretty well. if we make it again (which I'm sure we will, cause I get sick of eating red sauce), I'll probably only use half of the pasta. either way, it was delicious! I will have pictures soon! 

• Cole's roundup of rain boots. I've been wanting a pair of rain boots for what seems like forever, and Target chevron pretties are a callin' my name! 

• the whole navy blue/nautical thing that West Elm's got goin' on right now. more specifically, these napkins and these pillows, and this shower curtain. I would like them all in my home now, please and thank you.

• Clara's birth story. holy hell, there were a lot a terrified moments leading up to this girl's arrival, and you would have never known it if not for Sherry's heart wrenching post this week.

• Erika's kitchen makeover - specifically, the after pictures. I especially love the old gym locker in the pantry and the open shelves! oh, and the green cabinets don't hurt either.

• this bathtub. HUBBA HUBBA. 

Emily Henson Interiors via Lauren @ the little things we do

Happy Friday! <3

homemade lasagna [recipe]

we had Kaley, Adam & Kullen over for dinner on Saturday evening. I made my first ever homemade lasagna and it was SO delicious, I knew I had to share it with you all. if you've been around here for a while, you know that I am no chef, so this was quite the accomplishment for little ol me.

as always, the recipe was found at allrecipes.com. I'll note the changes I made to the recipe in bold below. sadly, I didn't take ONE single picture of the dish, so you'll have to use your imagination to picture how wonderfully mouthwatering it was. 

Kaley was kind enough to make salads and garlic bread, which perfected the meal. Sean made these mint brownies, which were dangerously delectable... I'll be writing a post all about those this week, since I do have a picture of them on my camera!

World's Best Lasagna 

[Facts]:

prep time: 30 minutes

cook time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

ready to eat: 3 hours, 15 minutes

[Ingredients]:

• 1 pound sweet Italian sausage (I don't like Italian sausage, so I substituted with a pound & a half of ground beef)
• 3/4 pound lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup minced onion
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
• 2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (I used dried parsley flakes = 4 teaspoons)
• 12 lasagna noodles
• 16 ounces ricotta cheese
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced (about 18 slices)
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

[Directions]:

1. In a Dutch oven, cook sausage, ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned. 
2. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. 
3. Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons parsley. 
4. Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. 
5. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain noodles, and rinse with cold water. (see notes below)
6. In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, remaining parsley, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
7. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
8. To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Arrange 6 noodles lengthwise over meat sauce. Spread with one half of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with a third of mozzarella cheese slices. Spoon 1 1/2 cups meat sauce over mozzarella, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. 
9. Repeat layers (noodles, ricotta, mozzarella, meat sauce & Parmesan). 
10. Top with remaining mozzarella (I just added another whole layer of mozzarella slices) and Parmesan cheese. 
11. Cover with foil: to prevent sticking, either spray foil with cooking spray, or make sure the foil does not touch the cheese.
12. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.

[NOTES]: 

the directions were originally combined into about 5 steps, but I like it broken out more by actions than components of the recipe, so I got a little ENTER key happy. 

Sean accidentally bought the "no boil" noodles, so we eliminated step #5 that required cooking and draining the noodles. they actually turned out to be a little chewy, so I will probably use regular noodles next time. 

I made extra meat sauce and added an extra layer, which turned out to be too much meat for my tastes. next time, I'll probably add more ricotta to level it out, but that's just a personal preference.

this recipe fed five adults and two children on Saturday night, and we had two servings of leftovers for lunch on Monday!

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just so this post isn't completely photo-less, here are some that I took with my cell phone over the weekend:

this is the hard work that Bear contributed to the super duper cleaning of the house this weekend.

I got this shirt for $10 at Woot! and I love it. the shapes that make up Poe's face are ravens.

Happy Tuesday!

holly freaking homemaker [late post]

yeah, that's me. at least this week. ;) 

NOTE: Blogger hates me and did not automatically post this on Saturday, even though I had it scheduled to. 

I've decided it's time to be a grown up... meaning that I've got to start pitching in with cooking dinner and keeping up with the house. which means... no more waiting until the weekend, only to spend an entire day cleaning the crap out of my house. no more leaving dishes in the sink until I feel like washing them. no more unhealthy (yet incredibly easy) meals for dinner. no more buying crap food for lunch everyday at work. 

I'm proud to say that I haven't bought lunch at work in two weeks! it's amazing how much money you save when you just bring your own food to work everyday. this whole concept is completely foreign to me, but I think it's been a success so far! 

everyday when I get home, I try to do one or two small things around the house... like scoop the litter boxes or vacuum the hardwood floors. when we're finished with dinner, the dishes get washed and put in the dish drain, and the put away the following day. I'm cooking dinner at least 2-3 times a week, and I'm loving it. 

keeping up with the house work/chores and cooking meals together every night has proved to be awesome for Sean and I. we get that time in the evening to bond with each other instead of going our separate ways and fending for ourselves for dinner. unfortunately, we had been guilty of doing that in the past. teaming up to make sure the house is always in order is an automatic ego boost for both of us and we feel awesome about it. 

we decided we wanted to have our friends Kaycie & Adam over this Sunday. the Caps play at 12:30, and then of course, there's the Superbowl on later in the evening. since they'll be at our house pretty much all day, I decided to go all out and have a feast throughout the day. I've been searching allrecipes.com for good appetizer recipes, and I think I finally have a set list of dishes to make. 

let me just mention that I am not a chef... I typically do not cook and I certainly don't cook appetizers. so this is a first for me, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they turn out well!

Sunday Funday Menu

APPS

• Homemade Meatballs with Kaley's secret meatball sauce ;)
• Dill Veggie Dip, served with baby carrots, sliced cucumbers, broccoli florets, and cherry tomatoes
• Sweet Fruit Dip, served with sliced apples, bananas, strawberries, and cantaloupe
• Bacon Wrapped Shrimp (I'm substituting the BBQ sauce for a pre-packaged McCormick's marinade)

DINNER

• Garden Salad with Italian dressing and garlic croutons
• Baked Ziti, served with cheesy garlic bread

DESSERT

• Chocolate Candy Bar Dessert (using Oreo cookies instead of wafers and Snickers candy bars)

so there it is, my first ever multi-course dinner menu! I'm pretty excited about all of this, to be honest. I actually cooked Sean's chicken Parmesan (his favorite) as a belated birthday meal a few weeks ago, along with the chocolate roll cake. I honestly just kind of winged it for the chicken Parm, so I guess I can't really post a recipe for that, but I do have pictures. if I have the time this weekend, those posts will be up! 

I'm also still working on a book review for The Help, but I'm having a hard time finding the time to put sufficient energy into it. I'm in the middle of reading 3 different books right now, but all is being put on hold for The Hunger Games. I've had multiple people tell me (just this week!) that they couldn't put it down and they read it fairly quickly (we're talking a day here), so I figured I'd go ahead and pick it up. I need a page turner right now to distract me from my English class. 

I think that's all for now... at least all my brain can handle at the moment. I hope you all are doing fantastic - I'm working on catching up on your recent posts! have a happy weekend, everyone!  

UPDATE: I went out with Sean and his friends last night and got completely way too drunk, resulting in the worst hangover known to man. I've spent the majority of the day in the bathroom puking my brains out. the only dish I actually cooked today was the meatballs... Kaycie and Sean cooked everything else. and for the record, my meatballs were delicious. 

tidbits & some Friday photos

sheesh. I have been horrible about blogging this week. I feel like all my posts lately have been fluff, so I apologize. I need to get back into the swings of things. my spring semester class starts tonight, but it's a 13 week class, so I won't be as stressed out as I was over the winter semester with that damn sociology class.

I'm going to make an effort to take better photos, and in doing so, I'm going to try my hand at participating in as many photo challenges as I can. I hope they encourage me to work harder at taking nice photos and being satisfied with them enough to publish them here on the blog.

there's a lot going on at the FoFinn household lately. we've recently reaaaaally started to budget ourselves and cut back on frivolous spending. I'm proud to say that I have not bought lunch at work one time this week, and it feels great. we're allowing ourselves a certain amount of cash to spend every week, and we can do what we please with it. I decided that instead of buying lunch everyday, I'm going to save my money and buy myself a Vera Bradley agenda calendar, haha.

this is a lot of text, so I'm going to break it up with some photos. I took my camera out the other evening and got some good shots of the meows, so I thought I'd share them for my fellow crazy cat ladies, along with a few shots from a Mardi Gras themed party I attended over the weekend.

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the prompt for today's Foto Friday challenge is Reflections. I took this at a friend's house over the weekend. a good friend of mine turned 30 on Saturday, and visited us from Louisiana, so we threw her a Mardi Gras themed bonfire party. it was the coldest day we had in a long time, so I made sure to bundle up!

_______________________________________________

this week's challenge at Living Every Moment is "anything." any time there isn't a specific task or item to photograph, the kitties get the spotlight. this is Bear's ALERT!!! face.

______________________________________________

the awesome ladies who hosted the Mardi Gras party on Saturday night did an amazing job with the favors and little trinkets. there were beads, masks, and the birthday girl even got a boa to wear all evening. I took this shot using my 50mm lens, and I was really impressed with how it turned out, so I decided to use it for this week's Give Me Your Best Shot challenge. 

(for some reason, the button for GMYBS is not working, but the link is!)

________________________________________

and since GMYBS and Photo Story Friday are linked together, I'll go ahead and post that one as well. this is Lily's spot on the couch. she will fight for this cushion, and the other meowers know not to even think about parking their asses here.

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli
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last weekend, I decided to implement a weekly meal plan for dinners in our house and I really think it's helped us to stay on track. we were spending SO much money at the grocery store on a weekly basis on a bunch of crap that we didn't need. having a specific plan for meals has forced us to only get what we'll need for that week and is therefore saving us money each week. now... this only started last week, so I'm not an expert at this or anything, but it's working well damnit. 

as you can probably tell from my sidebar, I've been doing a lot of reading as of late. I made myself a rather ambitious goal to read at least 50 books this year, and I've already finished 3 books this year, and we're not even out of the first month yet. I completed The Help yesterday afternoon (three cheers for a snow day!), and it was such a good read. I'll be writing a lengthy review over the weekend, so stay tuned! I picked up 19 Minutes by Jodi Picoult last night and I'm hooked already.

I'll be back later today with a Fill in the Blank Friday post!

Happy Friday, ya'll!

ketchup

ugh, I have been a sucky blogger. even though I blogged almost everyday of the week last week, I feel like I haven't written anything of substance in a while. unfortunately, my sociology class doesn't end until Friday at midnight, so I'll most likely be busy all this week.

AND I'm finally getting my ass back in the gym tonight (I haven't been since before Christmas... shame), and I'm really excited about it. I got so busy and caught up with the holidays, and then I was sick for a few days, and now I've got this damned class... I haven't even thought about working out. but I need to get back on track with exercising and eating right and there's no time like the present! 

we had a very successful holiday party this weekend - it was our fourth (or fifth?) annual Secret Santa party, and this year we decided to add a little twist and ask that everyone come decked out in their ugliest holiday sweaters. the sweaters were hideous and hilarious. 

Kaley and I organized mostly everything with the exception of two dishes. we had a traditional holiday meal, complete with ham, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, green bean casserole, mac & cheese, and biscuits. Kaley made a cake and pumpkin pie for dessert and we made that damn candy cane bark as well. it turned out really well, but it was a giant pain in the ass to break up those candy canes.

we made mustache favors... which didn't really turn out that well, but they made for some funny photos. we gave out prizes for the tackiest sweaters and did a white elephant/steal a gift game. it was a GREAT night and I think all our friends had a blast. I'm already thinking of good ideas for next year's party! 

at some point in the evening, we decided it would be a good idea to pretend we were 21 again and partake in beer bongs. I'm not sure WHY we thought it was a good idea, but I definitely paid for it on Sunday. I spent the entire day in bed with a horrible headache and bouts of nausea and beer shits throughout the day.

ANYWAY. I just wanted to let ya'll know that I might be a little too busy for blogging this week. I will, however, be filling out last week's blanks with Lauren. if I have time, I'll upload all the pictures I took at our Secret Santa party this evening. I'm also incredibly behind on my Reader too, so if you haven't seen any comments from me lately, that's why! 

Happy Monday!

hey good lookin, whatcha got cookin? [Etsy goods]

it's no secret that Sean is the cook in our home. now, let's not be confused... I CAN cook, and I'm actually a good cook... I just don't prefer to, especially when there's another willing person to do the dirty work. 

in order to become more of a big girl good wife, I've been helping out in the kitchen more. I mentioned in this post that I even made a majority of our Christmas dinner dishes, which was a huge accomplishment for me, being that it was my first holiday meal. 

I've been rotating with Sean on cooking duty at home, and even picked up the ingredients to make a few special things at home as well. Saturday evening, I'll be making Sean his favorite meal as a belated birthday gift, chicken Parmesan.

ANYWHOZITS. the whole point of this post is that now that I'm a big girl pro master chef and all, I needs to get myself a supah cute apron to wear around my house when I'm making those complicated dinners and desserts. HA!

where else did I perform my search, but the lovely, oh so helpful, Etsy. 

behold... and help me choose!

[the bella]

[sunny side up]

 [ruffled half]

[modern folksy]

[the tattoo parlor]

[by the sea]

[silver spoon]

(if you've been here a while, this fabric may look familiar... 

it's the same as my camera strap!)

[baker's delight]

[mustache]

[love bird]

[blue fans]

so, tell me readers... 

what does your apron look like? is it a half or a full? is it sleek and sophisticated or girly and full of ruffles? also, what do you put in the pocket? keep any goodies in there that I should know about?