Terrific Pins Tuesday!!

Better late than never I guess!

Haha, today was a little different than my typical Tuesday, so now I am trying to catch up.

Here are your pins for today. . .

 

 So it took a lot of searching through my pins but I decided on a theme for this week.

Fall outfits,

and the Gorgeous jewelry to go with them.

 

I wore an outfit like this today

 

UGH SWEATERS!!

I need more of them!

 

I love this heart necklace

 

One of the best sayings ever!!

 

Love love love this ring.

And that is all for today

xoxo

Heather

Mary here - I had a completely different set of pins in mind yesterday, but I kept getting distracted and never finished my post! Which turned out to be a good thing because when I woke up this morning - I had a new theme in mind - Christmas gift inspiration! With just a little over 3 weeks left until Christmas (eek!), this weekend is completely devoted to completing all Christmas shopping and assembling all the cute pinterest ideas I thought would be easiest. We will see. Also- my office Secret Santa starts next week, so I need to have everything ready!

 

While my parents were in town for Thanksgiving last week, mom and I went to a craft fair. I had been to this particular craft fair the first year we were in Florida, when I was feeling a bit homesick for cooler weather and my mom and aunt were preparing to go to Christmas Village (link: www.christmasvillage.org). It's basically a Nashville must-do for the holiday season. The fairgrounds are FILLED with craft booths. It's amazing. I was hoping for something along those lines when I went to the craft fair at the Florida fairgrounds. It's not as large a show as the one in TN, but it definitely helped me get into the Christmas spirit - and I found the most adorable Florida ornament. Which brings me to the point of this backstory...the first theme for Secret Santa this year is an ornament. Perfect. I should mention that the temperatures have been in the 80s the past week - and this week we are having a "cold snap"...with temperatures in the high 60s. :)
 

 

My brother and sister-in-law's anniversary is a couple of days after Christmas, so for this year, I decided to make this "movie gift." I had been talking to Brittany earlier this year about how they never get to go out to the movies because it's just so expensive! Then I found this idea - a movie theater gift card, with snacks! I think we'll include their favorite movie snack and drink in these popcorn boxes I found at amazon!

 

I think these cookies in a jar are too cute...I just need someone to make them for! Is it still a gift if they have to mix it up themselves and bake it? I would love something like this - but it's hard to judge how other people will feel. I have seen several different versions of this recipe- but this (Via) one is for a pint sized jar and makes 6-8 cookies. Perfect for a couple.

 

I admit, this recipe (Via) makes something like 120 pieces of fudge so my primary purpose in making this might be to make fudge for us. Because you have to taste test these things...right? 

I love the smells of Christmas - Christmas trees, baking cookies, and potpourri! And how great would it be if you just had to empty the contents of this jar (Via) onto your stovetop and add water?!

Christmas is seriously my favorite time of the year. Can't wait to get all these ideas going this weekend! Plus Santa will be doing some wrapping so my sneaking husband won't find his presents...

Happy Holidays! ~Mary

Birthday Cakes!

So I was tasked with making Baby J's first birthday cake.

Instead of doing one big baby themed cake I split it up.
I did a fall themed cake,
and a personal little cake for J to bust into.
The little one was supposed to be cookie monster, which it looks like,
it was just bigger than it probably should have been and kinda looks deranged.
haha

But here it is.

 

E and B are very partial to Funfetti

So I used it.

B says he likes it better than my home made cake.

Kids!

 

For B's birthday there was an entire oreo layer.

So we used these for filling this time.

 

Layer 1 was orange

 

Layer 2 was red!!

 

I made Big messes

 

Very very big messes

 

Fondant!

 

I was going to swirl them together for the top of the cake.

But

 

They mixed together instead.

At least they made a nice brown color instead of poop brown.

 

Cookie monster!

 

I didn't have enough room for birthday.

Next time. . bigger cake

 

Starting my tree

 

Home made chocolate frosting for the tree. .

Super easy AND delicious

 

Like I said. 

He kinda looks deranged.

 

Finished CAKE!

3 days of hard work and a little bit of screaming and crying later. (I was not crying)
Friday the kids had a half day,
So I had 4 of them here while doing this.
Yes I was doing quite a bit of yelling.
Oh well.

The day ended well.

I went home and had a few beers.
Fixed the toilet
And went to bed.

Exciting huh? haha

Xoxo
Heather

Guitars and Stars

Here in Rochester we have our local country station, 92.5 WBEE. Twice a year they put on a show called Guitars and Stars, once in the spring and once in the fall. I have never been to it before, well until this week. This was our first one, and it was awesome!

Proceeds benefit the Ronald McDonald house, which is awesome. Who does not love helping out a charity. And the radio station gets a bunch of acts to come up, sit on stage all together, tell stories, sing us a bunch of awesome songs. All for $25.00. Cant get better.

This falls Line-up was;
1.The beautiful Trent Tomlinson
2.Gloriana
3.Chris Cagle
4.The Jane Dear Girls
5. James Wesley
and the wonderful host
6. Neil McCoy

My camera, as we have already seen, is not the greatest. Plus we were on the floor so I was trying to take pictures over peoples heads. haha. But its all good I got to take some anyways!

 

This is right as they start calling artists up

They started with Trent Tomlinson

 

Then The Jane Dear Girls

Followed by James Wesley

 

Then Gloriana

 

Chris Cagle and Neil McCoy came up last

 

 

Hehe Tom would kick me if he knew I posted this on here.

Doesn't he look so awesome?

He hates when I take his picture in dark places.

hehe

So that is what we did for our date night this week.
It was a great time.

Sometimes he surprises me.

Tom that is. .

This morning I had extra time so I dropped him off some banana bread at work. Hes a paramedic and as soon as I got there they had to go on a call. So I left an came to work. Well he just so happened to have to take his patient to the closest hospital to where I work, and came to say hi before going back to the base :-D

So cute. E got all sorts of excited.
I was in the kitchen and I hear
E: What the. . . . .TOMS HERE!!!!
So I walk out of the kitchen to see the big red ambulance sitting in front of the house and his wonderful face walking to the door :-)

All because he did not get to say goodbye before going on the call :-)

sooo lucky <3

Look for another post either today or tomorrow.
Im finishing baby J's cake today!!

xoxo
Heather

Crazy Catholics and Italian Talkers

So I dragged Thomas to my cousins wedding over the weekend.

My family is Roman Catholic. . . It was the longest wedding of the century.
Im pretty sure it was longer than the Royal Wedding.

Oh yes.

There ceremony itself managed to span across almost an entire 2 hours.

Dont worry Mary, my wedding will NEVER be that long, nor will it be catholic.

I also did not realize until it was too late that my camera was going to be stupid.
I fixed it today.
But not all of the pictures came out as nice I would have liked them to.

But here is a photo overview!

 

My cousin Christie walking down the isle with her daddy

 

 This priest would not shut up. . 

I'm pretty sure he extended it like 30 minutes with random crap.

None of it made any sense to me.

 

The Italian American Community Center

A friend of mine had her reception here last year.

Delicious food!

 

The first dance.

Oh and the center pieces lol

This is where they practiced, an opening dance.

Oh yes. . . 

Bride

Groom

Wedding Party

Parents

Grandparents

did an opening dance that even included. . . 

wait for it

wait for it

The Superman

Yes as in the rap song.

I nearly peed myself.

CAKE!

Can you tell Christie's favorite color is pink?

Didn't think so.

 

Thomas looks soooo good dressed up :-D

He was so excited that I told him he was allowed to wear his boots.

So yes, this was my saturday. The entire day. Ceremony from 1-3ish. . .reception started at 5:30 for coctail hour. . . then we went into the room and sat down at 6:30, listened to not 2 but 5 speeches, and started eating dinner at 8:30!!

So yeah.

Maybe one day I will get to stop adding to my dress collection and finally be a bride.

That would be nice.

Oh wait I forgot the best picture.

Tom and my cousin Gina camped out at the bar

They got a little disgruntled that the bar tenders said no shots.

So they got creative and ordered a drink on the rocks, with straws.

Yup Straws.

Then they did their "shot"
It was rather amusing.

And that is what I leave you all with for now!

xoxo

Heather

Terrific Pins Tuesday!!

Hey ya'll its TUESDAY AGAIN!

 

And once again Mary beat me to picking out her pins for this week. I have been soooo busy it has been insane. Plus she has the pleasure of being able to sit at home monday evening and pick them while I am either in class attempting to further my teaching education, or doing just that, teaching teenagers the finer points of EMS. Which is where I was last night, teaching, while sick. . .Oh well such is life! I am literally picking mine while writing this!

But on with it shall we!

Mary here. Last week I was all about Christmas pins - but this week, I've decided to focus on Thanksgiving! We have probably 8 containers of Christmas decorations, not to mention everything that doesn't fit in containers (like wreaths, rugs, etc.)...there's a lot. And we have a tiny apartment. But for all the Christmas decorations we have, I think we currently own like 2 Thanksgiving things: turkey candle holders and a cross-stitched picture.

It's rather underwelming.

But with the obsession with pinterest, I figured I could work on improving our woefully inadequate decorations!

 

 Via Our Best Bites and Pinterest!

Every Thanksgiving, we make a pumpkin pie that only my dad eats and a chocolate pie that everyone eats. At the risk of bucking tradition, I thought we might try a new "pie": pumpkin pie cheesecake.

 

 Via eighteen25 and Pinterest!

I have followed Eighteen25 for almost a full year - I was referred to their site right about the time they started posting their subway art. And now, a year later, I am just getting around to printing them out! I have the order submitted - so all I need now is a frame. Clearly, a Michael's trip is needed this weekend!  

 

 Via The Country Cottage and Pinterest!

Another subway art inspired decoration. I probably won't get this made this year (plus our table is made for only 4...I'd rather wait until we have a larger dining room table if I'm going to put this much work into a decoration!), but it's just so rustic and fall and PERFECT for Thanksgiving.  

 

Via The Ribbon Retreat and Pinterest!

 I nearly squealed when I saw this hairbow. 

I MUST have a little girl to put this precious bow in her hair. 

 

Via The Herman Farm and Pinterest!

Again, no need to make this onesie this year, but definitely inspiration for the future. There is no tutorial this time, but I'm thinking it wouldn't be too difficult to make. (famous last words)

My parents are heading down this weekend and we have lots planned (besides Thanksgiving, of course!) We have sewing projects...black Friday shopping...a half marathon.

Wait. What?!

Yup. Darren, my dad, and I are all running a half marathon 3 days after Thanksgiving. Are we crazy? Probably. :)

Until next week! ~Mary

And once again I am sitting here wondering when the hell Mary is going to bless me with Nieces and Nephews!!

Ok so I was having a hard time decided what to pick. . . And then I realized I have a HUGE decision to make this week. 

Baby J is turning 1 on Thursday. . . .Party is on Saturday. . . I have been tasked with making his cake!

I dont know whether to make a cake, cupcakes, cake balls/pops, a combination, rice crispy treats!!?? SO MANY OPTIONS!! So this weeks post is going to lay a few of them out on the table and then I guess I will have to decide.

 

Via Taste of Home and Pinterest! 

Candy Land Themed Cake!!

The themed cake is always an option.

For B's 6th Birthday, 

I made him a mini golf themed cake!

 

Via Love From the Oven and Pinterest!

Then there is always the Cake pop or cake ball idea.

B is very into the cake balls.

I took him to starbucks over the spring and got him a cake pop.

Best thing since baked pretzels!

 

 Via I am Baker and Pinterest!

There is also the cake/cake ball combo.

Oh and the option of a fall theme for the cake.

 

And there are themed cupcakes.

Im not sure I have these kids of skills.

But its possible.

 

Via Disney Family Fun and Pinterest! 

And last but not least.

Rice Crispy Treats!

B's cake had a giant golf ball made from them on his.

SO MANY OPTIONS!

HELP!

Until next time

xoxo

-Heather