Yummy in my Tummy Kind of Weekend

HAPPY Valentine's Weekend!

Emma with be with us this weekend and I am so excited to spend the WHOLE weekend focusing on her. Ever since September our weekends have been shared with activities getting the home together or things for the wedding. I am very much looking forward to focusing on her the whole weekend!

What to we have planned????

Friday
Tonight after work I will be stopping by Bertucci's Italian Restaurant to pick up some fresh pizza dough and Emma and I will be making a homemade pizza. After the pizza is complete we will cozy up in the living room for a little movie night fun. Emma will be picking the movie so I'm sure that it will involve a dog.

Saturday

The plan is to make some of these:

And a few of these...

to take around to our neighbors because we have been total slackers and have not met all of they yet!!!

we would also like to go to Michael's and pick up the supplies to make one of these for each student in Emma's Class and we plan to fill them with a bag of goodies:

I will post how they turn our!

On Saturday night some friends will be coming over for dinner and a game night! YAY

Sunday

Emma and I will possibly go see a movie or maybe even go ice skating... We will see!!!

What a fun weekend! What are you plans? If you want to join me in making some yummy Valentine Cookies here is the recipe that I plan to use:

Sugar Cookies

3 Cups all-purpose flour

1 Cup Sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 Cup unsalted butter

1 Large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla

 

Directions:

Whisk flour & salt and set aside.

Cream together butter & sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Add egg and vanilla.

Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture until thoroughly blended.

Turn out dough onto work surface and divide into 2 or 3 equal portions.

Form each one into a disk…roll …add a little flour, not too much!

Cut into lovely hearts.

\

Sugar Cookie Icing

1 cup powdered sugar

2 teaspoons milk

2 teaspoons lite corn syrup

¼ teaspoon Almond extract

 

Put sugar in a bowl and add milk…stir until smooth…

Beat in corn syrup until icing is smooth and glossy~if it’s too thick, add more corn syrup!

Divide and add food coloring.

You can make this the night before, just cover it!

Each cookie needs to be decorated with sprinkles immediately after you ice it because it dries to the touch pretty quickly.

The icing takes a few hours to completely set.

 

ENJOY

Christmas Day photos

We had a BLAST ON Christmas day... a few times during the day I got a little bit emotional as I looked around our house. This was our very FIRST Christmas in a home that we OWN and I cannot help but to feel so blessed! There may be things that I complain about in life but when I look around MY home and I see Emma and Matt laughing on the sofa together I truly feel like all is right in my world.

So... about the day... Emma spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with her father. It is so hard for me to not have her wake up in her house on Christmas Day but I know that the special first moments of Christmas mean just as much to him as they do to me.

As soon as Emma got to our house on Christmas Day (around 11:30) Matt took her right upstairs eyes covered and we all got into our personalized red PJs... I know that I'm a dork..

After we were all dressed and ready. Matt brought Emma down while I snapped some photos of her seeing her gifts for the first time.

And what did she see...

A VERY full stocking and the American Girl Doll accessories that she asked Santa for! yay for Santa!

Yes... in the photo below Emma is holding mini crutches and a purple cast for her doll. (Just in case she falls off her horse) Nana and PopPop even got Emma the Wheelchair that she has been asking for... weird I know! When the American Girl Doll Catalog arrived at out house this year Emma circled EVERYTHING!!!

Natalie (the doll) is very stylish in her winter outfit (From Aunt Anne and Uncle Alan) and her sled. Just in case she needs to look something up while sledding Emma packed her laptop... Yes, it is out of control.

Emma had a blast opening all of her gifts and OF COURSE she was a very spoiled little girl!

We are fortunate enough that my parents live close by so they can experience our Christmas Day excitement with us!

Emma made me this beautiful clay pinch pot shaped as a heart! He made it so that I can put my jewelry in it at the end of the day and I currently have it by my bed.

Her gift was wrapped in this VERY special paper that she made.  So Pretty.

Look at the hat that Matt gave me... I will admit it is very warm but I only wear it in the dark...

Christmas Decorations

I'm aware that it is already February but I blame my tardiness on a Christmas post on all of the wedding stress.

Matt and I closed in moved in on our house three months before Christmas and I knew that I wanted our first year in our fist house to be a special one so Christmaszilla (my nickname from my loving husband) made another appearance this year.

Here are just a few of the decorations for Christmas

The Mantel...
So I failed to take a picture of the full mantle but these few photos show the details separately.

 I used real greenery from Home Depot draped over the wooden mantle and places golden stars and, tea lights, and mini "gifts" that were wrapped in red and hold paper with big gold bows... wondering what is in the box??? Nothing. These are the boxes that a few of my ornaments come in. 

Our stockings were hung by the fire with care... I love these personalized stockings from Pottery Barn Kids which were purchased last year. Just in case you were wondering... Santa does manage to fill that HUGE stocking of Emma's. 

I love to come up with different ways to display our Christmas cards each year, this year I hung navy ribbon from our kitchen window and tied a silver sleigh bell on the ends. Once the ribbons were secure I attached cards with double stick tape. Here is a photo of what the ribbons looked like after adding my first few cards...  I completely failed to take a picture of the ribbons full of cards. You can kind of get the idea though. 

I also thought that it was an interesting new way to decorate with my silver bells. My father has given me the annual Wallace Silver Bell every Christmas Eve since my birth. 2010 marked the last year that he gave me a bell as the responsibility will now become Matt's. 

Next to our fire place (and TV) is this AWESOME Crate and Barrel Cabinet that I will go into more detail about in a future home post... for now let's focus on the decorations. In the above photo it is all set with beverages for our Christmas Dinner. 

Here are a few of our nutcrackers. We have been giving Emma one nutcracker a year since her birth and allow her to pick out her new one each year. 

On the other side of the cabinet we have a little Christmas tree decoration and a gold reindeer. Both purchased from homegoods last year. Mr. Reindeer originally had a friend but he did not make it in the move... The reindeer is placed on two books which are wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper . 

Another decoration that graced our home this holiday is this beautiful gingerbread house that Emma made at school. I was lucky enough to take the day off and join in the fun school holiday festivities. Emma had a blast and I was very happy to be there with her. 

I am ashamed to say however that we STILL have this little milk carton house in our dining room... At what point do graham crackers mold??? Emma does not want to throw it away but I think that I'm just going to have to take charge on this one.

This is Joey... he is Emma's elf and he graces our home between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Joey hides in our house during the day to watch Emma and nightly he flies to the North Pole to give Santa a full report on Emma's behavior. On Christmas Eve Joey decided to hide in the eggnog glasses... silly Joey you know it's not smart to drink and fly...  

Our tree... I wish that I had taken a photo of the tree at night with the lights on...

 Below are a few photos of our dining room table all decked out for Christmas. the plates below were borrowed from my mom... I cannot wait to use our very own china next year!!! 

 Do these tea light holders look familiar??? They were purchased on etsy for my wedding... Photos to come next week. 

Overdue

So now that the wedding is over it is time for some VERY overdue posts. I really want to share with you some wedding photos and details but first I feel the need to play catch up. Therefore... that is exactly what I plan to do this week. Below is what you can look forward to seeing this week:

Wednesday: Christmas decorations
Thursday: Christmas day and dinner photos
Friday:  Home Photos (these will be the pictures that I took of our house before we moved in)

It would be cruel to leave you without a wedding sneak peak...

haha... what a tease... wedding posts will be next week. 

Console LOVE

All... we are only 10 days from the wedding day!!! AHHH.

Now that I've gotten that exclamation out of the way... It is on to home improvement items. I've been doing A LOT at the house in the past few weeks... I just need to download all of the photos so that I can share my projects with you. I feel like such a slacker but between work, wedding planning, and getting the house together there are not enough hours in my day!

One project that I am looking forward to tackling as soon as the wedding is over is to redo a console table for our downstairs hallway. Over at Isabella & Max Rooms the talented Janell just recently completed a project that makes me drool and almost makes me what to pick up a paint brush BEFORE the wedding. It would almost we worth staying up all night for!

The crisp white paint and the antiqued hardware looks beautiful! and up against the stenciled wall!!! Let's just say that I love everything about this! The console that I am looking for will need to be a bit larger but this is exactly the look and feel of what I am hoping to achieve when I tackle this project POST wedding. I think that I might even go ahead and place an order for a stencil!

Thirty by Thirty Update

Now that 2011 is here I thought that this would be a good time to update all on my thirty by thirty list (Updates in purple)

Here is my Thirty by Thirty (in no order)

1. Get Married (Can cross this one off on January 29th)
2. Become a Home Owner - Matt and I bought a home in Alexandria last September!
3. Take Emma to Disney World - Should be this summer
4. Go Scuba Diving
5. Become a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP)
6. Go on a Winery Tour - During out visit to Traverse City we visited the wineries on Old Mission
7. Get a Dog - Should happen late this year
8. Take a Cooking Class- I would like to do this sometime in the spring
9. Run a 5K
10. Plant a Vegetable Garden - I hope to tackle this project this spring
11. Take a Photography Class
12. Spend a Minimum of 4 days Hiking and Camping with Matt
13. Take Emma Camping - Will do this summer
14. Cook a Full Thanksgiving Dinner - did a Christmas dinner... does that count??
15. Do a Family Photo Session and use the Picture for a Photo Holiday Card
16. Go to Europe with Matt
17. Take Dance Lessons… Maybe HipHop??? - I signed up for a hip hop cardio class but only managed to go once... so cannot cross this one off.
18. Give up Fruit Snacks… this will be a HARD one for me- I"m on my way with this one... no Gushers in two months. I have to admit that I have had the Welch's fruit snacks but I blame that on Wedding stress!
19. Take a Family Vacation with another Family - Might be going to Disney with my brother and his family this summer
20. Enlarge a Photograph that I’ve Taken and display as artwork in my home
21. Become a Government Employee… One can dream
22. Find a cheap & hideous piece of furniture to refinish/reupholster & make it BEAUTIFUL- I am currently on the lookout for a large hutch to refinish and put in our basement.
23. Create a Fitness Goal and stick to it- I've been working with a trainer the last 4 months to get toned for the wedding
24. Redesign and decorate an entire home… on a budget - work in progress
25. Get my Event Planning Business up & running
26. Become active in the PTA
27. Give Emma a brother or sister
28. Become organized enough to scrapbook
29. Cook at Home for a full Month... another SUPER Hard one
30. Go two months without buying clothes - I have not bought any clothing for myself in the last month... perhaps with all my upcoming wedding tasks I will be able to make this goal.

A Peaceful & Project-Filled 2011

2010 was a year full of changes.  And when I say full, I mean FULL - my job responsibilities at work evolved and I now travel when needed, Emma changed schools, we moved into a new house, and MATT PROPOSED!  I'm hoping that 2011 brings peace in the most basic of ways.  Settling into our new house, feeling less crazed and more centered, getting back to a more basic day-to-day life, after the wedding of course.  And with this new found peace, my goal is to post more to my blog, as I have a lot of projects on the docket!

p.s: In case you were all wondering... my cutie finance pulled though and talked Santa into leaving these under the tree! (in brown) I LOVE THEM!!!