My Baby Sister's Baby Showers

As everyone should know by now, all of my 5 followers... :) Chelsea is pregnant with baby Tyler and due practically ANY day now!! I don't think I have mentioned though, what a BIG deal this baby is to our family... (not that you couldn't tell that I am a bit in love with Tyler already by all of by posts about him and Chels.) he will be the first nephew for me, the first grandbaby for my mom and dad, first great grandbaby for both sides of the family, and first great-great grandbaby for my Granny. I know, crazy right??!!


Anyhow, Chelsea was lucky enough to have TWO baby showers. My Nana C. hosted a 'breakfast' shower for Chelsea August 28, 2010 at the Speckled Butterbean in Wildwood. 
I, of course, made the cupcakes and cookie favors for everyone. 
Her second shower on September 11th was hosted by my mom's sister, Danielle and myself. This shower was your typical food, games, gifts! Who doesn't love a good ole' baby game using toilet paper to measure the mamma to be??
Before we get to the pictures I should probably mention that Chelsea is doing the baby's room in the Ocean theme. Soooo all things baby shower were focused around that! 
Chelsea had such a great amount of family and friends showering her with love, well wishes, and gifts! I think it is safe to say that baby Tyler shouldn't need anything for awhile!!!
And of course, here are some pictures from the showers.
Enjoy!!

The 'Speckled Butterbean' baby shower

Chelsea with her cupcakes and the beautiful painting that South Sumter High School painted for me

Party Favors

The second baby shower at Danielle's House

Party Favors full of White Chocolate Sea Shells

Mamma-to-be

Graycie playing the 'toilet paper' game... This was her guess at how many sheets she needed to make it around Chelsea's belly... too cute!
Turns out, Chels was only 11 sheets around! Impressive!!

Dragonflies, Butterflies and Mama's Birthday, Oh MY!!

On August 22, 2010 we celebrated my mom's birthday! To celebrate her day, I decided to do something a little different and make some cute, summertime cookies.

For her birthday cookies, I found some super cute dragonfly and butterfly cookie cutters!
I already had some cookie dough waiting in the freezer, so I thawed it out and got busy baking and decorating.
One thing I learned was how nice it was having the cookie dough already made. I think from now on I will try to always have some extra dough in the freezer. :)

These cookies took a couple of hours for me to decorate, since I still consider myself a newbie, BUT I had a lot of fun designing the cookies.

To say the least, my mom, stepdad, and brothers and sister all loved them!

We spent the afternoon in Alachua and Gainesville. We ate at one of my mom's favorite restaurants, the Ivy House, and then did the traditional Gainesville stop to pick up new shirts for football season. GOOO GATORS!
My mom's birthday lunch was spectacular and delicious! Even if I consumed 3,000 calories between the two yeast rolls, corny corn bread, southern fried shrimp, baked potato, salad with homemade ranch dressing, annnnnddddd their famous sweet raspberry iced tea...maybe I should add an additional 1,500 calories??
I know, I know--my body hates me!!

Anyway, my mom deserves only the best, and that is what I tried to give her! She is always proud of my work, know matter what... She IS my biggest fan and I thought she deserved the opportunity for something special to be made just for her! Love you, mama!!

My All Time Favorite List

While I was trying to get the 'feel' to blog a couple of recent events, I was going through the list of other Blogs that I follow and I found this list on the Artful Abode... I think the things on this list are many of my pet peeves, things that make you go 'Hmmm' and my feelings... I am obviously not the only person! (Thanks goodness! Sometimes I wonder what goes on in that head of mine!) 

I did the honor of highlighting my top 13! Don't judge me for my thoughts, because obviously, I'm not the ONLY person! If you feeeeelllll like it, leave a comment with your favorite number(s)! 

The List of Ultimate Thoughts

1. I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font. 

5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet? 

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. I’m pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

9. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren’t going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don’t want to have to restart my collection…again.

13. I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

14. “Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this – ever.

15. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damn it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voice mail. What did you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?

16. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

17. I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

18. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

19. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.

20. I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option

21. Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first saw it.

22. I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

23. The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

24. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

25. How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear or understand a word they said?

26. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

27. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

28. Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

29. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey – but I’ll bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time!

30. My check engine light has been on for three months now and nothing’s happened. I’m starting to think that my car is just an attention whore.

31. I don’t understand the purpose of the line, “I don’t need to drink to have fun.” Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they’ve invented the lighter?

32. Sometimes I pretend not to remember details about people because having a good memory apparently equates to creepiness.

33. My GPS says “Estimated Arrival Time.” I see “Time to Beat.”

34. Whenever someone says “I’m not book smart, but I’m street smart”, all I hear is “I’m not real smart, but I’m imaginary smart”.

35. My keyboard needs a removable crumb tray like my toaster.

36. What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

37. I wish it were appropriate to say to a complete stranger, “Excuse me, would you like me to show you how to discipline your child?”

38. I never understood why the Lions and Cowboys always get to play on Thanksgiving. Shouldn’t the Patriots play the Redskins, and then steal their stadium afterwords?

39. Double-Stuffed Oreos should just be called Oreos, and regular Oreos should be called Diet Oreos.

Now, this is the kind of motivation I needed to be able to start typing away! I now feel revitalized and ready to post some good stuff!

Up next:

• Mom's Birthday and the Cutest Cookies, ever!
• Chelsea's Baby Shower(s) with more of the cutest cookies ever! And pretty darling cupcakes too!! 

Chelsea + Levi = Baby Tyler

What can I say? I love taking pictures of Chelsea's cute baby belly. As everyone should know by now, Chelsea and Levi are expecting Tyler Levi very, very soon! Her due date is October 11th. 
From the "My Baby Sister is Going to be a Mommy" post, you might see a little shape of the belly change in the pictures below. These pictures were taken on  July 31, 2010 at my grandparents' farm. 
I had told Chelsea that if she liked her maternity pictures that I took, I could take some of the two of them as well. To say the least, she seemed to be sooo pleased with the first set! 
Since school was fixing to get underway for John and I and Levi's work schedule with being a restaurant manager is crazy busy, we figured we better take the pictures when the timing was right! 
My hope is to take some more once Tyler gets here. I want Chelsea to have as many pictures of this life changing event as possible. :) What can I say... I am trying to be a good 'sissy' as Chelsea used to call me... *sigh* those were the days when life was so much easier.. when our biggest concern was who would ride in the front seat and what we were going to 'pretend' play outside on our fort.
Without further wait... here are some pictures... ENJOY!

These three are my favorite... I love the use of the letters! Thank you, Michaels, For having those clearance bins outside that I am drawn to... Sometimes, there is good stuff in there. ;)

This rocking chair picture was taken outside my grandparents' house. My Nana and Pop used to sit outside and just rock away when the family was over. I took this picture because it made me think of my Pop and how over joyed he would be at the thought of another baby in the family. We miss you, Pop!

This is the infamous 'belly to belly' pic. Levi was THRILLED to take this one! Not!! haha.

We had fun with these bench pictures, I joked and told Chels and Levi these seemed more like engagement pictures than maternity pics! We agreed that was okay, since they didn't get any engagement shots taken. No one said that baby Tyler has to know the difference. ;)

Love, love, love the sky in this one.

Heart + Heart = Baby

Beautiful Oak Tree

This picture was taken in their bedroom with a peek-a-boo from the crib and the teddy bear.

Levi practicing, "No-no, Tyler!"

Love you Chels, and Levi I too!! We can't wait to meet the little boy!

Darla's Birthday & the Red Velvet Cupcake

The last weekend of July was the last days of summer we had left before school started back. So, I used my 'extra' time to try out a new recipe for Red Velvet Cupcakes and pulled out the ole' fondant to make some pretty little cakes for Darla's birthday. For those of you that don't know, Darla is my mother-in-law. Her birthday was on the 31st of July.

Let me just say that I should have known from the amount of ingredients in these little cuppycakes that I was asking for trouble. This recipe took me at least an hour and half to make and bake. A little ridiculous I think. I mean, I am all for some homemade cake, but not when it has 4,305 ingredients and takes FOREVER! Yes, I am telling a bit of a lie about the number of ingredients, but it sure felt like there was tons!
Anyways, very LOOOOONNNNGGGG baking story cut short: The cupcakes turned out looking so cute! But, I didn't feel the taste was that yummy! :( I feel like the baking side was a complete flop. (Sorry Darla, I tried! Next time I will use a recipe that I know I can count on!)

Lessons Learned from this baking catastrophe:

1. It is ALWAYS a good idea to try your recipe out ahead of time. Even if you don't have a lot of extra time. Who wants to take cupcakes to someone when you know they aren't your best?
2. It is ALWAYS a good idea to use frosting recipes that you know work for you. This stupid, stupid recipe came a with a cinnamon cooked frosting that literally ended up looking like Elmer's Glue gone bad... So, I ended up having to get up early to make a new frosting that I knew would taste good. I know in my heart I can always count on Martha. Even if she is a lady with a prison record. We all have flaws, right? ;)
3. When using fondant, don't go extra powdered sugar crazy on your work surface (even if you have a bit of a love affair with it. You would have to read the New Orleans post to understand.) OR it will be some kinda difficult to get those tiny, small, micro balls and flowers dusted off. 
4. I CANNOT bake when I feel rushed, in a bad mood, or have 1,583 other things on my mind and a teacher's to-do list like one would not believe. I just don't get to enjoy being in my kitchen and having my 'me' time with my rolling pin, cheap hand held mixer, ingredients all over the place, and my 'tackle' box full of decorating stuff. 

All in all, the cupcake were very cute, made with some of Darla's favorite colors. John said they weren't horrible, but they weren't my best work either. :( 

Good news: in sharing this event with a good friend of mine, I now have her red velvet recipe that she can always count on. So, no more worries about looking for a good red velvet recipe. 

To continue on about John's mom's birthday... We had a wonderful dinner at Tommy Bahamas Restaurant at Pointe Orlando.  The food is always great and the company was even better! Especially when you have a yummy citrus, rum drink in hand! Great time, even better memories! Happy Birthday, Darla! We hope you enjoyed your cupcakes, kitty cat necklace, and dinner.

New Orleans Vacation

As our last getaway before school started we took a trip to New Orleans! What a blast we had!! It was the three of us, John, myself, and my Nana C. We flew up on a Wednesday morning and came back the following Saturday morning. I honestly think we did every single thing possible!
This picture sums up our entire trip!

Let me start on the left... I had the honor have getting to meet a local children's book author who has published her first book, with a series to follow along! She even offered to 'Skype' with my students and read the book with them and answer questions... how cool is that?? (Now, I just have to figure out HOW to actually use Skype...)


When you look at my picture you will see two different photographs... one with a cute New Orleans Cat and the other with the fleur-de-lis symbol. An upside to renting no car, nor calling a cab is being able to see sooooo much more of the french quarter by walking it all! While walking the Quarter, we were able to see many local artists' galleries. Our favorite gallery of the entire trip was the Craig Tracy: Painted Alive. Going on his site will totally 'wow' you of such a rare, beautiful talent.


Moving on through our trip... Cafe Du Monde. Need I say more?? The most scrumptious, delicious, tasty, airy-filled beignets one has EVER put in their mouth!! Plus, the frozen Cafe Au Lait (half coffee, half milk) makes the experience so much more amazing! In the two and a half days we were there, we went twice... Yes, my jeans are officially too tight. Agh... summertime, what have you done to my body or should I just say specifically my rear end? Anyways, we bought a box mix to make the beignets at home. John says I have to wait awhile. He is not quite ready for a pound of powdered sugar, but I told him I would be more than happy to eat what he doesn't want. :)


Next up on our AWESOME trip to the Big Easy was the New Orleans School of Cooking. All that I can say about this experience was that it was so much fun! Our host and cook was very educational, but also sooo entertaining! They gave us great recipes to try at home. I have tried one so far, the Crab Corn Chowder. It was wonderful! So says my husband. He is basically the only taste tested I have here all of the time. From the looks of his empty bowl, two servings later. He must have REALLY enjoyed it! So, if you are ever in New Orleans, you like to cook (or watch people cook), you like to eat (yes, they feed you!),  YOU MUST GO TO THE COOKING SCHOOL!!!


In the picture above, there are also some little keep sakes... post cards, a christmas ornament, etc. Yes, I bought a Christmas decoration in July. I just had to! We have been buying ornaments for our Christmas tree ever since we got married. I think we have one from almost every place we have been.


Another thing that I became OBSESSED with while on our trip their was the fleur-de-lis. 
It is just one of those symbols that is: 
A. Just beautiful! 
B. Has a wonderful story of religion and history behind it.
C. Is the TRUE symbol of all things Louisiana!
So, me being an obsessive person, I bought salt and pepper shakers with the symbol, a necklace with a key charm that has the symbol in it, a wall piece, our piece of art that I have already talked about, and knobs. I know, where am I going to put fleur-de-lis knobs, right? Well, I have absolutely NO idea. I just liked them. That I know! I will one day figure it out and John will understand why I had to have them.


Of course on our table spread we also have some business cards from the places we went to eat. If you are a FOODIE, like we are, here are the links: 

• K-Paul's Kitchen- a wonderful staple of New Orleans, but wasn't anything I couldn't cook at home... BUT we can say that we have been there!
• Acme Oyster House- Another staple of N.O.L.A. This place was great! I have a wonderful po-boy there! And John tried the oysters. We would go back!
• Muriel's- This place has a resident house ghost! Cool and corny, I know. BUT the food was also amazing! I had the BEST vanilla bean creme brulee I have ever tasted! I loved it! I just wanted to eat it forever and ever. I miss it already.
• Court of Two Sisters- We went here for a jazz brunch buffet. It was a grand buffet with all sorts of interesting and delicious things! Very neat experience.

We also took a tour of one the many old homes. It was filled with beautiful furniture, books, dolls, etc. It was a nice historical aspect of New Orleans.

We went on a ghost and vampire tourof the French Quarter... I would tell you more, but I don't have much to say about it... we were at Pat O's for three hours BEFORE the tour. Lord Chaz was VERY theatrical though. And we did have a BAR break halfway through the tour at a local New Orleans bar.

So...speaking of drinking, we stopped at Pat O'Briens every-single-day we were in New Orleans. This is a landmark of New Orleans and if you DON'T go there, then you have not experience all NOLA has to offer.

Words cannot describe the FUN we had while sitting the courtyard area of Pat O's. All I can do is show a picture...

BEFORE

AFTER

We did soooo much more, but these were indeed the highlights of our trip to New Orleans. I believe everyone should go here at least once while they are young and then again when you have kids or grandkids. We had a blast with my NanaC. Like always, we make soooooo many memories together! Especially when tall, pretty drinks are involved. :)

Next trip: Possibly the windy city of Chicago for Dave Matthew's Band last tour stop... 

My Baby Sister is Going to be a Mommy!

Yes, you heard me right, Chelsea Lane will be a mommy in 2 months (maybe, if baby Tyler decides to cooperate!). Chelsea has always been the kid who fluttered around like a little butterfly meeting no stranger. She was always the one who had not a care in the world. She was the one who no one would have ever thought would settle down, become a wife and mommy-to-be. Low and behold, she is doing just that! Words cannot express how utterly excited I am for her to take on her new role as a mamma.

Her and and her husband, Levi where married this past spring at my mom and stepdad's home. It was a beautiful spring wedding where some beautiful pictures that where taken by Heidi Mitchell.

So when this baby bump started showing, I just HAD to *try* to take some belly shots. There is just something absolutely so precious and beautiful about a pregnant woman... Especially my sister! She has the cutest baby bump ever!!! (No, I am not bias...)
Enough rambling from me! Here are some of the shots. I am in no way a professional photographer, but I am ecstatic at how well they turned out!

There are many more belly shots, but these are a few of my favorite that I know Chelsea won't mind if I share. 

Congratulations, Chelsea and Levi! 

We can't wait to meet baby Tyler!

Summer is Almost Over... :(

For the past three summers that John and I have been married I have always made a 'summer' to do list of things I wanted to accomplish while I am off for the summer... For the past three years I never get everything done on my list. But, isn't that the point of making a checklist? I feel as though the people that rely and depend on a 'list' always have one going, and going, and going. It doesn't matter if the list is for home, the grocery store, or for school, the list just keeps on forming!
Well, this summer I was determined to get something accomplished! I set out with a list such as:

1. Paint our bedroom and bathroom
2. Get our 'guest' room (aka the junk room) setup and decorated
3. Plant more flowers in our hummingbird/butterfly garden
4. Go through my clothes (to get ready for back to school shopping, of course!)
5. Organize our desk full of piles an piles of papers to be filed

Did I complete these things??? No.

In some sort of way, I did attempt to do something on each one...

1. Paint our bedroom and bathroom...
1. Well, this idea was immediately shot down by my husband who claims that we have newly painted cream walls and there is NO sense in repainting them :(
2. Get our 'guest' room (aka the junk room) setup and decorated
1. Well, I did spend two afternoons in there, but I sort of lost focus and stopped. ABRUPTLY. and moved on to spending time decorating frames to hang in that room. However, I am not blaming this all on myself... the furniture that is supposed to go in there is still sitting at my mom's house. See? I said it wasn't completely my fault.
3. Plant more flowers in our hummingbird/butterfly garden
1. Well we bought  all sorts of flowers.. they are still alive, thank goodness, but not so much planted in the ground... yet.
4. Go through my clothes (to get ready for back to school shopping, of course!)
1. Yay! Finally, something I did accomplish. Although I feel like this is something that is always on that never ending to do list...
5. Organize our desk full of piles an piles of papers to be filed
1. Check this one off too! Wahoo!! I even found a huge check that my dental insurance had mailed me!! See, it pays off to open up the BCBS statements and file them! This day was a GREAT day!

So this was my list and it still in a sense is, BUT THE MORE IMPORTANT THING here is that I made a sort of life list of things I wanted to learn to do, become better at, or just accomplish! I am not quite ready to share my entire list, but I will share three of the things that I have attempted...

• Paint/Draw: I have always loved to paint and draw things, but have lost that opportunity to do those things with life happening all the time, but this summer I am proud to say that I have dabbled a bit in the painting department. These pictures are nothing fabulous, but I am proud!

This is a picture of a baby train. I got this train from my grandmother that she had received from my great-grandmother who had found it at a yard sale. NO. I am not expecting a baby. But, my mom had asked me if I would paint it so that my family could use it at all the wonderful baby showers we always have at my grandparents' farm.

These next two pictures are my paintings on a clay bought we had bought from Lowes. Our plan is to plant one of our rose bushes in it so it can 'spill' out into the garden bed.

• The next work in progress off of my life list is BAKING!! YUMMO! Which you can see a few sneak peaks from previous blog posts! I can honestly say that I truly love to bake and decorate!
• The THIRD thing I have started to get into this summer is PHOTOGRAPHY. Taking pictures is something that John and I both have so much fun doing! Since this post is soooo long, I will save my photography project for the next post... which will include my adorable sister, who is a mommy-to-be! Oh yea, and some pics from our New Orleans trip too! ;) 

To Yard Sale or NOT too Yard Sale?!?

The thought of a yard-sale or garage-sale has always intrigued me. I mean, who doesn't want to go out in the morning, before the heat, and come home with TONS of good deals... RIGHT? Well, this never seems to happen to me...

After a loooonnnnggg early Saturday morning of not being able to find ANY yard sale that was advertised in the stinkin paper, my mamma and I decided that we are more of 'antique-ing' gals or shopping for things that look old, but are much easier to find, like persay... somewhere that is air conditioned and easy to locate: a STORE!


HOWEVER, we did happen to find an estate sale that was supposedly going to have all sorts of antique furniture, china, books, records, etc.
This is when I realized that it isn't so much finding all these yard sales and getting a bunch of things, it all pays off when you finally find ONE really good thing!
My good find: a pair of beautiful antique chairs from the mid 1800's. For those of you that know furniture lingo (That is, if there is anyone actually reading this!) the chairs have the rush seating, hand painted floral design on the thumb back seats. Here is a picture, see for yourself!

There is tons more of the history behind these chairs, but I wont bore anyone else. Besides, I still have three more posts I am looking forward to doing: summertime hobbies, my sister's maternity shots and our New Orleans trip.

Just a simple cupcake kind of day...

I wanted to do something nice to celebrate John's last day of work at his current job and the moving on to his new one! So, I decided to bake a simple chocolate cupcake. This recipe is one that came from a great teacher friend of ours, Annette. She is one of the best bakers I have ever met!! This lady can make a chocolate chip cookie that is to die for. :) My stepdad even jokes that he would love for her to retire from teaching and come work for him... basically so that he can make sure he ALWAYS gets some of the freshly baked cookies.
Moving on, she makes a wonderful chocolate cake with a buttercream icing. I decided to take her great recipe and make cupcake with it!



The recipe was actually pretty easy to make... as you can see from the pictures, it makes a TON of cupcakes! This recipe would be a great one to use if baking for a party... not for one person like I did. :)



This picture has nothing really to do with the cupcakes, but a lot to do with a day in my kitchen. I turn around for one milli-second and look who is checking things out! Agh! Tugger is our youngest cat of three and he thinks he owns the place. I mean, I really think that he thinks that we moved into this house just for his sake! We love him dearly, but he does not listen to his mamma!



And to the grand finale! These cupcakes didn't 'rise' to the occasion, but I figured I was icing these chocolately tasty cakes and J could tell me the truth when he got home...
I used a Sweet Butter Cream Icing that turned out to be so fluffy. I felt like I was truly piping clouds from the sky on a dark, chocolate, moist cupcake! It was soo tasty too! I would tell you where I got the recipe, but this one I did all on my own. No measurements, of course... All I know for sure is that I used two sticks, YES 2, of non salted sweet butter. YUMMY!!!



Lessons Learned:
1. Always plan out what you what your final product to look like. I thought I did... then I tried to fit the entire CONGRATULATIONS on the tray and it was a noooo go! At least not without looking entirely silly.
So, I improvised and now the 'L-A-T-I-O-N' is sitting on a plate in my microwave.
2. Sometimes the best things are discovered by IMPROVISING! For instance, I didn't have any milk in my fridge. Weird, I know... What can I say? My husband is a demi-vegitarian and drinks either soy or almond milk and I am not a big milk drinker. So, it was either buttermilk or heavy whipping cream... and heavy whipping cream it was! Hey, I never said that my baking was low in fat! ;)
This changing of the recipe was probably the best thing ever!

I kept decorating to a minimum mainly because John isn't big on a lot of icing and I really just felt like baking today, not decorating.



It is safe to say that John LOVES the cupcakes!