Holiday Checklist

Decorations up- Check

Holiday Party Evite- Check

Christmas Cards Sent- Check.

Living room painted for said party- In Progress

Curtains Hung for said party- Nope.

Gifts bought- Check.

Gifts Picked up- Still waiting on 2

Gifts Wrapped- See Above

Plans made with family- NOT DONE AT ALL.

List of Christmas items to buy after Christmas- Check.

Apple Pie Pictures

Experience the glory.  I didn’t place (again) but I look good!

I agree, I would look better in an anthropologie apron, too.

As American as…………

I made my first practice apple pie today for the Bucktown Apple Pie contest.

It’s tequila apple pie, made with apple tequila.  I used a food processor for the crust and oh my, did it make a

difference.  My hot little hands didn’t make the dough all tough and hard to handle.  It turned out beautiful:

Notice the milk-glass cake plate I got from my future Mother-in-Law in Nashville.  I was eying one at a garage sale and the seller wanted $25 for it, I just couldn’t pay that much.  She surprised me with this one when we got back to her house.  It was in the original box from 1950, a gift that Brendan’s great Uncle and Aunt received for their wedding and never opened.

A few minutes later:

Craft Fair

I made this frame last year and just finally got a picture for it.  And hung it.

It’s an ikea frame that I glued corks into- it took a couple hours because you have to cut many of the corks to fit them.

If you look closely, you see a lot of Charles Shaw.

So far on my vacation

I have:

Gotten my ring sized (it only took 3 months of it slipping off my finger) and cleaned

Volunteered at the animal shelter (in kitty city, no less!)

Purged half of my closet

Bought three new dresses

Did laundry

Went grocery shopping

Have stuck to my diet for 3 whole days!

Organized my wedding clippings, etc in my Martha Stewart Wedding Planner

And today I am going to go to home depot to look at paint samples.  Probably.  If I stop watching how I met your mother on DVD.

But they’re just so cute!

Inspiration, Part Deux

I did it!  I Haven’t bought fabric since I was 16, but I went to Jo-Ann, and picked out two little prints.  The first (I know it’s too far away) is little strawberries and cherries.  The second is a summer stripe.  Finding out what you call those hoops also took me a while, but they were very reasonably priced.

View from behind the desk:

Close up (we love photobooths)

Side view (note new bookcase organization).  I did a total book purge about 2 weeks ago, though there is a laundry basket full of books that this picture conveniently leaves out.

Finally this room is shaping up!

Happy Valentime’s Day!

I hope you are all planning incredible, romantic dinner’s for Valentine’s. Brendan and I will be going here. Today I made Valentine’s cards. I keep putting off buying them for my nearest and dearest, so I put Martha Stewart Radio on, and got going.  I used pre-made blank cards from Ikea, ribbon, scrapbook paper, brackets, and a few buttons.

Mid- Valentining

And Finished!

So, if you’re lucky, you will be finding one of these one-of-a kind love notes in your mailbox this week!

Have a happy Valentine’s day to the Martha in everyone!