Be Grateful #16 and Baking--LOTS of Baking!

Well, I failed at keeping up with this again.  *hehe*  Yet I think it works out (like the week of Thanksgiving) because I plan on doing a post on Friday, but you'll find out why in a minute.

I was afraid I was going to drop these.  They were each filled to the rim with goodies!

You see, this week is FINALS WEEK--May the odds be ever in our favor!--which means last week, I was winding down the semester, doing final grading of final assignments, etc. etc. etc.  This week, I have been writing my finals, entering grades, etc. etc. etc.  AND ON FRIDAY I WILL BE DONE!  And then we will be off to Silver Dollar City for a little Christmas celebration with some friends.  This is why I will have another grateful post--because this week marks the end of the semester!  I began this journal to keep me going through the semester, and it really has helped.  I look forward to continuing though I may take a break until January 14.

Before I forget, I have to mention what I did this weekend:  BAKING!

So. much. baking.  I baked two batches of sugar cookies Friday morning (from about nine to noon), then I headed into work for a few hours, went to the holiday reception, and won a basket of soup!

Friday night, I whipped up two batches of homemade marshmallows (French vanilla and mint) and left them to harden...solidify...be less sticky?  Whatever they did, they did it overnight.

Saturday morning, I got up and was back in the kitchen about 10.  I decorated my sugar cookies with royal icing, nonpareils, and colored sugar.  I mixed up two batches of my brown sugar cookie dough, adding Christmas Cadbury balls to half a batch, peanut butter chips and Heath bits o' brickle in the other half, and white chocolate chips and butterscotch chips in the second batch.  In between baking these, I melted almond bark and dipped pretzel sticks.  Once all of the cookies were done, I cut up the marshmallows.  I was in the kitchen about 13 hours Saturday.  I LOVED it and didn't have a breakdown for the first time ever.  ;)

Sunday, we cleaned a bit and visited Zach's aunt and uncle.  I put together a package of cookies for them, and when we got back, I put together my other tins.  I double Saran-Wrapped two to four cookies at a time, and I tied up marshmallows and pretzel rods in little treat bags.  Zach dug out boxes for me, and I signed Christmas cards and printed out my little menus to stick inside:

I assembled each box together, which took some time since I couldn't just wrap the goodies up and distribute them then because certain sugar cookies were going to certain people, namely those with kids got stocking cookies with their kids' initials on them.  (Some of our close friends adopted a brother and sister this year, and this is the first time they have had a real family and gotten into Christmas.  Then I have several young best nieces and nephews I had to treat not to mention my real niece and nephew.  :)

Lastly, I taped and addressed each box after nestling it in crumpled newspaper or those inflated pillows.  Even after all of that, I was perfectly calm though EXHAUSTED.  I did have a bit of a panic attack when I realized how much it was going to cost to mail nine packages of cookies across the state.  Whew.

Anyway, with all of that, I am only now getting around to writing my gratitude entry for last week.  Better late than never!

1)  I am thankful for this sweet time of year.

2)  I am thankful for friends afar and near.

3)  I am thankful for finals week and my precious, precious students and how much they have learned, even if it didn't get reflected in some of their final essays at times because, well, it's the end of the semester and EVERYBODY (including this lady) is a bit lazy when it comes to school.

4)  I am thankful we have lived in our lovely home, The Owlery, for two years and a week as of today. :)

5)  I am thankful for my husband who keeps me smiling and laughing most of the time.

6)  I am thankful for playing hide-and-seek/peekaboo with our kitties.

7)  I am really thankful for those white chocolate chip and butterscotch chip cookies.  Those are my new FAVORITES.  I'm making some more later this week.  ;)

8)  I am thankful for always having my family and getting to come home.

9)  I am thankful I am growing wiser and more mature each year.

Hope you are enjoying this season!  What are you grateful for this time of year?

Photo a Day in November #2

2.  Color

So I got this blue button-down with green polka dots at JCP yesterday.  The "CEO" sent little ole' me a $10 off a $10+ purchase to encourage me to check out what they had done with the store.  A few weeks ago, I got an email advertising their JCP Shop, and it featured cute button-downs such as this one, and I had to have it.  Too bad I didn't realize Zach cut out our fun money this money.  OOPS!  He said I could keep it, and I am glad I did because I got so many compliments on this combo:  white polka-dotted green cardigan over the blue button down with green necklace.  :)

Also, this is the first alcoholic beverage I have ordered in over a year.  We went with some friends to Table Mesa tonight after the Bentonville in Toyland First Friday.  I have to say that Ruby Tuesday's mojitos are better, but this did the trick!

Finally, we were quite sad to learn that our new soda shoppe has gone in where the Walmart Cafe was, which means NO. MORE. CRUNCHIES.  :(

Be Grateful #5

I love my furry brats!  They enjoy getting inside the hampers we use to tote laundry up and down the stairs.  It doesn't matter if the laundry is dirty and wrinkled or clean and folded.

1)  I am thankful for the IHOP coupons we received this week--two free Fresh 'N Fruities can't be beat!  Going to IHOP definitely takes me back to college and reminds me of Black Friday shopping.  I can't wait for the holidays.  :)

2)  I am pleased as punch when it comes to the weather we are having in these parts.  Ah, fall, how do I love thee?  Let me count the ways (and bake autumnal desserts to show you)...

3)  I am happy that I have finished the big chunk of mentor training for this semester.  Oh, five hours of training wears me out...

4)  I am grateful my first Phoenix class went well, even if we fell behind a bit.  ;)

5)  I am so excited to celebrate THREE years of marriage and FOUR years together with Zach on Wednesday.  He is cooking me dinner, which is a big deal if you know him.  We are going to watch Parenthood and hang out.  I hope he likes my present!  My husband is one of my greatest blessings, and "we" makes me a better "me."

6)  I am blessed to have had today "off;" I think I worked too many hours this past week, and I was so worn out, I decided to work from home today.  I may have not been as productive as I had hoped, but I got a lot done on all fronts!

7)  Yep, I'm gonna have to say praise Jesus for funny shows like Community (even if they aren't exactly wholesome and politically correct).  Yep, I'm obsessed.

8)  And it doesn't make me mad to listen to Christmas music as I run errands.  Too early?  Not if it puts me in an excellent spirit!

9)  Thank you, Lord, for my brown sugar Cadbury chip cookie-baking talents.  I baked some "NWACC" cookies for my mentor training--I used green and white M&M's--and I only brought home 2 of 42 cookies!  I love baking, and I am so thankful I am a good cook for my husband, our family, and our friends.

10)  I am grateful for the week and weekend ahead.  It won't be as busy as last week (I hope!).  :)

Entertaining at The Owlery

Well, I sorta already showed my dining "room" on the SUYL--Kitchens from Kelly's Korner, but I will go ahead and share it again!  A few of those who viewed my pictures commented on my teapot collection, so I will share a bit more about that.  We actually just had a friend from work over with her boyfriend and son.  My kitchen area turned into a disaster:

BUT I think that is a sign that it was a successful meal!  (This picture was taken after they left, and I started cleaning up.)  Some of my favorite things to cook include chicken pot pie with lots of veggies; cobbler; French toast; roast beef; red, white, and black bean chili; and Cadbury chip brown sugar cookies.  For this dinner, I made baked chicken with McClard's seasoning, mashed potatoes from scratch, green beans with thyme, buttery corn, homemade cheddar bay biscuits (like the ones at Red Lobster!), and Nutella cookies with peanut butter.  Enjoy another look around the heart of our home!

This is how our kitchen usually looks.  This is looking into our dining "room" from the kitchen.

 looking into our dining area from the living room

 Our table is an antique Duncan Phyfe dining table!  A couple from Zach's parents' church gave it to us when we got married because they were switching from two residences to one. It needs to be refinished, but it is just beautiful.  It seats six, but we keep one chair in our bedroom for sitting.  I love imagining all of the different meals shared at this table and all of the different people who have sat down at it.  Zach's Momo made the lace tablecloth several years ago and gave it to me for my birthday.  The vase in center was made by Zach's mom who is very into pottery.  All of the birdy items were gifts from my birthday week that Zach's mom organized this year since I was recovering from surgery during that time, and the ironwork napkin holder was a wedding gift (I don't remember from whom.)  The rug, which you really can't see, was purchased with wedding gift money.  And I'm a new seamstress!  Zach got me this sewing machine for Christmas last year!

 the original needlework on the dining chairs

We wish we had the money to restore them to their former glory, but we can't right now.  We are planning to cover them with some fabric to protect the needlework and better match our decor at some point.

 I keep cookbooks, photo albums, yearbooks, photo boxes, picture frames, and scrapbook clutter on this shelf.  It needs to be better organized.  (That is one of my goals for this coming month!)  Our Willow Tree collection that we received from my mama, Grandma Byrd, and aunts on my dad's side are on top of the shelf along with a decanter that has been in my family forever.  The Alice in Wonderland bag was a birthday gift from my friend Katie; I used it in grad school, but now it holds fabric scraps.

 This china cabinet belonged to one of Zach's great aunts and was given to us by his parents to use since they weren't using it.  It holds my teapot collection, including our Alice in Wonderland collection.  (More on that in a second!)  The horse paintings were Zach's uncle's; he passed away before I met Zach.  :(  On top are some plants from my mom, a set of candleholders that were left in our first apartment, and the tiered serving dish that was a wedding gift from some ladies at Zach's parents' church.  Our kitties sleep on the ottoman to the right; we store coupons in the basket.

Oh, and our chandelier can be dimmed, so we have MOOD lighting!  But it makes for very bad lighting for pictures.  *lol*

This is a somewhat better look at my teapots.

 The top row has my Alice in Wonderland teapot (in the center) that Zach got me for Christmas when we were dating.  (It was the only Christmas we celebrated while dating because we got married exactly a year after we met on September 19!)  What is funny is that I got him a voucher for high tea at the Intercontinental on the Plaza when we were going to KC after New Year's (along with the dark blue tea cup you will see on the back of the second shelf--great minds think alike! :).  For my 24th birthday following that Christmas, he gave me several of the Alice pieces (plates and cups) during my birthday week, and his parents gave us the creamer pitcher the next Christmas.  My mama kept getting forgetting what fairy tale was behind our fairy tale...and gave me the Cinderella snow globe for Christmas after we were married.  *lol*  There's also a small white toy tea set I had when I was a little girl; I used it for my Samantha doll.

Left to right:  The rose teacup and saucer came from my best friend Monica (it was her Nan's; Nan passed away last year, and I loved her like a grandma, too); Zach's blue cup from our first Christmas together was mentioned above; this red housewarming teapot is from Brian and Whitney (they were our primary matchmakers); the burgundy and tan teapot that stacks on its cup was a birthday present from my roommate Rose; the Union Jack teapot was one of my souvenirs from my study abroad trip; the book teapot was a birthday gift from my sister-in-law; and the Japanese cup was bought on one of my many LR trips to Whole Foods.

Left to right:  The pastel polka doted teapot and cup was found at a flea market by my SIL; the plate commemorating Prince William and Catherine Middleton's wedding was a gift from my in-laws for my 26th birthday last year (my mother-in-law's best friend Fiona is Scottish and picked it up while she was visiting her family); the purple flowered teapot was a housewarming gift from my friend Katie when Monica and I got our apartment during grad school; and the simple flowered teapot was Zach's when he went away to college.

And there you have it!  Want to come over for a hot cuppa?