Holly Jolly Photos

So…  I’ve decided to take the plunge and send out photo Christmas cards.  I feel a bit silly sending out a picture of just me and Joe…  I know, it’s probably not weird but for some reason I think couple shot = just married or engaged.  And obviously we are neither of those.  But I got over it and decided to take the plunge. 

I needed to do some research on ideas for poses.  Nothing that looked too “we just got married.”  So off to Pinterest I headed…  making a board of ideas.

Here are some of my favorites… (click on the photo to take you to the source)

So with these ideas in mind…  we headed outside after Thanksgiving lunch with my sweet cousin as our photographer. 

And the winner:

I’m hesitant to show the actual card cause I want it to be a surprise for those who will be receiving it in the mail!  So what do you think?  Does it look like we’re trying to be a newly engaged couple?  Ok good!  Have you taken your photo yet for your cards.  Check back for our adventure of taking pictures of Julie’s girls for their card!  Too fun!!

So thankful!

What a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I am so blessed with a wonderful family!  I have to say that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  No pressure of presents just a wonderful reason to gather with family and friends and take a moment to remember all of our blessings. 

We had an amazing meal at my mom’s house.  So MUCH yummy food!!

Then we did a little photo shoot for Christmas cards.  We got some super fun shots of my Aunt, Uncle and cousin!

I’ll share with y’all some of our shots that Elizabeth took of us later this week.

What did y’all do for Thanksgiving??  What was your favorite dish?  Are you enjoying the leftovers as much as I am??  Oh and by the way…  I’m thankful for you as well…  I appreciate all of you that read this little blog!  Thanks for being here!!

Thanksgiving 2011

The time is here to celebrate FOOD, oops I mean Thanksgiving.  But really people…  what would Thanksgiving be without gathering around a table with your loved ones and celebrating the bounty of our blessings?  You know I love all things food.  And a day that is centered around food =  Happy Katy!  My mom is hosting Thanksgiving this year and we’ve been discussing the menu for a couple weeks.  She’s in love with Pinterest as much as I am, so we’ve been pinning all kinds of recipes via Pinterest.  So…  Let’s get to the goodness – the MENU!

Appetizer: Jamie Cook’s It up – Cranberry Cream Cheese Dip

via

Main Event:  Alton Brown’s Turkey

via

Sides:

Roasted Green Beans w/ Mushrooms	Memama’s Super Yummy Corn
Mashed Potatoes	Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Brown Butter
Sautéed Carrots, Parsnips & Onions	Sweet Potatoes
Lime Ginger Cranberry Sauce (a MUST)	Gravy
30 Minute Rolls

Desserts:

PW’s Apple Dumplings

Berry Walnut Upside Down Cake

Super yummy  - huh?!?!?!  What are your must have items on the table?  I love this cranberry sauce – I’ve made it the past three years and it’s a keeper!  The leftovers the next day on my turkey sandwich will make me happy all over again!

If you have all that delicious foods to partake in – you’ve got to have a beautiful table as well.  Here’s some examples from Thanksgiving past…

Cindy’s House 2011

Mom’s Thanksgiving 2011

Our House 2010

And as always blog land gives us lots of great examples!  Check out these lovely ladies examples:

Katie

Michelle

Some great ideas from Kate

Megan

 

I can’t wait to hear all about your Thanksgiving plans…  what are you serving, where are you celebrating??  Do tell!

Thunder Road Half Marathon

 

We’ve made it to race day!  I can’t believe I’ll be running 13 miles this morning.  We’ve been in a 12 week training schedule.  I can’t say that I’ve made every run because I have NOT! But I have made every long run and I’m pretty excited to have accomplished this!  I’ve also added in cross training at Ultimate Crossfit.  I’ve really enjoyed these workouts.  They are HARD but rewarding.  I can feel my muscles getting stronger and my recovery time getting quicker.  Here’s the workout schedule I did – modified from Hal Higdon’s plan.

Week	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
1	Stretch & Strengthen	3 m run	Crossfit	Rest	Crossfit	Rest	4 m run
2	Stretch & Strengthen	3 m run	Crossfit	Rest	Crossfit	Rest	4 m run
3	Stretch & Strengthen	3.5 m run	Crossfit	Rest	Crossfit	Rest	5 m run
4	Stretch & Strengthen	3.5 m run	Crossfit	Rest	Crossfit	Rest	5 m run
5	Stretch & Strengthen	4 m run	Crossfit	Rest	Crossfit	Rest	6 m run
6	Stretch & Strengthen	4 m run	Crossfit	Rest	Crossfit	Rest	5-K Race
7	Stretch & Strengthen	4.5 m run	Crossfit	Rest	Crossfit	Rest	7 m run
8	Stretch & Strengthen	4.5 m run	Crossfit	Rest	Crossfit	Rest	Rest
9	10-K Race	5 m run	Crossfit	Rest	Crossfit	Rest	8 m run
10	Stretch & Strengthen	5 m run	Crossfit	Rest	Crossfit	Rest	9 m run
11	Stretch & Strengthen	5 m run	Crossfit	Rest	Crossfit	Rest	10 m run
12	Stretch & Strengthen	4 m run	Crossfit	Rest	Crossfit	Rest	Half Marathon

If you want to check out how I’m doing you can click on this link to see where in the race I am.  I’ll be back this week to let you know how it went!!

Blogger’s new design options

As with design in my home – I’m always looking for ways to keep the blog looking fresh.  There’s just something in me that likes to keep things changed up.  It’s kind of like re-arranging some furniture but with a lot less back work involved. ☺

I was checking out Blogger’s blog and they’ve introduced some new ways to display your blog.  It’s called Dynamic Views.  The cool thing about this option is your “guest” can decide how they would like to view your blog.  Whether they want to see more pictures than words – whether they want to look at it month by month.  Lot’s of fun ways to change it up.

Here are some examples of what it would look like:

Sidebar

Flipcard:

Magazine:

Mosaic:

Snapshot:

Timeslide:

Classic:

You can update the colors and the header but it’s got to be a thin header.  I like the sleek design – clean, crisp.  I can’t say I’m ready to hop on board today.  My main concern is: will my guest know what to do?  It’s a rather new option so Blogger is still working out some kinks. But I’m going to keep it in the back of my mind as option.

Oh and if you want to see what your blog would look like you can hop over to the Blogger blog and check it out…  Let me know what you think!

Photo Challenge Week 4

It’s that time again! Here’s what we had on tap for this week:

Technically we had Day 20-24 but I left out Day 17 last week but already did Day 20 so I’m jumping around a bit!

I didn’t get anything accomplished for the Day 22 – Hands; so I’ll keep working on that one.  Have you been attempting some photography?  Don’t forget to hop over to Michelle’s and check out the Photo Party!  Oh and if you want to check out:

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Go for it!!

Dining Inspiration

As you may remember, I have been trying to figure out what I’m going to do in our Dining Room.  We’ve been talking about this for a while here and here. So I have been scouring my favorite website…  PINTEREST for inspiration for a little refresh. I have been having a hard time trying to decide what direction to take (since I’ve been thinking about it since FEBRUARY!)  Our dining room is open to the Living room and kitchen, so you really have to treat them like 3 rooms in 1, which makes it a bit challenging! 

The walls in the kitchen and dining room are a bright cheery green.  The kitchen and dining room have to be the same color.  I’ve gone around and around trying to figure out a way to create a transition area so the rooms could be painted different colors but it just doesn’t work.  I’ve actually had multiple conversations with my design team (a.k.a Shannon & Cindy).  All that is to say that the green walls are staying – which I love anyway!

So when I saw this pin by Katie Bower on Pinterest via Canadian House & Home, I knew it was the perfect solution!

The combination of the celery green, navy and golden browns are just scrumptious!

So we already have the celery taken care of with the wall color.  The natural tones will be in our dining table – a family piece from my Grandmother, hardwood floors and antique corner cabinet.  To bring in the navy I will be painting a set of vintage bamboo chairs courtesy of my Mother in law.  She has the whole set from the 70’s – table, chairs and china cabinet!  She is still using the cabinet and had given us the table a while back.

I will need to add new soft furnishings: rug, fabric for chair covers and window treatments.  We replaced the chandelier a while back with this super good bargain from CB2 for $50 smack-a-roos!  Can you say deal?!?!  So here’s what I’m thinking…

So what do you think??  The rug is another good bargain from Shades of Light.  The 5 x 8 is only $280.00.  The Ikat panels are from West Elm – and might not be the final selection but give the right idea of what I’m thinking.  And the artwork is just another idea – we’ll see where we end up.  I have been toying around with the idea of gallery wall there.  It’s a long wall that could use some different shapes and sizes.

So what do you think??  Are you working on any re-designs?  Any great sources for window treatments I need to know about??