My new home!

Here are some pictures of my house! I am super in love with it. We still have a loft, a guest room and an office/craft room to decorate but that will take some time since I don't know exactly what I want to do in those rooms.

LIVING ROOM:




DINING ROOM:


KITCHEN:






HALF BATH:




MASTER BEDROOM:





FRONT OF HOUSE:


We really love our new house. I can't wait to do other fun decorating things to it.

Buying a House!

We are buying a house! We hope to close March 19. We will see. Yay!

My Rocking Chair

So over the weekend I sewed some more loveliness! I made covers for the cushions on the rocking chair that I have in my classroom. It was a boring bland plaid pattern. I used fabric that I had gotten for cheap last year. They are frogs.... for Mrs. Phillips' Frogs! It is super cute. I will hopefully get a pic tomorrow. I am pretty proud with the cushion covers. I can't wait to sew more things. =)

My New Crock Pot

ANOTHER one of my fabulous Christmas presents was a Crock Pot. I had wanted one since so many people have commented on how wonderful theirs was. I had never cooked in one, I just wanted one.
I hadn't even gotten it out of the box, let alone used it until about a couple of weeks ago. I was on the Nest message boards and someone had suggested this Gluten Free website of crock pot recipes. I decided to check it out. It is 365 days of crock pot recipes---cue hallelujah music. It is wonderful! So many great recipes and of course the ingredients do not have to be gluten free but she does suggest the best gluten free ingredients in her recipes because of her own preferences. My first dish was Applesauce Chicken. It was very tasty. I didn't realize how tender the chicken would be!

I also made The Crock Pot Lady's Taco Soup. I didn't really make any changes to her recipe but next time I probably wouldn't make so much--I would only use one can of each of the beans instead of two. We definitely had lots of leftovers! It makes a great family meal. Here is a picture of my Taco Soup.


I really enjoy my crock pot and can't wait to make more recipes in it. This week I have planned to make Maple Dijon Chicken and Chicken and Rice Casserole.
Yum-o!

My New Hobby

For Christmas, I had asked J to get me a sewing machine. And J got me a fancy Singer Tradition. It is super easy to use! My first project was this weekend. J had decided to make the backyard game, "Cornhole". I volunteered to make the bean bags to play the game. Here are my Tennessee and Florida State bean bags:




My original plan was to find UT fabric and FSU fabric but Joann's only had UT fabric and not FSU fabric so I decided to keep it uniform and just make them orange and garnet with black backs.



Well my bean bags needed something to 'travel' in, so of course they need a bag. I decided to make a drawstring bag for them. One side is garnet and black.



The other side is orange and black.



Here is detail of the drawstring part.



Since my new found hobby, I have managed to buy some sewing books/magazines with my Christmas gift cards. I got a this book: Seams to Me


I have started making a Pin Cushion Caddy from a pattern in the book. I hope to finish it by this weekend.

Marley and Me Movie

So I went to go see the movie Marley and Me, since I had read the book and was super excited to see the movie. I was a tad bit dissapointed, but I was thoroughly happy that I read the book since it was way better. The movie stayed pretty close to the book though it definitely strung some details together. AND it milked the ending, definitely trying to get you to cry.
I am sad that it didn't develop some relationships like it did in the book. -- You don't really understand who 'Marley' is.
I definitely recommend the book to anyone. I hope to read it again sometime. My favorite book so far.

Marley & Me

I just finished reading the book Marley and Me about a week ago. I had never read this book before and had originally thought that it was about an old lady and a dog---which didn't really interest me at the time, plus when it came out I wasn't really into reading for pleasure. Recently I had seen a preview that it was coming to be a movie, how interesting I thought. So then I was watching Oprah and Jennifer Anniston was on promoting her new movie "Marley and Me". I immediately wanted to read the book before I saw the movie since it looked really cute. I borrowed the book from a Friend and started reading it on Thursday and then the next week I was done. It was such an easy read. A very heartwarming book. And yes I did cry a couple of times. But I definitely could relate to the book since I too had an elderly dog that could barely get up from the ground because of bad hips. My dog Genie was the best dog ever--not a terror like Marley. I am actually curious to see how the movie pans out and takes on the story. I will definitely be giving my money to go see it when it comes out.


My next book is P.S. I love you! Though I didn't realize how big of a book it was until the library lady brought it to me! Yikes! I hope it is an easy read.