this is actually how i spend my nights.

 So I know I've probably never mentioned it here before, but I'm learning to take pictures with a real camera!! I know, I know...shocking. And I can't decide if it's just proof of how boring my life is, or if it shows my dedication to my new hobby, but I seriously spend many nights doing nothing but taking pictures. You are so lucky I've restrained myself (mostly) from boring you with the results of these evenings.


But today your luck is up. Today you get to see PICTURES! But I promise that they are at least semi-entertaining, and two of them are actually GOOD (by my standards)!


So last weekend when we were in Augusta, we celebrated Christmas with my family. Like all good 'grandparents', my parents thoughtfully include Lola in the gift-giving. Or rather, the gift-receiving. That Lola...she is BROKE. She never remembers to buy other people presents. Jerkface.


Anyway, one of Lola's presents this year was a toy that seriously made me LOL. Literally. It's a ball with a mustache/beard combo attached to the front. Like...what's the world's obsession with mustaches and beards lately? I don't know, but I support it- especially when it's really ridiculous like on dogs or babies. So in theory, if Lola would hold the ball in her mouth correctly, it would look like she had a beard and mustache. Only she kinda sucked at that part, and mostly preferred to hold it by the beard or mustache.

So Wednesday night we spent a good long while playing and trying to convince her it was most fun to hold the toy the RIGHT way. We mostly failed. But I got a few pictures anyway so that you can almost see what the toy is supposed to do.

Her preferred play pose.

Almost right here! Just slightly the wrong angle. You can barely see them, but there are little fangs that stick out beneath the 'stache. I'm not sure if these are supposed to be regular dog fangs or if the makers of this toy are also trying to cash in on the vampire popularity. Either way, it's cute.
 

See?? Cute!!

OK, after we tired of the new toy, I focused on trying to get some good pictures of my girl. The following are officially the Best Pictures I have of my daughter. LOVE THEM.

Isn't she beauuuuuutiful??!?!?  I know, I know. I can barely stand her cuteness myself.

OK, enough of my dog. One day maybe you'll get lucky and these will be pictures of a kid instead. Keep praying! 

So that was Wednesday night. New dog toy. Pictures.

Last night (after I nearly died at Zumba) we had a lot of baking to do. Treats for the neighbors and my co-workers. And we waited til the last minute, naturally. So last night was Bake-a-thon 2011. I was in charge of the AMAZING OREOS (I could think of a more descriptive name, but that really sums them up quite nicely) and Matt made 3 loaves of banana bread. We're a formidable team in the kitchen, for sure!

First up was the Oreos. Matt was in charge of crushing up candy canes...

...while I prepared all the other ingredients.

 White chocolate, and plenty of it.


This is what they look like when I'm done:

 

Yes, they taste as good as they look. I also made a batch with regular (semisweet) chocolate. You'll see a pic of those in a minute, so hold your horses.

  In the meantime, Matt whipped up the banana bread. It's my mom's recipe (aka the BEST BANANA BREAD EVER), but I really don't have the patience for making it. Matt doesn't mind it, though, so...it's officially His Job.

Are you ready for the next picture? It's me with one tray of the Oreos. When I saw this picture, I thought "this is the most me picture I've ever seen." Here I am in my sweaty workout clothes, greasy hair pinned back...and I'm having some sort of jealous love affair with chocolate-covered Oreos. Yep, that's me.

How I want people to think I am:

How I really am:

Welcome to my real life. And keep your hands off my Oreos!!

Christmas Decor 2011

My halls are decked this year. Well, not halls...technically, we don't have any halls in our house (wasted square footage, I say). But walls/tables/shelves/doors/patches of floor? Decked.

This could have something to do with my new obsessions with Pinterest and crafting...possibly.

And just the fact that every year I manage to accumulate a few more Christmas-y 'things.' That naturally means that each year is better-decorated than the previous year. And that in about 2 years, I'm gonna have to move for lack of space to store all this junk the other 11 months of the year. Ay yi yi.

Anyway...if you're new here from Kelly's Korner or Nester: hi! Welcome! And it may help to know that I just got my first 'real' camera a few weeks ago and my current level of photography skill is 'bless her heart, she tries.' Come to think of it, so is my crafting and decorating...so if you are looking for a posh and professional inspiration blog, this ain't gonna be it. But it is my house and I rather enjoy it, so if you can deal with my semi-bad pictures...we can be friends!

So...on with it!

I took 2,810,938 pictures trying to get a good tree pic. It's not happenin. None of the tutorials I pinned actually helped me. Maybe next year. It could be because our tree is in a really awkward spot in the room. Our house was NOT designed with a Christmas tree in mind...something I will remedy in our next house. I MUST HAVE A GOOD SPOT FOR A TREE (and this isn't it).

Right, so...the tree is behind the couch, blocking the piano. Awesome, right?! Plus it means you can never actually SEE it if you're sitting on the couch. If we actually had Christmas morning in our house, this would be bad news. Since we don't...it's just something to complain about on the blog. :)

I always love my piano (and all of its awesome 70s-ness)...but come Christmas, I really love it. Its shelves allow me so many spots to place random knick-knacks and decor I wouldn't otherwise have a place to set! Score 1 for the piano!
 

You might notice some reoccurring elements in my decorating (as pictured below): Jars of sparkly balls. Book trees. If you recall, I went a little bit crazy with the book trees this year. And then I figured out how to sew cute stars to go on top? Done. Sold. I WILL COVER MY HOUSE IN BOOK TREES.

 Looking over at the other side of the tree, towards the front door and coat closet. 

  
On top of this bookshelf lives the nativity my Nana got in Israel. I know, my nativity just beat your nativity. Sorry! To the right of the shelf you will see a little bit of randomness inspired by something I pinned (surprise, surprise): an upside-down tomato cage I wrapped in lights and tinsel. Fun! 

Here's the view from the kitchen:

Mantel, complete with MORE BOOK TREES. You may also recognize my beloved stick tree!
 

That concludes the bulk of my Christmas decor. Other than that I just have little 'touches' in each of the other rooms:

 Wreath in the kitchen dedicated to our alma mater.

 Greenery with tiny ornaments in mason jars in the bedrooms and bathrooms.

Yarn wreath on the front door.

 

Christmas houses in the dining room.


Last but not least...


This may not be remotely attractive, but it is Christmas-related and arguably the most useful thing in the house right now:

My gift-wrapping station in the friggin empty, wasted-space that should be a nursery if only we weren't barren spare bedroom! It's a mess, but a useful one. As you can see, Lola approves (and there's proof we even have wreaths on the outside of our house!).

Ok. That was probably more pictures than you ever needed or wanted to see. If you've made it all the way to the end, congratulations! Leave a comment and I will mail you a book tree or something. :)

the year i got 50 snuggies

It's Wednesday again! 

And a BUSY Wednesday it is...I have a million things to do. Really important things like Clean House so that I can Take Pictures for Friday's Kelly's Korner "Christmas Decor" blog carnival. Oh, also because a lot of people are coming over to my house on Friday. But mostly so that I can take pictures. In the daylight.

And I need to go to Zumba tonight. Because I think I am becoming a fattie sloth. And now that I'm 29, it's time to not let myself go. Hopefully I'll be around for a few more years...it would be nice to fit into my clothes for the duration of my time left.

ANYWAY. Remember a few years ago when Snuggies were all the rage?

Apparently I've been a sloth for quite some time, because I guess it was one of those things where everyone I have ever known saw those commercials and thought "I HAVE to get one of those for Erika!!!!! They were just MADE for her!" Which was mostly true...not gonna lie, I love me a Snuggie. But it just so happened that I received MANY Snuggies that year. I also gave a few, because...ya know, who doesn't love a Snuggie?

Incidentally, Snuggies make for really funny pictures. Enjoy!

 Me and my dad, auditioning for the Snuggie commercial

Now this little brown number is a personal favorite of mine. I believe it is called the Cozy 3-in-1? It's the best...except that when you wear it, your arms are pinned down. It's super soft, though.

 Snuggies even work outside! Who knew? Not that our blazing fire wasn't keeping me toasty enough...it's just that sometimes you just need that extra mile of warmth.

My main issue with Snuggies is where to keep them. They don't exactly just lay over the back of the couch like a regular afghan (well they could, but they would look dumb). They're awfully bulky to put in a basket with other blankets (not to mention GAUDY and would NOT work with my decor). But then...in a closet? I never remember they're there.

Dilemmas, dilemmas. 

Happy Wednesday!!

so long, 28-ville

Well, I must say: My last weekend of 28-dom was pretty fantastic.

We went to Augusta for the weekend to attend my sister's best friend's wedding. Did you follow? Basically I've known this kid (er- 25 year old woman) since she was in diapers with my sister and our families have been close forever...which merited me spending my last-weekend-of-28 celebrating in my hometown.

It also gave Matt and I ample opportunities to practice taking pictures. And let's just be honest: we have a LOT to learn...because for the life of us we could NOT figure out how to make the pictures from the reception (aka in a fairly dark room) look right. They were either orange and blurry (from no flash or using the 'night' setting) or totally washed out (flash!). So...bummer. But that's beside the point. The main thing is that the weekend was great, the wedding was beautiful, the bride was ridiculously gorgeous and had the hottest shoes I've ever seen, and my date and I didn't look half-bad ourselves.

That was before the wedding and proves that natural light is the winner when it comes to taking pictures. Also-- sorry if my RED LIPS are hurting your eyes, but I needed them to match my nails and my shoes and also they made me happy so you can just deal with it. :)

The second best part of the wedding (besides Lindsey getting hitched) was that my WHOLE FAMILY was there. This basically never happens and, in fact, has not happened since our LAST wedding (which was Jake's) in June. So this is no small thing. Luckily, they were all happy to pose for or with me for pictures. 

Here's Emily (Jake's wife) and I (example of no flash/blurry) (please notice my shoes and congratulate me for wearing them for 4 hours before I changed into flats!): 

 Oh sorry, do I look like I'm about 7 months pregnant in that picture?? Maybe I was. PREGNANT WITH CRABCAKES. Because the crabcakes were flowing like wine (and so was the wine, incidentally)...and I did not hesitate to partake. And if you've ever seen me and crabcakes...well, it's a sight to behold. Kind of like me and corndogs. Or me and anything chocolatey and pepperminty. Or me and a lot of things, because apparently I'm a fan of food. Anyway. Crab cakes! So good!


Then I spent about 2.5 hours taking pictures of my sister, because she is a very expressive person and when she tells stories it looks like this:

The food was good, the bar was open, the band was excellent...

And then I took my shirt off??!??!! Oh wait, no, I didn't. It's just that when Emily took this picture, she proved that she has not learned the fine art of Not Making People Look Naked. It's okay. We had a good laugh about it. Please know I still had my dress on.

Are my dad and sister cute or WHAT?

And finally, the moment we all (or my mom, at least) had been waiting for: the Family Picture.

Do you like Mark's fancy duds? That's because he just completed Army Ranger school and is a FREAKIN ARMY RANGER now. Um, yeah. So don't mess with me. Or him, either. Basically I taught him everything he knows...

So last night was late and fantastic. Today was spent lounging around and celebrating both Christmas and my birthday. And eating...as if you had any questions about that. Look at us. Do we look like we're starving? No.

Anyway, I got lots of good loot (CAMERA STUFF) and took lots of bad pictures (NEED TO LEARN TO USE CAMERA STUFF) and just generally had a merry old time celebrating my Last Day of 28. 

Coming tomorrow: old age, a few more presents, and a fun dinner with friends!

Christmas Card Stats 2011:
# of cards received: 7
B&W to color photo ratio: 2:5
# of cards with hand-written messages: 2
# of cards with pictures of kids on them: 6
# of cards with pictures of pets on them: 0 (very disappointing, folks)