Insta-Friday #9

This week has flown by and has been very disconnected much like this post is planned to be, but it is insta-Friday, so it will be packed with fun pictures.  Let's start at the doctor's office.  I was there yesterday.

Waiting to see the doctor.

I have strep throat.  Awesome.  So, today I am blogging from my bed.  I have been here most of the day.  I did have a great project though...Christmas cards...addressed and ready to mail.  Since the cards will not be on the blog until Christmas...here are some decorations in my house.

Newly made Wells wreath.

Twinkley

Invasion of the Santas.

Other than this all I have to report today is that I have some of the most beautiful nieces on the planet.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!  Stay healthy!!!

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas!

After Thanksgiving I did some Christmas decorating.  I have a fireplace and mantle now and I was excited to decorate it.

Yes, that is the decoration storage box and some wrapped presents in the picture...I was that excited to snap a picture I couldn't wait to clean up.

I ruined two of our stockings by storing them too close to a red candle so I ordered new stockings for us all with our names on them.  I am excited to hang them when they come and I am sure will share a new picture.  Other than that I decided I needed the lights and greenery to extend the entire length of the mantle and my sister made the great suggestion of hanging a lighted wreath.  Off to Michael's I went!  I got a lighted wreath that was on sale for 15 bucks and I got beaded tinsel and glittery letters for 50 cents each.

Ta-da!

With the beads and letters the wreath set me back about 20 bucks.  I used my glue gun to put the letters on the wreath.

Festive, yes?

I also picked up some greenery for the dining room.  I couldn't let me new candle holders miss out, right?

My other new decoration this year are these ornaments from Willow House.

After the tree arrives this weekend I will share more of my decorations.  Have you started decorating yet?

Lightened Thanksgiving Recipes

As I mentioned in yesterday's post the husband and I hosted Thanksgiving dinner for family for the first time this year.  When I was planning the menu I decided I wanted to do some lighter recipes, including a large salad so that all the choices were not super heavy and high in calories.  I went over to one of my favorite light recipe sources, skinnytaste.com and did a search for Thanksgiving recipes.  I found this great salad.

Baby Greens with Goat Cheese, Beets and Candied Pecans

Uh-mazing.  Instead of cooking the beets myself, I used a can of whole beets.  I drained, rinsed, and cut them into quarters.  Then I let them sit in some of the salad dressing to marinate while I prepared the rest of dinner.  It worked out great.

Close up yumminess.

The other recipe I was looking for was one for sweet potatoes.  I don't know about you, but I am not a big fan of the marshmellow-y over sweet candied yams.  I wanted to do a lightly sweet dish of sweet potatoes.  I found that recipe too!

Mashed Sweet Potatoes Brulee

This recipe was SO easy.  I boiled and mashed the sweet potatoes on Wednesday and refrigerated them.  I heated them up on Thanksgiving and added the brown sugar for broiling.  Simple.

Ignore the little burned bit of sugar on mine.  We ate around it and it was delicious.  If you are looking for lightened Thanksgiving recipes next year, bookmark this page on Skinny Taste.

This year we skipped the green bean casserole.  My sister steamed up some green beans and then sauteed them with a little bacon, tossed in some roasted baby bella mushrooms and topped with crispy bacon.  Super easy...super delicious.

The prep and cooking this year was so easy that I was actually wondering if I was forgetting something on Thanksgiving day.  No, it was just that easy.  Loved it.

Happy Tuesday friends!!

Weekend Recap

Thanksgiving photobomb!

I love my sister.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of family, food and new recipes!  This year was the husband and my first time hosting everyone for Thanksgiving and we had 12 family members join us.

We served lots of the regular dishes...turkey, ham, cranberry sauce, and gravy...and lots of the regular recipes...bread stuffing, cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, and green beans.  Along with a couple of new recipes from Skinny Taste!

This salad is fantastic!

These sweet potatoes were Uh-mazing.  Details and links to the recipes will be in the blog tomorrow.

I had a little drink station set up also with a light cranberry cosmo as the cocktail for the day.

On black Friday the sister and I wanted to shop, but we didn't want to be anywhere near a mall so we went to Pier 1.  I found these gigantic candle sticks for my dining room.

I am in love.

I also got some unscented pillars for the filigree candelabra I got on clearance from Willow House for my fire place.

I am bummed Willow House is phasing out their home goods, but I am enjoying their close out prices.

Sammy had lots of fun with her cousing Mo over the weekend.

I had tons of fun with my sister and my nieces.

I hadn't seen these beautiful girls since last February!!  I am so happy I see them again in three and a half weeks!!  I miss them already!

Sunday after my family left I wrapped presents...I can't believe I am 99% finished with Christmas shopping.

Now to relax, decorate and enjoy the season!!

I hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Since we still had the old den sofa in the garage we thought we'd take this opportunity to wish you happy thanksgiving from the family, Robert Earl Keen style.

I hope you are full of turkey and thanks!!

The Man Cave

I love the new sofa.  If you saw the post yesterday, you saw the internet picture of the new sofa we had delivered on Sunday.  Last night we "finished" up the den, which if I didn't mention, is also the husband's man cave.  We vacuumed, dusted and rolled out the new area rug I bought on my lunch hour yesterday.

Pretty nice looking for the husband's cave, right?  Don't worry the the valances and blinds are leaving.  We are "finished" with the den meaning it is ready for our house guests that arrive today.  We are not finished with the den.  But considering this is how it started...

...we have made AMAZING progress.  When we moved in last April the house was not even close to being finished.  The kitchen was gutted and we were still working on painting the rest of the house.  We were pretty much living in two rooms of our 3 bedroom, 2 bath home, so everything that we couldn't put away got piled in the den.  One huge disorganized nightmare.  I used to joke that we should just become hoarders because it would be easier.  :)

PROGRESS!

You can imagine how happy we were to FINALLY have everything out of here and roll out this new rug!   I love that the husband is open to my decorating touches in his den. 

I really like this rug.  I got it at Bed, Bath and Beyond yesterday.  I think it goes with the sofa and the sofa pillows well.

Still on the list for the den...painting and replacing the window treatments.  Is it okay to call them window treatments when discussing a man cave?  Hmmm.

One last view.  Ahh.

Weekend Recap

All of last week and last weekend were super duper busy!!  I thought we had SO much done in the house and we had it all mostly together.  Well, when you realize you only have a week and a half to be ready for 5 house guests and hosting Thanksgiving for 14 you realize you still have LOTS AND LOTS to do!!

Let's start with house guests.  I am so excited to see my sister and my nieces and my brother-in-law that I can hardly stand it!

I can't wait to see these faces!!!

As far as work on the house goes we finished cleaning out the box room.  We got storage stuff sealed in bins and stored in the garage or attic.  We did a lot more donation runs and we did a lot of box recycling.

Friday evening we went on a date to Gallery Furniture and bought a beautiful new sleeper sofa for the den.

(source)

Tomorrow, hopefully, there will be a picture of it in the den.  It arrived on Sunday, but we haven't fully de-cluttered and vacuumed and all that, so I didn't take any at home pictures.

Saturday I managed to squeeze in time to get a Christmas card picture and order our cards.  The star of the card this year?  Sammy!

She was very tired after her photo shoot.  Poor puppy.

Trixie decided she did not want to be in the pictures.

"Kiss the paw and I might acknowledge you."

She lies.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend!! 

Insta-Friday #8

What a week it has been!  I am so happy today is Friday, even though I have to work tonight.  We are staying in town this weekend and it will be great to be at home.  I am looking forward to it.

Last weekend we were in Florida.

St. Augustine was precious and lots of fun.

I heart clouds...especially from airplanes.

I toured the new admissions office at the University of St. Thomas.  It is pretty impressive.

I wish my office kitchen looked like this!

I have been wanting to darken my hair for a while and I did it this week.  I went a shade darker and I am pleased.

My daily calendar had this great quote on it yesterday.

I am all for wishes, but it's so true that decisions can really impact your life.

Sammy was cute this week again.  Weird.

I hope your week has been wonderful!



Enjoy your weekend!