New Years, fried chicken, and fessing up

Well, that's embarrassing. I was just thinking about needing to update my blog, I downloaded a few pics, and BAM! I forgot my blog password. I guess that means I've been gone too long? Whoopsies! Well, I've said it before and I'll say it again. I will not apologize for not blogging because we've been BUSY living and attempting to appreciate every morsel of these holidays. I do believe we have been successful in this endeavor so far with only one more holiday to go....LOUNGERAMA! We do the New Years Eve thing at my sister's house with close friends. It's what we've done for at least 7 years or so now and it's what we love. I told Homet that I pray to never be one of those people that says, "Well, I was in bed by 10 on New Year's Eve." Something about the New Year, wiping the slate clean, and a fresh start make me giddy. Hom and I have "Goal's Dinner" every year on the first week in January where we go somewhere super fancy and make goals for the next year. We each have to come up with a spiritual, professional, and personal goal and can't tell each other until dinner. We, then, record it in our "Goal's Book" and look back over the previous years and what we have/haven't accomplished. Yes, gasp, sometimes our goal's fall short but that's part of the fun. Anyway, I love everything about a New Year. That being said, the best part about New Years is our annual Lougerama (also held at Lindsay's.) We wake up late, stay in our pjs all day, put blow up mattresses all over her living room, pick up KFC fried chicken with all the sides, and watch football all day. It is heaven. We were talking about the logistics of it last night and I recalled that the last time I ate KFC fried chicken was....Jan 1, 2011. Love it. Anyway, I didn't intend on this being a blog about New Years and fried chicken. I actually was going to blog in reference to a friend who had "Fessed up" about being obsessed with Pinterest. She asked who had tested out some of the ideas on the site so here goes, Ashley...
Here were our fall/Christmas projects (all of these were from Pinterest and I am taking no credit for the creativity of them.)
The first was just a little centerpiece for our island. It was popcorn, split peas, and red beans topped with a orangey red candle and tied with some twine. My twine obsession is a blog post in itself. Anyway, the pic doesn't do it justice. I thought it turned out adorable and since I already had most of the items (I didn't have any split peas and Wade wasn't all too happy when he went to cook red beans and rice and I had used them, but anywho), it was cheap. When fall was winding down and Christmas decor started, I just popped that popcorn, strung it up, and put it around our tree.

Notice, my (reused) popcorn garland

This next one was free. I love all things fall. The football, the weather, the soups, and most of all, FREE ART SUPPLIES! E and I went walking on our neighborhood trail and collected these pine cones and leaves. I then spray adhesived them to a vase I had, tied on a little twine, and filled that sucker up with pine cones. I put this on our dresser in our bedroom. I don't think I got this from Pinterest but I'm sure it's an idea adapted from something I saw on there.


I made these little cuties for our Halloween party. They were a hit. Just a mini Nutter Butter, a bit of melted choc chips, and a Hershey kiss, and Ta-da---you have acorns. Plus, they were yummy too.



At Christmas, I repeated my fall layered decor for the mantle and gave it a Christmas candy land touch. It's hard to see in the pic but I layered Life Saver candies, then Hot Tamales candy, then red/green/white gum drops on the bottom. The jar to the left is just candy canes. The vase to the right was layered red hots, peppermints, and Hershey kisses. The garland was from our tree and there you have a mantle piece for less than $10. Not the fanciest mantle around but it was ours and we loved it (or at least I did. I think it was torture for E as he kept pointing up at the mantle and saying, "Mommy, I like to eat those.") And, yes, my TV is above our fireplace. I know it's tacky. Don't even get me started. That fell into that category with my beloved husband, "Makes him so happy/Not really worth fighting over."