Biscuit's First Overnight Guest

Biscuit had her first over night guest this weekend!  Hank came to visit while his mom when to watch KU's basketball team get stomped in Waco Saturday night.  Casey has been Biscuit's only dog friend so far so I was excited to see how they hit it off.

It went great!  After a few sniffing sessions, they started playing and became inseparable.  Here are some shots of their weekend.

They slept back to back.  It was very cute.  After nonstop play they would rest pretty hard and by the end of the evening they were both conked out.

Tails are wagging up a storm in this picture

These two have become great friends and Biscuit can't wait for her next play date with Hank!

Oscars Night

Last night I hosted my Second Annual Oscars Watching Party!  I put up my decorations inside the house. This year even saw the addition of a red carpet.

I also put out enough food to feed seven armies.  Or at least, to feed a dozen girls as they vigorously judged celebrity outfits.

I was excited to have all three of the new Lays flavored chips to serve!  I'm not a huge lays fan but just had to know what Chicken and Waffles chips tasted like.  I think the Sriracha flavored one were my favorite.

It was a fun night with awards for Oscars Bingo and then I guess I can't complain about the Oscar Ballot contest since I took home the winning pot!  Is it wrong to invite people over and then take all their money?  At least it's an improvement over last year when I took home the least correct predictions award.

The awards ran a little late but good times were had by all!

Patio Pizazz

I'm all about adding more color to my backyard.  My flowers are still looking good but I know they won't be around come winter and I don't want things to start looking dull back there.  I picked up a few things this weekend that will assure that is not the case. 

While grabbing some things at World Market I found these outdoor rugs that were 25% off. 

The rug is woven plastic and is reversible!  I think I like the yellow background side best but to get it straightened out, I'm going to start with the orange side up first.

I can't believe this was only $15 after the sale.  You really can't beat that.  It looks great with my newly painted bistro set.

I also picked up some Vago chairs at IKEA that I had been eyeing for a while.  They are a little crazy and I love them.

I went with hot pink.  They come in a bunch of colors but my IKEA only had white, black, and hot pink.  I wanted the most bang for my buck.  They are actually really comfortable. 

I've got them sitting out by the side fence just because that area is usually shaded and that should help keep the color bright when I'm not using them.  So now I have seating for 10 people in the backyard.  Guess I should look into having people over soon.

Easter Party

Yesterday I had 12 people over for an Easter brunch/lunch and it was quite a good time!  We had a huge spread of food. 

This is just some of the food

I made a centerpiece from some branches I trimmed down a while back.  A little spray paint and some plastic eggs and I was good to go.  Whitney made an impressive bunny cake.

There was some Deep Fried Buffalo Mac 'n' Cheese going on in the kitchen.

I had Easter baskets for everyone that came.  Sadly the rain cancelled the egg hunt, so instead I just put them in people's baskets later.

It was a very fun day of food and games.  I was happy to have people over...and Pablo was happy when they left. 

Oscars Night

Last night I hosted my first Oscars watching party with all my Dallas girls and had a great evening!  I stocked up on a few items from the party store to set the mood: a Hollywood star for my front door and streamers for the entry hall.

I had plenty of food to fuel us through the 6 hour production (between red carpet coverage and the awards themselves).  I loved the little popcorn bags I found at Party City! 

And I love that I doubled my money in the ballot pool by having the least number of correct Oscar predictions.  I swear I didn't try to lose.  I'm just that bad.  But most of all I loved our Girls' Night In with friends! 

I can't wait to do it again next year!  Hopefully I'll actually see a few of the movies next year and be able to better prepare my selections.
P.S. A special shout-out to Miss Nikki, the original Oscar Watching Party Hostess, who is now living in Florida.  She gave birth to a beautiful little boy this morning!  Welcome Weston!  ...although maybe she should have named him Oscar.  Just saying.

Tea Time

I have been using (and coveting) my company's Keurig machine for several years.  We are lucky to have this machine and its wide selection of drinks.

It is quite fancy and is connected to its own water line.  I don't drink coffee but the Keurig has tons of hot and cold teas that I love.  Thanks to some Christmas Cash, I was able to buy a smaller retail version of this awesome coffee machine.  Introducing my Keurig!

It is perfect for brewing a cup of tea for the drive to work.  And my green tea habit is probably a little better for me than my old morning Diet Coke habit.  [Don't get me wrong, I still drink Diet Coke in the afternoon.  I haven't lost my mind of anyting.]  This is also great for when I have guests stay at the house.  Before I could only offer them brewed coffee from a Folgers can that I've had for about 10 years or a ride to Starbucks.  Now I can keep a few flavors in stock at the house and my guests can create their own morning drinks!  As for me, I'm stocking English Breakfast Tea and Green Tea.  I meant to buy regular green tea but being a rookie I accidently bought a green tea blend.  It turned out to be fabulous with hints of lemongrass and mint.  I highly recommend it!

Now I can add my old coffee pot to the donation box I've started.  Don't worry, I'll throw out the 10 year old Folgers as well.

Pie Fail

I will spare you too many sob stories about my lack of pie-making skills.  Maybe I'll just sum it up with a couple of pictures and a couple of contributing factors that worked against me.

Unbeknownst to me my pies were doomed from the get go.  I bought the last two pie plates Target had in the store.  When I got ready to make my pie (using pie crust dough pre-made) I realized that the pie plate was 9.5" while my dough was for a 9" pie.  Doesn't sound like much but trust me.  The effort spent on trying to stretch my dough into place was enough to make me crazy.  The other problem my dishes presented was a 1.5" lip of glass that went around the edge.  A true baker could have worked around it but it had me perplexed as I tried to make fun crust designs (the sole reason I wanted to attempt to make a pie).  But I digress.  Onto the pie flops.

#1) The Chocolate Chess Pie

This one doesn't look all that bad fresh out of the oven.  I think it's biggest problem is that it sunk about an inch before it was actually served.  The surface of the pie vaguely reminded me of images shot back from the Mars Rover. 

#2) Dried Apple Cider Pie

I had high hopes for this one.  It's basically an apple pie made with dried apples that you rehydrate in apple cider.  Sound great, right?  And then I think I overcooked my apples.  And then my fabulous crust design flopped and burnt.  Yes, I used foil around the edges.  Somehow it didn't work for me.  I will add here that this is my first house to ever use a gas stove/oven.  I'm pretty sure I haven't quite mastered the temperature and that's why I keep burning stuff.  Regular food has been fine but most of my dessert items of late have fallen flat (some literally).

I will take all responsiblity for my failings.  My coworker, Sally, gave me these recipes and I guarantee when she makes them they are devine.  I have confidence that some day, withs lots and lots of practice, I will be able to make a pie.  I just wouldn't hold your breath while waiting.

On a positive note, I did solve a problem when it came to my presentation.  Since I had two pies (I use that term loosely), I needed two pie stands and I only had one.  A quick brainstorming session resulted in a faux-pie stand created with an upsidedown bowl and a plate.  Not bad!

Guess I should just stick to decorating and crafting and leave the baking to the professionals.

My First Thanksgiving Attempt

This year is pretty much the first time I've had to much more than show up in stretchy pants for Thanksgiving.  I was determined to learn how to prepare all the holiday fixings and my family was trusting enough to actually go for it.  They are brave people.  Luckily I eased into holiday hosting with a small group of four mouths to feed. 

These are my groceries for those four mouths.  I can't imagine what it would look like if four times the people were coming.  Luckily I was able to score several Albertson's Cuisinart Stamps.  It helped lesson the blow of the total I spent. 

After pouring over cook books and magazines, I picked my Turkey recipe.  With only four people, I opted for a 7 lb turkey breast over a full bird.  Southern Living had a great recipe for grilled turkey and that sounded right up my alley. 

Once my menu was set I made actual menus...because I'm cheesey like that and because in my family, presentation is 90% of a meal's overall score. 

After getting way too intimate with my turkey, I threw that puppy on the grill for 2.5 hours.  Set it and forget it!  Actually I had to keep double checking the temp on the grill after it turned itself off an hour into the process and nearly gave me a heartattack.

Valuable lesson learned this Thanksgiving:  Do not touch a meat thermometer with you bare fingers.  They are hot.  You will be burned. 

TA-DA!  The turkey turned out perfect!  My carving skills might not be up to par yet, but it still looked great and tasted even better.  It was juicy and had a great flavor!  Once I put it at the centerpiece of our table, I'm pretty confident I earned all 90% of presentation points available.

Not to brag, but I'm pretty sure I scored at least 8 of the remaining 10 points for the taste of my meal.  Tune in tomorrow when I tell the heartbreaking story of why I will never be a professional pie maker.

Shower Success

This past weekend a few of us hosted a shower for our girl Nikki at my house.  I was my first indoor event hosted at the new house.  You may recall my first outdoor event which invovled giant Jenga and chocolate mustaches.  Since this was a baby shower, we classed it up a notch or two.  The shower theme was Yellow and Blue, the nursery colors.

I used Pinterest to collect great ideas for yellow and navy flower arrangements. I had about 5 different types of yellow flowers and put them in vases and jelly jars around the house.  I bought the navy and white ribbon at JoAnn's (yes, using my 25% off coupon.  Man that thing came in handy).

Stacey made this great banner from wrapping paper!  It carried on Nikki and Brad's wedding logo "n+b" by adding in little Weston.  The food and drinks were all set up in the dining room.  Tiny flags flew from lemon boats indentifying each dish.

You have to love the Son-Flower cake from Nothing Bundt Cake.  It not only matched but it tasted great!  The yellow cheveron table runner was just a scrap of fabric I had laying around the house and worked perfect with our theme.

The guests all decorated burb cloths for baby Weston in the living room while we ate and opened gifts.  On the way out we had blue and yellow M&Ms for the guests to grab.

All in all it was a very successful shower!  The mother-to-be enjoyed herself and got to catch up with her Dallas friends.  In the end, that is all that matters.