Easy DIY Holiday Wreath

I've never made a wreath before, but because I'm determined to learn to be crafty, I convinced myself I had to make one.  It doesn't really get much easier than this.  I found a good base for a wreath at Micheal's for $4.99.

These berry branches were on sale for $.99 at Micheal's, so I picked up a bunch of them to stick into the wreath base. 

I had a letter "T" already, but if you don't have one, again, you can find them at Micheal's or Joann's for about $2.  Our door is white so I spray painted it brown.

You can wire the letter on to the wreath, but we just drilled a hole into the door to hang separately.  I also took some spare decor I had in a box and wired them to the smaller wreath to make a centerpiece for our table.

Slowly but surely, I'm completing things I've pinned on Pinterest!  Have you made any holiday crafts yet? Share!

The Christmas Spirit

I'm so excited for Christmas this year.  This is the first year I feel like I can actually fully get into the Christmas decorating spirit because I know I won't be moving any time soon and actually have space to store decorations once Christmas is over.  Andy and I got into the full swing of things the day after Thanksgiving, starting off with getting our tree!  I love walking into my home and smelling the wonderful scent of Christmas!

Our foreign exchange student from Japan.  We stopped for a hot coco break!

Is your tree up yet? 

FEAST-ivities!

 I give props to all the folks who host Thanksgiving every year.  It's a ton of work (but so worth it).  Andy and I hosted our first Thanksgiving; we had a total of 9 people and enough food to feed a village.  Every couple brought a few dishes and the evening was a smorgasbord of deliciousness.

Andy was in charge of the turkey and he decided we not only needed 2 turkeys, but we also needed to smoke them; a smoker was never on my list of kitchen appliances I've wanted to own, but I have to admit, this turkey was the best turkey I've ever had.  (I sense we will be having a lot of smoked dishes in the future!)

This was my first time making homemade stuffing...I have to admit, it turned out amazing!  I used a recipe from Martha Stewart for Mushroom Walnut Stuffing.  Really easy and super tasty. 

I also volunteered to make the pumpkin pie.  Here's the thing, I don't bake (I just was not gifted with the baking gene...I always burn everything!)  My bff suggested I make Paula Deen's Pumpkin Pie...apparently it doesn't get much better and is pretty simple to make.  After making it, I fully agree...this is the best pumpkin pie I've ever had! (And I didn't burn it!).

After the evening of gluttony, and the coffee kicked in, we played a round of Cranium!

And then it happened, the tryptophan kicked in...

Hope you all had an amazing holiday!

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I couldn't resist putting up this picture of Augustus--I couldn't stop smiling all day seeing him walking around in reindeer antlers! I'm super excited as I am hosting my first Thanksgiving dinner.  Andy and I don't have family near by, and we know of a few other couples who are in the same situation, so we decided to gather up all these folks and celebrate together.  Hope you have an amazing day! 

Simple Re-Organization

"Stuff" in my kitchen has slowly been gathering in piles and running out of room in cabinets.  I needed to do some re-organization.  And Target had the simple answer to my problem.

 I bought 4 of them...and used 2 to re-organize the inside of my pantry, and I used the other two to re-organize the top of my pantry.  This was originally the storage space for our hot water heater (awkward right?).  We had them move it when we moved in and decided it would best be suited for a pantry.  But it's big and awkward, and right smack in the middle of my kitchen.  I couldn't do much with it but store stuff on top (which looked ok).  Here's the before:

Boring!

Much Better!

Tomato & Sausage Risotto

This Martha Stewart recipe has been floating around Pinterest for awhile now, and I must say, it is one of the easiest Risotto recipes I've made.  Andy loves risotto, but it usually is such a pain in the butt to make, so I think Andy will be seeing a lot of this one, (plus it tasted out of this world delish!). 

• 1 can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes, in juice
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3/4 pound sweet or hot Italian sausage, casings removed (I used chicken sausage and it tasted great).
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 cup Arborio rice
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1 bunch flat-leaf spinach (10 to 14 ounces), washed well, tough stems removed, chopped (about 7 cups)  I used whole leaf spinach, rather than chopping because I'm lazy.  It works either way.
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving (optional)
• 2 tablespoons butter

1. In a small saucepan, combine tomatoes (with their juice) and 3 cups water. Bring just to a simmer; keep warm over low heat.
2. In a medium saucepan, heat oil over medium. Add sausage and onion; season with salt and pepper. Cook, breaking up sausage with a spoon, until sausage is opaque and onion has softened, 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Add rice; cook, stirring until well coated, 1 to 2 minutes. Add wine; cook, stirring until absorbed, about 1 minute.
4. Add about 2 cups hot tomato mixture to rice; simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until absorbed, 4 to 5 minutes. Continue adding tomato mixture, 1 cup at a time, waiting for one cup to be absorbed before adding the next, stirring occasionally, until rice is creamy and just tender, about 25 minutes total (you may not have to use all the liquid).
5. Remove pan from heat. Stir in spinach, Parmesan, and butter; season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately (risotto will thicken as it cools), and sprinkle with additional Parmesan, if desired.

Burlap and Candle Holders

There is an adorable tiny retail store in Tacoma that has everything you'd want to decorate your home.  The problem is everything is out of my price range; so I stop in and take pictures of cute things and dream about re-creating them.  Well, this weekend I finally did it.  I stopped in a couple of months ago and saw these cute little candle holders. 

I saw those and thought, "I can do that!"  I sifted through thrift stores to find some candle holders, went to JoAnn's and got some burlap and finally this weekend I started on the project (after months of having this stuff sit in my office). 

 Cut out the size you need to fully wrap the candle holder.

 

I didn't want to duplicate numbers, so I chose to stencil our initials on one of the taller candle holders. 

 If you use white paint, it won't show well with a candle lit, but I like the look of it, and it won't be lit most of the time. For the smaller candle holders I will stencil with dark brown. (I'll show you those once complete).  I didn't have Modge Podge, so I just used a glue gun to seal the burlap together.  In the mean time, check out my newest piece of DIY decor.  Great gift idea!

Days Into Weeks

My Dog = Happiness.  

My husband and my dog have kept me sane over the past few weeks.

I hit a wall.  I had so many obligations and appointments I just couldn't keep up with everything.  My calender over the course of the last few weeks has been full to say the least; I'm desperately looking forward to the Holidays as I will finally be taking some days off of work to just "be."  There have been a few things that have happened since my last post...I went to DC for an annual sales conference and got promoted,  Andy and I have partnered with a local church here in Tacoma and have kept incredibly busy with that,  I've met new friends, I've attended bridal showers and weddings, I've spent countless hours throwing the ball with my new dog Augustus and have been trying to train him, I've cooked a few super tasty meals, I've scoured thrift stores and bought a bunch of stuff to make over the holidays, and my dad loaned me his fancy DSLR camera (yay!!!! Now I just need to figure out how to use the thing!).  I hope to be back with some sort of regularity...I've missed this little part of the universe. 

Busy

Yup...that about explains it.