Nester's Garland Show and Tell

My garland is probably a bit different from most.  Mine is a garland I did for Thanksgiving instead of for Christmas.  

The inspiration to get started came from a desire to use the dried orange roses from my wedding.  

photo:  Rachel Wilks Photography

I ended up pulling out stashes of dried leaves that I'd bought at MJDesign (wow!  remember when that store was in business?  I've had these a while!)  bittersweet that I'd bought two years ago at Canton, two garlands of white berries (again from Canton) and some random sprigs of fake berries I'd picked up here and there.  

I especially love how it looked when my husband hung the top of an old door frame beneath it that I'd picked up for $5 (again at Canton!) last year and never yet used.  

I also made this "garland" for Thanksgiving.  

Nester, thanks for hosting this garland show and tell!  Kelly

hee hee hee

just looking through some old pictures and had to laugh a little

this was me three Christmases ago

my friend Tiffany came over to take pictures of me so I would have something to post on eharmony.  :)  

hey, it worked.  :)  

Kelly

Travel Tuesday

I'd like to start a new feature on my blog.  

Travel Tuesdays

Travel is one of Adrian's and my passions.  I love to talk about traveling, think about traveling, dream about traveling, read travel books, etc., etc., etc.  

Sidenote:  One of the characteristics that was important to me in a future spouse when I was single was someone who would be a good travel partner.  You can be great friends with someone but not travel well together.  It takes a special combination.  I didn't know how I was going to find that out about a potential mate since for me it would require separate hotel rooms bringing added expense, etc.  God is amazing in the ways that He works in our lives.  The first seven months of Adrian's and my relationship were long distance.  We ended up traveling all over meeting each other's families and friends and staying in their guest rooms, couches, any place they could fit two guests.  Not only did God give us the opportunity to learn that we travel really well together but along with that we also got to meet the people important to each of us and relationship is also of huge importance to both of us.  

okay, back to travel Tuesdays.  

so, I thought it would be fun to highlight different places we've traveled and particularly to get dialog going with various travel tips, etc.  

First up:  

Dublin, TX 

This was part of Adrian's and my trip over Thanksgiving.  

(look how the girl swings out on the billboard!)

Dublin, TX is home to the oldest Dr. Pepper bottling plant.  

Itinerary:  We left Dallas on Friday afternoon and drove to Stephenville, TX.

The drive from Dallas to Houston and vice versa along 45 is BORING.  You've done it once, you've done it a million times.  In the last ten years I have made that drive QUITE a few times.  Adrian and I have decided to mix it up a bit a couple of times.  The first time was this momentous trip!  

This time we decided to drive down to Stephenville on Friday night, stay in a B&B and then take a leisurely drive down on Saturday, stopping at Dublin and anywhere else that caught our fancy.  

Friday night we were quite hungry by the time we got to Glenrose, TX.  After inquiring at a local pie shop that was closing for the day we were recommended to Anderson's

(which appears to be for sale interestingly enough)

It was a wonderful spot for dinner.  We shared a steak and baked potato plate with corn on the cob, a fresh, very good roll and a piece of cornbread with broccoli in it (I'd never heard of such but it was pretty good.)  We also had two salads.  The food was really good and the prices were reasonable.  They even brought a little dish to our table toward the end of our meal with 2 little brownie bite type things garnished with chocolate syrup, whipped cream and a cherry.  Very nice touch.  

We drove into Stephenville after dinner to the September Song bed and breakfast.  

My favorite things about this bed and breakfast were the gracious hospitality and welcoming spirit of our hosts,  the very yummy breakfast of Southwestern casserole with green chilies, a bread basket with several unique types of bread in it including some apricot dumplings, a good fruit salad and milk, juice, & coffee, the scripture from Isaiah that had been written into the wet concrete of their driveway, the interesting furniture pieces, the wide staircase and the little hand-crafted magnet they gave us as a souvenir of our stay, made from pecan trees on their property and hand-painted.  It was also a very reasonably priced B&B.  

I will say that the bathroom was really small.  

As we made our way from Stephenville to Houston, we stopped in Dublin and inquired about the tours.  They only run the plant on Wednesdays so we could have taken a tour but we would not have seen the plant "in action".  We opted to just enjoy a Dr. Pepper float instead, both of us agreeing that it was one of the best we've ever had and to pick up some "Dublin Dr. Pepper" in glass bottles (made with real Imperial sugar instead of corn syrup) for stocking stuffers.  I wandered into an antique store on the square that was pretty good and on we drove.  

We saw far more fall "color" than we expected in Texas and beautiful countryside with interesting land formations.  We stopped at a roadside barbecue stand and a couple of flea markets.  When I was getting desperate for a bathroom break at one point we pulled into a little town and went to a little antique store (I much prefer stopping at them to gas stations.  :) ) and it was so funny.  The proprietor directed me to a door in the back and in I walked to find a room full of merchandise (which turned out to be half-price!) and a set of stairs leading up to a little platform on which sat the toilet surrounded by plenty of antique baubles for your perusal.  Hilarious!  

So, here's the really fun part of travel Tuesdays:  

Have you been to Stephenville, Glenrose or Dublin?  What are your thoughts/recommendations?

What is the best ice cream float you've ever devoured?

Do you have an idea of an interesting route for us to take next time we make the drive from Dallas to Houston?  

p.s. I should give credit to my friends from church who suggested this route for us through Dublin!  Thanks girls.  Kelly

p.s.s. if you have a post on your blog about anything related to this travel post, please let us know.  I'd love to learn about other's travels as well.  

Also, if you have a question, feel free to ask it.  

everyday unwrapped

This week I purposed to notice.  

last Tuesday I directed you to emily's blog. 

i read her post on monday and God has used her writing to help me to think and to notice this week.  it was good to have a "mission".  it helped me to be more present and to pay attention to what i was noticing in different moments than i probably would have been.

on monday i noticed the contented feeling i had in my car while driving home from work

i noticed leaves drifting down from tall, tall trees

on tuesday i noticed my friend from high school sitting across from me at dinner at La Madeleine

i mean i really noticed her and the fact that we were sitting there

together

sharing

talking

laughing

and for a moment the air was charged with a bit more warmth and zing

"this doesn't happen everyday"

"this is a blessing"

"take notice"

"be grateful"

on wednesday  i noticed that even though i'd been feeling some spiritual dryness and felt like i was having a hard time communing with Him, that in our worship service i was smiling, feeling, praising, knowing victory

also on wednesday i noticed that there were nearly twenty kindergarteners looking joyfully at me singing the song i'd just taught them 

classes of twenty some odd children look back at me five days out of the week but after ten years has it just become routine?  do i notice their faces, their smiles, the light in their eyes?

i noticed on wednesday

thursday i purposed to relax and enjoy a meeting

a meeting?

yes, a meeting, why not enjoy a meeting if you have to go?

friday i noticed how it felt to hold my husband's hand

it felt good

saturday i left space

emily talked about this too a little while ago

i left space so that i could have the energy and presence of mind to keep noticing

i didn't say yes to everything

i didn't leave the house all day

ALL DAY

today i decided to iron an apron to wear while making cookies for our church Christmas party tonight

recipe from Julie

why not decide to celebrate something small?

have you noticed anything this week?

are you frazzled or experiencing some peace during this season?  

God's blessings on you and yours.

*** does this post mean i have had a blissfully serene week?  no, a splitting headache, crying over the house being a mess, etc. have been a part of my week, but what are we going to notice?  kelly

my sled!

After reading Sandy's post about her husband's decorating idea, I wanted to get out *my* sled and find a home for it in this year's decor.  

We have an apartment with an attached garage that is down a flight of stairs and then the door from the staircase opens into our kitchen.  For a while I have wanted a "mudroom" of sorts.  Now I have made one on the landing!  Here we have a wintry, festive scene and a place to keep my gloves (green bucket) and scarves for easy accessorizing.  :)  The sled was a gift from my mom several years ago, the doorknob/hook wall hanging a gift from my friend Marcella several Christmases ago and the bucket I picked up in San Antonio probably nine years ago!  Yea for shopping the house as the Nester would say.  

The picture below is from me playing with the fun settings on my camera.  :)  

Today . . . is Saturday

Inspired by Meg's Saturday to-do list post, I decided to share about my day with you.  :)  

Sleep in!

Eat yummy chocolate chip pancakes with my hubby!  (that he made for me!)

talk shop with hubby 

swiffer bathroom floor

um . . . out of swiffer sheets

oh, I'll try out this new vacuum one we got as a gift!   

oh, the new vacuum swiffer has to be charged 24 hours before first use

okay, assemble new one, plug it in

remember that I read on Modgirl's blog that she reuses dryer sheets for her swiffer

Fantastic!  I have a load of laundry that unfortunately has been languishing in the washer for two days.  (oh dear!)

The dryer is full of clean clothes.

Start washer to rewash clothes in washer.

Start to unload dryer.  

ugghhh there is a mountain of dirty towels on the laundry room floor right under the dryer and the dryer is so full that I can't get things out without them spilling onto the dirty "mountain"  argggg

perfect time to get a hamper that can be our clean clothes transfer hamper like Adrian had the great idea for us to have

his old hamper is in the garage

bring it upstairs

go through the items that were "packed" in it when he moved over

find homes for all of these objects

get sidetracked along the way

do some blogging and some home stuff

empty hamper

exchange it with hamper in our closet

wipe out "dirty clothes" hamper so it now becomes the "clean clothes" hamper

unload dryer into it and dump on guest bed for folding

switch laundry from washer to dryer

make sure to put in dryer sheet even though I rarely use them, not so I'll have soft clothes, but so I'll have a dryer sheet to use to swiffer my bathroom floor (oh yeah, *that* was the original goal)

put mountain of dirty towels in washer and start

make lunch & eat lunch, more blogging and house stuff

get clean clothes (with dryer sheet somewhere embedded) out of dryer and dump on guest bed

switch laundry from washer to dryer

write blog posts (a new blog feature is coming), organize stuff, pick up, etc.

fold some laundry here and there in the midst of all this

make and eat dinner

fold laundry

finally find dryer sheet!

Aha!!

Get old swiffer

try to put dryer sheet on swiffer

it doesn't fit!  :)  

Decide that I don't ever really use dryer sheets anyway and I have nearly a full box and why wait until they've already been used for their original purpose, I'm just going to take out two and put them the other way and make it work

Dry swiffer bathroom floor

It works pretty well

Get paper towel, wet it, put on swiffer, spray some windex on

Wet swiffer bathroom floor

There!

Go back to look at modgirl's post

oh!  she used two (used) dryer sheets too!

funny!

hey, I've got a clean bathroom floor and it's been a delightful day.  :)  

Hope you've had a good Saturday! 

What did you do?  Kelly

edited to add: okay, here's another funny thing, it is now 12:23 making it not even actually Saturday anymore but Sunday!  oh dear!  :)  

today . . .

is new utensil day!  

Yippee!!!  

We're finally unearthing all of the fabulous, fun new things that we got at showers, cutting off all the packaging, washing them and getting everything into use!  

I am so excited!  Yea for wedding planning being over and the settling in taking place so there's time to use our fun new stuff!  

I think that bowl scraper and that icing spreader with the rubber edge are going to be completely wonderful!  

Thank you Pennye, Linda & Ashley, Elaine, Linda & Erin, Ryan & Allison, Mabel & Danny, Debbie & Angela, Pat, Bekki, Mrs. Lea, Dianna!  We have been blessed so richly!  Kelly

a couch

In your opinion, where is the best place to shop for a couch?  

Kelly

December . . .

I can't quite decide how I feel about December. I want to hold onto the feelings of wonder I had surrounding Christmas as a child and through high school/college. Somewhere along the way I became a little jaded and grumpy about all of the "to dos", etc. I don't want this.

I just read a wonderful post over at emily's blog that I highly recommend if you have a spare minute.

Happy December to you all. Kelly

a first!

I've been tagged by my friend Ashley!

I had kind of wished I had been tagged before (which is kinda weird for me since I am the girl who will delete every recipe exchange e-mail I get, etc.) and now I have been.

The way this tag works is that you go to your fourth picture folder and go to the fourth photo and post it and write four things about it. Fun!

I loved the anticipation of finding out what my fourth/fourth photo was going to be. And I am excited that it is such a fun one for me to share with you.

1. Yep, that's a cereal box and it's hanging on my old front door. :)

2. I used to host a small group from my church on Sunday nights. We would have dinner together every week. (There is power in being around the dinner table sharing food and fellowship, people. I am a big believer in this.)

3. Is anyone else like me when you walk up and down the cereal aisle? Do you sometimes want to try new things but the thought of busting nearly FOUR dollars out of your wallet makes you hold back and stick to the tried and true?

4. We decided to have cereal night with my small group and it was such a hit we decided to do it about once a quarter. Here's how it works and you can host your own cereal night!

The hostess provides bowls and spoons. You can work it out if you want the hostess to provide the milk or if you want a guest of two to bring milk. Then everybody brings a box of cereal, something new to try, childhood favorite, whatever and everyone pours a bowl or two or five to eat for dinner! It is greatness!

Have you ever done anything like this? If you try it I would love to hear about it. What is your favorite "guilty pleasure" cereal? Mine's Lucky Charms. :)

Happy Thanksgiving! Kelly


p.s. I tag anyone else who like me always wanted to be tagged but hasn't ever been.
Let me know if you're participating. I'd love to come over and see your fourth picture. :)

spice

What can I say?

We just really like to spice up our life!

a lot!

What's the one spice you always buy when it's listed in a recipe thinking you don't have it but then you really do, ending up with 10?  

What is your "go to" spice?

signs of a successful dinner party

thanksgiving is almost here!

I have been working on this a good part of today and just wanted to show it to you.  

I really like the way it turned out!

I made it with these flashcards, pages from an old falling apart hymnal missing it's front cover, pages from a cookbook in similar shape and scrapbook paper left over from our wedding.  Oh, and ribbon from the Michael's $1 ribbon bin and scraps I'd kept.  

Here is some context of where it is. It is hanging from the ceiling in my dining room above my Ikea shelves.  

What are you doing on this fall Saturday?  

What are you thankful for?  

DIY project - the dessert buffet

My mom and I loved to dream about my wedding years in advance.  We had so much fun dreaming up different ideas.  One idea that was born late one night in a Chicago hotel room when we were on a girls' trip, staying up late talking was that of a family and friends dessert buffet.  

Three words that described what I wanted my wedding to be like are:  personal, unique and celebratory.  We thought that having family and friends bring special desserts would be a way of making the wedding very personal.  

My mom really spearheaded this for me.  (Thank you soo much, Mom!)  We sent a letter to various family members and friends who were invited to the wedding asking them if they would like to participate by bringing a dessert and e-mailing my mom with a little "story" about their dessert, why they chose it or whatever.  The response was overwhelming and so, so much fun.  

My friend Marla brought cookies that were her husband's childhood favorite, my friend Jenni brought a cake that I have had the pleasure of eating with her on many occasions, my friend Jenny brought monkey bread since this is what her mother made on special occasions to share with others when she was growing up.  My friend Jenny brought Dunkin' Donut holes!  We went to Cape Cod together one summer and I thought it would be fun to try to count how many Dunkin' Donuts we saw.  :)  My friend Tiffany made cupcakes.  My mother-in-law brought her to die for pralines.  Mrs. Lea brought an Italian cream cake.  My friend Deborah made her Mamaw's cream cheese pound cake that I had made for her for her birthday one year when we were college roommates.  My sister-in-law brought some very yummy cookies.  My friend Betty made rosemary cookies with homegrown rosemary and brought them from Alaska!  Adrian's grandma and a close family friend both brought delicious brownies from each of their special recipes.  My aunts and uncles made sugar cookies, divinity, fudge and rented a cotton candy machine!  Even people who couldn't come to the wedding sent things!  It just went on and on . . . I know there are tons that I'm forgetting even as I type this.  

It was such a blessing and a special and popular part of our wedding celebration.  Our day of wedding coordinator packed up some of the offerings for us and we ate them on our honeymoon!  Such a fun way to extend the celebration.  

So, from a set-up standpoint, here are some pictures of how we did it.  

 

Remember these baskets that we found?  

Well, using some patterned scrapbook paper in the colors of the wedding, I cut out circles to line the baskets, free handed a slit up the side and a little circle out of the middle to fit in the baskets.  

like so . . . 

I also cleaned out and used some jars that I already had

and using yet more of the scrapbook paper from one of those big pads (where all the papers coordinate) and my xyron machine, I typed up some labels, printed on the paper cut down from 12x12 to standard 8 1/2 x 11, cut with pinking shears, ran through the xyron and then stuck down onto the jar over top of the seam binding "ribbon". I loved the way they looked.  There were also extra labels in case we needed them that day.  

I used these to hold the "stories" that my mom typed up on white cardstock and glued over the info on some leftover invitations from one of my showers!  They were so beautiful, it was senseless to let them go to waste!  

Here is a picture of the set up with my rented robin's egg blue tablecloths and the runners that my Aunt Gail and Aunt Terry so generously sewed for me!  I had also been collecting glass cake stands for a few years as I went to antique shops, flea markets, etc. and my grandma and mom also bought some and loaned some to me.  

Some friends from church came over and helped me make these little banners.  Again, that pad of coordinating scrapbook papers came into play, I typed and printed our names, cut them into strips, notched the ends and threaded them onto the skewers.  

If you were at the wedding, what were some of the desserts that you really enjoyed on the dessert buffet?  Kelly

our church shower

This is way after the fact and once again blogger is loading my pictures in reverse order and I forgot to "trick it" but I wanted to write a post about our church shower especially since some of the hostesses are frequent readers of my blog.  I wanted to give them a shout out!  

We had such a good time and so many people came!  I was so pleasantly surprised as we have been going to church there for less than a year.  It was such a blessing to see people of all ages come and surround us with love and support.  

These are our hostesses and the lovely table that they set!  Can you believe those are real flowers?  They were really neat.  

It was really neat too that my mom and aunt were able to come.  They were in town "evacuating" from hurricane Ike in Houston and so were able to attend my shower.  Such fun!  

Thank you so much!  Kelly

more pom poms!

such fun!

the pom poms!

Oh the pom poms!

They were such, such fun!

this was definitely one of those ideas that evolved during the wedding planning. Having five nephews between us three and under, we quickly decided on no child attendants. They were just too little. So . . . my mom had that great idea to have all of the kids stand in the aisle as we were recessing and throw something at us.

well, as time went on we decided to have everyone throw these pom poms at us during the recessional. I am so glad we did! It was one of my favorite parts.

My sweet mom and my aunt Kim and my Sweetie and Poppy (my grandparents) filled little cellophane bags, topped them with paper in lots of different patterns of paper that went with our colors and just stapled them shut. As simple as that! They could be done way ahead of time rather than trying to bag rose petals at the last minute and we laid a package on every chair.

And this is how it turned out!

greatness!

Thanks to everyone who came to our wedding and threw pom poms at us!

If you were at our wedding, what did you think when you got to your chair and saw a bag of fuzzy pom pom balls? I'd love to hear your thoughts, your perspective, etc. Kelly

dessert cook-off results

Well, I'm sad to say that I didn't win any prizes, BUT I did have a great time and receive some nice compliments!  We have a fun church and a wonderful church family.  

Here is my friend Renae's SUPER YUMMY "Gobbler Cobbler".  Let me tell you, this is the second time I've had this dessert of hers and it just about sends me over the edge every time!  It is soo good!  And look how cute her little turkey and label are!  

Yea Renae!  

Here's the neat ariel shot of my cupcakes that my sweet husband took.  

There they are with the banana puddings, dirt cake (with the flowers in it) etc.

I made the same cupcakes that I made here but PLEASE everyone, I beg of you, when the recipe says unsalted butter, please, PLEASE use unsalted butter!  It sabotaged my icing but live and learn, right?  My freezer is now stocked with unsalted butter.  :)  

My friend Jacquie did win though!!!  There is her award winning banana pudding right there, #15!  Yea Jacquie!  Great job!  Kelly