Deck the halls

We got our Christmas decorations set up after Thanksgiving, now we just need presents to put under the tree!

We haven't collected very many personal ornaments yet, so our tree is mainly filled with colorful balls. (We probably only have about 4 ornaments that aren't balls... and one of those is from the Red Cross when Jeffrey gave blood last year...) My grandma got me some very nice, heavy ornaments from Restoration Hardware last year that we could actually put on our tree this year. They're super heavy, and last year's twig tree that my mom gave us could not support their weight!

Here is our tree year! It's a little too tall to have a tree topper. Hopefully the next house we live in will have taller ceilings.

 

Here is the mantle: 

And here's last year's tree that my mom gave us on its way out to the trash:

 To be fair, it wasn't that bad once it was filled in with lights and ornaments and maybe even a strand or two of garland.

Once we get some presents under the tree, we will be ready for Christmas! Last year was more of a whirlwind: we took our honeymoon the week before Christmas and did all a lot of our shopping on Christmas Eve. That was less than ideal...

Our First Anniversary

Today we celebrate one year of wedded bliss! 

As cliche as it sounds, this year truly has flown by. It's been pretty busy: we got married and honeymooned around the holidays, so we didn't really catch a breath for the first few months we were married, Jeff got all moved in to our house (slowly, but surely), he wrapped up his last year of PT school, studied like crazy for his board exams, passed those with flying colors, graduated!, got a job and we had a week long vacation in Florida. While Jeff was busy doing all of those things... I guess I was busy working? Hah, regardless, I can't believe we've been married a year now. The top layer of our wedding cake is currently sitting on our counter defrosting and getting ready to be eaten tonight! Hopefully it will be as good as it was one year ago. 

We also celebrated being together for nine years (NINE YEARS!!!) earlier this month. We did it up big- went and looked at a few houses and had chick-fil-a for dinner ;)

We can't wait to see what the future holds for us! 

Quilting... Not as fun/easy/quick as I thought it would be

I had it in my mind that making a quilt probably wasn't that hard... After all, old people do it all the time. After watching 2.5 videos on YouTube (complete waste of time as one was just about cutting. Really? I know how to cut fabric.) I decided I was ready to make one. After hitting up hancocks for the cheapest fabric (that's another thing about me- I like my crafts to be quick and cheap) 

I was ready to get cutting. Should've paid attention to that cutting tutorial. Somehow my squares are different sizes. I don't know how that happened but it definitely was caused by my willy-nilly approach to quilt making!

It is also taking a fair amount of sewing and seam ripping  trial and error to sew my squares together correctly since I'm not using a pattern or thinking about things beyond the very next step. Fun. 

Buttermilk Pie

Buttermilk Pie AKA Jeff's Favorite Pie

1 stick butter, melted

1 3/4 c sugar

1/4 c all-purpose flour

3 eggs

1/2 t vanilla

1/2 c buttermilk

1 (9 in.) unbaked pie shell

1/2 t ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Combine the first six ingredients and pour into pie shell. Bake until the mixture sets, about 50 minutes. Remove the pie from the oven and sprinkle with cinnamon. Cool, then refrigerate for at least 3 hours. Serve cold. Makes 6 servings. 

*We use a shortbread pie crust and it is so good!*

I got this recipe from a co-worker and had to make it as soon as possible after she talked it up so much. We have since made it two times in a month. I'm not much of a pie lover, but this one hits the spot. 

Entering the blogosphere

Thought I'd go ahead and take the plunge into the blogging world so maybe one day we can look back on this and remember what we were doing in our mid-twenties as newlyweds. I'm looking forward to tracking our lives, remembering crafts and projects we've done, and recipes we've enjoyed.