2012 Year in Review

With just a few short hours before we ring in yet another year, I guess it’s time for the obligatory year in review post. If I’m being honest, I’m ready for a new year, with new joys; 2012 has been tough to say the least. But out of the pain, sorrow and hard times I’ve been able to see the blessing from the Lord. Through this year I’ve learned that I need to spend more time on my knees in prayer and less time talking, trying to control and solve the problems. Give it to God.

A few highlights from 2012:

• My beloved LSU Tigers went to the BCS National Championship game
• Visited our good friends and their adorable baby in Houston
• Surprise visit for a weekend getaway to Disney World with my awesome sister and her family
• Started our master bathroom remodel
• Great week at the beach for the annual family J.A.M. Fest
• Bought a new car
• Got braces
• Started a quarter-time job working at Chick-fil-A as part of their Marketing team
• Worked some pretty incredible weddings and events
• Got a pretty cool new sewing machine
• Celebrated my 100th blog post
• Made my first two maxi dresses
• My team the Washington Redskins finally are NFC East Champs after being the division doormat for over a decade

Have a safe and happy evening! Cheers to 2012 and the new blessings to come in 2013. See y’all next year!

What’s Your Elf Name?

Hello! It’s Christmas Eve, can you believe it?! Only one more sleep until it’s Christmas Day! I can’t wait.

Do you know your Elf name? Well you should as well as the names of those you’re celebrating the holiday with. Using the first letter of your first name and your birthday month, match the words to determine your Elf name. This cracks me up every single time.

In our house today we have Perky Pointy-Toes, Twinkle Sugar-Socks, Sunny Sparkley-Toes and Elvis Sparkley-Toes working hard for Santa to prepare for his visit. My favorite elf (hubs) who is working today is Puddin McJingles…classic. Merry Christmas everyone!

Love,
Perky Pointy-Toes

High Five For Friday

Hello! It’s been a pretty great week! I celebrated my birthday, finished my Christmas shopping and am getting ready to celebrate the Christmas holiday with family and friends. I’m linking up with Lauren @ From My Grey Desk for High Five For Friday to share pictures from my week. I hope you had a great week too!

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1. Holiday nails in Essie Fishnet Stockings (red) and Beyond Cozy (silver). That’s Macy waiting impatiently for my nails to dry so that I can take her outside. She has impeccable timing. 
2. My office mate for the day. I moved her bed next to the space heater and I, and she snuggled up for the day while I worked.
3. I turned 30-ish! Okay, 33 to be exact. I made these tasty Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcake Crowns to celebrate!
4. Josh surprised me at work for our hot chocolate bar event and he stayed to hang out and play Gestures with us. Fun!
5. Celebratory birthday sushi!

Bathroom Remodel Update – The Needle is Moving

You aren’t done with that, you ask? Nope. When we first started the master bathroom remodel, I asked my neighbor-friend how long it took her hubby to complete their remodel. Her response [insert super, sweet southern accent] “A season.” HA! I laughed, surely we can get this done in a season…er, seasons.

In our defense, the hubs has been hard at work on the bathroom…when he’s not working his full-time job, saving lives, cats and other things, studying for promotional exams and working overtime. Or going on vacation, afternoons at the gun show or shooting range. I am not a complete slave driver, and I’ve gotta give him a little break here and there. Honestly, the length of time to get this bathroom complete hasn’t really phased me because we have another bathroom to use. Plus, I kinda like the dust that it creates in our bedroom, makes it easier to leave sweet notes to my honey…written iin dust. How romantic!

Some of you have asked, “How’s the bathroom coming along” and I figured that it was time that I gave you an update. I would say we are about 80% done with the bathroom. So here’s a look at what we’ve done so far.

Dad and DIY Master J framed out the window in our bathroom. I’m in love with this and now want to frame out all of the windows in our house. I’d like to say that a window without a frame is like a cupcake without icing…or something poetic like that.

Only a few more tiles left and the shower will be complete. The hot guy working on my tile says that it’ll be done on this week. Then we call in the shower door man to install the beautiful frameless shower doors. The shower door man is different from the hot guy working on the tile. He (shower door man) pales in comparison, just sayin’.

Doesn’t everyone keep their toilet in the bathtub? This picture shows the tub wall tile. The genius tile man made it so that the decorative tile is the same height as the decorative tile on the shower wall. This wall still needs a few pieces of finishing tile, a.k.a. bull nose, which I don’t get because it doesn’t look like a bull, nose or the nose of a bull.

Not a great shot, but this is the floor tile. Is there anything else to say about this, I don’t think so.

PS – Sorry, honey for all of the references to you using everything but your name! Y’all see, he thinks it’s lame that I don’t refer to him by his actual name on this here blog. I think it’s funny that he thinks it’s lame so, when in doubt I like to call him by anything but his name, to make him smile roll his eyes.

Everybody Loves Crack

True story…everyone loves crack. You see, my friend, Gina first introduced me to crack and now I’m addicted. And you will be too once you make this. So that you don’t go into any type of withdrawal, I won’t drag this post out, I’ll just give you the fix you need.

Ingredients

• 2 sticks Unsalted Butter
• 1 cup Light Brown Sugar
• 1 bag Chocolate Chips
• 1 pinch Kosher Salt or Sea Salt
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• Approx. 1.5 sleeves of Saltine Crackers
• Aluminum foil
• 11×17 sheet pan w/lip

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line lower oven rack with aluminum foil to catch an caramel boil-over.
2. Cover the entire 11×17 pan with saltine crackers.
   
3. Combine butter and brown sugar in a saucepan.
   
4. Bring the caramel to a boil and simmer for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add salt and vanilla.
   
5. Quickly pour the caramel over the saltine crackers and spread out so that it covers all of the crackers.
   
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
7. Remove caramel covered crackers from the oven.
   
   
8. Pour chocolate chips over the crackers and spread until all of the crackers are covered in melted chocolate.
   
   
9. Place the pan in the refrigerator for about 30-45 minutes so that the chocolate hardens. Remove from the refrigerator and break the crack into pieces, like you would for peanut brittle or peppermint bark.
10. Package up to give as gifts, or serve in pretty bowls at your next party. Yum!
    

There you have it, crack. Everybody loves crack, I promise.