Happy Birthday Andrew!

Two years ago I barely knew you. I had no idea what God had planned for us. I couldn't have picked a better man to spend my life with. You make me laugh, you love Oliver (although you don't always like to admit it!), you put up with my love of history and all things antique and my constant need for new books. I know that you will always lead our family down the path that God directs us to. Life is a wonderful adventure with you by my side. I can't wait to see what God has planned for the next year.

Happy birthday to my wonderful husband. I love you!

Shortbread Bites

I love Christmas, but boy am I tired. In order to fit everyone in and see all the family, we celebrated for 4 days straight. Throw in me being up at 2:30am for work 2 of those days, and I am ready for a break! 

Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Even though we were busy, I enjoyed seeing everyone and had a fantastic Christmas.

Being diabetic, we try not to have too much of the Christmas goodies around the house, but I did make one thing. I found this recipe on Pintrest and they are so addictive! 

Warning: if you make these, I highly suggest you plan on bringing them to a party or give them away as gifts. Otherwise they will haunt you and you will end up eating way more of them than you planned!

Funfetti Shortbread Bites

1 c. salted butter, cold and cubed

2/3 c. sugar

1/2 t. almond extract

2 1/4 c. flour

2 1/2 T. nonpareils sprinkles

Spray 9x13 pan with cooking spray and line with parchment, leaving about 1 inch overhang on all sides. Cream together butter and sugar. Add extract. Slowly add flour and mix until combined. Mix and fold in sprinkles. Press dough into pan and chill in refrigerator for 20-30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lift dough from pan and cut into 1/2 inch squares. Transfer to ungreased baking sheet, placing them 1/2 inch apart. Bake for 8-12 minutes. Cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

As we don't have a stand mixer, I used our little handheld mixer for this. It gets the job done, but if you have a stand mixer, I highly recommend using it unless you are looking for an arm workout!

Sometimes you just need coffee...

...in your favorite mug at 1:00 in the afternoon.

When you have to be up for work at 2:30am, you need a little bit of liquid energy by the time noon rolls around. 

Oliver and his blinds

What is it with cats? They are always doing something unusual. 

Every morning, before I have even gotten my first cup of coffee, I open the blinds in the living room so that Oliver can sit on his cat tree and keep an eye on the neighborhood. 

He has recently decided, however, that this is not good enough and places himself on the desk in the bedroom hoping that we will take pity on him and open those blinds too.

Poor, sad little cat. I have, on occasion, opened those blinds for him. He does the typical cat thing and looks out the window for all of 2 seconds before jumping down and heading for his normal perch in the living room. 

Cats. Can't live with them, can't live without them.

Christmas 2015

Where did this year go? I am honestly not sure how it can possibly be Christmas time already!

Somehow it is, and so, I thought I would give you a little tour of our decorated, festive home.

Our wreath. Simple, but festive.

It's hard to see in this picture, but our tree does have a string of red lights running up the center. It provides a nice splash of color.

Some of the ornaments on our tree have special meaning.

It's hard to see, but this was a gift given to us when we got married. It has our names and our wedding date on it.

Our tree wouldn't be complete without a santa carved by my dad.

We also have a carved, standing santa.

These stocking were a bridal shower gift. Aren't they beautifully made?

And finally, our card holder. I cannot take credit for this idea. It was all from my husband. A dowel, some burlap, and some jute and you are set(with the help of your wonderful sister and her sewing machine, of course.)!

To top it off, and with the help of my two creative aunts, I bought these cute little clothespins and stamped them. 

They are perfect for holding Christmas cards, or pictures if you want to leave it up year-round.

That concludes our tour. Thanks for stopping by!

Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had a fantastic dinner at Andrew's parents house. It was full to the brim with 13 of us stuffed in, 7 of that number being kids! But, when you have a spread like this and family around, not having a chair to sit in or a place to set your plate doesn't matter as much. 

This doesn't even include the 6 or 8 pies that were demolished through the coarse of the afternoon! 

My employer gives us all a turkey the week before thanksgiving, so we brought the turkey. It was our first time cooking turkey, so it was a bit of an unknown adventure. We borrowed my mom's electric roaster and it was fabulous. If you have never tried it, I really recommend it. No hassle, no checking the turkey to make sure it is staying moist. Just plug it in and go. We couldn't even get our turkey out in one piece, it was so tender!

Hope you all had a great thanksgiving and a relaxing weekend!

Workday Saturday

Since this was my weekend off, Saturday was supposed to be a day of nothing. However, with Christmas fast approaching, we realized that we need to do some work in order to have a place to put our tree. 

So, we did some work that we have been planning on doing since we got married.

This is the living room before.

And this is after.

This is an old trunk that I bought a few years ago for my birthday. It's a little tall for a coffee table, but I love it!

The table that was here before is now a desk in the bedroom so Andrew has a place to work from when he is working from home.

We have a place for our Christmas tree now!

Once we get all that junk out of the way.

I think we will have this place looking good, just in time to move next fall!

Sorry!

I've had a bit of an unintended break from the blogging world. 

As this past weekend was my weekend off, it was supposed to be a quiet weekend with my husband and family. One thing led to another and we spend the day Saturday moving furniture around. (More on that another day) We spent a great evening, Saturday, with my sister and her family, just catching up and enjoying pizza and baked goodies.

Come Sunday morning, however, this was me.

Andrew went to church, while I stayed home and watched some of those cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies. It's a weakness; I love them!

As a type 1 diabetic, a cold is never just a cold. A cold brings with it blood sugars that fly all over the board. 

But, I am on the mend and feeling better. I'm very thankful for a husband who makes dinner (although he does this almost every day), and also washes the dishes (he hates washing the dishes!) when I am sick. 

I will be back with you all this week!

I went for a walk.

Andrew and I have been trying to be more active, (it really helps my blood sugar, not to mention that it is really good for you) so we have been trying to take walks. 

So, I got up on time this morning and had breakfast and a cup of coffee and, after cramming a hat on my head, (it was only 33 degrees and no one wants to see my bedhead) I set of for my 8:30 am walk.

Our poor tree is ready for winter. I was enjoying seeing all the colorful leaves and now they are gone.

I am certainly not ready for winter!

Even though it was just above freezing temps outside, I saw these cute little guys along the way.

And finally, I saw this...

Someone really likes Scooby Doo!

My Bionic Self

As most of you already know, I have type 1 diabetes. I've had it for 10 years and have been fortunate to have had an insulin pump for 8 of those 10.

I'd like you to meet my brand new pump, Lucy. 

Yes, she has a name. When you have something like this stuck to you 24/7, you have to find a way to like it, and, for me, part of that is giving it a name. 

Along with this new pump I have some new equipment; a CGM, or continuous glucose monitor. 

This is Ethel. She very willingly checks my glucose levels every 5 minutes and relates that info to Lucy so I can be aware. She also allows me to only have to poke myself two or three times a day. It is fabulous!

I had a class on how it all works, but it takes a lot of adjusting. There is a huge learning curve with this. My wonderful husband took the afternoon off work and came to the class with me, and between the two of us we are trying to get this thing figured out. 

I am blessed to have access to this type of equipment to help keep me healthy. It is just another part of my bionic self!

Crafting night

Every other Tuesday night I go over to my Aunt's house for a night of crafting, with a lot of laughter thrown in. 

This week we were working on Christmas things.

Here's Aunt Karla and Aunt Diane, crafting away. Aunt Diane was trying out a new hobby, wood burning. She made a fabulous wood burned spoon.

Some of our crafting supplies.

Aunt Karla making tiny pink ornaments for her tree.

This is my finished holiday box. Shabby chic, with a splash of color.

I love that I am able to get together with them and have so much fun. 

If you are looking for gifts, check out their etsy page. They have dolls and jewelry and bags and lots of other cute stuff!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/TwoSistersGiftCloset

It's the little things

We have been living in this apartment for about a year now. (Well, Andrew has been. I moved in after the wedding.) When we first saw it, one of the things we noticed was that one of the kitchen drawers, the biggest one and the only one that will fit our silverware tray, didn't have a bottom in it. The lady from the rental company we were with said that she would make sure that it was fixed before we moved in. 

One year later and it still hasn't been fixed. Our silverware has been sitting in the tray in a corner. So, we decided to take matters into our own hands and do it ourselves, with some help from my dad.

It's a usable drawer now!

And the silverware tray fits with room to spare!

This gave us the ability to give ourselves some more, desperately needed, counter space. By moving the coffee stuff we now have this:

And all the coffee stuff in is one area, along with a few of our many mugs.

It's the little things in life that make me happy. Having a drawer to put my silverware in is a good thing!

Fall

I love all the season, here in Michigan, but fall is by far my favorite!

Living on the edge

I love living on a hill. We live right across the street from the edge and get some fabulous views. We recently went for a walk in an area we hadn't yet explored and found a little park right on the edge with some fantastic views.

I love seeing the church rising up in the middle of everything.

You can't see as well in pictures, but we can see for miles and miles. Once you get passed the city, there are a lot of trees and they are all changing color. It is beautiful, but so hard to get in a picture! You will all just have to come visit!

Oliver's new spot

Who knew that this little corner in the kitchen would be a good place to sit? I find him here most mornings and have yet to figure out what the allure is. I mean, really, it's a hard floor, with nothing really to look at. There are softer, more comfortable places to sleep. And yet, he seems quite happy.

Just like mom

I have had many people, over the years, tell me that I look like, and sometimes even sound like, my mom. I was again reminded that I am like her in more ways than one. 

Friday was grocery day. We were headed out to grab some dinner (being grocery day dinner options were few and far between) and get groceries for the coming week. We stepped out the front door when, on our way to the car, I spotted two beautiful red/orange leaves laying so perfectly on the sidewalk. 

As I stopped to take a picture, I yelled to Andrew, "Wait. I have to take a picture. This could be a blog post!". 

In that split second, I heard my mom's voice coming out of my mouth. 

It's official. I have begun the process of turning into my mom. I have a feeling that when children come along, this occurrence will happen more often. 

I couldn't be blessed with a better mom or a better role model. I love you, mom!

Decorating never ends!

Decorating never ends, does it?

Our apartment isn't all that big, but it seems like there is always something that needs to be done. 

We have been saying for a while that we would like to have a little dish to put our keys in when we walk in the door. I was out yesterday with my mom and found this little dish that just seemed perfect for that very purpose, although I will have to find something else once fall ends!

We have two drawers in our kitchen that we use for our spatulas, big spoons, whisks, etc. They are both way too full and it makes it slightly tricky to find what you need. So, I have been looking for a pitcher or jar that I can set out on the counter with some of the things we use frequently, but still have it fit in with the rest of the decor. I have finally found exactly what I was looking for! 

Although there are still things that need to be done, we are one step closer to having our place look how I would like!

Artprize Seven

For the past seven years the city that I live in has an art competition called Artprize. People come from all over the U.S. and some even from other countries to enter. 

For about 2 weeks you can go out and walk all over the city and see the art and vote on the ones you like best.

Andrew and I, living in the midst of the action, went out and walked the city a couple of times, in order to see as much as we could. Here is just a small sample of some of the pieces this year.

This one was made entirely out of petosky stones.

This dress was made from book pages.

Aren't these flamingos cute?

This is the only one that we voted for. A friend of ours from church painted these using makeup. She is very talented!

I love seeing all the different art pieces and walking around the city. 

Until next year, Artprize!