Christmas time is here....

I guess when you only blog once a month it's enviable that you're going to end up with a ton of pictures. Were to start? 

Halloween 

Kirstin insisted on carving pumpkins. I tried to get them to go with vinyl. (I know! Such a cop out.)

 I convinced Noah but our plan didn't work since the pumpkin was cold and the skin was bumpy so the vinyl kept falling off  by Halloween night his pumpkin only had one eye. We went with it and called it our pirate pumpkin. 

You may be wondering why my children are dressed like Ninjas? I had just gotten them some thermals to wear under their Marching Band Uniforms and they were both trying them on. 

First Band Competition at Hickory HS

We let Noah go out one last year. He went with a friend to his neighborhood. He was a Cereal killer. We taped these boxes to a shirt.

 It was pretty funny. All the adults loved it! No pics of the actual costume because, while he's still young enough to go trick or treating he's too old to want to pose for the pics!

Not to be outdone by Ninja kids, Emil Michael was in a Flash Mob on Halloween. His Norwegian class, well actually the entire department, did a rendition of What Does the Fox Say. Check it out! Emil Michael is the second one in, all dressed in black with a white tie and his signature fedora. The best part is that he got to be the fox at the last minute when the guy who was assigned to do it couldn't make it. What a stud!

Senior Portraits

Kirstin had a couple of options for getting her Senior portraits done but what we ended up with was me! 

We took a nice day at the end of October and went to the Whalehead Club in Corolla and did some shots there. 

 I haven't included her favorites. It seems that we both like different ones. I've included the ones I like, because to me, they catch her personality the best.

After  Whalehead we headed over to the beach. 

We are so lucky to live by the beach! It was a beautiful sunset!

Oh? Look who we found!

Emil was surfing on his new board. It is so long, I think it's a boat. 

What's cooking, Good Looking?

OK this has officially turned into a bunch of mini post for the month!

 I haven't been baking that much for my business. My friends Cafe, where I'll be baking, was suppose to open originally at the end of summer but they got behind waiting for permits. Then they were hoping for December. Thankfully, that didn't work. Don't get me wrong, it would have been great for the Cafe but I would have been crazy woman. So now they're shooting for sometime in January. 

After seeing French macaroons all over the internet and tasting some at my niece, Sheila's, when I took Emil Michael to school this summer I decided to give it a go this week. These are Raspberry Creme. They were very tasty! I've got a little tweaking to do on the recipe and then they'll be a new addition to my cookie repertoire.

This is a new recipe (and cake stand- how cute!!! I've got a serious weakness for cake stands)

Black Forrest Cheesecake. It was amazing but a little soft. Little more tweaking there too. (Not to be confused with twerking, we won't even go there!)

I'll be doing Emil's work party again this year. Last year I did like 8 cakes and cheesecakes. They want the same this year but to add more finger desserts and give gift boxes with truffles. We're talking about 75 gift boxes with 4 truffles each! So now I'm a little crazy woman.

This Ole' House

So you know how we've been doing lots of work on the house. First it was the carpet in the living room. Then the flooring in the downstairs. Then the stairs. Last month I painted and painted and painted. I was just going to touch up but it I couldn't find a match to what I had on the walls. I ended up painting the downstairs hall, entryway, stairs, and upstairs hall since they all connect and they needed it. Along with the trim for it all. 

The color was just a little different. Less brown. The big improvement was the trim. I found a tutorial on-line that gave a great way to get clean lines so I did it and it was amazing! That swallowed up October.  

I was on a roll by then and since I haven't had a table in our dining room since we sold ours in the spring I decided to take the plunge and make my farmhouse table I've been wanting. 

I got the wood and legs from Home Depot. Sanding and staining the boards for the top. Then screwing them all together.

I used a tool that sets the screws in at an angle and painted my apron (or the boards that connect to the legs) and then assembled it all. It wasn't too bad. I got a tool and some great advice from a friend who does quite a bit of wood work. 

I did it entirely by myself! I was definitely having a "I am woman hear me ROAR!" moment when it was done. We had the missionaries over for dinner that night and I showed it to them. I was bragging on myself a bit and said "I made this entire table, like- from scratch!" Our brand new missionary asked "Really you even turned the legs?"(That was a bit humbling) I was like "NO- and the wood isn't from my trees in the backyard but I did everything else!" We all had a good laugh. 

(Seriously??? I can single handedly make a table but I can't get blogger to put it in this blog straight??!!!) OK so it's awesome- even at a side angle. Don't ask me what's going on.

Are you starting to feel like this is the post that never ends? There is more.... I was busy!

Sew.....A needle pulling thread.

So my latest crafting trend has been doing stitchery. It's like cross stitching but with out the crosses and grid material. I began with these cute little hexagon centerpieces for your table.

The stitcheries are the leaf, acorn and pumpkin in the pattern. They're cute and fast. 

Then I saw these little elfs and fell in love! I'd really like to do them on red velvet but I'm still trying to work up my nerve. These are on crushed velvet and it's much easier to handle. Velvet is very difficult to work with. From what I've heard, it doesn't play well with others... ok -I just couldn't resist that one. 

So it's December and my brain is full of Christmas crafts and goodies to make. I love this time of year but there is not enough time in the day to do all I want to do. I am going to really try to focus on people and giving and sharing with those that need me and my time and those that are special to me. Emil Michael is coming home for Christmas and that's going to be a highlight. 

Kirstin is having minor knee surgery, twice. (It's another post entirely!)

Kai's Birthday

I hope to post again before Christmas but if I don't remember why we have this season.

Take Care!