November Showers....

...bring January babies!!!

Megan's due date is getting closer so some of our girlfriends and I threw her a shower last weekend. The food was good and she got some really great gifts, but the best part was getting to spend some time with some of my favorite people.

Holly opened up her new house for the party. Megan's sister-in-law and friend Chrystie, and our friends Kristin and Melissa also helped host the party.

There wasn't a lack of food and good stuff.

Chrystie (pictured) made this super cute carriage for the fruit. It matched the invitations. Only at baby showers can you get away with stuff like this. 

Kristin pulled a Martha Stewart on the cupcakes. They were so good! And Melissa brought the lilies - in honor of Miss Lily James, of course. 

I tried my hand at Bakerella's cake pops. I'd give them a 6 out of 10. The tasted great and looked ok. But, I've got a little way to go on piping letters. Definitely not a professional on that one yet.  

Here are some shots from the party...

Kristin's having a little girl in February! 

My girlfriend Karla brought her new baby girl Parker. She never got put down the entire party. We played pass the baby. 

Becky made Megan super cute burp cloths - one thing you can never have enough of. 

Holly's dog Ozzie watched over the gifts. He's part dog, part human. 

It was a great party. I can't wait to see Lily James in all of her cute things. 

It was also a good time for me. I found myself watching all of my girlfriends talk about their relationships, their husbands and now babies. It's a very surreal experience watching the girls you used to go out to bars with during college transition into motherhood. I'm so thankful we've all remained so close through the years and that I get to watch us have daughters of our own.

What I want for Christmas...

I don't really want much and I promise I've been good. I'll simply take a kitchen that looks like this!!!

Please take note of that back splash and those hardwood floors.

And of that gorgeous light fixture. And that fabric.

I'd almost be happy sitting at this desk to pay the bills that would come after I got this kitchen.

Her name is Toby Fairley. She's an interior designer with a blog that makes me drool a little bit. She detailed all of the before and after of this little project here. And I hope Santa Claus can fit her down my non-existent chimney.

Amen.



I'm a "Lobbyist"

Yes. For a living I am a registered lobbyist and work at the legislature on issues important to my organization. But, we've talked enough about politics lately and this isn't the place to open that can of worms.

In my free time I'm a really big fan of the other "lobby" - Hobby Lobby. I'm not happy about the fact that there isn't a Hobby Lobby in Raleigh. However, my pocketbook is very happy. 

Luckily, there is one in Greensboro and I was there visiting Megan this weekend. We were working on a little project that I can NOT wait to tell you all about. But, for now I'm only authorized to give you sneak peak.

That would be a crib skirt for Lily James!

We were out picking up some last minute items and returning some ribbon we didn't need. We may or may not have been distracted once we got there. They had their Christmas stuff out and we couldn't get enough!

It's Megan's fault that I'm addicted to Christmas ornaments. She loves giving them and receiving them. Her mom collected Christopher Radko's and got me into starting my own collection. You can read all about that in one of my very first posts. 

They had tons of cute ornaments like this little Santa. 

Wouldn't these make great gifts for someone? I think these frames would really dress up a tree. 

What you didn't see is that all of the ornaments were an additional 50% off. That would have only been $2. Not bad. 

They also have the best selection of wrapping paper that I have ever seen. Better than Target, TJ Maxx or the neighborhood school kids. The were so cute and frame worthy, plus you get 100 yards on every roll for just $7.99. That's enough paper for me to wrap every gift I give this season. They were organized by colors. 

After we dropped a little bit of the other kind of green paper we ventured on to do some more shopping. 

There's a great store called Fleet Plummer. More cute ornaments and decorative stuff for the holidays. 

I have no idea why, but these elf's made me laugh. They are too funny!

So did this! If you can read the text it says - "Three Wise Women would have asked directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned the stables, brought practical gifts and there would be Peace on Earth."  So very true. 

Then I found these sock monkey ornaments for kids trees. They are super cute and may be the inspiration for my next batch of sock monkeys.

This was the only one that came home with me from Fleet Plummer. My boyfriend loves duck hunting maybe more than he loves me. He promised we could put a tree up at his house and I could decorate it however I wanted to. I figured he deserved a duck ornament in return. ;)

I can't wait for the holidays... 46 days and counting!

I'm not getting paid $$ or getting good things in return for my enthusiastic endorsement of Hobby Lobby. Just spreading the word about one of my favorite stores. 

Papa's Apple Butter

It's the time of year when all things pumpkin, cinnamon, clove and nutmeg smell wonderful.

I had read about this recipe for apple butter some months back and had wanted to make it once the weather cooled. It's Darby's recipe. I like apple butter, but it's not something I crave.

For me, it is one of those things that triggers a memory.

Apple butter was one of my grandfather's favorite things. I remember he always had a jar at home whenever he had biscuits. I also remember that any time we traveled within a 15 mile radius of a Cracker Barrel we had to stop so he could eat their apple butter too.

Papa 

(aka Frank Denning)

My grandfather was one of the sweetest, loving and funniest men I've ever met. He passed away this spring. I miss him dearly, but thought making this would be a great way to remember him during this fall season.

I wish he had been here so he could have gone to the NC Mountains like he did every year with my grandmother and bring back fresh apples. Instead I had to settle for some I bought locally.

I mixed them up and did half Gala Apples and half Green Delicious Apples. I ended up dicing about 16 apples. That's a lot of peeling and cutting. 

But they were so pretty and smelled so good! And this was before I had even added in the rest of the ingredients. 

I have a fairly small crock pot. (Side note: I just noticed last week my boyfriend has a HUGE crock pot at his house that's still in the box. Next time, I'm using his) 

It wouldn't hold too much and I thought it was going to spill over, but once I threw in the cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and sugar and got it warmed up...

...amazing things started happening. The house began to smell like the Yankee Candle Store and the apples started cooking down to a more manageable amount. I started on high and then turned it down to low and let it work its magic over night. 

I love a crock pot for that very reason. It does all the work while you're sleeping. 

I forgot to snap a shot of the finished product prior to the next step - the blender. I'm still half asleep when I wake up. But, close your eyes and imagine a bowl of apple goodness that had turned a dark, cinnamon brown color. I drained some of the liquid off so that my butter wouldn't be runny. I poured it in the blender and pulsed it until it was the consistency of apple sauce. 

Then I broke out this - 

I felt like such a domesticated woman when I bought that at Wal-Mart way back when. I'm pretty sure if someone suggested me doing that around my early 20's I would have laughed and made some joke about a grandma. Funny how your perspective changes in just a few short years, huh? 

I went to work filling up my jars and boiling my water. Canning stuff really isn't as bad or complicated as I originally thought. 

See how good that looks? Just imagine it on a biscuit straight out of the oven. 

I finished them off just in time to head out the door. I was meeting my grandmother for dinner that evening and I wanted to be sure she got the first jar of my first batch of apple butter. I wish she could share it with Papa, but I know she'll be thinking of him with every bite.

Happy Fall, y'all!