dying over the cuteness

It has been a month since I have seen my sweet nephew and I must remedy that soon. These pictures make me want to drive the three hours to see him and just gobble him up.

Look at those cheeks. Oh those little fat hands. His little button nose. Someone is going to need to stop me. I could go on forever. I'm in love with this little man.

{I bought him that doxie for Christmas from this etsy seller.}

We are pretty much consumed with all things house right now, which would explain my lack of anything exciting on the ol' blog. I think we finally have everything spic & span and all projects have been accomplished. Ty's parents came up on Saturday and helped us out tremendously. We could not have accomplished, so much if it wasn't for them.

I just remembered my parents are coming up this weekend to help us with a couple of things. So much for saying that all the projects were done. The things that are left are small things my dad and Ty are doing together, and shouldn't require my help. I doubt they would even ask for my help. I'm not the best helper.

See I told you. All things house.

fresh flowers for the open house

The open house was not successful. Not a single soul came. We weren't too surprised. Does anyone even go to open houses anymore? We never did when we bought this house, but maybe that is just us. The good news is two different people have come by to view the house in the last couple of days.

Last thing about the house and then I'm done. I swear. I think I confused some people by saying we were selling our house. We don't know yet if we are moving for residency, but we decided that even if we stay we want to sell it. Ty finds out on Valentine's Day where he matched for residency. Valentine's Day will be known as Match Day at our house. Maybe if I'm lucky we will celebrate both. I sure hope so, because I've got my eye on this.

hehe.

I did find a few minutes this weekend to give myself a blog makeover. My design blog needed something new. Go check it out along with a new pre-made template for sale.

I have a lot of little thoughts, but not enough on one thing to actually justify a full post. Thank goodness for bullet points.

• Mr. Clean Magic Erasers have become my best friend.
• Deep cleaning your house sucks. It will be worth it for things to be sparkly for our open house.
• I'm not a huge fan of country music, but it is my favorite thing to listen to while I'm cooking.
  
• I'm sure Ty enjoyed listening to me sing to Strawberry Wine at the top of my lungs tonight while I was cooking.
• I made this for dinner. Yum, Yum.
  
• I had today off of work due to the snow and ice. It was GREAT!
• My sister-in-law, Heather, was browsing through Netflix while we were at Ty's parent's house over New Year's trying to decide what to add to their queue. I got some great ideas from her. A few of these have already been sent to us and watched and others are still in our queue.

{via}

• All of the Symphony Brownies I made last weekend are gone. I think I need to make another batch this weekend.

• If that is the case I should also do the workout video I bought a couple of weeks ago, but have only done once. Yikes.
• I was really jealous of all the people with the Pure Barre classes in their cities. Then, I found out they have workout DVDs. I read several reviews of the videos online and the feedback was really mixed. I really like the one I purchased and I think people were being hyper critical. Visit Kate's blog if you want more info on Pure Barre.
  

Pure Barre: Pershing Square 1

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weekend happenings

This selling our house business has us busy! It is amazing how much needs to be done. We have a photographer coming today and I'm sitting in my office at work hoping I did everything I was supposed to this morning. I'm sure I forgot to do something. We are also having an open house this coming Sunday. Ah, so exciting and scary all at the same time.


We spent the majority of the weekend getting the house ready for these things, but we did make some time to relax. We saw True Grit Friday evening. The acting was amazing and the music (old hymns) was beautiful!

{via}

We did our grocery shopping after the movie and I discovered my new favorite snack at Target.

I'm always eating the Nature Valley granola bars, but these are better because they contain chocolate. duh.

Speaking of chocolate, I made the most decadent brownies this weekend. Katie posted them on her blog on Friday and I couldn't resist making them. Recipe here. (super easy!)
Symphony Brownies

{picture via Sarah}
Ty is not allowed to mention how much of the brownies have already been consumed.

Despite all the house stuff, I managed to do quite a bit of fun stuff this weekend. Ty slaved away the majority of the time while I was out and about. Isn't he the best?!

Went to a baby shower for Megan and baby Eli


It was a cowboy theme. How cute are these plates?!

See all the cute details on Megan's blog.

On Monday I took H, my bbbs little, to see Tangled. It was really cute!

{via}

It was nice to have an extra day to add to the weekend. Now, if I could only arrange to work four days every week.

martha stewart makes me swoon

As I was browsing through blogs a couple of weeks ago I came across a certain project from Martha Stewart's website. I saved the project, but I can't remember the blog I found it on--sorry! If it was your blog let me know.

I have become obsessed with the chevron pattern. I use it a lot in my blog designs and people are always requesting it. When I saw the tray I immediately wanted one. I have yet to make it, but maybe one day... I still haven't finished the bottom hem in my curtain project that I started in August. oops.

Someone use this tutorial and make me one. mmkay?

The tutorial also shows you all of the resources that they used to make the tray*.

You can view Rebecca's eclectic modern living room here.

*The tray is made with fabric, not by painting.

weekend happenings

Ty and I had a busy weekend. We spent the majority of it cleaning our house, adding more plants to the front yard, and decluttering. We are in the "our house must sell" mode. We met with a realtor on Sunday afternoon and have some important decisions to make.

Thank goodness, we were invited to a birthday party Saturday evening. Otherwise, I think Ty would have made me work all night too. :) Jessica threw a fabulous birthday party for her little girls. Ty has met a few of the people before, but I'm so glad he got to meet their husbands and get to know everyone a little better. I managed to snap a few pictures with my phone, but you will want to visit Jessica's blog for a full party recap.

love this girl!

Jessica with Miss Penny

I'm in love with this design I finished over the weekend.

Welcome 2011

Our theme for last year seemed to be travel. Definitely a theme I wouldn't mind sticking around! This year's theme is sure to be change. Ty will graduate from medical school and start residency. Oh my goodness, these events seemed like such a distant future when he started school and now it is almost here.

In February, we will find out where we will spend the next five years as Ty completes his residency training. We have had lots of discussions about what to do with our house if we stay where we are and what we will need to do to sell it if we move. So many decisions.

July will mark Ty's start date and that will bring about all sorts of new experiences for us. There will be a lot of adjusting and adapting to a new schedule. This summer could mean a move for us and job hunting for me depending on where we end up for residency.


Maybe, just maybe there will be time to fit in some traveling before residency starts.

One thing that I hope to continue this year is blog designing. I have so enjoyed this hobby that turned into a business. I have had a pretty consistent wait list since June and I'm so thankful that other people like my designs. I've definitely had some moments where I've doubted myself and wondered why people would choose me to do their blog designs. I'm self-taught and I usually don't think of myself as very artistic or creative. But someone liked my work and then it has just seemed to spread, like so many things in this blog world do. I hope that 2011 is just as successful. Thank you all for supporting me!