More Crafts…..

Lately I have been finding a lot of crafts that I want to do and just need to find the time to do them. I recently found this cool idea:

                                

 (Source)

Later in the blog she says that you can use felt so I am going to make all of my Christmas bows with that this year!

I also thought I might make this as a gift for someone:

(Source)

Along with those I need to finish my wreath, make a wedding photo book (yeah…almost a year later), and maybe sew an apron. I received a sewing machine for the wedding and really need to learn how to use it!
I honestly don't know where all of my time goes….because there never seems to be enough of it. Hopefully I will get going on some of these things.

To buy or not to buy.....

So I have been getting the itch lately to buy a house. Several things are preventing us from taking the plunge, the biggest being that we are not sure where we will be living once Ryan's term is up. That means we are going to be rocking apartments until 2012. I thought just for the fun of it I would look into what it would cost to buy a place out here in DC. I knew it would be crazy expensive because it is DC….but I still was shocked.

(source)

This beauty will cost you $945,000. Insane. That's right…for almost a million bucks you can own a 3 bedroom townhome by the metro….the catch is that it isn't by a metro stop. Yep, the metro drives by these homes but they are not close to a stop. Really?!?!
Needless to say we are not buying something out here.

Craft Project....

I saw this project on Elsie's blog and thought I should try and do it. Problem was I didn't have any supplies and I had kind of forgotten how to crochet. No worries though because over my Christmas break I had my granny show me how to crochet a circle and then R man went with me and helped pick out the perfect set of crochet hooks and yarn (seriously he looked at every single set and it took him like 15 minutes to decide which one I should get). Here are some of the circles I have done:

I am not sure how many I am going to make but I have around 5 done so far and I still need to finish off the ends.  This will hopefully be the Christmas wreath that will proudly be displayed on my front door this year so my neighbors don't think I am a scrooge!
 
- ACK

Snowmageddon.....

The big new out here in my world is….snow and yes they were calling it the snowmageddon. We had a huge storm this past weekend. It dumped about 20" in Alexandria and 30" + in some other parts around here. The metro wasn't running at the above ground stations (which mine is) and we didn't want to drive. The result….I didn't make it to work on Monday. So Tuesday I went in and about half my office was there. I actually expected there to be less since there was a ton of snow. Tuesday night/ Wednesday during the day we got another 6". This again closed down the metro at my station and I didn't make it to work again on Wednesday. Thursday my lovely husband drove me to work to find 3 people in my office. It was very very quiet.

Here are some pictures I pulled off one of the local news stations website. These pretty much sum it up.

Yes this one is of a car.

(Pictures from HERE)

I would like to say that I am thankful for several things: garage parking, underground utilities, a husband who will drive me to work so I don't have to plow through snow, books, television, plenty of food, and a workout room in my apartment complex.

- ACK

Future Cars.....

This past Friday I played good wife and went with Ryan to the DC auto show. Now normally I would have been thrilled to look at cars but I knew that I would be done looking long before him. I actually really enjoyed myself and was able to sit in and see several of the different cars (actually they were mostly crossovers) that I am looking to purchase in the future. We are not buying anything for awhile but once we move from DC we are going to need another car and this one needs to be kid friendly. More specifically I need to be able to lift baby and car seat into the back of the car. I looked at the following: Ford Edge, Chevy Traverse, Audi A4, and Cadillac SRX. The A4 was just in case the crossovers were too tall…which I am happy to report they weren't. So it was down to the Ford, Chevy, and Cadillac.



This was the winner:

(Ryan kept making me wave everytime he took a picture of me in a car...weird)

Isn't it beautiful. I really liked the Edge and Traverse….then I sat in the SRX. It was so nice inside and had all the bells and whistles. On top of everything the pedals move up (not quite enough but still nice) and the back hatch can be set to open to a certain height. It is like it was made for me!!!!! Now I just have to wait……..


Oh….this is what Ryan wants:

Ford Focus RS. Apparently it has lots of torque and power.  We didn't get to sit in it so I can't say much about the interior. 

So after totally dreading the event it actually ended up being really helpful.


- ACK

Snow.....

We got a decent amount of snow this weekend like everyone else.  I decide to post some snow pictures.  These are pictures from the big snow we had in DC right before Christmas.  It was crazy and the whole city freaked out.  We got 10-12 inches where I live. 

Ryan and I playing in the snow:

This is a car that was in front of our apartment complex...bummer:

- ACK

Food Post.....

So I have really stunk it up with writing stuff in my blog. I have been doing a lot of cooking lately. Here are some things I have made:

Crustless Broccoli Quiche in my new ramekins.  There were four of them.  Ryan ate three and I ate one :-)

Pecan Pie:

My granny gave me the pecan pie recipe and it was so easy and yummy. Now that I have a food processor (thanks mom and grandma) I am going to start making my own pie shells and it should be even better. Next on the list…..chocolate soufflés. I am nervous about that one.

- ACK

Trip Home....

Thanksgiving was so amazing. I had definitely been missing my family and friends. Turns out six months is way too long. I can't go that long again. I got to see a ton of my highschool friends.  I really love getting to see them.  I also got to meet two of my friends babies.  They are so cute. 

I haven't gotten upset about leaving yet since I will be back for Christmas. I will get to see more KC people and Ryan's family then so that will be good. It will be super busy….but good. The drive wasn't bad at all. We ended up making it in closer to 15 hours then 16. The only hang up was the West Virginia deer. There were seriously like 50 of them. I was so worried we were going to hit one…especially since it was midnight and there were no other cars on the road. Thankfully my husband is amazing and we made it with out any problems.
Speaking of my husband he is out of town for a couple days. Turns out I really don't like being in DC when he is not here. He took the car so I am basically stranded….well except for the metro. Thankfully I don't go any where during the week except work so no problems there. He comes back soon…but not soon enough. Every time he leaves and we have to just talk on the phone it reminds me of when we were just dating. I don't miss the long distance…that is for sure.
I only gained 1.4 pounds over Thanksgiving and I ate a lot. I am pretty happy that the damage wasn't that bad...especially since I hit the Dr. Pepper pretty hard. I am already back in loose weight mode. My new favorite thing….the elliptical (thanks to my parents). I did it in our apartment gym yesterday and felt really good afterwards. I am slowly increasing the amount of time I am on it and feel better each time I do it. I was sweating big time. Oh…funny thing is I don't really fit on the machine that well. It is especially hard to reach the buttons to set what workout I am going to do. I probably look really funny standing on my tippy toes trying to push buttons. Sometimes I am not even sure what I am pushing :-)

- ACK

Catching Up.

It has been awhile since I posted something…mainly because I like to put pictures up and haven't uploaded any recently. It has been a busy couple of weeks. Since we are driving (yes we are crazy) home for Thanksgiving my plan is to bring all of the Christmas presents so we don't have to fly with them. This is good in theory but it was hard getting it all done. We are officially done and Ryan has (in his words) secured a box from work so we can haul them home easily. I am happy with everything I got. Some of it involves my craftiness…yeah didn't know I had it either…and other some searching around. Of course I had some Crate and Barrel action involved and there are also a ton of outlet stores close to us. I took advantage of those too.

Tonight is dinner with my second cousin and her husband. I am really looking forward to seeing familiar faces…especially when they are family. We are going to a Lebanese place so I am not really sure what I am going to order. I agree that I should start being a little more adventurous with my food.

The weight is still coming off even though I have slipped a couple times. I am still working out (even purchased goggles and a swim cap so swimming can start) but I give in to the food sometimes. Girl scout cookies have been a problem. One day I found myself with four of them in my hand. Ryan was like, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?". I honestly think I blanked out….well that is the story I am sticking too. The other major fall of the wagon was a double chocolate shake at this new burger place we tried. It was so yummy though!!!!! For Thanksgiving I am not going to worry about calories but still try to workout. Then I will hit it hard again once we are back. I plan on having a Dr. Pepper date with my grandma.



- ACK

Yum.....

Wish I was eating this:

Betty's Speakeasy Cupcake -- Philly

Instead I ate hummus and baby carrots.


- ACK