2012 in Review

It seems I haven't posted on this blog since last January, so I figured I had better get to it. Let's sum up 2012. It was a doozy! This should be fun!

Right at the beginning of 2012, I started a dress blog. I wanted to make one dress a month for a year. It turned out that I got through six dresses. I haven't given up. I'm still going to make those last 6 dresses, guess it will just take me two years instead of one!

My sewing motto: Measure never, cut thrice.

http://12dresses12months.blogspot.com/

In February, I visited Texas for the first time with two great girls. Surprising facts I learned was they have hobbit cafes there, Whole Foods originated in Austin, and Liz should never let me do her nails.

I got to celebrate the triplet's first birthday. William, James, and Brian had a blast and were zonked out well before the end. If I am not mistaken, so were their parents!

In June, Greg and I traveled to Israel for a friend's wedding. Check that one off my list.

Soon after that vacation, we got a sweet, little puppy we nicknamed Jerk Face because he eats all our stuff.

Then:

Now:

To finish off the year, I got a new job. Now you can see what happened to the rest of my dress making time!

It is a new year and there are tons of new things to do. I got a serger for Christmas which presents endless sewing possibilities. I've got a zillion new craft ideas. I joined the Y to make sure Leslie's body is as sound as her mind. The new job gives me the ability to save, spend, and be worry free the way I've always wanted to be. Not to mention all the new things I'm learning. I think 2013 is going to be great!

Whoooooo

I got creative this weekend. I made 4 pairs of earrings, two necklaces, and knit one very cute little owl. I was pretty unsuccessful with my dress making, so I felt compelled to accomplish something else.

Here is the cutest little owl!

A catch up on New Things

Recently, things have been a' changin! Since December, Greg and I have been moving and shaking. The first biggest change is our apartment.

As most of you know, the swinging pad we had in Ocean Grove was pretty nice! We had some sweet dark oak paneling that any girl would die for and some moths to keep the food company in the cabinets. However, there were a few things we still lacked. So I started the search a wee-bit early, meaning that in the end we were paying for two apartments for two weeks! But it didn't take too long to find an good apartment. We saw lots of places and it helped that we knew exactly what we wanted. It had to be close to the parkway, reasonably priced, with a bedroom, and a decent living room. Greg was also keen on it being near the water. So after looking around, almost being scammed, and running from some places, we found our apartment in Keyport.

It is the third floor of an old victorian house. It had everything we wanted and a HUGE deck! We were stoked! The only catch was, no pets! :( As you can imagine, we discussed this for a long time. If we took the apartment, my dream of a puppy would have to be pushed back and I would have to stop guessing that every surprise or piece of mail was a puppy (thankfully I really haven't stopped either of those things! whew!). So, in the end we took the apartment and my puppy dreams were suppressed. The upside is we got two little parrots (more to come on them later).

After we moved in we started making and doing all the projects we had planned while we were at the old apartment. We built pipes shelving in the living room, a magnetic spice rack and knife block. We put up hooks and towel racks in the bathroom. Greg even did a bit of plumbing and put a hose on the shower so we could water the plants.

Most news to come!

Gingerbread Men

They've been on my to-do list for months. I couldn't wait to make them. Gingerbread men. They are so delicious but I have never made them myself. This year, Greg helped me make my first batch of gingerbread men. Delicious.

Pumpkins & Halloween

What is Halloween without some hot pumpkin picking action. We traveled out to some unknown destination in NJ and paid way too much for the pleasure of doing all the work to get a pumpkin but it was good fun. :)

Out in the pumpkin patch.


A pony ride for our friend's little girl that must have been all of 2 minutes. Oh children.


Corn Maze! This one dedicated to the Boy Scouts. Thank goodness someone studied history!


The pumpkins we took home. The blue one was just crazy. I had never seen it before, so of course I had to choose that one.


Halloween Festivities!

Surviving Red Shirts! Greg and I couldn't decide who came up with this idea so we had to agree that it was totally collaborative. We were really happy with how everything came out. We just bought red shirt from Target. Then I cut off the ends of he sleeves and sewed on black fabric to the collars. In the meantime, Greg cut out the badges from coasters and then we hot-gun glued them to our shirts. Overall we were super happy with them. Greg was even sad to cut his up to look wounded.


At Steph and Nat's house they created a kill room, which strangely people did not gather in. Perhaps not strangely. And I am the only one that would be honored to be killed by Dexter?


I know you didn't want to hear this but Scooby is a huge jerk as a boyfriend. Always out with his friend Shaggy, never spending time with his girlfriend and we suspect he beats her!


What the Red Shirts do when not on an away mission.

Camping in the Shenanadoah Valley

Camping is fun but better when you are surrounded by children who play too close to wild deer and the hicks who feed the wild deer corn from their trucks. Did I mention it is also fun to hike for hours without water. Seriously though, I had a great time! :)

Suzanne and I hiking. Look how beautiful the forest is! :)


Cooking some camp food, PB&J.


Grilling up some porkroll. Oh so salty porkroll.


The tents!


Stopping to dip our feet in the nice cool water.


That pesky deer I was talking about.

Horseback Riding & Apple Picking

It has officially been a year since Greg and I started dating. Therefore, to celebrate, Greg planned a wonderful day. It was all a surprise but I guessed immediately. Greg does this thing where he asks what I like and if he stops mentioning it immediately, I know something is brewing. I've been asked no less than 10 times if I have seen the movie Dune or read the book, this means I will have no Dune related surprises. I am a genius. Having guessed the surprise, did not however make the idea of a surprise less fun, and I even refrained from guessing so it couldn't be confirmed.



So, Saturday Greg and I got up at 7am to make it to the place we were going. He said wear comfortable clothes and tennis shoes, so I was pretty sure what we were doing. I did mention that it was "our" anniversary and that jumping out of a plane, was not my idea of fun. This was just to allay my fears because who knows what we could have been doing.





After two hours, we arrived at the Double D Ranch in north western New Jersey. They gave us each a horse and we took off for the trail. Amazingly, they paired us really well with our horses. Greg's horse was really competitive and wouldn't let any of the other horses, especially mine, walk in front of it. His horse was called Man On The Run. The horse they gave me was called Johnny Walker Black. He is about 10 years old and was the slowest. The guide said I had to be careful because he likes to stop and munch grass along the way. And this was exactly what he did, thus I got yelled at for letting him. Geeze horse! Also, he loved to walk really slow, behind everyone else, then once the gap got big enough, run to catch up with everyone. So I got the slow, hungry horse! Awesome.





The whole ride was a lot of fun. We got to see some turtles sun bathing on rocks in the river, ducks, and even a pair of dogs taking a walk by themselves. Despite slowy-speedy (as I came to call my horse), riding was great. I was quite confident even after all these years of not riding. Unlike when I took lessons, I could just get off the horse and be done, no cleaning or feeding, etc. Plus, the trail was beautiful. The leaves were just starting to turn and the weather was perfect. I wasn't even that sore the next day!



Afterwards, we decided to head down to Lee's Turkey Farm for some apple picking. It is a huge farm where they raise turkeys but also fruits and vegetables. I found the farm on the Internet and really wanted to go. I think pick-your-own farms are genius. You do the labor but it is so much fun. Greg and I wandered around the apple trees looking for the best apples. We got a whole bucket full with designs on making pies, cider, apple sauce, or whatever else we come up with.







Later, we wandered into the vegetable part of the farm and picked our own zucchini, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, broccoli, hot peppers, red peppers, and corn. I was a little worried when we checked out because I was sure it was going to be expensive but it all came to around $40. That is amazing! I am sure we would have paid more in the store and it wouldn't have been as fresh or fun. Love it!





Now we are set with the task of finding recipes to make everything. I can't wait to cook the acorn squash and the zucchini. Last night, I made yellow squash soup. Delicious! Also, I've never made an apple pie or any pie for that matter where I wasn't helping someone else. So this should be a good learning experience with the apples.



It was a great day, making me one lucky girl!