Happy 30th to my siblings. :)

My brother and sister turned 30 on 12/19!  My brother is in Texas so I didn't get to see him for his birthday.  

I came to RVA a little early so my bestie and I could make a lollipop box to give my sister.  I saw the idea years ago on Pinterest and have wanted to make it so we did it.

It turned out really cute.

My sister's husband planned a birthday dinner at the Tazza kitchen.

Here's my sister with her husband and daughter.

Kristen and Dave ordered guac and chips.  I had a little bit.  It was good.  I think Dave's guac is much better.  Even the guac I made recently was better in my opinion.

I ordered a personal white pizza for my dinner.  I shared it.  My sister's friend, David had 2 slices.

Daniel brought Pearl's birthday cupcakes.  Pearl's is the best bakery in RVA.  I grabbed a vanilla cupcake that had a vanilla buttercream and topped with a chocolate chip cookie.

We all took pictures outside before we left.  Here's me and my sister.

Afterwards, we all went back to my sister's house.  Ellie entertained us on the piano.

So cute.

Ellie also danced for us.  She had me dance with her too.  We had fun.

Happy Birthday, Ashley and Kirk!  :)

Aggie's Nutcracker Play 2015

I was invited to see Agnes in her ballet play of the Nutcracker.

Here's the little angel.  My friend Dave took all the good pictures.  :) 

Here's Agnes with the other angels doing their parts.  One angel wasn't having it and just sat down.

Kristen and Dave picked up some roses for Aggie and her teacher.

Sharon asked me for some of my orange cranberry cookies to give as thank yous to the teachers and moms that helped backstage.

Nate's Bunnyphobia

Nate mentioned the other day that he kept getting scared by bunnies.   Our neighborhood always has a ton of rabbits hopping around.  We even have them in our backyard.  We have some holes in our backyard that I'm pretty sure are from rabbits.

Anyways, our neighbors across the street thought it would be funny to put a bunch of bunnies in my husbands car.  I helped them get in the car and they pulled it off.

Here's a picture of what my husband saw when he went to work that morning.

Then later my BFF and I went shopping at Target and she saw these t-shirt material sheets with bunnies and told me "I will pay you $30 if you buy those sheets and put them on the bed to get Nate".  They were on sale for $24 so I got them.  I made $6 off the joke.  haha

When I got home, I told Nate I was changing into my jammies and I went upstairs.  I changed and I quickly put the bunnies on the bed.  haha

I made the bed so he wouldn't suspect a thing if he had gone upstairs.

Nate noticed the sheets as soon as he got into bed that night.  He used his phone flash light to shine on them and said "what's this" and laughed.  I told him about the joke and he thought it was funny.  We love the sheets.  The bed stays nice and warm.  :)

Here's Nate in the morning laying with the bunnies.

Craft Show 12/12

My BFF and I did another craft show a few weeks ago.  I made my entry money back and made a little money.  My BFF did not.  :(  Sometimes we do really well and other times it's a fail.  :(

We have fun doing them.  This was the last show for the year.  Not sure if we're gonna be doing any next year.  We haven't talked about it yet.  We will see.

Avocado Banana Muffins

Another way to use up some ripe avocados is to make some muffins.  I found this awesome recipe on pinterest. 

You will need:

1 ripe avocado

1 large ripe banana

2 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

1/2 cup milk (I used almond milk)

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease a muffin tin with non-stick spray.  Mash your banana and avocado and add to a bowl.  Mix in the eggs, milk and vanilla extract.  Add the sugar, baking soda, salt and flour and mix.  Do not over mix.

Fold in the chocolate chips if you're using them.

Fill your muffin tins half full.  I was able to get a full tray of mini muffins and 5 regular size muffins.

Bake 15 to 20 minutes.

My husband and I enjoyed these.  I kept them in tupperware and we grabbed one or two as we were heading out or as a quick snack during the week.

Easy Guacomole

I had a neighbor going out of town for a few days and she asked if I wanted a few items that she wasn't going to be able to use up.  I said sure.  She brought over a half gallon of milk, clementines, tomatoes and 5 avocados.  Some of which were very ripe.  I had no idea what I was going to make with the avocados.  3 of them needed to be used that day.  So for dinner Nate suggested guacomole and chips.  I went right to pinterest and I found an easy recipe where I had everything I needed to make a quick and delicious guac.

You will need:

3 avocados

2 tomatoes

2 cloves of garlic (I used minced.  1/2 tsp is one clove of garlic)

1 lime

salt

black pepper (optional)

Scrape the middle of your avocados into a bowl.  Squeeze a fresh lime over top and mash.  Cut tomatoes and add the garlic, salt and pepper until combined.

Very easy and best of all....it's fresh.  :)

We loved it and will make again next time we have a bunch of ripe avocados.  :)

Garden Update #45

I'm happy to report I have a few orchid blooms growing.  I can't wait till they pop open.  This was the clearance plant I bought that didn't have any blooms.  Once these pop then I will have successfully grown my own orchids.  I'm super happy.

I moved my rocks I painted to my greenhouse.  The dinos will be next.  :)

Cactaceae (cactus)

Dracaena Marginata

Happily potted. 

My greenhouse......blueberry bush has browned some.  So has the hibiscus but it also has some new growth.  The succulents are okay.  My green bean plant is dead.  :(  It was just too cold. 

IKEA Fun

This week, I'm on vacation again.  Using up time that I'm going to lose at the end of the year.  On Monday, I went to IKEA.  I wanted my BFF to go but she couldn't take off from work.  :(  So, I went alone.

The parking garage and store was pretty empty.  WIN!  :)

I went right to the shopping area and looked around.  I had a small list.  I wanted to get some frames for something I'm doing for Christmas and I wanted get new skillets.

I walked around and took some pictures....

I was bummed that IKEA doesn't make the skillets I use.  It looks like they've been replaced to a more expensive pan.  SUCKS.  :(  So, I didn't get any pans.

This veggie fabric for this curtain is awesome.  :)  Would be cool as an apron.

Here's the frames.  There was a worker meeting going on in this section.  The manager was telling the employees to focus and was explaining why things are a certain way.  One lady said "you want the customers eyes to go here" and was showing a display. 

There's a cool new area with office supplies, washi and notebooks etc.  K would really love this section.  Some of the stuff wasn't my style but I did get a cute plain brown notebook for .99 cents.

Of course, I had to look at the plants. The orchids are always so pretty at IKEA.  These little trees caught my eye.

I got 2 plants.  The little tree is called a dracaea marginata.  It's a dragon tree.  It's small and cute.  :)  The other plant is a cactaceae or a cactus.  :)

I spent $15 on everything I got.  :)

I stopped at the food area and got a hot fresh cinnamon roll.  I sat at a table and ate it while people watching.  It was soooo yummy.  These are the best cinnamon rolls ever.

I then went back to the market.  I got a lingonberry drink.  Love this drink.  I discovered how wonderful this drink is when I went with Allie and William for college stuff.

I purchased this book for a friend who asked me to pick it up.

I found the by the pound candy.  I almost forgot about it and when I saw it I got so excited.  LOL  I got a bag and got some different candies.  I spent $3 on candy.  The brownie fudge was my favorite.  I say 'was' because it's all gone.  hahahahaha

Here's my mix.  The jelly beans were really good.

I also bought some lingonberry preserves.  YUM

Here's my purchases.  :)

After that I drove back to my town.  I did some shopping at Dollar Tree, Party City, Hobby Lobby, Wegmans and then went home.  I had a nice day.  :)