Fridays with Floyd: Have Basset Will Travel

Floyd usually does very well in the car.

When the Mister and I are riding together he sits in the back...

much to his dismay.

He would much rather sit in the front seat...on my lap.
And because at (almost) 50lbs he thinks he is a totally legit lap dog
that is what usually happens.

And also because I can not deny those eyes...he usually wins. 

This is his favorite position.  

Booty on my lap, body on the console and head on the Mister's shoulder.

There is no way that could be comfortable.

Anyone spot the Sonic?

How do your doggies ride in the car?

 P.S. Happy (early) New Year to everyone!

Our NYE will be spent celebrating my birthday 

 and the marriage of one of my very best girlfriends!

It's looking like it is going to be a GREAT way to ring in the New Year!

New Camera Love

As I said the other day, the Mister and my Mama really got me this year.

I was beyond shocked to open my new camera: Canon Rebel T2i.

I am already obsessed with it but know I have a LOT to learn.

It's a good thing it is so fun to play while I'm learning :)

Want to see some pure excitement??

We have already ordered

and

I am still on the hunt for a cute bag.

Has anyone see one lately?

And I forgot to share the other day but the Mister got a very special gift too

No your eyes are not fooling you

that is a box of Raisin Bran Crunch and he couldn't be happier.

See the Mister LOVES RBC.
Like really loves it.

And I have a serious issue with how expensive it is at the store.

It is OVER $4/box at Kroger!

(Thankfully it is a little cheaper at Target)

My couponing mind can't handle paying that much for cereal.

That is ridiculous to me!

I do buy it for him more often than not but it pains me each time.

So my mama felt sorry for him and bought him RBC for Christmas.

And, honestly, I'm pretty sure if that would have been the only gift he would have received he would have been as happy as a clam.

What I Wore Wednesday: Week 18

I have missed the last couple of weeks of WIWW and I am very happy to be back!

I think I'll make one of my New Year's resolutions to take more outfit pictures...
Someone hold me to that. 

Here's what I wore to my work Christmas party

Sweater: F21
Jeans: BCBG Outlet
Boots: Steve madden

Cardi: Old Navy
T-Shirt: Target
Belt: Anthro
Pants: Limited
Shoes: DSW

It's good to be back!
Linking up with Lindsay

Christmas Wrap Up

How was everyone's Christmas??

We had a fabulous Christmas weekend with friends and family.

We are very, very blessed!

We started our holiday down in Tennessee with some of my family

and rounded out the weekend in Indiana.

Floyd was with us the whole time and was such a good boy with all of the 

traveling and meeting new people.

He cleaned up quite well this year in the gift department!

He received lots of new toys, treats and a new blanket.

The Mister and I cleaned up quite well too!

Here are of some of our favorites:

Lots of beautiful clothes from my mama

Boot wedges

5(!) new cookbooks

Beautiful jewelry

Cake pop pan

Mini ramekens

 

And I was incredibly surprised and caught off guard when I opened this 

from my mama and the Mister...

a Canon Rebel T2i!

Ahhhh! 

I screamed I was so surprised.

They really got me!

I have been playing with it a lot but I still have a lot to learn.

Any tips and tidbits are greatly welcomed!

I'll be sharing some of the photos I've taken soon!
(Fair warning: they are mostly of Floyd)

Mister racked up with:

Slippers and a pair of shoes

Two Maglites

Clothes

and

A Dremel

 

(I'm secretly really excited about this too. Craft projects, anyone?)

I gave Mister a Kindle Fire a few weeks ago but

he is also going to be getting a few more presents from me in a couple of days.

Some dummy didn't put in her credit card number correctly and her Amazon order got canceled....

#smackshead

All in all we received so many great gifts!

I'm sure I will be talking about more of them in the near future!

What was your favorite gift??

Fridays with Floyd: Happy Holidays!

Floyd wanted to wish everyone a very, happy, merry, jolly

HOLIDAYS! 

We hope you have a wonderful time with friends and family!

We are going to take a few days off to spend time with our loved ones!
Can't wait to see what everyone got for Christmas when we return!

Christmas Favorites!

I've seen this done on a couple blogs lately and thought it was fun! 

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate. With about a 1,000 marshmallows.  Not a huge egg nog fan but the Mister sure is.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Santa always wraps, duh!

  3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?  White lights on the tree, always. I love white on houses but I also love those big, fat colored (old school) ones on houses. 

  4. Do you hang mistletoe? I have before but not this year.

  5. When do you put your decorations up? Much later than I would like to (ahem, Mister). But usually the week after Thanksgiving. 

 6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Well this is very hard but I would probably have to say my aunt's monkey bread that you put in the oven (turned off) over night and then bake in the morning. 

  7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? When I was 5 and my parents gave me my puppy, Princess. It was the first package I was supposed to open from Santa. Santa had wrapped the lid and box separately so I was supposed to just lift the lid off.  But I didn't know this...so I turned the box over. Insert tumbling puppy...oops!  I quickly turned the box back over and tada...best Christmas surprise ever!  

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don't exactly remember, maybe 3rd grade-ish

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Nope! Everything is done on Christmas morning.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? We put lots of sentimental ornaments on our tree and white lights!

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? I love snow but hate when it causes problems with driving.


12. Can you ice skate? Um, I have before.  I wouldn't say that I am very good at it though.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? This is hard.  I'm not sure I can narrow it down.  My mom has always been an exceptional gift giver! Last year the Mister surprised me with a trip to New York for Christmas...that was prettty great!

 14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you?  Special time with family, yummy treats and, of course, the presents are bad either :)

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Anything peppermint! And my mamaw used to make ritz crackers filled with peanut butter and dipped in white chocolate.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Waking up early to open my stocking and drink hot chocolate! 

17. What tops your tree? Sadly, nothing right now.  I have been on a ridiculous search for an angel to no avail. 

18. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? Both! It's such a toss up but I really do love giving gifts and watching people open them!

19. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum?  Yum!

20. Favorite Christmas show? It's a 2 way tie between Love Actually and The Holiday.

21. Saddest Christmas Song? The dumb one about the Christmas shoes.  That song that should be banned from the radio.

22. What is your favorite Christmas song?  Mariah Carey.  I have a super soft spot for Amy Grant too. 

So how about you?
What are some of your favorite Christmas memories?

Corn, Bacon and Potato Chowder

I have been obsessed with making (and eating) soups and chowders lately.

Something about the warmness in my belly is very addicting.

I recently pinned this recipe from Weight Watchers and whipped it up the other night. 

I put my own little spin on the recipe and added turkey bacon, extra corn and peppers.

Corn, Bacon, and Potato Chowder

(adapted from weightwatchers.com)

2 medium baking potoates

1/2 cup uncooked celery, chopped

1/4 cup uncooked onion (I used a red onion)

1 bag frozen corn (or 2 cans)

1 can corn and peppers

1 can creamed corn

1 cup green or red pepper, diced

4 oz uncooked Canadian-style bacon, diced   

4 slices turkey bacon

2 cups fat free milk

S&P to taste

1. Wrap potatoes in plastic wrap, poke with a fork and microwave

2. Coat a large saucepan with cooking spray. Add celery, onion, corns and red pepper; sauté over medium-high heat for at least 10 minutes. 

 3. Cook/brown bacons (separately) in sauce pan and dice.

4. Stir bacons and milk into saucepan.  Stir in mashed potatoes and mix well.  Season with S&P to taste. Let simmer about 15 minutes (or more).

5. Enjoy! 

 Low fat and delicious!
Perfect for chilly nights!

 

Weeked Wrap Up

Christmas is less than 1 week away!! 

Yay!

Ready for some weekend randomness??

I accomplished a LOT of Christmas shopping this weekend 

and a far amount of wrapping too.

I think I am finished shopping and I am just waiting on a few things to arrive in the mail.

#fingerscrossed

 My girlfriends and I are doing a secret Santa exchange and I am so excited about it.

I can't wait to show you what I am sending to my friend...

BUT 

that will have to wait because I know she reads TBC :)
It'll be in the mail early this week!

How was your weekend?

Friday night the Mister and I watched my favorite Christmas move, The Holiday and snuggled on the couch.

Saturday was spent shopping allll day and then out to dinner.

We tried a new (to us) restaurant, Flipdaddys.

It was DELICIOUS! 

I had the MacDaddy burger and the Mister had the Gaucho.

If you must know one thing about me, it is that I LOVE burgers and 

I LOVE mac and cheese.

This burger combined both of these things...

mac and cheese ON top of a burger.

I was in heaven!

Sunday was spent doing even more shopping!

Santa asked me to help him out with Floyd's gifts.

I happily obligied and ransacked PetSmart.

I also purchased some new window treatments for our room.

One more thing to cross of the list before the end of the year!

Pictures of those coming soon! 

Did anyone watch the season finale of Dexter or Homeland last night?! 

Oh. my. goodness.

That's all I have to say about that...

Fridays with Floyd: It's a Basset Christmas

Floyd has noticed that bassets are becoming quite popular on TV.

This Christmas he has seen 2 different holiday commercials that feature bassets.

He is so excited about this and wanted to share these treasures with you!

The first one is a Tommy Hilfiger ad.

The basset does not make his appearance until the very end...

but he does so in quite the basset fashion.

The second is a Target commercial.

I don't know if you could put 2 things I love more together.

Target + bassets = dreamworld.

Now if they would just let me take my basset to Target...

(watch around the 13 second mark)

And while we are on the subject of Christmas, Floyd wanted me to share his list with you Santa.

Jerky. Lots and lots of jerky.

Peanut butter.  We hear the price of pb is going up so we should probably stock up.

Soft blankets.  Floyd has become quite the blanket hog lately.

Toys. Preferably something he can pull on.

What are your doggies asking for this year?

Friends

Last weekend we ventured to Indianapolis for a Christmas party.

 While we were there we made plans to have lunch with some very special friends. Rachel and Andrew (and their parents, too!).

I babysat for Rachel and Andrew for a few years when I lived in Indy.

They are the most wonderful kids and possibly the funniest people I know.

Rachel and Andrew both hold a very special place in mine and the Mister's heart.

They were even in our wedding! 

I love when we are able to spend time with them.

I can not believe how much they have grown up.

We had a great lunch with everyone and can not wait to see them again!

Get to know me: A to Z

I have seen this out in blogword a few times lately and on Tess's and Hillary's blogs most recently.

I thought this was such a fun way for you to get to me a little better!

 

A. Age – 26 (but only for 17 more days!)

B. Bed size –Queen. We are dying for a King but I think that may need to wait until our next house.

C. Chore that you hate – Laundry. I can never remember to switch the loads.

D. Dogs – Bassets. Duh. 

       E. Essential start to your day – Diet Coke. Sometimes even before I  brush my teeth. Sick, I know.

F. Favorite color –Pink and then orange and then gray.

G. Gold or silver – Really depends on the situation. But if you are handing out jewelry, I'll take either.

H. Height – 5'6

I. Instruments you play – 0 and that's probably good for everyones ears.

J. Job title – Design Assistant

K. Kids – Not any time soon.  (Sorry moms). I love other peoples kids, though!

L. Live –Cincinnati, OH

M. Mother’s name – Jan...love that woman!

N. Nicknames – Swann (my maiden name), Swanny, Swanncat, Missy (what Mister calls me)

O. Overnight hospital stays – Appendix. Not fun.

P. Pet peeves – When the TV is too loud.

 

Q. Quote from a movie – Anything from Clueless...

R. Right or left handed –Right

S. Siblings – 0, I'm an only!

         T. Time it takes you to get ready –  No shower 20ish minutes. Shower 40ish  minutes

 

U. Underwear – Vickys or Target.

V. Vegetable you hate – Brussel sprouts. 

W. What makes you run late – Figuring out what to wear and having to dry my hair.

X. X-rays you’ve had – Lately? My finger when I tried to lob it off at work last year.

Y. Yummy food you make – This is hard to narrow down...I've really been into soups lately and the Mister loves my mashed potatoes.

        Z. Zoo animal – Polar bears or penguins.

2 Christmas Treats

We had a Christmas party last weekend and I knew I wanted to take a treat.

I saw these gems on Pinterest and knew they were the ticket!

peppermint bark + rice krispies= um, yes please!

(Almost as yummy as the cake batter rice krispies. Almost.)

I followed Our Best Bite's recipe to a 't' so not much to explain here

but I do have some yummy looking pictures!

 

I also whipped up some Eggnog Snickerdoodle cookies!

My mother-in-law recently gave me this book:

'Very Merry Cookie Party-How to Plan & Host a Christmas Cookie Exchange'

I am dying to try all of recipes but narrowed in on the Eggnog Snickerdoodles for my first adventure!

Eggnog Snickerdoodles (makes about 48 cookies)

1 3/4 cups sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg

2 2/3 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup shortening

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons rum extract

1. Preheat oven to 375 and lightly grease cookie sheets

2. In a small bowl, stir together 1/4 cup of the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt

4. In a large bowl, (electric mixer) beat together butter, shortening, and remaining 1 1/2 cups of sugar until light. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in the rum extract. On low speed, gradually beat in the flour mixture just until mixed.

5. Pinch of pieces of the dough and roll between your palms into 1 1/4 inch balls.  Roll balls in the cinnamon-nutmeg sugar to coat evenly.  Place on the prepared cookie sheets, spacing at least 1 1/2 inches apart.

6. Bake in the center of the oven until golden and cracked on top, 10 to 12 minutes.  Let cool on cookie sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool.

I'm sharing my Christmas recipes over at Schue Love today! 

Come join the fun and drool over all the deliciousness! 

and