Christmas Goodies

For neighbor gifts this year I made cocoa stirring spoons.

I dipped plastic spoons in chocolate then crushed candy canes...

or put marshmallow snowmen on the chocolate...

or dipped Reeses peanut butter chips with chocolate chips

Then packaged them with some Stephen's cocoa  YUM!

I decided to try some new things for our Christmas Eve treats

Some worked out...like my peanut brittle

Some didn't...like these wreath cookies. They looked good until they came out of the oven :(

The peanut brittle was actually much easier than I imagined it would be...this may become a tradition

I also made a caramel chex mix

It makes a ton...but it tastes good!

Christmas Fun

I don't know what it is, but this Christmas I have been a little Martha Stewart making Christmas decorations and now making homemade Christmas gifts. I made this cute little hat for my niece ( I hope she likes it.)

I've never knitted anything before in my life, but this was actually very easy. I used a knitting loom, popped in a movie and a couple hours later, tada!

Next on my list is to make some homemade treats. I'm feeling adventurous so we'll see what I end up doing. Stay tuned!

Projects 1 & 2 Complete

It was so nice having a room where I could leave my crafts out while I worked on them. I'm sure there will be more to follow.

Craft Bug

The craft bug has bitten me...

Favorite Time of Year

Fall, I love you...you bring me my favorite past time. Who wouldn't want to watch a bunch of guys tackling each other? You're filled with sweet smells of pumpkin baking in my oven, the sound of leaves crunching beneath my boots, sweaters to keep me warm in the cool, crisp air and the start of the holiday season. Why oh why is it that you do not like me? Summer gives me a gift of joy and hope for the future only for you to snatch it away. I never understood the ability to love and hate something all at the same time but now I'm starting to.

Recent Projects

I've quit the blog challenge...the post questions were silly so instead I'll update you on some recent projects I've been doing in my house.

I felt the taupe paint color that is all throughout the house was a little drab, so I decided to spice things up a bit!

I'm not afraid of color...as you can see :)

I love it when people first see my living room and their instance reaction is "OH!"

I figure go bold or go home!

I painted the living room by myself which was a great idea in theory. But in reality my timing could have been better. I unfortunately was not my usual peppy self at the time and it took me several weeks to recover. But it looks great!

This is my FAVORITE! If you know me and my love for green then you know this was a no brainer ;) My parents were kind enough to help me with this room and it went like a breeze.

100% Stacey's Kitchen!

Post 3: Ideal Perfect First Date

My idea of the perfect first date would be a handsome man picking me up and taking me to a football or basketball game. Something energetic and fun where we could laugh and have a great time while still being able to talk to get to know each other better. I'm not a fan of blind dates because they are extremely awkward and it is hard for me to be comfortable with someone I just barely met. (I'm not knocking blind dates because I know they can work since that is how my parents met, it's just not the ideal date situation for me). So in this ideal situation we would already be friends or acquaintances where we both were comfortable in our own skin. Afterwards we would go get ice cream and sit in a park eating, laughing and talking. Then the night would end with a very sweet kiss and the promise of a second date.

My Favorite Movie

Post 2 - My Favorite Movie

People look at me crazy when I tell them my favorite movie...but it makes me laugh every time I see it and it is just the BEST MOVIE EVER! My favorite movie is Rat Race. There is just something about the characters and the crazy stunts they pull that have me laughing in stitches. I can be watching it completely alone and I've seen it a million times but every time I'm full on belly laughing. I'll never forget the first time I saw this movie...I was with my friend Mad and I think we almost wet our pants, we were laughing so hard. Those are the greatest times; laughing uncontrollably at something so goofy. But this is my kind of humor. A lot of people don't get it and think it is "stupid" (as my mom would say), but I love it!

Joining the Bandwagon

For the past couple of months I've seen all of these blog challenge posts everywhere and thought that would be fun to do one but A. do I really want to look like a follower and copy everyone else and B. would I actually post something everyday? Since I don't seem to do much on the week nights and I'm trying to find something constructive to do I've decided I don't care if I'm a follower...whatever. And I'm going to promise from the beginning that mine will NOT be a 30 day challenge. I'm not going to put a time limit on it. I will just call it a 30 post blog challenge. I've been thinking I should post more often and this gives me ideas on what to blog about...so here goes:

Post 1 - Your Favorite Song

I LOVE music and am addicted to iTunes. I'm pretty sure I download new music every week. So it is really hard for me to pick one favorite song. So instead I am going to pick my current favorite artist, which isn't really an artist per say, it's a compilation of several talented people...it's the cast from GLEE. I absolutely love their music and am an avid viewer of the show. My favorite night of the week is Tuesday because I can't wait to hear what songs and renditions they are going to do. They can take old and new songs, mash them up or put a modern spin on them and I love that aspect. Of course there are songs that don't suit my fancy, but 9 times out of 10 I am downloading at least 1 song from every episode. I find myself counting the weeks until Glee is back on the air; pathetic I know. But I just can't get enough of it!

Soap Box

Summer is approaching which means swimsuit season. I know that modesty is shot with society and that it is harder and harder for teen girls and women to stay fashionable and still maintain a modest style. But it really makes me sad when I see women who share my faith throw their modesty card out the window when they put on that bathing suit. Just because you have the body to wear the bikini doesn't mean you should...I'm just sayin'.

My Next 30 Years

It's the eve to my big 3 0 birthday. I'm not sad or depressed about turning 30; it feels surreal. I don't feel old enough to be 30. But I can honestly say I'm actually looking forward to it. Not the getting older part, but ever since I was little my mom would tell me how much she loved her thirties because she finally had a sense of who she was, where she was going and what she wanted to do (to some degree) with her life. She wasn't struggling financially like her twenties; she had a sense of purpose. And I agree; I feel the same.

I did a lot of things in my twenties (both good and bad); experienced things I never thought I would do (again both good and bad) and had a lot of heartache and tears along the way. Whoever said growing up was easy was definitely mistaken. I've learned a lot of life's lessons and I'm ready for my next 30 years. The biggest one has been that life definitely does not work out the way you plan; which is so difficult in the moment but when you are able to finally look back you can see that it turns out so much better. It's amazing how much I thought I knew only to realize I didn't know anything. I'm so much more appreciative of the things I have and how I've gotten here. Struggle is one of the hardest things in life but it is so needed to become the person you want to be.

I'm not a woman with many words; I'm not eloquent and have a hard time expressing my emotions through speech. I better relate to music and often express my feelings through talented artists who are able to write down similar emotions through song. I can't get Tim McGraw's 'My Next 30 Years' out of my head. I'm not one for new years resolutions. I think you're just putting yourself up for failure telling yourself you're going to break bad habits because a new year has rolled around. Come on, how many times do you tell yourself you're going to do the same thing each year and for about a month you work on it and then nothing. I'd rather work on life resolutions. There are a few lines in Tim's song that have really hit a special note with me:

"Maybe now I’ve conquered all my adolescent fears
And I’ll do it better in my next thirty years"

"My next thirty years I’m gonna settle all the scores
Cry a little less, laugh a little more"

I've let fear lead my life way too much these past 30 years. The fear of disappointment, rejection, failure. Why do I do this? Well, no more! I've learned that the best things in life are worth the risk and I need kick fear to the curb. For so many years I was scared to go upside down on a roller coaster. Making up excuses because of a scarring car accident. Truth is I was just chicken and thought I would be better off sitting on the sidelines while everyone else enjoyed the ride than actually face my fear. Finally one day I let someone talk me into going and it was the greatest feeling ever. I couldn't believe I had wasted so much time being scared. Now I'm a coaster junkie. This will be my next 30 years. No more sidelines for me. I know what I want and I'm not going to let fear stop me from getting there.

So goodbye twenties; you were good to me some of the time but I'm ready to move on. Hello thirties...LET'S DO THIS!