Work Smart - Not Hard

We eat a lot of cheese. In fact, Brant once dared to ask me if I wouldn't mind trying some new recipies that weren't so "heavy" (apparently the cheese was slowing him down). Or maybe it was the fact that it was such a hassle for him to grate all that cheese by hand (that was usually his job - along with any onion chopping).
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But now, with the thanks to a 20% off coupon to Bed Bath & Beyond, another 20% Kitchen Aid manufacturer rebate on attachments, and the the remaining balance of a gift card - I've invested in this sweet attachment to our Kitchen Aid mixer.




















We tried it out this afternoon and it took about 15 seconds to shred half a pound of cheese! It will be even harder to cut back on cheese recipies now! (Sorry Brant...)

I love Kitchen Aid.

By the way, have a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

(click the pics for the full effect of the text :)

Can you...

eat an entire box of Cuties in a 24 hour time period?

I can.

It's what happens when your husband is on a trip and your alone wth a box of them in your kitchen.

a babymoon!

We've been wanting to take one last small trip before our baby makes her arrival next month. And since we're in Georgia now, we're got a plethora of new places around to visit aren't too close, but not too far away to travel to. Brant took it upon himself to plan everything and (at least tried) to keep it a secret until one night the other week as we were drifting off to sleep when he casually mentioned "Oh, and we're going to Callaway Gardens (a "13,000 acre Pine Mountain Resort and center of enrichment that offers endless opprtunities for adventure, discovery, and recreation") for our babymoon."

Well, there went that suprise ;)

Last week he had Tuesday and Wednesday off so we made the hour drive down to Callaway Gardens and enjoyed a low key day of:

(1) Visiting The Butterfly Garden

You wouldn't know from looking at this picture, but when this little guy opens his wings, he's got a beautiful blue color inside. Too bad he was more interested in eating the orange than in showing off for the camera.

(2) Strolling through the Virginia Callaway Discovery Center

(3) Watching the outdoor show Birds of Prey

Did you know that owls can't move their eyeballs - hence the reason they can turn their necks at such degrees?

(4) Walking through the Sibley Horticulture Center (Brant was pretty excited here since he recognized a lot of plants that he's been learning about lately with his landscaping research)

(5) And taking a short drive through some of the nature trails (the bikes would have been fun to rent to ride through the trails, but will have to wait until we can latch a baby trailer to back of one)

(6) After checking into the Mountain Creek Inn and enjoying a pizza dinner as the only customers in their lounge, we headed back for the best part - Fantasy in Lights -meaning a sweet hour ride in the Jolly Trolley enjoying all the Christmas lights throughout Callaway Gardens.

A short little outing, and since we went in the middle of the week, everything was super low key and we were happy to avoid the weekend crowds and busier days that are here now with Christmas just around the corner.

If your in the business

of selecting a baby name (now or in the near future) you may find this article interesting: predictions of the top ten baby names for both boys and girls for 2019 (since many parents want to know which names that sound fresh and stylish today might be headed for overexposure tomorrow).

Note of interest: We may or may not have had a name listed in the article that we have now crossed off our list of baby names.

It's the simple things in life

That humor me most.

Like this afternoon when I glanced down and realized my car had reached 123,456 miles on the odometer.













(Let's pretend that the last number on the odometer is a 6 and not an 8. Or that I really missed the 123,456 by two miles - because I may or may not have been waiting for the past 200 miles to reach this milestone.)

Ta Da!!

So remember the other week when I said we had a Ta Da post comming up soon?

Let's just say the word "soon" is a subjective word :)

Anyways, back at the beginning of this year, I had a goal to learn how to play the church hymns by the end of the year. And since I had gotten a Best Buy gift card from KLAS back when I still worked with them, I took it and invested in a sweet Yamaha key board. Except when we were living in an apartment in Utah, we had no where to set it up except on the kitchen table and then box it up and put it up in the closet when I was done.

Now that we live in a house and have room to spread our wings (and our stuff), I've been looking for ways to fill our space. And this sweet idea was perfect for setting up a keyboard.

So, I enlisted Brant's help...

He researched and researched and figured out how to go about it. He bought some wood from Lowe's, took some sandpaper, and got to work.














Brant LOVES his power tool!














After lots of measuring, sanding, drilling, and spraypainting, he had a finished product! So then we went to Craigslist and found exactly what we were looking for - a beat up plain wood piano bench that was up for grabs.

After picking up the bench, more sanding, and more spraypainting....

Ta Da!!

Thanks for the sweet idea, Crafty Nest! For all the wood, materials, and piano bench, this project cost about $65. (You can't even buy just an unfinished sofa table for that price!)

And now, reason number 16 we love being homeowners-

We can take a spare white room in our home like this one:














And again, enlist the help of a handsome husband- this time with painting the wall:














And then enlist the help of our new, very talented friend Christine:

Add a crib, and... Ta Da!

A room for our baby! (none of these photos have been resized - click the photo for details on the mural.)

We still have work left to do on this baby's room (bedding, curtains, and more furniture are still in the works, but some people were getting a little anxious about seeing this post before I got to those parts ;)

By the way, if you live in the Atlanta area and are looking for a mural painter, Christine is terrific and very reasonably priced. I can send her contact info for anyone looking.

Lastly, I found this tree blossom design online, but don't know who it belongs to - if its yours, let me know so I can give you credit and major props on a pretty design!

Tired of seeing

the Woot! post below from the other week yet? The Ta-da! post is comming soon- I promise :)