Wrapping Up 2012

Hi Bloggers!

I am so sorry it has been so long since my last update.  Lots has been going on since we last left you.

My house is nearly fully moved into, and our new floors are FINALLY in!!  They are beautiful, and I could not be happier.  My Craft Room is finally unpacked and nearly completely organized - perhaps a video tour should be done?  And we've had our first house guests!  The house still needs lots of work, but we will be here a while so I'm not too worried about trying to get it all done right now.

So lets get into the really meat and potatoes of what's been happening at Casa De Myers!
August, as you can imagine was lots of trips to Lowes to pick out floors and picking up tools/home repair/general home need items.  We learned alot about the area around us and found some great shopping.  :)  We spent a little bit of time meeting the neighbors - all very nice - and lots of time unpacking.  can you believe we nearly filled up our 5 bedroom house with all the stuff form our 2 bedroom apartment?  (And we haven't even been to Storage yet!) 

September - by September we finally had our floors down in the kitchen and enough of the work was done that we could actually spend sometime in the kitchen.  I've learned how to cook all sorts of stuff - pasta with a marinara cream sauce, corn dog muffins, taco cups, oven baked fried cheese, Crescent Chicken Casserole, Marinara sauce, loaded baked potato dip, etc.  I think Dave and I have converted from eating out every night to eating at home every night!  I love it.  :)  I've also offered to help teach my sister-in-law how to cook.  We've had a really good time, and it has been fun getting to know my new sister. <3>I also got all the floors/paint and work done in my room and started moving furniture in.  The unpacking took FOREVER!  But its all done now.  I learned how to use power tools and installed all the wall fixtures myself. Dave learned how to change outlets, and finished up swapping out all the plugs just in time for Christmas.  I also spent a weekend in Austin with mom at Quick Quotes Private reserve. Made some really fun projects, bought some really lovely stuff at Archivers...it was a nice trip, but it made me appreciate my studio so much more!

October was pretty busy for both of us.  My job basically has their busiest time during Q4 so I was working long days, weekends...it's lucky I can log in from home, otherwise I might not have seen Dave at all for the month of October.  I also spent the month of October planning Thanksgiving...my whole family (in-laws and actual family) was invited to my house...I had my work cut out for me.

November - November was primarily taken up with researching recipes, planning shopping trips, planning furniture placement to seat all 17 of us....it was very busy.  I learned to embrace Pinterest and found some really great recipes because of it. 

• California Pizza kitchen's Mac and Cheese
• Paula Dean's Green Bean Casserole
• Super easy yeast rolls

Mom and Dad also came over and helped.  Dave bought a smoker so he and Daddy smoked a turkey while Mom and I worked in the kitchen on a roasted turkey and 7 different side dishes.  (Needless to say we ate Thanksgiving dinner every day for the next 4 nights with all the left overs).  We spent the last week of November decorating for Christmas.  It was so much fun, but with that much house it was also a lot of work.  My sweet mother in law came over the day after Christmas and helped me put up the tree.  Dave and I had not found our new "big" tree so I figured we would put up our 7.5' tree and shop for our big tree next year....instead we found it that night at Garden Ridge and decided to move the already decorated tree into the kitchen....not a good idea.  Luckily it made it, and no ornaments were lost. 

December brought a whole month of crafting...really...honest! 
I made two beautiful trees out of Styrofoam cones and glass ornaments and trims.  Will be making some for my sister in law later this year and hope to have a Tutorial up on Create With Jessi.

I also made 2 beautiful Christmas wreathes - one for my front door, and one for my sister Jennifer.  I also learned that my mother in law has a quite a talent for wreath decorating.  I wish I had taken a picture of her grapevine wreath...I'll have to remember for next year - it was absolutely stunning!  Be on the look out for tutorials later this year as well.

My cousin Brooke also came over and brought her scrappy mojo with her.  She made a really great scrapbook for her BF for Christmas...and gave my sister Jennifer the scrappy bug in the process.  The Saturday before Christmas the 3 of us were crafting away in my studio..that is until my mother in law got there..then it was the 4 of us.  Brooke and Jenn on their albums, Edith on her wreath, and me, sewing felt ornaments in between cricut cuts for the scrappers.  It really was quite lovely to have all that crafting going on in my studio.

Christmas was quiet - it snowed so it ended up just being Dave, me, and our Christmas lasagna.  It was a nice way to spend our first Christmas in our new home.  I was quite happy.

Well, I think that is about all for now.  I'm really hoping to get back on a more regular blogging schedule, so look forward to my official  2013 post over the weekend. 

Happy Crafting!