Record breaking snowfall!

So before I get into the snow business, I wanted to share this. Many times I've tried to explain the difference between a cropped sensor (my old camera) and a full frame sensor (my newer camera) but always fell short. Here is a great example. The top picture was taken with my old camera with a wide angle lens. The second one with my newer camera with the same lens, standing in the same spot.


Little bit of a difference, eh?

Alright, on to the snow! AJ and Kyle made their way up for a wedding that was supposed to happen on Saturday and by some weird chance made it here in time for their rescheduled wedding on Friday evening. They just made it there in time for the vows! I guess the couple decided to bump it up a night due to the storm. Well, only about 30 people made it (so I hear) and the reception was simply canceled for Saturday. So that gave AJ, Kyle, myself and Alex all weekend to hang out. We dug out the car Saturday and went to the grocery store for the essentials


Yup, I think it's all there! And made delicious paninis


Then it was time to hunker down and watch The Dark Knight on BluRay!


By 10pm, the snow had really piled up against our sliding glass doors


This morning I made pumpkin spice pancakes with cinnamon syrup. I HIGHLY recommend this recipe and will provide it if people are interested. They were delicious!


This was taken this morning. Our street is hardly plowed and we pushed several people out



So then it was on to shoveling the sidewalks. Luckily the snow was fluffy



Then it was time for dinner at Old Ebbit Grill in DC with AJ and Kyle and my parents. The chocolate layer cake I got for dessert was killer!





And lastly, we made our way to check out the tree. Unfortunately the path around it was closed due to the snow


I hope everyone had a great weekend! I really enjoyed the snow. Unfortunately, Mason is just about the only thing that is open tomorrow so I've gotta go to work. Yuck! But, it is a short week so I guess I can't complain too much

Lovely things

So, I disappear for an hour to do a work order and come back to this; Annie, my work kitty sleeping on my office chair. Usually if I leave, she will beg to be let back outside as she doesn't like to stay in the building alone. But today, she was totally knocked out on my chair. Freakin' adorable! So now my chair is warm and I've got a lap kitty again :-) I so wish I could take this precious kitty home

And how about the forecast??? Wooohoo snow!! I have absolutely nothing important to do this weekend so let it snow! You best believe I'll be posting pics tomorrow. Enjoy!

Success!

So, this may not look like much to YOU...but this was one of Alex's and my biggest goals for winter; to get both our cars in the garage! This garage has been pretty packed with stuff...tools, table saws, miter box, air compressor, hoses, drywall, cement board, plywood, 2x4's, trim, crown molding...on and on and on. We were both tired of scraping our cars and I had always told myself I wouldn't be the homeowner who uses their garage for just stuff. So I'm proud to say, WE DID IT!

And here's a shot of our front room with our Christmas tree. It's a little small but we are going to purchase a bigger one after Christmas


And here's a cute little ornament Marie got me :-) I love cupcakes!

Cookies!

This is going to be long...first off, new haircut. It was getting a little out of control :-)


More like "Cookie Weekend"! That is pretty much what I did all weekend


But among all the craziness and baking of this weekend, Alex and I decided to replace the lights in our sunroom. They were very outdated and burned up light bulbs every couple of days...not to mention the scorch marks on them made me a tad uneasy! We hit up Home Depot and found these great track lights that were quite affordable. I think they are infinitely better than the old lights!


Our sunroom feels like an art studio!


There was also cookie baking...LOTS of it! Friday night I baked sugar cookies with Kelly. And we made a ton of them!!


I also made cupcakes on Friday! These were for a holiday party. I'd say they turned out pretty well :-) Not bad for my first time with a piping tip


Then today I baked even more cookies with Alex's mom, Veronica, and my mom. We made 4 different recipes; lace cookies, no bake chocolate peanut butter bars, cranberry and pistachio biscotti, and chocolate gingersnaps! This is an adorable ornament that Alex's mom made from a picture of Veronica and I blowing bubbles


Here are the gingersnaps...very delicious!


And the lace cookies

I've been trying to get pictures of my neighbors' Christmas light display but really video can only do it justice...check it out. I shot the first one from our yard and then I crossed the street for the second video



Anyway, I think I'm done :-)

First snow

There's nothing like a nice big mug full of chai tea latte! I have become quite the master of making lattes of all sorts but the chai is my favorite right now.


And how great is this big orange mug I got from Crate and Barrel!

Last night I made a black bean soup thatwas pretty freakin' delicious


And of course, woke up to this! There is a good bit of snow accumulating on the ground and I hope it keeps up! I have a baby shower to get to today in Pville so it'll make that a bit challenging but I'm up to it


Enjoy the snow!

Giving Thanks!

I want to introduce to you Alex's cousins' first baby, Camden! She is 8 months old and so happy! She is very curious and absolutely loved my camera. I think she was mesmerized by the red light on my flash. We met her for the first time this past week. Much of Alex's family came into town on Wednesday and we hosted several of them at our place. It was a great week full of lots of food, family, football and fun!

Here is my sweetie anxiously awaiting Thanksgiving dinner; looking snazzy too!


Marie had these really cool goblets that I believe belonged to her grandmother. Very neat!


Camden sure loves her daddy!



And here is the whole group! Other than that, not much to report about this weekend :-) Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Busy Sundays

Sundays are almost always busy for me...and rarely relaxing. It's usually another project day. Today was a project we should have done months ago but kept getting put off; but can you blame me?? Our sunroom was an add-on to the house in the 90's. When we first moved in, my dad poked his head in the crawlspace and noticed almost all the insulation had fallen. So it was up to us to fix it

Alex and I bought some new insulation as most of it was pulled down and apart by rats, squirrels, raccoons, whatever. The door to the crawlspace was never secured so it was an open invitation for critters. So today we were going to tackle it...once Alex got home from work. Well, 3:30 rolls around and still no Alex (mind you, he was only scheduled until 1:30). I decide to see if I can do some of the work myself. I get a good 4-5 bats of insulation replaced and decide that I will need help to finish the rest. No sign of Alex so I call for back-up (namely, my friend Peter). He's on his way, woohoo!

My neighbor who flips houses is outside decorating his house for Christmas. He sees me in my Michelin Man white suit and gives me the eye. "I'm fixing the insulation under our sunroom...and there's no sign that Alex will be home soon". Bless his heart, he stops his work, grabs 5 spot lights, some extension cords and sets them up throughout the crawlspace for me. He even brings over some plywood for me to work on...because let me tell you, crawling on gravel is not the best. He tells me to shout if I need anything and that I can keep the lights as long as I need. Now I was motivated and could see perfectly! Finally I'm cruising along and I see a pair of legs at the other end of the crawlspace; "PETER!" I yell. Nope, it was Alex :-) So I called Peter and let him know I was all set.


Anyway, I didn't mean to drag that story on but that's how I spent my Sunday! And for those of you who've never been under a crawlspace, I've given you pictures firsthand. Where Alex is laying is the highest clearance under there. Most of the time, we had to scoot around on our bellies or backs. There simply wasn't enough room for anything else!

It was definitely a dirty job but I'm so glad it's done! Now our sunroom won't be cold anymore

PS, the pictures are deceiving...the crawlspace is HUGE

Tile

Alex and I added the tile backsplash to the newly renovated bathroom! Here is Alex putting together our template for around the medicine cabinet


Here it is finished! What do you think?


I love the glass tiles and am really happy we did it! I think it adds a lot to this little bathroom :-)

Fun new things!

I got some new fun things today! First are my new business cards from this awesome website called moo.com. You can upload photos of your own and turn them into business cards. Check out the super cute packaging it shipped in too! Let me tell you, I was very excited to open this!


I also purchased a Moo carrying case. It's very tiny and holds about 20 business cards



Eeek! So awesome!


There are some of the images I put on them. I think I have 12 different ones. It has an image on one side and then my information on the other. What do you think???

Also, I got a new phone! WAAAAAY overdue as my old phone is the original RAZR from several years ago. I have stepped up to the flip phone with QWERTY keyboard. It seems pretty cool


Next, Alex and I got some glass colored tile for doing a backsplash. I will post pics of that when we finish