Easter

I did not post much about my Lent journey because it just did not feel right to document the entire process. It was between God and me. I made it through and I feel so close to God right now. I enjoyed the vegan diet so much that I am doing a 30 Day Vegan Online Workshop in May.

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I made a low-key Easter lunch.

Ham
Fresh green beans
Roasted Brussels sprouts
Crash potatoes from the Pioneer Woman's recipe
Potato rolls (store bought)
Buttermilk pie for dessert. (I bought the pie from the grocery store but it was tasty)

The potatoes turned out amazing and yes they have bacon!! I missed bacon so much.

I Am Missing It

I am missing the Autumn season fun and I am really sad. Between work, working on the new house, and moving into the new house I am missing everything fun. I missed the county fair, the state fair, I have not made caramel apples or turkey chili. I have no fall decorations except at the shop and we are all "Falled up" here. Usually by now I have already made pumpkin pancakes and a few mini loaves of pumpkin bread. I cannot find any Oktoberfests around here. I am whining, I know but gosh darn this is my favorite time of the year. I will let it go. It is not like this is the last fall ever.

I will just have to make up for the loss at Christmas. I am pretty excited about the holidays this year. I will not have to travel 1800 miles to spend time with my family. I will not have three weeks off in the month of December either but work is different here and I am not nearly as stressed out. I know they are coming up to my house for Thanksgiving and maybe I can convince them to come up for Christmas too. It will be my first year home in a very long time so maybe my sister will let Santa come to my house. We shall see.

Fawn Lake

My good friend MB invited me to her sister's lake house to celebrate Easter this Sunday. The house is on Fawn Lake in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. I had such a lovely time! We relaxed, talked, and then relaxed some more. We had a fantastic dinner of salad, steak, roasted potatoes, asparagus and dessert.

The view from the Living Room Window

Look at that blooming tree against the blue blue sky!




We took a boat ride around the lake and got to see more pretty views

The kids fished off the dock. They caught quite a few fish! All the fish were small so they went back into the lake to be caught another day.

I want to thank MB and the H family very much for having me over for the holiday!!

Happy Easter to You.

There is not room for Death,

Nor atom that his might could render void:

Thou - Thou art Being and Breath,

And what Thou art may never be destroyed.
~Emily Bronte

Dear Friends,
I hope this holiday finds you full of love and joy as we celebrate this Easter.
Ali

The Nemo Tree

A friend Nemo painted these little paintings. I bought them over the summer and decided to use them for the office Christmas tree. I think it is so fun. Go over and say hi to Nemo at The Soon-To-Be-More-Famous Artist Named Nemo. I really love the idea of taking non holiday items and making them festive.

Whew! I Am Busy This Week

My holiday time in Virginia is winding down and I will be spending the remaining season in Texas with my family! I am so excited and will be posting from the road.

Today and Wed will be so crazy with a huge project at the office and the fact that I still have not packed (or washed) a thing. I am finding myself in a semi self induced panic state.

So... even with all the craziness I will take a few minutes tonight and sit in the dark watching the Christmas lights. I will take a chance to remember that the Holiday Season is meant to be about peace and joy and the hustle and bustle is a huge contradiction to the whole thing. I hope that you are taking the time to do the same for not only yourself but for all the ones that you love.

Cupcake Bar

We had our company Christmas party on Saturday and I planned to make cupcakes. After reading the latest issue of Southern Living I stole the idea for a design your own cupcake bar. I made four types of cupcakes, vanilla, spice, dark chocolate and milk chocolate. Three types of frosting, vanilla, chocolate and peanut butter. I put sprinkles in small mason jars and decorated them with ribbon. It was a fun activity and I did not have to frost 70 cupcakes!

2008 Holiday Home Tour

I reused all of the decorations from 2007 but changed them up just a bit. I spent $6 for new lights for the trees , $12 for fresh greenery and $12 for 6 new mercury glass ornaments.

I bought these birdies last year but they all had red eyes and beaks. They looked like Satan's little evil pets. I thought about buying a few more for Halloween, they were really scary looking. I replaced the eyes with black beads from an old necklace and painted the beaks black, all better.

I had a bunch of fringe left over from a project a few years ago so I decided to hang it up around the house, not traditional but if you know me at all it is not surprising

I took wire baskets and piled a ton of lights in them, It is the lazy girl's way to decorate with lights. You never need to untangle them and they give an artsy look to any surface.

I took LED lights and put them in this container.. make sure you do not use lights that put off heat in a enclosed container, can you say fire?

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

More Halloween! More More More

White chocolate pretzel fingersI cut the sleeve off an old shirt and then hot glued it around an old glass

A Witches BirdcageThe before picture of the cage.