A little Monday afternoon humor.. :)

If you're like me... it's hard getting in the groove on Mondays.  Sometimes you just need to take a moment, step back, and browse Pinterest for a some laughs. It's like my weekly time with the "shrink," only the shrink is free and comes in the form of an extremely addicting wonderful website.  I may actually need a shrink to deal with the fact that i'm so addicted to Pinterest, but we'll save that for Tuesday.

Anyway, here are few of my favs that will hopefully make you giggle just as much as they did me! Enjoy!

Happy Monday!

Breaking the Blogging Block...

Whoa... I fail.  It's been nearly a month since I posted, and with each day that goes by it seems harder and harder to figure out what to post about! So i'm just going to dive back in!!

Now, let's see... what have I been up to? I feel like it's got to be something super exciting to explain my lack in posts, however I fear it's the complete opposite.

In January I....

... Spent a few days in Boston for work.
... Made the best ribs I've made to date and ate them with some of my very best friends.
... Had lunch with my family for my Grandmother's 85th Birthday!
... Re-watched almost the entire series of Greek (because once just wasn't enough).
... Bought a new TV because Nathan zapped our old one. Score!
... Found a super awesome Garden Planner and starting planning our veggie garden.
... Took care of Nathan while he had the flu.
... Let Nathan take care of me when I got the flu.

So, needless to say, it hasn't been the most exciting month.  I'm ready to get back in the game and back into blogging. Promise!!

A little planning goes a long way!

Whoa.... it's been far too long since my last post and I apologize!  I actually wrote this post on Christmas Eve but never got around to publishing it. Woopsie!

Close your eyes... imagine it's Christmas Eve. OK? Now you may read:

This year will be the very first time I've ever spent Christmas anywhere but my parents house, and that is because for the very first time I will be hosting it at my house! Exciting? Yes! Scary? Yes!

Both my parents and their spouses, Nathan's parents, and two of his three sisters (and possibly their boyfriends) will be joining!  So instead of driving to three different places on Christmas day, we get to enjoy it in our own home with the company of our wonderful families.  This will be my first attempt at a large holiday meal, and as though that wasn't enough to make me a bit nervous, we're also having 10-15 friends over that night for a party.  Me=nervous, but excited! Having trouble picturing this? This may help:

When it comes to this sort of thing I'm very very anal.  I'm not a "fly by the seat of my pants" kinda girl.  For the last few weeks I've been thinking and brainstorming ideas for the day.  I've got an entire board dedicated to the "Christmas Party" on Pinterest. I've done my homework.  This week I decided it was time to really start focusing.  I went online and found some AWESOME tools to help me:

I found a free printable Holiday Menu Planner here.  It gives a column for each part of the meal, where you found the recipe and who you have delegated this too.  I've been told in many different situations that I am not great at delegating, so most of these things say: Delegated to Me :).  Then I found a super awesome Christmas Dinner Checklist from Target.  THEN... (yes i'm seriously still going with this) I typed up a quick excel spreadsheet check off list specific to the foods I'm making and what I still have to do.  Here it is:

Remember when I said I'm anal? You believe me now, don't you?  Just to add a cheery on top of the obsessive compulsiveness that is my Christmas Dinner planning, I spent about 2 hours making my shopping list Friday morning.  I made sure I had all the recipes I was using (either on hand or found them from my Christmas Party Pinterest board), sat on the couch with my freshly brewed Green Mountain Coffee and got started.  First, I made a rough list of what I needed for each recipe.  This, as you could imagine, was seriously unorganized and if I would have taken that first list to the store I would have probably done about 300 laps before I was finished.  Instead, I separated my list into each section of the store moving from left to right: produce, meat, "middle," frozen, baking, dairy, Wine and lastly the Liquor outlet in the grocery store.  I only backtracked in the store once or twice and felt like a pro!  **I also actually remembered my reusable bags this time.  I felt seriously accomplished, but seriously exhausted.

Yay Groceries!

This post has seemed to go on forever, so I'll cut to the chase and "share" the menu with you now.  I'll post details and pictures after Christmas on everything I made!!

Apps: Cocktail hot dogs(Mom), celery with cream cheese and olive spread, caramel nut Brie, goat cheese/sun-dried tomato/pesto Torta (still not quite sure what Torta is, but it's basically a dip or spread for bread or crackers) and other various cheese and crackers.
Soup: Butternut and Apple Bisque
Salad: Tossed
Entree: Traditional Glazed Ham
Side: Garlic Mashed Potatos
Side: Coleslaw (Nathan's Mom)
Veggies: Corn, and roasted broccoli and Brussels sprouts
Bread: Rolls (Pauline)
Dessert: Sugar Cookies, Lemon Squares, something delicious from Pauline and Peanut Butter filled Chocolate Cake from Nathan's Mom.

OK! Open your eyes! We are back in the future!  Here are some photos of how the day turned out!! It went as close to perfect as it possibly could have.  

Cookies & Lemon Squares

Table... obviously. :)

Torta

Caramel Nut Brie

The friends :) And Nathan's new jammies!

The cat's new "Kitten Condo" from Uncle Joel and Aunt Lynsey :)

Ohh.... and while we are re-capping the holidays: this is the only photo I have of New Years Eve.  A picture's worth a thousand words.

:)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and I wish everyone a sincere Happy New Year! 

Christmas decorations are NOT practical with 3 cats in the house....

The bad news: The cats destroyed the Christmas Tree

The good news: I got some great photos of the tree before the cats destroyed it (see last post).

I don't know what they do while we aren't here, but branches are definitely going in directions that they were not originally.  The evidence:

Full shot of the "hot mess" 

Close up of the damage... notice Meredith lying all innocently in the background.

Yup... no more bow on that gift.  Apparently the cats cannot read because it says "DO NOT TOUCH."

I suppose it could be worse.  It sort of adds character right?  No? OK. Well we do plan to trim the branches on the bottom that are sticking straight down before the whole family arrives on Christmas day! While we're on the subject of the cats, here are a few shots of them recently:

Meredith lounging on the couch.

Sam looking super unimpressed with Nathan.

Meredith "helping" me plan Christmas dinner (more on this later)!

I know what you're thinking... "where the heck is Bubba?"  Recently Bubba has been a wee bit camera shy.  We (and by we I mean I) think he may be having an identity crisis, but he refuses to talk to us (and by us I mean me) about it. We I will keep you updated. 

I know I've completely lost it, but if you had the day I had you'd understand my madness! 

Love Always,

The 24 Year Old Crazy Cat Lady

If you really love Christmas...

If you have never seen the movie Love Actually you are seriously missing out and should stop reading now and go rent it.  It is technically a movie about Christmas, but it's so much more than that. It seemed fitting that I shared a song from the movie to start a blog about Christmas. Notice I said Christmas and not the holidays. I will not go on a rant about this, but just take note. Enjoy the tunes:

The scene: Brandi at the bank looking at the Christmas decorations thinking "holy crap, Christmas is in 20 days."  I literally did not think about the fact that it's almost Christmas until this moment. Living in Northern Vermont the Christmas season usually punches you in the face in the form of lots and lots of snow.  Until today there has been no snow (except for a couple of days in November), which has thrown me way off! The only "Christmas" decor in my house right now are snowman coasters.  I'm pretty sure Nathan and I own more coasters than any other mid-twenties couple in the world, but this is a subject for another post all together. 

Add all this to the fact that I'm hosting Christmas dinner for our families this year and having a Christmas party for our friends and I am spiraling into a slight state of panic.  The logical thing would be to actually start decorating.  Instead I have been pinning "ideas." Go me!  We do have plans to get a tree and decorate this weekend, but in the mean time the following are some fun ideas I have for the party and to make the house look "a lot like Christmas."  

I could very easily do this with a piece of wood and leftover chalkboard paint!

Love these burlap stockings!

We will be hanging our stockings on the staircase this year since we don't have a mantle!

Cute and easy to decorate like this.

Might try to make this for a centerpiece for the table.

Definitely doable... but a G of course!

Martha's Cheese Ball!

Caramel Coated Brie

Made these cookies already for Halloween! It will be much easier with my new mixer!

Hot Chocolate Bar

These are the plans so far... hopefully I'll actually get my act together this weekend and get some of this stuff done! I'll be sure and post some photos when I do! Merry Christmas!

It's a Leap of Faith

I'm posting today to honor someone I love and miss very much.  I'd like to start by saying that I started writing this post on October 13, as I knew it would be an extremely difficult thing to put into words.  In my adult life, I have never attempted to write about her.  So that's my story.... and this is hers:

Renee was my best friend.  Slightly older, much more mature than I... she was my world.  The two of us would spend hours upon hours driving around in her red Cavalier pondering the meaning of life (or at least the meaning of life according to two teenage girls.)  Talking about friends, parties, boys, parents, and on the rare occasion, death.  Neither having guessed that it would be in that very car that my best friend would lose her life.

I cannot count the number of times I've pictured what life would be like for her now.  Would she be married? Would she have kids? Would we still drive around and ponder the meaning of life, only now according to two young woman.  Would we be talking about our husbands, or whether or not we were ready to have babies?  To lose a friend, a best friend, at any age is an unimaginable nightmare.  It still sometimes feels like a dream.  Did this really happen to me?  Did this really happen to her?

As goes with all unexpected "accidents," I never saw it coming.  However, I often find myself wondering: did she?  Did she have this feeling deep in her gut that things just weren't right?  I tend to lean towards yes.  On the night my best friend lost her life, she saved mine. I was angry because she wouldn't let me ride with her.  She wanted to get home and to bed, and I was upset because she wouldn't allow me to go along. Here's a few things I've always wanted to say, but never had the chance:

Renee,
One thing I never got to say: Thank you.  Thank you for telling me that I couldn't ride along.  Thank you for saving my life.  Thank you for bringing me a group of amazing people that have helped me cope with losing you.  Thank you for giving me Kaylan, and thank you for giving me my first "Big Love."  Thank you for being such an amazing person and friend.  For always telling me the way it is and for never being afraid of making me mad or hurting my feelings.  Thank you for being real.  Most of all, thank you for being you. I will never, ever stop thinking of you or stop thanking you.  I will always miss you.  It's been almost 9 years, and sometimes I still have to stop and catch my breath.  You will live on.... Through your parents. Through your brothers.  Through your niece.  Through your friends. Through me.

I will forever be grateful to have been a piece of your life.  I will forever be grateful for you. Happy Birthday Renee...

I love you,
Brandi

Well isn't that Pinteresting!

For those of you still in the dark: Pinterest is the coolest thing since sliced bread.  If you have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about go here or here and join.  It can sometimes take forever and a day to get your invite once you request it... so if you need me to email you one just comment on here or send me a message on facebook with your email.

That being said.... i'm going to share some gloriously inspiring photos I've found on Pinterest to date:

I want a pew like this one for my mud room so much!  Maybe a cute little child as well?

I'm obsessed with these old farm sinks... it is a must when we renovate our kitchen!

For those who have been to my house.... you know I've got a chalkboard wall similar to this one. 

If you can't tell by now... I'm obsessed with anything chalkboard!

Only in my sweetest of dreams.... but oh la la, I love this Wine Cellar idea!

Sorry... I couldn't resist a little Mcsteamy action! Who am I kidding, I'm not sorry.

Zakynthos Shipwreck Bay, Greece.  This is my Happy Place.

Soooo buying this for Nathan and our first child! :)

Such a fun and brilliant way to serve veggies instead of on a boring platter!

Ahhh... that Winnie The Pooh.... so wise. :)

So that is it for now! Please take my word that Pinterest is probably my favorite website.  

It's so amazing to store inspiration. 

But why male models?

A couple weekends ago Nathan and I went up to Josh and Rose's house for the night.  During this wonderful trip we decided we would go outside to "play" in the leaves and have a little impromptu photo shoot.  :)

The next day we woke up to this....