Hottie Holidays

Last nights hottie holidays was one of the best yet. 6 close friends enjoying jokes, fine wine, homemade lasagna, a hottie holiday cake, champage cocktails, tablescapes, and more wine..... Here are some pics of the night....

My other other half.....

....has returned..... I can feel complete again!! ....at least until January 20th.....

December to remember

Tonight is the 5th annual Hottie Holidays event! It is actually marking 6 years of hottie events. The first event was Hottie Extravaganza in December. The next year and every year since I have hosted hottie holidays for my very closest friends. Here are a few pictures of the past.... Enjoy

Hottie Holidays 2006

Hottie Holidays 2007

Hottie Holidays 2008

Hottie Holidays 2009 (we forgot the group shot!!)

Loving....

LOVING this song lately. She is such a beautiful singer. Its refreshing to see people who can sing actually singing. So many people sing over a track or just dance a lot.....

Cookies!

So yesterday I spent the day with my mom and grandma in my moms kitchen making Christmas cookies. We do this every Christmas. Having three generations baking in one kitchen tends to result in a few tense moments, lots of laughs, debates about who is singing the Christmas song playing (Bing Crosby? Dean Martin?) and the frosting of almost 200 cookies.... We had fun though. The only casualty was batch 1 of fudge but hey maybe we discovered a new recipe? um probably not. Gma at 89 still has me dying laughing the entire time and even though we had to frost what seemed like 2000 cutouts we made it through it.

Here are a few pics of our afternoon...

Making fudge

It takes three people to make fudge, oh and three people to mess up making the fudge

Cut outs

Busy frosting away

Our set up.... red= pink , green = mint

My favorite cookie of all time.... could eat millions of these

I shoot people

Found this necklace on Etsy.com .... I love it!

You can check it out and the other items she makes...
here

You think youve had a rough day?

Once you go black you never go back....

So while I'm still working on our office makeover... (while doing about 2034983204983 other things lol) I wanted to give you all a hint of the fabulousness.... Did you know Black has become one of the hottest colors/trends for interior design. You must be very brave but it will pay off.... We painted our base cabinets in our kitchen black (the uppers are white, walls are light blue, and floor is black/white check) and it was beautiful! Next came the door in the kitchen to the garage... fabulous. Add in some contemporary black accessories and bam. So now a black accent wall has come into our lives..... photos to come soon. For now , just enjoy some nice black eye candy....

11th day of Christmas

Day 11: New Year Resolutions Well this upcoming year I really want to focus 100% of my "extra" time on my business. Upgrading my camera, advertising, doing lots of photo shoots and becoming a better photographer. I love what I create with graphics but I believe to really build my business I need to marry graphics with portrait photography. This will hopefully produce more frequent work (for both portraits and graphics) and bring a higher level of income. As some of you know, I will be a full time nanny until mid August next year. By that point I will either have to take on something new or be to a point with Fresh that can support me financially.  I also want to become better at handling our married financial dealings. Hopefully both Dutch's and my careers will continue to grow and we can become serious about saving, working towards certain goals, and managing ourselves organized. We manage ourselves pretty well right now but as with this economy there really isn't a budget, you end up being focused on paying the bills and trying to prevent being in the red. Any suggestions on how you and your spouse have handled money? We all know money is the #1 marriage stresser for most couples and I want to really avoid that. Is there a computer program you use to manage everything? Quickin? Mircrosoft Money?

10th day of Christmas

Day 10: Favorite Christmas Songs/Carols I love almost all Christmas music. I love when it FINALLY comes on the radio but hate that it is abruptly stopped by Christmas evening.....boo One of my favorites is Christmas in Dixie as I always remember listening to this with my mom growing up. They hardly ever play it on the radio (even here in the south) so that maybe makes it more special. Also love holy night , O come O come Emanuel, and Angles we have heard on high. I am creeped out by the Christmas shoes song just as much as my SIL Kathryn

9th day of Christmas

Day 9: Favorite Holiday recipe

Since apparently Dutch thinks this is my "go to recipe" (in full disclosure Ive only made it twice) Ill share it will all of you. My friend Sarah actually made this for a last hurrah girls get together before her precious baby Anna was born. So she gets all the credit : )

Pumpkin Fluff

1 (16 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

1 (5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix

1 (15 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix together instant vanilla pudding mix, pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice. Fold in the thawed frozen whipped topping. Chill in the refrigerator until serving.

This makes 32 servings so its great for a party. I suggest halving the recipe for a more manageable portion. Serve with apple wedges and graham cracker sticks..... YUMMO

8th day of Christmas

Day 8: Least favorite thing about the Holidays
- That it goes by so fast

- The mall/roads/walmart/grocery store/etc are PACKED with crazies

- Its cold

- Dutch or I having to work and not being able to spend some of our holidays with his part of our family.

BUT luckily I have so many favorite things about the holidays to make up for it. : )