Fa-La-La!

Finals are over and Christmas break is FINALLY here! To kick things off I've got a free printable Christmas gnome for you to enjoy.. You can use it for a fun print to frame, gift tags, or a simple little card with a personal message written on the back.

If you would like to download the file click here.
It will take you to a new window, click the download button at the bottom and it will download a PDF of the correct size! 

It's Thanksgiving!

And I have MUCH to be thankful for!
I'm thankful for my family, both mine and my new(ish) Davis fam, and thankful for the time that we've spent with each other.. Thankful for good food, the holiday spirit, and for God taking care of my beautiful Momma! It was about this time last year that she was just starting to come to grips with fact that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and she has come SO far. I'm so unbelievably proud of her. Plus her hair is growing back CURLY and is just way too cute!

Danny and I started decorating for Christmas today! I LOVE our apt during the holidays, so cozy and warm.. I realized that I've never had a tree topper, so I made one for us tonight. A Mario Starman, what else? :)

This is for you, Mom.

Anytime I start blogging again after a long period of time, it's probably because my mom has said, "Well I'm just going to quit checking your blog. I have it bookmarked but every time I check it you haven't updated." So, this is for you, don't unbookmark me!

Halloween just came and went, and it was fun getting into the spooky spirit of it all and creeping ourselves out.

We visited some abandoned houses.. (This one in particular had blood on the wall. I'll leave it up to you to decide if it's real or not...)

Danny and I found some fun masks at Goodwill. For $1.50!

I painted some ghost pals on my nails. (I loved them, too bad it's kind of weird if I leave them on year round)

And I spray painted a hot pink skeleton and made a bright wreath for our front door.

Then once November 1st hit, I switched modes and fell in love with fall. I called my grandma and got her amazing Cream Cheese Pumpkin Pie recipe (maybe I'll share it sometime, I'll have to check if its a secret first) and made my first pie EVER! Not to mention homemade crust ;)

My friends and I threw our 2nd annual Friend Thanksgiving dinner party a few nights ago, and it was a total success. I'm honestly surprised that we do such a good job.. makes me feel more like an adult than I ever have, possibly. The menu rundown was:

Mashed potatoes

Homemade gravy

Corn

Cranberry sauce

Stuffing

Rolls with cinnamon butter

Turkey

Green beans and salami (so good, promise)

Sweet potatoes

Pecan pie

..needless to say, our boys were in Thanksgiving Heaven, 2 weeks early

Sidenote, I've finally.. FINALLY.. finished my pixelated portrait of Kevin Durant! I started it in April and got inspired to finish it after going to his charity game a few weeks ago.

And last but not least, here's our window you've been wanting to see! (First place window, I might add :) Also, do the ghosts look familiar? 

 

So here's to skeletons, turkey, and hoping the NBA can get it together so I can watch my boys play again.

Me, blogging a recipe.. What?

I've recently discovered and fallen in love with pinterest (though I should warn you, it's inspiring and time consuming). I found several new recipes through it and they've been so good! So I thought I'd share.. (because if I can do it, anyone can do it..seriously :)

Pizza Bites

Pizza crust dough

mozzarella cheese, about 20 cubed pieces
sliced pepperoni

For topping:
olive oil
Italian seasoninggrated Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Lightly grease a 9-inch pie plate or cake pan. Divide the pizza dough into roughly 20 equal sized pieces. Take one of the dough pieces and press in a cube of cheese and two slices of pepperoni. Pull the edges of the dough down around the filling and seal. Place in the pan, seam side down. Repeat with remaining dough. Each piece of dough should be touching each other in the pan. (It may seem crowded, but will be fine.)

Lightly brush the tops of the dough with olive oil. Sprinkle on Italian seasoning and Parmesan cheese. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm or at room temp

erature, with dipping sauce if desired.

(**note** instead of making my own pizza crust, I used a can of flaky biscuits. Each can has 8 biscuits, so I split them in half and made 16 pizza bites. PLENTY for two people, probably enough for 4 though. Also, I cooked them according to the biscuit's directions, spread out on a cookie sheet instead of close together in a pan. Easiest thing you'll ever make.)

Baked Potato Soup

Serves: 6-8 bowls

2/3 cup butter
2/3 cup flour
7 cups milk
4 large baking potatoes, baked, peeled and cubed (about 4 cups)
4 green onions, sliced (and then more for garnish)
12 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
1 1/4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
3/4 teaspoon salt, plus more for seasoning
1/2 teaspoon pepper, plus more for seasoning
garlic salt, to taste

In a large soup kettle or Dutch oven, melt the butter. Stir in flour; heat and stir until smooth. Gradually add milk, stirring until thickened (about 10 minutes). Add potatoes and onions. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and stir until cheese is melted.

Season to taste with salt, pepper and garlic salt. Serve immediately.

(**note** This obviously isn't the healthiest recipe in the world, but it's worth it. I ended up using 2 cups heavy cream (I needed to get rid of it, okay?) 3 cups milk, and 1 cup water. I also didn't cube my potatoes, I wanted it extra thick so I cooked them long enough to be able to cut them in half, scoop out, and mash them a little before adding them to the soup. Pretty easy, super delicious.)

Projects galore.

Even though I'm SWAMPED with school I've managed to squeeze in a few projects on the side.. owls here and there, a painting every now and then, and some invitation orders. I made my future sister in law, Taylor's wedding invitations.. I think they turned out pretty cute, but I don't want to post them until she's had a chance to reveal them :)

I designed baby shower invites for another friend, and it was super fun!.. Now I'm itching to make more :)

Designed some buttons for my shop..

Started learning how to "paint" with my tablet..

(which can also be found in my shop)

Not to mention I even had time to whip up the most successful meal I've ever made! (don't be fooled by the word "successful". It doesn't mean hard or innovative or anything like that. It means cheap, delicious, fed 5 people, and was approved by Danny's picky taste buds).

Recipe found here

except I substituted pizza crust for flaky biscuits :)

So long, Christmas break.

It was so good to us.

We relaxed, spent some time with our families, did some house sitting, and played with our new toys. But now it's time to get back into the swing of school (I know that, my brain knows that, but my body REFUSES to go to sleep at night! It's a problem.)

Our good friends (and new neighbors!) Luke and Hannah got married on New Year's Day. So we road tripped with some friends up to Missouri, and I photographed their wedding. My first one. By myself.. Not as nerve-racking as I had anticipated (mostly because they are the most laid back couple ever) and it was a lot of fun! Here's their sneak peek:

It was a good time.

I'm working on developing some sort of wedding.. business? A new etsy shop maybe. All custom: invitations, favors, boutonnieres, etc. Thinking about it. Details later.

So here's to a new semester. I'm taking on more art classes at one time than I ever have. That could either mean I'll have fun and go to class more than usual because I just love art so much. Or it could mean that I am so loaded with projects and trying to be creative that my brain explodes and I never want to think about art again. We'll see how it goes.