sewing project

here's an unflattering picture of me at the wax museum (with george h.w. bush) in south dakota. the sweatshirt i was wearing was just that: a sweatshirt. the back says "Spartan Cheer," but nothing on the front. it's boring and constricting in the neck. so...



so.... on my only day off between new years and memorial day - MLK day - i decided to do a project. i put a zipper in the above pictured sweatshirt to make it a jacket! i searched online for instructions and it turns out... it was a fairly easy project and look at the sweatshirt jacket now!



my cheer coach friend asked if i'd do the same for her sweatshirt! wow, i should go into business! (ok, not really.) but it was fun!

what other projects should i do?

christmas catch-up

here are tiffanie and blake playing dominoes in the year 2050.

no, just kidding, folks! it's pat and leon playing dominoes with us. the kluds are domino-playing fools.

i won, by the way.

here we are on christmas 2009. who loves blake's new glasses? i do.

after all the festivities, kitty was all tuckered out. (around 10am).

i thought i might add some stuff about what we've done since christmas........ um, yeah, not much. i really miss being on vacation. working all day really cramps my style!

The thrill of hope, a weary world rejoices!

Merry Christmas from Blake and Tiffanie :)

Snow and Santa Claus: Both are coming to town

The weather report is in. A large amount of snow is due to drop on our doorstep tonight and tomorrow. Too bad I already had my chili quota for the week! We made chili the other night and poured it over cornbread. I had never tried that before, but it was really good. I guess this weekend I'll have to break out a new, warm concoction.

Oh, and on another note, the University of Wyoming is playing in a bowl game tomorrow. This is the second time this year I'll be able to see a game. For some odd reason, I was able to watch their game against Texas (in Laramie) on our tv in Virginia earlier this year. It was kinda like being home. The bowl game is in New Mexico, but I still think we should wear something in brown. I'm not very country, but I do like to cheer for those kind of Cowboys. And I guess, who doesn't love all the bull riding you can see on tv these days?


Anyway, happy snow day tomorrow, wherever you are.





UPDATE:

Here's our view out of our patio door! There is over a foot of snow and it's still falling!

holidays!

over the thanksgiving holiday, blake and i went to the charming, quiet town of Annapolis, MD. we were very pleased with the small town feel and the short, one hour trip from home.





you're right when you ask: "is that where the Naval Academy is?" yes, and we drove to their stadium to take some pictures and look around. blake has a long list of NCAA Division 1 stadiums that he has visited (around 40) and this adds one more! bonus! at the stadium, there was a real Blue Angels plane that blake was excited to see up close.



when we got home we put up our christmas lights.



last saturday (12/5), it snowed for the first time this season! it was so pretty! here's our view from our living room. fancy, i know.



we decided to take kitty out in the snow. isn't he the cutest cat you've ever seen!? he's so handsome in this picture!

and surprisingly enough, he wasn't too thrilled about being outside.

we finished the weekend with some indoor decorations. Merry Christmas!

brinkley has a rough life: part 3

hope you're thankful for this edition of brinkley has a rough life.

"i wonder if they realize i'm not really listening..."



"here's my favorite blanket, i can't believe you guys put it in here... wow, it's so warm."



this is the most handsome cat you've ever seen.



big shrimpin'



studying for the M-CATs. (whew. good one.)

sweet tt

we interrupt your regularly scheduled kitty pictures programming with this important blather.

last night, i made my first batch of home-brewed sweet iced tea. i won't venture to call it "sweet tea," because i'm not confident in my tea-brewing/-sweetening skills just yet. i was drinking store-bought sweet tea and going through roughly three bottles every two days... and it's a hassle to keep the fridge stocked that full of sweet tea. so i decided to make my own. turns out, this is a pretty common thing to make: iced tea. who'd have thought? and it's cheap to make.

so, i'm trying to cut back on the soda (shock.horror.gasp), and eventually cut back on the caffeine. addictions are hard, friends. so since the sweetness of the tea is doing the job, i've switched. well, switched during the week at least, "i can drink whatever i want on fridays" (name that ivy house quote!) i even made this batch of tea with decaffeinated tea bags. it's really like i'm being healthy (minus the heaping cups of sugar).

i think it tastes pretty good so far (i'm drinking it now). next time, i think i'll steep the tea for a shorter amount of time, i'll probably add more sugar (because i can), and maybe find a way to cover the pretty glass pitcher while it's in the fridge. i can't really tell if this slightly tangy flavor is perhaps from sitting all night next to a box of papa john's pizza.



speaking of pitchers, we got this one for our wedding and have never used it before. perhaps the tangy flavor is dust. i rinsed it, folks. but still.

also, i noticed that we have two glass pitchers. they're both very pretty. we should really use these wedding presents we've had for almost 3 years.

three years, guys. it's been almost three years. wow. love it.

i'll send you back to kitty pictures programming very soon... don't fret!