Bailey's Graduation

When we chose Bailey to be our puppy, we knew were were going to have to get her trained. There was going to be no way to do it ourselves with our schedules. The Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons were right around the corner and with work and shows, it was going to be nearly impossible if we didn't employ help.

So, we signed her up at PetsMart for their Puppy Class. This is specifically designed for puppies under 5 months old. Her trainer, Katrina, was great and over the next 6 weeks I took her in for weekly training sessions with Bailey's best friend (whom she met in class), Isabella.

I'm happy to say, Bailey passed with flying colors and even managed to win the coveted puppy push up competition! She's was super happy and loved wearing her graduation cap!




See...she's even smiling!

I was very proud of our little girl and we hope to sign her up for the intermediate class in late February! Go Bailey!!

Champagne For All

As a Christmas and New Year treat, we bought seven bottles of champagne, cava, prosecco and sparkling wine to bring and end to 2011.

Below are 6 of the bottles that we bought, from the ok stuff to the good stuff, we covered it all. Please note: the pictures are in no particular order. You decide what you think the creme de la creme is...

Can't wait to try them all!! PS...Robyn will be joining in the drinking too...so I'm not a lush, just FYI.

Sea Birds Paintings

Over the last few years, I've really gotten into painting. I'm a fan of acrylics and I've done about 20-25 for work and home. I love it.

This year for my Grandma's Christmas present...my mom suggested to me to paint her something. After thinking about it...I decided to paint some sea birds for her home in New Jersey.

Here are some basic shots of my process of the paintings.

I started with two bases for the two paintings: bluish-brown for the bottom painting and brownish-grey for the top. Then I added the birds base in white, so I could paint its coloring on top.

This painting was having the bird along the water line, so I needed to add the sea and some of the foam from the breaking tide. This took some time...and this was the final product.

For the grey bird, I wanted to add its shadow along with some dried seaweed pieces. I love this guys face...and his crime-fighter mask around his eyes.

The brown bird really took some time and major progress. He started off a little darker and I didn't like it, so I lightened him up with some white, but kept him with a darker belly.

Here's are the final products!

I placed them in a white shadow box and mailed them off to my grandma. I'm pretty sure she'll like them, but here's hoping!!

Happy Birthday to Me

For an early birthday present, my best friend Andy (come on, you've read this blog, you know him) took me to a Christmas concert. But it wasn't just any concert, it was the 96.5 TIC All-Star Christmas Concert featuring...

Christina Perri...who sang everything from Jar of Hearts, A Thousand Years, Arms and even Happy Xmas (War Is Over). She was wonderful. A great way to open the concert with true singing and a nice bubbly personality.




Gavin Degraw...who did some new and older hits, like Chariot and Not Over You. He started out pumped and never stopped. I liked that his 'mini-concert' just rolled from one song into the next with no stopping. It helped to really start to pick up the night. He even got on the piano!




The Fray...who like Gavin, really pumped up the crowd. They did all of their great songs like How To Save A Life and their new hit Heartbeat. Issac, the lead singer, even got off the stage and strolled through the entire crowd, really getting them off their feet.




and...KELLY CLARKSON. The headliner for the evening, she brought the whole evening home. Her music was really loud (I mean, beyond loud) and it made me happy that I knew the words to her songs because I couldn't always understand her. Other than that, the energy was great and honestly, I felt her best song was "I'll Be Home For Christmas".




This was one of the best Christmas gifts I have had in a while. Thank you Andy, for taking me to see some of my very favorite artists. :-)

Turkey and Burns

So this past Thursday was that annual tradition of over-indulgence, aka Thanksgiving.

It started as it normally does, with the watching of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and perusing through the Thursday paper...to check for awesome Black Friday ads that I don't traditionally deal with.

Then the cooking began. It started with a new pie: Cranberry-Apple-Orange pie. How do you think it looks?




It's a bit tart, but still really tasty. (I added the little leaves for a little something extra).

The rest of the cooking went well. I roasted some green beans after steaming them to make them tender. I made the stuffing and put that in the oven. I stuffed the turkey breast with ham, cheese, poblano peppers and rolled it up with twine. The good-looking cordon bleu was seared in a pan and then placed in the oven.

And that's where it all went wrong. After everything had been in the oven for a bit, I went to check the turkey...but when I did, I didn't cover the entire pan handle with the pot holder. So, I burned it.



This pick is of the burn later in the day...but it hurt so badly...burning for hours. I was none to pleased.


At least I could enjoy the rest of the meal and though I did burn my hand, the food turned out really good.





Delicious. Happy belated Thanksgiving!

Bundle of Joy

For those of you who don't know, there is a new mouth to feed in my household...and her name is Bailey. She's a Lab and Basenji mix who is about 3.5 months old now.

So...here are just a few pics of the new little girl who is keeping me up at all hours of the night, getting into everything she shouldn't be and is so damn adorable!

Her first day at her new home.

Couldn't keep her off the couch for long :-)

After her first bath ;-)

Mugging for the camera

In her favorite spot (that isn't on the couch)

She's a great girl and while I know she'll get bigger, she'll always be my baby puppy :-)

Sara's Birthday Cookies

For my buddy Sara's birthday this year, she joked around about wanting Mickey Mouse cookies. So...I made it happen.

I couldn't find a cookie cutter I liked, so I headed to Michael's to pick-up some different sized cookie cutters and made my own Mickey Mouse shapes. If you want to do this too, here's what you need:

Sugar cookie recipe you like

Double boiler (or a glass bowl over a pot of simmering water)

2 bags of red-colored candy melt (vanilla flavored)

2 bags of dark chocolate candy melt

Yellow icing

White Icing

While the sugar cookies were baking in the oven, I started to melt down the chocolate. Here's what you need:

Once the cookies cooled, I dipped the top half of the cookie (aka the ears) into the melted dark chocolate and laid the cookie out on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Once the tray was filled, I placed it in the freezer. NOTE: You can use the refrigerator as well, just make sure where ever the cookies go, they are flat to avoid the chocolate running.

The cookies only need a few minutes to cool and harden. I then pulled the cookies out and repeated the process for the bottom of the cookie in the red chocolate. Once more I put the cookies on the sheet trays and chilled them.

Lastly, I decorated each of the cookies for the 'mickey' or the 'minnie' look I wanted. Yellow icing makes the buttons on Mickey's pants and the white icing makes the ruffles and dots from Minnie's dress.



Next step: TAKE A BITE!

Just remember to pace yourself when eating these cookies because they are super sweet....but super adorable!! Give them a try!

PS...Sara loved the cookies :-)