What a surprise!

Look what was waiting for me when I got home from work today! My sweet Mama and Daddy surprised me by bringing part of my *new to me* dining room suite up from Florence. I was completely shocked since I thought there was only a small chance that it would come tomorrow--certainly not today!

The picture hanging above the sideboard is much too high and is only there for safekeeping. I was afraid something would happen to the canvas, so I used an existing hook until I move the painting. Now that I can see the furniture in the room, I have a better idea of the kind of mirror I want for that wall.

Also, I have learned that this app does not like apostrophes and will make a garbled mess out of any word that uses one. I guess I have learned to check the post in safari and not assuming that it looks ok.

PS-I hope this picture works. I took it with my iPad and tried to attach it. I might have to get out my laptop if I can't figure this out soon!

I'm a horrible blogger...

Well, it looks like busy season is here for those of us with "CPA" after our names. I've already started staying later in the evenings and our department is starting to work on Saturdays this week. Emma has gone to Florence on "vacation"--actually, my parents have custody from late January through mid-April. I've tried to visit with friends and family and savor sleeping in since I won't be seeing much of either for the next few months!!

In house-related news, I bought a dining room suite in Florence last weekend. I found it at one of the antique stores I hardly ever visit. (I've had much better luck at one right down the road.) I got an amazing price, so I won't feel bad to sell it one day if something else strikes my fancy. Now, I just need a large mirror for above the sideboard and a rug for under the table to make the downstairs complete. If I ever figure out how to post pictures from this app, I will post some pictures. Does anyone know how to do this from an iPad??

My bedroom is starting to come together as well. I got a duvet (finally) that I absolutely love. I still have to make the pillow shams to finish the bedding. I have an antique painting done by one of my relatives in 1906 that I am going to hang above the bed. I still need something to put my tv on, but now I at least have an idea of what I want. Always a work in progress...

There are still curtains to hang in the guest bedrooms, but at least they are made. I just need a pretty decorative rod for one of the rooms. Maybe I'll attempt that on Sunday?

I'm working on a new knitting project. We have a new group at work that is going to meet twice a month during lunch to knit. I'm making an afghan and it's such slow progress. It doesn't help that I made a mistake and had a whole row to take out. Maybe I'll finish it by July.

I would say I'll try to do a better job at blogging, but I don't want to lie. I know life is just going to get busier over the next few months, but I will try to post pictures once I get my dining room squared away.

Please, someone, teach me how to post pictures from my iPad!!

I just wrote an entire post (shocking) reflecting on 2011, but it disappeared before I could publish it. Instead of trying to recreate it, I guess I'll talk about something else an pretend that that post didn't disappear somewhere in the Internet. I was trying to add a picture when I wrote the previous post, so unfortunately there will be no pictures until I have time to figure it out.

I had a good Christmas, albeit very different this year. I enjoyed spending time with my family and a few dear friends during my time off. My parents, Emma and I went to Gatlinburg for several days and I enjoyed the opportunity to read, sleep and just exist without a particular schedule--anyone who really knows my knows that I'm very much a creature of habit so freedom from my routine is nice, to an extent. Unfortunately, I think it's going to be a difficult transition back to work after being away for more than a week. I'm not going to like having limited time to cook (and shop!) once busy season rolls around. I guess since I know better what to expect, I'm really not looking forward to long nights and weekends in the office. I enjoy my job, but I really need some time for cooking, cleaning, reading and simply getting enough sleep.

Once I figure out how to add pictures to my posts, I'll try to write with more frequency--I can't do much worse than I've done this year!!

P.S.--I did try to attach a picture my Uncle made at my house on Thanksgiving. I'm not sure how it's going to look.

Oh, How Pinteresting…

I was going to insert the link for this from The Vintage Apple, but unfortunately the picture doesn’t work with my black background.  Oh, well…

I’ve recently (in the last few weeks) discovered Pinterest.  I’ve pinned a ton, but I’ve been most inspired by some of the recipes available.  I already blogged about the Self-Frosting Nutella Cupcakes I made a few weeks ago.  They were oh-so-good and I plan to make them again soon!

While I haven’t made any of these things yet, I’m really looking forward to trying them…

  Chocolate-Caramel Brownies

Chicken Bacon Pasta 

Chick-fil-A Chicken Nuggets

Olive Garden Fettuccini Alfredo

I could go on and on, but you wouldn’t want to see everything I have pinned.  That would get quite boring, eventually.

Maybe I’ll do this again next week with some non food-related inspiration from Pinterest!  I promise there is much more to the website than food! :)

My Daddy is the BEST

My sweet Daddy blew into town for a few minutes on his way home from Knoxville today.  He wanted to see me—and Emma, of course—but he also wanted to check on a few things for my house.  I’ve got some plugs that aren’t working and he wanted to see if the breakers were tripped (apparently, it’s not always obvious that a breaker is tripped) or if I needed to call an electrician.  Also, I haven’t been able to get my Blu-Ray player to wirelessly connect to the internet since the wireless transmitter was *missing* and he managed to find it in all of two minutes.  So, we’re 1-1 tonight—no electricity in the guest bathroom, but I can stream Netflix again!!

Thanks for the visit, Daddy!  Emma and I are always happy to have you come to our home!  We hope you can stay longer next time!

I’m probably going to get in trouble for posting this, but it’s the only “semi-recent” picture I have of Daddy on my computer.  Well, I have some others with Emma, but they both happen to be asleep in all of them!

Housekeeping

It seems like I’m never completely caught up with my housekeeping.  Since I was out of town for the Labor Day weekend, I’m finding myself especially behind this weekend.  I have several events planned through October and I know I’ll be very busy for at least five of the next seven weekends.  Whew, that sounds bad when I actually look at it on the calendar!!

I’ve been a little under the weather over the past few days.  I think it’s just a cold/allergies from the weather changing and getting rained on in Gatlinburg.  Anyway, I haven’t felt like doing much today.  I spent much of the morning watching the Food Network.  I’ve been cooking more lately and even baked cupcakes this week.  I haven’t had any motivation to try new things lately, but I was inspired to try some of the Pioneer Woman’s recipes after finally getting to watch her new TV show today.  I did sort my laundry, but I’ve only managed to wash my sheets thus far.  It’s getting late and I haven’t made up my bed yet.  Better get on that!!

I’ve got the dishwasher loaded and ready to go, but I’m going to wait until I go to bed to start it since Emma especially hates it.  Speaking of Emma, she really needs a bath, especially since my sheets are clean, but I think she’s managed to squeak out of that for tonight.

I did water my plants on the deck earlier today, but I didn’t manage to sweep the leaves off the deck.  That’s the only bad thing about my two trees in the backyard—the leaves are back practically as soon as I sweep off the deck.

I’m doing a good job of keeping the downstairs presentable.  I haven’t gone to bed with dishes in the sink in weeks.  I try to take my shoes upstairs when I change after getting home from work.  My coffee table is much better than it was for the first few weeks here, but I still have several things on it that haven’t found a home.  I haven’t found a good place to stash my purse yet, but I have a couple of ideas.  I think the downstairs will really come together when I finally get a dining room table and buffet, a rug to go in the dining room and hang all my pictures.  The pictures have been waiting for Dad to hang them for several weeks…the places are picked out, but I haven’t attempted to hang them myself…that’s Dad’s job.  He’s so good at it and always perfectly “engineers” the picture so it’s perfectly hung!  That’s one of the many reasons Mom and I keep him around!! :)

One random thing on my to-do list—go through my stack of magazines, tear out what I want to keep and throw the rest away.  I need to do this by Thursday since recycling comes that day and I’d much rather recycle them than throw them out.  Since recycling only comes on the third Thursday of the month, I better do it this week instead of holding on to them for another month!!

I better go accomplish some of my to-do list rather than just talk about it!!

Nutella Cupcakes

Yesterday, I was in a baking mood after I got home from work.  I decided to pick a recipe I’d found on Pinterest for Self-Frosting Nutella Cupcakes.  The recipe is simple and luckily uses staple ingredients, so I had everything on hand.

Self-frosting Nutella Cupcakes
1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup canola or mild vegetable oil
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4-1/2 cup Nutella, at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 325F.

In a medium bowl, beat the butter, oil and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth.

In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt; add to the butter mixture and beat on low speed just until combined. The batter will be thick. It needs to be in order to swirl in the Nutella!

Divide the batter between 12 paper-lined muffin cups. Drop a spoonful of Nutella on top of each, and swirl through the batter with the tip of a bamboo skewer, knife or other pointy object. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until springy to the touch. Tilt them in the pan to help them cool. Makes a dozen cupcakes.

My cupcakes looked almost exactly like this picture.  The cupcake batter is very thick…almost as thick as a cookie dough.  Definitely not pourable.  I put a heaping spoonful in each muffin cup.  I put a dollop of Nutella in each muffin cup and swirled the batter and Nutella with a toothpick.  The only thing I would change is to more thoroughly mix the Nutella into the batter.  The top of each cupcake was nice and marbleized, but I didn’t get the Nutella down to the bottom of the cupcake.  Even though parts of the cupcakes weren’t chocolately, the cake itself is very like a pound cake, so it tastes good even without the Nutella.  I think I might add some orange extract to the batter next time…I’ve always heard that orange and chocolate go well together and I know orange extract is a good addition to Grams’ pound cake.

I took a few cupcakes to work to share with some of my sweet friends.  I know that guys will eat practically anything that’s cooked for them, so I thought they would be good guinea pigs for this new-to-me recipe.  They’re also having a crazy week with a big deadline on Tuesday and another tomorrow, so I thought they deserved a treat.  Cooking is much more fun when you have someone to cook for!!