Game Night

We have started hosting a game night at our house almost every Saturday night.  It has been tons of fun, and we've had a great time hanging out with friends both old and new.


We've come to enjoy playing games that are a little off the beaten path.  Last night we started with Killer Bunnies.  In the middle of the game, our table looked like this:


Yes, there is a lot going on, but it is pretty easy to get the hang of it after you play a game or two.  The gist is that you try to keep your bunnies alive while collecting carrots and killing off everyone else's bunnies.  The game pretty much always gets heated, and someone usually gets offended by someone else killing their bunny.

The best part, though, is how you win.  One of the carrots is randomly selected as the winner, so no matter how you play, the winner is completely up in the air.  The game is all for the fun of it!

Midway Ice Castles

Am I the only one who hasn't heard about these?  Or are they a well-kept secret?  I totally want to check them out!



Reading Dilemma


My library shelf is full, all the books are due fairly soon, and I can't renew most of them because other people have holds.  I hate it when this happens!

Pat's Birthday - Year 29!

Only one more year and it's a new decade...  it's like we're getting old!  We had lots of fun for his birthday this year.  Saturday we had a party with friends, Sunday we had dinner with his parents, Monday was just for us, and Wednesday we had dinner with my family.  He was actually really surprised by his present from me this year.  I got one of his favorite photos that he has taken printed on canvas wrapped around a nice thick frame.


It's kind of like a present for me too because now I get to decorate around it!  We hung it on the wall next to the front door after taking down the stick wreath that was only there to take up wall space.  It's hard to tell in this picture, but it's a large 20x30 inch print so it really stands out.

Red, Pink & White

This project has made the biggest impact, but was so easy.  I used some of the red lanterns I bought for my sister's baby shower and added tissue paper flowers in pink and white.  The biggest issue was getting the ladder in the house so I could reach the ceiling.



More Valentine Decor

Here are a few more projects I've been working on.  First, I made a pillow!  I bought the love birds fabric last year because it was too cute to pass up, but I didn't ever decide what to do with it until now.  I made it an envelope style pillow case so that I can take the cover off and it will use less storage space, plus I can use the pillow form for other holidays too!  I cut out a felt heart and stitched it on with a blanket stitch.  It was my first real attempt at applique and it wasn't as bad as I thought.  The stitches are a little uneven, but at least they're pretty symmetrical left to right.


Next up is my little side table display.  (I really want a console table by my entry for this kind of stuff.  Maybe I'll get lucky at a thrift store one day.)  I pretty much grabbed all the red hardback books out of my bookshelf to use for stacking.  The book of the left with the lovey couple is the back of Little Women.  Then I added a candlestick with a giant diamond on top.


The XO I bought at Joann, but decoupaged the scrapbook paper on myself (first time with Mod Podge too!)

 I made the framed art myself also.  I just took two pages out of an old paperback book, and added cut out cardstock heart.  Easy peasy!


Next up, a whole row of prints.  I made two of the book/heart pages, so there's another one of those.  The rest are all printouts I found on various blogs.  I attached them all to a piece of ribbon.


Whew!  That was a lot.  Still a few more to come!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Thursday we decided to celebrate by making Chinese food from scratch.  We have tried it before, without much success, but we have learned a lot about cooking since then and figured we would give it another go.  Happily, everything turned out fantastic! 

Sadly, I forgot to take pictures.  So I am borrowing the pics from Allrecipes, where I got the recipes from in the first place.  Click on a photo and it will take to the recipe page.  We made:


Kung Pao Chicken

Chicken Fried Rice

Egg Rolls

Fortune Cookies
(well, more like fortune pancakes, but they still tasted good)

Everything was delicious and we ate way too much.  After dinner we celebrated by lighting fireworks (since it's one of the four times per year fireworks are legal).  

It took a really long time to cook everything since we didn't really know what we were doing, but it should be much easier next time.  I think we may have a new tradition here.  Did you do anything fun?

Valentine Yarn Wreath

I have been working on several projects for Valentine's Day.  I was going to make one giant post out of them, but some are taking longer to finish than I planned.  I decided I will just share them as I get them done and get photos taken.

I've seen lots of yarn wreaths around blogland and I think they are so cute, I had to make my own!  This was also my first time making felt flowers, and they were way easier than I was expecting.



Pretty cute, right?  I feel so much more crafty than usual lately.  It must be because I can finally get to my stuff now that the spare room is clean.

Vases

Remember the vases I had on the shelf above my stairs?  Maybe this will refresh your memory:


Well, I finally figured out something to do with them.  I reused the paper pinwheels that I made for my sister's baby shower.  I think they look really cute!


It's nice to have a bit of color down there.

January Book List



Leviathan by Scott Westerfield - 434 pages
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer - 178 pages
Behemoth by Scott Westerfield - 481 pages
Blood Rites by Jim Butcher - 372 pages
The Broken Kingdoms by NK Jemisin - 384 pages
Touched by an Alien by Gini Koch - 389 pages

TOTAL - 6 Books - 2,238 pages

The Broken Kingdoms was my favorite book of the month.  This series sucks you in and doesn't let you go.