glass cocoon

like the earrings you see above? i actually stole that photo. but it was all in good taste...

you see, my sister-in-law has a talent that i am quite fond of. actually, she has many of them, but the one i am referring to in this post is the beautifully unique jewelry she designs. her company is called glass cocoon. currently, you can follow her jewelry blog at http://glasscocoonjewelry.blogspot.com/

in addition, all of her designs (both currently on sale and previously sold pieces) on her etsy.com site at http://www.etsy.com/shop/glasscocoon

so...this is my shameless ploy to get you to check out her site(s). i wouldn't post this on my blog if i didn't think it was worth your time. like all small businesses, it all starts by word of mouth. check it out and maybe purchase a few things ;) i know you'll find something that you just can't live without. be sure to pass along the news of glass cocoon to friends and family. this jewelry really does speak for itself.

enjoy!

let the re-cooperation begin!

sorry i haven't updated about christmas yet. we're still re-cooping! 1 christmas eve party, 1 christmas morning with just us (very early!), 1 christmas morning party with the fam (another very early christmas morning i might add) and 1 christmas evening party was ALOT. although it was fun, it was definitely exhausting! AND WE DON'T EVEN HAVE KIDS!! waking up to the sound of my alarm this morning was shocking and very unwelcome. sleep...we both need sleep.

all i can say is, christmas was great. now the tree is taken down, the ornaments have been organized and nested in their little homes, and the decorations are back in storage bins. it was sad to "de-christmas" so soon, but i knew the energy was slowly fading. i will post tonight, if i can drag myself out of my bed to the computer. or perhaps, i'll drag kevin's laptop to the bed with me. sounds much more appealing :)

post bake-fest

we survived our first garvey bake fest. actually, now that i look at the little that we produced, i realize it's hardly a bake fest. our valiant efforts yielded only 24 decorated sugar cookies and 18 pfeffernusse cookies (aka pepper cookies). however, it was fun and definitely got me in the christmas spirit.



sorry the photo is poor quality and dark--cell phone! :)

some highlights:

1. at winco, kevin asks me to read off the list he made of spices we needed for his cookies. it says cardamom. i have never heard of that spice. i can't say that's surprising though, considering i can barely bake or cook. so...kevin picks out marjoram, assuming its the same spice. we decided that since we didn't know what cardamom was, it would be no big deal to leave it out of the recipe. the executive decision was fine (i guess) because kevin says his cookies still turned out tasty. the batter was a little on the sticky side--perhaps that's where the cardamom comes in?

2. all i ask kevin to do when making my sugar cookie batter is to soften the butter in the microwave. all the sudden, i hear a cuss word come pouring out of the sweet mouth of my husband! he starts yelling at monster, "no! no!" and "get out of here!". i decide to assess the damages--an entire bowl of melted butter splat on the floor. i could not stop laughing. i almost wet my pants. how perfect for us--it can never be easy, right!?! :) thank goodness we had enough butter to complete the rest of the recipes!

3. we get to use the old fashioned cookie tin for kevin's pfeffernusse cookies that kevin's grandmother gail gave to us for my wedding shower. it's really beautiful (you can see it on the left hand side of the photo)! we haven't gotten a chance to use it, so this is perfect. can't wait to show up with our goodies at christmas eve tomorrow!

4. conclusion: we need a hand-mixer. one day, i hope to get one of those fabulous kitchenaid standing mixers, but for now...a hand-mixer will work just fine. i've had my eye on a martha stewart one. waiting for a sale at macy's!!!

overall, the mixing, measuring, pouring, baking, whisking, scooping, pressing, cooking, waiting, cooling and icing all worked out. it was fun and just what we needed to get in the holiday spirit. too bad we both have to work tomorrow--ahh, such is life!

happy holidays everyone!

1st annual garvey baking extravaganza

tonight kevin and i will be baking up a storm. sugar cookies with yummy homemade powdered sugar frosting. snickerdoodles (on the list but may not make the cut). kevin is going to make his prized pepper cookies. i am going to break in my new pampered chef springform pan with a cherry cheesecake. we are both very excited. tonight it's just us and the monst. baking all evening with the candles lit, the sugar flowing and the christmas music blasting.

i can't wait!

excitement for so many reasons!

i can't wait for christmas to be here. i just love the time with family and friends, all the good food and the sparkle of the lights. i am still hoping for snow, but my hope is fading fast. in the great northwest, all we usually get is rain! i guess mother nature thinks we got enough snow last year. can't be greedy, i suppose :) this year we have so much to do on christmas eve and christmas day. we have to find time to work on christmas eve until 2pm, then celebrate that evening at my mom's with my dad's family! then we are spending christmas morning with sophia and the family at jeff & lindsi's, going back to our apartment to do our christmas with just us and the monst that afternoon, then going back to my parents for christmas night with my mom's extended family. on christmas night, kevin and i plan to go see a movie, just the two of us. as you can see, we'll be very busy--good thing christmas is on a friday this year! :) lots of time to rest up afterwards.

last night kevin took me out to pf changs to celebrate our 6th year together. originally, our anniversary was december 20th. now that we're married, we have another date to celebrate...but we're not quite sure we want to forget about this one. it's good to celebrate your love, so it's ok to have more than one anniversary date, right? :) atleast we're not so crazy to celebrate the night of our first date or anything--actually we probably would, if either of us remember the date! haha! as newlyweds, this is all still new to us so we tend to be excited about how long we've been together. dinner was great and, after 6 years, we're still so in love!

gingerbread and all that jazz

last night we were invited to the 3rd annual gingerbread house competition at my aunt debbie's house.

the challenge:
build and decorate a gingerbread house in 1 hour

the contenders:
7 teams, including:
emily and jordan (cousin & her bf)
lisa and bill prebble (aunt debbie's family friends)
barbara and lindsi boss (mom & sis in law)
mary and john hughes (family friends)
nancy and greg (my aunt and uncle)
michelle and josh (cousin & her hubby)
me and kevin

we didn't really have much time before the party to plan. on our way to their house, we ran through safeway trying to find the perfect supplies needed to build this luxury gingerbread house. as a team, kevin and i worked very well together. we both had great ideas and really brought a lot to the table. we thought the rules were that every item on the house had to be edible, mostly candy. now that we know other people are CHEATERS :), we are excited to come up with some fabulous ideas for the 4th annual competition. let's just say we'll be putting our degrees to use!

this year, our house turned out fantastic, especially since this was our first year participating. a few highlights from our design:

a snow-covered roof--made of chocolate mini frosted wheats!
a red & white painted house--made of red and green holiday m&ms!
perfectly rendered xmas lights on the roof & door--made of black thin icing (for the wire) and multiple colored round bulb candies
fabulous snow--made of mini marshmallows and covered with shredded coconut
yard-surrounding lights--made of nerds ropes
"land here" sign for santa with x-marks-the-spot--made of birthday cake letters and red hots

we didn't get first, second or third place...but in our own hearts, we placed first. it didn't help that we were competing with martha freaking stewart (aka my mother)--her and lindsi's house looked like it was from a magazine! everybody came up with original ideas--i'm sure next year is going to be even better. this will be a valued holiday tradition in the garvey household.

christmas card hiccup

kevin and i splurged--to clarify, the splurge wasn't the fact that they were expensive (only $24), but because they weren't a need--on customized christmas cards this year. we spent a while picking out the ones we liked the best. after all, this was going to be our first christmas card as a married couple--very important! :) we finally decided on a set we both liked and ordered them. every day i ran to the mailbox to see if they had arrived. i was like ralphie in the christmas story movie waiting for his package. it became an obsession! when they came in the mail, we realized they were cheaper because they were only 1 sided. what the heck!?! our expectations were set a little higher than the quality of the cards, as well. now i have to go find some paper to glue to the back so we can write messages to send out to some family and friends. oh well, it's the thought that counts right?

in the midst of all of this, we also realized we didn't order enough! oops! so, if you don't get one, i apologize. all i can say is "you live and you learn." please know the garvey's wish you all a very merry christmas!

a big blessing in a small envelope

with all of the hustle and bustle of christmas, doing what we can to donate to various charities or toy drives, and trying to buy for two families this year, kevin and i have felt the affects of low finances lately. i'm sure it also has a lot to do with us trying to figure out combining our incomes and taking care of debts. we've been trying to be reasonable about our spending and making sure bills are paid before we spend money on anything fun. it just seems that we never have anything left over to save. it's very sad, but i actually don't think we even have enough saved right now to pay for another month's rent. i knew it would be paycheck to paycheck getting married so young, but i never quite understood what that meant. kevin usually gets paid every saturday via a check in the mail. this weekend, the check didn't come and we were relying on that money to pay bills. so, we did what every couple would do...we panicked!

this year for christmas, we even asked for gas giftcards and giftcards to stores to buy groceries and the daily necessities. not sure we'll get any because most people think a giftcard to safeway or chevron is boring, but to me...it would be like sweet victory :) lately, on our growing list were daily needs like laundry soap, dish soap, shampoo, toilet paper, cotton balls, etc. i know i could have put it on my credit card, but we are trying to not use the card and get old debts paid off quickly. i've been praying that god would provide for us and i've been really working on trusting in his timing. this morning we even ran out of shampoo!! i mean, that was the last of the spare bottle i always keep for in-case-of-emergency-type situations...no hotel bottles, no travel size, nada. then what do you know, in the mail today was a little white envelope. kevin's aunt and uncle sent us what looked like a regular christmas card. on the outside was a picture of mary holding the baby jesus. it was beautiful and i kept admiring it. on the inside were two rather large giftcards to target. it was such a blessing! and so very unexpected! :) not only did god provide for our need (with a store as close to our apartment as possible!), but he did it in a way to honor his son through the card that kevin's aunt chose. the lord definitely works in mysterious ways!

now i'm sitting here with a smile on my face, watching kevin unpack our two bags of daily necessities from target. we got so much with only 1 of the 2 giftcards! i don't think i've ever been so happy to be able to purchase toilet paper or dish soap! it's just the fact that i knew god would provide and he did. we are both so lucky to have such a generous and caring family. i feel very blessed and can't wait to shampoo my hair tonight. thank you, ramos family!

too trusting?

usually other people disappoint you. they either do or say something to hurt your feelings or they make promises they can't keep (or don't intend to keep). but i disappoint myself. kevin says one of my downfalls is that i am too trusting. i'm beginning to learn that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. and it's not a control thing, it's really not. i just continue to count on people that refuse to follow through.

this all stems from a baby shower that i threw for my sister yesterday. although it was great and turned out really fun, only half - yes, 50% - of the people that rsvp'd 'yes' didn't bother enough to show up to the shower. FIFTY PERCENT!!! it's just really hard to not take it to heart when people don't bother to follow through. maybe it was their intention in the first place? don't get me wrong, i know that things come up last minute and that, in short, LIFE HAPPENS...but not for 30 people! it's all about priorities and having genuine intentions. it's my pet peeve--i just don't say that i'm going to do something if i know in my heart that it's not my intention. i just wish people could have a little bit more consideration. okay, now i'm done venting. i'm sorry if this is rude, but i needed to get it out of my system. and i, quite frankly, feel that lindsi deserves to know that it not only hurt her feelings, but mine too. later, i will post the photos from the shower and all of the HAPPY and DELIGHTFUL details. because it was a fabulous shower, if i do say so myself.

luckily, i have a husband that is genuine and honest. although he shows me the error of my ways sometimes regarding trusting other people, he always knows how to make me feel better when i am disappointed. a night of cuddling and watching movies was just what i needed. all i want to know is, is there really such a thing as being too trusting?