Halloween

So along with everything about Fall, I love everything about Halloween. I love the costumes and the decorations and the candy, especially the candy.  I also love being an Aunt! Even though I've only seen Gracie one time, I know we are in for the long haul together :) I always had the best aunts growing up. The ones that did the cool things with you.... The one that took you toliet papering when you were 12...the one that took you for rides in her jeep with the top down and the one that let you eat Cookie Crisp no matter what time of day and blast Billy Jean on the record player. So, needless to say, I want to be that aunt (don't worry Daniel and Katrina, we won't tell you when we toliet paper)

I feel like I'm getting too old to dress up for Halloween, and unfortunatlely, wayyyyy too old to trick or treat.But I do love Halloween things. So I thought how can I make being an Aunt and Halloween go hand in hand? I decided to make Gracie a Halloween basket.

The basket

So since I am such a reader, I want to inspire Gracie to read...what better way to get her library collection going than with her own copy of Harry Potter! My goal is to give her a book for each holiday, a good mix of old classics and new classics!

I bought this pumpkin from Hobby Lobby and used a white paint marker to paint the G on it. It rubbed off really easily when I first did it, but I'm hoping that after sitting for a while, it will be more permanent!

I made a card from scrapbook paper. I just cut a scrapbook paper to be card size and then glued some spiders on the front

On the inside, more scrapbook embellishments!

I got the Onesie from A Children's Place and thought it would be too cute!



Who is this 'Aunt Kala' woman and why did I get stuck with her?

I'm sure this was Gracie's face when Daniel and Katrina told her that Aunt Kala sent her a Halloween basket. I just can't get over how cute she is! Its okay readers, you can be jealous that I have the cutest niece!

I want to make a basket for every holiday so any suggestions are welcome! There's a lot of holidays in the year!

See you soon Gracie!

Love,

"Aunt" K





Cook Kala

I learned to cook when I was 16. I worked at a bookstore and the ladies felt bad for me that my mom never cooked (Sorry, P) so they taught me how to make Seasoned Salt Chicken and Shrimp Stirfry. When I went to college, it was hard to cook in the dorm, but I still tried.

When I was 19 and I moved into my own apartment, I started really cooking! I love trying new recipes and then adding or changing ingredients to make it unique to me! I received so many recipes from the wedding, that I decided I was going to pull a Julie and Julia and make them all (yes, even the grilled quail but it will probably be last!)

I'm about half way done and I've made everything from hummus, to taco soup and chicken and all those yummy desserts!

Here are some pictures of my time in the kitchen!

I added a little parmesean to my hummus and served it with pita chips, melba toast, strawberries and celery

I used 2 round 9" pans for my spice cake

And I made my own cream cheese frosting for it

Then I sprinkled cinnamon on top and served!

The first pound cake I've ever made that turned out successful

I would love to take a cooking class to learn more about cooking with spices and I would love to take a class to learn how to use the knife set I got as a wedding present, but we'll see :)

Love,
K

A Black and White Affair

 I've always love the concept of black and white parties. I thought the theme for a wedding shower would be perfect...everyone in black and the bride in white. So when we were brainstorming ideas for Little Jessica's bridal shower, I drew inspiration from here and our theme was born.

**Side Note: I grew up in the same neighborhood with two Jessicas. To prevent confusion, we called one Big Jessica and the other one Little Jessica.  That is how I will refer to them. In no way is Big Jessica "big"...she's just older!**

The first thing we had to do was get the invitations. My mom picked the invitations up from La Ti Da in Suwanee. She was going to print them herself so all we had to do was come up with the invitaiton wording! Thanks to my best rhyming friend Kristi, we were able to come up with a poem! Naturally, I blacked out the important details but the poem goes like this:

Michael popped the question and Jessica said yes.

Now we're having a bridal shower

so please be our guest

You wear all black, the bride will wear white

Come help us celebrate their magical night

Next came the food menu. Shanna is an amazing cook, making mushrooms, dips, and brownies and my mom makes the best chicken salad. We were definitely not lacking on the food. Big Jessica decorated our table so cute.

Our gorgeous table

Delicious chicken salad! My mom makes the best

Black plates with black and white napkins with a T on them

Fruit cups...I layered the dip that I found here on the bottom and the fruit on the top. It really is the best recipe...only 3 ingredients (cream cheese, jar of marshmellow cream and 1 cup of powdered sugar)

We set up the kitchen table with the cake and water infused with oranges and lemons. The cake goes right along with our black and white theme and is from Publix. It was delicious!

We also served Punch, Blackberry Lemonade, and Blackberry Peach Martinis

Blackberry Lemonade and Blackberry Peach Martinis
I left the lemonade without any alcohol for the people that didn't want to drink. For the Peach Martinis, I used Skinny Girl Peach Margarita mixed and added blackberries on toothpicks!

Big Jessica  had some awesome games that we played! And overall the shower went pretty good. Little Jessica flew in just for the day from North Carolina, so we were glad she was there.

As many of you may remember, we hosted a baby shower for Big Jessica a couple months ago. At the time, we didn't know if it was a boy or a girl. But back in June, Jessica and Ryan had a sweet little girl named Ella. Now there is 7 of us and I can't wait to spend more time celebrating special occasions together!

This weekend, my friend of 24 years marries her high school sweetheart. I couldn't be more excited for Jessica and Michael and wish them a long and happy marriage. I can't wait to be there to celebrate their special day!

Love,
K

Ahhh...Fall...

So this is going to be another one of those posts...the I love fall/I love this weather/I love this time of year post.

Yes, I love the fall and this weather and all the events that come along with this time of year! I can't wait to go to a corn maze, carve a pumpkin, eat caramel apples while drinking hot chocolate and apple cider. I can't wait for bonfires and marshmellows!

To get into the spirit of Fall, I decided I needed a fall wreath. I took my inspiration from this idea from Pinterest. So off to the craft store I go and I obviously had to improvise. Just a word of note: if it ever strikes your fancy to work with burlap, BEWARE! Burlap is hard. It falls apart really easily and if you aren't careful with it, it will shred!

So here is my finished product.

I hate the color of my door so I took a picture of it against a white door...

Looks much better against the white door!

I had a little trouble with the wreath while I was making it. You can see that I tried to hang it by a ribbon

And then I thought it looked kinda funny so I decided to add a bow

Then, when I tried to hang it by the ribbon, it was crooked  because the M was weighing one side down. So you can tell in the final picture that I had it straight on the hanger and a little off center so the weight was even!

Happy Fall Y'all!

Love,
K

What's in a Name

This isn't going to be one of those fun posts with lots of pictures...this is going to be a venting post :)

Recently, after much goading from the hubs, I decided to legally change my name. After 25 years of being a Jones, it was hard to make the change. That led me to my decision to hyphenate my name...after all, Jones-McNair just sounds better...

So I google the steps I need to take. The Knot has some awesome advice so I followed this website http://wedding.theknot.com/wedding-planning/planning-a-wedding/articles/name-change-101.aspx?MsdVisit=1

This awesome website tells me to go to the Social Security office first, so I do. The SS office was amazing. I waited a total of 10 minutes and it was quick and easy. They told me I would have my new card in 7-10 business days. 5 days later, it was in my mailbox!

So step # 3 on the Knot list goes as follows:

 3. Change your license at the DMV
Take a trip to the local Department of Motor Vehicles office to get a new license with your new last name. Bring every form of identification you can lay your hands on -- your old license, your certified marriage license and -- most important -- your new Social Security card

So I head on down to the DMV prepared with everything I need. I wait for an hour and when they finally call my name I am estatic! I show them my old license, my marriage license and my social security card with my new hyphenated last name. Apparently, it is a new rule in the state of GA that if you did not list on your marriage application that you want to hyphenate your name, you can't! So I protest because I have a SS card with my new hyphenated name on it...how can they not hyphenate my driver's license? So they tell me I need to call the Probate Court to change my marriage application. So I storm out calmly walk out of the DMV and call hubs and scream cry talk to him about the unjustice of it all.

I make it back to work and call the Probate Court and tell them that I want to update my marriage application to show a hyphenated name...the girl on the phone laughed at me and told me that the marriage app is official once it is turned in and there is no way it can be changed and that the only thing I can do it do a name change through Superior Court. So I call Superior Court and ask what I need to do for a legal name change. He goes over the process of it all and then tells me about the $207.50 fee I will have to pay to do this. So I hang up and once again call the hubs and  scream cry talk to him about the unjustice of it all.

So I made the executive decision to drop my middle name and use my last name as my middle name instead. So I go back to the DMV and talk to the same lady (because she told me if I came back that day, I wouldn't have to wait) and get everything taken care of at the DMV.

Then, I have to go back to the Social Security office because apparently your license and your SS card have to match. They were very nice about reissuing a new card in my new new name!

So the moral of the story to all of my friends who are engaged or thinking about getting married...Life is much easier if you decide whether you are going to change your name before you fill out the marriage application. Don't wait almost a year and a half like I did!

Hopefully my next post will be happier and full of pictures. Until then...

Love,
K

Katrina's Baby Shower

So I hosted my second baby shower of the year this past weekend for my sister in law.  I hosted the shower with my other sister in law, Trisha and my good friend, Jessica.

Since I am so OCD, I started making my lists months ago! Katrina is decorating Baby Gracie's room in a lavender jungle theme so the brainstorming began!

We had the shower at my husband's hometown church so the venue was taken care of.

I saw these centerpieces online and I emailed my mom to ask her to help me with them! *Sidenote: I have to brag on my talented and sweet mom! Not only did she cook me an amazing dinner a couple of weeks ago (chicken and dumplings, sweet potatoes, lima beans, and corn bread), she is also very skilled at laundry! Thomas was bragging on her last weekend when we were in Blairsville because he came home with no dirty clothes!* So when I emailed her about helping, she immediately started tinkering around in Microsoft Word.

And so this is what we came up with...

Yes, my dad was watching the golf channel!

We had the church reserved for the AM so we decided to do a breakfast.

I got the invitations from VistaPrint! I was very happy with the way they turned out...I am not going to post a picture obviously but they can be found here. Since this is Katrina's first baby, she really wanted diapers, so we had a diaper raffle. Each person that brought a pack of diapers was entered into a raffle to win a gift certificate.

Here are some pictures of the shower

I ordered the cake from Wal-Mart and was really pleased! It was very cute and actually tasted amazing!

For our breakfast, we served orange juice and water infused with lemon and lime

Pigs in a blanket, Blueberry Cream Cheese Muffins and Fruit

Our breakfast bar

Utensils and crockpot...I made breakfast casserole and unfortunately didn't have a white crockpot

Table Decorations! In the middle is the prizes we used for the games

Other table

Breakfast bar from afar

We had a popcorn bar as the favors. Jessica made cute bags that said its a girl!

Cute mommy to be cutting the cake

from left to right, Donna (grandma to be), Jessica, Katrina, Trisha and my niece Carley, me and Donna (other grandma to be)

I can't wait until August 1st (hopefully sooner) to welcome Gracie into the world! This is my first time actually being an Aunt before the baby is born! I am so excited for Daniel and Katrina...I know they are going to be great parents and Gracie is going to be one spoiled little girl! Aunt Kala and Uncle Thomas can't wait to meet you, Gracie!

Winnie the Pooh Shower

My childhood friend, Jessica is having a baby and is due June 27th. We hosted a shower for her today at my mom's house. We couldn't decide on a theme because Jessica is not finding out the gender of her baby. My mom wanted to do a garden theme and I thought a green and yellow jungle theme would be cute. Finally, my mom asked Jessica how she was decorated the nursery and when she responded with "Winnie the Pooh" we knew we had a theme!

We played two games, baby trivia (found here) and a baby scramble (kinda like this). I also created a Wishes for Baby sheet. I used this template but I made it Pooh themed. After all the guests filled out their wishes for baby, I collected them and we are going to laminate all of them and put them into a book. Jessica and Baby will have this book to look back on and read later! Take a look at our food spread!

Our spread

We served veggies and dip

Chicken salad with crackers and cheese

Red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

Fruit dip with cream cheese dip, chocolate dip and caramel dip and mushrooms

and Spinac Artichoke dip with pita chips

In the dining room, we had the cake and punch and used the diaper cake as the focal point of the display.

My mom made the diaper cake using a YouTube tutorial! I don't think she will ever do it again but it is really cute!

My mom also made the lime sherbert punch which I didn't think was going to be very good but it turned out to be amazing!

The adorable and delicious cake was from a bakery in Suwanee

This was what we gave as the prize for winning the games...its a citronella candle, flower seeds, a spade and a flower notepad.

The parents to be! Congratulations

The girls! Dorena, P, Jessica, me and Shanna after the shower

Overall, it was a great shower! We had so much fun! It was great to hang out with friends. Jessica and Ryan are going to be great parents! Jessica is so sweet and patient and I know she is going to be a great mom! And I know Nana Cherry is going to be a great grandma...she saved all of Jessica's baby stuff to pass down. I know Baby Cherry Mills is going to be greatly loved and spoiled :)

Love,
K