Back on track

Happy New Year!

Once again, I can't believe I've let so much time lapse between posts.  It's funny how time gets away from us like that.  But, at the very least, I am happy to say that the end of 2012 was a good one. :)  Here's some of what I was up to!

Andy and I went out to celebrate Halloween.  I decided to go as a broken dolly since I had pretty much everything needed already.

  

My husband turned 50!  So his parents came to GA to celebrate it with us.  We went up into the mountains and stayed in a cabin they rented.  We mostly hung out, drove around, and ate out.  I did all of the driving while there so my picture taking opportunities were pretty limited.

Birthday lunch

Gar in the wild

Marilynn tracking down the elusive waterfall



The only "wild" life we actually saw

 For Rich's 50th, he let me throw him a party for some of our friends.  He asked if he could be a spaceman for his birthday. :)


I made him a NASA t-shirt with his name on it (more on that in the next post) and found a costume helmet that actually fit his large brain-filled head.


Andy and I had fun decorating the house and coming up with sci-fi themed names for the different items we made.

This was my very first attempt at making a cake from scratch.  It turned out okay, a little dry but not bad.  I even made homemade buttercream frosting to which I added crushed Oreos to give it a rocky texture.

 I discovered over the last couple of months that I actually DO like brussel sprouts... if they are pan fried with bacon and mushrooms. :)

For Christmas, since Rich and I were not able to afford to fly up to see our family, Andy's family came down from MI to spend Christmas with us.  It was truthfully the best holiday I have had in GA and I got to cook A LOT.  Of course, I forgot to take pictures of pretty much everything except the meats. :P


This is the very first fresh/uncured ham I have ever cooked and I do see more of these in my future.  It's obviously different than cured ham, which I can't eat, but it was close enough to sate that need I always have for ham. :)  It was brined in sugar-salt water, rubbed with brown sugar, garlic and rosemary then basted with maple syrup.  SO delicious!





As you can see here, we wrapped the turkey in bacon (nitrate-free, of course).  We used a lot of bacon in our holiday dinner. :)



My Secret Santa at work knows me well. :)  I've been doodling a lot more at work as a result of this.



This is one of the "doodles"... a jelly bean party!

 I designed a lot of the gifts I gave this year which is partly why I was less talky-talky on here.  I will save all those pics for the next post!

I have a couple of goals for 2013, as well.

1. Do more art.  I am my happiest when I am creating so I am going to make a conscious effort to actually do more.  And part of that includes posting about it more. :)
2. Get my business back up and active.  I miss doing my FatGirlArt stuff so I am going to revamp the site, get my items back on Etsy, and create a few new things for that.
3. Be more social.  I am a social being anyway but I am tired of always waiting on others to want to do things so I am going to try to make the first scheduling move with friends at least once a month.
4. Continue to eat better.  I was a bit lax over the holidays and ate a lot of things I knew I shouldn't with my food allergy but damn, it was all good!  Was the stomach pain worth it?  Absolutely, most of the time. :)  But I have it out of my system now and really don't like the pain so I'll be back on track to pain free, real food for 2013. :)