A Very DIY X-mas cont., Plan B

Well, I was going to update you all about my very DIY Christmas, but magically all my pictures disappeared from my phone. This has happened before, so I'm not terribly worried. They'll be back.
I do, however, have a picture of my homemade bread (which is delicious and surprisingly easy, by the way)

Regard:

And in case you want to get in on some of this deliciousness yourselves, here is the fantastic blog that I found the recipe on.

And now for my Plan B. My New Years Resolutions.

• I'm doing well in grad school so far, so I'd like to continue that.
• My house is clean (except for the guest room...) and I'd like to maintain that. I'm getting plenty of inspiration from Organizing Made Fun
• I hope for increased will power. I am not going to make a resolution to work out more or eat better, that will never work. I only hope to increase my will power so that I may have a wish to up hold this more than I do now. Which is anything. I might bring back my incentive stickers. And require boyfriend to hound me about these things. 
• And finally, I'm thinking I might make the resolution to try out Birchbox. I never know what make-up/products to buy and I always like trying new things. It seems like a good trial option, and it's only $10 a month. It'll be a nice treat for me every month. I'll let you know how it goes.

What are all of your resolutions? 

A Very DIY Christmas: Day 3

Yes, yes, I know. I skipped Day 2. Sorry. I babysat yesterday. And went out to dinner. And bought supplies for today's DIY project.

Today's DIY project originally comes from Eddie Ross (via pintrest)

I successfully made a homemade wreath. And it only took about 2 hours and about $9.
Here are the supplies:

• 8 tubes of dollar store ornaments (I only used 7 tubes worth)
• 1 wire hanger
• 1 roll of wired ribbon (I couldn't decide between the two, I also suggest a opaque pattern)
• 1 glue gun (I used about 1-1/2 sticks)

*Note* In the future I would probably suck it up and get regular ornaments/ shatter proof ones, I got what I paid for at the dollar store.

Step 1: Make the hanger round

Step 2: carefully open the hanger up (it's easier than you would think)

Step 3: Gather ornaments and hot glue tops to ornament

I put them in a bag so the glitter didn't get everywhere, right away...

A little dab will do.

Step 4: slide ornaments onto hanger

Step 5: Voila!

It took about 80 ornaments. I used the hanger hook as the door hook. Unfortunately, my wreath could not stay on my door :-( There wasn't enough room between the door and the glass "screen" door.
I hung it outside, but we'll see if it lasts. The hooks on the ornaments are pretty cheap and break easily. I might have to bring it back inside.

It was a really easy project and I'm really happy how it turned out. Perhaps over the summer I shall seek out garage sale ornaments to make a fancier one.

Now, off to the store so I can start the baking frenzy! (and more babysitting tonight, but I think I'll bring some gingerbread for them to decorate!)

Happy DIYing!

A Very DIY Christmas: Day 1

Mark took the day off today and told me he decided I should have a real tree.

So off we went. And we came back with this darling tree.

Cute no? I'm waiting until the branches drop before I start decorating. And lights. We might score some for free from Mark's dad :-)
Now I just have to figure out where to get a cheap, round table cloth, so I can get a tree skirt going. Also on the list today, X-mas cards. Unfortunately, I will not be DIYing these, but I AM planning on making adorable labels :-)

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get to the dollar tree to get some ornaments for a wreath. Hopefully I'll remember to take pictures of my projects.

The next week will be filled with gift-making.
Does anyone have any ideas for DIY gifts for men? I always have trouble finding something for my dad.

Here I come a waffling

So Mark and I recently bought ourselves a waffle maker.
BEST. DECISION. EVER.

We made some delicious regular waffles the first time.

But today we made...

That's right. Cinnamon Roll Waffles.
With Cream Cheese Icing.
So Delicious.
So Easy.
1 can cinnamon rolls (w/icing)
1 waffle iron

That simple.

Apparently you can waffle just about everything.
Like brownies, grilled paninis, hash browns, etc.
I am excited to start experimenting with waffling things. I think Mark is too.

Yay for my waffle iron!

1 quarter down, Christmas to go

Okay so it's been a while.
Grad school has basically been kicking my butt for the past few weeks. (I did get 100% in anatomy though.) Now, I am finally done for the quarter. So far things are going smoothly. I even think I did well in the class from hell, aka language development.
Now that classes are over I am free to make the house EXPLODE with Christmas. Between my mother and I we could decorate oh, lets say an entire neighborhood to be conservative. I really wanted to get a real tree this year but, A) Mark is never around and I'm not going by myself, and B) my parents had an extra fake tree that they didn't want cluttering up their garage.
My mom did buy me a little real tree as a consolation

It's cute :-)

I am starting to make my list of Christmas projects (thank you Pinterest)
I'm DIYing the heck out of Christmas this year. Here are a few of my hopes and dreams:

• Christmas stockings for Mark and me 
• Tree skirt. There are two I can't decide between...
• No-Sew Ruffle
• Ruched Tree Skirt
• Holiday card boards 
• Bacon Ornament for Mark (see it here!)
• Coasters for family and friends
• Ornaments for my Mom
• Pillow covers for my Nana
• A wreath (also cannot decide, probably this one)

And of course Cookies! (and candy, of course) I won't bore you with the entire list of what I'm hoping to make, but here are a few:

• fudge (all types: peppermint, marshmallow, maybe some peanut butter)
• Mexican wedding cookies (aka Russian Tea cookies, pecan sandies)
• Peanut butter kiss cookies
• good ol' chocolate chip
• peppermint bark
• oreo balls (aka Reindeer poop)

Just to name a few...

I have a few other revelations, but I'll save those for another post.

Happy Holidays!

Wife Rating

Yes, you read correctly "Wife Rating"
"What the hell is that?!" You may ask, well I shall tell you.
Recently, a fellow student came up to one of my other fellow students and said "Katie, you're married right?" (Side note: this was funny because Katie and I were talking about marriage) Our fellow student preceded to show us this:

Interesting, no? Now, you must be saying to yourself, "this looks like it's from 'back in the day.'" And, well, you're right! (1939 to be exact!) I find it so funny now too look at this, and I even asked Boyfriend to give me a rating. He laughed when I told him to be honest. I got a 10, by the way. That's "Very Poor (failures)"
But really, who uses the word 'demerit' any more? Do I need to go get my dunce hat and sit in the corner?
To be fair, according to the article there was a woman's version too. But what would that have had on it?
Merits:
Makes money
Does not talk to you or engage your children
Does not beat you
Pretends to enjoy your cooking
Watches TV and relaxes when he comes home
Comes to bed ready

Demerits:
Does not dress in a suit
Does not buy you nice things
Leaves cigarette butts around the house
Is a drunk

Feel free to brainstorm with me here, since the article did not show us the wife rating the husband version I'm curious.

Cupcakes, Camping and Caves

Another week and grad school is slowly beating my morale down. Although, I did better on my recent quizzes than I thought I would.
Luckily, this weekend Mark and I were able to have a nice getaway in southwest Wisconsin. A weekend of technology-less communing with nature and rucus RV-camping neighbors.
Although it was chilly, and rather windy, the weekend was pleasant and enjoyable. AND hiking yielded these views:

Yes, It was lovely :-) and might I say that the boyfriend gets major points for being a manly man. (and for carrying all my stuff in his tiny backpack)

After our woody adventure we decided we would hike to a nearby attraction that said it was just off of a major hiking trail. Not true. We had to hike all the way back to the car and drive. In hindsight, this was probably better.
We found ourselves at one of the more delightful Southwest Wisconsin tourist traps- Cave of the Mounds. View their website here. The cool thing is that this is a real cave in the side one of the Blue Mounds just outside of (West-ish) Madison. It's something you don't see in this part of the country. Here are some awesome pictures from that adventure as well.

the weird veiny thing on the top is cave bacon or ribbon stalactites

Cave dome where sulfuric acid bubbled up a long time ago

Cave coral and a small lake

Rock "waterfall" although it's really rough

Stalactite

Stalactites and Stalagmites

It goes really far back

A dome. I think there's some cave bacon in there too.

And last but not least for this post, as promised by the title, cupcakes. Last weekend I made those dark chocolate ones again and this time i put marshmallow and caramel on them... they very VERY messy, but very delicious. :-)