Happy New Year :)

Well, let's just say I'm real glad the holidays this year landed in a way that gave us Monday off of work. We spent today cleaning and being happy about our party on NYE. Lots of friends came over and it was a good time. We all walked to the park before midnight (a little stumbling parade of party hats and noise makers...joined by others who were on their way!) and watched the Space Needle fireworks.

Thankfully this cool person took a pretty good video - I was a little too focused on "wooooo"-ing to document:

Some pics from the beginning of the night:

For the early arrivals we had some Chambord Champagne - a great start!

The "tablescape" all ready to get some food on it.

Many thanks to Wendi for bringing over our NYE "flair" and helping make everything look spectacular.

I had fun making our chandelier 2012-i-fied...

I staged the End-of-the-Year-CDs on our coffee table, as well as some of "Annie's International Gifts and Treasures to share" (she was the unofficial Guest of Honor - Manilla was a long way to travel from - we were stoked to have her here!). And don't worry Michigan we received your CDs and I gathered up a batch to send your way!

I made these Peanut Butter Bon Bons (thanks again to Wendi for all the help) and I think they turned out pretty tasty. They were a bit labor intensive though so I'd need some strong encouragement if I was going to do that again...

Mom - the drink tower came in handy again. I didn't think we'd have any need for ANOTHER cocktail around but this thing is endlessly popular when there's water in it. What can I say, people like water. So we had two kinds.

I felt kindof indulgent when I bought this $10 ice bucket at Fred Meyer. But it's paid for itself since we've used it at just about every party since.

Riveting discussions, I'm sure :)

An end-of-the-night arty farty photo by Paula - I like how fancy this Chambord looks :)

Y'All it was a great time. I freakin' love this holiday. To 2012, and Sober January. CHEERS! Mwah!

Holiday Treats

Time to start thinking about Holiday Sweets!

A classic, which I love, because my mom made them through the years and they are the best ever - Nanaimo Bars! Recipe via KingArthurFlour:

Punch Bowl Trifle via Taste of Home:

Santa Hat Brownies - brilliant (via Sweet Tooth):

A pretty Chocolate Peppermint Roll (via BakersRoyale):

Elegant Christmas Tree Meringues:

I also heard a rumor that my favorite neighborhood bakery, Le Rêve, is making Buche de Noel this year! I'm super tempted to get one...

Happy Baking!

Weekend/Week Wrap-Up:

My mom and sister made this beautiful apple pie for Thanksgiving:

Martha-worthy, right?! They are truly talented cooks and made yet another fantastic dinner for all of us - I felt so lucky and grateful for them. Thanksgiving is such a huge undertaking and yet they make it every year happily while the rest of us get away with merely eating and washing some dishes! I plan to do my part in the future by contributing to Christmas feasts but until then I owe them...big time. I have so much to be grateful for this year...where to begin. Stay tuned for the annual "Happy Moments" post where y'all can join in with what you're grateful for and your happiest moments of 2011 :)

Better late than never?

The blog is in a SAD, SAD wasteland of no posts state, I know. Stick with me guys, it's a busy time for me right now.

In other news: the fiance are making one last push for wedding greatness and have been eating a little healthier and low-carb lately. I made these "eggplant pizzas" over spinach. They turned out pretty tasty! Mostly thanks to my already-made bolognese sauce that went on them.

I got this idea from none other than the queen of eating whole foods, KathEats: "Slice eggplant into discs, rub with olive oil and sprinkle with salt + pepper, bake for 20 minutes at 400*, flip eggplants, add tomato paste and then pile on tomatoes (draining slightly if yours are runny), Top with garlic, Italian seasoning and cheese, bake 10 minutes more."

Nice and filling without the pasta. Cheers, Y'all! Hoping to get back to regular posting once I'm done with school mid-December :)

Entertaining n' Stuff

A while back (before I had a job AND school on the agenda), I decided it would be brilliant to host a bachelorette party and then a ladies lunch the very next day. Hu-whaaa? Nawh, it actually all went smoothly and was a lot of fun.

Saturday night: hosting the starting line for the bachelorette party:

I made this Apple Cinnamon Sangria but without some of the fussiness (used more schnapps, didn't let it sit for 4 hours, skipped the "pisco" and honey). I tried to emulate this picture with my apples, but of course it doesn't look quite as perfect. Still cute though, I thought!

Of course we could not forget the obligatory laundry line of panties for the bride. We filed this entire line up with (mostly) impractical underwears :)

Good times were had by all. I know this, because I was a DD and have perfect memory of it all, which was delightful!

Sunday I hosted my first grown-up lunch for The Ladies. It was so much fun! I felt like a real grown-up lady. It was fun to give them all a tour of our house and catch up. It was also the perfect excuse for me to finally buy some of these French Macaroons from Le Rêve. They were a total hit...

I also got a Tuxedo Cake from Macrina and it was seriously good, You Guys. We have over half of it left so if you want to come over and have some please do so!!!

Sweet Toof

I don't know what's up with me lately but baked goods just look so AMAZING! Maybe it's the holidays coming?

Check out these awesome-looking goodies I want to bake:

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Cake

{via MyRecipes}

Colorful Spiral Cookies

{via SprinkleBakes}

Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars

{via TheGirlWhoAteEverything}

Sour Cream Chocolate Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

{via SavorySweetLife}

Chocolate Oreo Cream Cake

{via RealMomKitchen}

Grasshopper Brownie Bars

{via LoveAndOliveOil}

Candy Cane Cake

{via MyRecipes}

Hi Again

Wow so I guess I needed a little blog break! Hiatus = sometimes necessary. Lots of moving parts and pieces around our life lately, and I just really needed to step away from the internet and focus last week. A few things got accomplished that were on my to-do list forever!

1. Save-the-Dates are printed, and almost 100% addressed.
2. DJ has been booked.
3. Laundry, finally got done.
4. Scored some majorly overdue wardrobe staples just in time to get Macy's sale prices.
5. We found and bought some early Christmas gifts! (my goal is to be done by Thanksgiving - lofty, I know, it just makes December so much more enjoyable when that's done ahead of time).

Don't know about You Guys, but I'm really loving this time of year. I'm finding it hard not to get excited for Christmas too. Don't worry, I'll be over it by December and lusting for Summer by then. I'm just so good at living in the moment! (subtle sarcasm.) Anyway, how about some more fun Fall things?

How amazing does this Pull-Apart Cinnamon Pumpkin Bread look? {from Sunny-Side Up in SD}

I'm thinking about making this Honeycrisp Apple Sangria for my next shindig. {from Nutmeg Nanny}

Must make this Pumpkin Roll! {from Sprinkle Bakes - she has some amazing baking stuff on here}

Love this Apple Rose Pie. Utterly time-consuming, I'm sure. But what if you took each rosette and made little mini-pies instead? How adorable would that be?

You Guys, I LOVE acorns! They're a bit harder to find in the NW than they were on the East Coast, but if you start looking you can find acorn hot-spots :)

Check out how pretty this effect is - probably a bit messy, but great results! {via myblessedlife}

Later Dudes!

Ask MansionMogul: Sleepy?

Why so sleepy MansionMogul? It's 9:00am already! I am wearing yesterday's/no makeup and am a hot sleepy mess here but I just felt like talking to myself You Guys so I thought what the hey, let's do an Ask MM. Got some more fabulous questions from my friend Paula - she's really making y'all look bad! So thanks again P for the great questions, everybody keep 'em coming!



The Cord Solutions I Mentioned:

The Tailgate Ideas We Talked About:

Plaid makes everything classic and Fall-like.

Great presentation and easy to transport! {via loveandbutter}

KEBABZ! Love the French Toast ones - fab idea for an early morning tailgate. These antipasto skewers are classy or could be paired with a bloody mary tailgate theme...

Easy non-messy jalapeno poppers {from aisletoaloha}

Unrealistically adorable tailgate spread {via everydayoccasions}

Additionally:
List of The Essential Tailgating Recipes
and 9 Tailgating Menus

Easy Peasy Pizza

It's officially Fall which means it's officially ok to use the oven again. Yay easy pizza dinner!

I had this carmelized onion balsamic spread for a rainy day entertaining back-up, but decided to use it as the base of a goat cheese pizza. It was brilliant!

Seriously, I'm buying this stuff again. Layered it on TJ's ww pizza dough, with shredded chicken, red onion, spinach, goat cheese and herbs.

I also wanted to show you guys the pretty Fall flowers we got from the QA Farmer's Market last week. Love that place, wish they held it every day.

:)

Ask MansionMogul XI!

You Guys, the painting project I mention here has foreals been on my to-do list for OVER 4 years. Ridiculous.

And here's a link to Bunnies for Birthdays. So cute! Also: Via Tribunali.

Now I'm all outta questions for Ask MansionMogul so shoot me some more Y'All!

PITT.

Dudes! Pittsburgh was great. You know with friends you haven't seen in a while, it's just so much better to have more than a few hours to catch up. Life flies by!

First things first: we went to the Andy Warhol Museum. It was really cool and well done. Lots of cool Andy stuff that I had no idea about. And things that seemed relevantly irrelevant today (we had some arty farty discussions, it was fab).

I would totally recommend you go there if you ever visit Pittsburgh. Warhol really made some amazing important contributions. Here I am posing in the entrance...I need a new "standing pose"...people are catching on to my obvious knee bend.

Shannon's apartment is adorable! I love the stained glass. The architecture in this city is such a cool mix...I decided it's Baltimore meets Boston meets DC meets some elements of the Midwest.

Shannon is a cool grad student and she had some meetings one day - no biggie cuz I had lots of computer time that I needed to catch up on. Headed on over the the Coffee Tree (?I think) to laptop it. Lots of students hanging out in there. They are all so wholesome looking! "Hipster" has not hit Pittsburgh yet.

I got this "orangesicle" - this sounds lame but it was soooo good. I'll totally be trying to re-create one at home. Also, who still uses a flip phone? ugh.

Later we went to a brewery in an old church. So cool - Pittsburgh has a ton of restaurants that are in converted buildings: fire houses, gas stations, churches, etc. It's neat :)

The inside of The Church Brew Works was like a beer hall! See the altar? And all the beer being made up there?

I can't even remember which beer I got but it was the blonde girly one.

Then....Shannon took me to the famous, Primanti Brothers. Famous because the story goes that Primanti catered to truckers passing through, and they couldn't eat an entire complicated meal, so they just put the coleslaw & the fries all in the sandwich. It was a hit.

My cute friend Shannon.

Menu: everything is cheap. Remember that there are fries IN the sandwiches.

On recommendation of our server ("trust the fat guy", he said), I ordered the pastrami.

It was DIVINE. I ate the whole damn thing.

And that concludes Chapter One: My Visit to Pittsburgh. It was a blast. Stay tuned!