Mary-Kates Grad party and Sarah and Ally's sneeky pics

So James' wee baby sister, Mary-Kate, who is actually an adult and NOT a wee baby,  graduated from high school last spring. She had a supes cute grad party with her lovely friend Madeline and all was well with the world.

 Uncle Bud, Aunt Pat, Mary-Kate, and Aunt Martee on this, the day of MK's grad party.

 Tables under the tent. I set up some of those chairs. I knew some of you were wondering about that.

 Beverage options. I was really impressed by this for some reason. I took, like, 4 pics of it.

 I don't know why I took this picture. It's a bag full of sandwich buns. I think I was just snap-happy. Look at all these BUNS! WOW! So many!! We have to REMEMBER all the BUNS! Memories fade, but pictures last FOREVER!!! (I'm pretty sure this was my mindset at the time that this picture was taken)

This is their cake. It's pretty cute, too.

Ok, so this was all well and good, but grad parties last, like 5 hours, and their party was no exception. And let's be very clear, I love MK with the love of a thousand Elmos (Elmo has a pure love of the world, in my humble opinion, no matter how annoying "Elmo's World" theme song is), but I knew very few people, and my husband, he is a talker. And not about cool things like how to fake your own death, or what life would be like if we all had tails, rather, he tells new people the same facts about what he's doing now over and over. I mean, I love him with the love of even more Elmos, but I have a limit to how long I'll stand next to him while he does this.
So then I realized that James' other sister Sarah was looking bored, too... and she and I started goofing around with the camera. We call it "reverse photo-bomb". It's where you try to get in close next to a person and take a picture with them without them noticing. Here is a sample of our day's work at MK's grad party.

 Our first victim was Aunt Martee. It made us giggle so much that we decided to try it on more people. And thus, the afternoon was actually pretty fun. If you were at said grad party, look for yourself in the pictures! Think of it as a fun "Where's Waldo".

 This woman was talking to a person right behind me, allowing me this great shot.

 Seemingly unaware. Also, below is Sarah reverse photo-bombing her grandfather. Love the expression.

This is one of my favorites from the day. Yeah, that table had no idea! Also, look! some of the buns are in the bowl now! Yay!

 My husband telling something to this person, who doesn't understand why Sarah is standing that close to them.

 Yay! dessert table reverse photo-bomb!

 I'm sorry if no one else thinks these are funny, but they still make me laugh.

 Op! there she is in the back. and the blond girl in the back behind her is Madeline, whose grad party this also was. What a terrible way to phrase that sentence. Sorry. it was her party, too. That wasn't much better, but I think we can move on, now.

 

Don't be fooled, she was not part of this conversation.

So that was MK's grad party. And that's why I'm glad we brought our camera.

The Blue Twig Wreath: Part 1

So I'm an apartment dweller with little to no storage room, but I'm also a woman, a woman who needs to decorate. I like seasonal color schemes and kitschy-made-chic decor. I like spending money at Hobby Lobby, Michael's, Goodwill, and Antique Malls. I am Pinterest, hear me roar. Have I painted myself clearly enough?

Ok, so I wanted a wreath to hang and change per season, So i decided to go with a twig wreath, because I figured that would be the easiest to change out every couple months. I decided to paint it light blue just to make it a little more modern.

For my Autumnal design, I layed out ribbons and used a hot glue gun to attach silk fall leaves and sunflowers. The sunflowers were actually yellow silk daisies from my wedding decor, I just painted the center brown with craft paint. Once they dried, i tied the ribbons around the wreath in a pleasing way. easy-peasy.

This is my Christmas version. It was less time-intensive. I wrapped faux pine (the cheap-looking stuff from the Dollar Tree) around one part of my wreath, and then I added a nice thick plaid ribbon from Michael's, some pine cones from James' aunt's backyard, and a fake bird, again from the Dollar Tree.

 I'll add a picture of my next wreath as it comes out. I'm thinking valentines day colors of flowers and ribbons with glittery white snowflakes, but we'll see what I'm in the mood for when the time comes.

Colorado in October

A month ago, James and I went to Colorado for fall break. We visited my cousin Renee and her family, my dear friend Hannah, and his friends Matt and Matt and their ladies. Here are some snapshots of the trip:

This is Hannah, James and I at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. The combination of mild-to-light hiking, tiredness from our flight, elevation, and my general need to be in better physical condition caused me to breathe rather hard on this lovely little jaunt, but it was really fun. 

This is the view from right near my cousin's house. Beautiful.

This is James wearing a batman mask we found in a vintage clothing and costume shop on Pearl Street in Boulder. Right after this picture was taken, and older gentle-lady asked to buy it and another couple were asked not to take pictures in the shop.

This is a dress made out of tea bag wrappers in the lobby of Celestial Seasonings, my favorite tea company AND the factory we toured while in Boulder, CO. The tours are free and your ticket is a free sample (4 teabags of tea!). Plus, before and after the tour you can taste dozens and dozens of tea flavor, and they sell lots of cool goodies (as well as oodles of tea) in the gift shop. It's a tea-lovers paradise.

This is the smiley face bear pancake Matt H made me. His wife Amy made me a pumpkin latte. They're basically the best custom-made breakfast makers in the state of Colorado. They also hosted a "murder mystery" night with the other Matt and Brandi (not that there are two Brandis, too, but rather, that there are two Matts) with a stunning audio-visual (in the sense that there was a tape and scripts) kit they'd found earlier in the year. There were costumes, accusations, and faux murder plots.

So that was Colorado. Booya.

Thanksgiving with the McShanes

So this year for Thanksgiving, James' siblings and his aunt came down to celebrate with us in our humble apartment. Knowing that none of our family would be around for the holidays, I decorated early for Christmas:

this is my blue deer head. I got the pattern from Dorm Decor, and it was worth the money for the book and the shipping. It has a handful of really cool ideas and a bunch of patterns. The wreath is Dollar tree fake evergreens and Michael's ribbon. I'm all about plaid this year.

 Mason jars from our wedding filled with fake greens and bulb ornaments from the dollar tree. The picture is of my Grandpa and his two siblings in front of an evergreen, which I thought was seasonally appropriate.

 This is a wreath that i change out depending on the season. Fake bird and greens courtesy of the Dollar Tree, the ribbons are from Michaels, and the pinecones are from Aunt Martee's backyard.

 

This is just something weird I came up with. 

This is the what is currently hanging over the entryway to our hallway.

I did have one bit of thanksgiving decor that James helped me make. I got the dishtowel from Ikea and the paints are normal fabric paints.

Anyway, thanksgiving was a lot of fun. I baked my first pumpkin pie, James and I cooked our first turkey, we all played cards and other games, and watched football. A traditional thanksgiving was had by all.

Here's the whole T-givs gang.Sarah, Martee, Mary-Kate in the front, Kevin, Lady, James and Ally in the back. (from left to right...)

Introducing...Lady!

This is our dog Lady. She's a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, tri-color. She was born in mid-May, and she is potty trained. Here's her in a Mighty Ducks sweatshirt I made out of an old sweatshirt sleeve:

Her current favorite things are chasing her tail, chewing on rawhide, and napping on the couch. Recently, maybe due to the change in weather (baby, it's cold outside) she's been snoring. She gets pretty shivery outside when it's cold, so I've made her a couple sweatshirts for her walks and we got her the doggy-equivalent of a puff vest.

She also doesn't like stepping out in the wet or frozen ground, but I'm not sure I'm ready to buy/make her doggy shoes. I want her to remember that she's a dog, not a doll, but I don't want her to freeze to death. We'll have to see how she does during the first part of this winter.

You never get a second chance to make a first entry!

Hello friends and bitter rivals. My name is Ally, my husband's name is James, our dog's name is Lady, and this is our blog, which is designed to be the paparazzi we can't get to follow us around, on account of us not being celebs.

One of the main purposes of this blog is to keep the following types of humans updated on our well-being:
1. People who like us
2. People who love us
3. People who neither like NOR love us
4. People who are actively trying to destroy the very fibers of our well-being
5. People who wandered over to this blog on accident (hello! welcome!)

The other reason I started this blog is to have a place to show what kind of D.I.Y. projects I'm working on. Be prepared to have your mind blown, people (helmets are advised).

Alright, that seems like enough of an explanation. Please feel free to comment on any of the entries. You don't even have to be nice if you don't want to. I'll totally understand.

Ally Mac