Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Christmas 2019

My family doesn't and has never celebrated Christmas, I was born and raised Muslim, Jeff converted to Islam and even though the only holidays we celebrate is Eid we do participate in Christmas due to his side of the family celebrating it. My in-law's would always decorate their house and we would visit them.

This year I decided to get a tree but wouldn't just limit it to Christmas. I've seen on Pinterest people decorate it for all kinds of holidays. I could do 4th of July, Summer with sunflowers and I have a few ideas for Eid! I personally don't fancy the whole red and green color scheme of Christmas. I love silver though. Silver reminds me of early morning frost. When the sun rises after a night of snowfall and it shines and glimmers off the beautiful winter wonderland. Shine bright like a diamond! 


 Some other decorations was the mini tree in the center I bought from Michaels for $10, the deer frame was $7 and the mini ornaments were from Target for $3!


My mother-in-law has a dear friend Aunt Winnie who made me this gorgeous ornamental spider with a purple head and legs. She knows purple is my favorite color and oh gosh love at first sight. I've named this spider Violet and she is my pretty pearl. The silver xbox controller I bought in 2018 if I recall correctly, fits perfectly with my theme and with Jeff and I since we're gamers! ;)


We went to Holiday Mart, they held it at a convention center that housed vendors that sold different christmas decorations. That was a lot of fun too! My mother-in-law bought me some nice custom ornaments from there! I love how our kitties are incorporated into the ornament. It's the shape of a donut which is a perfect fit since my husband's family owns a donut business. It has Jeff and I as well as Jeff's black cat Enzo and Meeka as the white cat. The name Taylor's is written on it but I have kept my maiden name to honor my father.


The cats, Meeka and Enzo enjoyed spending time under the tree. I hung a little tree freshener to keep the cats away, it had an odor like a fir tree which they didn't like but I did. It stopped them from climbing the tree but didn't stop them from sitting underneath it. I think it felt like a cave with lights for them and they stared up at the twinkling tree.  Meeka is such a proper lady and delicately stepped over the presents being careful not to rip anything whereas Enzo clumsily scampered over anything jumping and fumbling his way around.


I added a white tablecloth to our dining table to give it a brightness in resemblance to snow. Our blue mats went perfectly atop to match the blue highlights we have throughout the house. My mother-in-law gave me those silver centerpiece trees which go perfect with all the silver decor I have. On the banquet table in the dining table on the other side I added a nice sequin silver shimmer tablecloth. I bought a beautiful silver platter off Amazon to hold exclusively this sugar cookie fruit pizza I made. A recipe I learned from my older sister. 



One thing I did new this year was go on the holiday homes tour with my mother-in-law and her friends. It was so much fun to view the different homes and how they decorated for Christmas. I would love to open my home up one day to showcase my decorating talents! Plus you get to keep all the gorgeous floral arrangements which smelled absolutely divine! Nothing beats the smell of fresh flowers. 


My mother-in-law has invited me into her Bunko group which plays once a month at someone's house and it's a lot of fun! I'm not always able to attend because I have work but was able to make it for the Christmas one! For the month of December it was hosted at my aunt-in-law's house, Aunt Janette. That's her dog Wiley in the front, he wanted to be in the ladies only picture too. Winning was the cherry on top! 


I also visited The Littlest Bake Shop with my dear friend Sophie. It was nice to see her during the busy holiday month! This bakery has the most delicious vegan cupcakes. So so good! Definitely a try if you're in the area! 


Lastly we ended with our annual Christmas party with a great group of friends we have. This was our ladies picture. We all wore christmas outfits and had a merry good time playing games, eating snacks and catching up on good times we've had throughout the year!

The boys picture is a bit obnoxious and blurry too since my husband doesn't know how to send pictures correctly haha. That big cat picture has been floating around each year to a different couple, the gift that keeps on regifting. It's an inside joke within our group. :) 

Until next year!

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Halloween Party 2019

The first party we threw was a Halloween Party in our new home! We're still under renovations so to cover up the work-in-progress parts of the house I just threw white and black cobwebs all over to hide and it worked out really well! Apart from hosting couples for dinner now and again and a football party last year in our Condo this was the first huge party we've thrown. Jeff wanted to invite everyone we knew practically which without kids turned out to be around 60 people and 42 showed up! Still a great turn out!


This is some of the food I had prepared. I bought a Skull Pan from Michaels (my favorite store) and made Skull Pizza Bites filled with beef pepperoni. I also prepared Spider Pizza Bites, created with black olives. I had some guacamole in the Skull Platter as well as Finger and Mummy Hotdogs. I also had Brain Deviled Eggs and a 3 tier punch bar.  I bought vanilla and chocolate mini cupcakes from Target and Jeff's aunt made Ghost Cookies. 

Jeff was Fat Thor and I was Valkyrie. 

Top Left: Bad Cops, Brad & Shannon
Bottom Left: Deadpool & Black Widow, Ian & Cheryl
Top Right: The Dude The Big Lebowski & Dr. Quinzel, Justin & Sophie
Bottom Right: Top Gun, Ashley & TJ

Top Left: Trump & Wolverine, Jenny & Hunter
Bottom Left: Bonnie & Clyde, Matt & Celia
Top Right: Thelma & Shaggy, Ashley & Joel
Bottom Right: Mr & Mrs Incredible, Haley & Jose

Top Left: Vacationer & Vampire, My-Inlaws
Bottom Left: Chewbacca, Cousin Jimmy
Top Right: Witch & Einstein, Jeff's Aunt & Uncle
Bottom Right: Joe Dirt? Wonderwoman & Deadpool, Jeff's Cousins

Top Left: Indiana Jones, Sam
Bottom Left: Native American, Rodrigo
Top Right: Shark & Rabbit, Shawna & Quinn
Bottom Right: Lumberjack & Baseball Fan, Ashley & Date

My camera stopped working on my phone towards the end of the party so I didn't get to take a picture of everyone's outfits. Out of 42 people, I was able to capture 30 pictures so not bad! More than half anyways. It was a blast, everyone enjoyed themselves. Can't wait for Halloween 2020!

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Crepes & Pumpkins

My dear friend Sophie always finds the best spots to visit in Missouri (and Kansas). We try to get together once a month and visit a coffeehouse or tea place or just a cute cafe that serves fresh, delicious, healthy food that also has a statement or purpose and makes an impact in the community. That's a tall order yet she seems to always find places to fit the bill! :D All our adventures are her ideas! Grateful to have her in my life! 

On today's outing we decided to visit one of our favorite places Overflow Coffee located on 1005 Middlebrook Dr Suite E, Liberty MO 64068. They serve delicious crepes and equally delicious coffee! We're always trying something new on their menu. :) This is the second visit we've taken here!


I had the Banana Nutella Crepe and Sophie had the Strawberries and Cream. 
My drink was Apple Cider coffee which was oh so creamy! 

Sophie was so kind to get me a beautiful mug from this coffeeshop! 
I'll always have a memory of this place to remind me at home!

After filling our tummies with delicious food we headed out to Carolyn's Country Cousins Pumpkin Patch.

 The entrance to this magical wonderland!

They had such a wide selection of lovely pumpkins and gourds! So unique! 

We stopped by the animal barn first and fed some animals! They were so sweet! The goats were a little rambunctious! When you moved on they would ram the fence with their horns! 

We saw all kinds of animals! Donkeys, Goats, Sheep, Baby Calf, Rabbits and Piglets! 

 People may have their reservations about pigs, but they are so adorable! And honestly they were less stinky than the donkeys and sheep. They were so tiny with little pink noses and hooves.

They had some goats outside in a pen as well. These looked a little smaller, maybe nigerian dwarf goats? These look like the type I want! I have a whole Pinterest Board on these specific goats! 

 Oh but these darlings were my FAVORITE!!! I've been wanting Chickens forever! I could stay by them all day long. They were such cool colors! Correct me if I'm wrong but out of this flock I think I see a Rhode Island Red (dark brown), White Leghorn (white), Barred Plymouth Rock (black and white), Deleware (whitish brown - far left) anddd Buff Orpington (light brown). Those are my guesses. I hope I'm right in my chicken knowledge haha! 

Look at how happy I am! I'm pretty sure these are standard size chickens. 
They're kind of like the size of my cats at home! So cute and fluffy! 

 We also saw some Peacocks! They had a magnificent male that was preening himself and his lovely ladies.

They had so much to do at this farm! They had a little bouncy area with balls and farm animals you could bounce around on. We had fun with Juliana! A size for everyone, not just kids! 

 They had a massive bench and rocking chair! Made me feel small, like I was in a giant's world! This is probably how kids feel. It was awesome!! They should make a giant park, where everything is huge! :D

 They had two llamas (a cream one and a black one)
As well as a caramel colored Alpaca!
They had funny teeth. =P

They had SO much to do! Plenty of places to sit and chat, slides, jungle gyms, corn maze, hay stacks, rock climbing, a castle, so much I can't even remember it all! They had a couple of barns that sold some homemade crafts and other nick nacks. We bought some delicious fudge and I got some roasted almonds as well! 

 We took a lovely train ride towards the end after all of our activities. It was scenic and breezy! A great way to cool off and take in all the sights of this gorgeous adventure!

Sophie looking gorgeous throughout the whole trip! I look tuckered out! Haha. 
With every outing we take together we always try to get a memorabilia from the trip! 

I don't have children...YET! But I'm always collecting baby outfits for one one-day. They had the cutest onesies I just had to get one. I got a similar matching look alike t-shirt as well as a halloween decor item! I had so much fun (as always) with Sophie and Juliana! Can't wait till next time!