2009...a year in review in pictures!

Wowza, I can hardly believe 2009 has come & gone so quickly. I remember when I first got engaged in May 2007 & we set a date for the wedding in 2009. I thought it would literally take FOREVER for 2009 to get here & now it's almost over! This was truly a year to remember...here is a review of some the significant things that happened in my life or in pop culture that had a major impact to my life:


January:

Ringing in New Years 2009 - our last as "singles"!

The historic inauguration of the 44th President of the United States (& my boss since I work for the Guhv-ment)!

Final dress fitting!

February:

My beautiful "something blue" bridal shower. :o)

 

Valentine's Day 2009

 

 (yes, I had braces then :oP)

My soon-to-be-hubby's 28th birthday!

(that's some sorta crazy shot the bartender made for him)

Eeeek! Our mouse attack! Which resulted in our Orkin contract, lol. 

March:

My Bachlorette Party!

Wedding rehearsal & rehearsal dinner.

TOP MOMENT OF THE YEAR - the day I married my best friend. :o)

 

 

 

Our dream honeymoon in the Dominican Republic

 

April:

My BFF's bridal shower!

May:

...And her bachlorette party!

My 26th birthday weekend!!

(my new 21 tattoo - surprise gift from the hubbs!)

(my bday BBQ)

 

(a nice lunch & museum trip in DC with the hubbs on Sunday)

My BFF's wedding day (also my 1st time in a bridal party)!

June:

My nephew's 1st birthday!

The death of the King of Pop. :o(

July:

4th of July, we celebrated it @ the hubb's cousin's house.

Summer BBQs!

August:

Family road trip/reunion in South Carolina!

My BFF's birthday dinner!

 

My BFF's pretty purple baby shower!

September: 

Labor Day weekend!

The birth of my BFF's baby girl!

October:

Getting Stella (my SUV)!

November:

Hosting our first married Thanksgiving (sorry forgot to take pics).

December:

Opening gifts with my hubby on Christmas Eve.

 

Hosting our first married Christmas breakfast (we hope to make it an annual tradition)!

Whew...that took waay longer to do than I expected! What an amazing & blessed 2009 for the Dennifers! There were some sad moments too, like the passing of MJ. Can't wait to start making memories in 2010! I want to thank everyone who reads my blog & all of the blog friends I have made thru out my few short months blogging. I hope to continue doing projects & posts that all of you enjoy reading about in 2010. I wish all of you a very safe & happy New Year! See you in 2010!

My master bath makeover is being featured over at the DIY Show Off today!!

The DIY Show Off is an awesome blog that my blog friend Roeshel created only a few months ago. I remember that I was one of the first 30 or so followers & today she has over 1,000!! She is a DIY genius (I have used many many of her projects as inspiration) & features both her beautiful room makeovers & other DIY'ers projects, crafts, room makeovers, etc. Today she selected my Master Bath Re-do project to feature & I'm so excited!! Head on over & check it out...and while you're at it, browse her site, there is a lot of DIY inspiration to be found!!

Thanks for the feature Roeshel & congrats again on all the success of the blog!

One more (last minute) Christmas craft!

I have been wanting to get new curtains & throw pillows for the sofas in our LR for the longest. I liked the orange, but it reminded me too much of the fall. After masterfully convincing begging the hubbs, I got approval to buy new curtains from one of my favorite places - JCP. Here is what I bought:

They are the Jewel-Tex Thermal II Window Coordinates & I got them in ivory beige. I haven't taken a photo of them up in my LR yet, but they look awesome!! And they match perfectly with my last crafty feat for this holiday season: DIY throw pillows!!

I got this cool & thrifty idea from Traci at "Beneath My Heart" & it is really ridiculously easy. I just headed over to one of my favorite discount stores - Burlington Coat Factory. But don't let the name fool you - Burlington has all sorts of goodies - from coats, to clothes, to baby stuff, to art, furniture & home decor. They have it all. So, first I picked up two chocolate brown throw pillows, then I found two festive place mats for my little project. I followed Traci's directions exactly, except I couldn't find any poly fill for the pillows, so I just took an old bed pillow, cut it open & used the filling from that for these beauties.

So easy & no sewing machine required! I got the placemats for $2.99 each & made two pillows, so this project only cost me $6.00!!

From the Dennifer Family to yours, we want to wish you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Woo hoo, I'm a winner!!

I follow a lot of amazing blogs, but one of my favorites (and I'm not just saying that because I won ;o) is Making Lemonade. Carrie is so creative & has the most adorable little girl!

At the beginning of this month, she posted about an awesome giveaway from Danielson Designs. And guess what...I WON!!!!!!!!!! Yippie!! I have never won a blog giveaway before & I'm so excited that I won this one - I really wanted one of the beautiful plaques over at Danielson Designs. So here is what I picked (the quote is what I will get, but that is not my last name):

I can't wait to get my prize - I have the perfect place for it in my house! Danielson Designs has a lot of beautiful plaques, frames & other decorative stuff for your house, it was sooo hard for me to pick just one thing, but I will probably be ordering more stuff from them in the future! You should definitely check them out too, I bet you will also find something you love! Thanks again Carrie for the awesome giveaway & if you have never visited Making Lemonade, head on over & check it out!

Snowed in = mini hot cocoa gift packs!

From top: houses on our street; back deck; measurement at about 10am.

We are officially snowed in today! We are supposed to get between 12-24 inches of snow - the most since the blizzard of 1996 (in Northern VA) & the big snow storm of 2003. Dizz has been having a ball in the snow...he likes to grab the snow in his mouth & throw it around, lol.

 Snow mustache!

Since I can't really go anywhere, I decided to finish up the mini hot cocoa gift packs I made for my family, co-workers & a few neighbors! I got the directions, template & recipe from this cute blog I read - Lolly Chops. I followed the recipe to the letter, but added 2 large marshmallows in each baggie so the recipients could plop them in their cups of hot cocoa! I did do a few things differently though in assembling the packs (see Lolly's directions for getting the baggies ready to fill):

Step 1 - get all the ingredients together & mix the hot cocoa mix:

Step 2 - fill the baggies with the mix:

Step 3 - plop two marshmallows on top of the mix:

 

Step 4 - use little rubber bands to close the baggies:

 

Step 5 -  (important) cut & fold template, place baggie inside & staple top of cover with the top of the baggie (so that the bag is attached to the top of the template/cover & does not slip around; I trimmed off any plastic sticking up from the top of the cover):

Step 6 - punch two holes at the top of each packet (with staple in the middle) & tie ribbon thru the holes to finish packet:

These were such a hit when I gave them to my co-workers & I bet my neighbors will love them just the same! Try it out, it's very easy, cute, cheap & fun to make!