Practice Makes Perfect

Since getting my new camera, I’ve been reading a lot of websites and books and taking my Nikon class in my “free time” to get acquainted with my new toy.  Am I a photographer? No way!  But photography is something that I have always enjoyed and I wanted to further develop my skills.  Will I ever be professional? Absolutely not, nor is it something that I aspire to be.   I’m just a simple gal with a hobby in photography. 

A couple weekends ago, the Mr took me around Houston so that I could practice.  I was really interested in practicing on my weak areas: lighting and angles.  Since it has been a while since I’ve shown you some progress pictures, I thought I’d share with you some of my favorite pictures I took that weekend. Again, none of these pictures have been edited so that I can monitor how familiar I am getting with my new camera.

Things are finally starting to look alive in Houston…just in time for fall lolThat’s Phil and Tomlin in the background.

I may be reading a bit much into this picture, but I feel like it’s definitely a metaphor for my life these days.  The Houston Medical Center, where I work, is in the background, but the focus is on the Mr :-)Stumbled upon a beautiful butterfly :-)Tomlin is getting pretty good with being my go-to model.  When I say “smile,” she looks right at the camera.  lolThose birds looked so peaceful & happy until Tomlin came along.  At least it gave me plenty of opportunities to work with “action” shots. Ha! This church will always hold a special place in my heart.  Maybe I’ll share that story with y’all some day.

I feel like I’m getting more confident and imagining the picture better, but I definitely still have TONS to learn!

What I’m Lovin’ Wednesday: My Sister

“Sometimes in life there really are bonds formed that can never be broken. Sometimes you really can find that one person who will stand by you no matter what; maybe you’ll find it in a spouse and celebrate it with your dream wedding, but there is also the chance that the one person you can count on for a lifetime, the one person who knows you, sometimes better than you know yourself, is the same person who's been standing beside you all along”

Why Tomlin?

Yes, Tomlin is a girl.

No, she was not named after Lily Tomlin or Chris Tomlin.

She was named after the fantastic Mike Tomlin.

Yep, we are serious Steelers fans.

Of all the Steelers paraphernalia around our house, nothing speaks louder to our fanship (is that a word? I guess it is now) than our pup’s name.

Don’t you think she looks like a “Tomlin”?

You don’t?

How about now?

Can you see the resemblance?

hehehe :-)

Ooey Gooey Cinnamon Buns :-)

Remember last week when I asked you if you wanted to know what a bag of cinnamon chips was all about?  Well I was guest posting over at Sarah's amazing blog: Total Basset Case.  However, in case you missed my post, here it is again for ya.  But make sure that you go check out Sarah's blog, you're gunna love her and her adorable pup Floyd!

Last week I made breakfast for dinner and of course I needed a sweet treat to finish off the meal.  I had pinned these delicious looking cinnamon rolls on pinterest and decided this was the perfect time to try them.

They look fabulously sweet and gooey, right?

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups heavy cream, divided
1/2 cup cinnamon chips
3/4 cup confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 425°F and grease an 8 x 8-inch baking pan.  I lined mine pan with parchment paper just to make life easier.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Add in 1 1/2 cups of the heavy cream to form a sticky but firm dough.  I ended up using my fingers to get everything incorporated.  Be sure not to over mix though.  Cover your counters with wax paper (so the dough doesn’t stick) and form the dought into a long rectangle.

It doesn’t have to be perfect or pretty.

Divide the dough into 8 equal parts.  Place 4 of the pieces into your pan, and using a spoon, make a bowl in the middle of each biscuit.  Fill each biscuit bowl with about a tablespoon of cinnamon chips. 
I have baked for years, but this was my first time using cinnamon chips.  I was scared of them, but don’t worry; they’re delicious!  Don’t be scared!
Cover your 4 biscuit bowls with the 4 remaining pieces of dough. Pinch the edges of each biscuit so that no cinnamon chips can escape.  Top off the closed biscuits with any remaining cinnamon chips.

Bake for 14 minutes- until the biscuits are barely golden, but are still cooked all the way through.  As soon as you remove them from the oven, smudge the hot cinnamon chips across the top of the biscuits.

Again, this step does not have to be pretty. 

While the biscuits are cooling a little bit, whisk together the rest of the cream, sugar, and vanilla.  Pour the glaze over top of the biscuits.  You probably don’t want to use all of the glaze, unless you live with a dentist.   It’s *very* sweet. 

Dig in!

They look delicious, don’t they?!

They’re irresistible!  I hope you try them and love them as much as we did!

Recipe from The Kitchn.

A Hawley Halloween

Good ‘ole Abraham Lincoln, Adele, and a dinosaur walk into a bar.

Sounds like a really bad joke right?

I think so too! hahahaha

Well, that’s what the Hawley’s were for Halloween this year.  I figured that I better post about it now before it was Christmas when I finally got around to it.

If you know my hubby, you know that he grows out his beard every October for Octoberstache.  So every year we have to find a clever way to incorporate the beard/mustache into his costume.  This year he was out of town and we didn’t know if he would be back in time for Halloween or not.  This is all we came up with…..clearly we don’t think well on the spot.  lol  This is my Abraham Lincoln.

I am not a fan of Halloween.  I don’t even have a good reason why I dislike it.  I just don’t.  I never plan on dressing up, so this year was yet another last minute “what can I throw together?!”  costume.  So I was Adele :-)

Tomlin was the only Hawley that had a costume weeks in advance and actually got to wear it several times. Doesn’t she make the cutest dinosaur you’ve ever seen?!

We had a great Halloween, that was very low-key.  We took a walk around the neighborhood and enjoyed hearing all the “trick or treat” chants and the giggles of children hopped up on candy.

Hope you had a great Halloween too!

What I’m Lovin’ Wednesday: Red Envelope Gifts

I am a huge Etsy fan.  Nothing comes close to a handmade gift...and jewelry is even better ;-)  Last week I hit the jackpot with a fabulous new favorite Etsy shop: Red Envelop Gifts.  I bought this necklace and had the  Mr and my initial put on the leaves…because we’re lovebirds of course. 

Super cute right?

I love my birds, and I’m head over heels for my hubby, so this is the perfect combination :-)

  Red Envelop Gifts has many more great items that you’ve got to check out.  Let me entice you with some of my favorites that I’ve got my eyes on:
Seriously y’all, stop reading & click over and see the awesome pieces of jewelry!  lol Think about all the awesome Christmas presents you could get :-) Plus they’ve got a great THANKS sale going on!!! OOOOO-lala!

Have a great Wednesday!

I was not paid for this post; all of these comments are completely my own.

What time is it?

My lovely bloggy friend Mrs Pancakes posted about this and I thought it was a fabulous idea.  In fact, it’s such a fabulous idea that I had to be a copier. hehe

I once showed you the “chairs of my days” so that you could see where I was when I’m was chatting with you, but this time it’s your turn. With the time change yesterday, it’s the perfect time to do this (pun intended).

So leave me a comment & answer these 3 questions:

1. Where are you & what time is it?

2. What are you doing?

3. Describe how you’re feeling at this moment.

I’ll go first:

1. I am in Houston, TX and it is 4:35pm.

2. I am writing lectures for this week on the couch while I listen to football.

3.  I’m a little sad, OK very sad, that the weekend is over; hubs and I had such a fabulous weekend.  It was the first weekend that neither of us worked in months (yes, months!).  I’m pretty stressed about this week since I will be traveling for work and I have to get things prepared before I leave.  I’m very excited that I will get to see my mom and sister next weekend while I’m away on business (it will be the first time I have seen them since last Christmas!!!)

Here I am, writing to you on the couch.

Ok you’re turn, leave me a comment and tell me about you and what you’re doing right at this very moment :-)

Have a great week!

Pumpkin Muffins

Guess what?! 

I'm guest posting today over at Confessions from a Southern Socialite.

My gorgeous friend Joy invited me to share something special about the holidays in our family.  

I knew I had to share my Pumpkin Muffin recipe.

Please go check out her fabulous blog and leave her some blog lovin'

Hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend!

Steeler Nation in Houston

Ever since Phil and I moved to Houston we’ve been waiting for the Steelers to play the Texan’s in Houston.  This year our wait was over.  Despite the horrid final score, we have fabulous seats and had a blastie-blast!
We may not have won the game, but we loved to see our team: we love ‘em when we’re high, and we love ‘em when we’re low :-) Go Steelers!!!!!

What I’m Lovin’ Wednesday: Jewelry Thingy

I have no idea what you call these things, but I see them everywhere.  It’s not a jewelry box, but it holds jewelry.  It’s like a decorative jewelry holder or something. While I see these thingies all over the place, I’ve never seen one that I  just had to have.  Until a couple weeks ago.

We all know I have this weird fascination with birds; a fascination I can’t even explain myself.  So of course when I saw this bird thingy, it was tossed into my basket before I even looked at the price tag.  Call it jewelry-thingie-love-at-first sight <3  Thank goodness it was only $6 lol

I put it on top of the armoire in our bedroom.  What do you think?

{{Scarfament}}

Scarfament…never heard of it?  It’s new to me too and I’ve got to share it with you, but you have to hurry because there isn’t much time left.

We all love giving gifts.

We all love receiving gifts.

We all love scarves.

We all love ornaments.

All of these things combine for the Scarfament party of the year :-)

Visit Danielle at Take Heart to see how you can participate in the scarf and ornament swap, but you’ve got to hurry and do it by this Friday (11/4/11)!!!