Chris caught it; She sketched it

You may have read here about how I had a homeowner victory about finding an affordable slipcover for our sofa. Well that's not the only upgrade our living room has received recently. 

Last August, Chris and Jack went fishing on the Missouri River in Montana. During that trip, Chris caught a very large fish. For Christmas, Mom and Jack had that fish commissioned in watercolor to scale by the artist Sketch and Release. She takes measurements from photos of fish and recreates them to scale in a piece of art. 

Chris received his sketch a little time after Christmas, and I wanted it to be framed soon so we wouldn't mess it up. 

Here it is while I was choosing the matte and frame. 

Here it is hanging over our newly slipcovered couch!

On the piece of art, the artist captures the details such as: 23 inch rainbow trout caught by Christopher Cook at the Missouri River in Montana on August 14, 2011. 

I think it looks great!

But what happened to the artwork that was hanging above our couch? They were exiled to the downstairs guest bathroom. 

Here's one more of the fish!

Christmas!

Christmas morning began with a cup of coffee in my Christmas mug with matching spoon. 

Chris watched his traditional Christmas morning movie: A Christmas Story

Then it was time for presents!

(Be aware that these photos are pre-shower. I mean, who can postpone present opening for a shower?)

Here are some highlights:

A dress,  chili pepper lights and chili spices from my dad:

From Kathy, a beautiful purse, which I'm using right now:

Super cute measuring cups from Laura:

I gave Chris a mug with several pictures of Grace on it:

And then for his big gift

A new razor! Ahhh

Chris gave me a rain jacket, which I truly needed on our vacation, a polarized lens for my camera, again great for our vacation, and socks.

Don't laugh. This girl begs for socks every year. I truly do! I can't get enough cute socks. However, they must be Gold-Toe socks. I'm probably the only person excited to receive socks, I know!

Porter didn't necessarily get a gift this Christmas, but a living room full of wrapping paper, tape and trash makes for a happy cat.

Then it was time to give Grace her yearly gift. Her birthday is actually Christmas Eve, and I always buy her a soft animal toy with a squeaker in it. Usually she tears into it in 5 seconds, rips out the squeaker and carries around the un-stuffed animal the rest of the year. 

It was year of the bunny this year: 

Surprisingly,  she seemed to love it, and it has become more of her baby doll than a rough, hunting toy. See, she's kissing it. 

Porter soon grew tired of the activities and found something to lay on. 

After we ate, it was time to pack and head on our family vacation.

What's better than Christmas? 

Having a week-long vacation to recover from Christmas!

Let's Play

Our creative friends got together for a dirty santa potluck party. Dirty Santa means as you open gifts, you can steal someone's gift they've already opened or open a new one. The theme of all the gifts had to be "play." 

 

We knew it was going to be a good night early on because Chris and Darrin matched! They must have called each other beforehand to coordinate. 

Everyone brought a dish, and it was a delicious meal.

Hey Jenny and Laura!

Hey Laura and Kendra!

After we ate, the gifts were opened. Darrin drew number 1, and so he got to go first. I think he was happy.

Let's pause to look at this next photo. In my opinion, Jenny, me and Laura are some cute ladies. How in the world, did each of us make such strange faces at one time, and have it captured on camera? Seriously. This may never happen again. It's cracking me up. 

Hey Brittany and Clay!

Antonio, Meghan, Stephanie and Megan made for one good-looking corner of the room. 

Chris' gift was awesome, and apparently shocking to him.

Kendra loved her gift card. 

I'm glad we're all friends so we can get together and play all the games people got. 

Megan got some lottery tickets. Wonder if she won any loot? 

Here I am opening my chosen gift. 

"Don't you take my gift cards, Allison." 

I think Jenny opened almost all of the presents that night. Hers kept getting stolen by other people. 

The girls!

The group shot, taken by Chris. 

The group shot taken with a tabletop tripod. Not terrible. Next time guys, we'll put the tripod on the actual dining room table and stand in front of the big window. Duh. 

And then Matt began Swan Lake. 

Or just mayhem in general.

They finally got it together. Some good-looking men. 

Say goodnight Megan and Kendra!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! 

Take some time out to play with the ones you love.

Wha Tcha Bin Up Ta

Hey there reader!

Are you looking for my Shutterfly post? 

Run on over to my new blog: www.TheMuddyTruthReviews.blogspot.com

It's got all the great information you're looking for, a slide show and more!

Go on now. 

Get!

After Five Long Years...

After five years of marriage, I deserve a treat. I deserve a treat that I had been talking about for a while, but it was quite a splurge. I deserve a brand new, fancy camera!!

Christopher and my five-year anniversary is actually June 11th. However, two weeks ago we were traveling to my folks' farm for a long weekend, and Chris really wanted me to have the camera to play with there. (See the results here!). Chris had been secretly stashing away money for my present, and Wednesday before we left on the plane, he told me to set aside two hours of the day. He told me we had to run an errand, and when we got in the car, he said we were going to get my anniversary present. 

Usually, I'm very traditional about presents. I like presents on the day of the event; I don't like any hints; I LIKED to be surprised. But when we pulled up to Wolf Camera, I knew I'd be okay with getting my present early. 

I was really happy with the guy we worked with, and he listened to what I wanted. I know there is plenty of discussion between Cannons and Nikons, so we'll leave that alone. I decided on the NikonD5000 because it had high-definition video (really wanted this feature because my little point-and-shoot has video, and I use it all the time), vibration-reduction interchangeable lenses, lots of automatic scene-specific settings, and the swivel screen is nice if you're taking photos of very low items and very high items--the latter is especially good for short folks like me. 

So far, I am really loving it. I'm pretty much sticking to the different automatic modes on it, but along with our purchase, we got several free camera classes. I'll definitely be taking part in those.

 

The 55mm lens came with it, and we also got the 200mm lens.

Here are a few more of my favorite shots so far.  

Thanks, Chris!