2011 in Pictures

With 2012 right around the corner, I thought I would take a little bit of time to reflect on 2011 and share my year in pictures with you.

January - Kick off the year in Atlanta at Passion 2011 with 20,000 other college students

January - After having a white Christmas, we get more snow in January and the first week of classes gets cancelled!

February - Tour the grand state of South Carolina with CU Singers to recruit!

February - celebrate 2 years with Andrew. There he his hula hooping his little heart out in downtown Greenville - can you see why I like him? 

March - meet designer Carmen Marc Valvo!

March - Attend a wedding in Charleston over spring break

April - run our first 5K

Easter

May - start my last summer break by going to the beach with some friends for a few days

June - visit the beach again with the fam (plus a few friends)

July - Andrew is a groomsmen for the first time in his old roommate's wedding. Cue the beginning of many engagements. 

August - visit Colorado with Andrew's family

Colorado

September - Attend the ring ceremony and get my class ring! This is me and President Barker showing off our rings.

September - November - attend lots of Clemson home football games

November - bike the Swamp Rabbit Trail with the roomies

November - our last home football game as students :( Clemson goes undefeated at home this year!

December - After a less than stellar game against the Gamecocks a week earlier, Clemson comes back and wins the ACC Championship in Charlotte.

2012 will be my year of transition - graduate college, hopefully get a job and go into the real world. Scary to think about but exciting at the same time. I can't wait to see what God has in store for me this year!

25 Ways to Wear a Scarf

I came across this video the other day and wanted to share it. 25 ways to wear a scarf in 4.5 minutes. This girl shows us how to do each one. She does go pretty fast, but it's easy to pause the video at the one you want to learn and watch her do it slowly. Some of my favorites are The Celebrity, The Hidden Knot, The Magic Trick and The Braid. Not only is the video helpful, but she makes it entertaining to watch. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

Hello blogger friends! Sorry it's been a while since I've posted. Over the past few weeks I've been finishing up school, Christmas shopping, working, catching up with friends while I'm home and lots of other fun things. I will say this "break" has been the busiest break I've ever had! I'm looking forward to some downtime after Christmas. Unfortunately, I have not had much time to do any Christmas crafts :(  I have a done a little baking and will update the blog soon!

My family also got a new little puppy last week. Our lab of 10 years died about a month ago from liver failure. Everyone missed him a lot so we started looking for a little Christmas puppy. We found one nearby that we were interested in and ended up getting her. Here are some pictures of little Kinley.

Isn't she the cutest? I promise I won't let her start taking over the blog though. I just wanted to post a few pictures to show you :)

Hopefully I will be posting again soon! 

Merry Christmas!

Cranberry Salsa Cream Cheese Dip

I came across this recipe on Pinterest a while back and was waiting for the right occasion to make it. I originally planned to make it as an appetizer for Thanksgiving, but ended up making it for a football game a fews days after. It was a huge hit and super easy to make.

It only takes about 15-20 minutes to put together and then is supposed to sit in the fridge for four hours. However, I didn't read that part until I had already made the salsa and kick-off was 2 hours away. It only sat in the fridge for about 2 hours and was perfectly fine. I also only used one package of cream cheese for the base layer and took the jalapeno seeds out since I'm not a  huge fan of spicy food. The recipe comes from a blog called Jamie Cooks It Up! Definitely will be making this for some holiday parties.

Cranberry Salsa Cream Cheese Dip
1  12 oz package fresh cranberries
1/4 C green onion, chopped
1/4 C cilantro, chopped
1 small jalapeno pepper
1 1/4 C sugar
1/4 t cumin
2 T lemon juice
dash salt
2  8 oz packages cream cheese
  
1. Put your cranberries in a food processor. 
2. Chop up your green onion, cilantro, and jalapeno pepper into small pieces. Take the seeds out if you don't like spicy foods. Also, be sure to put on a pair of rubber gloves or something when taking them out. 
3. Add all ingredients (but the cream cheese and the wheat thins) into a bowl. Mix them all together, cover and store in the fridge for at least 4 hours. The sugar needs some time to soak in to the cranberries and break up their bitter taste.   
4. When you are ready to serve, place your cream cheese bricks on a plate.
5. Spread the cream cheese out as evenly as you can.
6. Pour your cranberry mixture over the cream cheese.
7. Spread it all around.
8. Serve immediately with Wheat Thins, Ritz Crackers or Tortilla Chips.