happy new year!

happy new year from the kerrs!

i blog to document not because i love to document {in fact, paperwork really sucks in my opinion} but because i love love love looking back and reading about my life. 

even the dumbest of the dumb posts make me happy because they were real. sometimes reality is dumb and that's okay. sometimes it's hard. sometimes it's happy. sometimes it's scary. sometimes it's surprising.

it's just real, people, and i like it.

so in the spirit of looking back & remembering, here are my top favorite posts in 2011. this time surely you knew there'd be a list!

january -- when i started my etsy shop with these silly little cards. hey! they sold in just a few days! i think that was God's way of sending me some encouragement.

february -- when i made these cute little imperfect embroidery hoops. still hanging in our apartment.

march -- remembering hiking dates with ben when we lived in the mountains.

april -- making peanut butter grahams for ben. it just made me laugh that i blogged about it. i love it.

may -- date night in, with some seriously mouthwatering pizza pictures.

june -- remember how nervous i was about moving. God got us through that one with some seriously smooth sailing.

july -- becoming an aunt. didn't see that one coming did you? she's so little in those pictures.

august --when ben bought his monstrous headphones. still makes me laugh.

september -- my first craft show. enough said.

october -- ben starts school! yay for new adventures.

november -- celebrating our first year of marriage and all the lesson we've learned along the way.

december -- living room camp out. so ben-and-jordyn-esque of us.

here's to having just as much {if not more} fun, learning valuable lessons & spending time with the ones we love in 2012!

p.s. our christmas tree & all decorations are still up. go ahead, judge us.

home is where my heart is.

my home is making me so happy right now. so i thought i'd share.

a little christmas table decor. plus, some chocolate covered christmas joe joes. 

i don't bake cakes. but i'll gladly take three-fourths of my granny's various {delicious} cakes and put them in on my pretty cake stand. oh yeah, and that lonely lemon cupcake.

vintage milk glass bowl from katie with vintage cookie cutters from my mother-in-law. they know me too well. the cut up felt scraps make me happy too {they're leftover from my wedding bouquets}

time to make some new little calendars to go in my frame. bye-bye 2011. 

a little crafty card from my niece. it stays on top of the mail pile because it's my favorite.

tea with the hubs is always nice. twice as nice with some cute mugs.

i whipped up a little crafty-craft after shopping at paper-source. that store inspires me.

new espresso maker and fun mugs. ben really wanted the mugs.

new teapot thanks to a sweet target gift card. you must think we're caffeine-a-holics or something. maybe  we are, maybe we just like hot drinks.

i think the best thing about my home is who i share it with.

too much cheese for you? ha.

a christmas reflection: i love stuff.

you know, i got a lot of awesome stuff for christmas. really. 

i seem to start thinking christmas is all about the stuff. i'll even admit it, i love stuff. 

i love my espresso maker and my milk glass pieces. i love my cheese and my new plaid toms. i love chocolate, in all the forms that i received it, and i love the cold hard cash. shame on me for admitting it.

you do too, don't lie. 

but really, most of my favorite things from this season weren't tangible things at all. ben and i had a great, awesome, wonderful christmas. we traveled around & got to spend time with both families. we even had a little time just to ourselves. it was just perfect.

a few things that made me most happy include..
{you knew i'd make a list, i love lists}

-- watching other people opening their gifts. i most especially enjoyed watching ben pour out the goodies from his stocking. ben's top favorite stocking stuffers? comic books. spy glasses. boxers.

-- playing the little niece pass-a-long game. with a baby this cute, you just can't resist. but you do have to wait your turn.

-- foregoing all kinds of healthy eating habits and indulging in home cooking. bacon. steak. biscuits. cheese. bring it. besides, no one can say no to dad's gourmet christmas morning breakfast.

-- holiday cheesin' pictures. {and holiday cheesin picture retakes because nobody wants a bad picture on facebook}

-- going to the christmas eve service at my old church. getting to see all those familiar faces that i love & miss.

-- wearing matchy-matchy pajammies & slippers with my mom, just like when i lived at home.

-- riding in the car with my sweet husband, drinking hot tea from starbucks & singing christmas carols in funny voices.

-- hanging out with family and friends. talking. laughing. catching up. dodging nerf bullets. you know the usual. 

-- rejoicing in the fact that the God of universe, who created all of this beauty, wanted to come down and join us on earth, even though i'm selfish and materialistic (did you read the part about how i love stuff?), just because he wants a relationship with me (and you too). that's pretty cool if you ask me. pretty darn cool.

merry {after} christmas!

here's to enjoying the tangibles & intangibles this holiday season!

salted-caramel sauce.

i've got my fingers crossed that no one that i'm gifting this to is going to read my blog between now & christmas. 

i wanted to make some yummy but unique christmas gifts this year. cookies & sweets are great {seriously, you should see all sweets in our house right now} but i wanted to make something a little bit different. i found this recipe for salted caramel sauce on pinterest a long time ago. {i love salty-sweet stuff, by the way.} the idea of making caramel was pretty intimidating but, i'm always up for a challenge. i decided that i wanted to conquer this caramel sauce, and i did. 

go ahead, give me around of applause. now stop, because seriously, this stuff is not as hard to make you think. actually it's pretty easy. if you want a challenge, try making a rachel ray thirty-minute meal in less that forty-five minutes, don't make this easy caramel sauce. 

you're going to need

2 cups of sugar

1 cup of water

1 cup of heavy cream (warmed in microwave for about 45 seconds)

1/2 tablespoon of sea salt (more or less, whatever you like)

in a large pot, pour your water & sugar in. don't let the sugar touch the sides of the pot. heat on medium heat until the sugar dissolves. do not stir. 

when the sugar is all dissolved, clear & bubbly like this, turn your burner to high.

still no stirring!

it'll get even more bubbly & look white-ish. you have to watch it very, very carefully. hover over it and do not walk away. remember, no stirring! when it starts turning a golden-amber color take it off the heat immediately. {you can let it get a little darker than it is in this picture. i just didn't want to burn my caramel while taking the picture.}

pour in the heavy cream & stir. stir. stir. add salt. stir a little more. pour into your cute container. 

be careful! it's very hot! not a good idea to lick the spoon right away.

it's so good, for real.

i can't wait to share more homemade gifts after the holidays!

a gift for your teacher.

this week in teaching, i've learned that bath & bodyworks is the go-to store for buying your teacher a christmas gift.

the {growing} pile of smelly-good products from my kids is kind of cracking me up. ben thinks its a bit ridiculous {in a good way} but, hey, no complaining, a gift is a gift & i do love all the lotions & potions from b&bw {especially that peppermint lipgloss}.

oh the joys of being a teacher at christmas time.

living room camp out.

ben and i never claimed to be normal, i really need to preface this post with that.

have you ever had one of those weeks where you come home on your lunch break, chug coffee, and go back to work hoping you don't pull all your hair out? one of those weeks where you set up plastic animals around the classroom to 'watch' your students and make sure they're doing what they're supposed to be doing? the kind of week where you find yourself bribing students with said animals, puppets, legos, computers, basketballs, hula-hoops, etc? 

i hope not, because i'm finding out that those weeks are pretty exhausting.

don't get me wrong, my kids are great. they crack me up. they hug me all day long. usually a simple redirection works wonders. they have sweet little hearts and usually want to do the right thing. but a few new personalities have been thrown into my classroom and they seem to be throwing everyone for a loop.

ben on the other hand, is pulling his hair out over test after test after test. he's at the end of twenty-six and half hours of courses all crammed into ten weeks. basically, it's test time. last week. this week. next week. 

we're crazy. i tell you. crazy.

so this evening. i made cookies. cappuccino white chocolate cookies -- except i'm so crazy that i forgot to put in the white chocolate chips. ben set up our tent in our living room and inflated the air mattress. we piled in pillows and blankets galore. 

we ate cookies with milk. we watched t.v. on our computers. and we laughed. alot. 

that was just best kind of date for this kind of week.

and you know what else, i'm not even going to take down this stinking tent tonight. i'm also leaving the dishes in the sink. bam.

brown paper packages tied up with string.

how can you resist one of fraulein maria's favorite things? brown paper packages tied up with string. this year we turned our heads from the bright sparkly wrapping paper and the cute little gift tags and did this the old fashioned way {because in old fashion times i'm sure they had glue guns and pretty yarn and easy to use tape. right. we're old fashioned.}. we brown bagged it.

i made cutesy tags & attached a funky ornament to each gift. you may also notice that i recycled a trader joe's bag. why not?

i tried to add a little bit of handmade goodness to every gift. even if it's only the tag on the outside of a few of the gifts. incase you didn't know, i like a handmade touch.

i think it makes a gift just a little bit more special. 

it's a takes a little more time and even though you try to convince yourself that handmade will 'save us money!', it never really does. 

handmade gifts have that 'from-the-heart' element. maybe i'm sappy, i just really love from-the-heart gifts. the first christmas ben & i celebrated together, he made me the prettiest beaded necklace. it was green and blue and had this cute little leaf bead on the end. it was made just for me. you couldn't have found a better necklace on etsy to compliment my style. i loved it then and i still love it.

{also, i made ben pajama pants that year and they did not fit him right. i'm talking 'fred mertz come up to your boobies' kind of pajama pants. i think he may have worn them once or twice because he loves me. it's hard to sew pants that fit when you have to sneak around with measuring...}

happy hand-making & wrapping!