Just call me Suzy Homemaker!

Christmas candy has been a tradition in the Hankins family for a long time. Chocolate covered cherries, peanut butter balls, peanut clusters, tea time tassies, fudge, cookies...the list goes on and on.

Since I've been on my own, I have slowly been working my way up to the challenge of making all the goodies that my mom makes. Each year, I try to make something new in addition to what I did last year. It's been challenging since I've only been in an apartment with a serious lack of counter space. But...this year...I was able to spread out in our beautiful kitchen and get to work on Christmas candy.

The menu? Chocolate fudge, peanut butter fudge, peanut clusters, sugar cookies, tea time tassies...and the grand finale...Chocolate Covered Cherries!

The fudge and peanut clusters are a snap to make, thanks to the microwave (I don't make it on the stove - I'm a realist!) and they turned out delicious. This past Sunday, I went to work on the rest of candy. I used my KitchenAid mixer for the first time (and not without battle wounds - that sucker is heavy!), and I think it made everything taste better. After four hours, I had tea time tassies (mini pecan pies), sugar cookies, and the makings for the Chocolate Covered Cherries.

*I think this is a good time to add that I also did three loads of laundry and wore an apron during the cooking process. I joked with David that this is what life could be like if I was a stay-at-home wife. He then joked back and asked me what was for dinner. That promptly reminded me why I still work. ;)

Last night, I finished the Chocolate Covered Cherries, which is a success in itself. Those suckers are time consuming and as my mom says "A Process", but always worth the wait.

So, while I can't share all the goodies with you, I have posted pictures to make you jealous.

The kitchen during the candy making process...



Sugar cookies and Tea Time Tassies...



Charlotte, aka "Santa's Little Helper" (she sat by my side faithfully during the whole process). I wish I had antlers to put on her...



P.S. - Next year, I'm going to add Peanut Butter Balls to the list of Christmas candy...I think.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

...at the Fluty household!

I was so excited to decorate the house this year for Christmas. The day after Christmas last year, I dragged my sister and my mom all around Little Rock to find deals on Christmas decorations and a Christmas tree for this year. It all paid off, because not only did I get cute decorations and a gorgeous tree on sale, it all fits nicely in our new home! While we don't have a real, fresh tree, we do have a pre-lit 7 1/2 foot tree that looks nice in our living room. David was a trooper and helped me set up the tree. He's much more patient than me, so he took the time to pull down each branch and make it look like a real tree.

Decorating the tree was fun this year - we combined our ornaments (David has airplanes - no surprise there! - and I have Hallmark Crayola ornaments since the 80s.). Again, David was a trooper and hung his ornaments on the tree. I also had ornaments for the pets (insert David's eye rolling here) as well as a New Home Ornament and Our First Christmas ornament. Yes, we (or mainly me) are cheesy and I wouldn't have it any other way!





This was also the first year we put up Christmas lights outside. We got some hand-me-down lights from my parents and we mapped out our strategy. David took up the task all by himself while I was out of town, and made our home look like Christmas! He did a great job.



Here are some more pictures of the Fluty home at Christmas!

[duh-mes-tik]

domestic [duh-mes-tik]: of or pertaining to the home, the household, household affairs, or the family: domestic pleasures.

I looked up the definition of "domestic" when I was thinking of a title for the blog, and laughed out loud when I saw the pronunciation of the word.

The first part - "duh" - well, I've already had a lot of "duh" moments (as my mom can tell you from my panicked phone calls). Like, for instance, when I wanted to defrost some BBQ chicken that we had frozen and didn't know the best way to do it (put it in the oven with some water in the bottom of the pan - who knew??). Or, when I followed the recipe word-for-word when I was making mashed potatoes for the first time (which was about a month ago).

Then, there's the second part - "mes" - as in, I can make a great mess when I want to (and I should state that my husband can too!). I'm a pretty clean person (as David can tell you when I run around the house cleaning every weekend), but I do that because we tend to make a mess. It's not always in the kitchen; a lot of time it's in our office. Our organization system sucks in the office right now, so we have a tendency to throw things wherever we can find a place. Organization of the office is definitely on the to-do list.

Lastly, the third part of the pronunciation - "tik" - makes me think of a nervous tic. I tend to get it when there is something "adult" I have to do. For example, when I have to do anything with lawn work or when I have to pay the mortgage. I think David might get it when he does the dishes. I'm hoping the nervous tic is just a phase...

I'm gonna blog about all of these things and more as we navigate through this thing called marriage (and a good marriage at that!). Let the learning continue!

Blog Time

Here goes again. Some of you might have read our blog about our engagement trip, and here I am 1 1/2 years later attempting to blog again. This time, however, I'm newly married as opposed to newly engaged. Now that I don't have a wedding to plan or a house to build, I figured blogging might be a good way to fill my time. Not sure how well I will do, but I'm going to give it a shot.

The plan is to blog about everything, from cooking to decorating to married life in general. I'm excited to be "Mrs. Fluty" and can't wait to share the journey. And, of course, Mr. Fluty will be involved in the blog as well. Basically, I'll be blogging about our life and including any lessons I learned the hard way! We hope you enjoy - please feel free to offer any advice you have!