rum glazed pecans...

These were a fun and scrumptious treat to
make and give away this holiday season...

and it's not late for you to make and enjoy, or share,
for your New Years celebrations.

They are super easy to make.
Here, let me show you...

Combine 1/2 cup white sugar,
1/2 cup brown sugar,
and 2 tablespoons butter in a sauce pan.

Add 1/4 cup Dark Rum.

Put your heat on medium-low.


Begin to stirring to combine.

You'll want to stir continuously until it boils.
Continue to stir for about 7 minutes until the syrup
begins to appear clean and non-granular.

Pour in the pecans.

Here's where you can give another splash or two of rum...
if you'd like, or not. Then stir to coat the pecans.

Remove from heat.

Spray your baking sheet w/ a non-stick spray.


Pour the pecans onto your baking sheet and spread the out evenly.

Give 'em a little sprinkling of Sea Salt.

Followed by a dashing of sugar... or not, if you prefer.
This is totally optional.

Bake for about 10 to 12 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Remove from oven, cool completely, break apart and devour!

So good.

Happy Holiday's Friends!
xo
Rolo

they grow up...

They grow up... they do.

This is my P Pie... my second born granddaughter.
She turned 1 yesterday.
Happy Birthday PJ!

A year ago my second born homegirl was
busy bringing her into the world.

I remember this exact moment... she, "Big D"
and the Doc had just made the decision to go with
a c-section. I told her give me thumbs up.
She was so brave.

A little while later we had this...


And this.


The next day I got to do this...

And take images of the beginning of her life.


So much love.


I know the feeling.
Even though I was a little younger when I had
my homegirl, (here she is turning 2), I can still
remember the exact moment of bringing her into the world...
and about a billion more moments of her life, and still feel the love.

I'll always feel the love.

Gosh, dang, they grow up too fast.
*sniff sniff*

some of my favorite things from the weekend...

My baby homegirl's Homecoming shoe with her date's...


Being silly in formal wear...

Finally getting to wear my new vintage boots...


A sign at the Dallas Zoo... Love this! Love the "details"! ha ha ha...

And finally getting to see Jenny (she's the one on the left
with her trunk up) in her new, well deserved
and long over due, new habitat.
It made my heart happy for her. *sniff*

I'll have more fun details about each one later...
Hey, did you happen to catch which dress my homegirl chose?

Be back tomorrow...

dress shopping...

This is the dress.
This is it people.

ha ha ha... No, just joking.
This isn't the dress my homegirl chose to wear to Homecoming.
But you have to agree, it's a pretty snazzy dress huh?

Remember I said we called in all forces.
Thing 1 and Thing 2 were lots of help.
They picked 'em and homegirl carried.

They'd say, "How 'bout this one homegirl"...
and homegirl would agree to try it on.

Even P Pie had some comments to make.

Really she was saying, "Hey mom, take me to sit in the big fancy chair"...
"YaaaaaaY", she says.

A perfectly poised princess.

Oh look, they saw the camera.

And there they go...

Dress 1.
Cute. Black.

Dress 2.
Colorful. Funky.

While we waited in between try ons
P Pie showed us her standing skills...

Then she went back to gotta-get-somewhere-fast skill.
Hey, she's got places to go and people to see.

Dress four.
Shiny. Pretty.

Dress five.
Cool. Fun. Flirty.

Dress six.
Pretty color. Delicate detail.
The lady who was helping us/her said she
looks like a little dolly in this dress.

Dress seven.
Well, who in tarnation can go shopping
with homegirl legs over there...
What dress?

Ok... dress seven.
Pretty. Champagne in color.

Dress eight.
Pretty color. Pretty detailing.
Super low cut in front and sides. Cool crisscross back.
Homegirl didn't keep it on for very long.

Dress nine.
Pretty blue. Flowy.

There were a few other that weren't even
worthy of a try on.

So, what's your vote?
Which one do you think my baby freshman homegirl chose
to wear to her very first formal dance?

I'll give you a little hint...


It wasn't this one.

Stayed tuned... a couple of weeks is the big day.

Peace out...
rolo

i apologize...

I've been slackin' on the blog again... I'm sorry.
I wouldn't blame you if you never spoke to me again.

It's just that I've had a ton of stuff going on all at the same time.
And for some reason, the one thing... the thing that I love most...
well, aside from my family, of course... seems to always gets put aside. My blog.

Here, let me catch you up on a few things from the past week...

Our new bedroom furniture arrived.
Only there's one tiny problem...

our bedroom is not ready yet.

So, I had no choice but to stack and tuck in the pieces in the living room.
And this is just one corner in my house...
everything is in such disarray. Don't ya just hate that?
I do. It makes my heart rate go up when everything is in chaos.

After the last round of inspections and all was go again...
they got busy installing the insulation and sheetrock.
By the end of last week they were already tape and bedding.
Now we're cookin'!
This is the door and wall inside the bathroom looking into the bedroom.


And here's a not so great photo of the closet wall...
the lighting wasn't the best.

On Saturday, I shot my very first "real" event...
A baptism.
I think it went pretty good... for my first time anyway.

And wrapping up the weekend was an event in itself...
Homecoming dress shopping for my youngest homegirl.

We called in all forces. Here she is with Thing 1 and Thing 2.
ha ha ha...
Well, actually, they are her best buds, and their names are I and A.
A good group of young ladies I must say.

Look, there's P Pie! She and her mommy met us at the mall.
I told you we called in all forces...

After all, this homegirl of mine is the expert on fashion.

And there they go... with no less than ten dresses in hand.

I'll be back tomorrow with more photos of the event
and you can try to guess which one she chose.

I'm taking care of a sick JB and baby today...

rolo