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My favorite online photo-editing site is having a promotion for a free day of their premium Royale package. This is what I primarily use for editing pictures, making collages, and I even designed our save-the-date postcards on it earlier this year!

Chili Ballot. Most recently, I whipped together a little ballot for our Superbowl chili contest. Then I used a word document to print pages of them.

Save-the-Date postcards. Besides the obvious little images and fonts, I also used PicMonkey on the photo of us. I applied a filter, removed people and cars from the background - I even removed some smashed pumpkins!

Work. I also use PicMonkey to play around with ideas for events at work. Here were some quick draft logos I made for a sales contest.

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This snowy day reminds me of my family's recent trip to Londonderry, NH. My dad planned the trip for the four of us as a Christmas present for my mom. We drove up, through a snowstorm, had dinner at The Coach Stop, and saw my parents' favorite new band at Tupelo Music Hall.

Here we are at dinner at the The Coach Stop, right down the street from Tupelo. Oh. My. God. Steak. We went to dinner early, so we basically got a room all to ourselves. There is also a really cool lounge/pub on the second floor that has acoustic music on the weekends. I got the biggest, most delicious sirloin - we all got steaks, except for Kerry. 

The opener was the Brian Jarvis Band. They were great. Very mellow, but also very charismatic and funny.

THE ALTERNATE ROOTS. My parents are obsessed with this band, and now I know why. Not only is the lead singer's voice amazing, but the whole band really knows how to work the crowd. Is he holding a toolbox in his hand in this picture? Why, yes, he is. What is it for? YOU'LL HAVE TO GO SEE THEM YOURSELF TO FIND OUT.

It was a great show. the best part about Tupelo is that it's so small, and even the back row is like sitting across someone's living room. 

We had a great little weekend adventure, just the four of us, which we haven't done in a long time.

Check out these bands or Tupelo if you ever get the chance!

Superbowl is by far our biggest, and favorite party to host all year. Our day started at 2pm for the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet. If you've never heard of the puppy bowl, let me sum it up for you. Puppies, kitten half-time show, and penguin cheerleaders. Throughout the day, we have anywhere from 10-20 people here watching the game, and it can get a bit crowded in our small living room and kitchen, so PLANNING IS KEY.

Now, I know this is a bit extreme, but it definitely helps maximize our seating. We try to do stadium-like seating in the living room where the big TV is. And we put all the food in the kitchen, along with a little tv, so no one misses any of the action.

I did ALL of my cooking on Saturday, because I didn't want to be trapped in the kitchen when all of our guests were here. I got all the baking out of the way first, since it is the messiest and takes the longest. I made some butterscotch cookies! And then I realized Monday morning that I never put them out. So yay for cookies in our lunches all week! In the picture above, I'm not trying to be fancy - I just don't have a cooling rack and I have to get creative. This is the best way they cool off without sticking to each other. I could go out and spend $5 for a real cooling rack, but I've been trying to hold off on any kitchen purchases so that we have things for our wedding registry.

This is one I can check off my list - my 14 Recipes for 2014 list, that is! These little guys are cheddar olives, and if you love olives like the 10% of us at the party, you will absolutely love these. I just refrigerated them in this container covered with foil, and baked them on Sunday when people started showing up. 

I prepped the veggie platter on Saturday. I didn't want to cut them up completely because I was afraid some of the veggies would loose their crispness. I peeled, washed and pre-cut everything, and Sunday morning I cut it all down to the right size pieces.

My grandma's delicious and simple macaroni salad would be perfect with chili! Unfortunately, this is another dish I forgot to put out. We didn't end up needing it with all the food that people brought, so we will have another surprise snack in our lunch all week.

Spinach. Artichoke. Dip. Our friend Jodi made this back when she lived around here. Now that she is travelling all over the country for her work, I stole her recipe and make it for pretty much every party. I'll do a post with the recipe soon!

Rob loves trivia, so he put together some game-day trivia and handed out prizes. Our neighbors Matt and Krista won! Good team work!

These skewers were my favorite things that I made for the party. They were also the most time consuming to assemble. I will definitely be making these again. 

Here are the links to the original posts where I found them. 
Caprese skewers from Pioneer Woman
Italian skewers from Very Culinary

Our tiniest and cutest party guest.

"Stadium" seating in the living room.

For the last few years that we've hosted Superbowl, we've done a chili contest, and I can't help but brag that our friends are pretty amazing cooks. This year we had a record number of entries - 10 chilis! It always surpises me how different they all are.

Before kick-off, we assign each chili a secret number, and create a key for reference. That way no one knows whose chili is whose. Then, we fill these little blue cups with a spoonful or two of chili, and everyone tries #1 at the same time. And we continue to pass out cups of chili until everyone has tasted all 10. 

Then, we hand out ballots, and each person picks their TWO favorite chili's. The double voting system help prevent against everyone voting for themselves. 

Thanks to our friend, Tim, we have one nice picture of all the crock pots lined up. In all the action, I totally forgot to take one! Our electric bill is always high in February because of this event. 

Speaking of Tim, he was our WINNER! His cheesy chili was the crowd favorite! His name is now on the Chili trophy. He will have to start thinking now about what he is going to make next year!

Thanks to everyone who came. We had a great time and we're looking forward to next year. GO PATS!