Valentine's and New Year

So I'm a little out of order when it comes to holidays I guess. :o) I got started on a few Valentine's projects today. I know we're still in December, but ya gotta think ahead right? :o)

Here's my sewing machine set up for the day. I would have done it in the office but the TV in there isn't hooked up and I can't stand sitting in silence. Not ideal but it worked. The only bad part of doing projects in the living room is having to clean up every night instead of being able to just walk away and come back later.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year celebration!

Eat Dessert First!

I've been bitten by the craft bug again! I feel like it's been a long time since I've really done anything crafty at all. Luckily I have a pretty decent stock of paints and things to paint so it's been cost free!

I ran across this saying the other day (can't remember where) and thought it was cute. Not one that I'll live by since I turn 30 in May and I'd like to enter my 30s a lot less squishy than I am right now :o). But.... it's cute anyway.

I haven't quite decided where to hang it yet but I thought I'd share anyway :o) I'd like my next project to be a Valentine banner but I'm not sure I'm ready to wrestle with the sewing machine just yet. I'll show you if I do though :o)

Miscellaneous

A few pictures from the past few days....

David went sledding with our niece and nephew on Christmas Eve day. I opted to take pictures and take everyone out for Starbuck's hot chocolate afterward.

My husband out in the snow in shorts. He wanted to start his car and let it run for awhile since it was pretty cold out...yet not cold enough to wear pants I guess :o)

I never did show you our Christmas sign once I got it finished. You can see most of here though some of it is covered by the snow and tree.

My favorite after Christmas sales item....this platter from Walmart for only $2.50! Ignore all the random stuff on the table if you will. I took our Christmas stuff down on the 26th but haven't gotten all the every day decor put back up yet.

This is what our living room looks like as I type. I've been doing a lot of painting and little craft projects. I can't wait to show ya all when I'm done. We are having both family Christmases this week so the presents will move out soon! :o) And yes, that is an empty planter in the corner. It used to have a plant in it but I'm not so good with indoor plants. Any suggestions for a plant that is hard to kill?

What do you do....

What do you do when there's a major snow storm heading your way and you have to cancel your Christmas plans?

Bake and decorate cookies and pull out the craft supplies!

My MIL gave me these awesome cookies cutters last year for Christmas and I finally got to use them.

My husband is working tonight so I decide to get crafty. That big empty space is where I plop my butt down to work on projects. We organized our office earlier this year so I wouldn't have to use the living room floor for projects. Unfortunately it has Christmas stuff all over it right now so I'm back to the floor.

I'm all ready for the storm :o) Pretty bummed that we won't be able to spend Christmas with my family but it's always (well, almost always) fun to get snowed in.

Christmas Q & A

Grammy Linda at Behind My Red Door posted this last week... Thought I'd play along too :o)

1) What is your favorite Christmas movie? I have a few...Christmas with the Kranks, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, The Santa Clause movies, It's a Wonderful Life, and The Family Stone

(2) What is your LEAST favorite Christmas movie? How the Grinch Stole Christmas
(3) What is your favorite Christmas Song? another long list....All I Want For Christmas (Is You), Silver Bells, War is Over, Jingle Bell Rock, White Christmas, It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, Little Drummer Boy......ok I'll stop there


(4) What Christmas song(s) drives you crazy? Can't think of anything off the top of my head
5) What is your favorite Christmas drink? I really like the Cranberry Splash Sierra Mist....my dad always mixed cranberry juice and 7Up for our Christmas dinner drink so maybe that's why I like it so much

6) What is your favorite Christmas memory? all of my Christmases spent at Grandma & Grandpa Hoxsie's house.....all the family was there, everyone was dressed up, lots of decorations, lots of food, lots of fun...I really miss that kind of Christmas


7) What is the best toy/gift you've received on Christmas? hmm...the first Christmas David and I were together he gave me a diamond necklace

where'd #8 go??

9) What do you LOVE about the holidays? EVERYTHING!!!


10) What annoys you about the holidays? people who say they're trying to make it through or survive the holidays....I think they need to reevaluate why they're even celebrating (or pretending to) if that's how they feel about it.
11) Do you prefer star or angel on top of a Christmas tree? either is fine with me
(12) What is your favorite recipe at Christmas? my Grandma Hoxsie's cut out cookie recipe


13) Are you a Grinch or a Who at Christmastime? um..a Who probably? I've never actually seen the movie, not a Dr. Suess fan
14) Christmas light displays -Love them or Hate them? both - love driving around looking at Christmas lights but just don't understand the people who put like 8 blow up reindeer, elves, penguins, etc. next to a nativity scene...why can't people just stick with one theme?


15) Santa's at the mall - Fun times or Creepy? Fun I guess
16) Christmas cards - do you send them, yes or no? used to, didn't do it last year and not sure we will get it done this year either


17) What is the best thing about Christmas, in your opinion? spending time with family, carrying out family traditions, Christmas Eve candlelight service
18) What is the worst thing about Christmas? see #10
19) When do you put the tree up and take it down? the Saturday after Thanksgiving, take it down a few days after Christmas

20) Out of the 12 days of Christmas, which day and item would you want your truelove to give to you? 5 golden rings
(21) Why do you think that Grandma got run over by a reindeer? no idea


22) Who is your favorite reindeer? Chet from The Santa Clause 2
24) What is your favorite smell at Christmastime? pine or cinnamon

25) What would make you happy at Christmas this year? spending time with family

In the Kitchen

We got a little snow this week which really helped put me in the Christmas spirit! Just a little bit thankfully though!!

I did a little baking and treat making yesterday. I made Candy Cane Kiss brownies, peanut butter cracker sandwiches covered in chocolate, and a version of Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies.

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First up are the Candy Cane Kiss brownies.

I saw this recipe over at Picky Palate this week. I don't have the mini cheesecake pan that she used but I thought I would try it with a muffin tin. And...it didn't work so well. Only four of the twelve came out of the pan without ripping apart. So most of them came out looking something like this....

I didn't really care for them - the candy cane kiss had a weird texture to it after being baked.

Next up I made the peanut butter cracker sandwiches covered in chocolate. Love those things!

I also made these faux Girl Scout Thin Mints. I think I found the recipe back when Pioneer Woman had her readers send in their favorite recipes (here's the link to the over 5,000 recipes that were sent in - definitely worth the time to dig through! I added a big chunk of recipes to my cookbook).

They are so good and easy, and actually taste pretty similar to the GS cookies. All you have to do is melt the Andes Mint Chips and then dip the crackers in (the recipe called for Ritz but I had the Town House crackers on hand so I used those instead). Yum! Definitely a keeper for the Christmas file!
Best of all, my brother-in-law and his family live here in town so I get to send off some treats to their house so we don't sit here and eat them all week!
My husband is off to a Minnesota Vikings game next weekend so I'm planning to visit my mom. I'll be baking some treats for her to take to work the following Monday. The company that she works for was recently sold and the new company that purchased it are not so nice to their employees. They've been working Sunday through Friday, about 55-60 hours a week. So I think they at least deserve some Christmas goodies while their working their holiday season away!
I'll let you know what treats I make next weekend too! Hope you all have a great week! :o)

O Christmas Tree

I got all of our Christmas decorations up on Saturday. Here's a look at our trees:

The main tree:

The countertop tree in the kitchen:

I'm hoping to get more of those little gumdrop ornaments after Christmas. I LOVE them!

My NEW tabletop tree from my husband. He bought the tree and all the vintage ornaments for me. :o)

P.S. - Black Friday was a success! I got about 75% of all our shopping done :o)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving full of family, friends, and some good food tomorrow.

And...I hope everyone heading out on Black Friday finds great deals! I'm SO excited!!

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I Need a Little Christmas....

I've been fighting the urge to get our Christmas stuff out for awhile now. It was a little easier to fight it when we didn't have a tree. You see we threw out our old tree after Christmas last year so we were treeless. I bought the tree 10 years ago for $10 so I really didn't feel bad about throwing it out (it had a few issues). So I've been on the hunt for a tree since early October. The three things I were looking for were: somewhat slim, cheap but not cheap looking, and CHEAP! Here is our winner:

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Six feet tall, fairly slim, and best of all it was $15.98!! It was on sale at Lowe's last week so we went and picked it up. Now I'm really having a hard time resisting the urge to get the Christmas stuff out!
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I worked on a sign this weekend for us to put on our little patio for Christmas. I worked on it for about 4 hours and wasn't even half done. I decided my neck and hand needed a break so I set it aside for a bit. As I sat back and looked at it I realized the lettering is crooked! *#%@ I'm not sure how I managed that and now I can't decided if I should ignore the fact it's crooked and finish it or if I should just start over on the other side.
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And I worked on this small craft tonight. My mom brought me a bag of miscellaneous stuff over the summer to use for crafting. In it were 3 plates that looked like they were from the 70s - gold, reddish orange, and avocado green. I took one of them out tonight and threw a little paint on it. The result:
Those little specks are glitter. Not too bad for a free project! I decorate my kitchen with gingerbread and candy decor for Christmas so this will fit right in :o)

Gorgeous Blogger Award

Annabelle over at Simple Pleasures was so kind to pass this award on to me.

So I get to tell you six things about myself that you don't already know......

1. I sleep with the blanket over my head. I think it might be a security thing going back to when I was a baby. My brother does the same thing.

2. I could skip showering for a whole weekend and be totally fine with it (if I'm sticking around home).

3. I hate black licorice.

4. I'm like a little kid when it comes to taking liquid medicines. It takes me awhile to get up the courage to drink it.

5. I'm really bad about remembering to dust. Not bad like I have dust blankets but bad like you could totally write your name in it.

6. I used to have dreams that all my teeth were crumbling and falling out. Like every night for a few weeks at a time, every few months.

I'm suppose to pass this on to 6 other bloggers but I need to go to bed!!!

From Red to Brown

I used to decorate our tree in reds and golds but a couple years ago I decided I wanted to use browns, burnt orange and gold. Most of these red ornaments have sat in storage since the color change.

We had some awesome weather this weekend so I picked up some of this spray paint in a brown color and pulled out the red ornaments.

I used an old shower curtain rod (don't ask why we still have it), some pumpkins to weigh it down, and some ribbon/string to hang the ornaments from. Then I sprayed and sprayed and sprayed.

I brought them inside and hung them to dry completely before I put them back in their containers. Not all of them were covered completely but once they're on the tree no one will ever notice.

Now I have 17 (would've been 18 but the pole fell once and a glass ornament broke) "new" ornaments for our tree this year. Not bad for the price of one can of spray paint! The only down side is that this paint really stunk! I just put them away (after drying for 48 hours) and they still smell bad!!

Spam

Up til now I have not had any problems with spam hitting my comments. For some reason I've had a few in the past 24 hours so I just enabled word verification. Sorry for the extra step when leaving a comment.

Enjoy your Sunday! :o)

Some People Suck

I've had enough of sucky/mean people this week.

First, one of my kids at school was bullied this week and apparently it's been going on for awhile. This poor kid thought he had a group of friends, but in the end they made a club titled "I Hate (insert kid's name) Club" and said a lot of mean things to him. The poor kid was crushed when his supposed friends did this to him.

Second, I hurt when I read this post by NieNie yesterday. I couldn't believe that someone to have the nerve to say what that lady said. Seriously. How could you do that? What a b*tch.

Third, my mom told me tonight that some of my cousins (all from one family) have decided they aren't going to see my grandma anymore. Yeah, my grandma who has Alzheimer's and who longs to meet with my grandpa in heaven. She has a hard time remembering some things, tells us the same things over and over, and is confused frequently. But, she still knows who we are. Their reasoning is that she had favorite grandkids and that they weren't included in the favorites. I agree that my grandma had favorites but it isn't hard to see that her favorites are the ones who made an effort to see her throughout the years. I'm so hurt that adults would make a conscious decision not to visit their ailing grandma. I wish they thought about how much it would hurt and disappoint my grandpa if he were alive to hear their decision. Maybe that wouldn't mean much to them either.

Sorry for the downer post to end the week. Just a few things that I had to get off my chest. Have a good weekend.

This Is It

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David and I went to Michael Jackson's This Is It this past Saturday. Oh my gosh, it was amazing!! Even if you didn't like him, I think most people would appreciate all the work he put into the rehearsals. The mini-movies that were put together to play in the background during the concerts were also awesome. I definitely recommend seeing this movie.

Me and Michael go way back.... "Beat It" is listed as my favorite song during my second year in my baby book. :o)

PS - I changed my music player to a Michael Jackson tribute so if you're in the mood for a little Black or White or Man in the Mirror you're in luck ;o)

Snowflakes

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Here's a fun site to check out if you're bored or are avoiding laundry/dishes/cleaning, etc. On this site you can create your own little snowflakes, then watch them fall. It's kind of fun too because people can comment on your snowflakes. It's highly addicting though! :o)

I found the link in my BHG 100 Days of Holidays email.

WWYD?

I've been seeing all kinds of great furniture transformations around blogland lately. Just a little paint can do so much. I've ohhed and ahhed over this record player, this hutch, and pretty much everything in this post.

So anyway, I'm thinking about painting our TV stand. I got it a little over a year ago for $5 at a rummage sale. I really want to add some color in here since all our walls are white and there's nothing I can do about that. Here is what it looks like now

It kinda, sorta matches the other woods we have in the living room.

So questions I have are:

Would it look stupid if we had one painted piece?

How exactly do I go about painting it? (I'd have to do it inside because it's too cold to paint outside now. So... no spray painting.)

What kind of paint do I use that would go over the shiny finish and stick? (Again, painting inside so I don't want to do a lot of sanding or use a stripper.)

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I'm a little nervous to paint it. Normally I wouldn't be, especially since it was only $5. But, with Christmas coming up I don't have a lot of extra funds so if I screw it up, we'd be stuck with an ugly TV stand.

What would you do?

Random Dozen

So I saw this on Frizzy's blog and decided I'd play along too :o)


1. Candy corn: Your thoughts?
I used to love candy corn. Now about 4 or 5 pieces and I'm done for the season.

2. Briefly, what was the first conversation you ever had with your spouse? (or best friend, if you're not married.) (Or someone significant, like your librarian.)
Uhhh....you really don't want to know what some of the first words out of my husband's mouth were. Other than that...I think it was pretty normal stuff such as where are you from, etc.


3. Could you ever become a vegetarian?
For short periods of time maybe but never permanently. There is a reason why God created cows - because they taste good.

4. Have you ever dressed up your pet in a costume?
No but I did paint my brother's dog's toenails for his (my brother's) birthday one year. Boy dogs like to feel pretty too.

5. Name something about childhood that you miss (like Clark Bars, Teaberry Gum, Malibu Barbie, cracking fake eggs on people's heads with your fist and "It's the Great Pumpkin" airing only once a year).
Spending time at my grandparent's house, especially the big family Christmas get together there.

6. Have you ever won a trophy? If not, what do you deserve a trophy for?
Never a trophy, a few ribbons here and there.

7. When do you think is the appropriate time to begin playing Christmas music each year? Appropriate time? The day after Thanksgiving. The time I usually start listening - early November.

8. What's your favorite board game?
David and I usually play Scrabble or Trivial Pursuit.


9. How do you feel about surprises (receiving, not giving)?
If I know a surprise is coming I hate it. Otherwise....some surprises are good and some are bad so it really depends on the surprise I guess.


10. Is it easy for you to say, "I'm sorry?"
No, I really need to get better at it.

11. What is your favorite candle scent?
Depends on the season. Right now I like spices & pumpkin scents. For Christmas I like pine scented, peppermint, or cinnamon. During winter I like a light peppermint or something fresh smelling like that. For spring & summer I like to get out the fruity or beachy scents.


12. October is traditionally "open house" time in public schools. If you had a literal open house in your home (like a reception) what light snacks would you serve visitors and what would you show them (as in art projects, graded papers) that would uniquely represent you?
Well....since it'd be October I'd serve mini caramel apples, pumpkin bread, apple butter scones, warmed cranberry brie with crackers, and turkey & cheese crescent roll ups.

I have no idea what I would show them....I'd probably end up canceling because I wouldn't be able to think of anything.

Fabric and Purses and Pillows, Oh My!

If you're currently looking for a new purse, diaper bag, or even fabric you should check out 1154 Lill Studio. Even if you're not, it's a fun site to play around on.

They offer a design room where you can pick out your favorite item and customize it with your fabric choices.

This would be a fun idea for a Christmas gift too if you're willing to pay that much for a purse, etc. I'm not willing to pay that much. My current purse was $42 and I had a hard time paying that much for it! I like to have a little cash left to put in my new purse :o) It was still fun to play around with though!

It's Hobo Days!

Yesterday was SDSU's homecoming, also known as Hobo Day. It was definitely more fun as a college student but I still like to go to the parade and football game.

I thought this year's parade was on the boring side. The parade used to feature more homemade "floats" that were obviously not going for a prize but for the "let's see how much crap we can throw together and still drive it down the road" look. The students on the floats used to be a lot funnier too. Ever since moving to D-1 it seems that they've cracked down and the parade has been a little less interesting (but probably more family friendly) each year.

Anyway, a few highlights from the parade:

The Pride. They used to chant funny things and be a lot more entertaining, much more serious now but still very good.

Our nephew in the middle school band.

This guy was pretty entertaining.

And I thought this guy was pretty funny...

I didn't take my camera to the game because I didn't want to hang on to it the whole game, so no pictures. SDSU played Northern Iowa and came away with the win, 24-14.

A Little Christmas

The couple light snowfalls we had a week ago got me in the mood for the Christmas season. Since it's a little early for Christmas decorations to go up I thought I'd make something Christmasy.

I had a couple Dollar Tree plaques on hand so I thought I'd work with those.

Last Christmas I watched It's a Wonderful Life for the first time. Can you believe I'd never seen it before?!? Well it became an instant favorite, plus the title is a great saying. Anyway, this is what I came up with:

It's cuter in person and the glitter is a lot sparklier but I thought I'd show ya anyway. Probably would have been cuter if I'd hung it on a white wall before taking a picture. I'm impatient though and the glue wasn't dry yet on the wood thingy so it had to lay on the table as I took the picture. :o)

It still needs a little something (besides ribbon to hang it with) but I figure I have time to play around with it.