One finished project and some resolutions

One finished project! I would have had two, but I did flock one of the little deers pink and re-glittered its antlers and tail. It was super duper cute and I loved it.....and so did Sam! He felt like it would be really yummy to eat said deer. BAH! Right after I was feeling so squishy lovey towards him, too. I have another ugly red deer and I will flock that one pink and then hide it up really high. So, here's some thank you cards that I made this weekend. They turned out okay. It takes me for-ever! to think of an idea. So, I had been wanting to add in sheet music for awhile and don't really know how - this is closer to what I want but still not perfect. I did try one with some little flowers but it looked like dookie so I scratched that idea.

I'm thinking about some of my resolutions for the upcoming year - are you? I usually try to make at least 5. Here's a preliminary list (in no particular order):

1. Lose weight - I want to be able to wear cute dresses! This year for my work Christmas party I fantasized about wearing a fun party dress only to end up wearing standard black pants with a jacket. My shoes were fun, but no one could see them!

2. Moisturize at least twice a day - my skin is starting to get too dry and wrinkly. This seems super basic, and I do okay most the time, but truly my hands are looking old. And sometimes I skip it at night.

3. Learn how to knit with double pointed needles. There are so many cute little things that I'd like to try to make - first up wrist warmers!

4. Try not so spend so much money on pointless things. I'm really bad about this. Next year at tax time when I get my print out of how much I made last year I don't want to end up saying -"where did it all go???"

5. Do a daily devotional. Even if it is only like 5 minutes. I need to focus on God way more.

So, these are the biggies. I've already started with Weight Loss Wednesdays, so I'm on the right track for that one.

Dogs

Today I am so thankful for my dogs. My bff Jan called me today and was tres upset because her dog Brewster was sick - at the vet and she was having to make some tough, difficult and heartbreaking decisions about what to do next. I offered to be there with her to give whatever support I could, although in that situation I don't know what you can do to comfort someone. Jan went into the vet with her beloved Brewster, the grouchy and loving old man dog - and we left with a cardboard box. It really happened so quickly that I'm still wondering what exactly just happened??? I believe that pets go to heaven. I have always believed that. They are one of God's creation and I believe that he loves them. In some small way that is a comfort - believing that Brewster is no longer in pain or scared. I am so sorry for her and her family. I came home and hugged my cuckoo dogs like crazy and let Sam jump up on me without reproach. I know they will not live forever, but all they want is love. And they have so much love to give and I am thankful for that. And, they keep my feet warm at night :)

A little Christmas cheer perhaps

This tree pic didn't come out so good, did it? Hmmm. Well I guess you get the idea anyway. Sorry about all the dust!! I started it last year from an ornament kit that I found at the thrift. It's got sequins, beads, little pearls and they are fixed with straight pins. The styrofoam tree was first wrapped in pink ribbon and then I started sticking in the pins. I thought about covering the entire thing - I might still. It's pretty time consuming though!

Next is this super cute little linen circle that Jan gave me. It was a decoration from her Grandma Violet, it could be from Norway since her Grandma had a ton of stuff from there. I just love the joy of the little elves!





And, I have taken to collecting these little deer. The tan one on the far left I found at the thrift and it was still in the package, it has a little sticker on it's belly that says "Japan", there were two of them. I'm just digging deer shapes and silhouttes! Some of them are quite ugly - but I have plans to experiment with flocking. Michaels has a good selection of Martha Stewart glitters and flocking - I'm thinking possibly pink or just a new red. Of course, there is the seasonal page in the frame.

I have a whole list of stuff to get done this weekend since it is extra long! Maybe by next week I will have pics of finished projects!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!!!!

Dolls

Do you have a book that sort of shaped your life? Some people might have a children's book that they loved to hear read to them, or maybe the first book they read and realized that they loved to read. Well, this is mine!

I was waaaaayy into dolls when I was young (who am I kidding? I still am!) and loved dollhouses especially. When we first moved to Chico when I was like 8 we lived across the street from an older lady named Mabel. Mabel had a short, tight perm and was a retired seamstress who wore cut off polyester pants and sleeveless button up tops that I'm sure she had either made herself or altered. She had a little poodle dog that she carried everywhere with her, and this was long before that was a fashionable thing to do. She had loooong fingernails and smoked long cigarettes. She was fond of saying "If you've got it, flaunt it baby!". Needless to say she made an impression on me. The best thing to me, though, was her dollhouse. She had it set up in the front bedroom in her house and it was HUGE - like the whole wall of the room it seemed like. I coveted that dollhouse. It was completely furnished and I loved to play with it. I don't actually remember if there were dolls, but I'm sure there must have been. We moved after that to another house and my mom and I would always go to the library during the summer and this was a book that I would check out and renew and renew. It is the best ever! It's got like a little story on how this doll family came to be, and patterns and instructions to make all the dolls and their clothes.

I didn't quite get the how-to's for the clothes but I sure did improvise! I made a whole little city of dolls - I remember that sometimes I would pretend that they were tired of their hair color and I'd give them new yarn, or maybe they wanted a perm so I'd unravel the yarn. I had drawn all the faces on, so if one didn't come out perfectly I'd sew a little patch over the face and re-draw it. I discovered that this could also be like a facelift if one of my dolls was particularly vain, or maybe they didn't like the size of their nose. I had a blast doing this, and everything was by hand, as you can see they are pretty rough. I made pets for them, and little houses that I would decorate. The houses were in crates that my mom had given me. Currently they are in a box, i dragged a few out for this pic. I was laughing as I was taking the pics because their clothes are so - I guess primitive would be a good word? I was more concerned with having some sort of covering than details. The book has great patterns for clothes but they were definitely from a different era and mine are clearly 80's!

Anyways, I have been looking for this book for ages. I couldn't really remember the name so that made it a little tricky, but finally a google search turned up the right book! I bought it from Amazon for next to nothing - the shipping cost more than the book. But, really, the memories are priceless to me, and the book is so familiar because I had pored over it endlessly when I was young :)

Finally some knitting!

Thursday night was our work Christmas party. We drew names to exchange gifts, and I drew Amy - who loves coffee. Perfect! Easy gift. I bought a $20 gift card and knit up one of these coffee cozies. I made one for myself a zillion years ago and have gotten a ton of use out of it. Mine is, of course, pink and purple :) I found the pattern here from an online search. Of course, I did alter it. I guess I can't help myself! Instead of casting on 34, I cast on 32 and then increasing two stitches so that it would end up with 34 instead of 38. I found that with my stitches being a little loose it fit on the cup more snuggly. But, if you have really tight stitches the exact pattern might work perfectly for you.

Okay, and the next picture really makes me cringe, but I need an opinion! I am about to scream because my hair is driving me crazy. Should I cut it or wait it out to grow it? And my bangs? I have had the same style since I was like 5 - what should I do???

Cranberry Orange Sauce

As promised, here is the recipe that I had mentioned before. Please note that this is not my original recipe, I did find it in a magazine at my Moms house, but unfortunately do not remember the title of the magazine.

Cranberry Orange Sauce:
3/4 cup sugar
4 Tbs honey
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup pure orange juice
1 package of cranberries

Combine sugar, honey, water and juice in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Add cranberries and spices, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally. Makes 2 1/4 cups.

What I changed in the directions was this - I started to squish the cranberries after they had simmered for 10 minutes so that they would absorb the sweetness from the sauce. I also then simmered for an additional 10 minutes to ensure a good mixture.

oh eeeewwww

I guess maybe I was trying to ignore Weight Loss Wednesday - especially since I gained 1lb!!!!! I fluctuate a lot with water so I'm really really hoping that it's just that. I did return to spin class last night and plan to go next Wednesday night -then after New Years plan to join "for real" the gym. I'm just waiting because I'm hoping that there will be a fabulous deal.

Okay, and I don't know why I was hesitating to mention this, but I finished book #3 in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn. I have to admit that I didn't quite love it as much as I thought I would. But, I did really like it. I sort of thought it might go in a different direction than it did. But, that's a good thing that I couldn't tell exactly what would happen because it's not any fun to read a predictable book either! I read the manuscript of "Midnight Sun" on the Stephenie Meyer website which is Twilight from Edward's point of view and I soooooooo wish she would continue the story!!! You'd have to read her synopsis to understand why it doesn't seem like she will. It would be cool if she did though, I will say that.

I have a confession: I have hardly decorated for Christmas and I don't even think I'm going to. My heart is just not in it. It's weird not being in my "home" and frankly I guess maybe I'm just not in the mood? I can't explain it very well without going into too many details. Hopefully everyone else is getting into the Christmas spirit and enjoying getting ready!

pants and TobyMac

The not as exciting part first - I made Jan a pair of pajama pants for her birthday. Yes, I felt extraordinarily chintzy giving homemade pj pants, but what the hay. She seemed to like them okay (?) but I'm not a good judge of that kind of thing.

now onto the exciting part:

Last Saturday I went to check my email. Completely unsuspecting of anything cool in my inbox. And then! There was an email that I had won two tickets to the TobyMac Winter Wonder Slam tour, and the tickets were in the third row!!!! What?!? I never win anything! But, it was true! I had entered a raffle on KLOVE because I am a KLOVE insider. So, it was TobyMac, Relient K, and Stephanie Smith. I'll be honest, I actually had to think about if I was really going to go - for a few reasons. First, it's a 4.5 hour drive on a perfect day, and we just had a giant snow storm. And the concert was on Sunday night and I have to work at 8 am on Monday morning. And then gas money was also a factor, since it is such a long drive. And, I would have to go alone because everyone I asked thought I was crazy. But then I was like - wait a minute! This is a concert that I had been dying to go to, awesome tickets, and I'm only young once!!!! So I went and it was totally cool. The drive wasn't so bad - like 4.5 hours on the way there even with slowing down on the pass for packed snow. On the drive back it was more like 5 because I took it reeeealllly slow. I got home at like 2:30am, and I would say it was worth it. I was a really good show! It was great because you could tell that they were having fun up there on stage, not just putting on a show. I love his music so it was cool to see it performed live.

You say it's your birthday ba na na na na na

Yesterday I came home to two fabulous surprises! One was a birthday card from my Mom with a gift certificate for Joann's and also one for Michael's. The other was a swap package from Holland! How fun!!! This is another FQ sheet swap, love the sheets and especially love the card she enclosed.

Nothing much new, I just had lunch with some friends for my bday. I took the day off work so I could sleep in :) It's nice just to not have anything to HAVE to do today!

Weight Loss Wednesday

I'm going to go with my Monday weigh in because it was better than today by one pound! By Monday's weigh in I'm down 4 lbs from last week. I haven't actually noticed that I've done anything different, just watching portions and making sure to eat breakfast. I actually didn't do spin last week or the week before so I'm surprised that I lost anything at all - but I'll take it!

Catch up

So, here are a couple of pics from Thanksgiving. I made this little turkey pin to add some festivity to my outfit! LOL, no one noticed but it made me smile :) And here's a pic of the cranberry sauce I made from scratch. I found a recipe in a magazine at my Mom's house and she had given me this carnival glass dish so I thought *perfect*! The recipes was super easy, and smelled divine while it was cooking!!! I'll find the recipe and add it in later.





And then there's Sam - realizing that I am getting ready to leave the house and not too pleased about it! He cracks me up!


So, yesterday I stopped into the hospice thrift, one of my favorites, and I found a ton of great linens! So the top two sheets were $2 each and the pillowcases were .50 cents each. There are two crinoline lady pillowcases! I love those. The sheet with the bolder flowers was $1. It's sort of hard to find sheets around here for less than $2 so I think I did pretty well. I've almost got enough variety to start a quilt. So, that will be good. Speaking of sheets I just sent out two more packages for another sheet fat quarter swap from Swap-bot. I didn't get pics to share. I hope they like their packages, and I can't wait to get mine!




Let's see, what else? Oh, I went to see New Moon - not sure that I mentioned that? And I liked it. I actually liked it better than the first one. I've just finished the third book in the series. I also had to read the ending of the last one because that's just what I do. I had to know what was going to happen. I will still read it though. I also read another book last night, it was an easy read called "The Book of Jane" I don't remember the author - it was two ladies. The premise is that they took the book of Job from the bible and sort of adapted it to a modern day lady living in New York. It was a fine book, just not completely engrossing.

WLW

Ya-hooo is all I have to say! I'm down 1 lb so I'm happy! I thought for sure I would have gained or at the very least stayed the same with Thanksgiving (and two cheesecake options! Bah!) and no spinning class last week. The other days I tried to be good with cutting my portions, so I guess it paid off.


I have a few crafty things in the works. I am crochetting a scarf that I might give as a gift depending on how it turns out! Then, Joanns had flannel on sale the day after Thanksgiving for $1.49 a yard so I picked out two super duper cute prints to make pj pants. One pair for sure is going to be a gift and then the other might be for myself. I am also almost done with the Christmas advent calendar - I HAVE to finish it this weekend fo sho! I was stumped though last weekend on whether I wanted to embellish each little pocket or leave it plain. I think I've decided to embellish - after all I have all these fun embellishments! Why not use them :)