Tree Skirt and Owls

I love this tree skirt. It is from Crate and Barrel. It is a little expensive on Crate and Barrel - I think it would be less inexpensive to replicate and also easy to make.

I also love these owls too. So so cute! But not sure I could make them.

Happy 2009!

Gratitude Friday

I am thankful...
1. for some creative energy I have going on right now - especially when I needed it (will be posting pictures in the coming week)
2. for the book Soul Collage making me think and giving me me something I was needing
3. for finding my Christmas spirit
4. for one of my favorite Christmas traditions - decorating the tree with Michael. It is a very special tradition we both cherish. Going through each ornament as we hang them and reminiscing with memories associated with them. Sitting and just reflecting and enjoying the glow of the Christmas lights sparkling off the ornaments.
5. for more chocolate then need but was wanting....Michael came home with about 3 different chocolates this week for me. I complained about all my pretty Christmas bowls were empty. Well they aren't anymore although those dove chocolates do seem to be disappearing pretty quickly. :)
6. for the simple pleasure of coloring and watching Polar Express
7. for Michael's Dad doing so well after surgery

I recognize that I have much more to be thankful for in my life.

Blog Hopping

This site that I hopped to the other day features quite a lot of handmade etsy shops. And there is so many wonderful holiday items. But thought I would just give these 3 links on Poppy Talk.


Holiday Ornament 2008 Guide
101 Reasons to Buy Handmade
Holiday Gift Tags

Thanksgiving

We had a really nice slow Thanksgiving. I paced myself on everything really well this year. Michael said I should have been taking some notes so that I remember how to do it next year - I might jot some down after this entry for next year. Everything got done right about the same time. Everything turned out. So it ended up being a very good Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a Thanksgiving filled with love. Just as I did. There are so many things I am thankful for and I try to be aware of them everyday as the pass through my daily life. And I will continue with that throughout the next year.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Valentine's Day

I admit I love Valentine's Day. Because it involved the one thing I like to remember about this day....LOVE! I don't that Valentine's Day is all buying flowers, candy, and jewelry. It is irritating. As another blog I read said it is terrible message we are sending that we have to spend money on each other to prove our love. And that is horrible.

So all I need today is LOVE and I have that in my life with not only Michael but my wonderful friends and family!

Christmas Baking Upon Us

It is getting that time to bake so today when we went to the grocery store I picked up lots of baking supplies. I think though I am still suffering from sticker shock over the eggs. Eighteen eggs $2.93. Ouch!

I usually try something new every year sometimes those things don't get made again. Sometimes they get on the permanent list.

This is standard every year...
Sour Cream Cookies
Foolproof Fudge
Cardamom Butter Cookies - I roll out to do cutout cookies
Chocolate Caramels
Molasses Cookies
Festive Bark

Then I made these last year and they were a big hit so I am going to do those again...CC Peppermint Cookies - chocolate chip cookie recipe with 1 1/4 cup crushed peppermint bark.

And I have a couple new recipes I want to make and then one old one I would really like to make again as I miss them. I haven't made them in probably 10-11 years. One new recipe I want to make is similar to an old recipe I made the jelly thumbprints....but going to try this one. And then Peanut Butter Blossoms is one I used to make and always enjoyed. I also want to search down a recipe for gluten-free cookies as a family member will need those with all the gluten goodies around -- she needs something for her. So I will be checking out a favorite read to see if I can come up with something.

I always enjoy baking Christmas goodies. I make up plates and containers for friends and family. I also want to make scones as gifts. So I see quite a bit of baking in the near future.

(photo of sour cream cookies from last year I think)

Holiday Blues

I really get annoyed with myself though because although we had a VERY nice Thanksgiving I still got sad and down yesterday. I was missing time with family. I even thought of one particular Thanksgivings. As I said in my last post cooking Thanksgiving meal isn't my favorite for a crowd. I am always worried the turkey won't come out good. Why I worry about that...I am not sure as I have always had my turkey's turn out really good.

I remember the first Thanksgiving I hosted was when my parents, sisters and one of my Grandma's came...when I was married. I think actually it was our first Thanksgiving after moving into our house. I had at that point in my life never made a turkey so thankfully my Mom was right there to help walk me through it! Such as I was forgetting to pull the sack of giblets so she caught that! And she made the mashed potatoes because it took me years to master those...I always have had lumps. I finally can make mashed potatoes without lumps (well most of the time). But everything else I made turned out really good. I just remember being so intimidated because my Mom and my Grandma are amazing cooks. So here I am doing turkey dinner for the first time and they are my guests. Oh my the panic! I remember freaking out on before they got there in the morning - they had stayed in a hotel as our house had lots stairs and my Grandma couldn't take those. So it was just my sisters that stayed with us. I was told all would work out and of course it did.

I know I hosted Thanksgiving a few more times...once when my sisters couldn't get to Minnesota they came to our house at least Michelle did. I recalled some past Thanksgiving memories during my sadness although all the memories I recalled were good memories. It just made me a little nostalgic thus making me feel a little sad. But as I said it annoys me because I have so much to be thankful for plus I had such a nice day with Michael that I shouldn't have been sad at all. I just feel this year is going to be year of recalling old memories for me because of my mindset about being 40.

Well that is enough reminiscing for today. I need to work.

(image is from an ATC - Lost)

Thanksgiving

Yesterday was lovely. I had cinnamon rolls raising before I went to bed on Wednesday so we had a few of those for breakfast on Thursday while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. Michael talked to several of his family members while I got things ready for the turkey dinner. We don't eat until 4pm so I just prepped.

While we waited for getting things in the oven, we watched a movie. We watched The Prestige. We ate about 4:30pm as pop up timer on the turkey didn't pop up until then even though I thought just by poundage it should have been done sooner. Michael and I had a good wine and stuffed ourselves! After we cleaned up the kitchen, I called my parents. My sister just closed on a house so I knew they were spending Thanksgiving working on the house. We chatted a bit and then Michael and I rolled ourselves to the couch to watch The Polar Express. It was so nice to be snuggled up on the couch watching it...I get such a gleeful feeling when I watch it. Eventually we had pumpkin pie and watched Project Runway. We ended up getting to bed about 1:30am with the alarm set for 4:30am because we decided to be insane hit Best Buy and Circuit City on Black Friday.

Best Buy was packed packed. They had everything really well stocked. Lots of tvs and other merchandise out ready to just be carted off. They had lots of people directing traffic as well as arrows and balloon throughout the store so you could stop and ask where are ipods and they would say go to the blue balloon. The had a person at the cashiers to direct plus each cashier had bright orange signs with numbers to wave when they were done. It really wasn't a horrible ordeal. But.... Circuit City I am just so over it with them. Last week we went in to get a few movies they had in their ad. They had notice of the misprinted ad - the list wasn't just one or 2 movies - no it was a list of like 15 to 20 movies that shouldn't have been listed leaving the real list to like 10 movies really on sale. Then the ad online for today had some things on sale that weren't on sale in the store but the ad online didn't say anything about being web only...and of course their website was out this morning. Crashed at 2am or something like that. They had lines for everything so if you wanted the hot deal on the big tv you had to wait in a line and then see if they had anymore in stock and then after that if you wanted game system you had to go wait in another line. And then you had to get in the cashier line with a print out slip(s). Oh and they were only letting so many people in the store which was probably good for their store as we have a smaller Circuit City. But waiting out in the cold to get into the store that really didn't have many of the things we were looking for really wasn't fun.

It was a good Thanksgiving though so that is what matters! We had a really nice day! Michael and I had good quality time together yesterday. It was very nice and I am very thankful to be with Michael.

Turkey Eve

I haven't had much time for anything lately. I go from one project to the next, to the next...and so on.

Yesterday was shopping, working on a website and working on a Christmas present. Today I have cleaned most of the day, baked and then did a little bit of work the Christmas presents I am making.

It will just be us tomorrow...which is fine with me. Cooking for a large group on Thanksgiving isn't one of my favorite things to do...I would rather do Christmas dinner. We are having a pretty traditional menu this year. Roasted turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans and I even made parker house rolls - something I haven't made in over 10 years.

Michael gave me a surprise the other day.....he said we will be putting up the Christmas decorations BEFORE his birthday this year so his parents can see the house all decorated. I am so excited! He usually likes us to wait until after his birthday...which I totally understand. But it does still make me very happy we get to have the decorations up a few days longer then usual! I am such a sap for Christmas.

I will be finishing The Golden Compass tonight (only have like 30 pages left). I really enjoyed it. I have put on request the second in the series. I am still waiting for the 4th in the Outlander series. So looks like I will be out of books for the next few days. I reached 50 books for the year though -- which was 50 more then last year so I am happy about that.

Well I better sign off and get some sleep.

I hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving full of friends & family and love & laughter!

(Another Christmas photo from a few years ago -- I have a bunch of Christmas bears and they sit under the tree)

Bringing on the Busy...

I have felt kind of down this weekend. But today I finished up something for a friend and that actually helped me feel better knowing we will make her smile. I don't feel I accomplished much else though this weekend. I have 2 websites that I need to work on...changes to one and finishing up the other now that the client decided what template she wants. I also need to finish up an article. And then prep for Thanksgiving this week.

Michael's parents are coming for his birthday (Dec 6th) so I need to finish the autumn cleaning I started a few weeks ago (when I was steam cleaning). I would like to wash and press all the curtains and steam clean the hallway and Michael's office before they come (then all the carpet in the house would be done). I have bunches of stuff to go to Goodwill but I need to get it all together (one spot) and then typed up for taxes.

I started making our holiday card list today, got out the cards and labels so that I can try to get those out early this year. Maybe I will even get a letter done this year.

(The photo is one Michael took of our tree a couple years ago - the ornament is one his Grandmother made.)