A Giveaway

I just realized that I've been blogging 2 years this week and I just posted my 300Th post so I'm thinking I should have a giveaway. I love Neocolor II watercolor crayons (as you know since I've been blabbing on and on about them for the past two years) so I'm going to give a set of 15 away to some lucky person.Leave a comment between now and 11:59 PM EST Thursday 1/7/10 and I'll draw a name on Friday morning and post the winner. Good luck. These are awesome for fabric and for paper. Love Love Love them and you will too - I promise.

Happy 2010!!!

I joined the 2010 Bead Journal Project and want to begin work on my January piece today. I'm having trouble deciding on a size. You can do whatever you want, but you have to stick to one size for the year. I'm back and forth between a 2 1/2 inch x 3 1/2 inch or a 4 x 4 inch square. I pulled a few beads to work with. :O)I like the smaller size better, but this is supposed to be a challenge and filling the 4 x 4 inch square would be more challenging don't you think?

When I bought my lap top last year I got a free Flip video camera with it. On Christmas Kellie and her two cousins (ages 9 and 7) were using it to make videos of their finger puppet plays. Molly made a disk for Kellie and one for her cousins Mady and Ellie. Anyway, I wanted to show you the cover Kellie made for her disk. (they are calling themselves the EKM production company.)

So this week I'm hoping to make the Christmas lounge pants for the kids. Very timely on that. I'm calling them an early 2010 Christmas gift since I didn't get them finished before Christmas 2009.
And I want to make a book cover for my 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inch binder day planner that I set up last week. And so far today I've caught up on all of my favorite blogs and emails and it's now 11 AM and I haven't started a darn thing. Not a good start to my project list.

We had a bit of a catastrophe over the holiday...

Jason was doing some enthusiastic stretching and yawning while on the sofa and knocked my little wood believe guys onto the floor with a crash resulting in a few decapitations and the entire thing snapped in half. Very distressing, but Ryan came to the rescue with a little wood glue so we are crossing our fingers that these guys have been saved.

Totally low key around here since Christmas. Just hanging out with Mark and the kids. They have gone back to work and school today so I'm hoping to get the beading started. I tried to work on a project over the weekend, but the minute I went downstairs and sat down Kellie came running down the stairs "MOM! Do you want to see my finger puppet play???!" I sure do. **Sewing will have to wait 'cause who doesn't want to see a most confusing play where there is a lot of attacking and screaming and I don't even know what all - I just made sure I laughed when she laughed and told her it was fabulous. Not five minutes after the play ended here comes Mark "hhh! What are you doing down here? Don't you want to watch a movie with me?!" absolutely. Who wanted to sew? definitely not me! :O) So here is to a happy new year and a productive week while I'm alone.

Good Morning!

I hope you had a nice holiday. I loved that it was on Friday. Mark was able to be home all weekend and that was nice. We just hung out around the house Saturday and Sunday. It was a much needed rest. I feel so much better today - ready to start something new. Last night I made 10 journals. They are really easy to make and I decided to just get them all made at once. I was afraid that if I didn't the watercolor paper would get bent or damaged in some way. I still need to cut the ends of the thread, but other than that, they are all ready to go...
they are 16 pages made from one very large sheet of watercolor paper. Teesha Moore has a tutorial video on Youtube. Part 1 Here Part 2 Here. I also set up my 2010 Planner. I like to use a 5 1/2 inch x 8 1/2 inch binder. I have the month at a glance and also the week at a glance in it.

but this year I decided to add some watercolor paper pages.

On Christmas morning I made a Quiche.I used this quiche recipe. It was good, but I think next time I will cut back on the cheese. It was a little overpowering - a little too cheesy - to me, but still good. I will definitely make it again. I used a 9 1/2 inch pie plate and didn't have any problems (some people commented that they had overflow during baking.)

and we made the mistake of giving Howard his gifts first on Christmas morning!and he started jumping around with the new toys - a little scary :O) We definitely didn't think that one through!
and then he kept looking for more toys - convinced that every gift being opened must be for him! It was like having an elephant on crack in the room! :O) Happy Monday Friends.

Was It An Angel?...

I was talking to my friend about this and I thought that since it is Christmas I would tell you what happened...

Years ago I was in the hospital having just had Molly. I was being moved to a room so Mark went to get my bag from the car. Now, Mark is a very VERY straight laced, black and white, rational kind of guy. Anyway, he comes back to my room with this really strange look on his face and says "I just had the strangest thing happen. I was at the car getting your bag out and this old man walked up to me and asked if I would show him where the entrance to the hospital was. The door was straight ahead with the sign in giant letters HOSPITAL ENTRANCE, but I showed him anyway. The man puts out his hand to shake mine and as I shook his hand he said "I can see that you are a really good man." and he walked away. From the moment my hand touched his I felt like I was in the presence of something really really good. Something different-not of this world. He was REALLY good was the feeling that came over me."

Molly was born with double pneumonia and had to stay in the Nicu for 10 days. We were really scared at the time because at first we didn't know what was wrong with her. Was that her guardian angel? was it a ghost? was it just a really nice old guy who was lost in a parking lot right in front of the door? I don't know. But I'll never forget the look on Mark's face as he told me about him - and the fact that Mark - MARK - would wonder if it were an Angel...I don't know...

So I'm off to the store this morning to get the last minute food for Christmas. I haven't left my house since last Thursday so I'm hoping the roads are okay. Have a great day!

Just Some Random Photos For You

So last night I wanted to take a photo of the finished mug cozy so you could get the full effect. I think they are pretty darn cute...and while I was taking that photo I noticed this Santa in the background. I love this Santa. He was one of my dad's toys when he was a kid. It's from the 20's/30's so it's probably made of lead and toxic, but I love it.and then I decided to take a photo out my front door. Isn't this pretty?and then out the back door...Aaaah, that's a problem! We got a lot more than 18 inches! I hope the deck doesn't collapse! And Howard took one look at this and walked away - I guess he'll just hold it until spring. :O)

Jason was sent out last night to clear the front sidewalk with the snow blower. Molly decided to go with him. There was a knock at the door...

they are such goofs. And then Molly was looking out the back door. She happens to look up. Aaaaaah, Mom did. you. see. the. snow. on the roof? I look out...
You can't really tell from this photo just how scary far that is hanging over the back door. It's a good two or three feet! I'm not really sure how to handle that. What if all the snow from the roof comes down at once like an avalanche! YIKES. But it's also really cool isn't it? Like a pretty ribbon made of snow? Now I'm afraid to open the back door...AND DON"T TELL HOWARD! I have enough trouble getting that dog out the door as it is! LOL.

I Do Love A White Christmas!

I finished all the mug cozies and they are being blocked (and the cowl for my Mom, too).

and I wanted to show you the buttons I found for the cozies. They are GreenEarth buttons by La Mode. They are made of recycled plastic and are washable. I really like them for this project because they look a little like wood.

Howard woke up to snow this morning.

A LOT of snow...

I had to shovel the deck and steps so he would go out. And I had to go with him. You can't even tell that I ever shoveled.

Then, as if his day wasn't upsetting enough...we started torturing him with a photo shoot.

He's not really feeling the Christmas spirit just yet...

and unfortunately, they are calling this a blizzard and the snow is still coming down hard. It's going to snow all day and we are expecting 18 plus inches of snow. Poor Howard.

Since I can't leave my house today I'm trying to get as much of my cookie making finished as I can. My favorite kind of day. Lots of snow and lots of cookies and lots of hot chocolate. Might be the best day ever here today. :O) I hope you are enjoying your Saturday too.

Happy Birthday Jason!

My first baby is 18 today...

In our first house Jason and Molly shared a room. We had one crib on each wall and when they woke up after their naps Jason liked to be put into Molly's crib so they could play together before coming back downstairs. This was taken in December of 1993 - Molly was 9 months and Jason had just turned 2.

They grow up much too quickly.

He's turning into a man and as proud of him as I am...I want that boy with his thumb in his mouth to come back and stay forever.

Yesterday he had to register for the draft-not my favorite law. It freaked me out. We are going out to eat tonight to celebrate his birthday - He's such a sweet, funny guy - I can't believe he's 18. I really can't think about it too much because it upsets me - my time with my kids is moving along too quickly. It's making me really emotional. This 18 business has me in a funk. Yesterday I even cried over the FOLGERS coffee commercial (the new one for the holidays when the sister tells the brother that his coming home was her Christmas gift!) Any other time I wouldn't have even noticed the commercial - this week - I cry over it. I'm a bit of a mess. I hope this passes soon because I don't even want to be around myself right now. I'm depressing myself. I cant seem to stop the waterworks this week whenever I'm alone...like now. Good grief I'm a mess.

I'm off to get my hair cut and color this morning...Molly: Sheesh you are constantly getting your hair done! Me: Yep, every 6 weeks - I'm holding out for a miracle! :O)