Peace

Before I get to the crafty part of this post, I wanted to share a little story about how my own selfishness caused me to destroy a Tupperware bowl.

I LOVE homemade tapioca pudding. I know some people are not a fan but I have loved it since I was a kid. I don't make it often because it requires a serious time commitment to cook - at least an hour of nothing but constantly stirring while the pudding is cooking. Commitment, I tell ya! So after I put in all that work, I am so glad my hubby and son don't like the end results and the entire bowl is all mine. Unless my daughter finds out. She loves it as much as I do. So I have a very bad habit of hiding any evidence that there is a bowl of it in the house. I know, shame on me. Well, this time, that little practice came back to bite me.

I knew she was coming over the other day and I had just finished the last of a bowl of thick, creamy, wonderful tapioca pudding. I didn't want to hurt her feelings that I had made some and didn't send any her way so I hid the empty bowl in the oven. Yeah, you know where this is going now, don't you? Today, I preheated the oven in order to bake some french fries when this smell of burning plastic hits my nose. Yep, a Tupperware bowl no less, melted almost beyond recognition.

That misshapen thing used to be one of my favorite bowls! Gone into the garbage now, all because I didn't share. Lesson learned - or is it?

Anyhow, here's another Christmas card I created recently:

Made with a newer set from Papertrey Ink: City Scene. I am always intrigued by little buildings and different scenes I can put together so I think this will be a really fun set to play with (matching dies too!) The letters for peace were die cut, although I think next time I would use a scribey type font and emboss it on the card - I think these letters are a bit too chunky. But overall, I love the simplicity and the cool images. Watch for another City Scene card soon!

Enjoy the end of the week and the weekend! Anyone planning on seeing Catching Fire this weekend??  Me!!

Christmas Dogs

I haven't had much time to create or blog recently as I've been redecorating my son's bedroom. Started off with a change of paint color, then some new bookcases and I finally got everything back into the room and organized! I don't have any "before" pics (imagine blue walls and a border around the top with planets) but here are a couple of "after" photos"

Of course he couldn't part with his Star Wars goodies! And I wouldn't expect him too. Once a Star Wars nerd, always a Star Wars nerd! 

I also have a card to share today, featuring one of the newer PTI sets, Come All Ye Faithful.

Ah, cracks me up! And I love the doggies and their sweaters - so cute!

That's it for me today but I have more cards to share soon!! Have a wonderful start to your week!

Birthday Blessings

My birthday has now been over for 2+ days but I have to say that it is one I will always remember - the 1st one as a grandma! We, as a family, are so blessed to have little Alex in our lives and I truly enjoyed spending the afternoon getting some snuggle time in with him - even if it was still in the hospital. Here's a little video of us together on Oct. 8th -



(Ignore the random chatter in the background. That's my son and son-in-law talking about "breaking out" of the hospital. Which finally happened today  - YEAH! - but that's another story for another day).

Back to my birthday. On top of the biggest little blessing we all received this year (in 5-lb. boy form), I am also blessed to have a wonderful family, loving husband, remarkable kids, a job, a nice home, fantastic friends and so much more! My life is full and I'm in a happy place right now. After our granddaughter Liberty passed away about 2 1/2 years ago, happy was not an easy emotion to achieve but time marches on and life continually changes - this time in a much needed positive direction! My deepest thanks to everyone who prayed for Aimee and her baby throughout her pregnancy. 53 is looking to be a great year!

Until next time -

Whirlwind Days

Well the last few days have been a whirlwind of activity!! Our daughter and son-in-law gave birth this past Thursday to the sweetest little BOY you'll ever meet!!! Yep, our granddaughter (according to numerous ultrasounds) turned out to be a grandson! None of us expected that, as the pink tutu I purchased can attest to! LOL But no matter - girl or boy - all we wanted was healthy and for the most part, that's what we got!

Alexander Xavier is a little on the tiny side, weighing just 5 pounds even at birth, and is having a few feeding problems that are keeping him in the hospital for now but he is expected to come home later this week. In the mean time, I am trying to get to the hospital as often as I can for snuggle time plus taking care of daughter's cats while they're away (hospital is about an hour away from home) and running here and there to get boy clothes as he would look mighty silly in all the pink we've been buying! So if I'm not posting often this week, you'll know why - little Alex needs his grandma!

Here's a picture of our little man -

 

Yep, I could eat this little pumpkin with a spoon!

 

More to share tomorrow - when I turn 53....

 

 



Halloween and other happenings

In what started out as a very uninteresting week has provided a few mention-worthy moments. Here they are, in no specific order:

1. While much of the country, and Ohio, in fact, was severely affected by Hurricane Sandy, our area saw some heavy wind and rains but nothing too intense. We are fortunate and our hearts go out to those who are still waiting for the power to be restored or the water to recede from their homes. Our thoughts and prayers to you all.

2. On a happier note, I got a new camera! I have been dabbling in photography for about a year now thanks to my pal Kathy getting me interested. Well, the credit doesn't all go to her - I've actually been interested for quite some time but it wasn't until I bought a camera from her (my first dSLR) that I really started pursuing the hobby in earnest. To the tune of now owning additional lenses, understanding aperture and now, buying my own, brand new, "big girl" camera. Here is the first picture I took with my new toy:

3. She might look like a willing photography subject but, in fact, she is far from it. About 3 seconds after this shot, she was on the move and giving me that "don't you dare take another picture of me, lady" look.

4. I am totally disillusioned regarding the intelligence of American voters. More on that subject here.

5. Halloween was rainy and cold and so we had very few trick-or-treaters. Not that we ever have very many but this year was a bit worse. However, we did have one super adorable Woodstock stop by to see us:

This is my daughter's friend Kristy's baby. He was sound asleep when they visited - Halloween wears a little guy out!

6. Speaking of Halloween, at least one of my kids still likes to dress up:

That's my daughter dressed as a candy corn (her legs were yellow).

7. I am cutting back my hours at work slightly, taking every other Monday off. Business has been pretty slow and I can only surf Facebook on company time just.so.much.

8. I am also now the Birthday coordinator at work. This means it's my job to make sure that a little celebration (with a card and dessert-y thing) is organized when one of my co-workers has a birthday. The last person to handle this important task really wasn't up to the job. And I am a party planner after all so it's a perfect fit. First celebration is this Friday.

9. Did you hear that Disney just acquired Lucasfilms and will be making a feature film Star Wars 7 in 2015? That news was HUGE in our house this week. Trust me, the SW fan that resides here (my son) has talked of little else.

10. And I think that about wraps it up for me. I'll be back soon with more things to share or check me out on Facebook. I seem to be there a lot these days.

Reading (and writing) blog posts

I do a fair amount of blog reading every day. I have my favorites and occasionally I will stumble across something new-to-me that I have to check out. And I find I am drawn to people who write about their daily life. Even some of their more mundane stories I find interesting. I think this is due to the fact that I generally think of my own life as boring and it's nice to relate to people who don't have much more to share than I do. So with that said, I'm going to try to start blogging more here and just post whatever is going on in my life from day to day.

Contain your excitement.

Yesterday was my day off work. I love Wednesdays. I have changed my day off from time to time but I like Wednesdays off most as I can really only handle work two days at a time. And after two days of getting up early, I need a mid-week opportunity to sleep in. So Wednesday off works well for me.

I got up about 10:00, got my son up, had a little breakfast and then talked to my friend Kathy about an errand we were going on later in the day that we moved up to noon. Which was going to include lunch. No problem. I'm only eating a bowl of Frosted Flakes at 10:45 (it took awhile to get to the actual eating portion of the morning) so I'm sure I'll be ready for a meal again in a little over an hour. I'm a trooper like that. At least when it comes to food.

So Kathy and her mom picked me up and we headed out to order t-shirts. Kathy was purchasing shirts for her and her "employees" to wear when out on photo shoots. She's a photographer and currently employing my son as her intern. Not that he has any interest in photography but he's majoring in marketing and is helping her out with some business-y related things this semester. Like creating "ugly ass flyers" but that's a story for another day. Anyhow, we wrapped up our t-shirt ordering and headed to Caddaugh Irish Pub for lunch.

And yes, I had plenty of room for fish 'n chips. Those Frosted Flakes didn't get in the way one little bit.

As a matter of fact, I even had room to eat half a cupcake when I got home.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty uneventful. (Oh, you were holding out for some excitement here? Yeah, not today, I'm afraid). We had grilled cheese for dinner and here's the thing: I don't understand why the family (husband and son) thought it was okay to complain about the lack of a "real" meal. Did they just meet me yesterday? Don't get me wrong, I don't mind cooking. But if I've been out to lunch, I am usually good for the day and don't need another large meal so why one earth would I cook just for two of them? That makes no sense at all.

Besides, I didn't want to over-do it at dinner. I had that other half of a cupcake to eat before the day was through.

Hubby went bowling and I spent the evening doing paperwork, computer stuff, and updating my to-do lists that were scattered about. And that pretty much sums up the entire day.

And I bet you can't wait to come back tomorrow and find out what I did today.