Fun News

Go HERE now:) The lovely and talented Miss Moki is featured on the CRAFT blog today!! How awesome is that!!!

On my first day of vacation (yesterday) I got up at 6:30!!!! Doesn't my body know that I get to sleep in for the next 8 days! I got tremendously far on my list of chores to get done though so I am all that much closer to being able to craft and work on getting my scrapbooking stuff organized for the L.O.A.D. challenge I am participating in.

And for those of you that got a copy of our family newsletter....I alluded to a new calling at church and today it is official. I was released as Relief Society pianist and called to serve in the Cub Scouts as a den leader. My co-den leader is my dear friend Carla so that is going to be really exciting. I know nothing about scouts, other than occassionally going to a scouting function with my little brothers so we'll see how this goes! I have my first official meeting on Wed night. I still have my calling at Ward Music Chairman too.

I mentioned quite a while ago that I did a gift exchange for Christmas with my local ATC group - here are the gifties I received.

A tortilla warmer, fortune cookie coasters and lavendar sachets from sweet Louise:


Ornaments and magnets made from Raine's awesome photography, two charms from Leau - I hung one on the tree and I am going to put the other on a necklace, Christmas earrings from vintage postage stamps from Donna and a really cool bird ornament also from Louise:

A handpainted silk scarf also from Donna and two fabulous quilted hot pads from Colleen - I told her they were too pretty to use as hotpads and I am going to instead hang them on my mini quilt wall (which I haven't put up yet - but it's on my to do list):

These ladies just ooze talent!!! I am so happy to be able to associate and be inspired by each one of them.

And be sure to leave Moki a comment at how excited you are that she is famous!

Scrappy!

Yes, I am still a scrapper....very rarely though! But I am going to get my butt in gear cause I signed up for ScrapHappy's L.O.A.D. challenge - read all about it here:):)

I also made a layout a couple days ago that I am really happy with:)

This is the picture we sent out in most of our Christmas cards this year - I ordered 100 and ended up with over 120 on my card list this year so not everyone got one:( Next year I will order more!!!

Cold

It's 7 degrees outside....do I really have to leave the warm cozy house to make the trek to work??? Luckily, only for one more day. I have the next 9 days off but today is going to be a real humdinger trying to finish up a bunch of projects so that I can actually relax and not worry about work.

Miss S

I find it so cool that Miss S got 7 comments on her 7th birthday post!! Jacki and LauraJ guessed right - the post title was inspired by Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band - "It was 20 years ago today, Sgt Pepper taught the band to play" - so keep your eyes on the postman ladies:) A little goodie will be heading your way soon:):)

Merry Merry Christmas

We had a delicious ham dinner last night with two good friends, then we spent the evening walking through Old Town Albuquerque to see the luminarias. It was beautiful! There was no way I could capture it with my camera, so here's some photos I lifted from an Albuquerque website and a little of the history of luminarias.



"The glowing brown sacks that adorn Albuquerque walkways, churches and homes each holiday season are called luminarias and date back more than 300 years. The New Mexican tradition began when the Spanish villages along the Rio Grande displayed the unique and easy to make Christmas lanterns, called luminarias to welcome the Christ child into the world. A traditional luminaria is a brown paper bag, which has been folded at the top, filled will a couple cups of sand and a votive candle."

There are literally thousands of luminarias lining the streets of Old Town and the adjacent neighborhood. It was very cool to walk around and see them.

Then when we got home, Miss S opened up some new pajamas and we set out a plate for Santa:) Then off to bed!! I couldn't believe that it only took Miss S about 5 minutes to fall asleep. Must have been all the walking in Old Town:)


Some of the Christmas loot!! We had a fabulous time opening presents! See that Widmer box? Hubby's best friend from work bought him a mini keg of Heineken and it was in that box - I seriously think that was the hit of his Christmas:) What cracks me up is he was excited about beer and I was excited about the new scripture markers I got in my stocking:)

Miss S was again totally spoiled, as was Mom and Dad too:) We have lots of fun gift cards to spend next week too! I have Dec 29 through January 6 off and I'm looking forward to going to the mall and spending some of our gift cards:):) Thank you everyone!


Now we're off to do a little gift exchange with some dear friends, then to my brother's for a steak and shrimp dinner - YUM!!!! Hubby does not like to leave the house on Christmas but it wasn't hard to convince him with a steak and shrimp dinner on the menu:)

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!!! And remember that the true meaning is not the gifts, though they are nice:), it is the time spent with family and loved ones and the remembrance of our Savior's birth.

It was 7 Years Ago Today*

December 23, 2000

December 23, 2007

Happy birthday to my sweet Miss S!!

*Name the song this title was inspired by and you'll be entered in a giveaway of "a little something handmade" - I haven't decided what yet:) - in honor of Miss S's birthday.

Success

Miss S's birthday party was a smashing success! I was telling my sister tonight that Miss S made out like a bandit! She sure has some generous friends:)



Look at all the cuties in their pjs.

The girls had so much fun!! The party went a little like this:

Story time (The Mitten)
Breakfast: OJ and French Toast Sticks
Activity: eye masks (made from patterned fun foam) and a scrapbook page signed by all the girls
Presents
Cake
Activity: Nail painting

We got Miss S High School Musical 2 as one of our gifts to her so the girls watched part of that while they took turns getting their nails painted and waiting for their parents to pick them up.

I've gotten away from doing the traditional goodie bag (a bunch of stuff that ends up getting tossed anyway!!) so for the last couple years we've been giving away books as a little thank you to the guests from Miss S. I did that again this year, and I had little Hello Kitty notebooks for the older girls that came. So each guest went home with their crown, the eye mask that they made and a book or notebook. I buy the books throughout the year through Scholastic - each month they have one or two books that are on special for $1.00 so I buy several of those every few months. I'd love to hear any great ideas you have for "goodie" bags:)

Slowly but surely...

the kitchen is almost back to normal. Moki's brother-in-law is my new hero. Mark came over Tuesday night and fixed the cabinets for us and tonight I put the last few things away. Just in time for Miss S's birthday party tomorrow:) We're keeping it simple and low key this year. She wanted to do a sleepover but I think she is still too young for that so we are doing a "Sleepless sleepover" - the girls will all come in their pajamas and bring their sleeping bags and we will have breakfast together (OJ and French toast sticks), a couple craft projects, a game and cake.

Then I hope to spend the rest of the day finishing up the last few packages that need to go out by Monday. Here's a peek at one of the presents that I made for my BFF, Tammy. A simple shell stitch scarf. I made it extra long so she can wrap it around a few times.

Chaos

Last month our microwave quit working, and about 2 weeks ago our oven stopped working. When I got online to schedule a service call I learned our dishwasher had been recalled. Why do bad things always happen in threes??? Today the repairman came and fixed all three...the bill was $342 for the microwave and oven and I guess I should be thankful that the repairman waived the $75 service call fee...and I'm extremely thankful to have a fully functioning kitchen again. I was getting sick of pasta (the stove top still works) and heating up stuff in the little $30 microwave we bought at Target to get us through until we got the microwave fixed.

While the repairman had the microwave taken down from above the oven he commented that our cabinets were coming apart from the wall...and he was right. There's a good two inches between the tops of the cabinets and the wall - I've got a kitchen full of leaning tower of Pisa cabinets. Hubby unloaded almost everything in the cabinets and then promptly left for hockey.

This is the kitchen that I came home too - the rest of the dishes are stacked on the table. What a sight. Just when I was finally conquering some of the clutter around the house, this happens. I have a church get together tomorrow night so we probably won't get the cabinets reinforced until Wednesday. Then I've got two days to clean everything up before Miss S's birthday party on Saturday morning. Holy cripes almighty, I think I'm going to have a panic attack. Please send me calm thoughts to help me get through this week!!

Production Line

I finished my ornaments for Amy's Ornament Exchange...sweet and simple crocheted flowers. I love how they turned out, but I hope the recepients are not disappointed with the simpleness of them. I had wanted to do snowflakes but after three failed attempts, I fell back on my little flower.


My ATC trade group met yesterday and this month we added a little gift exchange for those that wanted to participate. 7 of us did. I made these scarves (the cream is a linen blend) for the other ladies and I came home with some awesome presents. I have so many pictures to take and post!

These were so easy to make and they have such a wonderful Japanese vibe to them. I bought enough linen to make 6 more so that is on my to-do list this week:) I sewed all yesterday afternoon and had a wonderful time until I ran out of every lick of cream. white, and light grey thread that I own. I seriously have emptied 5 spools this last week with all the sewing that I have been doing. So I might have to make an emergency run to Joanne's after church for thread.

I love Santa!!

Especially our local mall Santa - the beard and the hair are the real deal. He's been working at our mall for the last several years and you can tell that he just adores the children. Each year the mall hosts a breakfast with Santa - there's donuts and juice, then Santa mingles, and takes the time to talk to each child individually and pose for a photo. He is exactly what I picture in my mind when I think about Santa. Miss S's requests were "I want a Barbie and a new puppy"....I'm pretty sure she will get a Barbie:) but the new puppy will most likely be a stuffed one:)


I love this little girl so much...she is growing up so fast!! She'll be 7 in exactly 19 days (December 23) and tonight at dinner she picked out her guest list for her birthday party on the 14th. She cracks me up....she had at least 20 kids she wanted to invite and I made her pare down the list a little bit. Hubby already said he's going out that night:)