Elf!

> This is only a portion of a conversation I had with Kristen on
> Christmas Eve where we exchanged ELF quotes by text. Elf is my all-
> time favorite Christmas movie and this conversation just made me so
> happy.

Photobooth Friday - Christmas Edition

This is our Christmas card . So far, everyone who we have seen who got one in the mail has loved it. :-D I love it too. A lot. Merry Christmas!!!


PS - This photo of Jason was taken on the UBER fun day that we went to the photobooth for our Christmas card photo-shoot! Love.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you and yours a wonderful day! May your family be functional and your batteries be included!

Santa's in Boston!

I've been tracking Santa all day (via Norad and Google Maps) and this
is the closest he's been to us! It's almost Christmas!!! :-D

Quick Update...

Jason and I have been running around the Northeast Kingdom visiting family and friends since Friday evening. We traveled all day Friday (with no delays or hiccups in the plans, woo!) and finally arrived in the NEK early enough in the day to see my parents, two of my closest friends, and Jason's parent's too!

Saturday morning we met my Dad and sister (and the dogs!) at a local tree farm to pick out the Christmas tree for my Mom's house. It was cold but BEAUTIFUL out. We went back to the house to put it up and decorate it.

Later in the afternoon Kristen and Dane joined us (they drove all the way up from Boston to see us for the weekend... LOVE them. Seriously.) and we headed to Newport for a church service and holiday celebrations with Jason's Dad's family.

After a loud but fun time visiting we stopped and bought two bottles of wine (one for me and one for Kristen). We played some Boggle and then went in the hot tub for about 2 hours (the wine was gone at this point and we were feeling great... and craving Chinese food, as K and I always are when we drink together.) :-) We then headed back to my parent's house cursing all the way that Chinese restaurants are not open at 2am in the NEK.

Sunday we got up and my Mom made us waffles (yum!) and we visited a bunch. Lunchtime we headed to Newport again to pick up MegaMelts (#4) at Little G's for lunch. They were yummy (as always!) K & D left after lunch (tear) and Jason and I watched football with his family.

The rest of the week has been a lot less hectic as we have just been wrapping presents and spending time with family and friends. Below are a few photos of our festivities so far. I hope you are having an equally wonderful time this holiday! Also, stay warm! :-D

Searching for a tree

Cutting down the tree

We found the perfect tree!

The decorated tree.

Snuggling.
Assembling a gingerbread tree.

Pretty.

More snuggling.

Mia sitting under the tree.

On our way!

Jason is tired too.

We have been up for 2 hours. The sun isn't even up yet...

We are about to take off for Milwaukee (final destination = NE Vermont.)

Weeeeeeee!!! Home home home in 12 hours!

Christmas Memories

I have to thank 'Brookem' over at Shrinkering Hearts for these questions. As I was reading hers I thought a lot about my own answers to these questions. Below are the ones that I liked best. :-)

Wrapping paper or gift bags?
I am pretty much obsessed with wrapping paper. I love picking out new paper every year that is colorful and fun!

Real tree or Artificial?

I prefer real. Every year my sister and I go with my Dad (and my husband too) to pick out a tree. My Dad was always the one to get in the snow and cut it down, but recently the job has gone to Jason (if only so we can watch him struggle in the deep snow with a saw.) It's great fun!

Do you have a nativity scene?
No, but my Mom does. Funny story about that Nativity Scene: My Mom doesn't put the little Baby Jesus figure into the manger until Christmas morning, so sometime after Christmas one year and before she packed it up for the season, a friend and I were playing with a ball and it hit the Nativity Scene, decapitating Baby Jesus. Yes, DECAPITATING! That was the only piece that broke, and it just HAD to be Jesus and it HAD to be his head. It wasn't a Wiseman's head, or a sheep's leg, no, no, it was Baby Jesus' head. My Mom was able to glue it back on and now it's fine and no one's the wiser but we thought it was hilarious terribly sad at the time.

Hardest person to buy for?
My father-in-law... by a mile! He loves gardening but it's often not fun to get someone gardening stuff in December. My husband's Grandparent's are also pretty difficult because I think they are a lot like me where, if they want something, they just buy it for themselves.

Easiest person to buy for?
My husband because we spend a lot of time together and I have the chance to get a lot of ideas. Also, my sister. Every year I have to actually stop buying things for her. I have to tell myself that I am DONE buying gifts for her because I always see things I know she would like.

Mail or e-mail Christmas card?
Mail. No question. I absolutely love getting Christmas cards in the mail and look forward to it every year!

Favorite Christmas Movie?
My favorite Christmas Special is Garfield's Christmas Special and my favorite movie is ELF (I've seen it 4 times already this year!) Favorite quote: "You smell like beef and cheese, you don't smell like Santa."

Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
My Mom's Christmas cookies (which we call 'breakfast cookies' because they go really well with coffee!) and my Mother-in-Law's peanut butter fudge (which we made 15 pounds of this past weekend to give to Jason's co-workers!)

Favorite Christmas song?
Baby, It's Cold Outside by Dean Martin (listen here) as well as anything else from Christmas with the Rat Pack.

Travel at Christmas or stay home?
We always travel home for Christmas so we can spend it with family and friends in Vermont. Living in Boston for the past 6 years has made that easier than it will be this year. We are still flying home though and can't wait to spend time with everyone and have a nice Vermont Christmas.

Do you have an Angel on top or a star?
Neither, I have a big bow. It makes my little tree look like a present! :-)

Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
Christmas Eve at Jason's house and Christmas morning at my parent's house. Christmas morning consists of the whole run-down-the-stairs-way-too-early-in-the-morning-thing and anxiously wait until Dad takes a shower and gets his coffee before we are allowed to open presents. When I was little I swore he would take a longer shower than usual on Christmas morning just to mess with us... I still think that.

Most annoying thing about this time of year?
The pressure to find the perfect gift. I absolutely LOVE buying gifts for people, but I get super stressed when I can't find that really meaningful gift that I know exists somewhere out there.

Ugliest Christmas Decoration ever invented?
You know those Christmas lights that you put on your house that come in a net-like shape? The ones that are basically a blanket of lights that you drape over whatever you want to cover with lights? Sometimes people put one of those tiny little blankets of lights over a huge bush and it just looks awful. Otherwise, I love Christmas lights and decorations!

Do you like Fruitcake?

I do not. I do have a funny story about fruitcake though: At some point when I was little my Mom got a fruitcake as a gift one year. It came in a pretty holiday tin. It ended up at the bottom of our pantry closet of the house I grew up in. The following September (or possibly many years later, but still in September) we were packing up the house to move and found the fruitcake. I picked up the tin without knowing what was in it and my fingers went right through the bottom of the tin! The fruitcake had eaten it's way through the plastic and the tin it was in, basically disintegrating it. How crazy is that? We joked that it was 'lethal fruitcake' and that is basically why I won't even try the stuff now. Plus, it looks icky.

Best of 2009 - December 7th

I'm doing the prompts that speak to me at the time I am writing the post... So, this one is late and out of order. I am just going with the flow with this 'assignment' and having fun with it so far. :-)

Prompt: Blog find of the year. That gem of a blog you can’t believe you didn’t know about until this year.

Below are some of my favorite crafty blogs I discovered this year that I definitely think you should check out. (For my all-time favorites check out my Cool Stuff page.)

One Pretty Thing
This blog is the be-all-and-end-all for crafty tutorials. The search capability is amazing and Rachel posts 'Roundups' of tutorials every day (and often more than once a day!)

Creature Comforts
A very new find that I just added to my reader but so wonderful so far. The amount of inspiration harbored in this blog is astounding.

Jenna Lou Loves You
I have been following Jenna since the beginning of the summer when I started sewing. I only recently realized that she's a local! She lives in Southern Minnesota. :-) Lots of sewing goodness here.

30days
Mique (as in 'Mickey') finds the coolest crafty stuff to share with her readers!

LollyChops
Lolly is adorable. She creates some amazing printable elements to share and is always entertaining to read. She uses the phrase 'honest to peanuts' a lot, which I find amazing.

Make it and Love it
Ashley posts so many great sewing tutorials and they are always easy to follow. She has an up-to-date list on the left side of her blog so it's easy to find cool stuff to try for yourself!

And, even though I don't love baking all the time, here are a couple baking/cooking blogs I love and make me want to run to the kitchen to make yummy things:

The Red Deer
This girls loves cupcakes and posts A LOT of recipes and ridiculous amounts of cute cupcake goodness here. The blog makes me crave sweet cupcakes every time I read.

Our Best Bites
Some really simple looking recipes that turn out delicious! Definitely a good blog to check out for people who love to bake. I made her Chocolate Waffles the other day and they were amazing!

So, there you go... if you are a crafty person like me you are SURE to find some good stuff on these blogs. :-)

Importance of Remaining Sleep

I subscribe to the GraphJam feed and have always looked at the graphs users post and thing "oh, that is SO true!" (I have even blogged about them before.)

I have now finally created my own graph! I remember Jason waking me up 5 minutes early at one point and I explained to him how this concept works. Now, a graph that explains how important those last few minutes of sleep are. Who agrees with me on this?

Hi Mom!

Today is my Mom's 50th Birthday!

Happy Birthday Mum! I hope you have a great day! We will see you soon and then you can have your (super awesome) gift we got you when Erin visited me! :-D LOVE YOU!

In Anticipation of Handmade Gifts

I have been working on sewing projects until about 2am every night this week. (Yes, that's 2 in the morning!) It's a good thing I don't have a job or else I wouldn't be able to survive this schedule.

I feel like I have done enough ironing and cutting of fabric to make up for the fact that I just learned how to sew this year! Finally, last night I started sewing and couldn't be more happy to be past the ironing part. Sewing is incredibly therapeutic and relaxing. I love it so much.

It's so strange, I always thought I would be a paper crafter and that fabric was completely out of my realm of creativity. Having a friend to learn sewing with helped a lot to push me in the direction of fabric versus paper. Now, I love fabric. My dreams are of Amy Butler patterns and Michael Miller prints. It's divine.

PS - Please do not fret. I still love paper. I still dream of Cosmo Cricket cuteness and Bo Bunny goodness. I also own all the Amy Butler paper stacks from K&Company. Paper is still my first love.

Holidazzle 2009

Jason and I went to Minneapolis last weekend to walk around and experience the holiday lights and general feel of the city. We haven't explored very much (or at all) and don't know much about the area at all. This must change.

While walking around we saw people with blankets. Huh, that's strange. We also saw people sitting on the curb. It was about 25 degrees. Also strange. We saw signs that buses do not run during the parades. Parades? We knew that the Holidazzle Parade kicked off the season the day after Thanksgiving. Pulling out our trusty iPhones we realize that the Holidazzle Parade runs from Thanksgiving until Christmas... oh! Every Thursday - Sunday! There is a parade in Minneapolis 4 times a week? Um, cool.

It was a cool thing to stumble upon. Probably not something that we would be itching to see every year (it was cold) but definitely an experience we were glad we had.

The coolest part (I thought) was that right before the parade started all the streetlights were turned off and only the lights in the trees were left on. It was a really cool effect and let us see the lights on the floats much better. Also, when all the lights go off at once it provides for a great "oooooooh, ahhhhhh" moment. :-)

Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis - Before the parade started (way before, since there aren't many people around in this photo.)

These cuties were definitely the most adorable part of the parade. There were a few of these all in a row and each one had kidlets dressed as animals. They were SO cute! I wish I got a photo of the giraffe

Love these guys. Jason said he wants one of these costumes so he can wear it around.

Gotta support the home team (never more than my Red Sox, but still...) This guy was so cool; he was spinning in circles! The photo is blurred because he was spinning around!

My favorite float. It's a huge gingerbread house. It was very well done and super colorful (as you can see!)

Santa was there too. I didn't get a good photo, but he was definitely there and looked well. He was dressed better for the weather too. I imagine that big red coat is quite warm.

Fort Awesome!

Before doing a little roaming around the city on Saturday (post coming tomorrow!) Jason and I went to check out the No Coast Craft-O-Rama at the Midtown Market in Minneapolis. Um, awesome. I had heard really good things about this craft fair and was excited to check it out. We only made one purchase (and I took a program so I could look up the vendors later), but it was a good one. A really good one.

We bought 3 prints from Fort Awesome Studios. These are too cool. The next day we headed to Micheals to get a frame for the awesomeness and we are REALLY happy how it looks. Head over to their online shop to check out more of what they offer. Seriously, I smile every time I look at this.

Best of 2009 - December 8th

I am a little late joining in the fun, but I wanted to post today as part of the Best of 2009 Blog Challenge. The challenge was posted at the beginning of the month by Gwen Bell and a lot of fun people in the blogosphere (yes, I love using that word) has joined in the fun! There is a writing prompt everyday which helps you to remember 2009.

Today's prompt: Moment of peace. An hour or a day or a week of solitude. What was the quality of your breath? The state of your mind? How did you get there?

This was easy for me to remember.

Sitting on a swing in the back yard at my Aunt & Uncle's house in Napa, California.

This was my view:
Warm, almost sunset, glass of wine, a swing and a slight breeze. Perfection.

Comics that make you go "awwwww..."

Some comics are funny, but some just make you all warm and fuzzy inside. Below are a few of my favorites, perfect for a smile on a Monday morning. See? Like this ----> :-D

[Found via a share from Doniree, posted on Derek's Blog.]


[Pon and Zi, found via Kristen's Blog and her general good taste in everything cool.]


[Found at i tell stories via Wendy.]

[Oh, and I HAD to throw in a little bit of Calvin and Hobbes goodness. I love them so. Click to see image larger.]

Custom Artwork for Me!

A while ago I bought three large canvases so that I could recreate this set I had found in a store:
I would have just bought the set but the colors wouldn't have worked in my guest room (which is brown and blue).

My sister volunteered to paint the canvases for me since 1. I don't love to paint, and 2. She does. Haha.

She didn't love the design I was originally attracted to, so I told her to just do what she thought would be cool. Boy did she!

Her working diligently on one of the canvases. Lookin' good so far!

She finished them up before she left last week and we were able to hang them in the guest room and marvel in their awesomeness. Here is the completed set:

And this is what it looks like in our guest room. I apologize for the unmade bed in the photo... If you look closely Bruno is curled up on the bed. I wasn't going to make him get down in order to make the bed for the photo. Just imagine a neat and tidy room.

Thanks Erin! I love these so much and they fit in with the room perfectly! :-)

Minnesota Zoo

While Erin was here she requested that we visit the Minnesota Zoo. Why, sure! I love the Zoo! We picked a beautiful day and opted to become members as well!

Snow Monkeys! These little guys were one of my favorites... they were so playful and mischievous.

Prairie Dogs! Another favorite... They are just so cute! They were squeaking for no apparent reason too. One of them would squeak and the others would join in and then they would stop for a few minutes and then do it again.

Lemurs! Lemurs are awesome. These were napping and oh-so-cuddly. Love those guys!

On demonstration was this guy... oh yes, it's a skunk. How cool is that? He didn't smell (his smell was taken out). It was fun to see him out and about. Jason has always wanted a pet skunk. Haha.

Tiger! He was so close to the glass... just pacing back and forth. Big kitty = love.

Like I said above, big kitty = love. :-)