Sunday, December 30, 2012

December Project Life

Well after working on it diligently for a couple of days, at least I got all the pics I wanted into December's PL. I didn't embellish it like I wanted to but I still have November to do and journaling for several months.




 It's okay though, I'm not going to stress over it. I want to work on my title page for January but that's going to take a back seat to packing :(

Monday, December 24, 2012

Goodbye letter to Elvie

I know some you have the Elf on the Shelf and I thought this goodbye letter my son made for his kids was way cute!


Wednesday, December 19, 2012

A bit of this and a bit of that...

I'm not as far along as I'd like to be in my Christmas preparations. I just realized that today but Paul and I went out and got most of the shopping done. I still have stocking stuffers to buy and wrapping to do. I do plan on baking some before Tuesday. One of the things are this scrumptious looking cookies...

 Peppermint White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Peppermint White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Another is this mouth watering Pumpkin Roll Cake...
 Great Christmas pumpkin Roll cake!

 Pumpkin Roll Cake

So, I finished a fingerless glove. Notice I say "a" fingerless glove. I now know why knitters have found it more productive to knit two gloves or socks at a time. I'm almost done with a gift I'm knitting for a Christmas present and then I'll make a match to my glove here. I added some beads in a heart pattern which I really love...


So, as always....

Saturday, December 15, 2012

A sad farewell.

It saddens me to say that my dear friend Carol Krasin passed away early this morning on her 65th birthday.


I will miss her. I will miss the days we would go to Lenny's Deli for a grilled cheese and I always got an iced tea and she a Coke. I miss the day's when I worked at the office with her and EVERY morning she came in and said "Hey you." We'd share a laugh or some gossip or family drama. She was an awesome real estate agent. She LOVED her clients like they were family. She was always looking out for them, never the sale or the listing but the client. They came first.
She was the person I learned to knit with. We took a knitting class at the shop "Birds of a Feather" in Avon and we just knew we were the only ladies that didn't actually know how to knit LOL! But we learned and we loved going to yarn shops together. We were both so sad when The Knitting Garden closed their doors.


She was the person I saw Titanic with along with other movies, she loved going to the movies! 
Here I am a scrapbooker, a memory keeper, a photo fanatic and I don't have one picture of the two of us together. Shame on me! I will always regret that. Now I'll probably bug the crap out of all my family and friends to stand next to me while I get someone (anyone) to take our picture! That's what photos are for...MEMORIES! I actually went to her Facebook page and copied pics to post on here, how sad is that?


Anyway, I'm going to go have another cry now. My prayers and thoughts are with her beautiful family.
She will truly be missed. Rest in peace my friend, rest in peace. xoxox

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Emmy's Christmas Program...

Lots happening. Yesterday Paul and I packed a lot of things. Got the dining room hutch packed all except a few wine glasses. The bakers rack too.

Friday was Emmy's Christmas Program. It's so fun to watch little kids sing. Emmy sure is an entertainer, I can see her participating in lots of plays and musicals at school in the coming years. She'll ace her drama classes! Emmy is in pink below.



Such flair! 

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Pack and Play

We started packing. Paul seems to be excited (which is a very good thing) and he's been ordering packing supplies at work. He brought home the biggest ball of bubble wrap I've ever seen...


We packed up quite a few paintings and pictures on Tuesday evening. Last night we had our neighbors Jo & Barb over for dinner. I made Cajun Tilapia and Creamy Dill Sauce with Warm Winter Slaw. They seemed to enjoy it very much.


I recently started back volunteering at the assisted living. They had so much making cards a few weeks ago but I wasn't as prepared as I wanted to be. Sure, I brought paper and glue and some Christmas embellishments, I even brought a few sample cards that I had made with Peggy a few days before. But the process wasn't what I wanted. I let them pick the card they wanted to make (out of about 5 or 6 samples) and then I would cut the paper and ribbon and what ever else was needed. So, needless to say I was dashing from one table to the next. Some of the residents were trying to cut with my mini guillotine cutter and that wasn't working for them as it didn't hold huge pieces of paper. So, this week I decided to make some samples and actually put together "card kits" for them. This way, we worked on one style of card at a time and I would hand them the card with the pre-cut paper to glue on the front, then an embellishment, then they would get to stamp if there was a stamp involved and they were really good at taking turns. This way I had time to help them if needed and I wasn't going back and forth between 4 or 5 different cards. Here's a few of the card kits I made...


So, I'm off to visit my Pokey Peas over at Two Peas In A Bucket and then I'm going to knit a gift I've been working on for a Christmas present.

As always...

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

It's sad and exciting at the same time!

It's bittersweet actually. In just about a month from now, we'll be embarking on a totally new chapter. New and different. After living here in this house for 26 years, after raising my 3 kids here, after countless remodeling and landscaping ventures, after 26 Christmases, Easters, Thanksgivings, 4th of July's and New Years...we're moving!


I'm excited. Our new house isn't too far away, unlike when we moved to California for almost a year. This move is just to a neighboring city. Actually, it's the city Paul grew up in so for him you would think this would be like going home but he has said already, that this house will always be home to him. We're trying to pack but it's REALLY hard when you have 26 years of accumulated "stuff"!
I saw a Time Capsule Video on a blog of a lady in England that she just created since they are moving too. They've been in their house for 7 years. Ah, if it were that long instead of 26!

So, I'm hoping to make a little video and post it on here. Maybe I'll ask the kids to talk about one of their favorite memories here.

Bye for now.

Friday, November 23, 2012

It was a Happy Thanksgiving!

What a wonderful day I had yesterday, which just goes to show how lucky I am! I certainly have many, many blessings to be thankful for.

There's a new Piebald deer in town. Paul and I saw him a couple of weeks ago in the backyard chasing another deer so the only pic I got of him was a total blur. Then yesterday morning he shows up again in the backyard and I got a pic before he took off.

He has more brown than the other one. It might even be an offspring.

So, while the turkey was in the oven, Paul and Jenn ran in the Avon 5K Turkey Dash. I was a bit bummed (maybe more than a bit) that I had a sinus infection about 5 weeks ago that lasted a good 3 weeks and then I broke a molar and had to have it removed and a bone graft done, so having not ran in 5-6 weeks, I was not up to running a race. But this was Jenn's first 5K and since I'm a firm believer in everything happens for a reason, I was there with my Nikon to take pics! She had a GREAT run! I think her time was 30:50.

Warming up.

And they're off.


Crossing the finish line.



Later in the afternoon, family and friends came over to enjoy some turkey and or dessert. Stephen asked if he could bring an exchange student/employee from the company where he works. He's here from China and his American name is Reggie. He turned out to be such a nice, nice person. He was a delight to spend some time with. Here are some more pics to show off how blessed I am :)

Emmy

Jessie, Aunt Gert and Dory


Don, Jessie, Aunt Gert and Dory

Paul, Patty and Dory

Patty, Dory, Uncle Ralph and Aunt Gert
Aunt Gert, Uncle Ralph and Reggie

Traci, Reggie, Dora, Paul, Steve and Eric

Traci, Steve and Aunt Gert
Jessie and Eric

Bobby, Aunt Gert, Traci, Steve and Reggie

Jenn and Toby scoping out the newspaper flyers for Black Friday shopping.
Bobby and Travis

Logan trying to decide on dessert
Eric, Emmy, Zariah and Jakadien

Reggie brought some Pokemon cards for Logan..what a nice guy!
I hope your Thanksgiving was as nice as mine!

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

House Hunters

Yep. I now know exactly how the people on the HGTV Show House Hunters feel. Paul and I have been looking at houses for at least 6 months now. It was slooooow going at first since we've lived in our house for 26 years and Paul didn't want to move and he was pretty adamant about it. Slowly he's come around. Sunday we saw a house in Avon, and this is the first house he actually said he felt "wowed" by it. Paul doesn't get wowed by anything so this is HUGE!  It does have a wow factor kitchen and master bath with a walk in closet in the bathroom, just what we want. We put an offer in late this afternoon and now we wait.....they have 5 days to respond. I just know they'll counter, I just hope not too much.

And now the game has begun....

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Boo!!

Well, Halloween has come and gone. You would have thought I'd have 5 or 10 minutes to come here and post about the awesome Halloween Party we had. Or..the awesome costumes my darling grands wore. Well, here's the post-better late than not at all.

I don't have all the pics from the party but I have enough to give you an idea of how much fun we had...

My Toby, who's always ready to help me with ANY paper crafting that needs to be done, even sending out party invitations!


Wendy carving.
Jenn carving with my fishing headlamp because she says, "the lighting in your house sucks mom".

Cool pumpkin.
A scary pumpkin.
This one is my favorite (Jenn carved it)

Another masterpiece pumpkin.
A couple of days after carving with the neighbors approximately 10-13 pumpkins, we had the party and boy was it fun!! Jenn & Toby came over with Val and Heather and they all looked GREAT!
I was totally enthralled with Jenn's job she did with her makeup!!

So awesome!! She wore an old prom dress and I say kudos to her for still being able to fit into it 10 years or so later!
Jenn, me (argh matey with my parot), Eric the psycho clown with intestines around his neck and Toby in the back. 
Wendy looked awesome as a Spider Woman. She had on a spider web cape full of spiders! 
Me and Val. Funny tidbit, both our names are Valerie and both our mom's names are June! 
Val and Jessie (Mrs. Peacock with the candlestick). 
Jenn and Val
Jenn and Eric...ewww!
So, now on to some of the decorating we did at the party...

Yumm!
And now presenting my darling grands...Dorothy and the Ninja!! (who did not attend the adult only party just in case you were wondering).




And last but not least, my little Winston who's scary enough without a costume...