Does it get any classier?

Need I say more?!*


*Please note the $ sign is backwards. Please also note, this is her father's doing -I would never! We got these as part of a white elephant gift. And may I just add these were high-quality tatoos that didn't come off for days (including the one on her face) and finally had to be scrubbed raw with baby oil. Ah, if only the world could reach my family's level of sophistication...

Early Christmas

For Craig's Christmas present this year, I got him tickets to see the Glenn Beck Christmas Show in Tulsa, OK. My Dad stayed with AJ, and Craig and I got away for a whole 24 hours. It was great.

We had a great dinner and the show was really good - we even had front row seats. Tulsa, however, was still quite a mess from last week's ice storm. My heart goes out to the people living there and still dealing with it. We overheard several people talking about how they are still without electricity. Everywhere you look, all the trees are broken from the ice. I've never seen anything like it. These pictures are from the courtyard at the hotel and really don't do it justice.


Another storm was coming in as we were leaving. Luckily, it was pretty uneventful for us and we got home just fine. Crazy stuff!

Ta-Da!

Thanks Laurie - for giving me The Great Tip Award! Her Tip Junkie Website is awesome.
I am supposed to send you on to 3 other blogs with great tips. Where to go, who to choose, hmmmmm, that's tough - so many great ones.

Bethany made a "December Daily Album" to keep track of their family activities during the crazy month. Did I mention it's gorgeous?

Leslie from A Room Somewhere featured these cute Martha Stewart mitten clips made from felt. If I hadn't just tied tags to all my neighbor's goodie bags, I would be clipping them shut with these puppies. So cute! Maybe next year...

And finally, I love The Feathered Nest. I made her turtles for neighbor gifts this year. (I substituted cashews for pecans since I'm not a pecan fan. Even though these technically weren't for me, it doesn't mean I didn't accidentally enjoy a few.)


There are a zillion more great blogs and tips out there that I enjoy constantly. It was near impossible to pick three. Thanks to all of you out there who share your ideas and inspire me everyday! If you want more, pretty much any blog on my sidebar should do the trick.

Something Sweet

I came across this cute Etsy shop. She has some really great things, many of which fall into my "bird festish" category. I especially like these two:

Happy Tunesday

Today's picks are from my "Easy Listening" playlist:

"This Is Your Life" by Switchfoot
"All For One, All For Love" by Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting
"She's Everything" by Brad Paisley
"With Or Without You" by U2
"The Reason" by Hoobastank
"Picture" by Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow
"After All" by Peter Cetera and Cher
"Iris" by The Goo Goo Dolls
"Said I Loved You But I Lied" by Michael Bolton
"Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol
"100 Years" by Five for Fighting
"One Clear Voice" by Peter Cetera
"How Am I Supposed to Live Without You" by Michael Bolton
"Love Lifts Us Up Where We Belong" by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes
"For The First Time" by Kenny Logins
"You Don't Know Me" by Jane Arden

I Been Busy

Made this:



and these:

and these:

(for more pics, check out my Etsy store)

I made this for a wedding(a few weeks ago actually, but I haven't gotten around to posting it so I'm adding it here). The wedding colors were black and white stripes with baby blue accents. It had 20 scrapbook pages and 20 autograph pages:




Also made some cool stuff for a b-day gift, but can't post pics until next week.

Went shopping and found this:


and this:


(I've been having a bit of a bird fetish lately - I can't get enough of them!)

Also got these:

this:

and these:


I finally went and had my eyebrows threaded - first time loser, now lifetime user!
Try it if you haven't. Pretty much pain free, quicker than waxing, and easier to shape. Ta-da!


And I designed a new header for my blog and my Etsy store.

Phew! I'm sleeping good tonight!

Happy Tunesday (FYI: I Heart the 80's)

Todays picks come from my "Go 80's Power Ballads" playlist:

"I'm The One Who Wants To Be With You" by Mr. Big
"Sister Christian" by Night Ranger
"I'll Remember You" by Skid Row
"Angel" by Aerosmith
"Black Velvet" by Alannah Myles
"More Than A Feeling" by Boston
"Love Bites" by Def Leopard
"Almost Paradise" by Ann Wilson and Mike Reno
"Love of A Lifetime" by Firehouse
"Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone) by Cinderella
"Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" by Starship
"Heaven" by Warrant
"I Ain't Missing You" by John Waite
"Heaven" by Bryan Adams

What would you add to this playlist?

O Little Town of Bethlehem

Last night was our ward Christmas party. The cultural hall was set up like Bethlehem. It looked great - I'm a little bummed I didn't take a picture of the whole room. If you want to see more, check out Rochelle's blog. There were booths where you had to buy your food, a "well" to get water, and games for the kids. We were all asked to dress up and come "pay our taxes" (canned food for the food bank.) All the food was authentic: lamb, chicken, pitas, cheese, fruit, etc. and we all sat on the floor to eat. (I didn't necessarily like that part, but it did add to the theme. The fact that by the end of the night I wasn't wearing my dinner is a Christmas miracle.)

At the end of the night, there was a nativity program which was really beautiful. I wasn't sure how AJ was going to respond, but she had a blast.

I have to admit I loved seeing her little round face wrapped up in a pillowcase like that. When I put mine on (feeling a little ridiculous) she looked up at me and with much enthusiasm said "Oh mom, you look just like an angel!) I may have cried a little bit.

Christmas Decor

All the Christmas stuff is finally finished. I'm done decorating, done shopping, done done done. What a relief. On a less cheerful note, I realized how much I hate most of my Christmas decor. The colors are all wrong, my tree is too short (and bare of needles - we sooo need a new tree) and many of the items are totally tacky (i.e. Santa in the outhouse. Funny when I was 15. Now, not so much.)

I have decided this is the last year for all the stuff I don't like. So even though my "Christmas shopping" is done, I am planning on a massive shopping trip for Christmas decor, probably on the day after Christmas when I can be my usual cheap self.

I'm not going to spend a fortune on it. It's too unsatisfying to buy stuff and not get to use it for a whole year. But I've decided I'd rather have just a few things I like than a houseful of crap. Now that I've made up my mind, I'm actually feeling pretty liberated. And I do need to give a nod to the hubby. We bought new outside lights this year. Target had these cool large, round lights (they come in blue, white or red) and I LOVE them. (Nevermind that we had to go to 3 different locations to find enough.) He did great putting them up.


I like the outside of the house. Would it be wierd if on Christmas morning we opened presents on the front lawn instead of in the tacky family room?

Photo Wreath

Katri asked if I had posted pics of this, which I hadn't, but thought "Why not?" So Katri, these are for you.

This was super simple. I just cut out black and white photos into squares and mounted them on patterned scrapbook paper. Then I punched holes at the top of each photo and tied them to the wreath with ribbon. Ta-dah! I am actually planning on re-doing this. I want one that is bigger and a little more detailed. I think this one looks a little dwarfed on the hall bench, but it's OK for now. I honestly haven't looked at it for a while. I just realized how dated the pics are. Yikes!

The Letter of the Day is...

I finally made the giant N for the kitchen. It's only been on my project list for like a year. I painted it black then added the vintage images, most of which came from my Lang calendar last year. They make such beautiful calendars, I always hate throwing them away at the end of the year. I can be sensible and usually end up tossing them out, but I loved the one from last year so much, I hung on to it. Of course I got an earful from the hubby - "What are you ever gonna do with that, blah blah blah." I considered that he might be right, but quickly dismissed the idea. (Still love ya hunny) Now eleven months later, Boo-Ya! An oh-so-fabulous use for my oh-so-fabulous calendar which is now my oh-so-fabulous letter N. I'm still toying with adding some ribbon, but overall, I'm pretty happy with the results.

Happy Tunesday

So I didn't get quite the response I had hoped for last week. Come on people! I need some new playlists. I know I'm not the only out there using an ipod. Pony up your songs!

Part two of last week's playlist "Another Workout Playlist":

"Rockstar" by Nickleback
"The Sweet Escape" by Gwen Stefani
"Fast Cars and Freedom" by Rascal Flatts
"Dani California" by The Red Hot Chili Pepeprs
"Forever Young" by Rod Stewart
"Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" by Starship (Did anybody ever see the show "Mannequin"? I love that show = love this song.)
"Wind It Up" by Gwen Stefani
"This Is Your Life" by Switchfoot (I love this band. This song is perfect for pushing yourself during exercise or if you're feeling unmotiviated about anything in life. It could be one of my top ten favorite songs.)
"Semi-Charmed Life" by Third Eye Blind
"Fergalicious" by Fergie
"Where The Streets Have No Name" by U2

Thanksgiving

Happy belated Thanksgiving. Did you all have fun? Here's what we did:

We ate here:


This is what I looked like after we ate.


And then we went to this movie:

I really liked it for it's originality,

it's sweet message,

it's funny jokes,

and the all around family theme.

The casting was OK too.

A little less traditional than normal, but it was sure nice to not have any dishes to wash! And a whole 4 days to spend together - heaven! I hope you all had as great a weekend as I did.

iTunes Tuesday

I have officially declared Tuesday "Tunesday". Each Tunesday, I am going to list 10 songs from random playlists in my iPod. Hopefully once you see my songs, you can suggest others you think I might like. I can't believe how hard it is to find a good ready-made playlist! I like what I have now, but they get old sometimes and I'm always looking for new stuff so PLEASE share the music, spread the joy.

From my "Another Workout Playlist" playlist:

"You Know My Name" by Chris Cornell (from the latest James Bond) I LOVE this song!!!!

"It's Not Over" by Chris Daughtry

"Better Now" by Collective Soul

"My Sacrifice" by Creed

"Love Bites" by Def Leopard

"London Bridges" by Fergie

"Sweet Child O' Mine" by Guns and Roses

"Bananas" by Gwen Stefani ...We all know the real name of this song, but my mother reads this blog (supposedly)

"Lips of an Angel" by Hinder

"SexyBack" by Justin Timberlake

"Maneater" by Nelly Furtado

So I actually CAN count. I know I listed 11 songs, 'cause this playlist has 22, so half today, half next week. I know you can't wait to see what else I've got groovin in my head...

PS - If any of you are trying out the Podfitness thing, this is a good playlist for any circuit training downloads.

Back on the Wagon (Again) (But a different wagon)

It seems like I am using that phrase a little to much on my blog. Apparently I am riding around on wagons all the time. Or rather, falling off of them. But I'm back on. The wagon of the week? Exercise. I really love working out, but have been a total slacker for, um I don't know, 3 months?! (Ok 5, who am I kidding?) But I went twice last week and haven't missed a day this week. I think I've got my groove back, although I think my heart nearly exploded in spinning class this morning. It's amazing how fast you loose it when you quit, even for a short time.

So now that I'm finally working out again, I can fill you all in on something I've been dying to blog about but have been too embarrassed because I was feeling a little hypocritical. Bloggers, welcome to PodFitness.

This is the next best thing to having a personal trainer. And for $20 a month, it's unlimited! Find a trainer for that price! You can check out the website for more details, but here's the short of how it works:

You already have your own playlists of music downloaded into your Ipod (or any MP3 player).

You then choose what kind of workout you want - anything from running to weightlifting, yoga, kickboxing, you name it.

Then you pick your trainer. You can even choose who you want by what celebrities they train. (I know you're all dying to work out with Brittney's trainer, right? he he) But seriously, I've "trained" with Jennifer Aniston's and Heidi Klum's, just to name a few. (Which is why my body looks EXACTLY like theirs. Barf.)

When you start your workout, your music starts playing and when the trainer's voice comes on, it automatically lowers the volume of your music, gives you directions, then turns your music back up and coaches you through the session. It counts reps for you, gives you words of encouragement - it's seriously like a trainer is right there with you, but you still get to listen to your music. I love it!

And you don't have to be at the gym for these to work. You can download workouts to do from home or outside too. And the nice thing is, there's no contract, you just pay month to month so I will do it for a while and download some new workouts, then when I find a few that are really working for me, I will cancel my membership and use the ones I've downloaded for a couple months. Even if you pay each month, again the cost pales in comparison to real training sessions. But if I haven't sold you already, you can try it out for free. When you sign up, you get a 10 day free trial. Even if you cancel after the ten days, you can keep your downloaded workouts. What do you have to loose? (Besides the 20 pounds we're all going to put on next week!)

Here a little extra incentive:
Your Thanksgiving Calorie Counter

I never thought I ate all that much, but my plate came in at a shameful 2,783 calories. That's almost 2 days worth of food for me in one meal. And apparently if I just take a brisk walk after dinner (to downtown Fort Worth and back) I can burn it off no problem. In case you're wondering, that's about 28 miles. Don't think for one second I'm not eating it though - and lovin' every bite!

I hope everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving dinner, even if you give in and look at the calorie counter. Eat it and own it! Rock on. Or should I say walk on...