There's no place like home for the holidays...

one step closer

I did it.

Today I went Christmas shopping.

This year the family (my side of it, that is) will not be giving out presents to any of the adults, just the kids. I always have a hard time buying gifts, no matter who the gift is for. But, just how bad could it be? Kids are easy to buy for, right? It took me forever to decide what to buy. Well not forever as I only had an hour before I had to pick up the hubby. But it took that whole hour! It sure was easier to buy them presents when they were babies. Now, not so much.

All I have left to do now is buy a gift for the hubby and I will be all set. Oh wait...I still have to wrap them. That is unless I go with my Mom's method of wrapping. That method being to just give out the present in the store bag it came in. ;-)

Either way I am one step closer to kicking that kitty off the tree skirt and putting something snazzier in her place.

intention

Have you finished your Christmas shopping? Have you even started?

As for me, I would be in the latter category. No shopping has yet to be done. Nothing has yet to be placed under our tree. The tree skirt is bare...well except for the cat!

I was thinking of going shopping tonight but did not get home until around 6:30pm and by the time I even got motivated to head out it was already 8pm. I ended up not going. I still have tomorrow. Most definitely tomorrow will have to be the day to start as I am involved in a gift exchange at work and I need a gift by Thursday. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. Wish me luck.

Christmas polka-dots

11 days left until the big day. Are you ready?

candy canes & stockings, oh my!

Not only does this get me into the mood for Christmas, but it also gets me into the mood for doing another 365 day photo project. But that might just be the late hour of the night talking when in reality what my subconscious really wants is just some really cool socks.





Photo credits:
1. fullofbliss, 2. Gabriela D Costa, 3. Simutis [nancy]

Goodbye Monday, Hello Tuesday

 

Ever have one of those days where it is super extra long and you are kept busy with things that make you want to strangle someone. Then when the day is over you find that you really have not accomplished anything the entire day?

Please tell me I am not alone.

Here I sit, late at night and I really cannot tell you what I did all day. Work did not really go so well today. We have hired some contract workers to help with our backlog of cases. One in particular had me ready to pull my hair out. Each week I assign a list of cases and at the end of the week they are to send the list back to me with notations of the cases they completed that week. We have done this for about the past 2 months. Two weeks ago, one of the ladies did not send me her list. I finally got that list this past Saturday. But then today, she again did not send me last week's list. She called me to tell me it was too confusing. (This coming from someone that makes at least 4 times more than me). Marking off on a list the cases she completed and emailing it to me was too confusing. It was totally frustrating!!

Then I went thru some of her cases. It looks like we may have a problem. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

The only thing that made up for this day was that I won a Gift Certificate to Scrapbook Dreamer!!! So Totally Excited!!!

Now it is cold and there are really scary wind noises outside. I think it is time for me to go to bed and hide my head under the covers. I am positive that Tuesday is meant to be a better day.

Winter + Cocoa = ♥

Photo credits:
1. flint knits, 2. #mari, 3. C.Mariani

A tree is found

We found a tree.

You don't know how happy those words make me. We were going to go back to one of the stores we visited the night before and buy the one the hubby liked. This morning we decided to try just one more store. We lucked out and found a tree that we both liked. We did not plan on buying a slim tree, (we have never really liked them) but we found one that looks great.

We had just planned on going out to buy a tree but decided to stop to look at ornaments. We found some we liked but the store only had 2 boxes. We ended up driving all the way across town with the hopes that the store's other location would have more. We lucked out and were able to buy a couple more boxes. I am excited that we actually own a tree that is large enough for the ornaments we already have and of course the ones we just purchased.

The hubby worked on the tree all night making it look nice and full. The only problem we encountered was that it was a bit taller than we expected. Going from a tree that is under 5-feet to one that is 7 1/2 feet is quite a change. The ceiling is high enough to accommodate it however we forgot that our ceiling also slants and of course the perfect spot that I had planned to use just happens to be the lowest part of the ceiling. But, I think with a bit of creative furniture re-arranging we just may be able to find a place for it. Then the fun of decorating begins. However.....that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Let's talk trees, Christmas trees

First there was Michael's, then JoAnn's, K-mart, Wally Mart, Big Lots & finally Kohl's. All this and still no tree. Oh we actually saw some, which is a big improvement over last year, we just could not decide which one we wanted. Each of us likes a different tree.

I have always promised myself that once we had the space, we would get a larger tree. Our current tree is under 5 feet. We have only ever had tiny trees. The day after Christmas (last year) we went shopping for a tree. We got to the stores too late I guess because every store was out. This year there are some good sales when it comes to trees. Now if we could just decide which one to buy.

So tell me...Do you already have your tree?

Dreaming of a Wooly Wonderland

Being the beginning knitter that I am (even though it has been a few years), I found it interesting when my blog was listed as one of the top knitting blogs back in 2005.

Having only completed one actual project, I still consider myself a beginning knitter and definitely not someone that would have been considered as having a popular knitting blog back then.

Okay, so from what I remember of the original project the results were due to the folders people set up in bloglines and the blogs that were listed in these folders.

The other day I came across this. Someone updated the info (albeit a few months back). I am happy to see that I am still on the list (even though I have not blogged about knitting since 2005) and that I even picked up a few more readers.

I have been thinking lately that I need to pull out some yarn, maybe it is the cold weather that appeared overnight. This new house gets cold! Then today I came across this wonderful bit of inspiration. Now I am really in the mood to get back to it.

Where will I find the time?

Today was a long day.

Nothing out of the ordinary, just a day that felt extraordinarily long. Well it felt that way at work. I was feeling quite weird all day. Really woozy and dizzy and I just could not concentrate very well. Being dizzy is not something that worries me. I get dizzy a lot. Not vertigo, just dizzy. Well actually I really don't know if it is vertigo as I have never talked to any doctors about it. Today was not the usual kind of dizzy. This was more of a not being able to focus (mind or eyes) type of feeling. I did feel somewhat better once I got home. I think it may be due to lack of sleep. Just don't tell the hubby I said that.

Once home I packed as much as I could into the couple of hours that I had. I actually got some studying done tonight and I think I just may make it thru the class before the end date. I totally was not thinking about how the holidays would affect being able to spend time on this class. But since this is a class for work that needed to get done last year, I really needed to start it as soon as I could.

So many things to do this month...what with Christmas, get togethers with friends from long ago, and then of course my class (which needs to be completed by the end of January). I want to send out Christmas cards, decorate, clean my house, get a haircut and I need to go Christmas shopping. I also want to make a few things. I have no idea when I will get to do all of these.

Am I crazy for wanting to do so much? No maybe crazy comes into play when you hear that I have plans to be part of some online crafty fun. So many crafty and scrappy challenges out there this month. I would love for you to join me. We could be crazy and time starved/sleep deprived together.

So....Head on over to ScrapbookDreamer to be part of their 25 Days of Christmas where there will be lots of challenges and prizes!!

If you sign up for the forum please let them know I sent you. We could both win a prize!

In an instant

The hubby and I have been renting movies from Netflix since they first started. When they started offering Instant Streaming of movies I thought it was a neat idea but since it was only available to view on the computer I did not use it very much. Then they started offering the option to view on your television. However to do that you had to either purchase one of their systems, have an Xbox and I think Tivo may have been another option. Having neither of these I just grumbled to myself and stopped paying any attention to that area of the service. That is until this past weekend.

When we received our last movie rental something caught my eye. An advertisement to view Netflix Instant Streaming movies via PS3. Well hey! I have one of those. So I went online and requested my disk. This thing is so cool! Once the disk is in the player the Netflix screen comes up. It is automatic. You don't even have to go to the website. Our Instant Queue popped up on the screen and so did other suggested items to view. The pickings are usually older films but a few newer ones are sprinkled in there. The hubby already watched a couple and I think it will work out great for me to watch all those foreign films that the hubs would not be too happy to have received on DVD.