2012 Thankful November Day 11 - Getting a Great Deal

Thankful November Day 11

Today I am thankful for awesome shopping bargains.

I was in major need of some new winter tops.  Some time back I was gifted a Visa gift card and I decided since I needed some clothes I would use that card toward my clothing needs.  One of my favorite places to shop, Fashion Bug, is getting ready to go out of business (I am so sad).  I honestly thought they had already closed until I drove by the store the other day and noticed they were having a big store closing sale, so I decided I would go back this weekend and see what I could find.

Boy did I score!  The store had everything for 40%-50% off plus an additional 10% on top of that.  I walked out of Fashion Bug with around $200 worth of clothes for under $100.  What a bargain!

I love when I score a great deal and get more for my buck!

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2012 Thankful November Day 7 - Being a Glass Half Full Girl

Thankful November Day 7

Today I am thankful that most of the time I am a girl that looks at the glass as being half full rather than half empty.

Today is one of those days.  Yesterday's election results may have not gone in the direction I was hoping and praying for, but I am still of the belief that the world will keep spinning and the sun will continue to come up each day.

As I scan my social media outlets today I am saddened by the number of people who only see doom and gloom.  I am not normally political by any means, so maybe others know more than me, but I am thankful that I have the outlook that we will get through this too and be just fine.

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2012 Thankful November Day 6 - Time with Creative Friends

Thankful November Day 6

Today I am thankful for my circle of creative and crafty friends and the time I get to spend with them. 

I have a small group of friends that I get together with once a month and we make and exchange greeting cards.  I have grown to love this group of women and I look so forward to our time together.  Not only do they inspire me creatively, but they inspire me with their spirituality as well.  They are, simply, beautiful people inside and out! 

At a time in my life when I was feeling that I was missing and needing a network of girlfriends in my life God put in place the opportunity for me to meet these women and I am so thankful that He did!

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2012 Thankful November Day 5 - A Husband Who Works Hard, Good Credit and Good Luck

Thankful November Day 5

Today we traded in our 8 year old Trailblazer SUV for a new to us GMC Yukon.  Our faithful old Trailblazer was starting to show its age and it was time to say goodbye while it still had some trade-in value.  As we were going through the auto buying process and doing a lot of waiting in a salesman's office it gave me some time to think about what specifically I am thankful for today.

First, I am so thankful for my husband who is a hard worker with a really good job.  I know I don't tell him enough how much I appreciate all he does for us to be able to live this life.  Because of him we are able to live comfortably.  We are certainly not rich, but because of my hardworking husband we are able to have a nice home, drive nice vehicles and enjoy a comfortable existence.  It's not always easy,  we have had our struggles from time to time, but we certainly have so many blessings that  many others in this world do without and I realize how lucky I am to enjoy the life we do because of my husband willingness to work hard for what we have.

I am also thankful for all that we have done over the years since we first married to build good credit.  On days like today I realize how thankful I am that we have made decisions and worked hard over the years to build our credit rating up from a rating that wasn't so good when we were first married due to being young and naive.  It has definitely made life easier when it comes to certain financial affairs.

Lastly, I am thankful for good luck and for the good Lord guiding us to just the right new vehicle.  We needed to make this car purchase decision fairly quickly and we were lucky enough to find just what we were looking for online, in a price range that worked for our budget, and it was at a dealer close to where we live.  Our car buying experience was easy, quick and surprisingly hassle free, which made me very thankful, since car shopping is not exactly in my top 50 favorite things to do.

Until tomorrow...

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2012 Thankful November Day 3 - Double the Thanks Today

Thankful November Day 3

Today my thanks is two-fold.  When I started out the day and was thinking about what thanks I wanted to give on this third day of November my thoughts turned to the cake/cupcake baking and decorating skills I have learned over the years from my mother-in-law, Linda, and my grandmother-in-law, Rose, so I will talk about that first.

Today I baked and decorated cupcakes for my niece's 17th birthday tomorrow.  In doing so I realized how much I appreciate the skills I have learned from both my mother-in-law and my grandmother-in-law.  Both of whom have baked wedding and party cakes for years as a profession and generously shared their skills and knowledge with me.  In recent years I have grown to enjoy baking and decorating my own special cakes for family and friends.  I have also been able to put my skills to use on occasion to earn extra income by baking for others.  I have never taken a class professionally, and most of the skills I have learned have come from the two of them.

It has been fun to learn, see my skills develop with each new cake or cupcake I make, and I have had fun allowing my creativity to come out in the form of edible sweet treats.

Thanks Mom B. and Grandma Rosie for teaching me to be a baker and cake decorator!

My second thanks for the day is due to a not so wonderful event that happened tonight.

As I was coming home and turning in my driveway tonight my SUV took a dump.  I mean something is REALLY wrong with my car.  The engine almost died as I was turning in the driveway.  I'm not sure it is related to whatever happened with the engine, but at the same time something also went wonky with my heater and it was blowing about 90 degrees on the passenger side of my car (I have dual controls).   I quickly pulled in to the driveway and shut off the key.  After unloading my car I went back out to check under the hood.  Nothing looked wrong so I got in my car and decided to start it again.  It made some HORRIBLE popping sound and the car shook like crazy and felt like the whole bottom dropped out of it so I quickly shut off the engine again.  It scared the heck out of me!

My car is 8 years old.  It's been a good car, but I'm afraid whatever is wrong may be something major and not cheaply fixed. :(  Seriously, it sounded like it took its last breath.  Murphy and his laws are not funny!  We just paid off my car this summer and we were thankful for the reprieve in car payments.  So much for that!

While I am not happy that my car has gone belly up and may possibly be past the point of no return (I had a good cry after it happened, mostly because of the thought of being stranded at home with no transportation), I am VERY thankful that when it decided to bite the big one it did it just as I was getting home instead of leaving me stranded on the side of a road waiting on a tow truck in the dark while my hubby was at work.

So here's to baking skills and not being stranded!  Until tomorrow...

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Autumn Inspired Mantel

Autumn is my absolute favorite season.  I always say I come alive during this time of year.  I love the warm colors of the season, the pumpkins and gourds, the changing colors of the trees as they go dormant for the season, and the crispness in the air.  I love absolutely everything about this time of year!  I look forward to spiffing up my home when Autumn rolls around to make it feel warm and cozy as we approach cooler days outside and the nearing of the holiday season.  One of my favorite things to decorate for each season of the year is our fireplace mantel.  It is one of the first things you see as you enter our home.  Although I am not in love the rather simple mantel that came with our home, we hope to remodel it someday, I do my best to make it beautiful and inviting to all who enter our home.

Each year I try and change things up a bit from the previous year to keep things new, fresh, and fun.  Here is what I came up with for this year's Autumn mantel decor in our home:

One of my favorite items above our fireplace are the Lena Wall Vase hanging vases I purchased from Chiasso a few years ago.   They are unique, simple and classic in style, and so versatile.  I am also totally in love with the gorgeous feather wreath I found at Michael's.  I purchased the "Thankful Blessings" blocks last year at one of my favorite discount home decor stores, Home Goods.  If you have a Home Goods near you and you have never stopped in to one of their stores you have got to stop and check them out!  It is chock-full of so many great home and home decor items and all at amazing discounts.  Plus their inventory is ever changing, so every time you stop in you are likely to see a whole new set of goodies that you didn't see on your last visit.  It is the budget shoppers dream decorating store.  The beaded garland, pumpkins, gourds, and platter were all hand me downs from my mom, the woman who taught me to love decorating and gave me my creative genes.  I am always excited when she has hand me down decor because she ALWAYS has GREAT hand me down decor!

All and all I am really happy with the way  my mantel came together for the Autumn season.  I'm looking forward to seeing what I can come up with for Christmas this year.

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My 10th Anniversary Tribute to 9-11 - A Thank You to My Loved Ones in Public Service

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The overcast skies of this afternoon are so poignant when I think of how I was feeling 10 years ago today.  I remember waking up to my radio alarm clock to hear the news of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center.  I was just a little over a month away from being married and still living at home.  I ran in to my parent’s bedroom to wake up my mom to tell her the news.  Still groggy, she flipped on the TV in her bedroom as I went on to get dressed for work.  At the time I was working as a secretary in the fire department division for a local city’s emergency services agency.  Mom saw the second plane crash live on the morning news and ran in to where I was to tell me about it.  I remember having this overwhelming feeling of wanting to stay home close to my family, but also knowing that because of the line of work I was in, being at work was a place where I knew I would get the most up to date information on everything that was going on.

That day at work was surreal and so bizarre.  There was not a place in the building that you could go that every available TV was not on monitoring the news and turned up loud.  The instant buzzing of officials and bosses through the building that day and the sudden changes in building security that day and in the weeks to come was amazing.  In a matter of hours our building was locked down from the public and new security measures were in place or being planned.  By day two we were having security cameras installed everywhere around the building and new measures for keeping us safe and secure were in place.  I still can’t believe how fast we went from what we once accepted as normal to another whole new normal.

However, what I remember most from that day and the days to come afterward was how it felt to be American.  How for the first time in my lifetime we, as a country, all came together as one.  It didn’t matter our age, what we did as a job, our race or religion, what part of the country we were from, or what political party for which we belonged.  We were all just Americans, just humans, caring and grieving for our fellow humans. 

Even though I was on the other side of the country, so far from this tragedy, I grieved for those lives lost and I hurt for the families who lost loved ones.  I felt pride for the fire fighters, paramedics, law enforcement officers, and other emergency services personnel who rushed to New York City, Pennsylvania, and the Pentagon to do what they could to help. 

I felt pride and still feel pride daily for being a part of a public safety and military family.  So today, on this 10 year anniversary, I would like to thank my own family and close friends for their service to our country, both those who currently work and serve our community and those who have served us in the past:

• My husband Greg, for his service as an emergency services dispatcher

• My brother-in-law, Scott, a fire chief for a local town

• My be brother-in-law, Chris, a volunteer fire captain for a local department and an EMT/Paramedic

• My father, Vincent, now retired, for his years of volunteer service as a fire captain for a local department, which included being severely burned fighting a fire once and surviving it

• My father-in-law, Bob, a Navy veteran, for his years of service to our country

• My grandfather-in-law, Jim, now deceased, for his years of service in the Army

• My grandfather, Tom, now deceased, for his years of service in the Navy

• Our close friend, Steve, for his service as a law enforcement officer and detective

• Every other family member I may be forgetting, every acquaintance, and for every other man and woman who is currently working in emergency services or serving in the United States military, or who has in the past worked in emergency services and served our military

I want to personally say thank you all for your service to our country!  It is very much appreciated!

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I've Dusted Off My Old Blog and Freshened It Up with a New Look & Name

For quite some time now I've had the desire to clean up my blog a bit, give it a new look and a new focus.  It has needed revamping and new life for quite some time now and I've become inspired by so many of the creative crafting and home making blogs that I follow.  I long to be as creative and inspirational as some of the amazing creative ladies out there in blog land.

So today in between printing the gazillion pieces for wedding invitations I am making for my cousins wedding I decided I would use the wait time (since I couldn't stray far from my computer and printer) by refreshing the look of my blog.

I have brightened it up a bit with some of my very favorite colors, pink and lime green, and I have even given my blog a new name, something a little easier to remember.  So, say goodbye to Cathy's Thoughts About Nothing in Particular and say hello to Cathy's Corner.  I have also added tabs at the top of the page so that blog posts about certain subjects, such as recipes, paper crafting, and card making are easier for you to find all in one location.

I look forward to posting lots of new and exciting content soon.  I hope you enjoy the new look.  I would love to hear what you think.  Feel free to post a comment.

I'll be back soon, perhaps with a lovely tutorial on making wedding invitations, a great summer recipe, and more. ;-)

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Has it seriously been mid November since I last posted on my blog?

Wow!  I guess that the busy holidays and packing up my old house to move in to our new home has taken me away from my blog lately.  I cannot believe that my last post was in November.  It just does not seem like it was all that long ago.  Time sure does fly by.  

I have really been inspired lately by some of my online friends who have revitalized their own personal blogs and started blogging more regularly again, as well as some of the creative paper crafting and handmade blogs I have come across lately in my time surfing the web.  I want to  get back to regular blogging with posting recipes, and some of my paper crafting projects, along with sharing some of my photography on a separate photo blog I am setting up .  One of my goals for this year is to create how-to posts of some of the projects and recipes I work on and share them with you.  I think blogging is a great outlet for me to share some of my creative energy with the rest of the world.

Today has been a wet, cold raining day here in Northern California and it just made me want to stay in side the house all day long.  A friend on a scrapbooking message board I frequent posted about her husband buying her a very large bag of flour and that post reminded me of the huge bag of yeast that my husband and I purchased at Christmas time when we were doing some special baking.  I still have a ton of it left and Megan's post reminded me that I need to start using that yeast more often.  So I decided that I would use some of my domestic skills in the kitchen today and make bread.  I just wasn't sure exactly what kind of bread I wanted to make, but I knew I definitely wanted to bake some type of yummy yeasty item.  Then my husband sent a text to me telling me that they were cooking breakfast at work in the morning and he would need to bring something.  I told him I was planning on baking and my mind started swirling with what I was going to make.  Then it hit me, cinnamon swirl bread.  So today I tried making a cinnamon swirl bread for the very first time.  I took a potato bread recipe I found online and added my  own special touches to make it cinnamon bread.  I didn't think to take photos as I began the process of making my bread, but I did get some photos of the loaf before I put it in the oven and after it came out.  I'll have to try out my bread to make sure it is good before I share the recipe, but if it tastes as good as it smells and looks I will be posting the recipe very soon to share with all of you who are reading.

Here is hoping I can stay focused and get back to posting on a more regular basis as I was doing in the Fall.

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Friday Fill-In

It's been a long time since I've visited or posted to my blog.  Today I was drawn back to it after visiting another friends blog to read one of her entries and it filled me with a desire to revise my blog and get it up and active again.  So I thought a good way to start back to blogging would be with some simple writing prompts, or ideas that would get my mind working and my fingers typing.

So for my latest entry I decided to give Friday Fill-ins a try.

 

Here are my thoughts on this lovely Friday afternoon.

1. Laughter is the best medicine.

2. Right now I are the three words that started off the last email I sent. 

3. What I'm most looking forward to today is getting rid of the headache I have. 

4. Watching my two kittens' crazy antics (when they are not messing things up) puts a smile on my face. 

5. Where in the world am I going to find the time and energy to get all of our laundry done before my surgery next week?


6. Airing out the house with the windows open most of the day, even if it was warm outside is just what I needed.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to relaxing with my hubby, tomorrow my plans include more laundry and housework, and Sunday I want to relax and maybe spend some time cleaning up my craft room so I can enjoy it while I'm recuperating after surgery. 

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My blog layout has gone wonky on me. Ugh!

For some reason when I posted my photo challenge post my blog decided to change all my text to black and would not change back to any other color. With a black background obviously no one could see my text. I'm so frustrated.

I tried changing to a cute little free background from The Cutest Blog on the Block to fix the problem, but then my pictures I've posted were overlapping other text. I finally gave up and picked the green stretch background from there site so now my header sticks out like a sore thumb.

Ugh! This is so annoying to me, but it's late and I don't want to deal with trying to fix this anymore tonight, so for now you have to look at my ugly blog with it's header that doesn't match until I can spend some time trying to fix it.

Guess that is what I get for getting some inspiration to blog after so long.

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I've been tagged by Nadya

Thanks Nadya for tagging me. Now I have a good excuse to blog. :-)


The rules are to find and post the 6th photo in the 6th album on your computer.

I have no idea what my 6th photo in my 6th album is, so this should be interesting. So let's see what my photo is...

Oh, this is a fun one. This photo was taken last March 2008 during the annual ScrapShare retreat that I host. Here is the story behind the photo:

Prior to our March retreat last year one of the girls on the board, I think it was Amsway, posted a thread saying something about not knowing that there were any cows in California. Many of us who live in California got a good laugh out of that thread because California is one of the biggest dairy/cow states in the country.

Well, our retreat just happens to be hosted in a town that is in the middle of cow country, Turlock. As a joke, those of us attending the retreat decided to take a field trip out to the country to find some cows and take our picture to post on SS to prove that there are cows in California. I've grown up in this area, and grew up on a dairy, so I had no problem finding cows for our photo op. We all loaded up in a couple of cars and headed out to the nearest dairy we could find just a couple of miles outside the city limits. We were all cracking up as we baled out of our vehicles and I set up my tripod to get the photo of us with a corral full of dairy cows in the background. The following photo was captured on our field trip. If you squint you can see the Holstein cows in the background.



In this photo: (Left to Right) Brenda in CA, ilenem, dmccown's sister, dmccown, dmccown's friend, oenothera, Kimberly in CA, itong, MandaPanda, Amanda in CA, daphne 209, CntryCathy

For this challenge I tag the following people:

Sarah

Michele

Kelly

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Drawing a Blogging Blank Lately - Help a Girl Out.

As you can see it's been a while since I have blogged. Truthfully, life has been pretty boring lately for me. Not a bad thing considering all the crap I went through last year.

However, I am sad that I haven't felt like I've had much interesting to blog about lately. So if you are reading this, help a girl out. Give me a good reason to blog. Suggest a topic I should blog about, or give me your other great ideas.

I really enjoyed all the daily blogging I did back in November during the Thankful challenge and I'd like to get back to regular blogging.

Post your suggestions in the comments section. Thanks in advance for the help in getting my creative juices flowing again. :-)

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I'm a few days late, but Happy New Year. Goals for 2009

Here is to saying goodbye to 2008 and welcome 2009.

I have great hope and confidence that 2009 is going to be an improvement from the year that just passed. It's up to me to make it that way. It's up to me to see my life's cup as half full rather than half empty, as I did much of this past year. Yes, the economy is in the dumpster and things might not be easy. However, I am vowing to take what God has given my husband and I and learn how to make it work for us, both financial and otherwise.

I know this will not be an easy goal for me, but I have to give it a valiant effort. I've spent way to much time the past year feeling sorry for myself and all the things I don't have rather than embracing all the wonderful blessings in my life. I'm making it a goal this year to recognize daily that I cannot change the actions and thoughts of others, but what I can change is how I react to those actions and thoughts.

There were a lot of events that didn't go as I would have liked or planned for this past year. I've decided looking back that a lot of what went wrong in 2008 in my life, really wasn't as bad as I felt it was at the time. Yes, a lot went wrong and not as planned, but it was the way I chose to look at each of those events that made them seem so much worse.

I chose the negative view rather than seeing the positive in each situation. Believe me there were some events that took place in my life this past year that it would have been hard to find positive aspects in them, but I know each and every one of them had some sort of positive learning experience mixed in with the negative. I can see that I have changed as a person because of those events and my view on them. I don't like many of the ways I've seen myself change. I don't care for this person I have become in the past year. I know there is a much better person inside this body, and I haven't exactly let that person shine through in the past year. I've been a difficult person for my husband to live with and my family to be around.

I know all the things I don't like about myself are mind over matter. It's up to me to make changes to become the person I want to be. So this year I am focusing on myself. I'm going to focus on taking care of myself and my health. Unless it is my husband, I want to come to realize that other people's problems and issues are not my own. As far as my physical health goes, I don't have any great schemes to loose a ton of weight and start exercising 5 days a week. I know better. I just want to better take care of this body God has put me in. I want to know I am doing the best I possibly can with my body to reach my ultimate life's goals. I'm going to allow myself time for weekly self-enrichment without guilt. I now have a craft/scrap room and I plan to put it to good use. I want to learn to simplify my surroundings, to schedule errands and tasks daily and be able to get things done and find important papers, etc. without stress and worry. Most of all, my goal is to be a better wife to my husband, to do my part to make his life more enjoyable too!

So, raise your glass and toast me as I make 2009 the year of improving and liking myself more than I do right now!

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My Special Disney Surprise

Check out this great early Christmas present from Disneyland:


My husband really did a good one this year.

Isn't he awesome?

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Joy Challenge - Having a hard time finding joy this week.

(Warning: This is quite the ramble of a post.)

I know I said I would participate in the December Joy Challenge this month. I had so much fun participating in the November Gratitude Challenge and thought I would do good at the December challenge too. When it started I was really, truly looking forward to the challenge.

It's just not happening for me the past few days. I'm just not feeling the joy this week and having a hard time with coming up with anything to write about.

I'm feeling really tired, busy, and overwhelmed with Christmas coming up. All I ever want to do each Christmas season is just sit back and relax and enjoy this time of year, and all I ever feel like I'm doing year after year is rushing and trying to play catch up and keep everyone happy.

We got most of the outside of our home decorated the past three days. I just have a few finishing touches to complete outside. I still have the entire inside of the house to decorate before my ornament party on Thursday, plus cooking to do for the party, and I have bunco on Tuesday night so I feel like I don't have much time to get everything done. My house is a mess. I feel like I need to clean it up before I can even start to mess it up with bins of Christmas stuff.

I'm really bummed with the news I got this week that we missed again on starting our family. I allowed my mind to build my hopes up, only to have them crushed again. Why do I do that to myself? I'm sure it doesn't help that I've been off the progesterone supplements for about 4 days now and once again I've felt my attitude plummet from feeling great and happy to a low again. It's the same cycle over and over again. Tiring, so very tiring.

I've never felt better in years that I have in the two weeks each month since September that I've been on progesterone supplements due to our fertility issues. I asked the doctor about being on a small does all the time, and he didn't agree that it would be helpful to me. Ugh! I feel like a hormonal freakin' mess! I've never cried so much at the drop of a hat as I have this year and it sucks! I'm tired of being an emotional mess. I'm tired of the lows.

So anyway, my point is, I'm in no mood to try and pretend that I'm joyful this week. I'm tired, I'm overwhelmed, I'm frustrated, and most of all I'm ready for a new year. I'm ready for a new me because I don't like the me I've become in the past year or so.

I can only hope that next year will turn out better than this year. I can only hope that I will have the strength and courage to make the changes in me that I need to make to make myself happier and that in turn I will be a more pleasant person for my DH and the rest of my family to live with.

'Cause believe me, I haven't exactly been a ball of joy to live with this year, and I really want to be a ball of joy to live with. I want to have fun and love life and be that person that everybody wants to hang out with. I want to truly believe that everything in life will be OK, even if I don't get what I wish for so desperately. I want to be the person my DH first married, who had goals, personal aspirations, and dreams of a better life and really truly believed it would come true. I want to be that person again who can easily keep up the house duties, get dinner cooked, keep organized, and still be energetic and fun to be around. I've lost that person in recent years and I want her back.

So for now until I decided I feel inspired enough to find joy in my life this month and write about it I'm out of this challenge for the month. If I feel inspired I will write, but I don't think I'll be making an entry every day as I did in November. :-(

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Dec. 4, 2008 - December Joy Challenge Day 2

Tonight I found joy in finishing up a craft project I've been working on for my ScrapShare Secret Santa. How appropriate for this challenge, it just happens to be a Christmas themed "J-O-Y" altered letter wall hanging.

I love crafting, but it is not something I allow myself to do very often. I always look around my house and see all the everyday tasks that I am behind in and I usually end up talking myself out of getting involved in a craft project because there are more important tasks that need my attention and I know that crafting can become time consuming.

This type of thinking is something I've recently tried to change. Now that I have my own scrap & craft room set up, I have been trying more often to just allow myself "me time" and the opportunity to go in that room a little each week and work on projects that are fun. I know that being creative is something important in my life that I need to do for myself and my sanity. I love that I am able to give myself my needed me time more often now without feeling like I'm making bigger messes in my house now that I have my scrap & craft room. I finally have all of my craft and scrap supplies neatly organized and available in one spot in the house. I've been dreaming of that for years.

It took having new carpet installed in my house in July and having to completely move out all furniture and belongings that were touching carpet out of our house to get me motivated to turn my spare bedroom (formally our disaster of a storage area) into my scrap & craft room.

Now I can easily find all of my craft supplies in one quick glance. I didn't actually work on my altered "Joy" project in my scrap & craft room tonight, because I had it out in my dining room from working on it last week while my niece was crafting with me, however it was so nice to be sitting there working on my project and whenever I needed an item I could just run into my scrap room and find it right away without having to dig through disorganized bags or piles of stuff. It was so nice after I was finished tonight to be able to grab my supplies and walk in to that room knowing that had an organized place to put away each one of the items.

I love that I can walk down my hall and look in that room now with pride in the way it looks and be proud to realize that it is also functional now, rather than being a useless waste of space it once was filled with disorganized possessions and yard sale junk.

I find so much joy in having my own little space in the house that is all mine where I can go be creative as I make things for both myself and for others.

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Dec 3, 2008 - December Joy Challenge Day 1

I love the month of December, being the month we celebrate Christmas and all it means. It is a month I look forward to all year long.

Growing up my mother always went out of her way and worked her tail feathers off to decorate our home to the max for Christmas. Our home was always beautiful and festive inside and out. I absolutely loved being surrounded by the joyful and brightly colored Christmas decorations and lights each year. We lived in the country and our house and our next door neighbor's house were know in our rural area for our outside decorations.


I always knew that someday when I lived on my own I would want to decorate my house to the max for Christmas each year just as my mom did. I could only hope that I would marry someone who felt the same way, and luckily I did. Greg also grew up in a house with a mom who loves to decorate for the season and he too had a love of Christmas and decorating. We were (are) a perfect match.

Since we first got married seven years ago we have built up quite the collection of decorations. I have a garage full of several extra large storage tubs filled with nothing but Christmas lights and decor for both the inside and outside of our home and a shelf filled with decorations that are too big to fit in the storage boxes.

I adore transforming the inside and outside of our home into a Christmas wonderland full of festive brightly colored decorations and twinkle lights. Although it is a lot of work I love helping Greg get the outside of our home decorated and set up. I get giddy just waiting for that moment when everything is set up and in place and we can flip the switch to turn on our Christmas lights for the season.

Our house is one of the most brightly lit houses in our neighborhood and I get the biggest thrill out of seeing cars slow as they pass to take in our Christmas lights display.

This week I'm set to dig into my numerous boxes of Christmas decorations and get my house all decked out for the season. I have to have it ready for my ornament exchange party on the 11th. Considering it usually takes me a good 3 days of solid work to get it decorated, I'm ready to get moving. Tomorrow I will get out in the yard with Greg and help him get the outside lights set up. My nephew will come by tomorrow afternoon and get the lights up along our roof. His skinny little buns can get up on our roof and have them up in half the time it takes me to move along on the ladder to string them, so for the last few years we have hired him for that important job.


I'm like a giddy little kid waiting in line to see Santa Claus. I cannot wait until our house is completely decorated inside and out and I can sit back for the rest of the month and enjoy the colorful and cheerful display both inside and out.

It is one of the things that makes me happiest throughout the year and one of the things I love the most about the Christmas season.

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25 Christmas Questions

I got tagged by my friend Shirley...read to the end to see if you've been tagged by me!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? It depends on the gift. I prefer wrapping paper with a big ole bow, but it if is an odd shaped gift it gets bagged. I'm very particular about making sure my wrapped boxes are almost perfect, so I hate trying to wrap odd boxes.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial, because I love to have lights on my tree, and because real trees are so messy and expensive these days. However, I have to have a pine scented plug in or air diffuser near the tree to make it smell like Christmas. As a child growing up, until my teen years, we always had a real tree, but were never allowed to put lights on it due to the fire hazard. My dad was a volunteer fireman and saw way to many house fires because of lights strung on dry trees.

3. When do you put up the tree? As soon as possible after Thanksgiving. My goal is to get it up the first week in December. I hope to have it up this week if all goes right.

4. When do you take the tree down? If all goes as planned by January 6th.


5. Do you like eggnog? I like a little bit of it. However, I prefer it in the Egg Nog bundt cakes that I make.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? There were so many, I can't possibly narrow it down. The ones I remember the most were my sister and my "professional" white roller skates, our life size Raggedy Anne dolls, and our Atari.

7. Hardest person to buy for? My mom, with my dad a close second.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Greg, he always provides me with a list.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, we have a Fontanini collectors nativity set that we bought the first year we were married. Although it doesn't happen every year, we try to find a new piece to add to it when we can.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail. I love sending and receiving Christmas cards in the mail. Even though it is just Greg and I we still usually try and do a photo card, and I love receiving photo cards too.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? A Bob Dylan CD from my mom and dad when I was a teenager, in the 90's when Bob Dylan was way past his prime. I think my mom was frustrated with shopping, didn't know what else to get and just grabbed and purchased that CD. Needless to say I returned it ASAP.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Christmas cannot go by without watching Christmas Vacation.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? As soon as we have the money and we see something someone on our list would like. It varies from year to year.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Not that I remember.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Greg's homemade English toffee, Ice box pudding, and prime rib on Christmas Eve.

16. Lights on the tree? Yes, white. Greg wants to add some colored lights to the tree someday too.

17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night, especially the version sung by Josh Groban

18. Travel at Christmas or stay at home? Well, since all of our family is within a few minutes drive, we switch back and forth between spending Christmas Eve with Greg's family and mine and the same goes for Christmas day. We spend Christmas day morning at home and then go to the house of whoever is hosting the festivities for the day. This year it is Christmas eve with my family, Christmas brunch at our home, and Christmas day at Greg's grandma's house. I LOVE having our entire family so close by!!!

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, Blitzen, and Rudolph. :-)

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? In the past it's been a bow. Last year we purchased a beautiful angel, so this year it will be an angel again.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? When we are with Greg's family for Christmas Eve we open presents from his family that night. With my family, my mom usually send the presents home with everyone and we open our presents at home in the morning. Greg and I always exchange our own presents to/from each other on Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Busy stores, rude people in a hurry who have forgotten what the spirit of the season is all about. Too much commercialism and the fact that so many people celebrate the season without understand and enjoying the true Christian meaning of this special time of year.

23. What theme or color are you using? Everything goes, especially tradition greens, red, gold, and silver. Lots of sparkle and color.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Everything. Must have Ice Box pudding on my Christmas table at some point during the holiday. That is all I request of my mom to make. Other than that I am good with whatever is being fixed. Prime Rib is also a Christmas Eve tradition on my side of the family. This year I will be eating a big piece in memory of my Papa who passed away the beginning of November. He LOVED his Prime Rib.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? The miracle I was really hoping for this Christmas just isn't in the cards for us it seems. :-( My dream material gift would be to get a wide-angle lens I've been wanting, or Adobe Creative Suite 3 or 4, but I know those are both dreams that probably are not going to happen. I would be happy getting the two lens hoods I want for two of my lenses, and maybe a nice dress jacket or some other clothes. I had a hard time coming up with a list this year.

I am going to tag…… Sarah, Michele and Kelly!

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Nov. 23, 2008 - Gratitude Post Challenge Day 22

Tonight I am thankful for finishing the logo design for SSMI III and getting it sent off to Diane.

(I'm not sharing pictures because I don't want to spoil the surprise for anyone who is attending the retreat)

About a month ago Diane (emmylou) emailed me and asked if I would design a logo for SSMI III. She had seen the logo I designed for this year's SS Northern California retreat and wondered if I could come up with something for SSMI.

Of course, I said yes. It's been busy this month so I didn't get to start working on the logo until tonight. Diane had given me some ideas, and I had a few of my own based on what she told me. For quite some time I've had this vision in my head of how I wanted the logo to look. I even sketched it out this morning. Wouldn't you know when I sat down at my computer today I just could not get that vision to become a reality on screen. I just was not happy at all with what I was coming up with. I could see exactly what I wanted in my head, but for the life of me my hands just could not get it drawn out on screen.

So after working on the logo for several hours and not being satisfied I decided to just walk away from the computer for a little bit and then go back and start from scratch again.

I went back and suddenly the logo design just started to flow. It is totally different than what I had first envisioned, but I'm happy with the way it turned out. Now I just hope that Diane and everyone else who will be attending the upcoming SSMI III will love the design too.

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