Who Wants To Know (Part 2)

Okay, so apparently there are few more questions to the Holiday Edition of Getting To Know You that I didn't know about...they weren't on my original list! So...I must continue on...

21. Stockings? Or no Stockings? Of course...one for me, one for Paul, and one for the dog!

22. Do you like sledding? I don't know 'cause I've never done it. I suppose it would probably be fun.

23. Farthest you've traveled for Christmas day? Across town (adventurous, aren't we?)

24. Do you leave out cookies or carrots for when Santa comes? Shhhhhh...don't say cookie too loud...Abby will hear you! If I left out cookies and carrots, I'm afraid poor Santa would have to go without because Miss Abby would eat them all. She's my little cookie monster.

25. What gets you into the holiday spirit? Seeing all the lights that people have up on my drive home from work, listening to Christmas music, decorating the tree.

26. Does your wrapping color coordinate? Actually, yes...it usually does. Our tree this year is blue and silver, and I have my eye out for blue and silver paper.

27. Favorite gift you've ever given? I really couldn't tell you.

28. Most fun Holiday memory? There is really no specific memory that comes to mind. I guess it would be just different memories of decorating the tree throughout the years. Although...I can think of a few fun office Christmas parties or secret Santa gift exchanges that have been fun.

29. Do you wrap your own gifts? Not if I can help it. That's the worst part of the whole thing for me. I am too impatient and usually con Paul into wrapping for me. He's a perfectionist and does such a good job. Same goes for when I was younger...I managed to get my dad to wrap for me.

30. Most missed memory from childhood Christmas? Having the whole family together with everyone opening the gifts one at a time so it lasts longer.

31. Favorite Christmas Movie? Right now it's Elf! As far as old movies, it's a toss up between Miracle on 34th Street and A Christmas Carol.

32. Tinsel or no tinsel (icicles). None. The stuff freaks me out...I don't like the feel of it.

33. Do you like to go caroling? I would go, but I don't know anyone who does and I certainly am not going to go by myself.

34. Do you like to sleep in or get up early on Christmas morning? Sleep in.

A Couple of RAKs & A Couple of TYs

I got my assignment for the RAK welcoming committee today, and I am right on top of things this time! I actually sat down and made the cards tonight and they'll be in the mail tomorrow! Woohoo!
Mom bought me this mitten stamp last week. I just love it! I made her a thank you card using it along with one of the TAC snowmen. There is glitter on the mittens, but you can't see it in the scan.

Who Wants to Know?

Welcome to the 2006 Holiday Edition of Getting to Know Your Friends! I've received quite a few of these in my inbox, so I thought I might as well post the answers here!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate. I don’t do eggnog. There is something about the taste of nutmeg that I don’t like. Of course I haven’t had any in years…maybe my tastes have changed. Maybe I’ll try it again this year. But then again, doesn’t it contain an awful lot of calories??

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wraps them, of course…or maybe that’s Mrs. Claus’s job.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? I like both white and colored, but Paul likes white; therefore, we have white.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope...isn't it poisonous?!

5. When do you put your decorations up? Well, the plan this year is to do it the Friday after Thanksgiving. As Mr. and Mrs. Procrastinator, though, we will see if that happens.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? I think I will have to go with the main dish on this one…be it turkey, ham, roast or whatever.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: Spending every other Christmas Eve with Aunt Alberta’s family. I remember returning home from their house one Christmas Eve…and it always seemed far away even though I’m sure it wasn’t…and looking up out the back window of the car and seeing a tiny red light up in the sky. I thought for sure that must be Rudolph.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don’t remember what age I was, but I was in grade school. I remember standing outside before school started in the morning and overhearing some boy telling his friends. Yeah...I didn't like him too much.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes…Paul usually talks me into it.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Funny that should be one of the questions. We just went out tonight to buy new ornaments. A lot of our ornaments were ruined when our basement flooded because of a burst pipe a couple of years ago. We haven’t put our tree up since, so it hasn’t been an issue, but we both really want to put it up this year, so we had to buy new ornaments. We…rather I…struggled with the choice of color. In the past we went with blue and silver, which we both liked a lot. This year, because of the whole Northwoods “theme” in our living room, I thought maybe we should go with more traditional colors…maybe red and gold. So what did we come home with? Blue and silver, of course. I do have a bunch of ornaments that I’ve collected over the years that pretty much survived the flood, so we’ll be using those too.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it? If it were up to me, it would snow on Christmas Eve and all melt as soon as I have to go back to work. Fresh-fallen snow is beautiful; however, once it gets all dirty, it can just go away.

12. Can you ice skate? No…never have and never plan to now after my knee surgery. Have you ever fallen on the ice? Yes…who hasn’t? I remember being in ninth grade and coming out of school and slipping on some ice. I thought for sure I broke my elbow. That, I think, was my first trip to the ER.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I can't really think of a "favorite." I remember asking for and receiving a Spirograph quite a few years in a row because I would lose the pieces. I wonder if you can still buy those??

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Remembering the real reason for the season.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Sugar cookies.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? After decorating the tree, which usually doesn’t get started until late at night, I like to sit there by the light of the tree with the room lights off just looking at the tree and all the sparkling ornaments feeling at peace and knowing how lucky I am.

17. What tops your tree? A Precious Moments angel that mom fashioned using netting from my wedding veil.

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? Giving. Come on...who is really going to answer receiving here.

19. What is your favorite Christmas song? Even though it’s not technically a Christmas song but rather is from the Sound of Music, My Favorite Things is one of my favorites. I think it has pretty much evolved into a Christmas song over the years. I had an old cassette of Christmas songs by Kenny Rogers that is one of my favorites, and that song is on it. As far as traditional Christmas songs, I would have to go with White Christmas.

20. Candy Canes....Yuck or Yum? Hmmmm…that’s a tough one. If I do eat them, it has to be either the traditional red and white striped peppermint one (and then I prefer just the mini ones) or the wild cherry flavored ones. I do like to use them to stir hot chocolate, though. It’s fun watching it totally disintegrate when you put it in the hot liquid, and giving the hot chocolate a peppermint flavor is oh so yummy.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Busy as a Beaver!

Boy, I was on a roll this weekend. I was actually trying to use up some scraps instead of letting them pile up. Can you tell that I LOVE this puppy stamp!


The following card has pink glitter on the band of the hat, on the patch on his butt, and in lines underneath the words, but that never shows up too well when scanning. I'm not crazy about the next one, but I used the SCS sketch challenge from a couple of weeks ago. First is the sketch, and second is my card.

Brrrrr

What a cold weekend this was...nice but cold. After temperatures in the 70s at the beginning of the week, being down in the lower 40s during the day seems kinda chilly. Friday was horrible with a lot of rain...I'm talking thunderstorm rain...mixed with a tiny, tiny bit of snow. That, my friends, is what I call a perfect day for a nice big pot of chili. Yum-O. It turned out very well if I do say so myself. Saturday was super sunny, so we decided to take a trip to the apple orchard for the last time this season. This is the time of year that I love to go. I love to sit by their fireplace and drink something warm. I didn't get to sit right by it this time, but I was close enough to feel it's warmth. We had lunch of hot dog and coffee for me and a big pork BBQ and hot cider for Paul. We topped that off with a big slice of apple pie (ice cream for Paul but cheese for me). Since I was in the cooking mood and was full of energy from the coffee and since it was Veterans Day, I decided to make Paul some cookies. Oatmeal sounded good, and I thought I could counteract the bad sugar with the good fiber and it would be better than just plain ol' chocolate chip. I made half with raisins and half with chocolate chips (I don't do raisins)!


Oh, and you-know-who got her own doggie-friendly plate of mini cookies without either raisins or chocolate (and that was actually her papa's idea). Spoiled brat.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a nice Veterans Day!

WooooHooo!

Well, it's official. Mom is now officially a Stampin' Up demonstrator! She got the call today and got her demo number. She's pretty excited, and so am I! She should be getting her kit and all her goodies any day now! It sure didn't take long. We just filled out all the paperwork last Thursday. Because she signed up in November, she got a really good deal on the kit. In honor of her new title, I thought I would make a card tonight using Stampin' Up stamps and paper.



I'm not sure I like it. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love this stamp set...it's one of my favorites...I just never really know what to do with it. Now keep in mind that I don't have an oval punch or anything, so I had to cut these ovals freehand, and I am NOT good at that at all. I guess I shouldn't even point stuff like that out, huh? I just think something is missing. I added a ribbon...

But that just looks horrible on the scan. The ribbon actually looks much better in real life. Anyway, in case your curious, the stamps used are Terrific Tulips, Sincere Salutations, and the Canvas background (on the pink). I used the Saran Wrap technique as the background for the tulips. The ribbon is grosgrain in "Rose." Everything is by Stampin' Up, of course.

Just so you know

To my loyal readers (all maybe four of you), I have signed up with a subscription service, so you can now subscribe to my blog. If you look in the right-hand column and scroll down to just above the counter, you will see the box to subscribe. Just enter your email address and then enter the jumbled up numbers that they present to you so that they know you're a real person. After that you will get an email. Click the link in the email to verify your email address, and voila...you are done. You will then get an email every time I add a new post to my blog. You won't get any mail if I don't post. No more having to check on a daily basis and then giving up on me because it's taking me f-o-r-e-v-e-r to post. Pretty nifty, huh? Of course, if you would rather keep checking every day, by all means...be my guest.

I'm at it again...

Once again I'm seriously behind on my SCS RAK Welcoming Committee commitments! I really need to get my rear in gear and get some cards made up ahead of time so I can send them out on time. Anyway, I have four to do, and here are two of them. One is going to Wisconsin and the other Virginia. Is that dog not the cutest thing you've ever seen?! I spotted that stamp this weekend and just had to have it! The angel is a borrowed image from mom. (Thanks for stamping me some of these, mom...this one is especially fun to color). Both of these are done with Prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits. The wings of the angle are brushed with Twinkling H2O watercolors, but that doesn't show up to well in the scan. It felt strange working with these colors this time of year because I've been doing so much with the autumn colors, but it was a nice change of pace.

BOOOOoooOoooOOO

Here's Abby when told she couldn't have any of the Halloween candy...

Since I don't have any goblins, princesses, or bumble bees running around here, I'm forced to dress up my dog. Can't you tell she just absolutely loves me for it?! I had bought her a bumble bee costume last year, but it wouldn't fit her. I thought since she has lost weight that it might fit her now, but no such luck. I need to find a smaller dog to donate it to. So, anyway, she was forced to be a devil/witch once again. Oh how she hates hats!

I did manage to accomplish something "crafty" this Halloween. I made some treat bags for my coworkers! I had fun putting these together and passing them out. It was a nice surprise for everyone.

Birthday Girl

Yes...I know. I have been totally MIA from the blogging community lately. There were a few events this past week worthy of picture taking, though, so I though I better catch up!

First off, Sunday was mom's birthday so we had her over for breakfast. Nothing much...just eggs, bacon, fried potatoes, and vanilla French toast (yes, Deb...I used the right kind of pudding this time!). After breakfast we went through my big box of pictures because I happen to know that she is making me a scrapbook for Christmas (!!!) and she wanted to see if there were any pictures that I had that she didn't. We were mainly looking for my graduation pictures, which are still at this time nowhere to be found. I know they have to be here somewhere! Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of her opening her gifts.

Aren't these good pictures? She looks so pretty. She looks pretty darn good for 71 doesn't she?! I only hope I look as good and have half as much energy as she does when I get there. I don't know, though...I don't have half her energy now, so I have some catching up to do!

Covert Operation

Miss Abby and Miss Dakota were spotted having a secret meeting out by the fence. I just knew they were up to something and I'll be darn if I wasn't right. The mystery has been solved. Miss Abby was teaching the young and innocent Miss Dakota how to steal cherry tomatoes out of the garden! I spent half the weekend on tomato patrol. Miss Dakota didn't catch on right away, though, and started out by stealing the green ones, and she probably wondered what the big deal was. Then she discovered the red ones. Oh boy...look out! She was a puppy on a mission! If she wasn't stealing tomatoes on her own, she was untying my shoe laces so Abby could sneak in the garden and grab some of her own. These two girls made a pretty good team.

The Lost Ball

Boomer lost his ball under the entertainment center, and a search party had to be formed ...


I wanted to get Paul's butt in the picture too, but thought better of it. He would have gotten me back!

That dog is obsessed with his tennis ball. Actually, it isn't his but was Abby's, but he claimed it as his own for the weekend. He chewed on it constantly and freaked out when he couldn't find it. Apparently he's the same way at home. His teeth are worn down from chewing on the ball constantly. He even drops it in the dish whenever he's eating or drinking so he can keep a close eye on it! Like Abby does, he likes to chew on the ball right in front of the entertainment center, as close as he can get so it keeps rolling under and we have to get up and get it for him. We finally put a blanket down there and stuffed it underneath so he couldn't push it under. Then he switched to the coffee table...losing it underneath, getting up and going to the other side to retrieve it, carrying it back to the other side, and starting all over again...over and over and over again.

What a golden day!

Boy! What a day we're having! Look what we have in our presence today!

Her name is Dakota, and she's 11 weeks old today. Is she adorable, or what?! I want to melt just looking at her. She's sleeping underneath my chair as I type this and I am definitely in puppy love!

Now, before some of you go and get too excited, no..., unfortunately, she doesn't belong to us! I had you freaking out there for a second, didn't I? Hee, hee, hee.

She belongs to my friend Jill and her family. They went out of town for the weekend and she was worried about putting Dakota in a kennel since she's so young so she asked if I would mind dog sitting. Um...hello!! Me turning away a chance of spending the weekend with a squirming golden puppy?? I don't think so! Dakota has a 6-year-old golden brother named Boomer that they were going to put in a kennel for the weekend, and I said no way...that they could bring him too! So here we are this weekend with a house full of goldens...and I am totally enjoying myself!!

Here's another picture of Dakota.

This is Dakota's big brother Boomer.
He's a big brother alright...probably almost 100 pounds worth!

Does she look like she's planning something here or what?
Hmmmmm...what kind of trouble can I get into next?


Boomer has a stripe of hair running down the middle of his snout
that stands backward kind of like a ridge,
so in pictures it looks like he has a stripe on his snout.

That's it for now! Keep checking back and I'll add more pictures...I'm sure taking plenty!

I know I'm not the only one

Look at the picture below...



Does anything jump out at you? Look at the strawberry pot in the middle. Does it not look like a happy Chinese man with big bags under his eyes?! I sat at work all day Monday looking at this picture as I typed and that is all I could see...this happy Chinese man.

I've noticed that I see faces in a lot of things. I can't go to the bathroom downstairs without looking across the sink at the surprised little guys that make up the electrical outlet. I sit in traffic and see the tail lights and bumpers of cars either smiling or sneering at me (probably depending on what kind of mood I'm in!!). They're everywhere!

I'm not the only one, though. I showed this picture to Paul and he pointed it out right away.

I like this happy yet tired oriental strawberry pot man. I think I'm going to hang it up in my cubicle at work. It isn't even my calendar but was left behind by the previous occupant. Thank you, Sandy, for leaving me this happy guy. He makes me smile.

Recipe Swap

Okay...I have to admit that I got a little swap crazy a couple of months ago and signed up for more swaps than I should have and I struggled to keep up. This, however, was the last of the bunch. I almost forgot about it and then realized yesterday that it's due on the 15th so I had better get my butt in gear. This one was for peanut butter recipes. It didn't matter what it was as long as it contains peanut butter. Most people chose desserts...peanut butter cookies...peanut butter krispie treats, etc. I thought I would go a little unconventional on this and throw something different into the mix. I had recently tried a recipe for Chicken Satay Stir-Fry that I saw Rachael Ray make on 30-Minute Meals, and I really liked it a lot. The sauce is made with chunky peanut butter, so I thought why not!

This one was difficult for me to come up with something. I knew I wanted to use the oriental stamps because it's a Thai recipe. I actually don't like this stamp set very much. It's the first one I ever bought from Stampin' Up. I bought it along with the bamboo background. I have actually used this set quite a bit, though. Maybe it's really the bamboo background that I don't like. I don't know. Anyway, does the doodling on the red stripes look okay? I wanted to add something to give that area some visual interest instead of just a plain stripe, but I didn't want to attach anything else to the page. I'm actually quite pleased with it, if I do say so myself. I'm excited that I will actually get one of my own back in the swap (some swaps you don't and have to make an extra for yourself...and I'm too lazy for that!) I had to put together seven of these puppies, and that was quite a bit of work!

Splish Splash

It's that time again...time to torture little miss Abby. As evidenced by the pictures in my last post, she is badly in need of a trim. Now this is something that I usually dread. Every time I think of it, I have flashbacks of literally having to carry her upstairs to get her in the tub with her fighting me every step of the way. Let me remind you that she weighs about 76 pounds. What golden retriever doesn't like water you might ask...well, that would be ours. Cutting her hair was always the same way...fighting me all the way through. We tried taking her to the doggie salon twice in the past. She was terrified both times. I'm still not sure if she has forgiven us from the last time. I'm proud to report, though, that today it was apparent that my baby is growing up. She sat/laid through the haircut like a perfect little angel, giving me her full cooperation. When it came to bath time, I only had to redirect her into the bathroom and then she hopped right into the tub. I don't know if she is so grateful that I'm not sending her off to be tortured by strangers that she just figures she'll let me do what I want or what.

She has no idea what she is in for...totally unsuspecting.

Hmmmm...why is mama taking my picture for no reason?

No haircut pics...
but I do have a pile of evidence, tons of golden curls.
There's plenty more where that came from too...all over the floor.

Patiently awaiting her time in the tub...
secretly wondering how she can escape.

Look at this face!

She got a new toy for being such a good girl.

Canine Classic 2006!

Boy did Abby have quite the day yesterday. We took her out to the annual Canine Classic dog fair. This is the first year we have made it out there. I've been wanting to go every year since it started, which I think was three years ago. Last year I remember I was going to meet up with one of my coworkers and her golden, and it rained all day. This year I really, really wanted to go. The entrance fee was $15 for one dog and two adults, but it went to a good cause. The whole thing is put on by the local animal shelter. There were booths set up with all kinds of vendors such as pet photography, breed rescue organizations, etc. There were things like free weight checks and nail trimming for a small fee...obedience demonstration...K9 police dog demonstrations...a canine talent show, etc. Fun for the whole family! Of course, I think it would have been more fun if it wasn't so hot!! Of all the days of the week, it had to be hot on Sunday. The temp. was probably close to 90 (which totally did not make Paul happy to be there...he tolerated it for me though). Today I would say it barely made it 60. What's the deal with that?!! Anyway, I think Abby had a good time. We were a little nervous about taking her at first because she's pretty indifferent with other dogs. She'll let them sniff her with her nose stuck in the air like it's a total invasion of her privacy but just go ahead and get it over with! I swear she thinks she's human. She was such a good girl, though, so we're glad we took her. I was planning to take a lot of pictures, but once again I forgot until we were almost ready to leave to get my camera out of my purse. Shame on me!! Anyway, here are a few that I did take...

This is of Abby pre-fair...all dressed up and ready to go.

Check out this purple poodle! Poor thing!
At least it looks like she has a pretty good sense of humor!

These are of Tom the bomb-sniffing spaniel
who gets to sniff all the luggage at the airport.

I'm not sure what this one is, but it was huge!
Maybe a great dane?
He does kind of look like Scooby Doo!

Oh, and we must not forget the lovely greyhounds at the greyhound rescue booth. It was hard for me not to take all these sweeties home. I spent a lot of time lovin' on the black one. He was quite the loverboy. He was just lean into me to soak up as much of the attention as he could. I love the picture of the brown one in the pink feathers...what a flirt!

That, unfortunately, is all the pictures I took. I had plans to take more but it didn't happen. Maybe next time. It was fun and interesting, though. Hey Lisa...wouldn't Adrianna have LOVED this! I wish we could have taken her with!

Oh...check this out...we got a copy of Abby's paw print. What a riot! She, however, didn't think it was quite so fun. She couldn't wait to get the heck away from that booth.

Then...if that wasn't enough excitement for the day, Abby and I dropped Paul off at home to watch football and we headed over to mom's. Check out these shots I got of my pretty girl in the backyard. She, as you can see, is badly in need of a haircut...which I plan on doing this week before her Aunt Deb comes to visit. I can't have her looking all raggedy for out-of-town guests, now can I?