Food For Thought

Breakfast
What is the most stressful thing for you about the holidays?

Figuring out what gifts to buy.

Lunch
What one quality do you admire most in others?

I admire people who are good conversationalists, where the conversation just ebbs and flows and they never run out of things to talk about...yet they don't feel they have to fill up every second with words and the silence is not uncomfortable.

Dinner
Do you enjoy winter, tolerate it, or detest it?

If I don't have to drive in it, I enjoy it. I like the colder weather (hate being hot) and love the falling snow. If the roads are bad and the streets and parking lots icy, I detest it. I would be perfectly happy somewhere where I could wear jeans and a sweatshirt outside and be comfortable...no coat, I hate wearing coats...and it snowed every so often on a Sunday and then the roads were all clear by Monday morning. The snow can stick around on the grass and stuff but just not the pavement.

Midnight Snack
Where is your favorite place to shop?

Kohls.

Recipe for this Week (instead of your recipe for life - what is it for just this week?)

The more you say, the less people remember. ~ Francois Fenelon

Gobble, Gobble

I hope everyone had a happy turkey day and didn't stuff yourself too much...unlike me! I don't think I'll need to eat for a week. For those of you brave enough to venture out into the world on Black Friday, I hope you get lots of good deals!

This Or That?

For Thanksgiving dinner...

1. Turkey or Ham? Turkey. It's not Thanksgiving without it. Ham is for Easter.

2. Cranberry Sauce or Stuffing? I like both, but it's not called stuffing...it's dressing. I don't want it if it's been up the turkey's butt (hello, salmonella). As far as the cranberry sauce, unlike my sister who likes the fresh stuff, I will only eat cranberry sauce that comes from a can. If it doesn't come out in the shape of a can, I don't want it.

3. Pumpkin Pie or Apple Pie? I could really pass on either, but I guess I'll say pumpkin...with Cool Whip.

4. Warm apple cider or hot cocoa? I don't do the warm cider thing. I absolutely hate mulling spices...makes my tongue numb just thinking about it. I'll take the cocoa...with a bunch of marshmallows or real whipped cream. Try stirring it with a peppermint stick and watch the peppermint disappear before your eyes. Or, even better, add a little bit of Bailey's Irish Cream Yum!

5. Cook the meal yourself or go to someone's house to eat? It varies from year to year. Going to mom's this year for dinner and to Paul's aunt's house for dessert later on.

6. After eating do you...collapse on the couch in front of the tv or go for a walk? Do people seriously go for a walk after Thanksgiving dinner? How is that even possible? I can tell you right now I will be vegging...and napping...and then vegging some more...

Season's Greeting

I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that this week is Thanksgiving. It just doesn't seem possible. Time to start thinking of the Christmas tree. We had planned last year to maybe buy a real tree this year. However, real trees make me think of two words...fire hazard. I have this huge fear of forgetting to water it and having it dry out and start a fire. I know...I'm totally paranoid. I'm also not big on having to clean up all the needles either. Since we have trees in our living room anyway due to the Northwoods decor, we're probably going to end up putting lights on them, buying some pine-scented air freshener to add that "realistic" effect, and calling it a day. I need to figure out a new arrangement, though. The addition of the new TV and the absence of the old entertainment center has displaced my trees. I need to figure out what to do. I am so not good at home decorating.


There's quite a bit of bling on this one...can't have Christmas without a little (or a lot of) sparkle.

Food For Thought

Breakfast
How do you usually spend Thanksgiving?
That depends on if we're having it at our house. The last couple of years we have because it's easier for us to have both families over here. If that's the case, I wind up sleeping too late and then frantically trying to clean the house and get the dinner started before everyone arrives. This year we're going to mom's so I'm going to purposely sleep late.

Lunch
What is the one thing you are most grateful for this year?

That both of us still have jobs and we're keeping our heads above water financially (barely but we're doing it).

Dinner
Do you usually shop on Black Friday or avoid it like the plague?

I usually shut myself up in the house and don't even look outside. This Friday I'm thinking of going to see the movie Twilight. I really want to see it since I just read the book, but there was no way I was going this past weekend (opening weekend). Going even next weekend will be pushing it, but I figure maybe while everyone in the city is shopping, it might be a good time.

Midnight Snack
What is your favorite part of the Thanksgiving feast?

Probably the turkey with gravy...or the candied sweet potatoes.

Recipe for this Week (instead of your recipe for life - what is it for just this week?)

I will not each too much turkey...or candied sweet potatoes (mom, you are making those, right?)

Be Merry

It seems I only ever have time to get in one sketch challenge per weekend, even though there are quite a few every weekend that I'd like to participate in. This weekend I really liked Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge (WSC67), so that's the one I chose to play along with.


The image stamp is by Northwoods Rubber Stamps and the sentiment by TAC. I've had the printed paper in my stash forever, so I really couldn't tell you where it came from. The larger square, however, was made using a printed copy of a scan of the "Christmas" page from a vintage dictionary (very cool!) so generously provided by Melstampz. I cut out the portion showing the definition for "merry." I crinkled it up and then rubbed it with "Old Paper" Distress Ink. Actually, I tried it first by rubbing it with red ink, but it came out looking a little too much like blood, which really isn't the look I was going for. The ornament of the image is cut from Real Red (SU!) cardstock and adhered to the image to pop it out a little. It would have probably looked better if I would have went with gold ribbon, but I wasn't thinking when I grabbed the silver brads, so I went ahead and used silver.

Well, I've got to go take the roast out of the oven and then settle in to watch 24: Redemption...the two hour movie leading into the new season of 24 that starts in January!

Forty!

40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 Happy Birthday, Sheila! 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

How lovely are thy branches.

What do you think about my Christmas tree? I know you can't actually see it yet, but you'll be able to someday. Right now it's just a tiny seed. Give it about 20 years or so and it will be a beautiful blue spruce. That is if I don't forget to water it, and transplant it, and feed it, and nurture it.

I found this little kit in the Dollar Spot at Target yesterday. It contained everything needed to grow your own Christmas tree...all for a buck, so I thought why not? I could use a project. It even came with it's very own little pot and clump of dirt. Granted the pot is only 2 inches tall, but it's plenty big enough for the 5 little seeds. I'm supposed to transplant it when it gets 3 inches tall. I wonder how long that will take.

Getting it started was pretty interesting. The dirt came as a little clump about the size of a quarter and about 1/4-inch deep. The directions said to put it in a bowl and add 1/16-cup of water. I added the water and it just sucked it up like a sponge and grew and grew to about 10 times the size it started as. It was crazy! Then I had to transfer the dirt to the pot, add the seeds, and cover them with 1/8-inch of the dirt. I have to say it was kind of fun. Guess we'll see what happens!

Dreaming Of A Happy Day

Think This Will Work?

I figure if I make cards depicting a lot of snow, maybe it won't snow this weekend. One can only hope! I'm trying to use some reverse psychology on Mother Nature.

Fridge Magnet

I made this yesterday using an old CD. I have a ton of old CDs that I have saved from various sources such as the AOL disks that used to come in the mail. I never knew why I was saving them but figured I would come up with something. Yesterday I started playing around with one and came up with this. Paper attaches easily to the front using double-sided tape, and I added two small strips of magnetic tape to the back. This was a lot of fun to do. It's like a mini scrapbook page for your fridge!

Food For Thought

Breakfast
What are you looking most forward to in the next week?

Lunch out with the girls at work. Having lunch with Sheila and her family to celebrate her 40th birthday. Watching CSI...should be a good one. Visitors for Thanksgiving!

Lunch
What would you do if you knew you could not fail?

Actually probably a lot of things. I think fear of failure keeps me from doing a lot of things I would like to do. Even something as simple as scrapbooking. I love it but I just don't do it much anymore because I I feel it has to be perfect. I've been putting off scrapbooking our wedding for over 12 years now because it just won't be perfect enough. Stupid, I know. I just yesterday read a really good article in the current issue of Good Housekeeping called "The Thread Of Life." It was basically about weight loss and how no one is going to live forever so we need to start enjoying the life we have now, no matter the size of our thighs, before time runs out. It's so true and this concept can be applied to many other areas of our lives apart from our weight. Many people given the news that their days are numbered start living the life they have always wanted to live. The article basically explained how everyone's days are numbered, we just don't know the number, so what is stopping us from being fully alive and enjoying every moment.

Dinner
If you could choose to get rid of one animal on earth, what would it be?

Are you kidding me? Sorry...I just can't do that. Okay...so maybe snakes.

Midnight Snack
If your life were a made for TV program, would it be a reality show, documentary, sit-com, cartoon, drama series, or a talk show?

A combination of a sit-com, drama, and talk show. Whatever it would be, it would be the most boring hour on television...I can tell you that much. No one would watch it. Nothing exciting going on here. Paul would say his would be exactly like the movie "The Truman Show." There must be a big director in the sky saying to everyone, "Okay...here comes Paul...you two...stand in the middle of that parking space...you...get out of your car NOW...when he gets in the store remember everyone SLOW DOWN.

Recipe for this Week (instead of your recipe for life - what is it for just this week?)

Live the life you have. Love the body you've got.

Okay, So I Lied

Remember my Food For Thought post from Sunday where I said the thing I was most grateful for at that moment was that I didn't have strep throat. Well, I take that back. I got a call from the immediate care clinic this evening. The rapid strep test was negative, but the culture that they sent out came back positive. They called in a prescription for an antibiotic right away. I've been at work the last couple of days spreading my germs around. The health department was at the school today to give the employees their flu shots, and I decided to not get mine. I usually do, but I wasn't sure if I should this time with being sick. I read online that it should be okay if you don't have a fever. I'm glad now I decided against it.

Anyway, that's my big news for today. I guess I'll change what I'm grateful for is that I did decide to go to the doctor and am now on antibiotics.

I have one more thing for you today. Here is a picture of Abby posing in her new Christmas collar that mom made her. It's hard to get a good angle where her long hair doesn't cover it up.


She's so silly. I was on my way upstairs this past weekend when I told her to come upstairs when she gets a chance to try on her new collar. A few minutes later, here she comes and sits down in front of me. I take her old collar off and put her new one on and then she sat patiently while I adjusted the settings on my camera. She posed for some pictures and then I changed the collars back, saving this one for closer to Christmas, and she promptly sauntered off to go about her business. She's such a good girl.

Winter's Butterfly

I should probably not post this card because with my luck now that I have it will snow. We did get some snow on Friday afternoon, but it didn't stick. That's good enough for me. It's pretty as it's coming down, but I'm starting to really fear driving in it. This was hard to photograph because it's made with Bazzill Basics Bling cardstock...very shiny. Much prettier in real life.


For the layout I used Lauren's Saturday sketch from her blog, My Time...

Stamps are from Hero Arts. I love this set and know I'm going to be using it often this winter. The clear flakes are Snowflake Rain Dot accents from Cloud9Designs.

Food For Thought

Breakfast
What are you most grateful for at this very moment?

That I don't have strep throat. I've had a sore throat since Thursday morning that has progressively gotten worse. I tried the Throat Coat tea and Chloriseptic, both the spray and lozenges, but nothing was working. I took NyQuil and slept most of the day on Saturday and when I woke up this morning, it was still there. It was against my better judgment, but I told Paul he better take me to the immediate care clinic because there have been some illnesses going around some of the families at work, including mono. They tested me for strep, and the rapid test was negative. They told me to take Advil and gave me a prescription for some Rondec DM syrup. I'm just getting ready to take that now. It will probably knock me out. At least I won't have to worry about what it tastes like because I can't taste a darn thing. We stopped for breakfast after my doctor visit and on the way there I chewed a piece of gum. Have you ever had 5 gum? It's pretty intense flavor, but I couldn't taste a thing. I ordered a scrambled egg and toast for breakfast just so I would have something on my stomach when I took the Advil. I even drank my coffee without cream and sugar (gasp!!). The second cup anyway...I automatically put it in the first cup out of habit.

This would be a great diet. They need to invent some sort of pill that numbs your taste buds and sense of smell temporarily. Why eat if you can't taste it? Right now I'm drinking a chocolate shake from McDonald's because it feels good on my throat. Why chocolate? I don't know.

Lunch
Did this week's election results leave you feeling optimistic, pessimistic, or neither?

Optimistic...although the realist in me knows that one man isn't going to turn this country around and point it in the right direction.

Dinner
Name five meals you repeatedly have for dinner over and over.

Spaghetti, goulash, BBQ sandwiches (Manwich) and mac & cheese, baked mostachiolli, pizza. I wouldn't say we have these "over and over" but they're probably what we have most often.

Midnight Snack
If you had a robot to help around the house, what three jobs would you have them do? What are three jobs you would not let them do?

I would let them do anything and everything they were capable of doing, but the top three would be bathrooms, windows, and floors.

Recipe for this Week (instead of your recipe for life - what is it for just this week?)

I want to be the person my dog thinks I am.

I'm Just Not Ready For This

How can Christmas be next month when it seems like it was just last month??

I guess now is as good a time as ever to break out the Christmas stamps. For this card I used some paper that has been in my stash f-o-r-e-v-e-r. See that red paper with the embossed ornaments (I know...it's hard to see the embossing). It has been in my red/pink scrap folder for years getting in my way because it was a full sheet with only one ornament cut out of it. I never used it I guess because it was just too bright red. Good riddance!

God Bless America

Normally I stay as far away from the subject of politics as possible. First off, I don't know enough about it to get into any sort of debate. Secondly, I was taught that that is one of two subjects you stay away from in order to keep the peace (religion, of course, being the other) and I'm all about keeping the peace. No doubt about it, no matter who would have claimed the victory in yesterday's election, history would be made. We have come a long way and this is the beginning of a new era. An era in which maybe we as a nation can come together as one no matter the color of our skin and remember that we are all the same on the inside. That would be a beautiful thing.

My prayers are with our new President Elect in that he can lead us on a path of change that this country so desperately needs.

I think I'll send this card to someone who I know is very happy today.

I Thought It Was Autumn

It sure doesn't feel like it out there! Today's high was in the 70's...beautiful. Of course, I was stuck inside at work all day...didn't even get a chance to peek outside. We did a little bit of shopping after work, and it was even nice then. I don't think it's going to last, though. Friday's forecast is a high in the upper 40's with possible snow. I wish Mother Nature would make up her mind!

I have a few RAKs to send out for my duties on the RAK Welcoming Committee at Splitcoast Stampers, so I made up a few of these cards using the sketch challenge from a couple of weeks ago (#199).

Well, Paul's waiting for me to watch a couple of shows taped on the DVR on our brand new TV we purchased this weekend. He is just beside himself...let me tell you.

Best Blossoms

Here's my card using both Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge sketch and her Be Inspired Challenge inspiration piece. Stamps from Stampin' Up's Best Blossoms set. The patterned paper I've had in my stash forever. I think it came from a little 6x6 pad from Provo Craft, but I'm not positive. I'm REALLY trying to use up some of the paper I have rather than buying more.




I have such a hard time working with circles. Maybe that's 'cause I'm such a square! LOL.
I love this color combo Her inspiration piece comes from the Pottery Barn catalog. Can't go wrong there! Love it!

Food For Thought

Breakfast
What was your favorite costume you ever wore for Halloween? Add photos if you want!

I don't really remember a favorite. I don't remember very many costumes. I remember being a black cat in grade school, having the tail and everything. Sheila and I and our friend Karen dressed as punk rockers one year in high school to hand out candy. When I was 18 or 19 I was a 50s girl with a poodle skirt. Is it sad I don't remember a lot of my childhood costumes. To be honest, I hated trick-or-treating. Going around and asking strangers for candy was not my cup of tea.

Lunch
What are your Halloween traditions? Are you going trick-or-treating or staying home and passing out candy? How much do you get in the Halloween spirit? (three course lunch today!)

Don't have any traditions. Since we don't have any little ones, the answer is no to the trick-or-treating. I don't think we would get away with sending Abby door to door...although I would love to dress her up as a bumble bee. I did buy her a bee costume one year, but it turned out to be way too small. As I mentioned in my previous post, we didn't hand out candy either. We haven't for the last three years. Because of Paul's diabetes, I refuse to bring that much candy into the house and tempt him like that. He tried to talk me into it, but I put my foot down.

As far as getting into the Halloween spirit, the first year that we lived here I really decorated the place up...fake leaves for the porch, stuffed a scarecrow, and all that. I haven't done that since. As a matter of fact, I sold a lot of my Halloween stuff in a garage sale a couple years ago. I kind of wish I wouldn't have. It's just a lot of work.

Dinner
Do you believe in Ghosts???? Why or why not?

Yes. There are just too many personal accounts out there not to. Have I ever seen a ghost? No. Did anyone watch the live episode of Ghost Hunters Halloween night? Grant was walking along and felt someone tug at his jacket. Through the magic of the DVR we kept rewinding it and you could totally see the collar of his jacket go down like someone put there hand on it to pull it down and stop him from going in a certain direction...yet no one was there. That even freaked Paul out, and he isn't one to believe. We love all those shows...Ghost Hunters, Paranormal State, etc. When I was off work recovering from my surgery, I watched this show called Haunted every afternoon and totally scared myself silly.

Midnight Snack
What is your greatest Halloween memory?

Once again, I don't really have one. I remember taking my niece Amber to some haunted houses when she was younger. That was fun. I remember everyone was too scared to go in first, so I had to do it. I also remember going around to different haunted houses with friends in my early 20s. Man, am I a Halloween party pooper or what?

Recipe for this Week (instead of your recipe for life - what is it for just this week?)

Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it's not really there.