Fashionista

I found the cutest shirt at Sears the other day. It just screams "Christmas In Florida" to me. So I got it to wear at the Craft Show this weekend. And of course, I had to have my nails done to match yesterday! So here's what I'll be wearing tomorrow.

Edited to add: There are reindeer on my pinky fingers because they are too small for the snowmen!

We are elves!

John and I, as elves:

ElfYourself™ : Brought to you by OfficeMax®

And we really dance like this in real life too!

New Favorites

I've discovered a couple of new favorites recently and wanted to share.

First is Michelob Ultra Raspberry Pomegranate beer. Or as my sister Kathy called it Thanksgiving day, "near beer!" I'm not real adventurous when it comes to beer. Gimme Michelob Light and I'm good to go. I would never have even tried this one had John not popped the top and brought it to me and said, "Don't look, just taste." It was love at first taste! So much so, that the next day when I went to the grocery store, a 6 pack jumped off the beer shelf and right into my cart! Hate it when that happens! My friend Helen told me the lime flavor beer that Michelob is making is equally good, so I must try it as well for scientific purposes only! Tomorrow when I go grocery shopping, I will be picking up a 6 pack of it and post results next week.

And I guess, should you imbibe a bit too much and need some coffee, CoffeeMate has a Limited Edition creamer that is just wonderful. It's Pumpkin Spice. Tastes like you are having a slice o' pumpkin pie with your morning, or noon, or evening coffee. I had become hooked on Starbuck's Pumpkin Spice Latte's and at $5.00 a pop, I can do this at home for waaay less and it tastes just as good. I'll be stocking up on this before the end of the year!

I had pretty much quit drinking coffee since I quit smoking. Drinking alcohol and not smoking didn't bother me near as much as coffee with no cigarette. My coffee didn't taste the same! But I'm getting back to where I can have coffee and not miss the cigarettes quite as bad. 'Bout time! Feb 08 will be 2 years since I've quit. And John is now 3 weeks smoke free! He is doing the Patch because our insurance rate was gonna go up $600 next year if he were still smoking. He can get the Patch free thru work, so he's doing really good.Guess they figure it's cheaper in the long run to get them off the cigarettes than to have to pay for cancer treatments later down the line. I'm sooo proud of him!

It's beginning...

To look a lot like Christmas!

I found a tree last week, a nice 4 footer. Two strands of lights, some ornaments and we are good to go. I just finished decorating it, wrapping the gifts and putting my Nativity out.

My Nativity belonged to my paternal Grandmother. Mom glazed the pieces when we were doing ceramics back in the 80's and dad made the creche' out of balsa wood and stained it. When Nana Sara passed away, I got her set.

The stocking is one that Jan had made for me a few years ago out of one of Granny's old quilts that she got when Granny passed away. The quilt was tattered and Jan took it to a friend of hers who made pillows and stockings out of what was salvageable. It hangs on the entertainment center year-round.

I love being surrounded by old family things. It keeps them close at heart and when I look at the things, I am reminded of them.

Wild Life

While we have them year-round, in the fall and winter is when we see "our" Sand Hill Cranes the most. They are a nesting pair who know where all of the feeders are in the neighborhood and when their regular food source is diminished, they will come and eat at the feeders multiple times a day. A few years ago, the female got some fishing line twisted around her legs. It took almost a month for us to be able to catch her and cut the line from around her legs. She walked with a limp for a couple of years, but is all better now. She seems to remember that we are the ones who helped her and that's why I was able to get so close to them to take the picture.

PSA

Today's PSA:

If you have a pre-lit Christmas tree that is over 3 years old, it is now recommended that you replace your tree. Testing has been done and apparently the wires in the pre-lit trees are prone to twisting and crimping which can be a fire hazard. I saw this report on my local news last week.

Since ours is pre-lit and 5+ years old, I'm off to find a new tree. A non-pre-lit tree that is hopefully 4 ft tall. I'm over big trees. Want one that will fit on a small tabletop. Much easier to put up, take down and store.

Finished calendars

Here's the finished calendars for the Craft Show next weekend. I decided that the front cover looked a little too plain. Some of them have stamped and cut out images on them. Others have fabric or paper flowers.

In the blink of an eye...

It's over! Plates are filled to overflowing. All you hear is the sound of forks and knives scraping on the plate. The occasional, "Ummm, this is sooo good!" Otherwise, silence. Chewing. Then everyone pushes back from the table, patting their overflowing bellies. Digesting for a while, then looking for a slice or four of pie! Family, friends, together. Isn't that what it's all about?

Pic 1, all of the food. Pic 2, at the table, eating. Pic 3, Grampa Jack gets a new "do" from the granddaughters! Pic 4, John M does a bit of sweeping up. Jan has him well trained! Pic 4, the girls peruse the Black Friday sales flyers.

Just in case...

things get too crazy in the next couple of days, I want to take a minute to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. I just took a Key Lime Pie out of the oven and put the Pumpkin Pie in to bake. The fresh asparagus has been steamed and is marinating in it's soy sauce and lemon juice bath. Tomorrow morning I will make the corn pudding and Tastefully Simple Beer Bread and then we'll be off to my youngest sister's for our Thanksgiving feast. If you are traveling, safe travels to you and yours. Happy eating and planning for the Power Shopping first thing Friday morning!

I'm thankful you are all in my life.

Feelin' Fallish...

On mah fingers!! Went for my nail app't yesterday and since we're going to my sister's house for Thanksgiving and Miss Joy loves her some Aunt Sue fingernails, I decided I had to do something special for her! My two ring fingers have fall colored leaves on them. All of the nails are a combination of green, orange, red and yellow. They really are pretty in person!

I also got my hair highlighted. I am cheap and will only have it done 3x a year. Because I wear my hair so short, after about 8 weeks, the highlights have grown out. And I'm not spending the $ to highlight it every 8 weeks. I pushed my normal 4 month highlights back to 5 months so I would look 1/2 way decent for the holidays.

We had a bit of coldish weather the last couple of days. My across the street neighbors house had frost on their roof when I went out to get the paper this morning. It's probably in the low 30's here now. But it's supposed to be back up near 80 for a high on Sunday! That's the beauty of Florida. The cold never lasts more than a couple of days.

Happy Birthday...

To my hard working, loving, sexy husband.

More Craft Show stuff

Thought I'd share some more of my Craft Show stuff I've been working on. This is a salt shaker that has puff balls, bells, glitter and other "Christmassy" stuff in it. There is a tag attached at the top that says,

"At a time when we should feel the most blessed,

The holidays can make us feel quite stressed.

When you feel the "crabbies" coming near,

Sprinkle yourself with Christmas Cheer!

(Sprinkle on others as needed)"

And then there's my latest lifted idea. My friend Debbie in IL, (Hi Deb ! You need to quit lurking and reply!!) told me she was going to make some coaster calendars and I stole her idea! The calendars arrived today and since I've got almost all the coasters covered that I need for this project, I had to do one to see how they looked. I may end up stamping an image on the front, but I'll see how much time I have left. I made them in a "book" form thinking you could put it on your desk at work or in your workspace at home.

It's hard to believe the Craft Show is just over 3 weekends away. Lots of stuff to get finished up and get prices decided on and signs made for that. I know I'll be working right up to the 11th hour getting stuff done.

he won!

Lookie what John came home with yesterday! It's a 35 GB, 7500 song, music and video I-Pod!

They had a meeting after work yesterday and had a bunch of prizes to give away. Restaurant GC's, movie passes, gas cards, stuff like that. The I-Pod was the Grand Prize. And John won. Pretty cool...except we'll never use it. There were 3 of the other guys who really wanted it, so we looked it up and it's about a $250-300 I-Pod. John's gonna see which of the three were really serious about wanting it, and we'll sell it to them. He also won four $20.00 gc's to Beef O'Bradys. Now those we'll use! LOVE us some Beef's wings!!

Still working on coaster hangings. I tend to get sidetracked very easily with them! I'm really over them. Can't wait for it to just. be. over! I did order some pocket size calendars that should be here before the end of the week. I plan to take 2 of the coasters and make them like a book, with a place on one side for a small wallet size picture and the calendar on the other. Thought they would make a nice gift for someone's desk. I can also work on them AT the craft show since they will be small. That will keep me busy during the slow times.

Wild weekend (not!)

OK, I swore I was NOT gonna be one of those bloggers who has a blog and posts once every six months whether they need to or not.But it was a pretty boring weekend here!

Saturday, John did borrow our friend Charlie's pressure washer and while he made his second of three trips to Home Depot to get the right J Channel to fix the siding that had pulled loose on the side of the house, I started pressure washing the driveway. (How was that for a run-on sentence!) I got about 1/2 of the driveway done while he was going/coming from Home Depot and fixing the siding, then he took over and I took care of some inside chores. He didn't get finished before darkness took over, so Sunday morning, I got out and finished the driveway and then sprayed off the rocks and waterfall at the pond. I had forgotten how pretty the rocks actually are! By then it was almost time for football, so we put the stuff away and got showers. We will keep the pressure washer for a while since the shed didn't get done. I don't have the upper body strength to do it, so that's John's baby all the way! And since yesterday was John's last day of vacation, he told me the only thing he was doing was changing TV channels. So that's what he did!

He went back to work today, so now I have to concentrate on getting the coasters completed for the Craft show Penny and I are doing on Dec 1 and 2. It's one of the largest Craft shows in the Tampa area and I'm really excited to be a part of it. I've been procrastinating on getting the coasters done all summer long, and now we're down to the wire so I have to get them done. I have money invested in the coasters and the schmutz to go on them, so I hope to get all of that back, plus some extra for my time. I've been promising various people pictures of the coasters, so I'm gonna show you one style. I'm doing "Christmas/Hannukah" themed hangings. The Hannukah ones all have Shalom on them and the Christmas ones have Peace, Noel, Joy, etc. This one is my favorite! It says Jingle and I hung bells from the bottom coaster for "Jingle Bells!" Pretty original, if I do say so myself!!

We finally have a touch of fall in the air. It's been in the upper 70's for highs and in the 60's for lows. Feels so nice to be able to turn the a/c off and open up the house. My friend Chris (Hey Chris!) up Chicago way was telling me that they may get snow sometime this week. I'm running around in shorts, and they may be getting snow!

***Edited to add***

The Craft show is the Lutz-Land O' Lakes Women's Club Arts and Crafts Show. Saturday Dec 1-10 AM to 5 PM

Sunday Dec 2- 10 AM to 4 PM

Located at the BMX Bike Park 1/4 mile South of Van Dyke Rd on the West side of Dale Mabry Hwy.

And because I know someone will ask...

Here's a close-up of the Pilgrim boy and Indian girl!

Put a period at the end!

The yard is DONE! Course not before we had to make one final run to Home Depot for more landscape timbers! And a run to the Sawmill for 8 cubic yards of mulch to put in the beds. But the beds look so much better and as we've already found, going up two landscape timbers high allows us to put extra mulch in the beds and makes them so much easier to keep clean. The first pic is the big bed on the south side of the house. It's the one that has the pond in it. Second is the front bed with the oak and maple tree. Third is the front of the house, complete with my little Pilgrim boy and Indian girl Thanksgiving decoration I painted a few years ago. Fourth is the 2 smaller beds on the north side of the house. They have the Japanese Magnolia tree and the banana trees in them. And last is a close up of the pond. It doesn't look like the house is gonna get painted. Once again, we ran out of week! I want to give John a couple of days to do nothing, so we are officially done! Put a period at the end.