A Partridge in a Pear Tree

Saturday night E spent the night with my parents.  She loves going there.  She would carry her bag to the car is she could and she cries if my parents visit here and leave without her.  These are they kind of grandparents I had.  My grandparents could have given lessons on how to be a grandparent.  My parents must have been taking notes.  Anyway, M and I went to dinner at Houlihan's that night since it had recently opened in the area.  I had heard good things, and the food was good, but the service was TERRIBLE!  It was worse than terrible.  We arrived at 5:20 and didn't leave until after 7 and only waited briefly to be seated!  We didn't have any drinks, so I would think they would be trying to get us to leave faster since our bill wouldn't be much.  M texted for a free dessert, we ordered apple pie with ice cream.  When it arrived, 20 mins later, the ice cream was melted, so it had sat out, waiting to be delivered that long.  Wow.  Won't go back there.  

After we finally got out of there, I wanted to walk around the corner to Pottery Barn.  Last year I had tried to order this:  

The Partridge in a Pear Tree Salt and Pepper Shakers.  Last year they sold out.  M ordered them for me for my birthday last month, they were backordered until Dec. 8th.  Dec. 8th comes and goes and no shipment.  They actually had these in our store last weekend!  M called from the store and canceled the online order, plus he had a 20% off coupon for the day so we ended up saving $17!  Kinda makes up for the crappy service at Houlihan's.  

A visit with Santa

I love the Christmas season.  I love the lights, the coziness and strangely this year, I've really taken to glitter.  I'm certain to be cleaning up glitter from projects, ribbon and decorations until June. 

We went to the mall the week after Thanksgiving for our visit with Santa.  My friend had taken his kids earlier that day and advised us to go early.  I already had E's outfit ready to go, so we went that night after we voted in the run-off election.  My two main questions for my friend were:  Is the set nice, or is it some cardboard background?  And the most important question:  Is Santa's beard real?  I don't even bother with the fake beard Santas. 

Ah Glitter.  I got the idea from Pinterest, which links to this blog.  Plus, my friend Tiffany had done them at her craft day that I was unable to attend, but she was kind enough to bring me the supplies.  This was a canvas that I had from her last craft day that I hadn't done anything with and I have a total obsession with moose.  I also have a deer head that Tiffany brought me similar to the one on the Crazy Wonderful Blog. 

This is our mantle for the holidays this year.  Fresh greenery, pinecones, green ornaments and Al.  I tried a green Banana Republic scarf on Al, but it was just too short. 

I almost took all the ornaments off the tree last week to add more stuff.  It just seemed uninteresting to me.  M didn't want me to put on the regular berry garland, in case E put it in her mouth, and I forgot about the grapevines I had saved to wrap around it.  All the ornaments are shatterproof and I don't have out any of my special ornaments that I have made and collected over the years.  It will be quite a surprise when I get them out (hopefully next year) since I haven't seen them in so long.   After I wrapped some gifts, the tree seemed to look a little better, so I haven't changed anything....yet. 

Kansas City Southern Christmas Train in Noel, MO.  Dec. 8th, 2012. 

 So, it's been a while.  Many things have changed around our house.  Matt wanted to get a new sofa, with a sleeper, since I turned the guest room into a craft room.  Of course, a new sofa means re-decorating the living room, which means repainting the dining room and kitchen.  We went from tan to gray and LOVE it! More on that later.  Here is my latest project:  Elle's growth chart.  I didn't want something really childish-looking so I found this on Pinterest and since my dad has a cabinet shop he was nice enough to cut a board that fit this spot between the dining and living room. 

 

My board was 4" x 6'.  I purchased some stencils at Hobby Lobby, plus a black paint pen.  I started measuring the board at 6", so it hangs 6" off the floor to avoid the base trim. In pencil first,  I marked off each inch with a tape measure and added lines all the way across the board for each even foot.  The inch tick marks are about 1/2" and I used a small lettering triangle I had from college drafting/interior design classes to get the marks straight.  Then, I just traced over the pencil lines with a paint pen.  I stained the board and lightly sanded it once the stain was dry to age it a little.  I added a sawtooth hanger on the back and measure where it was to be hung on the wall.  Pretty simple. 

 

After the measurement.  She's 34" at almost 22 months.  

 I finally finished the apron I started at a friend's craft day back in November.  Matt's mom was the lucky recipient of this one for Mother's Day.  

Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution...

..but a metal recycling facility behind your house certainly is. I was looking for some ways to deaden the metal crunching sound in our bedrooms so Elle and I can get our afternoon naps. On Pinterest, I saw that someone had covered foam insulation board with fabric to hang on their walls, so we decided to have some cut to fit our bedroom windows and cover them with fabric. Elle and I went to Home Depot last week to price the boards, we would need 3, and they came in 4' x 8' sheets. Since I couldn't fit them in the car that day, I mentioned it while at my parents that weekend, luckily, Dad had some extra when he insulated the shop several years ago...$50 savings...SCORE! I think I ended up spending about $85 on fabric for the 3, but got home decor fabric for the master, and that's more expensive, but much thicker than regular broadcloth. I have Elle's room done, it turned out pretty cute too, with the matching paisley fabric I found at Hobby Lobby. It helps with the noise and I like it, it's a WIN! Next, to get the master bedroom done.

Shadow box of Elle's newborn pj's, NASA hat from Aunt B and handmade shoes from Tiffany. They look so cute in there!

Here's Elle's Tutu table that mom and I made last fall. I still love the birds I painted, but loathe the look of this chair. It will be in my next garage sale.

Give Me Back My Children!

What I'm about to say is probably one of my most embarrassing things. I am deeply saddened to tell you that I REALLY REALLY miss All My Children. It's like a part of me is missing...people I have "known" for 15 years are no longer in my life. I've tried watching other soap operas, but just can't get into them.

I was chatting online with friend tonight and she reminded me that we used to have All My Children updates when we worked together. I would either Tivo the daily episode or read what happened online and we would get caught up on the goings-on in Pine Valley.

I wish the show had ended better. I understand that the plan was for the show to move online, but that got the ax in November. I want to know who the other person that David was keeping alive. Babe? And I'm dying to know who JR shot, a good idea, when in Dallas the question was "Who shot JR?" But I need some answers. I think Agnes Nixon should write an epilogue to be published online to give the fans the finale they want...and the crazy ones like me, the finale they need.

Kill Your TV

I remember seeing this hippies with "Kill Your TV" bumber stickers and wondering why someone would possibly do that. After realizing that we were paying $80/month for basic U-Verse or cable equivilant with only mediocre programming, we decided to just shut it off and go to Netflix streaming, Hulu, plus we bought a lifetime subscription to PlayOn, which is pretty nice. We could affford cable, but there wasn't much on anymore, HGTV become basically House Hunters (boo) and we just decided it wasn't worth it. It was worth dropping the bill by $70/month....80 cost-10 for Netflix. That's just more in savings and I like seeing that grow!

In the past month, I have finished a book I started last spring Bring Up Girls by James Dobson, read I Love You, Ronnie by Nancy Reagan, and am nearly halfway through Ted, White and Blue by Ted Nugent. I've learned that you need to take Ted in small doses, if not, you could become just like him. I also squeezed in You're Broke Because You Want To Be, by Larry Winget late last week. Larry's awesome! Everyone should read Larry's books. And I'm also still working my way through my camera for dummies book.

Plus, I get a lot more done around the house. I've mopped the kitchen floor twice this week.

So, I'm glad we killed the tv. RIP U-verse, it was nice knowing you.

New Year, New You...unless you're southern.

These are the January issues of magazines that my mom and I get. I love magazines. I like the paper format, I'm not sure I would ever be able to enjoy a magazine as much on the B&N Nook or a Kindle. It's just not the same. This month, as we begin a new year, and the table is wiped clean, all of these covers promote a better you, either by getting in better shape, losing weight, being organized or breaking bad habits...except Southern Living. Their big article was 50 Southern Comfort Foods. They should have saved that until the February edition after some people have failed miserably at their diet attempt. So, if none of the betterment issues inspire you, just take some advice from Paula Dean herself and put some butter on it.

My resolution was to be more organized, which I am doing pretty well with, except for the two sweet little hands like to like to help. My other one is to have some killer abs by the summer. Hello, Jillian Michaels, I'm sure we'll have a love/hate relationship. Why not P90X? I'm just not that dedicated.

The best time to be treated in the ER.

According to the sign on the interstate, Friday night, you could be treated in the ER at Northwest in Bentonville faster than you could get a pizza. We tried ordering a pizza from Bariola's...they hung up on us...twice. We tried Domino's in Lowell, it would take 40 minutes. I decided I wasn't going to wait 40 minutes for a Domino's pizza so Matt called them back to cancel and they couldn't find our order. Probably for the best anyway, if I had shown up and they couldn't find our pizza I may have gone "Julia Sugarbaker" on someone. The good news is this Razorbacks won the Cotton Bowl that night.

We don't understand the facination so many people have with sports. In our house, we watch things like the History Channel, and listen to PodCasts from Stuff You Should Know (I really like Josh and Chuck) How did I know I was going to marry Matt? He had no interest in sports. That was it for me, we could have gone to the courhouse that very day.

We were watching the movie Real Genius the other day. Val Kilmer has a line "When you're smart, people need you." There will not be another Steve Jobs or Albert Einstein. There will always be another quarterback on the bench waiting to take your spot.

I can hear people now, they are saying "but sports teach teamwork." You know what else teaches teamwork? Being on a team at MIT and producing a vacuuming robot. And when the game is over, you have a vacuuming robot. That's what I call teamwork.

Happy RamaHanuKwanzmas.

New Year Weim
The Godfather (cue the music)

Too much New Year.

One of the most perfect gifts ever.

Our new addition. When we do gifts in our house, we go big.

It's not a chair?

Learning to pop bubble wrap with Aunt Jen. Canine assistance required.

Pottery Barn chair. Purchased from Amazon at nearly half price. I tried ordering 3 things for gifts from Pottery Barn this year and NONE of them were available. Supply FAIL.

Bah, hum bug.