Home Embarrassment

So, there are a couple of things around my house that embarrass me.   And, I know you’re probably thinking, “Um…haven’t you been there over a year”?  And, yes, we have.  But for whatever reason I’ve done nothing to correct these items.  Finally, I decided that I was tired (enough of one of them) and needed to do something to fix it.  Up first, this beauty:

And because I love you guys so much, here’s a close up:

No, I didn’t make that.  But, I also didn’t take it down either.  To give you a little proximity on where this beauty sits, it greets you when you ring my doorbell while you’re waiting for me to answer.  Oh, and we don’t reserve this for just the winter, all visitors get to see it year round.  I know it has pine and all things winter in it.  However, not only does it have pine, it also has Fall leaves, you know so that it doesn’t have to just be used during the winter.  But I didn’t get rid of it any season. 

I think I was able to ignore it because we usually come in and out through the garage, so I didn’t really have to see it.  But finally I’d had enough.  The problem was that I wasn’t entirely sure what to replace it with.  Each time I went out, I’d search for something, anything to take its place, but I was never inspired.  I was limiting my thinking  to things that could fit in the basket rather than just getting rid of the whole thing entirely.  But, then I was at Target.  I’d gone for something specific though I’m not really sure what it was because I left with curtains and some other items, none of which I went in to get.  One of the other items was a replacement for the basket.  I stumbled on it in the candle section and I don’t think it’s necessarily for outdoor use, but hopefully that won’t be a problem. 

And, I know you’re thinking just stop rambling.  Ok, ok.  I got these:

I didn’t put a votive in it yet, mostly because I don’t think I’ll light one unless we’re having people over.  But, I’m happy with how they turned out.  I think they’re cute and hopefully they’ll be able to survive outside.   So what do you think?  Do you have any other suggestions for what I should put out there?

Happy New Year

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I know I’m so behind on this post, but I wanted to wish you all a happy new year!  Thanks for reading along as I ramble about the random things in our life.  I didn’t really get on the new year’s resolution train, but the one thing I do want to be sure I do this year is take time off from work.  I’m at the point now that my vacation time is lost because I have so much of it that haven’t used.  So, time to fix that. 

Also, 2011 is going to be a very good year.  We have a lot of exciting things going on.  We will welcome a new baby nephew, attend a couple of family weddings, turn 30 (for me), take some vacations, continue to work on our house, and talk about starting a family.   And, if it were up to me we’d also talk about getting a new pet, but Sean vetoed that idea. 

What are you excited about for 2011?

Love for Molly and Belle

I’ve talked about Molly and Belle (my doggies) several times before, but when I saw that Trupanion was doing a Pawliday blog contest, I knew that I needed to tell you a little more about them.   

We got Molly first. 

She was 3 months old when I adopted her from the shelter.  She had a fever, was underweight and had kennel cough.  When I took her to the vet, she told me that sometimes shelter dogs just don’t make it.  Although I’d had her for just 2 days, my heart broke.  I knew that my shelter dog was going to make it.  Well, fast forward 1 week and she was happy, playful and destructive, just like any new puppy. 

After several happy years with just Molly, we decided that she needed a playmate and we were yearning for a new dog too.  We were so glad that we were able to help a shelter dog the first time; we couldn’t imagine getting a dog any other way.  So once again we headed to the shelter for our next fury friend.  I found Belle at a shelter about an hour away. 

She was previously adopted.  Twice.  And returned.  Twice.  Since she was just a small puppy when she was first adopted, and the previous owners thought she got “too big” as she matured into an adult and didn’t want her anymore.  The shelter made me promise that we would just give her a happy life and not return her.  We intended to do just that. 

Phew!  Now that we got the background out of the way, time to get to the point of why my dogs’ love is the best holiday gift…

Here’s the thing, dogs love you unconditionally.  I know we all already know that, but its worth repeating.  When I come home from a long, stressful day, nothing cheers me up more than seeing my two dogs excitedly greet me at the door. But more than that, here are all the things I love about my 2 pooches:

• That when my nieces wake up in the middle of the night with bad dreams, Molly will nudge me awake to go check on them.  And, even though it’s 3 in the morning, she’ll wake up and sit with me while I get them back to sleep.  I imagine that when we have our own kids and I’m up with late night feedings, Molly will always be right by my side even if Sean is snoring. 
• When Belle cuddles with me like she’s a baby.  She lies on her back, closes her eyes and sits with you for as long as you’ll let her. 
• That both Molly and Belle look at me to see if they really have to do whatever command Sean is asking them to do.  You know, like sit, stay, etc.  I’ll nod behind him to tell them that yes, they do in fact have to listen. 🙂
• That when I’m feeling depressed and ugly my dogs give me kisses and always think I look my best.
• When they encourage me to exercise when all I want to do is cuddle up on the couch with some cheese and wine.  They wag their tails and dance around me until I grab their leashes and head out for a walk.
• When they stare at other dogs on the tv and cock their heads to the side as if they’re confused about what the dog is doing in that box.
• That they can learn any trick I’m willing to teach them.  My favorite is when Molly shows me her tummy.  I think it’s her favorite too.

So, those are a few of the reasons why my dogs are the best gift I could ever receive.  I can’t imagine my life without them.  I miss them when I’m out-of-town, and look forward to seeing their happy faces when I return.

Christmas Love

Wow, it was a GREAT Christmas!  I got some really nice things, and I feel very lucky.  I also got to spend the holiday with family.  Sean and I went to Dallas to spend the weekend with my family and I gorged myself on more tamales and queso than I want to admit.  It’s our Christmas eve tradition and I look forward to it every year.  I only wish that I brought some of them home with us.  So, curious about what I got?  Well…I got this great necklace from Stone and Honey:

A Snuggie from my brother. 🙂  Which, I could not wait to use as soon as I got back to Austin.  I only wish that my dogs had one too.  And, a visa gift card from my brother.  Always appreciated. 

A  French food book.  Mmmmm

A brand new chair for the living room!

And….well….um…I got a camera too. 🙂  We returned the necklace, and got this instead.

I also got some great stocking stuffers too.  Overall, it was a really great Christmas.  I hope everyone else got what they wanted too.  What was your favorite gift this year?

Snowmen

I live in Texas and unfortunately we don’t get much in the way of winter weather.  To remedy that and get my snowman fix, I decided to make snowmen cakepops.  I’ve talked about cakepops before and went step by step, so this time I’m just going to get to the good stuff.

I rolled the cake and frosting mixture into little snowmen:

I tried to make some trees too, but those didn’t turn out so good:

Do you see the trees?  Pretty crappy. 

Then I put them in the freezer to harden up while I ran some errands.  When I came back they were ready to go!  I dipped them in the chocolate and decorated them with the sprinkles I had.  I don’t have a picture of the process because cakepops can be really messy to make and I was the only one home, so I’m sorry.  But here they are all decorated and looking pretty:

And a close up:

My camera was having a hard time focusing on the cakepops, it kept wanting to pick up the background, so this is the best of the bunch. 

Anyway, I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!!

The Truth About Gifts

So I feel like I’ve been talking a lot about presents lately, and I’m sorry.  But, it’s almost Christmas, so this will soon be over.  Anyway, I’m really impatient when it comes to most things.  This is a trait that’s not so endearing, and when it comes to giving gifts I’m impatient about that too.  Meaning that if I buy someone a gift and I see them before Christmas, I’m probably going to make them open it.  I get so excited about seeing them open something I hope they’ll like that I just can’t wait.   And, the same is true if they have a gift for me before Christmas and I know about it.  I REALLY want to open it.   So basically this is my long way of saying that Sean and I already exchanged presents because I couldn’t wait–both to give and receive. 

He was super excited about his guitar.  He immediately started playing it, and I think I’ve heard it everyday since.  I’m not complaining either.  I love to see him enjoying what I got him.  So then it was time for me to open mine.  I had no idea what it was. 

Well, I rip open the package and pull out a little necklace.  Oh, and we had a budget for presents this year, and I knew he’d spent close to the maximum of our budget for this necklace.  Now, here’s a backstory…I had this little dainty gold heart necklace that I loved.  I wore it almost everyday and I recently lost it.  I’ve been going on and on about this necklace.  I knew this was Sean’s way of replacing it.  He even wrote a little note to say how he hoped this heart necklace would be my new favorite.   It was so sweet. 

But, I knew it wasn’t going to be my favorite.  And, in a span of about 3 seconds I either had to feign joy over my new necklace, or tell him the truth and risk hurting his feelings.   I knew that he was trying SO hard to pick out something I liked, but I didn’t like it.  I also knew that he’d spent a decent amount of money.  Ugh.  I decided to be honest and tell him that although it was pretty, it wasn’t really my style.  I felt awful about it.  He seemed upset at first, but then he told me that he understood and would prefer for me to have something that I like.  Phew! 

Although I felt really bad telling him I didn’t like what he picked out, I was so glad that I was honest.  What do you do when someone gives you a gift that isn’t your ideal?  Are you honest, or do you act like you love it?

Animal in my Attic

I think we have an animal living in our attic.  And, I have no idea what kind it is or how long it’s been there.  See, normally things in our house are a little loud.  Not because we’re party animals or anything, but the tv is usually on, or Sean is playing his guitar, or the dogs are playing, so there’s always some sort of noise. 

Well, last week I was working from home because I had a big project and I knew if I went into the office I would be distracted by my co-workers or other assignments, so I needed to sequester.   While I was here, there was absolutely no noise except me typing.  That is no noise except the animal!  All of a sudden I heard this scurrying above me.  I noticed that it moved more whenever the heater came on.  Probably because it was actually cold outside and the animal was trying to get up close to the nice warm heater.  Jerk.   

In my head I started thinking about all the things it could be.  Initially my mind went to the worst things like rats and opossums.  Then I started thinking maybe it’s just a squirrel.  We do have vents on top of our house to let the summer heat out, so maybe while leaping between trees, they decided to come on in and warm up.  But even a squirrel in your attic is bad.  I mean, those little jerks can poop and tear up wires.  I have no idea what’s in my attic, but I doubt that I want squirrels or rats screwing with it. 

So, I called Sean and told him about it.  I know he hates when I do that since there is absolutely nothing he can do from his office, but still, I thought he should know about it.  He said he’d handle it when he got home.   I knew that was a lie because he would be just as scared as me to go up in the attic to confront the unknown animal.  But for some reason it made me feel better anyway. 

Well, it has now been about a week.  No one has gone up in the attic to check out the situation, but I haven’t heard anything lately.  Um…probably because things are back to normal i.e. loud, so I can’t hear it.   But I’m not sure what to do.  I don’t want set up traps and kill the little guy, but I don’t want him here either.  A co-worker told me about an audible solution for getting rid of critters, but the sound it makes can be heard by humans too, and I imagine that it would drive us and our dogs crazy.  I’m not really sure what my options are. 

Any suggestions?  Have you ever had an animal living in your attic?

Gifts for the Office

I always struggle with what to get people at work.  I don’t want to spend a ton of money, but I still want to get them something cute.  And, I like to get everyone the same thing, but since there are guys and girls in my office, sometimes it’s hard to figure out a gift that everyone will like.  

Well, this year I decided to get them some mugs and mint hot chocolate.  But, I tried to get a little creative with the packaging of the hot chocolate.  I started with some clear ornaments that I washed out:

Then, dry thoroughly.  Afterwards, I started to fill them with the hot chocolate powder.  You can make your own flavored hot chocolate.  But I took the easy way out and bought some mint hot chocolate from Target.  Also, I had to improvise because I don’t have a funnel, so I rolled up some paper:

Then, I broke a piece of a mint chocolate candy cane and stuck it inside. 

I also made a cute little tag to tie on the gifts:

And, for easy transport, I stuck them inside the mug:

Ta da!  What do you get for the people at your work?

More Tights

Work continues to kick my ass, but I wanted to pop in and tell you more about tights.  Today it was about 77 degrees outside, meanwhile the rest of the country is being pounded with snow and winter blasts.  I just saw on that the news that we will be getting a “cold front” tomorrow in Austin, and by that they mean that it will be about 50 for the low.   So, not really a cold front.  However, I pretend like it’s winter and put on tights anyway.  My latest obsession is these:

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I only wish that the shipping wasn’t almost as much as the tights are themselves.  Maybe I can find something comparable.  Any suggestions on where to look?

Ornaments

As the packages of things I’ve ordered online start to stream in, I’m reminded that Christmas is just around the corner.  However, unlike last year, this year we have a tree and other decorations that also keep me in the holiday spirit.  We avoided the stores the weekend after Thanksgiving, but the one store we did go into was Target because we knew that we needed a tree.  Since it’s our first year having a tree, we had to start from scratch except for a few ornaments Sean’s mom gave us over the years, and some ornaments I received from co-workers.  This meant that we could pick any color scheme we wanted.   We decided on red and gold because it’s timeless and I figured I wouldn’t get tired of it in a few years and want to start all over. 

We bought several different varieties of red and gold and hurried home to set up our tree.  We went the cheater way with the lights already on the tree, and it made things so easy.  But, I do really miss the pine smell of real trees.  Anyway, we got to work and ended up with this:

So not the best picture, but I swear it’s cute!  And, we still need a tree skirt, but for our first tree, I think it looks pretty good.  Here’s a close up of some of my favorite ornaments:

Remember those guys from Thanksgiving?

And, an ornament to represent my bee moniker, Mrs. Fro Yo:

And, my all time favorite, one that I MADE!  It was my first experience with sewing and ornament making, and I think it turned out pretty cute.  Now I want to make tons more!

Here’s how he looked after I cut him out and before I started sewing:

And then finished:

Granted he looks a little dog-like, but I still think he’s a really cute elephant. 🙂 

If you want to make your very own ornament from these templates, download them from Fellow Creatives:

Aren’t they so cute?  I never could have made mine without the template!