Arrghhhhh!!!! December 22, 2008

I hate my phone or computer or AVG or whatever the hell it is that is giving me all this trouble. I posted a while back that my internet was malfunctionioning, but because it was, the post didn’t go through so I’m telling you all now.

I hate forwards. Hate em. Hate em HATE em. Will read them occasionally, but the ones that want you to send them on to ‘x’ number of people for ‘y’ reason and/or else ‘z’ thing will happen/come true/ you’re a bad person are the ones that really Re-he- HEALLY piss me off. Also ones with tons of pictures on my slow internet connection. The angel ones, the friend ones, the gooey ooey gushy ones. I like funny ones and jokes. I don’t like the guilt trips.

I’m on this rant because I got about a ton of them from a person who will go unnamed and they dragged down my email and really made me mad because with my internet already not functioning properly the last thing I wanted was to go through a bajillion emails from someone because there might be something they actually wrote instead of just crap. Other than that I was in a wonderful mood, but I could care less about these stinking things and I am about to block said person so I don’t have to get the things any more from her.

In other news, I am all set for the big day. We have one or two gifts left to get, but they aren’t have to haves, they are would like to haves because some of the kids got less than others. The tree is decorated and I’m done with my have to crafts. I am ecstatic and feeling like a kid wanting to shake my presents to see if I can figure out what they are. I remember the days when wrapping paper was thinner and I could sometimes manipulate it around till I could read sections of gift packaging. I know I was a terrible kid, but I never found out anything that gave the gifts away.

Here’s hoping your Holidays ie Christmas and Hannukah and New Year’s are wonderful. Thats right I’m saying Merry Christmas here. I am also saying Happy Hannukah because my best friend growing up was Jewish.

Happy Holidays December 1, 2008

Ahhh at last some down time. I’ve been so busy the last couple of weeks I hardly remember how to sit here quietly on the couch with my trusty laptop. Thanksgiving? It went as smooth as glass. I couldn’t believe how well everything came together. My brain had my body convinced things weren’t going to go well and I was stressed sick for three days before. Fortunately this meant that any overindulgence on my part on the big day was practically mandatory- if you can’t eat for three days the least you should be allowed is to totally pig out on a holiday.

The turkeys were perfect, the ham divine, the stuffing crisp and the cranberries tart. The vat of mashed potatoes was just enough for a little bit of leftovers and there was just enough green bean casserole to make a nice snack for me on Black Friday when I stayed home not shopping with the crazies. (Seriously- a Wal Mart employee was killed!)

All the family got along and only the ones I wanted to see were here. My dad and my step-brother’s girlfriend duked it out on Wii Boxing, making the rest of us laugh our butts off.

Friday I got to spend time with my youngest nephew and he absolutely stole my heart. I wish he and his parents lived closer.

Hows that for an adorable ball of roundness? I wanted to snuggle with him all day but alas he and my brother and sister in law headed home Saturday evening but just as they were leaving it started snowing. YaY!!!

Before the snow tho, we had J14’s birthday to attend to. I took her to see Twilight since I had already gotten her hooked on the books (Karen, she’s hooked on Harry Potter too and just as bummed that its been postponed). It was a nice day out and when we got home, J11, J7 and I decorated a cake for her.

Sunday I got up bright and early and took lots of pictures of the snow. Since its Toi just had a birthday, I thought I’d share a couple for her.

My favorite Cujo dogs playing in the snow- hows that for an action shot?

My Pugsley experiencing “snow” for the first time…  Hey Pugs, you got a little somethin on your nose

Snow is like nature’s Martha Stewart- It makes all kinds of crap look pretty.

A beautiful card from Dana

And finally, our dog, Missy’s, comentary on our new president elect. I think it pretty much speaks for itself.

Crafty spasticness July 1, 2008

Do you all ever get one of those feverish urges to create something for a holiday or other special occasion and then put them off till the last minute? No? Really! Well I coulda sworn…. oh well anywayz, I do regularly. Not so much for the littler holidays, but with increasing frequency the larger holidays bring out this strange woman who hides the rest of the year in a dusty back corner of my mind. So of course Independence Day brought this weirdo to the forefront and she has been running a little rampant. In all actuality she mostly just cruises massive numbers of crafty sites while copying free templates to her numerous craft template folders. I’m a subfolder girl who likes things organized by year make and model so this is necessary but I digress. Then this crazy lady goes into her Printmaster Pro program and finds even more crap totally neat stuff like whirly gigs and photo cubes. Fortunately again she does little more than peruse and add occasional photos and then she promptly deletes without saving the changes because she is also an ink miser who doesn’t want to waste her precious printer ink on crappy stock photos anyway. But then…. oh then she gets a brilliant idea and the heavens open and a light shines down upon her like it did on Joseph so many years ago. There is a heavenly chorus of “awwes” and a voice from above says “This is my beloved craft guru- hear ye him!” (note: I was raised in the RLDS church and thats where these references come from)

Anyhoo the reason for all this ramblin madness. I had a brilliant message from above err I mean idea to make those cute little chinese takeout box things for favors at our 4th of July get together and I got a couple different ones printed and decided to torture you with them share them with you. They’re really simple to make and you can find the templates for them at the following sites:

larger box: www.packagetech.com

smaller box: www.ruthannzaroff.com/mirkwooddesigns/takeout.htm

Both were fairly simple to make and I enjoy the end results. Teeny little things tho so keep that in mind. The big one is all of about 2.5 inches tall and the little one is probably half that. Fun to make and I printed them on colored cardstock (red and blue) and then simply used a paint template to make several sizes of white stars to decorate them with. Would be cute for jewelry boxes for those of us who have etsy accounts too.

Well folks have a wonderful evening and I’ll see you all tomorrow.