I was dreaming of a .... brown... Christmas?

Well, not really, but that's what we got. Not such a travesty for me, but I know Richard was really looking forward to a bit of snow and so far this year has been fairly snow free. I do admit though that Christmas just doesn't seem as, well, Christmasy without a bit of snow on the ground.

Christmas eve was nice.... we didn't do anything special, but Richard ended up working just half his shift before he was sent home because there just wasn't enough tech support calls coming in to support a full crew. We watched "Holiday Inn" and "Muppet Christmas Carol" and went to bed at a decent time. Woke up at 6:30 on Christmas and since neither of us can really get back to sleep once we're up we decided to stay up and just start the day.... so much for sleeping in!

Presents were passed out, and I think we were both pleasantly surprised... we especially loved the family gift exchange presents we received from Miya and Roy. We ended up taking a brief nap that afternoon and then started cleaning up because we had friends coming over for dinner. I did kick myself a bit though since I had plans to make a batch of root beer float fudge (well, try it anyway) along with a normal batch of fudge and homemade caramels to give away.... and didn't make any of them! Bad me... especially since I bought cream and stuff to make them with!!!!

It was nice being able to visit with my old roommate and her son and daughter-in-law, and dinner was pretty good as well, though my candied yams failed miserably.... I apparently ran out of brown sugar without realizing it and decided to try using maple syrup (not pure maple syrup but the cheap crap and you could tell). Luckily the ham and everything else turned out lovely, because Richard and I will be eating leftovers for the next few days! So in about half an hour I need to zip into the kitchen and start making a homemade au gratin potatoes and ham casserole for when Richard comes home.

Today I had plans to do a bit of stitching... I made and gave away a wedding sampler for Christmas that I am just in love with and want to make for our home as well. It was lovely being able to wind down my evenings with needlework every evening. Silly me failed to take a picture of it before I wrapped and sent it off though! I have a couple of designs I have drawn up and, now that I am not under a time constraint, I want to try stitching them. I have about half of the office/craft room unpacked and have found a bunch of my embroidery floss (plus, Richard bought me a 150 skein pack of floss for my stocking!) and I have a bunch of Aida cloth that came from my stepmother's old stash so I certainly have some great supplies to play with. I will have to run to the fabric store in the next couple of days and buy more linen... the wedding sampler was my first piece stitched on linen and I don't think I want to ever go back to Aida cloth again (its okay if you didn't understand that) Aida has its place, but I really did fall in love with the look of a piece stitched on linen.

Whoa.... this suddenly turned into a crafting post!

So today has just been a nice day to unwind for me... cleaned the kitchen up from yesterday but that's about it (since we gave the apartment a great clean yesterday). I played a few things on Netflix ("The Girl Who Played With Fire"/"The Girl Who Kicked A Hornets Nest" and a few episodes of "Ramsays Kitchen Nightmares") while I read a book I got for Christmas about selling crafts online with a cat passed out on my lap. The book has some great ideas for your own site as well as on Etsy, and, first step, my shop name has changed from fiftytwo to FiftyTwoPhotography.... since its a photography shop then the author suggests that, hey, I mention what it is that I sell there! We'll see how it goes. It would be nice to finally make a sale on that site.... goodness knows my prices are beyond reasonable and I wouldn't even make anything really from it (given I've been paying listing fees for over a year now). Still considering giving up the photography site because I don't think people are buying much in the way of photographs right now. I will be starting a new Etsy site for crafts in the year to come.... fingers crossed!

Tonight will probably be an early bedtime for me, since I was up at 4:30 this morning... I go back to work in the morning, so I will definitely need to get some sleep! I think Richard is planning to watch some episodes of "Smallville" when he gets home (I got him hooked on the show.... we're now midway through season two). Otherwise it will be a nice and quiet evening (which I love).

The forecast for the next 10 days is in the low 40s and no snow.... poor Richard! It looks as if his New Year is also going to start off brown. We're planning to stay home anyway and have a bit of a Doctor Who marathon for the weekend, but it would be nice to see a bit of snow anyway. I may have to drive Richard up to Sundance so he can play in it a bit... our one evening of snow just got him excited to see more of the white stuff.

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and that the New Year to come will be full of joy and wonder....

All my love....

Shawna

I literally started salivating when I saw this....

Oh. My. Holy. Dickens.

I am in love.....

I am in love.....

I am in love.....

...with just how amazingly AWESOME (and I don't use that word often!) this is..... I even like the bare bones lampshade!

Here's a link to how it was done.

Ooohhhhh I want!

Now to decide which books have to sacrifice themselves for this little baby....

I am thinking of a somewhat-matched set of lamps!

Uh......

Sorry everyone for not posting lately on either blog.... (yes sweet SIL, I have the road trip blog done except for adding some photos.... look for it tomorrow!)

Life has been busy....

The beau and I arrived in Utah on the 7th, after a hot and grueling road trip that took us through 4 southern states in the middle of summer.... without a working air conditioner! My poor right arm is still peeling from the burn....

Last week was move, move, move.... move stuff in so Richard would have furniture and kitchen stuff..... we've borrowed the truck from work twice now (and will again this weekend) to move over some of the larger items, and the apartment is starting to look like a home. There is still a lot to move over, but we still have plenty of time, so I am not worrying about it as much as I was.

Richard started training at his new job yesterday (Hooray! Originally he wasn't supposed to start for another two weeks, but they managed to squeeze him into an earlier training class). He is over the moon for it, since he will be in computer geek services, helping to troubleshoot operating systems, which is what he loves to do. I am happy that he's managed to find something that will not only pay him something decent, but is something he will truly enjoy.

I also ran to Michaels Crafts yesterday to pick up some embroidery floss for a cross stitch piece my sister wants for her birthday. With Richard at class tonight (3:30 to Midnight.... ouch!) I will take him dinner on his lunch break.... otherwise the evening is mine.... so I will see how far I get on the stitching tonight. It doesn't look like it will take more than a week of evenings, so I should have it done in plenty of time. I haven't been uber crafty for awhile (seeing as most of it is still all packed up) so I am looking forward to a nice session of getting my crafting groove on.

I know Richard is really hoping I will find the box in the basement that has my silverware in it (he's using a lot of plastic pieces and the one or two silverware pieces I scrounged from the house). I admit I am more interested in hauling over my boxes of fabric and setting up my fabric rack and sewing machine (sorry baby!) I think that after work this week I will take over a few crafty boxes each night, so that way I won't be frustrated when we focus on "real boxes" on Saturday.

I love crafting blogs..

...and I just found a new one. Check out PurlBee for fun projects on sewing, crocheting, knitting... best of all its free! free! free!

I think these felt citrus coasters will be my next project....

...aren't they adorable? You can find the pattern here

Whoops! Just stumbled across this pattern...I actually follow this gal's blog (Resurrection Fern) and I've favorited a few stones in her Etsy shop

Oh yeah... these are definitely my first project from this site.... you can find the pattern for these here. Amazingly enough, I already have a bunch of the pearle cotton embroidery thread balls lying around and goodness knows I always have a rock or two handy!

Oh man, check out how cute these quilted pincushions are!

If you are remotely into the crafty ... you will have a lot of fun just looking around this site!

Happy creating gals.... you can hate me later for hooking you onto this site!

New project

Isn't this just darling? I stumbled on the blog of a cross-stitcher and this is a project she recently finished. I immediately had to comment on her blog and find out where she'd found this... and then promptly ordered the kit for myself.

This will be my first foray into stitching on linen, but I have been told that it is not hard to change over from aida cloth, and I love how things look that have been stitched on linen.

Of course I am happy they had this one in a kit.... my mental measurement chart will need an upgrade, because my mind was converting the stitch count into aida dimensions... and my measurements were coming out completely wrong.

Anyone else out there find this one just darling? The next project is a wedding sampler (no one seems to have a decent size image of this one, so here is the small version:

Man I have missed stitching!

Oh the lengths some fans will go to.....

Do I really need to make any comments on this?

Probably not...though I am amazed that the Edward kit says nothing about his being sparkly.... guess an extra creative fan can always use a sparkly thread, or just hit the finished product with a spray of glitter.

So how about it craft girls....are you Team Edward?

Or Team Jacob?

Bummer I couldn't find any cross stitch patterns for those of us on Team Jasper.... but then, I don't think I'd ever be rabid enough to want to stitch it up, frame it and then hang it on the wall.

Guess I am just not as big of a fan as I thought I was.....

Gratitude...

For the next little while (no set end date planned) I want to take a moment every day to share one thing that I am grateful for, appreciate or love. These will not be in any planned order, but will be more of a way for me to see all of the blessings that are in my life and the beauty that is all around me. I am noticing more and more in the blogs that I follow a certain negativeness to the world and the situations people find themselves in. While I understand that people are frustrated at the fact that winter has not fully departed yet, and that things do not always go as planned, I would like to see a little more positive and sunny outlooks out there in blogland. I admit I have my own moments of following the "downward spiral" and focus on the negative, but one blog in particular I follow has been nothing but doom and gloom and harsh criticism... it was enough for me to decide that if I want to see more positive things out there then maybe I should start with me.

So, in celebration of Easter, I would like to be grateful today for the simple joy of dying eggs for the holiday.



I was out at my friends' place this weekend, teen-sitting as it were, and no one had yet dyed eggs for the holiday. A quick trip to the store for eggs and dye (and a second trip for vinegar) and then the egg coloring went into gear.



For awhile I had a helper, and then she headed off to an activity with friends, leaving me happily finishing off the job. As I scribbled with clear wax on the eggs, and dipping them into the brightly colored dyes, I found myself relaxing and a big grin spreading across my face as I participated in this simple act of creativity. Looking back, I can see where I have really suffered from not taking the time for crafts and other artistic outlets.



I could have played with those dyes all day.

So, first challenge to myself....to spend more time introducing crafty/artistic projects back into my life.

Yard Sale Steals and Crazy Looks

I love to yard sale....oh yeah, big time.



I blame my grandmother. Every Saturday during the summer she'd be armed with yard sale ads in which she carefully circled the sales she especially wanted to hit. I would arrive early in the morning, load up the 'ol lady and we'd hit the circuit. Nothing was safe from being picked up, pondered and then bargained over.



The thrill of the hunt......of finding that one deal you just can't pass up.



This happened to me again this past weekend.



My roommate and I got up early (seriously, yard sales in Utah start at around 7 am!) and hit the streets. Our game plan wasn't as exact as my grandmothers...essentially we just hop in the car and drive around until something catches our eye.



Such as the beauty I got for a total steal.....



Let me explain.



We parked on the street for one such sale that was taking place down a long driveway. Unable to see if anything good was being offered, we decided to give it a shot anyway and walked down the driveway to where we figured the sale was being held. As we came around a tall hedge lo and behold there it was. My treasure.



Oh yeah, it was love at first site. Laugh it up if you want, but I have been dreaming of owning one of these babies since the early 1990's....they are just way to freaking expensive to justify the purchase.



It figures there would be a couple of guys standing next to it, pulling out the drawers and all but kicking the tires as they examined just what condition the tool cabinet was in. I waited off to one side, pretending to examine pieces of flotsam and jetsam, but really waiting for the guys to move off so I could inquire as to pricing. Not realizing that one of the sellers was listening, I sighed aloud an "isn't it beautiful" to my roommate. Immediately the sales gal pounced, "isn't what beautiful honey?" Embarrased, I pointed to the tool cabinet and stupidly repeated, "its so beautiful".



I knew I shouldn't have looked up after this statement....I completely caught the look of, "are you insane?" that she threw my way.


My roommate was kind enough to tell the gal I would use it for craft storage (which isn't entirely true) The gal nodded her head and mumbled "oh, that makes sense", but you could still see the consternation on her face. It was a look that said, "well THIS ONE is certainly a tomboy....imagine, falling for some dirty tool thing".


Whatever.


I asked about the price and about fell over when they asked for $75. Sweet! Even better was bartering them down to $60! I am not entirely sure what they thought when I immediately agreed, and also purchased a cordless drill kit and a pair of needle-nose pliers (for an amazingly low $10 considering the drill looks to be in amazing shape), but they were nice enough to also toss in a set of canning jars for free that I was considering.


We immediately scampered off to borrow my bosses' truck (conveniently parked at work) and struggled to get that bad boy home.


Of course, its not a Craftsman, but rather Husky brand....but one of these tool cabinets easily sells for anywhere between $600-$1500, depending on where you are looking, and this one looks pretty stinking brand new. Apparently their dad bought it to store his stuff, but either kept his stuff in great condition, or he rarely touched it.


Oh yeah, deal of the freaking century.


Turns out it weighs a ton, so I needed help getting it downstairs (its too big to store upstairs and there is no way it was hanging around out in the elements). Luckily the roommate's son was willing to come over after work and help me lug it down the stairs. I started looking in the drawers and there is actually a couple of tools tucked in the drawers that no one bothered to clean out. Nothing amazing, but this girl can't have enough screwdrivers at her disposal.

I am so thrilled to own this behemoth....my tool box is completely jam packed and I have various other items tucked about the house here and there. Finally, I can keep all of my stuff in one handy space.


What's next on the agenda? Well, I've been wanting a heat gun for ages so here's the perfect opportunity, seeing as I now not only have somewhere to keep it, but I have the current excuse of calling it a "present to myself", seeing as we are mere weeks away from my birthday.

Ah, life is good......