A Time For Everything

Goal reached and then some! My goal for the weekend's writing was 5600+. Final word count for my four days was 5909-- Mission accomplished. Total word count after this morning's work is just over 10K. I'm barreling down on the end of the book and I'm expecting to reach 14K or 15K. Not bad for a month's or so work.

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DD and I also finished up a craft project. Instead of buying our annual Dallas Stars ornament, I opted to DIY it. She'd purchased an ornament for another team and I decided to replicate it for the Stars this year.

From this...

...to this...

I'm quite pleased.

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Hope you had a lovely long weekend.

Catch you Wednesday!

I do still have to work today, tomorrow, and Wednesday, but I image it'll be fairly slow since I bet many of our clients will also be slow and / or have shut down their offices for one or more days. Which is good because I have a couple of projects to work on. I had a really good weekend though--

As I mentioned Friday, I went to a Stars game. The antics to get there as early as possible were Keystone Cop-worthy, but DD and I made it in time to score a pair of tickets to a game in January that I don't already have (partial-season) tickets to, so YAY! Also, the Stars won against a really good team in which there was only one goal--ours in overtime--and three fights and a ton of penalty minutes during regulation play. They also won Sunday afternoon's game which I did not attend as it was in New York. :0)

While watching Sunday's game on TV, I wrapped what Christmas presents I have and placed them under my new tree with colored lights.

It's been a while since I've had colored lights on a tree and it takes me back to my childhood when we always had colored lights.

At this point, the poor tree only has two ornaments and only because one never got put away last year and I came across it in a drawer when I was looking for something else and the other is an ornament I made for Sonshine a few years ago and kept hanging in my office for some reason.

I didn't make the trek out to the shed this weekend to find the rest, but that'll happen sometime between now and next Monday.

What I did do this weekend was load up all those "things" I've been clearing out the house and staging in the garage into the car and take them to a local donation spot. Man--that felt really good.


Getting rid of stuff is rather addicting. One hallway closet is pretty much purged now. Remember I said I'd gone green and was using tote bags now instead of plastic store bags? Yeah, I went through the rest of the tote bags I had--(I'm a tote bag ho.)--and picked out the best ones for holding groceries and, with three exceptions, got rid of the rest of them since I can only use so many tote bags and have my favorites. The other hall closet needs to be culled still, but, honestly, there isn't much left in there either.

I had to start a new pile in the garage, however. :0)

Lunch on Saturday with my dear friend, N, was delightful as usual. And she made me this--which was perfect even though she didn't know about the hockey tree when she chose designed the pattern...



I also got to visit with DH's family on Saturday and specifically with that family member with the medical issues and she's better. There's a ways to go and hurdles to surmount, but she's better. If you're the praying sort, please lift her up.

And that, my friends, is all for today. Have a wonderful day and a wonderful week and a wonderful Thanksgiving.

It's the hockey tree. It was DD's idea and I liked it, so here we are. It has three ornaments at this point, so hoping for a few more come Christmas. I'm thinking of opening up my box of hockey stick candy canes and adding little loops of thread to hang them with.

I'm going to create a Stanley Cup tree topper out of a toilet paper tube and aluminum foil. :0) Maybe some sort of garland out of I-don't-know-what. (Here I come, Pinterest--again!)

I'm gathering with my favorite ladies and writer peeps tomorrow. I haven't seen these women since September and I've missed them terribly.

So hope you have a great weekend.

A few years ago, I did a Countdown to Christmas series of posts and rambled on about many of the things we do (or did) in our house in regards to Christmas... Sadly, with the kids gone, many things have fallen by the wayside, but one thing that won't is the yearly ornament.

The kids all have an ornament for every Christmas they've celebrated. Any that have gone missing I've tried to replace. Sometimes I buy them ready to hang, sometimes I make them, sometimes I buy things than need embellishment.

Here a few ornaments from past years...


 Three years ago, everyone got cross stitched Christmas bulbs with their initial and the year on it.

I'm on the hunt for this year's offering. I saw some cute metal plaid letters at Michael's the other day, but the display had been cleaned out and there were no more of the letters I need. Bummer.

BUT!

I've had a background love affair with snow globes for a while and have some ideas on how to incorporate the concept into an ornament. So stayed tuned!

...for today's blog. But I am, surprisingly, just about ready for Christmas. I mean shopping wise, anyway. Just two last gifts to purchase and a couple to make at home (bought the last ingredient on the way to work this morning). Wrapping is in progress. Dinner is bought. Just waiting for one of the key ingredients--Sailor Sonshine. He'll be home in a couple of weeks and we'll have a delayed celebration.

Ornaments, however, are still in progress. I added a couple of people to the list, so I bought two of these stars.


This red/black one is for DD's BFF. The back side will be identical except that the corresponding slopes will be the other color. The other star is going to similar, but red and blue (for the Houston Texans) for the Brown Eyed Girl's significant other. On that star, however, I'm going match the colors from side to side. It's gotta be as unique as it can be right?
 

One of the bells, which was the original ornament for my Brown Eyed Girl's boyfriend is being reassigned to DD's roommate, who also happens to be her BFF's sister. Confused yet? :) I guess as long as I know whose is whose, right?

I'm still waiting for some sort of epiphany on the red and green bells. They still look like this. I wanted to have more glitter sort of down the top with a jagged-y edge, but my attempt turned out awful, and I had to clean off the glue and glitter, which also removed the color. So I had to re-color it and we're back to square one. I may just have to go with a more curvy edge.



On a final note, yesterday was Sonshine's 20th birthday. Sadly he's half a country away and no dinner or hugs or presents could be had (yet), but I got to talk to him at least.

And even though he doesn't read my blog,



 Last year, with DD on the right, the Brown Eyed Girl on the right, when he came home for Christmas just after graduating from Navy boot camp.

Here we are again! I don't have much to say, honestly. Saturday was my writing group's holiday party. We did a speed dating sort of game so that we could get to know a little bit about chapter mates that we may not normally talk to much. The white Elephant ornament exchange is always fun and I came home with a squirrel ornament because...well, y'all know why! But no picture, sorry.

I do have pictures of the ornaments I made for my beloved CPs as well as my dear friend Nancy--so that's what you get and we're gonna call it a day.

Nancy writes western historical, hence the cowboy theme...


But also, Nancy and her husband were blessed with their 1st grandchild in November, so I made her this as well... She was tickled, well, pink, but no word yet on her husband's reaction.



And the beautiful woman I have spent so much wonderful time with over the last several years received these:

For Chrissy who has such a beautiful smile and is so full of life.


For Clover who is always so calm, but who has a mischievous streak that I love.



For Gina who has endured so many trials and still perseveres with a positive outlook.


And for Michelle who loves all things purple and who encourages and supports me in all my writing endeavors.


Have a great week!

Not this past Monday, but the previous Monday, I did my Christmas shopping. Sat down in my desk chair and keyed my ideas into Amazon.com's search bar. And now I'm reaping the benefits. Every day when I've gotten home there's usually been a package waiting for me, and even though none of the gifts are for me, it's still exciting to see what's arrived and for whom. It's added a festive feeling to coming home. Not only is the dog excited to see me--but there are packages!

An another somewhat exciting note, I've finished another letter in the birth sampler of love...so YAY. It's getting done, albeit slowly at the moment, but her birthday's not until March, so I'll have plenty of time after the holidays to finish it up and get it framed.


And ornaments are coming along slowly. Here's how they look at the moment...





That's glitter around the first two and metallic silver Sharpie on the third. I want to add more glitter from the top down on the red and green, but I'm not quite sure how to make the lines of the glue smooth and in jagged points. The blue one will have hand drawn trees and falling snow added in the same metallic silver. I might add a bit of glitter for snow effect.

Those are for the girls and a significant other. This is what Sonshine's looks like at the moment:



Are you ready for Christmas yet?

No, Christmas hasn't been decorated for. I'm terribly lazy about it. Well, it's not the putting up, it's the taking down that kills it. But that's not what we're here to talk about...

I've been crafting!

My sister-in-law and my niece made some snow globes which I saw while visiting for Thanksgiving and which I thought were cute. So I hunted them down during my trip to Michael's and found the little globe. I also a found a cute little figurine to go in it.

But did I open the globe and read the instructions while at the store? No, of course not.

So fast forward an hour-ish and I'm sorting through my purchases. I open the globe and read the instructions. I also needed glycerin and a box of some sort of water-proofing solution. Okay. No problem. I'll go back another time. In the meantime, I open the figurine package only to find one of the birdies' little wings has broken off. It was disappointing, but then I remembered I have some Sculpey clay and I created a new little wing for the thing.

Now, the bird was originally while, but it's fixin' to go in a snow globe, so I'm thinking white's a bit redundant. I know, how about blue? A little bluebird of happiness! I made the water blue as it was also white. I get that if it's frozen over then, yeah, it's gonna be white. But again--white glitter/snow--redundant.  And it's my snow globe, so I'll fix it up the way that makes me happy.

So here's the repaired figurine. I'm sure you can tell which wing is the replacement!


Next step will be re-add the eyes and re-color the beak. Then I'll waterproof the whole thing. So more pics later.

One of our long-time Christmas traditions is buy or make ornaments for the kids. All three of them have an ornament for every Christmas they've celebrated, even if I was broke and could only afford to make them with whatever I had at hand. There were a few Christmases like that. Last year, they got these, remember?


This year, I bought ceramic ornaments at Michael's and will decorate them. I've found a couple of ideas on the Internet to play off of, so wish me luck. Luckily my Sharpies clean off with rubbing alcohol. The acrylic paint should wash off with water before it dries. We'll see how it goes. Pics later.

And of course, I realized I forgot a couple of people, so there will be yet another trip to Michael's. (It's a hardship.)

And after a month of not working on DD's birth sampler, I have picked up needle and floss once again.

Doing any Christmas or other holiday crafts?

Well, after conversations about Christmas plans and where we're going and on what day, it turns out our five-person nucleus will be spending Christmas Eve and Christmas morning here at home and not in the usual locations--Christmas Eve at my in-laws' home and Christmas morning at the firework store.

Since we're gonna be at home...well, we needed the tree up after all. So with the help of a couple elves this past Sunday, DD and her BFF, the tree was put up and lights affixed. Then I spent a couple of hours hanging the ornaments.




Growing up, we bought real trees and always waited until the 15th to buy one. I kinda miss the scent of pine. Maybe one of these years, I'll convince DH. I actually passed a tree lot this past Saturday.

What about you? Artificial tree or the real deal??

Oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the love of my life...

My sister- and brother-in-law live and work in the Middle East right now. They're home on leave for a short time and brought me these fun gifts...


Both are perfect.

Hope you had a lovely weekend.

So yesterday, we put up the tree. And once you get the tree up, well, you've got to put ornaments on it.

Over the years, I've accumulated two kinds of ornaments. The kid-made, given-as-a-gift kind, annual ornament and the themed kind.

We also had two trees for awhile. The small one got all the kid-made, collectible, gift ornaments and the big tree was all purty and sparkly with the matching themed ornaments. Then we sent the little tree down to the fireworks store along with one of those matching sets and so this year, the big tree will be decked out with all the old stand-by favorites.

My kids each have a collection of ornaments that I made (back when I was single and/or poor) or bought each and every year. These are the ones they get to take when they leave home so that their first tree will not be naked. :)

As we sorted through ornaments, my Brown Eyed Girl said this is her favorite of our traditions.

Here are the girls 1st Christmas ornaments, hand made by me back when I was poor and practiced my craft skills.




We took some time to sort through everyone's ornaments and catalogue them, and we discovered that there are several years for which the kids have no ornaments. So I guess we're going to have to fill in some gaps.

I also came across an ornament that I got from an old friend back when I was a kid.






Here's a shot of Sonshine's ornaments, which include a shameful number of Scooby Doo. He does love Scooby Doo, but even I didn't realize how overboard I've gone. I guess we'll have to lay off the SD. Also in the collection are Blue of Blue's Clues fame and Winne the Pooh who needs no explanation.


So enough about our ornaments....


It's time for our daily Christmas song. Let's see...how about something more contemporary. I mentioned George Strait's Christmas Cookies on Friday, so let's listen to that.


Tell me about your ornaments.

So I decided to go to Hobby Lobby today. I was hoping that despite it being black Friday, the craft store at 11:30 am would no longer be jam packed.

Well, it hadn't been jam packed at all according to the cashier, but regardless of the crowd, everything I bought, except one item, was 50% off. The one item was 30% off! So $73 worth of stuff for $36. Woo Hoo!! It was as if my trip was meant to be. :)

I decided to make little goodie bags for all the band kids and I wanted to include an ornament with their name and the year. We had all the other little things going into the bag, save the home made cookies, except the ornaments. We (DD and I) wanted something pretty easy to make, hence the trip to the craft store.

First stop, the wood section, hoping for a lot of something we could easily paint and decorate for 34 kids. No such luck. But when we went over to the Christmas section, we hit the jackpot. Letter ornaments--four different Christmassy designs. We ran into trouble with Ms though. There are five kids whose names start with M, but we could only find three of the four patterns, so unfortunately we have to have two dupes there. But the best part was they were only 49 cents each after the discount!!! Woot!!

So all that's left to do is personalize each one, bake the cookies and put the little goodie bags together. And deliver them of course. Can't wait to see their faces and collect all their hugs!

So Parade of Lights tonight downtown and then back home to work on these ornaments. This is one of the parts of Christmas I love the most--the unexpected giving and the reactions of the receivers.

What's your favorite part of Christmas?

I leave for Nebraska in 6.5 days and I'm not done shopping. Argh...

Then I find out my family doesn't do stockings... What!!! No stockings?

Well, we do, so I had to buy seven stockings--three for my littlest sister and two brothers and four stockings for my nieces. *And* all the goodies to go in them. My siblings will get mostly candy and an ornament to remember our Christmas by; the nieces will get lots of fun stuff from stickers to hair doodles, and any other little goodies I can find for them. I hope they enjoy them.

Each year, I buy my kids a special ornament--one that has special meaning as to who they are or what they are into this year at whatever age they happen to be. When they move out they will have a batch of ornaments for their first tree and they can reminisce about Christmases past.

Normally, we have two trees in our house--a large one that is formally decorated, and then the small one with all the kids' ornaments on it. This year we just did the small one since we'll be out of town on the big day. The tree also includes those ornaments that the kids made over the years, from clothespin reindeer to paper doily angels with a child's face glued on. In fact, the paper doily angel with my son's face on it is the tree topper this year.

My oldest, who is almost 21, tells me every year how much she likes this tradition and looks forward to seeing what kind of ornament she'll be receiving.

Do you have a special Christmas tradition in your family?