I had a delicioso 5 days with my smoochie pie Matt. I am sure that he was glad to go back to work today after being my non-stop elf/diet coke fetcher. haha, BTW, I love that man : )

We had a fun Thanksgiving with family and friends and I kept my vow to not get stressed out. Last year half way through dinner I had to run the store for a pack of Lucky's. Well not really but that is what we say around here when we are stressed out to the point of running away. That reminds me, now that we have been married forever, I have taken to saying to Matt "remember that time" without actually referring to a time or event. I just let him go through his memory to find an applicable situation to relate to. I really am lazy.

After the house was empty Friday morning and all the dishes were done, we started putting up the tree. It is a fake. The reason: my house is surrounded by real pines and I don't need a fire hazard in my house. Besides, I like to over accessorize my tree and you can't put up nearly as much crap on a real tree.

If you have a fake tree, I highly recommend this candle.

mandatory cute dog photo (cant help it)

Normally my friend Elizabeth comes over and helps me with my tree. This year she decided to be a meanie and go to California for the winter. Despite this unfortunate turn of events, Matt and I were able to finish in a record 6 hours (though I have to say Elizabeth is never the drill seargent that Matt was. holy dictator batman!)

Just some of the many, many, many decorations I have collected over the years. 





In other holiday news, Chase went shopping on Black Friday and brought me home this as an early Christmas present.



So that meant on Saturday and Sunday, I baked with the help of my new toy.



Sunday after we took the dogs for a wintry walk, we did a puzzle (or part of one).




Cheers!

Hope you have a great Thanksgiving.

They are fake right?

If not:

I killed about 9 people today. 1 or 2 may have been dismembered.

I should be eligible for parole in about 3011.

See you then.

Yes  I really was. Our next door neighbor Matt invited me and my Matt to come over for a kegger/bonfire bash he was hosting tonight. Hardee-har-har. Neighbor Matt's wife and two wee ones were out of town so he thought that a keg was in order. Naturally. I can't judge--I would prob. need a keg if I had two little kids at this age. I gotta say I am glad that I had my kid at 20 instead of 40 : ) Oh and we did not go because starting time happened to coincide with Matt's bedtime. ha.

In other important weekend news, in my brilliance I had the idea that I would dress my dogs up in Christmas outfits and send pictures of them out as Christmas cards. PS: Pretty please do not tell me that you are eco-friendly and don't enjoy getting Christmas cards because you love the Earth to pieces. I seriously got an email to that effect last year and thought that the sender was super lame-O. (that email was probably from someone with unphotogenic dogs/kids. Can't remember).

Anyway as you can probably imagine, things at the ole photoshoot did not go quite as I hoped.

PS: the crust was made with Pecan Sandies that I inexplicably had in my freezer. What am I, 87?  I guess the cookies were just hanging out waiting for the perfect eggless snowy day to come to my  rescue.

It is a crisp sunny day with freaky gusts of wind that come out of nowhere.

This morning Matt and I were in the living room drinking coffee and we literally see this branch break off a tree and come flying through the air and land right on the back porch.

Crazy.  We Matt had to get it out of the way so the dogs could get to the back yard.



Matt and Chase are putting up our Christmas lights right now while the weather is still warmish. I am so excited : )



I really do hope we get a bunch of snow. If it snows at least 1 foot before Monday, I am putting the tree up. That is all there is to it. Thanksgiving will just have to share with Christmas.

PS:  "Bullet" (f/k/a Purcey) is all settled in. The only little glitch is this.

This has been one of those days.

I went down to my office this morning and the power light on my monitor was flashing at me and the screen was black. Uh-oh. What the hell does that mean? I came back upstairs and got on my laptop and goggled the situation and it pretty much means I am f@#ked.

A very sad situation in itself. But right before the holidays? Tragic.

Granted, she was about 6 years old which (for the computer breed) is like 94  people years. So to be expected really.


So while that was going on, I did what most girls in mourning do. I perused the Pottery Barn catalog on my laptop. (more on that later)

After that, I decided it was time to get back to business in my office.

The solution? This teeny tiny monitor that I stole borrowed from Matt's desktop setup.



Okay back to the catalog. Looking at that damn PB catalog is what prompted me to write a blog post in the first place.

This little tidbit in particular.


This "ribbon." $16.50. Seriously? That crap is upholstery webbing--  which is super cheap.

In fact I bought a boat load of it at the ARC (where else ?) for $3.00 at half-off Saturday over a year ago.



 I am not sure why I bought it but I thought it was pretty cool. Flash forward to last Sunday. I am looking at Better Homes and Gardens and I see this wreath.

Holy crap. I can make that. I have all the stuff.  Sidenote: I will try a craft if it is on about a 4th grade level. That is all the patience I have.


Not too Christmasy. I thought I could bust it out before Thanksgiving.  When did webbing become all the rage? That is my question.

Back to my office:  I went to scan the BH & G picture above.

I get all set.

Then, my printer/scanner said this to me (and refused to do anything else).


Never mind that it does not require any ink to SCAN!! ARGHH. I tried shaking, pleading, unplugging the damn thing, you name it. I tried it. Nada. So I got on the net (viewing it from my teeny screeny) and typed this in.



I heart the internet.

Anwho, I got to wondering what other PB hack I could come up with from crap I have laying around the house.


Candles? Check. Sheet music? Check. Mod Podge? But of course (told you I like 4th grade crafts).

Then I remembered some pictures that I printed off from this link that would be cuter than sheet music.

The New York Public library has all kinds of free awesome prints online. You can search for anything.

I had printed some deer drawings out a few weeks ago (for what reason I do not know. I just liked them I guess).



 If you are on my Christmas list, you may or may not be getting something that involves mod podge and a candle or two.

I also had printed some other pictures out on old dictionary pages.
I had no clue what I was going to do with all these oddball things that I printed  (maybe wrap presents or something) but now I am inspired. (And I may have a clue as to why my toner claims it is low)

Moral of the story? Broken electronics inspire crafting. Duh.