My Favorite Mini Trees - Day 3

I just want to share with you some of my favorite "mini" trees.  The first one is this mechanical tree.  It dances/sways and sings "Santa Baby" in her very sleezy voice.  You can't see them well, but the tree is wearing pink cowboy boots.  It belongs to my friend, Diana, and I make a plug every year that she leave it to me in her will.

This tree belongs to Sheridan.  She really likes my tree (the one with paper clips on my blog a few days ago), so I bought her this one because it is kind of rustic.  I couldn't give up my other one.

I LOVE this gold tree!  I think as you get older, you start liking the glitter look of silver and gold.  Maybe that's why so many older women wear gold lame'.  It belongs to Susan, who works in my office and everytime I walk by, it gives me a warm feeling.  I just love it.

A closer look.

Have a great day!

Happy Birthday, Nicole!

You've seen her before on my blog, and most pictures do not show her face.  She rarely, and I mean rarely, lets me get a photo of her face.  She starts hiding once she sees me pull out a camera or my cell phone.  Well, guess what?  This lady, the one with her hand up, turns 40 today!

For the past two Septembers, Nicole and I have made a trip to Minnesota to Scrapfest.  When we go, we stay at her parents.  In the guest room where I stay, there is a huge collage of photos of Nicole from her birth to her graduation.  So in anticipation of her 40th birthday, I took photos of "the board."  And... I saved them just for today.

 I absolutely LOVE the bows, Nicole.

 There is no doubt that Kylee is her daughter - this photo could be mistaken for Kylee.

 Here's another grown up picture of Nicole - we were at Junkfest in Minnesota - the same weekend as Scrapfest.  Nicole is digging for treasures, of which she found many.

 More photos of Nicole growing up.

 I really like this next picture because it reminds me of my oldest daughter, Katie.  I have a picture of Katie looking at the Sunday ads when she was about the same age, maybe 2.  Many people have mistaken my daughter, Katie, as being Nicole's daughter.  Maybe there's something to that...

Happy 40th Birthday, Nicole!  I know I will always be older, but now it seems as if you are catchin' up!

Here's to many more great decades!

Days 9 through 6

DAY 6:  Merry Christmas!  Okay, I know it's not Christmas yet, but it was at my house.  My daughters will be out of town on Christmas Day, so we needed to celebrate early.  These are the presents I wrapped on Saturday.  The Christmas tree lights are always on all night on Christmas Eve - that way the tree is ready to go when the first one gets up.  Even though the girls don't live at home anymore, that is still my tradition.

 The stockings are filled and by the tree.

 This is one of the ornaments I made for the tree - it is a photo of Kate when she was in middle school.  I used the container that Tacky Tape comes in - definitely a "green" ornament.

DAY 7:  Katie and Katie exchanged Christmas gifts - at my house.  I finished shopping for Christmas that day, so I can't really show you what I bought and what I worked on craft-wise, but you will see soon enough.  My Kate is happy.

 And Katie, Kate's roommate, is happy.  She got a Vera Bradley lunch box and she is excited to use it.

Day 8:  This picture was taken from the 8th floor of my office building, looking out the window.  It is of the fountain and during the holidays, they put red and green lights in the fountain.  I realize it is hard to see, but it was really pretty.

 These are the cookies made at the cookie exchange.  What a beautiful assortment!  It was a lot of fun and everyone had a good time.

DAY 9:  Meet Brock.  He is 13 months old and the son of a friend.  You can't read his sweatshirt very well, but it says "80% NAUGHTY..."  So cute!  Brock visited the office with his dad, Steve, and gave us a nice break.  He was always on the go - and quite entertaining!

 Steve and Brock...

 The Christmas tree in my office (decorated by Geri with colored paper clips)

Be sure to check out tomorrow' blog.  I am putting up some really old photos.  :)

Day 10

Kimberly came by and we addressed, stamped, and stuffed our Christmas cards.  She wouldn't leave until we finished the Christmas letter we always send.  What a great help, Kimberly!  I have finished licking the envelopes and they will be mailed tomorrow.  What a great thing to have this done!  Thank you, Kimberly! 

 After Kimmy left, I started baking the Orange Glaze Dark Chocolate Macaroons.  You know, they really are good.  It is just a hint of orange... and with that chocolate drizzle - Mmmm.

They look like the picture (below), don't they?  It is always fun to see the platters of cookies people take home from the cookie exchange.  There is such an assortment and the trays are very pretty.  I will try to remember to get pictures of the event tomorrow and post them on my blog.

Have a great Thursday!

Days 12, 11

DAY 12 was spent trying to figure out what kind of cookies to make for the annual cookie exchange at work set for Thursday of this week.  That means I need to bake TOMORROW night!  Yikes!  I browsed through a couple of cookie books and came up with...

 THIS ONE - Dark Chocolate-Glazed Orange Macaroons.  I love macaroons and thought the "orange twist" would be a nice touch.  We shall see.

DAY 11 - It's about time I think about getting my Christmas cards out the door.  This plastic shoe box contains the cards I have made (or made by members of the card exchange).  I finalized and updated my address list and printed the mailing labels tonight.  I still need to write some sort of Christmas letter.  Kimmy offered to help me, but we're still trying to pinpoint a time.  Hmmmm.... it may be me by myself this year.

I'll be back tomorrow.

Day 13

Day 13 was spent with Myah, Kylee, and Nicole just hanging out.  One of the things we did was decorate a gingerbread house. I had never done one before, and we had fun decorating and eating the candy.  Here's the finished house...

 Beginning stages...

 Nicole is holding it in place until it "sets up."

More decorating...

It was a fun day with the girls.  I also started receiving Christmas cards this week.  Every year I tape them to the door of the den, right where everyone can see them when they walk in the front door.  That was something we did at our house when I was growing up in Indiana.  We always taped the cards up on the door in the shape of a Christmas tree.  I wonder if my girls will do that.

It's Sunday night and I'm getting ready for work tomorrow.  Everyone have a great week!

Catching up with Days 17 through 14

 Day 14 - Still laying low for the weekend.  Cancelled all appointments except for the dogs' baths.  They needed it.  After that, I stayed home all day.

Day 15 - After our work Holiday party, I went and ran an errand and on the way home snapped photos of a few homes who have their Christmas lights up.  I love driving through neighborhoods at Christmas time.

Day 16 - I was home, under the weather, and not feeling well at all.  This is my favorite coffee mug - the girls when they were bumble bees for Halloween one year.

Day 17 - I went and had a quick dinner with Katie and Katie, after which my Katie was re-doing her nail polish.

Day 18

Okay - today is a very special day for me!  I absolutely LOVE Christmas music.  I am the kind of person who can sing Christmas carols in July.  I can't say it enough.  I LOVE Christmas music, but this year I had a problem.  I looked everywhere and could not find any of my Christmas CD's.  I lost the entire book of CD's.  Not good.  While I was waiting for my carpool buddy and while my car was warming up this morning, I happened to look at a box in the garage.  Down in the bottom was a plastic bag with my Holiday CD holder in it.  It absolutely made my day!  I don't know how it got there, and at this point I don't care.  My newest CD is from the show Glee.  It is a great CD -  you should check it out. 

Have another wonderful day!

Days 20 and 19 of my count down

Day 20 was spent at Paper Vineyard teaching a Christmas Card Class - This side of the table, from left to right, are Liz, Natalie (Liz's daughter), Colleen (we missed Amanda!), Claudia (Krista's mother), and Mary.  I asked them to all look up and give me smiles.... and they did!

On the opposite side of the table is Marianne, Denise, Val, and Aubrey.  The sweet lady at the counter is Krista.  She tried to hide, but I wouldn't let her. 

These two ladies (Cindy and Celina) became fast friends on Friday afternoon when they took Dana Edward's cookie book class.  I put them off at their own table - not because they were bad, but because the other tables were full.  It was a great class - they made some beautiful cards and I think everyone went home happy (in spite of the ribbon ruffling).  Thanks to everyone for taking my class! 

Day 19 was spent pulling out some Christmas decorations.  I am not sure how I want to do the tree.  It is really hard to pick only ornaments that are predominately white.  I definitely have some favorites that do not fit this year's scheme and I have to admit that it makes me a little sad not to put them on the tree.

This is one of my homemade photo ornaments.  The tree is so bright, it is a little hard to see.  I made this one last year and hope to make more to put on my tree.  I have pulled out some photos and will work on this over the next week.

I thought these white and silver ornaments might look good on the white tree.  I did add some bright blue lights to give it just a little color.  They are beautiful.

Tomorrow's another day!

Nicole's Paper Tree

I think this was made from an older BoBunny paper line.  In fact, I had completely forgotten about this tree that Nicole made.  It is on her desk at work... and it reminds me of the leaning tower of Pisa - and not because it is leaning, but because of the layers.  I think it is very cute and worth your time to look at it. 

Nice job, Nicole!  Very cute.

Day 21

Today is Day 21.  I was busy all day cutting kits - big class with a lot of preparation.  But the cards turned out so nice - everyone will be happy.  In the evening, I went to a crop with Celina (left), Cindy (right), and Adriana (you can barely see the top of her head behind Celina).  I should have done a better job at taking this photo.  It was a lot of fun and I got a lot accomplished! 

Be back tomorrow!

Day 22...

Okay, Friday was Day 22 of my personal Count down to Christmas.  I have a big card class on Sunday at Paper Vineyard, so on Friday night, and Saturday, and probably Sunday, I have been (and will be) cutting kits.  Here's my table with one of the cards laid out and being sorted.  I am short a little ribbon, so off to the store to buy more.

Have a great day everyone!

Counting down - Day 23

Okay - this is Day 23 in my personal Count Down to Christmas.  I went with my daughters, Kate and Kim, to see the Radio City Rockettes last night to sort of kick off the holidays.  Here's a photo of our tickets...

And here are my two beautiful daughters... Kim and Kate.  We enjoyed the show, the dancing was phenomenol and the background filming they used was spectacular.  Their costuming was fun - it was a very nice night.

I had never been to the area outside of the Jobing.com Arena.  It is very quaint and I could see myself having a whole lot of fun out there.  They were showing the Polar Express movie on a huge screen and people were sitting in lawn chairs, wrapped in blankets, watching the movie with their families.  A rather fun idea.

Can't wait to see what Day 22 brings.

Countdown to Christmas

A couple of "things" about Christmas this year. 

THING #1

Normally our tree looks like this.  It is pretty tall, GREEN, and covered with lots of ornaments.  I mean LOTS of ornaments.  My philosophy has always been that there is room for one more ornament; there is always one branch that can hold another ornament... and I love hodge podge, nothing matches and everything is unique to certain years.   

This year, I want to shake things up a little bit, so after talking with my carpool buddy, Lisa, (who always has a white tree), I decided to go buy a white tree from Walmart.  Once I got it put together, I wasn't so sure I'd made a good decision, but when I plugged it in - it is absolutely beautiful!  

I thought I wanted to put color lights on it, but I think I like it just the way it is.  I want to put some colored glass balls on it, maybe some unconventional colors... and I have another idea.  I saw a tree where they made ornaments out of family photos.  I love that idea!  I plan on stealing the idea, and am hoping I can pull it all together.

When I get it done, I will share it with you.  I think it will be a work in progress.

THING #2

I signed up for a kit from Stephanie Ackerman and the title of the mini book is "Countdown to Christmas."  My understanding is that it is a 25-page mini book, counting down to Christmas.  So... this picture of the white tree will be "Day 24."  I will share with you each day what picture will be in my mini book this year.  I am committed to taking a photo each day, right up thru Christmas Eve.  It should be fun.  Even more fun to look back at my book.

Have a great day!

I would love to hear about your Christmas trees!