Wishing you and yours a most blessed Christmas Day!

I spent the day yesterday with my boss. She wanted to needle felt a doll for her niece and needed my help. I have to say that this thing is so stinkin’ cute! She did a great job. I wish I had brought my camera along, but all I had was my phone, so the pictures are pretty crappy!

Isn’t he adorable? We both were really happy with the way he turned out.

Lots to get done today. My husband got paid today, so I have to get all of my Christmas shopping done today. Ha! Lucky for me I don’t have a whole lot of shopping to get done. Just a few things for the kids and maybe something for the hubby, but ssshhh… don’t tell him. I AM looking forward to wrapping some presents, though.

Which reminds me… the boy came in to me last night and asked the saddest thing I think I’ve ever heard from him. He asked me if we could wrap some fake presents to put under the tree so it would look like a real Christmas tree. It almost made me cry, except that I knew I would be wrapping stuff today. Poor kid. I guess that just shows you how spoiled he is….

Well, we finally got around to putting the Christmas tree up. I’ve decided that this will be the only decorating this year. It’s just too late to do much of anything else. Plus, I’m just not in the mood to rearrange my whole house right now.

We put the tree in a new location this year, mostly because we’ve moved things around in the house. I’ve always felt that the tree should be somewhere by the fireplace – I think because that’s where my parents always put our tree when I was a child. So, this year, we moved things around a little and made room by the fireplace for the tree. I really like having it there. You can see it when you walk in the door. Also, it’s right next to the kitchen, where I end up spending most of my time – outside of my office, that is.

Patrick, as usual, did not want to participate in the decorating. This year, I decided I wasn’t going to force the issue. If you don’t want to be a part of it… whatever. So, I plunked the camera in his lap and said, “Why don’t you take the pictures this year.” Yeah, not sure that asking a teenager to take your family’s memory pictures is such a good idea. Here’s what I mean:

And there are lots more where those came from. Ha! Of course, I do love that second one. It’s perfect as far as I’m concerned!

I am happy to say that I was able to salvage a few of my Silver Bella 2007 ornaments. I tried to find a post, but maybe I didn’t actually blog about it… Last year, it took me a very long time to get the Christmas decorations down. At the end of January, we had a house guest coming and my husband was trying to help me get the house cleaned up. Since our garage was a giant mess at that time, he basically took the tree with all of it’s ornaments and chucked it into the garage – just opened the door and threw it in there. LOL! Of course, last year was the year I decided it would be fun to put every single ornament we owned on the tree -including all of those silly ones the kids made when they were younger, and all of my Silver Bella ornaments.

When we went to clean the garage out a few months later, I found many of the ornaments broken or already in the trash. I tried to salvage some, but I was only able to find a few. It really breaks my heart to think of it, but what can I do now, you know? So this is what I was able to salvage from Silver Bella 2007:

Not very much, but a couple of my very favorite ones are there, so I was happy. Oh, and I was also able to save a couple of my favorite ones from when the kids were little. All in all, it turned out alright.

Well, after the tree was all decorated, we took our traditional “boys in front of the tree” photo, which ALWAYS starts out like this:

Um… thanks, boys, but the idea is to actually see the TREE! Ah, nothing like living in a house full of joksters! However, when we did finally get the tree in the shot, my husband said something that almost made me cry. “Son, you can’t stand in front of me anymore. You’re too tall!” And my husband is right! He IS too tall! It made me realize how little time I have left with my boys all in one house, how much time has already passed. It made me realize that even though I am not in the spirit of the season this year, I need to cherish this time with my family because much too soon they will not be living with us anymore. They will, hopefully, have families of their own. UGH!!

But not today…

As I’m reading the news about blizzards on the east coast, this is what I’m living in. I took this picture tonight at about 5:30pm as I was leaving Michaels. Seriously… how am I supposed to feel the spirit of Christmas when it’s 80 degrees outside? I was wearing short sleeves without even a sweater on tonight.

Yeah, I know I should be counting my blessings. So many people are shoveling snow off of their driveways or not even able to leave their homes, but I have to say that I’m just not feeling it this year! I think I say this every year. It’s actually the curse of living in California. We don’t really get any cold weather until mid January, and even then it only lasts for about 2 weeks. I’m sure that if I was living in the cold weather I would feel differently… the grass is always greener, right? But, seriously, I’m wishing it was like 20 degrees cooler today.

So, needless to say, we haven’t put up one Christmas decoration, haven’t put up any lights, haven’t even done one lick of holiday shopping yet. How many days until Christmas again? My family won’t be getting together this year. My kids are teenagers and really only want money – which is a sucktacular gift to give, if you ask me. It’s hot. I’ve been working my butt off. Really the only thing I’m looking forward to this year is this:

This is our big plan for Christmas day! Ha! Here’s hoping I get more into the season tomorrow as we put the tree up…

Man, I couldn’t even keep to my new commitment for one month. Ha! Of course, I did pick the busiest month of the year to try and keep it, but still… Well, it took me about 10 times trying to quit smoking for good. I guess it will take me many times trying to get this daily blogging down.

In case you have ever wondered, this is what those of us left standing at midnight on Wednesday night look like:

Yep! My hair is mangled… my makeup pretty much gone… but we’re still cropping! Ha! Julie Crabtree and Julie Vasi are usually the last ones standing with me on Wednesday nights. We have a super nice group of regulars that come in on Wednesdays to crop, but it’s usually the three of us closing the place down. On this night, the Julie’s were making this lovely door ornament for one of Julie Vasi’s kid’s teacher (whew, that’s a mouthful, huh?)

Those Julie’s are just so dang creative!

Of course, all of the others were kind enough to stretch my birthday out for 2 weeks and they gave me a little party last Wednesday. I don’t have any pictures, but let me tell you, they were so super kind to me. They all pitched in and gave me a Visa gift card. Lia Biscoe and Sandy Navarro bought me the CUTEST owl jammies ever!

And my boss… well, Karen outdid herself, as usual.

Meanwhile, I’ve been super busy making all kinds of things for the various jobs I hold. I’ve made 3 mini book class samples for Donna. I didn’t take any photos of the first two (DUH!), but I have a couple of sneaks of the last one…

I LOVE this album. If you want to see the whole thing, be sure to stop by the Oasis! Donna will be teaching this class at our store on Friday, January 22nd. Worth every single penny, trust me!!

I also finished all 12 of Tim Holtz’s 12 Tags of Christmas:

I mostly exactly copied his tags, with a few exceptions. I couldn’t find some of the product that he used, so I improvised. I’m really happy with the way that they turned out. Not sure what I will do with them, but they, also, are at the Oasis on display. I’m sure they will be there until Christmas…

Off to work. Planning some new classes… a needle felting class, a photography class, and a photoshop class coming soon. I have GOT to get to my December Daily album. I haven’t been as productive on it this year as I would have liked. I’ll be working on getting that caught up today. My son gave me a shirt to “alter.” Not sure how that’s going to go, but I’ll share when it’s done. Lots to do, not enough time… the usual!

As I was distressing the edges of all of these tiny, tiny pieces of paper, and feeling a bit irritated about the whole thing, I realized that I was not enjoying the process of creating. When I create just to do something, or create just to create, so to speak, I find that I get frustrated a lot of the time. Sometimes I forget that I am supposed to be enjoying the process of creating, not just completing a random project… especially when stuff like THIS happens…

Oh, my Petey! Will you ever learn? HA!

So, after growling at Petey and scolding him while cleaning his foot, I realized that I needed to take a deep breath and laugh… because let’s face it… that is funny! What’s funnier is that all of the window sills in my craft room have painty kitty paw prints that I’ve left there as their mark. It reminds me that I need to not get so irritated and allow myself to enjoy the process more. That may mean allowing myself to laugh when little missteps happen, when things don’t work exacly as I think they should, or just plain slowing down. I need to learn to stop sprinting to the finish line and allow myself to enjoy inking all of those little words.

It’s not about the finished product. It’s about the process.

I had to work yesterday. I have to work today and I have to work tomorrow as well. But, I also had to get 2 of Donna’s class samples completed by Friday morning. So, I basically had to transfer my craft room to the Oasis for a few days.

Sorry… I know it’s not as fun looking at my mess as it is to looking at the finished product. Unfortunately, because I’m working on stuff for Donna, I won’t be able to share photos. Bummer, I know. I might be able to get away with a couple of sneaks, but you’ll just have sign up for one of her classes to see the whole thing.

But check this out…

Last night, while at work, my sweet, sweet friend, Cheryl surprised me with the best birthday present I have received this year!

Are those not the most adorable little feltie ornaments you have ever seen? I could not stop giggling every time I looked at them. These are sure to be an extra special addition to my tree this year! (which my husband promised we can put up this weekend!!)

Today… finishing the Fabric Scrapbooking class sample, working at the Oasis – where we just got in all of the Tim Holtz yummies!! – and, HOPEFULLY, getting to some personal crafting stuff. My mind is overflowing with ideas!!

Why is it that whenever I am working on a project, I end up working in a space about 4 inches square? As I was working in the office yesterday, putting together some class samples for Donna Downey, I realized that the cats are not always to blame for my lack of desk space.

I had to laugh at myself, that’s for sure. Although, I don’t usually have the computer on my crafting table because Petey is usually occupying that spot. And let me tell you, he was none too happy that I had taken over his spot. I can’t tell you how many times I had to take him off of my computer! He finally settled in on the back of my chair and we worked the day away together.

I have to apologize for not getting to my Silver Bella swaps. I just have not had a lot of time to photograph anything. To be honest, we haven’t even taken out any of our holiday decorations. The worst thing… the brand new tree that I got the day after Thanksgiving at 6AM is still in the back of my car! No worries… it’s not a real tree, but really??? I couldn’t even get it from the car to the house? Ha!

Anyway, I thought I would at least share with you some photos of a couple of the swaps that I made for Silver Bella. The first one was for the Ornabella Ornament swap and the second was for one I hosted, the Bella Feltie Ornament Swap. I’m super happy with how they came out… exactly as I envisioned them.

Lots to get done today. Donna has asked me to start helping her in other areas, which is totally exciting for me. So, I have some research to get done for that today. I still have to complete one more class sample, which I’m sure will spill over into tomorrow, if for no other reason than the need for drying time. The moisture in the air is killing me! Have some pictures to drop off to a client. PLUS, it’s Wednesday, which means I’ll be at the Oasis tonight to work the crop.

Where’s the coffee???

Seriously??? Where did yesterday go? I most definitely need more hours in a day!

After sending my son to the grocery store in the rain so that I could have a hot cup of coffee, I headed into the office to get some work done. (Before I get yelled at about sending the boy out in the rain, there are a couple of things you should know – 1. We live a half a block from our grocery store, so he didn’t have to go far. 2. He was DYING to use that umbrella, which is really sad and shows you how much it really rains around here.)

Of course, as I said yesterday, I love the rain and love having all of my family safe at home.

Studying math in your footie jammies - could school get any better than that?

And how stinkin’ cute is this dog?

Of course, the cats spent the day in the office with me.

This is my labels and shapes sticker basket. Freddy decided that it was the perfect bed for him yesterday. Silly cat!

So, I got about halfway through the first mini book that I needed to get created as a class sample for Donna. Because of the rain, NOTHING was drying, which is just unheard of out here in the desert. The moisture in the air was playing all kinds of tricks on me and I was having a really hard time getting anything done. Hopefully today will be better. I need to get these things done and in the mail! I’ll post some sample photos when I get further along…

Ah… I love a rainy day… especially when all of my family is home safe and sound. Hubby is working from home today. Patrick won’t be out skating because of the rain. Donovan is finishing his last week of school work before Christmas vacation. I’m feeling much better than I did yesterday. Life is good.

And these two silly girls think it’s the greatest day ever because they get to spend the WHOLE day inside. I always have to laugh when I take pictures of Trixie. She always looks like she is smiling for me… except here…

…where it looks more like she is telling Ginger that she got the good spot on the couch. Ha! Too funny…

Anyway, since it’s raining, looks like I’ll be in the office all day…

Got some work to get done for Ms. Donna Downey today. I’d like to get to my December Daily album as well. Plus, this sweet girlie commissioned something from me… which is almost complete.

Did I mention how much I LOVE a rainy day???