Smiles

Chelseys sporting not only a new engagement ring but a new diamond necklace AND new diamond earrings, I guess shes gonna be a spoiled bride.......and dad and Sadie and both sporting smiles, notice Sadies tongue????

Look who came to dinner!!!!

These are the Spiveys from the Ozarks, I have been BFFs with Deborah Lynn for 30 years, my name is Deborah Lynn too, shes married to Joe, so am I, but thats not the biggest coincidence....I met Deb 30 years ago when we were in our early 20s, and we became fast friends, BUT Deb was lookin for a husband, and I wasnt , so as soon as she latched on to a man, she decided I was chopped liver......anyways, we parted ways, she set her sights on landing Joe, and I set my sights on staying single. Years went by, I met my Joe, we got married and we moved to a small town an hour east, a small town, one I had never even heard of. So Joe and I settled into our brand new house in a brand new housing tract and waited for neighbors, the house next door was still empty but I had heard we were getting some neighbors.By this time I was pregnant, but thats another story, and I will never forget this, I was standing out in the front yard of my new house, with my Joe, and up walk the people who bought the house next door.......can you guess who it was????????? Now remember, this town is out in the boonies, somewhere called the Inland Empire, which I had never heard of, but the houses were big, a lots cheaper than LA......so up walk Deb and Joe....omg, I almost gave birth right there on the spot......that was almost 24 years ago.....coincidence? what do you think?? So we were neighbors and best friends for 15 years, until she decided farm living was the place to be....and they moved the Spivey clan to Green Acres.....miss ya Deb my VBF!!!!!
OH by the way, for those of you perceptive enough to see that Iam entertaining in a bath robe, I really didnt, that was my Christmas present from Deb, and she insisted I wear it........and OH, by the way, that pic of me and my hunk, I hate it of me cuz it looks like I have 3 chins, and in reality I only have 2, but I wanted you to see Sadie, because she is smiling for the camera!!!!!

I have a special BFF.....

I have a very special BFF...her name is Traci....shes married to my husbands cousin, so we are family. We also work together...shes the only reason I keep working, she tells me she would have a nervous breakdown if I quit.......and I almost did (quit) this week, and I almost gave her a breakdown....but she told me I could make it up to her if I made her cupcakes, her nickname is cupcake..... she said she wanted cupcakes with her name on them, so here they are, special cupcakes for a special BFF.....I love ya Traci!!!!!

I made these stockings for my girls many years ago, always fun to drag them out. The red one is 23 years old, the other one, oh, about 20 years old.......sometimes it makes me feel so old when I think of the things I used to fill them with...lifesavers, candy, hello kitty.......and the things I fill them with now.....hairspray, eyelash curlers......hairspray.....makeup...did I mention hairspray?
We found out this morning that Sadie likes yogurt, she likes it very much.....

Christmas Cheer

While the hunk and I were out shopping and eating and going to movies last Sunday, we happened onto these awesome cups at Pottery Barn, and the hunk said they would be great gifts for his board member friends....I think so too, but not empty, so I spent the afternoon making chocolate covered pretzels to fill them with, then a bow and a candy cane, and the perfect little giftie, I think they turned out cute dont you????

Im going to make more pretzels now, milk chocolate.........Today I went to the store to get all my baking needs, soon Im going to make Peg's marshmellow brownies, I have been promising the hunk I would make them ever since I got back from the outer banks and raved about them, I have never tasted anything like them, so Peg, I sure hope I can make em half as good as you did!

Tomorrow, rocky road and almond bark.........

Around here we call her Prancer...

Shes always pranced, and trotted, and spun in circles, so to get her to sit still is impossible......so this is the best we could get.....our house is filled with the sounds of jingle bells thanks to Sadies new Christmas collar...Little Cheech has one too, but shes so much more mature and above all the hoopla, so hers doesnt jingle quite as much, and thats just the way she wants it.....

Holy Moly Im on a roll!!!!

Wowser, 2 posts in one day....a record!!!! BUT I had to share my table runner that I just whipped out this morning, only took an hour, too cute huh, excuse me while I pat myself on the back...because I have not made anything since the Spring table runner I made, well, last spring!

Thats another one of my New Years Resolutions, to sew again, but, see last post, simply, I will not buy more crap, I will use what I have! Anyways, these dang charm packs make it so easy to whip stuff up!!! And I forgot in my last post to show you my new dishes!!!!! Can you tell I love red.......funny, it all started with the red knobs on my Viking Range...and now theres red everywhere! Anyways, I found these fiesta ware dishes at Costco of all places, and I had been wanting them for a while....red of course.......then while I was walking in Sharon's footsteps I came upon these red and white dishes at Pottery Barn....I set my table with them and it looks awesome, Christmas'y but good for year round too! And then I followed Sharon's ghost over to Williams Sonoma and bought the napkins and table runner.....and voila, a festive table without dragging out all those dated Christmas dishes with the Christmas trees on them!

Ok, Im gonna go eat a BLT, and get ready for work, cuz Gwen Stefani doesnt make ENOUGH money, she needs me to put on my LAMB coat and go out in the windy cold crappy weather and sell her perfume!

A Simple Christmas.......

I have decided to have a simple Christmas......I have decided that I will only decorate with the things that I love, that make me happy.....I will not feel like I have to put out every single Christmas Piece that has found its way into my home for the past 30 years.....its simply too much work, a time suck, it takes way too much precious time to put it all up and take it all down. Besides, half the crap is just that, crap, dated and old and tired. I used to take everything down and replace it with Christmas, I emptied my entire china hutch and put in Christmas dishes, that took a day in itself......I emptied my curio and replaced the everyday with Christmas, another day.....and so on........NO MORE, its over, If I cant do it in a day, better yet, half a day, its not happening......and ya know what, simple looks better! Simple will be my new word for 2008.....make it simple, less is more. After the holidays, what I didnt put out is going out, to the Good Will.......I will have more room in my garage, and more room in my life!

And so today, instead of emptying my china hutch, Im going to go make a table runner!!!!!

Oh, by the way, run to your nearest movie theatre and see August Rush, it will make you happy....

Before.......and after........

Have you ever had a project you needed to get done that you literally put it off for ages, in this case, years........and when you finally got around to it, it took about an hour of your time, and you just shake your head and wonder why did I put it off for SO long? In this case, I found a table cloth 2 years ago when May Co. closed, I got it for about 4.00, marked down from 40.00, couldnt pass it up, and I thought it would be a good fabric to cover my sad dining room chairs......and I just put it off and put it off, well, I finally decided to get to it today, and guess what, about one hour, yes I said ONE hour and its done!!!!!! And viva la difference!!!! My sad old spotted up chairs are now a lovely shade of, well, kind of a cross between persimmon and tomato, all I know is I learned a lesson today......my dear hubby will love this, because he says it all the time, never p ut off til tomorrow, or next year, what you can do today!!!!!

Shame on me...

It has taken me forever to get this picture up on my blog....slap me.....anyways, heres the fab chocolate swap I got from Darlene..she and I both have exactly the same taste, so funny, we got each other the same things, lots of milk chocolate from Sees, and my fav all time Hershey kisses.......she filled the can to the brim...thanks so much my friend!!!!!

Girlfriends......

Well, I promised to share our craft project with you , but we gabbed so much no one finished it, lol......banners, we made Christmas banners, or shall I say we started them....

These 3 have been my friends for many many years, love them, enjoy thier company, and someday we will get a craft finished......if we didnt talk so dang much!

The weather here in SoCal is really chilly and rainy, I LOVE it....love walking in it and looking at all the Christmas lights.....

I took a class here today, darling Christmas scrapbook, I will share pics tomorrow, or Monday, probably Monday................Have a good rest of the weekend my friends!