So I'm slacking...

It's not my fault! Really it's not. I mean when the same things happen day in and day out what is there to blog about? (I'm speaking in rhymes)

So I thought to my self *as I frequently do* "Self what can we possibly blog about?"

Then I visited some of my favorite bloggers and read what they are talking about.

Turns out it's pretty simple. Most were talking about what they are thankful for. Makes sense to me seeing as it's Christmas time, a very nostalgic time of year. Leads one to reminisce and well.... be thankful.

Why couldn't I have been so clever as to think of this on my own??

*sigh* Oh well at least the thought is there now right? Right!

So what am I thankful for.

My loving family, even if they do try and make me watch National Lampoons Christmas Vacation.

My loving friends, even if they are leaving me the only one in a very very single status.

Our warm home. Good food. Beautiful Christmas decorations. Funny blogs. Fun online friends. Holiday cheer. Cute holiday movies. Fun times shopping with my family. Happy memories of holidays past. Hopeful dreams of holidays to come.

I think my favorite christmas memory and sadly my memory is failing a bit so it's not even one hundred percent clear, is the one where we had a ton of snow. Or so it seemed at least! We lived in our house on Walnut street and there are 5 or 6 semi-steep stairs that lead to the front porch. We scooped all the snow to one side of the stairs and packed it down nice and smooth. It was perfect! A million times better than any hill. Don't get me wrong sledding down a huge hill with a nice snowbank at the bottom for you to plow into is always great fun. But those stairs... HEAVEN! We ran up and down them all day! You slid down them so fast and then you only had to run up a few stairs to sled back down again. No trudging up a hill that takes 5 minutes to reach the top of and only 5 seconds to sled down. Not to mention that snow, having been packed down lasted at least two days! The best idea ever!! Now I'm not saying go out and cover half of your stairs with snow... in all truth it's probably not the safest thing we've ever done.

But it was by far one of the most fun! I think that was also the year we kind of made an igloo... all the snow piled up from the drive being cleared we just tunneled in... but I'm not sure. But I DO know that sledding was AWESOME!

So... look at that. A nice long blog update. And not a picture to be seen. All it took was a little inspiration from some great blogger authors!

But don't let me have all the fun.... What's your holiday thankful list, wish list, favorite memory?

I bet you have fun just thinking about it!

Finally! It's craft hour!

So it's finally time to get these Christmas crafting down! It's taken me just about forever to get this on here. I had a hard time getting these photos on here but finally success is mine!!

Ok so there are three 'projects' if you want to call them that. They were pretty easy, although I only did one of them.

First we have a snowflake wreath. Second a button christmas tree. Third wooden letters spelling 'JOY'.

This is the one that I did. I just saw the supplies in a scrapbook store that my mom and I like to go too (Daisylane for those who wish to know. Mattoon Il) What I bought was the circle background and then there were several different types of cut outs to choose from. Seeing as it's christmas I went with the snowflakes. I paints the circle front and back a metallic blue and the snowflakes got a good covering of off white paint. Once everything was dry I used glue dots to apply the flakes to the wreath background. I went with the dots because they gave me the option of even more of a 3-D look. I rather like how it turned out, although I do wish I had went ahead and purchased the second pack of flakes just to fill everything out more. Ah well live and learn yes??

This is one my mom did. She saw pictures of it on another blog and thought 'Hey I can do that!' and so she did. She started by picking out some buttons. Next she glued the bottom couple rows on and used pushpins to hold them in place. Next she glued the rest on at random dispersing red and white buttons on it for the look of ornaments. On the very top she happened to have a white star button that she stacked on top of a couple green round ones. We let it sit over night just to be certain that the glue was dry, though you could just use pushpins then no dry time necessary. The little ornament girl next to the tree was just to perfect. Mom collects 'Precious Moments' and all the winter ones are set out for the holidays.

These were also mom's idea. These are just wooden letters that mom bought, again at Daisylane. Paper and embellishments too for that matter. The paper is the same paper she is using for her christmas cards which makes them extra special. I really like the paper cause it almost has a retro vibe. I just like it even more. Obviously she cut the paper to fit the letters. Then she added metal snowflake embellishments. There is also ribbon at the top of the 'j' and bottom of the 'y'. But she did think that was quite enough. So using her cricut she cut out holly leaves and berries. Just for a plash more color.

These were just some simple and fairly quick craft projects we did to help spruce up the house for the holidays. You can do these easy projects too if you want for any type of place to decorate. Whether it be home, work, or church even. They can also be adapted for multiple situations.

What fun things will you do to make the holidays special??

Oh how the time flies...

So my plan had been to update quickly about the fun craft projects that my mum and I did. And then......

Frankly I don't know what happened.

I do know I've been sick for almost a week now. That's not so much fun. But the thing is that it wasn't exactly something that kept me in bed unable to move or anything.

In fact I went wedding dress shopping with one of my friends, it was fun helping her find her dress. It's very pretty and is so her. None of us really thought she'd like it (L included) but it was exactly what she was looking for.

Before that we had one of our Friday night jam sessions! Always a good time.

And before that..... let's see I spent a day at my mum's school. Some of the other ladies who work there had been sick and they needed a stand in. It was actually pretty fun. Cute kids!

But that's just three days accounted for this past week. What else have I done with my time?? Nothing! Not one darn thing.

I guess I was just being lazy.

Well no more!!

Seeing as this has run somewhat long (me and all my excuses) I'll do another post following this.... FINALLY covering the craft projects!

Until then!

Ok so really...

It's been several days since I've blogged. Not a huge deal. But that means that several of the things that I'm going to be talking about will have happened several days after the fact.


So first things first...


The tree! It's up! It's decorated and it looks great!

Ok so that is a tree that I helped my mom decorate for a tree decorating contest. It's still really cute! We decorated that tree this past Wensday(26th see it really is past the fact)

This is our tree.

The before....(we couldn't find the tree topper. this was put up on Friday 28th)

The after...(much better! finally finished on Saturday 29th)

The underneath?!? (our cat LOVES lying under the tree! It's like he thinks he's the best christmas gift!)





We also decorated the rest of the house. Mom collects snowmen... and it just always seem to be that when anyone knows that you collect something they feel this need to go out and find you the weirdest, most unique piece they can find. (We have some weird ones)





Here is some of the fam on Thanksgiving day.





We had a mini Thanksgiving on the actual day. The Saturday before was my mom's side of the family Turkey day and the Wensday before was my dad's side. So we had a mini one at home on the actual day of Turkey-dom! (Not only that but we didn't even have actual turkey that day... we had ham! Mmmm ham!)



Well I'll tell more about all the happenings around here later... Got to have something to blog about.



Just a heads up.... Get ready for Craft Time!!

O tannenbaum, o tannenbaum...

Doesn't it seem weird that I've been so excited about this holiday and I'm who was the most eager to put up a tree and now of all my friends I'm the only one who STILL doesn't have a tree up?!?!

I've helped decorate two trees and I'm supposed to help mom decorate one tomorrow for a Christmas tree contest type thing they are holding at the library.

*SIGH*

Not only that but everyone has blogged about their trees and... well I guess I've talked about trees but I haven't gotten to talk about "OUR" tree.

*BIGGER SIGH*

The upside is that we are perhaps putting it up this week.

Downside?!?!

That means that I have to clean the whole house.. BLAH!!!! Anyone want to come help?

I don't know what it is I have no problem helping to clean other's houses but when it comes to my space I just hate doing it. But I'm probably not alone in that.

Anyway here's hoping that I'll soon have a tree of my own to brag about.

Still sad that I'm the last one to get one up though.

Thanksgiving...

Ok so due to people having to work on actual Thanksgiving day my family had thanksgiving today! It was of course, wonderful!



Food-Delish!

Company-Fantastic!

Games-A Riot!

Time had-PRICELESS!!!



We also decorated my grandmother's christmas tree, loads of fun and loads of ornaments. I guess though that she's lead a very full happy life which leaves lots of great memories to be commemorated.



The only downer to this thanksgiving was even though we couldn't have it on the actual date because of work conflicts... there were still family members that couldn't make it. Sad :( but it was great none the less!



The other fun and wonderful thing that I did today was FINALLY getting to see 'Twilight'

Needless to say it was WONDERFUL!!!!

See my friend's blog for full details on why we didn't see it yesterday...click here... Suffice it to say I HATE stupid people!!! Sorry it's true... well.... I at least hate stupidity!!




Not that anyone would doubt it being great, I'm sure! It was just great to finally see it! We've read the books and they are such extremely well written books that when word was out that there was to be a movie we were STOKED!

The movie is a masterpiece!! It's so well done! Not only is it beautiful (hard not to be when in such a lush environment) but it's got some really great acting. They did a great job staying true to the book, it followed it nearly to the letter. If you've seen the book it's a whopper. So for the director and screenplay writer to condense it into a 2 hour movie is in it's self quite the feat. The only way in which it deviated was some small added in parts and they were done in such a way that it was as if it could have been written in anyway.

All in all a GREAT movie!

Only downer to the movie was what we went through the night before(not the movie's fault) and the theater where we saw(yes same place that gave us so much guff) had a few problems with their projector. The reel cut out two (almost three) times. Once was during the previews, not a big deal other than the fear that the movie wouldn't be playing, but the second was during the actual film. But they got it up and running again in no time and nothing was lost for the mishap.
The almost third time was during the credits and most people don't even stay around for those(my friend and I do though and I would have been a little bummed) but it didn't so no harm no foul.

So suffice it to say... My Thanksgiving was great and I have a TON to be thankful for.

(Can't wait for the actual day... I think the other side of the fam is getting together.... I do love my Thanksgiving meals!!!)

Follower....

So something I was looking at said it was a good idea to get the follower going. And to do so it was a good idea to do a post about it.

So why not?!?!

What is follower you may ask? Basically it's a way to kind of bookmark some of your favorite bloggers.

One it you can let them know that they have a blog worth reading/loving, you can do that anonymously or with your info showing.

Two it does you the favor of letting you know when your favorite bloggers have updated their sites meaning you don't have try and remember all the blogs you've checked... what those stinking addresses are.... It's just much easier.

Three the other added bonus to following is that it puts you out there. People you love to read can see that you have a blog and can check it out too. Not only that but other followers can see you too.

So where exactly is the bad!?! You get to more easily remember favorite bloggers and they and the masses can more easily check you out!

So maybe you should check out that there follow option... you never know it might be your new favorite tool!

Oh my Goodness!!!!!

It's the first snow!!

So sure, like most snows around here it most likely won't amount to much.

And most likely will be gone by Christmas.

But it's the FIRST SNOW!

It's so fun to happen to glance out the window just for a peek at what the weather is like and to see big fat fluffy flakes dancing on the wind as they float down from the heavens.

So here's to loving the small things!

'Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!'

I dream literary dreams

So as mentioned in the previous post I'm already in the Holiday spirit, have been for a few weeks now. Something that's been fueling my feelings are the books that I've been reading lately.

I think I've mentioned before that I'm a HUGE fan of reading.

Well being desperate to read something new I went searching for books in my mom's library. Found some good reads there, but almost every book had a mention of Christmas in them. And well let's just say the tidings of joy started from there. So having read all of mom's 'holiday' books I needed more! So this time I invaded my grandmother's library.

Can I just say it's a good thing I know people with as big of collections of books as me! Gives me a chance to borrow some great books!

There is a point to this rambling... sort of, it is just rambling after all. Having been reading Christmas-y books, I now wanted to write Christmas-y stories. (I have mentioned my writing before right? I'm sure I have) The only problem with that is that my current story that I've been working and slaving over for many months isn't Christmas-y at all.... I mean I suppose the ending could be Christmas (in fact now that I've thought of that I really like the idea) But I'm not to the ending yet!!!!

Ah such is life!

The other side of reading is that more and more these days some really great stories are being turned into movies!!! It's so fun to get to see a live action version of some really great works of fiction! The one I'm most excited about... and I'm sure a LOT of people are... is 'Twilight' .

I LOVED LOVED LOVED that series of books! So extremely well written and it's the type of things that I myself would love to one day produce.

So of course now that the movie is coming out I'm all a-tingle!! I can't wait to see some of my favorite characters come to life!

So to suplement my own obession I shall share some yummy 'Twilight' photos, and yes you've probably seen them before, but who doesn't want to see them again?!?!

So the classic triangle... Edward

Bella

and Jacob

It can't be wrong can it??

Is it wrong to be so excited about the up coming holidays? I can't imagine that it is. Why would it be? It's a time to get together with loved ones. You get to eat wonderful food, share nice gifts and in general make some really great memories.

I don't know why I've always loved these holidays, they are just my favorite ones to celebrate. Some families have big fouth of july's some big easters but for whatever reason, I'm pretty sure my family's favorite holidays are these winter ones. It's hard not too.

We play games, crowd in kitchens to make meals then to eat them, laugh and have an all around great time.

So sure it's only Nov. 13th.... I can start listening to Christmas music if I want! And if my mother and I want to put up the tree now that our prerogative. I don't mind seeming over eager.

What's wrong with a little holiday cheer!?

Nothing that's what!

So here's wishing you nice and early... Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah and Merry Kwanzaa and Anything and Everything else!!

How about Happy Holidays!!!

First of the month...

It's a new month and what do I have to show???

Well there are my fabulous new tats... my rockin new cropped hair...the 80 pound weight loss... lets see what else?!?! Oh my great new book deal, and let's not forget the most important absolutely gorgeous new fiance!!!

RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!

If you think any of that is real.... well thanks for the faith but really I got nothing.

No new job(still)

No new guy(still)

No new bod(still :Z)

I'm in a rut, a stinkin rut I tell you!!!! So what's a gal to do??

I guess we'll just have to see!


PS. did hear of an awesome new band (new to me at least -thank you big brother)

Katzenjammer - 'Tea with cinnamon' my personal fav! Check 'em out!

Oh for the days of my youth!!

Do you ever miss your younger days?

I do!

Well at least I miss things from my youth!

When I was younger my family and I always had different holiday traditions, as most families do.

There were the customary things, decorating, baking, shopping, all kinds of things.

But my family... more my brothers and I always, always, always watched certain movies.

Again I don't think that's too out there in the realm of things. But we might be a little odd in our desire to still hold on to those movies now.

It's getting a LOT easier to do seeing as most companies are bringing all those old classics out on dvd these days.

But what do you do when they don't? When you can't remember the name of the movie or who was in it.

There were a couple of different movies like that for me. God bless the internet because some of these old movies are MUCH easier to find thanks to it.

For example every Christmas I loved to watch this animated version of The Nutcracker, I thought it was great. Then it wasn't shown on any of the TV stations anymore. And I couldn't have told you who made it or anything.

Or this one where there are some toys that come to life at night when all the owners are in bed. But if the toys are caught out of position they are 'dead', they don't come to life anymore.

Or for Halloween my brothers and I loved to watch this movie where there's a couple of kids who are trying to save the town from ruin due to a factory being shut down, aliens land and help save the day. Again suddenly it was gone!

Any of these ringing a bell for you??? There are so many other movies that we loved to watch, and I guess they still get high enough ratings that different channels will still show them.

But how to find those others?!?!

Well like I said Thank the lucky stars for the internet, there is bound to be a site somewhere that can help you figure it out.

We'll I'd found my Christmas movies; 'The Nutcracker Prince' - 1990 (WB) : 'The Christmas Toy' - 1986 (Jim Hensen/Disney)

Some great movies there, you should try and check them out.

But alas my Halloween movie was still lost to me, most people thought I had imagined the whole thing up, well maybe not my brothers...

And then...

A beacon of hope.....

Thanks to Yahoo!Answers I found other people who were looking for the exact same movie... they described it just like I did.

OH HAPPY DAY!!!

But no one knew who it was by, who was in it..... Nothing.

Talk about crash and burn! I was so sad, for one glorious moment I thought everything could once again be right in my world.


Well to end the suspense, finally someone did know the name of the movie.

'The Last Holloween' (sometimes listed as Halloween) - 1991 (HannaBarbara)

My world is whole again.

Well... I'm still a little bummed because it's not out on VHS or DVD or anything, but I found the sucker on youtube (you can find almost anything on youtube)

And so I can properly celebrate Halloween again.


Also just for a little fun, here is a small part of the movie for you, if you'd like to watch the whole thing I do have it saved in a playlist on youtube as do a few others. This was posted by a youtuber named wetasaurus- thanks to him for providing this great movie to the masses!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nfm9AzXsbC0

And I had had such grand ideas too...

So I first started this thinking it would be a fun place to put down all my random thoughts and maybe some interesting insights into my mind... hence the name of the place.

I mean I wanted it to be funny and quirky and just something that could perk people up when they read it.

Alas, my blog has just been sitting here not being much of anything.

I've tried different things.

Telling humorous stories about mini adventures.

Making possible reading recommendations by listing my favorite authors.


NADA! Zilch! Zero! Nothing! I got a big ol' goose egg!

Maybe it's because I'm rather a big ol' nobody in the scope of the world. Maybe it's because I don't exactly brag about me having a blog so no one knows that it's here to read.

Whatever the reason there was no drawl to this blog for readers or for me to keep writing.

Well today is hopefully a new day!

It's the start of a renewal of posting.

I'll try to mix it up.

Maybe showcase some great pictures that I've found or that myself or someone else I know has taken.

Maybe keep the writer recommendations, humorous personal stories.

But whatever I do I will try and keep this entertaining for any and all visitors!

Well, that's all for now!

LATE!