Happy Holidays!

I just wanted to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday!

corks

Over the summer I was at a garage sale and found this

a box full of wine corks. I wound up getting the whole thing for $1.00. How could I turn that down? I really didn't know what I would do with them, but I knew that they would make for a cool project. Well after months of sitting in our closet Ryan started to get a little cranky about them taking up space so I needed to find a project to make with them. I got a shadow box for 50% off at Michaels, which came to like $6.00.

Next I removed the class and started sorting through all the corks. I was looking for ones that were fun. It wound up being like a puzzle finding corks that would fit to make rows. Once I had them all laid out in the rows I hot glued them into place and wound up with this

I'm pretty excited with how it turned out. I'm planning on hanging it in my office/craft room and using it as a cork board. I think that it's a fun alternative to a classic cork board.

I also decided to make this. We needed some more Christmas decorations for the apartment so I thought that this would be cute. It was super easy and fast to make.

I still have a ton of corks left and want to make some more Christmas stuff. Considering that today is Christmas eve it won't do us much good for this year, but I think I will make them next week so they will be ready to be packed away for next Christmas. I want to make these cute trees and some reindeer ornaments. Both look easy and super cute!

It's Christmas time again!

I decided that this year I wanted to make Ryan and I stocking for Christmas. I took a sewing class before Halloween and decided that this would make a nice first project.

The stocking took alot longer than I expected to make. I hand stiched the elf and elfette as well as our names. They took me quite awhile to do. I worked on them a llittle in the evenings when I had time. I really lucked out today and got placed on call for work. So I didn't have to go in and got to get them done. I think that they turned out pretty good for my first attempt at sewing. But it was a good experience and I learned a TON! I added little bells for some flair. Sorry for the picure quality!

Here is a picture on our Christmas tree this year! We still haven't found a topper that we like nor a tree skirt. So the tree is a little naked at the bottom. I really need to get cracking and finish up my Christmas shopping. I'd love to one day get good enough at my crafts to allow me to do a homemade Christmas.

It is begining to get alot colder here, which is making me really want to finish a knitting project. Now that the stockings are done I can really focus on knitting.

Bees!

We took Heidi and the twins to the pumpkin patch today. Here are a few of the pictures from the trip. The babies are bees for Halloween and they were not very happy about being in the costumes. It was kind of funny. The weather held out for us so we got lucky.

Pumpkins!!

It is that time of year again Halloween!! Fall is finally here and today turned out to be a pretty decent day to go to the pumpkin patch. Ryan and I were a little worried because it was supposed to rain all week. But yesterday was nice and this morning was a little foggy, but we went for it. The pumpkin field was nice and dry and we had a great time. We have gone to this farm for the last 3 years and really enjoy it there. You get to go on a tractor ride out the the pumpkin field (you can see the tractor in the background of the above picture). There were a few schools having field trips there so it was a little crowded at times but still fun!

This is my favorite picture of the bunch. Our annual pumpkin picture! You can't tell from the picture because we both have either a jacket or vest on, but underneath we both are wearing Blazer shirts because we are going to the game tonight. We got a quarter season package the first game is tonight. We are so excited, especially Ryan.

We got to be honorary 2nd graders and go on the potato tour with them. I was amazed on how excited they got over potatoes. They just mainly made me hungry.

Goodbye 2008

So my friends it is that time of year again. As another years comes to a end it it time to reflect. I am choosing this blog to write about things I would like to accomplish in the new year. One could call them resolutions. I call them a list of things that I would like to do or work on. It's a little less intimidating that way.

• I would like to be more crafty. I want to try to make more thing, like scrub tops for example. I really don't think that I can see myself scrap booking yet, but maybe some small things. I would like to learn how to sew well enough to make some things. I would love to make some aprons. I have seen the cutest fabric lately. I would also like to attempt to make more gifts for people. I think that homemade things are so thoughtful.
• I want to become more fit. I don't really want to lose weight. I have come to learn that numbers are a bad thing to focus on. I want to become stronger, develop more stamina (that's what she said), and become a healthier person. Between school, work and personal life things I have really learned the importance of taking care of your body. I know I can't change somethings about me, but I want to learn to love me. And taking care of myself is that best way to do that.
• Spend more time with friends
• Laugh more. 2008 was a sad year for me, so I want to make 2009 a fresh start with lots of laughter. As Jimmy Buffet said, "if we couldn't laugh we all would go insane"
• Don't worry so much. I am constantly working on this. I am such a horrible worry wart. Worry is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do but doesn't get you anywhere. I also want to focus on the things that I can control in my life and stress less over the things I can't. I know that I can't change this over night, it will probably take years to change these habits. But you got to start somewhere. I also want to stop worrying about where I will be in 5 years or 10 years. I have done this to much in the past and I lost out on so much that was happening in that moment. I want to work on living each day to it's fullest. That is something that my Grandma really showed me how to do.
• Reduce my carbon footprint
• Budget and save. This is hard because I get budget envy really bad sometimes (thanks Julie for that term). But I got to focus on the end point and that makes it worth it. Also when you budget it makes buying things a little more special. You really got to think about what you are buying. I read somewhere that you should write down every single purchase you make for a week and see where your money goes. Maybe I will try this little experiment.
• Finish my Grandma's cookbook
• Refuse to let the dysfunctional people in my life make my life dysfunctional
• Read more

I'm sure that I have many more things to add, but that is all that I can think of. What is your list for the new year? I hope that the new year is very blessed for you all and brings you lots of happiness and joy.
Cheers!
ps- sorry for all the spelling errors. It's late and for some reason the spell check wont work. I will add become a better speller to my list :-)

Christmas and Snow

Christmas has come and gone. And I have to say that I am happy that it's over. This year was even more crazy than most because of the weird weather that we had, but I will talk more about that later. It was insanely hard getting through Christmas with out my grandparents being there. I noticed it the most when I would be doing things that somehow involved them in the past. Like baking cookies was always something that my mom and I did with my grandma. Or putting up the angel on the tree that I made when I was in pre-school that my grandparents kept all these years and made my mom promise that she would put it on the tree still once my grandparents were gone. Not having them to call on Christmas morning or have dinner with that night. But I the thing that I tried most to focus on was the memories that I had and what I could do to carry their memory on. Because that is what keeps them with me. Ok, on a happier note I got some pretty cool gifts. My favorites were:

• my GPS. She needs a name. I was calling her Lola, but that is what I named my mom's GPS. Maybe mine needs a new name. She currently has a British accent.
• my leather riding boots
• the recipe binder that my mom got me for the cookbook I'm making of my grandma's recipes
• The last 2 Twilight books

Now onto the snow. What the heck happened! It is NOT supposed to snow that much in Portland. I dislike the snow now that I have a job that I have to go to no matter how bad the weather is. That's the crappy part about working in health care, people don't ever stop being sick or injured...no matter what the weather is like. I was fine with the snow, I've got chains and four wheel drive on the explorer. It's just that once the ice hits you can't do anything to make you a better driver. You are just stuck with whatever happens. I have to say that I don't think that I have ever seen so much snow in Portland in my entire life. It was insane. I was so sick of it. Snow becomes work. I had to shovel so much. That is one thing that is nice about the rain, you don't have to shovel it. I also became bored out of my mind on my day's off. I was supposed to fly to Bend to see my parents there, but my flight got cancelled. So I had a couple extra days to sit around. Relaxing becomes boring fast. Thank goodness that I never lost power. Here are a couple of pictures to show you the snow accumulation.
This was the first day of snow. It was pretty and made me a little happy.


This was one week later. Sorry if it's a little blurry, it was so cold out that the shutter on my camera was having trouble closing.

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas...

Well, it seems that winter is finally here. The snow came down like crazy today. I had to work, and let me tell you that is one thing that I don't like about my job. Just because the weather is bad, doesn't mean that people will stop being sick or injured. I had to be at work at 7am this morning. When I left for work the weather was clear and fine, but I took the explorer just to be safe. And boy am I glad that I did! I watched out the window as the snow fell down wondering if I would be able to make it home, or if I would have to take the hospital up on the offer of a room for the night. I left at 3:30pm and thanks to my mad skills at putting on chains and some 4 wheel drive I made it home safe and sound. I found out that I don't have to go to school tomorrow so I get a day off. I so excited. I will actually get to do some holiday baking now. I was really upset that I missed out of baking cookies with Julie last weekend. Maybe next year we can start baking Christmas cookies together.

Ok, I'm going to go attempt to catch up on some TV shows if my internet will allow me. I will leave you with some pictures I took tonight of my yard. Stay warm!

Pumpkins and such...

So Halloween has come and gone. I was so busy all last week that I didn't have any time to post pictures from the pumpkin patch and the carved pumpkins.

Ryan and I went out to a pumpkin patch in Sherwood. It's very cute and fun. This is our second year going there. I think we will keep going there as long as it stays open. We really lucked out with weather. It was cold but sunny. Also, you can note that I am wearing the new hat that Ryan got me. He did a good job picking it out all by himself. I love hats. I could write a hole blog about how much I love them, but I will save it for another day ;-)

These are 2 of the 4 pumpkins that we carved. Ryan's is the skeleton and mine is the "Happy Halloween". The other 2 I did not get pictures taken because I wanted to wait till it was dark to take them. I left the house and came back and they were kicked in by some brats. *NOTE: I will find who you are and eat your soul!* So the other 2 pumpkins are now in pumpkin heaven. The really frustrating part is that one of the dead pumpkins was insanely hard to get open and carved out. It was like a vortex. I broke spoons and knives trying to get it open.
I'm not really into the whole dressing up thing for Halloween, so I spent the holiday in Bend working on the house. It's really coming along. I'm so proud of it. I will try to get some pictures posted of the remodel soon.
I am now going to go watch The Office that I missed.