Happy Friday to Me!

So, today has started off in a great way b/c of a couple of things...

1. I'm off from work today (having a mini "stay"cation)
2. DH is working from home today
3. I'm in Houston and it's SNOWING outside.  We don't normally get snow here in this little town.
4. I got an email this morning from Lisa Kisch suggesting that I check back on her blog today...

...and to my DELIGHT, I learned that I had won her giveway from the other day!  Woohoo!  So, being as tech unsavvy as I am...I was thinking...how in the world do I "capture" that screen shot and share on my blog today.  Then I just figure, I'm going to take a picture of it.  yeahyeah - that'll do it! And so here you see my fun news:

I heart the blogger world...especially bloggers I've "met" though 2peas :)  Thanks again, Lisa!

Okay - I'm going to attempt to clean up my mess made from all the cards I've been making in mass...and then I'm going to see if I can mentally prepare myself to finally open up the sewing machine i told you about a few days ago.

But before I do that, I need to update my wishlist on Elfster.  It's our annual Christmas crew get together and our Secret Santa's have been drawn.  Here we are at last year's get together at E's place:

Top L-R: Jennifer, me, Evonne

Bottom L-R: Christine, Stephanie, Mia, Nancy, Kathy, Jane

And an early CONGRATS to Christine (picture above) who is getting married tomorrow!! Woohoo!

Hope everyone else has a HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!

thanksgiving weekend recap

Wow - it's been almost a week since I last posted.  Bad me.  It was a very busy weekend which for me ended on Monday (since I took that as a vacation day).  And what did I do over the love 5 days off from work, you may ask? Well, as you know from my last post...Thursday was spent baking cookies and spending time with the family for Thanksgiving.  Friday and Saturday was furniture shopping (I'll be posting on that in the very near future).  Saturday evening / Sunday morning was spending time with my uncle who drove in from Arizona for a quick weekend visit.

my uncle, my mom, me, and a friend of my uncle's

And then on Monday - I got to spend the day cardmaking...I had been making cards throughout the weekend really...but Monday was my uninterrupted time.  Woohoo!

Here are all the cards I made between Thu - Mon:

And here are some of my favs from this batch:

I'm so loving ribbon lately (especially grosgrain).  Had to go off to Hobby Lobby (aka my fav store) to get some new ribbon today...which I did already use to make 3 cards tonight...

Okay - so my next new "project" will be creating invitations for a special someone's 60th bday as well as invitations for my friend's bridal shower coming up next year ;o)  Woohoo!

So, did anyone catch Glee tonight?  Another great episode!  And by chance I caught an episode of Criminal Minds where Jackson Rathbone had a guest appearance (or whatever you call it).  That was kind of nice to seem him in a role where he got to act as someone other than Jasper from the Twilight Saga.  Speaking of which I really want to watch New Moon again in the theatre...and I so can NOT wait for the DVD to come out for it either.  *le sigh*

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thursday!  I'm finally off to bed!

cross one off my wishlist

so earlier this week, I stopped by to see my mom at her house...and while there, guess who got to take home her Christmas present EARLY this year...that's right - ME!  I'm the baby of the family and the only daughter - it comes with privileges. :O)  here's what my momma got for me this year....

now all i need to do is to figure out how to use it! heeheehee....  any tips out there as to how to start?

cookies and thanksgiving

Happy turkey day folks!  Hopefully by now, everyone's stuffed and enjoying the estimated 4,000 calorie intake from a traditional turkey day meal (at least that's what my BIL said he had heard). 

So, for the first half of the day...I decided I would finally use my new cookie press that I purchased (with a 20% off coupon of course from BBB). Back in September we had a little BBQ and our neighbor came over and brought over the cutest tray of pumpkin shaped sugar cookies. My inquiry as to how she got her cookies to come out so perfectly led to the discovery of this thing called a cookie press.  So I bought one with the intention of possibly making cookies to give as gifts this Christmas.  Cookies and some hand made cards, actually...gotta put my scrapbooking to use!  So, I think I purchased the tool about 4 weeks ago.  I think I had put off using it b/c I needed to work up the confidence to try something new.  Don't know why I was so scared to try it out.  I guess it's not like a scrapbooking tool - I waste no time breaking those things out.

I used a recipe from the BHG 75th Anniversay cookbook. I forgot the name of the recipe but it was something like "Melt In Your Mouth Butter/Sugar cookies).  Looked fairly easy to do plus I had all the ingredients on hand.  Okay, so here are some pics from my baking experiment today:

the tool

testing various sizes

i also got a silicone baking mat...works great for sugar cookies

the first batch!  the plain looking ones on the left were just made so that i could make sure the cookies tasted alright..and then i put the cookie dough into press to once i knew the cookies were edible ;oP

So all in all - I enjoyed using this new cooking gadget and hopefully get a bit braver with my baking :)  oh and the cookies came out rather tasty.  a bit on the sweet side but still lovely.

By mid-afternoon we were off to my SIL's home to have Thanksgiving dinner.  DH was feeling better (he'd been battling an upper respiratory infection since last weekend) and so he was able to make it after all.  Plus, I don't think he could've resisted a chance to see his sweet baby niece.  Neither could I! 

Jae and Jina hosted Thanksgiving this year so that Maddy wouldn't need to leave the house.  (We'll be hosting Christmas so she should be able to come out by then).  They ordered most of the meal from Luby's (one of my favs) and made the rest...and it all looked delicious.  That and the fact that all I had eaten before getting there was some yogurt from this morning really got my stomach growling.  I was HUNGRY   I have before and after pics of my plate below b/c yes, I am that cheesy.  My MIL and FIL both made a comment about how much food I had on my plate, LOL.

Anyhoo - it was great to spend time with family although I did miss my mom.  She worked today at her salon and didn't think she'd be up to for the drive to join us for dinner (it would've been about an hour drive...one way).  Hopefully we'll get a chance to stop by and see her this weekend.  Also, my uncle is driving in from AZ and so I'm sure we'll get together at some point over the next few days.  Yay!  Okay...sorry for the tangent. Anyhoo - here are some pics from tonights Thanksgiving dinner.

the "guest of honor" - poor yummy turkey

really cute napkin rings

and cute placemat thingy

the spread

the wonderful hosts - maddy's first thanksgiving! she's smaller than the turkey!

my plate "before"

my plate "after"

maddy taking a nap - so precious!

DH looking like he was about to follow in Maddy's footsteps with the nap thing

my SIL says the baby really loved looking at the tree lights.  i just loved looking at the tree - it was SO cute (gingerbread/sweets themed)

from us to you - HAPPY THANKSGIVING '09!!!

my happy space

so here are some pics of my craft room that i took early this month.  i've changed some things since then...so i think this room will be tagged in many future posts LOL.  what i'd really love to do is paint the walls...and some of the furniture.  maybe i can talk my DH into giving me a "budget" to work with to re-do this room.  we got our first home almost 4 years ago and we've decorated/furnished 1 room a year.  the first year was the powder room, then the dining room was '07, the master bedroom was '08, and this year was the living room...which we still have yet to get furniture for...then again '09 isn't over yet now is it? ;o)  so, i know my craft room is way down the line...so it'll constantly be changing in the meantime.  but for now...or at least this month...this is what it's been looking like.

it's a plain beige boring room - but i love it because it's all mine :)

birthdays, cupcakes, fall retreat and more...

I'm really not doing such a great job keeping up with my brand new blog if it's already been 10 days since my last post!  i'm such a slacker!  okay, i really need to try to be better about this! wish me luck peeps!  so what has happened...well, let's see...a couple of bdays, some more cards, church fall retreat, and other odds and ends...so let's start off with some pics, shall we?

well, first off...here's an overdue pic of my sweet new little niece Madison...Thanksgiving day will be the first time I'll get to see her since the first time we met...

so sweet

proud uncle and auntie

then we got to attend Z's 1st bday...

bday boy and his family :)

the following weekend was our church's fall family retreat at Trinity Pines...

shadow pic of the hubby and me

view on Saturday morning from in front of our room

the hubby and me (it's hard for him not to make a face when taking a pic with me :-P)

my BFF, Mia holding her son and her daughter in the bottom corner of the pic

speaking of my BFF...her son's 100th day celebration was this past weekend...and she asked me to make 50 cupcakes for the event...last spring, she asked me to make 100 cupcakes for her daughter's 1st bday and i'm lucky that worked out well.  here's a pic of the cupcakes i made for sarah's bday:

and here are pics of the cupcakes for joey's 100th day (a significant milestone for Korean babies that is called "paegil" i think)...

before the sprinkles i used to bling them up a bit

with sprinkles...aka cupcake bling

on display at his little shindig :)

the guest of honor himself  on his mommy's shoulder

tons of korean dishes made by Mia's MIL

my favorite korean dish - chap chae (clear noodles with vegetables and meat) YUM!

then there were my co-worker's bday...Vanessa and Tim and we celebrated at Hido's Japanese Grill where they became sushi chefs for about 5 mins each...

and then my friend Kathy's bday was also last week...

me, kathy, and jen

let's see what else...ah, yes...last friday our house church group prepared gift boxes for Operation Christmas Child...here's what hubby and I put together (one for a girl and one for a boy)...

and then today i got to see Becky at church!  yay!  she recently moved to the west coast and i've so missed her...

i also got a txt msg from Sonya who, with her hubby David, were in town for the holidays and asked to meet up for lunch...which we did.  i forgot to get a pic with them this afternoon...but here's one of us from this past August when we met up for the 2nd year in a row at the Maine Annual Lobster Fest...

I heart these new yorkers who introduced us to many wonderful east coast eateries!

okay - oh, yes, i did recently take pics of my craft room...but i'll post those tomorrow...along with some cards i made recently....hope y'all enjoyed my photo update post! LOL