Moving backwards

Instead of moving forward into the Christmas season I first need to take a couple steps back to show you our Thanksgving dinner.

No one was looking at the camera. Must be the food was just too good.

Presley and I had a little selfie session.

I mean how could I not.

Black Friday

In honor of black Friday there will be nothing but black print in this post. However, if  I'm being honest it's because I was too lazy to write a post last night and only thought of doing this, this morning.

I'll be headed off to work today. The nice thing about working in a grocery store on black Friday is that it will be very quiet. Not only will everyone be out doing their shopping, grabbing all those hot deals but they have leftovers at home.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope that all of my friends here in the U.S. have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Overkill

There is one particular customer at the store where I work that frequently orders cakes. While most people will ask for one, maybe two colors on their cakes she always asks for at least four. I find myself getting very annoyed with that. It means mixing up extra colors and since I don't have a lot of pastry bags it usually means having to wash a bag in between colors.

On top of multiple colors, my personal opinion is that the combinations are awful. The one I had to do yesterday is a perfect example. The deli manager said that the color combination made it look like a unicorn threw up on it. I have to agree.

Boreing.

Life has been very boring lately. That's not necessarily a bad thing but it makes it difficult to come up with anything for a blog post.

I had another lazy day off. I did do a little cleaning, attempted to work on a craft project but in the end decided lounging and reading was a better option.

I did snap a couple pictures of the morning sky.

It wasn't real warm but it did get up in to the 40s and the sun was shining. The next couple days are supposed to be 50s and then the temp drops for Thanksgiving day.

That's the way the cookie crumbles

The last couple days have not gone according to plan. Saturday my intentions were to go to two different craft shows, do a Walmart run and then come home to work on some craft projects. I went to one craft show, hit Walmart and then came home and was totally exhausted. I didn't even manage to get a blog post written.

Sunday morning felt like anything that could go wrong did. Thankfully, after a rough start to the day it got better.

Sometimes that's just the way the cookie crumbles.

In case you are wondering, no I did not bake these this weekend. These cookies are several years old. I just used the picture because although they aren't crumbling, they are cookies.

They have all the answers

TGIF

Let me just say that I am so glad it's finally Friday and that I'm off tomorrow. I am way beyond being ready for a day off. Too bad it's only one day because I sure could use several in a row.

Around these parts the fall color is done for. I didn't even really get any good fall pictures this year. I did come across some fall pictures in the archives that I've probably shared before but I'm going to use them again. These are all from 2016. All of them have been edited too.

Hope everyone has a great day.

Hang ups

All pictures today are ones that I found on Facebook.

While wasting time browsing through Facebook I came across a snowflake made out of white coat hangers.

If that wasn't cool enough, I saw another one that was the same as above but then covered in garland and lights.

Then my daughter tags me on Facebook with a video of someone making an angel out of coat hangers. I tried to post the video but couldn't do it so here's the link if you want to see it.
https://www.facebook.com/shabbytree/videos/554942625071123/

Some people are so clever.

Progress but nothing new.

So on Monday I made a little bit of progress on completing some projects that have been stacking up. they are repeats of ones I've already shown on the blog before though. Now I just have a million and one other projects lined up to do. That's half my problem. I have far too many ideas.

A while back I showed you a 2x4 turkey that I made. I had a couple more started and then their parts were sitting in a basket for quite some time. I finally got around to finishing them. I figured since it's almost Thanksgiving it was now or they would sit around till next year.

I'm getting a bit lazy with the pictures. All of them have been cell phone pictures lately.

Aside from these, I also completed another set of 5 of the embroidery hoop ornaments. Now I'm out of hoops so I'm going to have to order some more.

Seen one, you've seen them all

I'm beginning to think I'm in a rut with the cakes I do at work. Any more it seems like you've seen one you've seen them all. This was one I did last Friday

Bought myself a treat

Saturday I was walking through Walmart and saw a display in the middle of the isle that had shoes and boots. The side I was looking at had a reduced sign that said $5. I couldn't resist I bought a pair.

I sent the below picture to my daughter and said they were only $5 and I couldn't resist. She sent a text back saying that I paid $5 too much for them.

I thought they were kind of fun.

A finish

I have another project finished. My daughter has been wanting me to make her an apron. I pinned a pattern on Pinterest a while back and sort of procrastinated about doing it. She wanted a certain fabric and I was supposed to buy it. Honestly I couldn't even remember what the fabric was. Finally I bought some Thanksgiving themed fabric and got started. It took me another week or so before I actually finished it.

These are not great pictures but this first one has a bonus in it with Gibbs in the background. Please just look at the apron and Gibbs and ignore the fact that I'm having a bad hair day and it's pulled back in a pony tail.

I told her that her apron was done and it was full of imperfections and that if she wanted another one she could make it herself. It wasn't that difficult but I wasn't quite satisfied with how it turned out.

Nana's 53

Follow the green frosting. Not only did I drop a big glob of frosting on the floor but I didn't notice it and stepped in it.

We can cut in to Nanas cake and celebrate her birthday

I think I may need more hoops.

I got a text message last week from someone who had seen my ornaments on Facebook and wanted to know how they could buy a couple. I said I would be happy to make them some but had to order some more of the hoops.
Friday night I placed the order on Amazon and Sunday afternoon they were delivered. I'm really loving that part about my prime membership. I don't order a lot from there but when I do I hate the wait so now I don't have a long one.

Any way, this time around, since I had more hoops I made a complete set of 5 and sent his picture off to let the person know I had them done and they could choose which ones they wanted.

After I sent the picture they said they would take all 5.  Then I was showing this same picture to a girl at work she asked me how much they were. When I told her she said she would also like a set of 5 to give to her father in law.

That takes me down to just 2 hoops left and I was going to give a set of three to a couple of people for Christmas gifts. Guess I'll be ordering more hoops from Amazon.

Winter wonderland

Late Monday afternoon it started to snow. By Tuesday morning we had quite an accumulation on the ground. I wasn't expecting that much and was quite surprised when I went out to clean my car off to go to work.

When I got home from work I snapped a couple cell phone pictures out the front window. The view isn't anything exciting but if you like snow it's got that.

This one of the poor hydrangea covered in a chilly blanket of snow looks more like a black and white shot.

I saw on my phone that there is a winter storm warning in effect until  this afternoon. I just hope it doesn't dump too much more snow on us.

I'll make my own.

Or not. The other day I mentioned that I was at a craft show and commented to one of the women selling about one of her items.

She had these, which are plastic snow globes from Dollar Tree.

She filled it with fake snow and assorted small items and it was a type of game to find all the items hidden in the snow. It was a clever idea. I doubt I'll do that with mine but it was clever.

Any way, these have the plastic globe part, an outer lid and an inner seal/plug. I suppose you probably could put liquid in these if you really wanted to because the plug fits very snug. Not sure what I'll do with this. I have a habit of picking things up without having a plan because you never know when inspiration will strike.

Oh yes I did

Maybe it's because I was in need of a feel good story to chase away the aggravation I was feeling but last night I watched not one but two Christmas movies.

The first was called One Special Night with James Garner and Julie Andrews

 And the second was Crazy forChristmas

I won't pretend I didn't enjoy both movies. I'm pretty sure I've already seen the second one though. 

My original plan was to come home from work and get busy on those craft projects that are waiting to be finished but my mood wasn't right so sappy Christmas movies it was. 

11/9

I started my day off slow and lazy. It was quite cold and required more than one cup of coffee before I could get myself going.

Later in the morning Amanda and I went to a small local craft show. I didn't buy anything but there was one table that had some ornaments I liked. I probably would have bought one but the woman was not very friendly when I mentioned that I had one of the things she decorated at home and was wondering what to do with it. She gave me a funny look and then talked to another customer.

After that it was a stop for dog food and a couple other things then back home. I have 3 projects in various stages of completion and I needed to get to work on them. I finished one, worked on another and never thouched the third.

Actually even though I finished this, there are two more that need to be done. This is made out of glass fish bowls. The top is glittered and the face is a vinyl cut out. The bottom is filled with fake snow and small pieces from Dollar Tree. The hat is a Dollar Tree ornament and the scarf is a piece of a fleece scarf also bought from Dollar Tree

The picture isn't so good because I took it with my cell phone and I couldn't get a picture without a glare from the window.

Fridays order

The other day a customer came in to order a cake. They wanted to know if we could copy a picture to put on a cake and I told them we used to have the machine but it was no longer usable. Then they asked if I was able to draw something on a cake. I told them if it wasn't too complicated I could probably do it. They should me a picture of an eagle scout emblem and while I was fairly certain I could do most of it I told them there was no way I could draw the eagle on the bottom. We settled on copying the majority of it and writing the word eagle underneath.

I tried to get a picture of what they showed me but wasn't able to download it. This is the cake I did.

I wasn't completely satisfied with the ribbon and considered trying to smooth it out a little more but decided it wasn't wise to tempt fate. I knew if I attempted it that I would end up mixing the colors and making a mess of it. In the end I decided this was good enough

It's beginning to feel a lot like winter

It was snowing yesterday. Cold and snowing. It wasn't sticking to the ground but it was snowing. Snow is in the forecast for today as well. As of right now while I prepare this post to publish in the morning there still is no snow on the ground.

Gibbs had his trusty Steelers fleece on when he went out yesterday.

Since you can't see any snow on the ground I enlarged the picture so you could see that Gibbs does have snowflakes on his head.

I am not ready for this stuff.

I got nothing

I'm out of completed craft projects to show and nothing else has happened other than work so I've got nothing. I thought about taking pictures of the two different projects I have started but I was too lazy to do that.

Lets take a trip back to 2012

Tuesday morning I went in to work early because I had a large donut order that had to be done by 7:30. The total order was for 20 dozen. The girl on Monday did part of them and I had 11 dozen left to do Tuesday morning. I started a half hour early to give myself plenty of time to finish. I was more than a little annoyed when they didn't show up until after 10:30 to pick them up. I could have slept a little later and gone in at my regular time.

How about a trip back to 2014 and taking a look at baby Gibbs.

Gibbs has always been a little wild and crazy and never one to sit still for very long. He has never been a lap dog either. Duke used to love to sit in my lap but not Gibbs. You can tell that he is getting older because he will occasionally come lay down next to me on the couch in the evenings. Now that he sleeps in the bedroom with me he also enjoys curling up right next to me.

In the hoop

I made some ornaments on Monday using some small wood embroidery hoops. On my cricut machine I cut out some woodland animals from a white glitter iron on vinyl and then ironed them on to my favorite black and red check fabric.

I finished them off with some fake greenery and a couple red berriies. I also covered the back with a piece of heavy card stock covered in Christmas scrapbook paper. I was hoping in the close up you would be able to see the glitter on the white vinyl but it didn't show up.

I love the looks of these. I ony had 3 of the small hoops though. I have some that are a little larger but I would like to have more this size. They are about 3"

Another night light

Back in the day in the months leading up to Christmas I used to threaten to call Santa if my kids were misbehaving. When I was young my parents used to spot Santa peeking in on me. He was always too quick for me to see though. In more recent years parents have resorted to using the Elf on the shelf and even more recent has been the Santa cam. Santa cams first started appearing on ornaments and then on other objects as well. I put one on a night light.

This one will be helping Santa keep an eye on Presley. I'm sure it's not going to mean a whole lot to her this year but by next year she'll certainly understand the importance of Santa catching her being naughty.

One last thing. Some people have had trouble leaving a comment on my blog. I've changed the comment section to a pop up to see if that will help the problem.

An old edit

I was going through some pictures and came across an old edit. I couldn't find the original picture but the edit was dated for June of 2016.

The photo portrays a picture other than what was actually happening. To me the picture is showing a person who is deeply troubled. The truth is that I was pointing a camera at Wade and he was hiding from it.

I played a little bit to see if I could remove the beer can and so long as you didn't know it was there before it is passable

I think by doing this picture in black and white it gave it a more emotional feeling than what was really there.

Speaking of emotional feelings, I was a bit bummed when I discovered that this past week I gained a pound back instead of losing any. Can you say "woe is me".

Going back

I went back to the first November after I started this blog and here is the post from Nov 7 2008.


I thought I would share my latest scrapbook page with you. I've been working on it for several days and just couldn't get it to look right. I finally finished it tonight and was pretty happy with the way it turned out.



The kit I used for the LO was a freebie on www.shabbyprincess.com and it was created by Carrie Stephens Designs.
I always have a problem when it comes to the journaling part, so I went in search of something suitable to put on this one. I absolutely loved this one that I found on www.quotegarden.com
Just in case you can't read it on the LO it reads:
When I can look life in the eyes,
Grown calm and very coldly wise,
Life will have given me the Truth,
And taken in exchange -- my youth.

Just one more

Only one more picture from Halloween and then I'll move on to something else.

After my son and his fiance left my house they stopped at the local fire hall for the halloween festivities there. Then it was off for some trick or treating. Apparently Presley was just a wee bit hungry and that was the cause for her slight grumpiness.

Her mom sent me some pictures and here is the one of her and her dad

Would you believe...

...that I went to work dressed like this yesterday

My son and his fiance stopped by yesterday before taking Presley trick or treating. I tried to get a picture of her but she was in a very fussy mood and wouldn't stop crying . I'm afraid between the weather and Presleys mood it may have been a very long evening for them.