Deal of the day

I have to say that I think Boscovs is becoming my favorite store. I've found some great bargains there. I had just gotten a $5 rewards coupon in the mail so I thought I would look for a pair of slippers. I bought some Isotoner ones for $12.99. 

That wasn't the big deal though. I also thought I would look at purses. I'm rather picky and it always ends up that the ones I really like are the ones out of my price range. Well I bought a $99.00 purse this time because it was on sale for $24.99. Yes you read that right.

 

For slippers and purse I paid $34.99. Can't beat that.

So today is the last day of 2023. I'll be asleep before the ball drops. I've never been much of a new years eve partier. See you all next year.

One down one to go

I could get used to this two days off in a row. I really like this. Yesterday I went out shopping and today it will be hanging out at home. Other than laundry I'm not sure what I'll do.

Yesterday I hit the road around 8:30 so I could get to the first store I wanted to go to by 9:00 when they opened. Where did I go first? 

 

I was going to take a picture of all my stops but kept forgetting. Next was Kohls which was next to Hobby Lobby. The only purchase was some scrapbook paper that I didn't need.

I was going to head to the Millcreek Mall next but it was still too early so I stopped at Target. No purchases there 

Off to the mall and bought a couple things there which I'll show you tomorrow. I walked the mall then went to Michael's which is outside the mall. 

Next was an unhealthy lunch at Burger King

 

Fish sandwich, onion rings and a diet coke. Unhealthy but very tasty.

Last was a stop at Walmart for a few grocery items I needed then back home.

Amanda was going to go with me but wasn't feeling well. 

just stuff

Nothing much to blog about today so I'll just do a brain dump. If the thought comes into my head I'll dump it here in this post.

Biggest thing is that I'm off today. Nothing better than 2 days in a row off. I decided I would go out today instead of spending both days at home. I think Amanda is going with me too so that will be fun.

The temperature has been dropping again. We were up to 60 Christmas day and it's been steadily going down. 

As for Gibbs, you can dress him up but you can't take him out. He's cute but boy is he a bad dog. Just when I think he's going to change his ways he starts up with the bad dog routine again. He had a bowtie for Christmas and now that I think of it that monster child in the movie Problem Child wore a bowtie. Maybe they're related.

The handmade gifts

I've already shown some of the handmade gifts that I gave for Christmas but some I had to wait till after they were received.

Thankfully Amanda took some pictures for me.

This was a family name shadowbox. This one was for Amanda and Rob

 

And this one was for Brad and Britney. 

 

The next one was for Amanda and Rob

 I made a similar one for Brad and Britney but in the middle was a  house like the ones on each end of the above one. One said love grows here, one had their house number and the third said party of 3.

I also made this jar with a candle in it. I saw the label saying online and thought it would make the perfect gift. "Light this when my son is on your last nerve. This sucker is going to burn fast."

 

You can't see the actual shirt here but Rob is holding it up checking it out. I added iron on vinyl. There were three capital letters WTF and next to each letter was the word for each letter. Where's the fish. What were you thinking the WTF stood for?

Christmas eve

Just some pics from Christmas eve. These are all from Amanda because I didn't bother taking any.

I think Presley liked all her gifts.

I gave her a fleece blanket that she started using that night.

Rob wore a special shirt just for the occasion.

I bought this plug in mushroom air freshener from Bath and Body Works for Britney. It looks like she was pleased with it.

I bought Brad a Veterans bracelet. The inscription said "I once took a solemn oath to defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. Be advised that no one has ever relieved me of my duties under this oath." I think he liked it. He read it out loud and put it on and wore it for the rest of the night.

This is my pretend to look surprised act when I opened the fire station that Amanda bought me for my Christmas village. I was with her when she bought it for me.

So there are no pictures of Amanda here since she was the one taking all the pictures. I had her send me pictures of the two gifts that I made for her and Rob. I'll show you those tomorrow.

A nice day

Yesterday was a nice day. Maybe a bit boring, but nice. Gibbs got his presents from santa

In typical style he preferred to play with the packaging.

 He did seem to like the new bed he got from Santa. It might be a bit small but it's perfect for curling up on the couch.

I spent the day hanging out, playing on the computer or watching tv.

Oh my Christmas day outfit was those snazzy Santa leggings

Amanda stopped over for a little bit to visit and chat. The temperature was actually up to 60 degrees. Hardly Christmas weather for Pennsylvania but I'll take it.

 Christmas eve was very nice. I took 3 pictures and totally forgot from there. Amanda to the rescue though. I'll share some of those tomorrow

Merry Christmas

It will be a nice quiet day here. Just me and Gibbs. I plan on doing very little. 

Wishing each and every one of you a happy, healthy Christmas.

Happy Christmas eve

Yesterday I got most everything ready for tonight. I'm looking forward to having everyone over. I just have a few more things to throw together after work and before everyone gets here.

Would you believe I could have actually had today off and a three day weekend? New boss waits till the last minute to put up the new schedule. I assumed I was working today because I always work Sunday. So the schedule comes out and I'm off but the deli manager who was looking forward to two days off in a row and already had plans was scheduled to work bakery. I told him to change it because it wasn't fair to her and I had already planned on working. He redid the schedule and now I have off Friday. I wasn't expecting the extra day off but I'll gladly take it.  

I'll try and get lots of pictures and will post them as soon as I can. Hope you all have a Happy Christmas eve

Blue and white

Monday and Tuesday we got snow. The forecast was calling for 6-12". Thankfully they were wrong and we only got about 3. Wednesday after work I needed to make a Walmart run. I wanted to get it in while I could because closer to the weekend I knew it would be a madhouse. The point of my blog post today is how pretty it was out there. It was cold but the blue sky and the white snow sure was pretty

Most especially on this stretch of road that had snow covered trees on both sides.

Hard to believe that tomorrow is Christmas eve already. I have to work in the morning then come home and get everything ready for when my kids come over. We'll be doing everything Sunday night here and then Christmas day they have other family gatherings to go to. 

Nativity

This nativity set has been around as long as I have. My parents may have had it before I was born but I know they had it on my first Christmas. Some of the original pieces are missing. I remember there used to be camels but one year suffered some melting from the heat in our attic. A few other pieces are broken but still usable. One of the shepherds has a hole in is shoulder and I believe it's the donkey that has one ear missing.

Since I set it up on my hutch I didn't have room for the stable.

I remember when I was little, my dad always took home movies. He would film me and my brother singing happy birthday to the baby Jesus. We always did that before opening presents on Christmas morning.

 

Here is a closer look at some of the other figures. Notice the shepherd, front left with the hole in his shoulder.

What I did on my day off

Like all good days off, I started mine by sleeping in. Once up, I visited all of you while drinking a leisurely cup of coffee (or two). I finally decided to get myself going and get something done around here. I got the house cleaned and then finished up another shadow box. I think I'll keep this one for myself too. It doesn't show too well in the picture but the word believe is cut out of the dark blue layer over the trees.

 

The rest of the day I spent lounging in front of the TV and watching the snow fall.

Milo and Mommy

Of course while I was visiting Amanda I had to take a picture of her and Milo

 

And look at her beautiful tree. It's still standing and fully decorated.

A vintage heirloom

You may recall, last year I bagged up a whole bunch of old Christmas decorations that I no longer use and gifted them to my children calling them vintage family heirlooms. I told them they had to take them home and what they did with them from there was up to them.

Saturday when I was at Amanda's I saw one of those heirlooms displayed in her living room.  Back in the day I used to do needlepoint on plastic canvas. I made a lot of Christmas decorations. This train was one of the things I made.

Oh what a beautiful morning

Oh what a beautiful day. Nothing quite like a day off. I can't say anything bad about last Saturday. There was a beautiful sunrise.

 

The temperature got up to 50. Gotta love that in December when you live in Pennsylvania.

And Amanda invited me over for lunch. She made sausage tortellini soup and it was delicious. The picture doesn't do it justice

Second verse different from the first

I got another cake order that just said they wanted Christmas colors and to say happy birthday everyone. This was for the senior center to celebrate all the December birthdays. I went with poinsettias again.

But I also added a fun little snowman and my interpretation of pine branches.

 

Here's the whole cake.

Temporary insanity

After my post the other day, I got a text from Amanda saying that since the leaping into the tree incident, Milo is back to being a good kitty. Now he just likes to sleep under the tree.

He claims he's innocent by reason of temporary insanity

Light up the night.

 I love when my outside lights come on. It looks like little green and red fireflies in my living room. I may have left the video on those a little too long, but wait for it. At the end I light up my tree.

when temptation calls

Amanda was worried about Milo with the Christmas tree. She gradually introduced the tree into the house and was pleasantly surprised when he did very well and was a good kitty.

  

Then aa few days later I get a text saying Milo was a bad boy. He was leaping into the tree and had 6 ornaments off that he was batting around the room. 

Sometimes the temptation is just too great and you have to give into it.

handmade gift

I've made quite a few gifts this year. Some I haven't been able to show but maybe after Christmas. I recently did another shadowbox. Normally I put these in an 8x8 frame but I had some 4.5" signs I bought at Dollar Tree that needed made over . They made the perfect frame for this

 

Cutting this small can be a problem sometimes. Most of this cut well except one layer. It was pretty chewed up in one spot but I decided I could make it work.

 

It's really only bad on that one tree but unless you have good eyes and are really looking you wouldn't notice it

A birthday cake

I recently got an order for a birthday cake. They wanted it to say Happy birthday Jesus. I decided to go with poinsettias instead of roses.

 

Now that I'm looking at it, I should have added leaves. 

 

Crafting for the holidays.

I made some hot cocoa pouches to give as small gifts. I used green and blue cardstock and decorated with patterned paper, some tags and a few things I cut out.

 

These are inside a cellophane bag to keep them nice and tidy