Dedicated to Willie Baronet

I wanted to start the new year off with a new look. Thus, I enlisted the help of my new friend, Mr. Baronet.

I discovered him through a link on Spinning Girl's site, and quickly fell in love. His entire blog is dedicated to his sketches. As he calls it, encouraging others to express themselves by putting himself out there.

Much of his work is reminiscent of exercises I did in art class, where you draw without picking up your pencil, or without looking at the page. I hope he doesn't take that as an insult, for I always loved the sketchy look it created. Other pieces are much more detailed, using a complex mix of pattern shading. The hatching and stippling may be simple lines and dots, but they come together to create depth and detail in wonderous fashion.

Admirers of his work have compared it to artists ranging from Pablo Picasso to Paul Klee. His work can be both playful, and deeply emotional. Anything and everything is ripe for his imagination. And he does indeed inspire others to express themselves, as his comments testify.

So of course, I had to ask this wonderful person to find inspiration in my site and create me a new banner. I assumed he would say no, as he is a busy man running a company of his own. But it never hurts to try, and this time my efforts were rewarded. Though it is a small return, I'm giving him a free ornament (if I ever get them all done) as a token of my appreciation. One good turn deserves another.

To you Willie Baronet! And thank you :)

Merry Christmas Everyone!

1 Day until Christmas!

3 Days until Christmas

DS got me this for Christmas; some things I'd been wanting from REI.

While these have had me squealing since yesterday (and drinking a lot of water as well), my real present will be a weekend stay at the Drake Hotel in Chicago, along with tickets to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. We're not going until the weekend before he leaves for France. Which means I'm both terribly excited, and terribly.. nervous I guess. I know I'll be sad because I dwell. Though I'm going to try hard to be happy at least for the weekend.

In the morning, we leave for Kentucky. I won't be home until late on the 26th. There might be a day or two lag in my posts after Christmas, after which I'll come back with a surprise!

4 Days until Christmas

Another house that lit up the neighborhood all by itself.

5 Days until Christmas

At my work Christmas party, we did Secret Santa. Let me set this story up for you:

Now, back in the fall, a woman named Amber came into the store with her sister, fresh from a craft store selling her sister's jewelry. She bought a lot of stuff, and mentioned that she would like to work there for the discount. I encouraged her to apply, as we were still in need of one more night person at that point, and I like to surround myself with crafty people.

We hired her a while later (my boss is slow to decide on things like this), and we didn't see each other much. Our schedules always conflicted. However, one day she comes in shopping with her friend Aimee, maker of Snuggle Bug Quilts. They tell me that she's hosting a craft show at her house, where Amber's sister's stuff will be displayed. I am excited, and determine then that DS will take me, come hell or high water.

And we go. And while I like the jewelry my friend's sister makes, it was the quilts I fell in love with. Except, they weren't "quilts" perse. They were so artsy. Some were small, like 8x10 size, and framed. More like textile art than quilts really.

Of course, these pieces were much too expense for poor little me. It was the little mushroom wallet that I fell in love with. Only 11.50, and yet still too much for my broke bank pay. That didn't stop me from mooning over it for an hour, and carrying it around the house with me like it was already mine. I got Aimee's e-mail address before leaving, promising to buy it as soon as I could.

Now, back to the Secret Santa thing. What did I get? My mushroom wallet. But you see, Amber wasn't supposed to have my name. We all knew she had Bridget's name, because she was the last one to pick up her person's wish list. So when I opened my gift, I was expecting it to be from Jenna, because Jenna had brought both presents.

I must have sat there for several minutes, trying to figure out how Jenna would know that I wanted this wallet. And once she told me they had switched names, I was so touched. Not only did this woman buy me this thing that I treasured so dearly, but she went around asking who had me so she could give it to me



Nestled inside the wallet? A gift card to Starbucks, another sweet sweet thing. The 1 or 2 times I've worked with her, she always comes in with something good from there. And I always whine about it not being fair to bring that stuff in there and not sharing. And then she always lets me have a drink...

This was a small gift, true, but it meant so much.

6 Days until Christmas

Last night I had a dream that I was in a makeshift hospital, and very sick. Dr. House was my doctor. In his typical fashion, he was avoiding making his rounds. But one day, I had a very large fever, and he came running. And I knew. Dr. House was in love with me. I was the only person he helped all day. It was the awesomest dream ever.

Then I woke up choking...

After that, I went back to sleep, because only crazies get up at 7:30 am when they don't have to. What followed was a very weird dream, but at least it involved my boyfriend this time. We were in some kind of weird world that my head had dreamed up, full of large red rock outcroppings. We had just ordered some kids about 6 dolls, only to leave the "house" to find there was some post-apocolyptic war going on over whether or not people should have dolls. We hiked a long way, meeting some interesting people. Apparently, they were also fighting over whether we should keep around poetry by people like Emerson. Eventually, we came to this store, like a convenience/eatery place, except not so much fast food. We're still talking post-apocolypse here. It was built in to one of these reddish rock outcroppings, and we decided to climb it, along with another couple that my brain manifested at this point. We did some assisted climbing, but not with normal gear like ice picks. No, I had a large tape dispenser. I climbed with ease, and DS fell in love with me a little more. He had never been more proud.

So that was my morning. Merry Christmas!

7 Days until Christmas

Oh wow. 7 days. Now even I'm getting nervous. Christmas is only a week a way and I still haven't gotten anything for my own boyfriend!! Though pretty much everything else is done, so that's good. His family's stuff still needs to be shipped though...

In other news, we spend Saturday getting ready for my work Christmas party, since we're hosting it. Why you ask? Because I'm generous that way, and also because I live a 5 minute walk away. It's almost gauranteed no one will get lost. Though I say almost, because there is no limit to which the stupidity the human race can sink. So now, the house is pish posh, fully decorated, and ready for socializing.

Afterwards, because it's not Christmas without it, we went driving to look at lights. I must say, not many people seem to be into outdoor lights anymore. And those that are have pretty poor taste. Haphazardly throwing a set of colored netted lights into a tree so they don't even make a good circle, but rather an oddly shaped diamond on 1/3 of the front of the tree.. that's just not cutting it people.

On the other hand, we saw a few AMAZING houses that decided that letting the neighbors sleep was someone else's problem. I give you Exhibit A:
Mind, this is only about 1/2 of the lights. Every tree looked like the one on the right. There was a big star over the garage. I couldn't get back any further to fit the rest in. And in addition to this, they had Christmas music playing outside. If ever there were a beacon for Santa Claus, this is it. At the very least, it was a beacon for DS and I, who was kind enough to do a doughnut so we could hurry back and take pictures.

8 Days until Christmas

Merry Christmas to ME!!
Before

After!!

DS's family got together and bought us a new vaccuum, which arrived in the mail yesterday! I'm SO excited!! You don't know what it's like trying to get up all my hair with that measley excuse for a vaccuum DS had. But no more! This puppy is the real deal. It even has a light that lets you know when the floor is clean, and when it's dirty. And I know it works, because it stayed on dirty for a long time when we tested it out. Now I can rest easy when I sit on the floor. Yippee!!

Also, you can all be excited too! I sent your ornaments out yesterday through priority mail, which means roughly by Monday, you'll have presents too!

9 Days until Christmas

Christmas Elf Name My Christmas Elf Name is

This one is lame, I know, but I'm busy today. Please forgive me.

Quiz

10 Days until Christmas

Well you guys. I'm tired. I've worked all week with a nasty head cold. It was mostly gone today, so I mustered up the strength to go climbing, since I missed out on Monday. I was rewarded with my first "flapper."* It doesn't hurt too bad right now, but I think that's because the skin grafted itself to the band-aid. I'm afraid to take it off.

Tomorrow is the big day that I go to the post office. I got paid today, so I can afford to pay all the shipping costs until I receive/cash/transfer all of your payments into my bank account. I'm also sending out my Christmas cards tomorrow, which DS got to pick out.
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* I'm putting the explanation down here, in case some of you are the squeamish type. A "flapper" is when your skin detaches, but not all the way. So it "flaps" if you will. Except, your skin isn't ready for peeling yet, so it leaves the tender stuff exposed underneath. No blood really, but it burns like the dickens.

11 Days until Christmas

My friend Katie got married in May. All my talk about ornaments has had her wondering, aloud mind you, whether anyone would get them an "our first Christmas" ornament. I can't resist these kinds of things. What can I say? I'm a giver...

His favorite color is orange, hers is green. Get it?

In other news, I have officially sold 30 ornaments. This is assuming that all of you actually send me money, which I'm sure you will. I went to the store and bought 60 more balls today, just in case. I had thought they would all be for next year, with the idea that buying them on clearance was worth holding them for 12 months. Then my dad said he had decided that he would put up a tree next year for the first time in at least 10 years, and wanted 12 ornaments. "If I'm going to put up a tree, I at least want ornaments I like." In the off chance that someone else wants a big order, I'll just keep all of these out for a while before packing them off into storage. You can take this as a final call for orders :) Also, I had anticipated that shipping costs would be included in the price of the ornaments. Then I found out it would be 3.85 to ship them. So for all future orders, shipping costs are $2.

And in case you're wondering, it snowed again today. At least 4 inches. You should see the mountains forming in the parking lot where they keep plowing. It's awesome!

12 Days until Christmas

Look what I have!!

The Official 2005 Sleep Goblin ornaments are done and ready to ship! They come in 3 designs:

Snowboarding

Sledding

Skiing

Please be aware that I have limited quantities, so if you're interested, they will be sold first come, first serve at $6 a piece. Send your orders to my e-mail account, and I'll ship them out ASAP. I don't mind making more if there is a lot of interest, but I can't promise the second batch will be done in time for Christmas. Also, feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions!

UPDATE!

The response has been huge. As of 12:44 pm cst, I have one skier and one snowboarder left. I can still make more, but the post office only gaurantees delivery by Christmas if they're mailed by the 19th. With that in mind, please let me know ASAP if I should be making more.

For those of you that have so kindly placed orders, thank you!! Your support means a lot to me.

13 Days until Christmas

Look who else we found that day!

14 Days until Christmas

DS took me to work yesterday, and guess what we found.. An ice sculptor!!

Even though he wasn't finished, he let DS take a picture of the work in progress. Isn't it cool??

15 Days until Christmas

It's snowing for about the fourth time in less than two weeks. It has yet to be warm enough for it to melt, but the roads have been plowed often enough that driving isn't really a problem. Which means we also have some snow mountains in our parking lot. This makes me happy to have underground parking. No snow shoveling/scraping means I enjoy all this wintery bliss!

Of course, this makes my snowman happy too.

16 Days until Christmas

I saw Father Christmas today! At least, he was in the movie I saw: The Chronicles of Narnia ~ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It was beautifully done. DS of course wants to know where it's filmed, so he can climb all the rocks.

17 Days until Christmas

Who doesn't like a good cup of hot cocoa out of a festive moose mug?

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Note: Please excuse, again, my crappy photo. I really hope someone gets me a new camera for Christmas.

I've been tagged!!

I feel very honored, as MT has come back from blogging oblivion to tag me. I'm supposed to follow the instructions below, but as my 23rd post didn't have a 5th sentence, I picked a post close to it that did.

The job:

1. Go into your archives.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag five other people to do the same thing.

My sentence:
For those of you who didn't know, MT's birthday is Thursday.


Now, for the tagging:
DS
Mo
Fritz (cause I know how you like to be tagged)
and
Kimberlina

It's not 5, but most of you have already done this, or don't have 23 posts (mr. yak) or wouldn't do it anyway. Of course, I don't care if you do it despite the lack of tagging. It's your blog.

18 Days until Christmas

I don't know much about Snowbabies, but I got this ornament as a present about 2 years ago. I love it, because it has 4 penguins. Did you know that 4 is my favorite number? I also love penguins. It's a great ornament.

19 Days until Christmas

I made a tree skirt.

20 Days until Christmas

This is the Christmas tree in my mall. I think it must be about 4 stories tall!

21 Days until Christmas

The stockings my mom made for us arrived on Saturday. There's nothing like homemade stockings hanging from your fireplace. Thanks Momma!

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Note: Actual names have been removed to protect the innocent.

Sometimes I Enjoy Mimicking Spinning Girl

Elvish


To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?
brought to you by Quizilla

Beauty

I was telling a friend how I'm sappy enough that commercials can make me cry. When they learned that I cried about a Haagen-Daz commercial, they laughed. Now, it's not like I was bawling. It was just a tear or two. But the beauty of the newer Haagen-Daz commercials is just more than I can take. The imagery.. The music.. it's just so pure.

I found out that you can watch them online, and I've been watching them over and over. My favorite is "Anthem", but I also like "Vanilla" and their new "Impossible." I recommend watching them with QuickTime if you can. On my computer at least, the PC versions have been having trouble. They're just not framed right.

You can also download the music to them, which I've had on repeat. I'm all goosebumpy now.

You can laugh if you want to. But you have to admit that even for a commercial, those are some wonderful pieces of art.

22 Days until Christmas

It's snowing again! I love snow. And it's starting to feel like Narnia around here.

23 Days until Christmas

I inherited the nativity set on my mom's side of the family. It was handpainted by my great-grandmother or something like that. I'll have to ask her again, cause I'm not sure. Unfortunately, it didn't fair well on the long trip here. A little super glue and a few cracks later, it's as good as new!

24 Days until Christmas

My friend Chanda, reading my post about the lack of ornaments as a plea for help, has sent me a lovely addition for my tree. I love how he looks handmade! So cute!! Thanks Chanda!