Holiday Gathering Success

Well after 4 1/2 years of saying "I should have a party," I finally had my first Holiday Gathering, and I must say it was a smash. The day was filled with family, friends and great food and let's not forget the "Guess How Many Snowmen on Display" contest. Everyone did such a wonderful job in counting the snowmen and entering their guesses. My friend, Roxie, was the winner with her guess of 500, actually count was 494 Snowmen on display. I have included some photos for you all to see, they don't capture all 494 Snowmen, but I think you will get the picture.

Here is the kitchen:

I must show the table of goodies, half gone at the time of this photo.

Who else would have a bookcase of snowmen?

now onto the living room:

master bedroom:

the guest room:

and my Jim Shore collection...just so cute

and a great big thanks to my very special "guest" guests, Liam and Caleb.

Here is Liam with his mommy Whitney, enjoying a nice rest on the couch.

Here is Caleb with his Daddy Jed. I think Caleb had just finished with his count and was taking a break at the goodie table.

and Liam after counting all the snowmen, all great counters deserve a nap.

Thanks to all my family and friends who made my first Holiday Gathering a great success! A great BIG thanks to Rick for all the help! Thanks to Linda for the help on the cooking and to Jenni for the last minute help. Without you guys the party would not have been a success.

Soon the snowmen will be packed up, waiting until next year, when there will be another "Guess How Many Snowmen are on Display" contest. Could be more, could be less, no one will know until the guess.

oh, I almost forgot...

the lighted snowman toilet seat cover!

Beautiful Sunset

Rick and I were able to get away on a mini-mini vacation and travel to Wilmington, NC. We arrived just in time to view this wonderful sunset on the Cape Fear River. We went out on the river front walk next to Elijah's restaurant in the Chandler's Wharf. Elijah's came with a great recommendation from a friend, unfortunately we were unable to eat there.

Late night snow

This is what the snow falling looked like when I got off work. Pretty.

It's Snowing...

...for a little while

My Newest Favorite Thing

Wax Melts

My friend, Melanie, surprised me with a gift of wax melts from AC Moore and now these are my newest favorite things. I couldn't wait to open the "Newly Fallen Snow" wax melt and get to melting it, the smell is wonderful, so wonderful that I even broke out my-never-been-used snowman tea light candle holder and placed some of the wax melt in it. I have already gone through one of the packs, thanks goodness she gave me more; next on the melting list is "Gingerbread."

New Table for My Kitchen

Before...

(the nice blue office chair adds a nice office feel.)

After..

I am getting used to the taller height of the pub table and am looking for chair pads, but so far the table is working very nicely. I was even encouraged to bake cookies. Yes, me baking cookies, and I didn't even burn them (I did have the help of a friend, thanks Linda for the help). Thanks to Rick for putting the table together for me.

Here's a photo for the proof:

Pictured are the flour-free Peanut Butter cookies I made, followed by a batch of Snicker-doodle Cookies (all cookies are gone).

Guest Room

For those of you who have been wondering if I would ever clean out my extra bedroom and make it into a guest room, well I finally did. I now have a nice guest room, with room for one.

Tale of the Scary Visor

Driving into work this morning I had an awful experience, now I know that some of you will laugh, but I also know that some of you will feel my pain. I had just merged my way into the morning traffic which was moving along at a good pace. The sun was starting to come up. All was right with the world and I thought “oh how nice and warm that is going to feel” when I reached up to lower my sun visor and a horrible, terrible, large brown eight-legged spider made it’s tactical maneuver, landing on my steering wheel. Ok, it probably just fell, but as most of you know I am very afraid of and don’t peculiarly care to know that spiders even exist. But there was one, right in front of me. By now I am traveling at a good speed of 45 and traffic was heavy so I cannot do want I really want to do, and that is to slam on the brakes, throw open the door and do the “oh no it’s a spider on my steering wheel dance” in the middle of the highway. So I do the next best thing, I reach beside me and grab an empty Diet Pepsi bottle and smash that nasty spider, while saying “Oh My God” “Oh My God”. Once I calmed down from the spider kill, I cried a little (those of you who are afraid of spiders will understand). Once I calmed down, again, I realized that only one leg was on the steering wheel, (mind you there was much evidence on the rest of the spider) but in my mind I could see the spider on the floorboard pulling itself, using what he had left of his legs, and trying to get to my foot, once there, he could climb up my pant leg and bit me on the leg. That’s when I started the “smash the spider on the floor with both feet dance” while driving down the interstate. This made me feel better and I knew that I had finished him off, you know, “put him out of his misery” (well that’s a lie, I wanted him dead).

Now my leg is itching, down low around my sock, I must go check and see if there are any bits marks. (I will clean-up the crime scene later.)

Sweet, Sweet Baby Bird

One of the many joys I receive from having bird feeders, sweet, sweet little baby finches.

Bird Watching

While visiting my friend's house this weekend I was able to enjoy watching the birds and take a quick photo of a gorgeous blue bird and what I believe to be a red-cockaded woodpecker, both enjoying the wonderful selections of foods.

and this is the other animal I was watching, and as you can tell he was not interested in the birds at all. He was more concerned with rolling in all the dirt he could find.

Scrapbooking Addiction

Is there a support group?

I should actually call it scrapbook shopping addiction since I have done more shopping than actual scrap-booking, only one and a half pages have been worked on. I went to A.C. Moore, again, and they were having a sale on clearance items, buy one and get one free, how could I not buy. Here is a photo of the goodies I got. Now I just need to scrapbook.

Another Picnic Lunch

Here I am enjoying a sandwich on a picnic lunch at a North Carolina rest area just before the Tennessee border. We were on the way to the Longest Yard Sale, 654 miles of yard sales. I know the food is not very exciting but I wanted to show what my hair really looks like, you know the day after getting it cut and you can't figure out or even come close to how your stylist made your hair look.

A pair of cheap sunglasses is now my new hair accessory.

Lunch in Central Park

Finally, after a few trips to New York, I got to spend an afternoon in Central Park. Memorial Day weekend Rick and I drove up to NY to visit with friends and spend the weekend being tourists and enjoy the great city. We had the wonderful opportunity to spend a afternoon with my friend Mindi. We enjoyed a great picnic lunch, and as you can tell from the photo we were big spenders, only the best hot dogs and cold coke that $8.00 dollars could buy.

I need to work on my product placement skills, Rick’s placement is much better.

Here are some of the photos we took of the park.

Taking a rest on the steps of The Metropolitan Museum of Art with my friend Mindi.

And who doesn't love a photo of a cute squirrel.