Riddle

What do you get when you combine a Michael's 50% off coupon, pencil envy, and lust? You get the Prismacolor Premier 120 Colored Pencil set. I done died and gone to heaven. Now to set to work sharpening all the beautiful color pencils.

Seven

Seven things to do on a snowy day.

1. Bake chocolate chip cookies

2. Play on Facebook

3. Chat on IM

4. Eat chocolate chip cookies

5. Watch Himself shovel the driveway

6. Take a nap

7. Blog


What do you do on a snowy or stormy day?

Wednesday Weigh-In

No surprise. Up a pound with the stress of the storm. Doughnuts should be considered a free food like carrots or celery. We were very lucky considering. My BIL put us up for the weekend so we had a comfortable place to stay. Our electricity came back on after two days. Some areas of the state are still without power. Some photographs that had been rescued from the flood water have dried out nicely. As a side note, water does interesting things to photograph paper and the technique will be fun for altered art. The Young One's school is closed for the rest of the week due to surrounding areas and cleanup making roads too narrow for the buses to get through. No tears there. The chorus concert performances are still planned to run as scheduled. The show must go on. My motto too.

Wreaths

It's that time of year again. The elves were busy making wreaths yesterday.

The bears are on my front door.

Cardinals at the cemetery.

Red bow for Prissy, my neighbor.

Holly bow for my folks

Wednesday Weigh-In

Up a pound. Ate out twice this week and had a meeting with coffee and donuts. Empty calories shouldn't add pounds. And how can a donut have so many calories when it has a hole in the middle? Empty calories is misleading and should be called Full of Calories.

On the happy side, I am able to fit into medium sized sweatpants and sweatshirt.

As I was filling in my weight chart, I'm on the 25th week and 5 - 10 lbs heavier than I would like to be at this point. I hope looking at the number of weeks and the smaller size sweats will be motivation to try harder.

Hope your progress was better.

Seven

I enjoy hanging out at Facebook. The Young One is there and has included me in her games which is fun. Puppies, Kitties, Kidnap, Twilight, but the game that amuses me most is Pieces of Flair. Seven Pieces of Flair, I've received that amuse me (in no particular order)

1. He irks me. He's irksome. A line from The Mentalist, my new favorite show. Simon Baker is sehr thuddy.

2. Facebook enabling the nosy. Now everyone can know our most mundane moments.

3. I didn't ask to be a Princess, but since the crown fits...I wear it.

4. The Ass Family: Jack, his wife, Smart, children: Lazy, Kiss, and Dumb. I've met every single one of them.

5. Why can't summer last forever? Deep sigh. Forlorn look.

6. Facebook Because I'm avoiding responsibilities. It's a happy little time waster.

7. We were friends before Facebook

Thanks to Erica for the topic. If you play at Facebook, what's your favorite game?

Angels

As the final project, my students will be submitting bookmarks to the student art show. I'm hoping the display case is available. If not, I need a back up plan. I stopped at Michael's to see if I could find an inexpensive poster frame. They had all sizes on sale for $9.99 which was great, but frames have to be hung with wire. There was only a very thin chipboard and I wasn't sure it was deep enough to take screw eyes. There were other frames not on sale. Of course. I didn't want to spend the moolah. It was a little out of my budget, but I didn't see much of a choice. The frame will be put to use if not this time then a future time. That's the rationale. I purchased a picture hanging kit and some Christmas picks on sale.

I went to stand in the check out line. There was a woman in front of me and another in the middle of her transaction. The woman conducting her business looked at the woman next to her and asked if she would be able to use a 40% off coupon. No. She handed the coupon to me.

"Would you be able to use this coupon?"

"Yes, thank you!"

The coupon brought the cost down to almost the sale price of the other poster frames and more in line with my budget. That woman was a godsend and I thank her for her random act of kindness.

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Hebrews 13:2

Sketchbook

The cover of the sketchbook had been done back in July. The idea for the peacock came from the book Altered Imagery. The cover was collaged, decoupaged, 3D gel markered (way cool to play with), washable crayoned and then washed. A drawn wing didn't look quite right.

The other day on an expedition to Michael's for Christmas picks, I happened to find this glittered feather pick. It was the perfect color and at 50% off, the perfect price.

Wednesday Weigh-In

I maintained this week. What a relief because I made really bad food choices over the holiday. Too bad Hershey kisses aren't worth the same as vegetables.

Today, I had lunch at Mrs. Claus' house with Lambie. Lambie decorates every room in her log cabin home. As she describes it "Christmas just throws up all over here." LOL The decorations are just beautiful.

Lambie made a delicious seafood salad on home-made sour dough bread. For dessert, Lambie had chocolate fondue with pears and home-made marshmallows. OMG, after eating Lambie's marshmallows, you will never enjoy commercial marshmallows. She sent me home with a small bag.

Afterwards, Lambie and I had our own WW meeting as Lambie is a WW member. I wasn't worried what would be for lunch and fruit is good for you (even if it's dipped in chocolate.) I didn't have breakfast so I think I did pretty good.

One of my problems is drinking all the water. Wasn't much of a problem during the summer, but now that it's cold last thing I want is a bottle of water. Lambie told me that decaf tea would count for 1/2 a water. Herbal tea would count for a full water ration. I'm not partial to either decaf tea or herbal teas though I have found I like apple cinnamon tea. I'll put the apple cinnamon tea to work for me.

How did you do this week? (The picture is Lambie's tree from last year. a 13 footer. This year they went small with a 12 footer. (-; )

Candy Canes

Yesterday, Erica's blog reminded me that it's time to get the house decorated for Christmas. I had completely forgot that yesterday was 1. December. This morning, I put a few things up. The small advent tree and The Young One hung 2 ornaments on it. I changed the candle ring on the dining room table from the harvest ring to the Christmas one.

Lambie aka Mrs. Claus invited me to her house for lunch tomorrow. Besides a small gift, I wanted to bring her something festive. I came across this idea from the magazine Real Simple

Take 5 or 6 candy canes and tie them together. Turn them upside down to form a "vase" then you can plop a doo-dad in. Michael's had Christmas picks on sale for 50% off. Target had candy canes on sale so I bought a bunch of picks and a couple of boxes to make hostess gifts.

Oh, and Erich, my butler, got decked out in his Christmas collar and jaunty Santa hat.

Sketchbook

This afternoon, the Young One joined me for a cup of apple cinnamon tea. This is her mug found on a shopping expedition when she was three. She fell in love with the mug as only a three year old can. The cup came to be called The Happy Little Gingerbread Man. He's used year round for hot chocolate or chai tea. She decided she does not like the apple cinnamon tea. No matter, the tea ritual is more about sharing time.