Goodbye, 2010

With 2010 drawing to a close, I look back at it mostly with sadness. There were a lot of things this year that were tragic and brought struggle at times. And while I am in a bit of a funk going into the new year, I am trying my best to grasp a thread of hope to take me into 2011. I think I will just leave the year with this sentiment. If that doesn't fire up hope in your soul, I don't know what will.





Also, Nelly made me smile. :)




Happy New Year!!

Photo Credits: Here and Here

Scrappy Work Of Late

Thought I'd do a quick post to share some work I've done lately.

Christmas

Christmas has come and gone for another year. We spent the day with family, and it was the merriest Christmas I can remember in a long time! Everybody was cheery and we had a great Christmas Eve and Day together!

On Christmas Eve, we headed down to Mama and Daddy's house, about an hour away. Some sights that greeted us:






Christmas Eve Sunset on the road Mama and Daddy live on.



Mama and Daddy had fixed some awesome chili and hot dogs for Christmas Eve supper, which is our tradition. Daddy really outdid himself this year on the chili! It was the best chili evah!




We all opened a few presents:



Ginger got Mama a really huge bar of peppermint soap. We joked that it was as big as a phone, so Mama had to make a minty phone call. :D



Ginger, with her gifts from Larry:



A GORGEOUS wooden carved owl Mama and Daddy got me. I love him!!



We went home and came back for Christmas Day!



Everybody came, and we had such a fun day! Here are some shots from the day:































At Brian's parents' house:







From our house to yours...



Hope you had the Merriest Christmas...



...and have a very happy 2011!!

Happy Birthday, Sweetsies

Today, he is 36. So, half his lifetime ago, I started sharing his life with him. Every birthday, every year, I am reminded of how blessed I am to do so.





He is my everything. My rock, my soulmate, my kittydaddy, my whole world.




Happy Birthday, Sweetheart! I love you!

We Need A Little Christmas

Ok, I guess we needed a lot! :D Here are some of our decorations so far.









And a few of our favorites:



Some favorite ornaments:



And this is just the FRONT of the house! :D More soon!

An October Afternoon on December 1st

I was contacted earlier today by someone at October Afternoon, saying they wanted to feature my "Focus" layout on their blog today! They saw it over at 2 Peas. This is so exciting because OA is my favorite paper manufacturer! Yay!

You can check it out here!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like...

Happy Fun Time For Kitties! :D Christmas decorations are the absolute best kitty toys. At least, they wish. All the pretties are going up at our house this week, and so far, the kitties are playing it cool. But I know they will be biting the garland and batting at the tree soon. :D

Here are a few pics I got as we get everything ready.

First, we were determined to get new curtains hung. Here is one window, with the new curtains from IKEA. We love them!



Next, Brian tried to put the Santa hat on Sleepy. She obviously didn't want to be Santa Paws and was having none of it. She flailed violently, hence the blurry arms here. But her face is beyond awesome. :D



Here's Brian, finished with one star (we're making two). I had a vision of big stars made from large dowel rods, lashed together with twine and wrapped with white lights. Brian made my vision a reality! We will probably put these on the porch.



Black Kitty, unfazed.



And our little Trudy, getting her first look at Christmas lights. Merry first Christmas, Trudy!





More decorations pictures coming soon!