Lazy Weekend

Ok, we didn't manage to get in any movies but we did get the outside lights up. Unfortunately, it hasn't quit raining enough for me to get any pics! We did take the opportunity to check out the lights around town and there are a lot of great lights this year. If you have a chance to wander around McKinney, Texas there are lots of houses who went all out. We were shocked to see how many have scenes displayed in the front yard in addition to the regular festivities. I'm talking elaborate nativities, Santas in boats, under palm trees, with Mrs. Claus, sleigh and reindeer (my favorite!). Lots to see!

Also, I got my holiday order in from Lisa Kaus. She sent out a newsletter with a special offer and I couldn't resist getting a couple items for my studio that I've been coveting. They are both cupcakes, which is the nickname for my studio "The Cupcake Room" since the daybed is done with pink ruffled sheets and all girly colors. I thought it would be perfect to include some cupcake art and I love her work. Fun whimsical colors and all her work makes me smile. They are what I see while I'm working at my desk. I also have a wonderful pin holder (also a cupcake) from Mary Stanley. She sent it with her bag in the tote exchange I did this summer. It also rocks and is on my sewing table - keeping me inspired to try the sewing thing again!

I'm finishing up a couple of commission pieces and should have photos of those up in the next day or so. Busy, busy, busy! I don't know how Santa handles the pressure, although secretly I love it. I love this time of year with all the hustle and bustle. Everyone seems happier and a little more forgiving of each other. Definitely a perk when a lot can also go wrong during the days leading up to the big holidays!

Happy pre-holidays everyone!

Christmas has come to the house!

We got the final trees up and have almost finished the outside lights. I don't like to play favorites with my ornaments and decorations but here are a few favorites. The pig chef livens up the Eiffel Tower with a few more options from this terrific new book I got. It's the kind of cookbook that's perfect for bedtime reading with gorgeous photos. The snowman has a tiny little friend. I got him on our last trip to Missouri. I've been saving him up since fall. I'm not sure I can bear to put him up in January! The tree is in our bedroom and decorated entirely with ornaments we got in London. Most came from Buckingham Palace with a few from the Tower of London just to mix it up.

On the art front, I'm thrilled to be going to The spring Art Nest retreat! I'm already looking at the supply list and planning some flea market trips. :)I'm a big fan of all the workshop instructors and a weekend with other artists who won't get tired of my talking about glue, watercolor crayons and the new funky pads of paper I've become obsessed with.

Movie weekend so far has only included Hitman but it was exactly what I thought it would be and really liked it. Next up is American Gangster, No Country for Old Men and/or Mr. Magorium's Emporium. I'm doubting we can get all three in but there may be time for a double feature.

Hitman Friday!

I'm not sure if I've ever revealed my love of action flicks, but here you go! We're heading out tonight after work to see Hitman . We've been on an (inadvertent) movie hiatus with our trip, family in town, getting the house decorated, etc and there's a long list we want to see. I'm not sure how many we'll get in this weekend, but we're giving the movie list a try.

The other big weekend task is to finally finish putting up the Christmas lights and left over trees. The one for the bedroom and the kitchen tree are still sitting in the old dining room. On a side note: we're thinking of converting the dining room into a reading room/den kind of area since the kitchen, living room and "dining room" are all one giant room there isn't anywhere to sit and read or talk if you don't want to watch TV except at the table and we almost never eat at the table. So, we're thinking of setting up our bar, adding a couple of club chairs and then lots of bookcases/shelves for storage. Maybe a former kitchen table cut down for a coffee table with some footstools underneath for chairs/extra seating if we do want to have a "table". Thoughts yay or nay? Leave me some comments if you think we're brilliant and/or crazy!

I'll post some holiday pics this weekend.

p.s. Forgive me if I lost your link and it was here. The template was jacked this morning and I had to update it, loosing all my links in the process! *&%^ Blogger!

London Photos are finally done!

Ok, I've finally got some of the photos sorted, sized and up so check them out. I hadn't realized how many photos we actually took until I tried to sort through them. The trip was awesome and again, I realized how much I loved London. It's such a terrific city to see a wide range of sites. We visited some of the museums, markets and tourist must sees like Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, Big Ben, Westminster Abby, etc.

Some of my absolute favorites were Portobello Road Market just because of the huge variety of things you could see and get from fruits and vegetables to heirloom silver. I stuck with some pashminas and stamps! We did visit Books for Cooks again where I found a couple of awesome titles that required me to lug them home in my backpack carry on. Like this one. And this one. Also, this one.

Another favorite destination was the British Museum. We visited there previously, but we took most of one day to check it out and really take our time. It was worth it since we were able to check it out several more rooms and really look at some old favorites. Including the "Living and Dying" room with this amazing Day of the Dead piece called "Apocalypse". This museum really has something for everyone and I especially love the Antiquities section with all the Egyptian pieces. I know there's a lot of controversy about these, but I'm staying out of it and just enjoying them. Another amazing thing about the museums that's very unlike here is that they are free and just request donations, which is the least we can do for such a privilege. After the museum, we visited a nearby pub, The Plough, for fish and chips and they were very tasty! Seriously, even the tartar sauce was yummy and this isn't a usual favorite of mine.

The final favorite of this post is Spitalfields Market. I was expecting a giant farmers market but instead, it's an urban art/craft market with tons of sellers with some amazing things. The market was ringed with some fairly upscale and yuppie shops like a Benefit Store and an organic chocolate shop. Both are yummy! This is also where Fairy Gothmother (as mentioned in previous post) can be found. Unlike Portobello Road, there wasn't an abundance of puppies wrapped in Pashminas!

OH! I almost forgot to mention "Liberty" which is the most amazing department store I've seen! It's in this incredible building that must take up almost a block and they have almost anything and everything you could want. Most of it was way too pricey and too impractical for the plane home, but I did find some soaps and a couple of Christmas items that I couldn't resist. My suitcase smelled great by the time we got home. And yes, it's this suitcase (tattoo) we had to get in order to lug everything home! But I love it and incredibly enough, it has the University of Texas symbol over it. It was meant to be!
Edited to remove some photos since it was jacking up the blog!

Sick, tired and holiday decorations are all over the house!

We did finally get the London pics on the shared drive so I can easily access them for blogging and such but I haven't had time, or energy, to get a flickr account set up to make it nice and tidy. It's on the list but I've been sick for the last few days with the illness the hubby dragged over with him from across the pond. He was sick all of last weekend and half of this week. It hit Weds afternoon and I've just felt awful. I've stayed home hoping to rest up and maybe recuperate faster but so far, the sickness hasn't fallen for it.

Anyway, here are a couple of pics until I can do a full London post. These are of Spitalfields Market. Specifically the sign and one of the most awesome shops I saw while there. It's called "Fairy Gothmother" and they have some of the most gorgeous lingerie I've ever seen. This market rocked with some fabulous sellers. My husband picked up a fun and funky silk screened robot t-shirt and a matching leather change wallet for his truck (his last one was stolen from the truck while it was sitting in the driveway!) and I got some amazing woodblock mounted brass stamps. Crowns of course! Plus a RAF stamp with another crown! The gentleman at the booth rocked and he talked me through how you know it's a good one, showing me how all of them came out when stamping plus, a tip for embossing via halogen lights (must be at least 200 watts) that I'll have to try out as soon as I know whether I can get the bulb and a lamp at IKEA.

12 Days of Xmas Goodies!

Now that I've been home from our trip for a few days, I've just gotten stuff sorted out but now I'm coming down with something. Ugh! Husband has been sick since last Friday and I thought I dodged the bullet, but nope, it's my turn now! I have managed to get the new studio tree (love Target) up and decorated with the goodies from our 12 Days of Xmas exchange so maybe I can do a little each day until we're fully decked out. Also, I can't wait to start counting down! :)

Tomorrow I'll bug the husband to get all our picks on the shared drive so I can start boring everyone with the London goodies. The trip was awesome and even with the rain, I loved every second (except for the part where I hurt my knee and had to go up the tube steps) and can't wait to start planning our next vacation... where to go???

Cheerio!

We finally got some internet connectivity and I thought I'd throw in a quick post. It's been awesome with only a little rain today but it's definitely getting colder everyday. We checked out Portobello Road Market yesterday. It rocked! Today was Petticoat Lane, Brick Lane and Spitalfield's Markets. Spitalfield's also rocked and we got some great stuff! The British Museum was amazing and we were able to spend more time there and see even more goodies than last time. We also finally made it to Buckingham Palace, missed it the last time, and got some great shots. I'm going to have to sign up for flicker and show off all the pics. Here's a couple from the British Museum.

Halloween Swap Giftie

This is what I received in the Halloween swap (it's awesome Cindy!). I also got my gifts for this exchange in the mail tonight, international ones are going out tomorrow. I still need to pack since we're heading out for our London vacation tomorrow and I'm not sure I've cut it close enough! We'll have a little internet access so if I can, I'll post some pictures from the UK!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today's my Mom's birthday and we're heading up to Missouri for a housewarming for my brother so it will be nice to actually see all my family. When I told my Mom we were coming she asked if we were invited to my brother's in the afternoon or evening. I was a little confused but said afternoon, she then explained he's having two parties! One in the afternoon for the "old people" and one at night for all their friends - I'm wondering if I should be offended to be lumped in with the olds!? Although I am usually in bed by 10:30, but still! :)

Anyway, this is one of the things Mom's getting for her birthday. She requested a pin with the picture of her and her brother as a a baby with their parents. I hope she likes it!

The other photo is a pic of my new studio friends who keep me company. Abby puppy is almost always in here but for those times when she's not, I'm covered.

Have a great weekend guys!

Another commission piece

I had a lot of fun making this one. I know all the people in this pic so it was much easier to pick the text and images! I especially like the colors and how the polka dots and the beads synch up. Hopefully the giver and giftee also like it!

Commission Piece

This is a piece I've been working on for a little while that a friend commissioned. It's always tricky working with other people's images so I hope he likes it. The front has photos and the backs are little mini-collage with paper, flowers and text. It's all connected by smoky quartz beads. The only tricky part was the jump rings but the key has been practice, practice, practice!

Happy Halloween!

We were swamped but it seems to have tapered off a little bit. I wasn't as into the trick or treaters this year as past years, it really drives the puppies nuts and it's a huge production! Mostly I wanted to play in my studio and head to bed early since I stayed up too late last night baking and watching "Dirty Jobs" re-runs. :)

This is the piece I made for the Halloween Swap I hosted on MMCA. I thought it was really cute and my swap partner really seemed to like it. I made a charm only one for my friend Mark who gifted it to his wife, she's an October baby. It was also very cute.

I know the glass looks cracked but it's not, I promise, it's just made to look old and bubbly!

Update and a new Halloween pic

Okay, so apparently my last post freaked out my in-laws (I would've called if I knew you would read it before the update!) anyway, here's the update from the ENT visit. There's a small, tiny something on my paratid gland (between the results and the ENT reading the thing went from 5mm to .5mm which is a significant difference!) that I have to get checked in 3 months. If I notice anything before now and then, I'm to call him and come in. Mostly, it was a big no progress visit so I'm not sure how good I really feel about it. Apparently if it were bigger he would biopsy it but it's a big giant pain in the ass to get to and it's not that big (hopefully it won't get bigger). Eh, I guess we'll keep an eye on it and then worry about it again in March.

So now for more fun Halloween stuff. This is a little vignette that stays up year round in the bedroom just for a little touch of Halloween spirit all year round! The domino necklace was a fun piece I made while working on some pieces a while back and I love the contrasting colors and the chunkiness of the beads. I'm going to have to find the perfect outfit for this necklace!

This weekend was also a big accomplishment for the London trip. The Eddie Bauer outlet will never be the same after we stocked up on the sweaters, down vests and lightweight jacket I picked up for the trip. It's awesome to be able to buy clothes in a variety of stores, not just the plus size options. I got some great sweaters plus a down vest with a faux fur collar.

We also got new phones so I'm texting up a storm now! :) And, I now have a set of these on my studio day bed since I just couldn't resist. We got the bats and I have a white one, blue one and a black one plus a tiny pink one for work. Rolland surprised me with the black one on Thursday and now I have the set so he's not lonely!

This is my 200th post and it's not what I had hoped!

So, I have to go to the ENT today as a follow-up to my MRI. Turns out, there are somethings outside my brain the neurologist wants to have checked and the ENT reviewed the results and wants me to come in to go over them. Because, the results which showed several abnormalities including some things in the 5mm range. Now, my husband's a nurse and he's trying to appear as if this isn't a big deal while I try not to freak out about what you have around you brain (but not in it... OY! The jokes I made here) that are 5mm and not serious. So, I'm wasting my 200th post on this sort of scared rant.

Now, if it turns out to be nothing why couldn't all of these specialists just say so and not have me come into the office to tell me that. OH, and I called about this uhm, yesterday and they are getting me in today at 1:40. Not good when I'm already nervous since last time I had to wait two weeks.

Okay, freaked myself out enough and I'm moving on so as not to panic. I'll update you later on how it went. As well as, hopefully, a more fun post for 201. With pictures. :)

My Fair Day!

We had a lovely Thursday at the fair, including lots of tasty fried goodness, and a ride on the very tall Ferris wheel. I've included a picture. Although it turns out that once you're in your mid-thirties you max out on the fair after about 2 hours. Here are the major highlights:

1. Fletcher's corny dog

2. Ferris wheel ride

3. Fried Frito burrito

4. Fried Latte

5. Auto Show

6. Dept of Agriculture building (we thought it was the petting zoo :(

7. Salt water taffy

8 Ride home with zero traffic!

BONUS: Gorgeous blue Texas skies!!!

Note: Skyline photo is from the ferris wheel. The building with what looks like a rocket landing on top of it is where I work everyday!