Prepping and pouting

We are readying the house for the last scheduled holiday gathering. In a couple of hours eight girls and eight moms will find there way here for what is becoming an annual gathering. I’m cool with that. The youngest is making brownies. I did my duty by dragging out 16 plates and 16 glasses and the matching stainless. I’m thawing the party-sized lasagna. (Yep. I work that hard.) Oh, and I changed the rabbit’s litter box. That’s real party planning.

There’s nothing like another party to remind you what you meant to get around to before you had people over again. You should see the catastrophe that is piled on the kitchen desk! I usually slop it into a laundry basket and hide it all away, but I have decided to look human. Unless I chicken out. I always love going to someone else’s house that isn’t perfect. Homes should be lived in, don’t you think?

The other thing that happened today is Mom left to head home. I know it was a hard week for her to travel first to Houston and then here. Sometimes it still gets very tender when we talk about Dad. Today it was remembering his chasing moles and gophers and conquering woodpeckers. Mom remembered the last time he dug up a mole he didn’t have the heart to kill it so he put it in a box and drove it a few miles away to find a new home.

Sometimes I’m afraid I’ll forget his voice. It’s a good thing we have all the technology these days. He’s on a video here and there and I can visit when I want.

That’s it for now. I should surface again in a few days. If I don’t get to it again, be safe New Year’s Eve. Here’s to a great 2012.

Gift tags

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I’m finally starting to wrap things up around here, so I’ll show you the tags I’m using this year. Green is to; red is from. Everyone is on there in one place or another. I used this program to do the search. (Be sure to print the key, too, or you’ll go bonkers looking for [...]

Checking in a week before Christmas

I’m still here! Hopefully I’ll have a photo of some tags I’ve made later today. But, to be honest, it doesn’t seem very clever to post about everything I’ve been up to lately since some of the recipients might stumble across those items. I’ll be sure to get you full details after the gifts are [...]

As easy as pulling the cork.

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That’s what they want you to believe, anyway. I will argue there are a couple of very colorful phrases and at least one moment of exasperation involved. Yes, it’s another Pinterest project. This time I chose a small bulletin board made of corks. (Did I mention I have a few of those?) Here’s a visual [...]

Crafty weekend

cork wreath

Some of you have found out the hard way (meaning you are also addicted) about Pinterest. The online bulletin board lets you “pin” photos of projects and then link back to the project instructions through a special tool on your internet browser tool bar. It’s so addictive that sometimes I sit down for a few [...]