Random Tuesday Thoughts

I really like Zuma Blitz.

I don't like the cold (but I really, really like my heated electric mattress pad!!).

I'm quite fond of zombies.

I'm crazy about my little girl.

I'm very comfortable in hoodies.

I enjoy watching Big Love (and I'm pretty bummed that Netflix only has episodes through season three available - what about season four??).

I wish there was another animal I could make my car into (since the reindeer antlers and red nose will probably be removed next week...).

I think Sour Cream n Onion Pringles and Cherry Coke are very yummy.

I usually like my life.

I need some tall socks.

I'm looking forward to transferring all my addresses into my new address book when it arrives.

I'm excited about our trip to Vegas next month!

Inventory!

It seemed sort of weird having Christmas on a Saturday. I didn't even consider going shopping the day after because it was a Sunday. Sunday is a chill-out day around here. If we go shopping, it's more of a 'bum around at the mall' sort of thing than a 'search for the Prada bag I wanted but didn't get' thing.

I did do a bit of shopping though, I must confess. I ordered the address book I asked for on Amazon, because I'd really like to get my addresses transferred while I have a few return envelopes from received holiday cards handy. And I ordered some color copies for the January specials with my chocolate work. Unfortunately I ordered the copies a day late! I knew there was a discount around the holiday, but it ended Christmas day and I didn't even try to take care of it til the day after. Oh well! Luckily it wasn't a very big order.

Monster Jam!

Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam is coming to Ford Field (Detroit, MI) on January 8th! I wanted to make you all aware of the show and the great kids offer. ALL KIDS (12 and UNDER) are 1/2 OFF!!! HUGE value for great seats on this show. The kids prices will come out to $15, $12.50 & $10. All tickets include a 'pit party' from 2 - 5PM, with the event starting at 7:30PM.

Maggie will be checking it out with her Daddy for sure! What a great event for daddy bonding :) To get your tickets, visit ticketmaster.com or call 800-745-3000.

[We are receiving complimentary tickets for promoting the Monster Jam in places like
this personal blog.]

Christmas Week

As most families do (at least I think they do!), we spend a lot of the time in the week or so before Christmas visiting and catching up with loved ones we won't probably see on Christmas day.

Our first visit Christmas week was to Grandpa and Grammy's house, where we also saw some of Maggie's aunts and uncles. Maggie was thrilled with the Tiana outfit and accessories that Grammy picked out for her. Once she got into that, though, we forgot to get pictures of everyone else! (Did you really want to see pictures of a bunch of adults? Hahahaha)

If you ask Maggie about what she got at Grandpa and Grammy's, she'll usually forget to mention the Knuffle Bunny book and even the princess color-wonder book, but she will recite an itemized list of the dress, shoes, tiara and earrings. If only we lived somewhere warmer she wouldn't get upset each day when I have to explain that princess dress-up clothes are for in the house, at least during Michigan winter!



A couple days later, Maggie and I headed to meet a couple of my cousins and their kids at my Grandma's house. Maggie calls her GG (for great-grandma).

There were a few cousin's kids a little older, but they held little interest for Maggie. She had a ball playing with my cousin's nine-year-old twin sons and daughter who is almost a year older than her.

I love this shot of the four of them standing on their heads on GG's couch :)

A Gift to Keep Giving?

Did you get any cash for holiday gifts this year? If you don't have immediate needs for it, the internet is a great place to find Online Trading or an Online Broker.

I was surprised to find out a few weeks ago that I still have IRA Accounts through my last employer - yay!! Mobile Trading isn't something on my list of concerns yet, but if I had a sudden influx of cash, maybe I'd look into some Stock Trading or other ways to hopefully make the money grow ;)

Happy Holidays

Santa, I don't want much for Christmas, I just want the person reading this to be happy & healthy. Friends & family are the fruit cake of life. Some nutty, some soaked in alcohol, some sweet, but mix them together and they're my friends & family.
Hope your holidays are very happy!

Merry Christmas!

I hope your family knew what were perfect gifts for mom! We had a great Christmas morning here :) I got a new outfit, a screen protector and case for my iPad, and a perfect pair of boots! Oh - and I'm wearing my new pajamas I got to open last night :)

I've been much happier with the holidays since I've started mentioning stuff I want on my blog. Hubby sees it and can even pass along ideas to other people. And I'm not put on the spot when someone asks what I want. I wouldn't want to give the same idea to everyone, so this way hubby sort of coordinates telling everyone what would be perfect gifts, and he knows which ideas he gave to which people!

Hope your Christmas is merry as well!

10 Random Things for Friday

1. Since it's Christmas Eve, I totally forgot it was Friday too. Like the two may be mutually exclusive or something??
2. I love surprises. If I wanted to be a sneaky ninja, I could totally go see what hubby is wrapping for me right now, but I'd rather be surprised in the morning :)
3. I didn't even wake up early this morning, but this has somehow felt like the longest day! I would have sworn it was like midnight hanging out at my parents' house, but we were on our way home around 9:30PM. And there's still another day of fun and games to come!
4. Maggie was so concerned tonight over her baby cousin crying. She told us, "Alexis wasn't having fun." Poor thing!
5. I should probably write down my little 'mental notes' about who moved, who died, and whose cards were returned undeliverable. I'm trying to just remember for another day and hoping to get my new address book tomorrow. Yeah, like I'll have nothing better to do tomorrow night than re-copy my whole address book.
6. The poor cat was locked in my office all day alone. You think she'd learn...
7. I think my wrapping turn is coming. Hubby is walking around again.
8. I'm really hoping my nail polish makes it one more day without chipping and looking all grody. I'd rather have no nail polish on than chipped nail polish, but it's usually too late to make it gone by the time it's chipping.
9. I've been using the Theraplex Emollient cream on my dry eye skin. It's AWESOME!!
10. Aannnndddd - It's my turn to help wrap Maggie's presents, and then wrap hubby's :)
    

What a Tangled Web

Has another year almost ended and I still haven't done anything about updating my web hosting?

I suppose the first thing I should do regardless of the rest of it would be to learn more about what exactly is web hosting and how much of it do I need to take care of, or what should I hire someone else to deal with. I'm a smart girl, and some of it seems obvious to me (thankfully I don't need an eCommerce site), but I'm used to having most things make sense to me, and that's just not the case with this stuff.

It can be so frustrating! I'm glad there are other experts out there to help :)

Sharing Christmas Spirit :)

My very favorite Christmas song:

Don't Worry...

There were pros and cons to my old job providing Debt Negotiation services. A huge plus (besides all the knowledge about Debt Settlement that I garnered while dealing with creditors day and and day out) was the warm feeling from helping those who really wanted and needed our help. So many times it was just one unlucky event that sent a family into a tailspin, with expenses spiraling out of control and no quick fix to get things back on track. How devastating, to do 'the right thing' for years, and then have one unfortunate health incident or accident undo the efforts of a lifetime!

Once they sought Debt Relief help, we could get things moving back in the right direction. It was seldom quick, but by following the plan things would improve over time. I miss being able to make such a positive impact on peoples' lives, especially when I hear of so many people in trouble now.

Random Tuesday Thoughts

I'm cold. Expect this to be a recurring theme until May or June. Maybe July.

I finally got all of the email addresses from my guests in November and December entered into my chocolate site. And then I promptly sent out a notice about our fabulous special - through December 26, order two bottles of our chocolate martini mix (one regular, one mudslide) and get FREE shipping to anywhere in the 48 contiguous states. Delivery will be in time for New Years. That's chocolate martinis for $2.50 or less each! ($40 for the two bottles, which will make 16 - 24 drinks total.) You can take advantage of this too - drop me a message or contact me via my information on my chocolate site.

Maggie is still in her pjs, although she has eaten her lunch. We have a holiday gathering tonight and I don't want her to mess up her favorite gingerbread dress. Instead of changing before we leave, I'll just wait to get dressed :D I prefer the term 'efficient' to 'lazy' for obvious reasons ;)

To the person who was sent here to find ideas for my holiday gift, click here.

I painted my nails this morning since they were messed up yesterday. I hope I can get through the day and the party tonight without messing them up! They're 'Chrome.' The color looks really cool, but if I remember correctly it tends to 'wear' off pretty easily.

I'm pretty big on 'apostrophes' today. Not sure why.

I haven't wrapped any presents yet. Ugh. Without Maggie napping, it's hard to schedule in. Hubby doesn't want anything to do with it, so I'll probably need to just lock myself in the office and do it while Maggie entertains herself elsewhere. And it just disturbs me on principle to wrap them the day before they're unwrapped, you know?

Feeling 'Chubby and Plump'?

It's the time of year where we're all watching for the 'right jolly old elf,' while being afraid of looking a little more like him every day! I think a lot of people have a love/hate relationship with holiday party food. I heard a couple friends discussing diet pills last night at our annual ornament exchange. The funny part is we were all standing around my kitchen grazing while they talked about it!

My friends must already know the best diet pills. No one brought a veggie tray to share (not that I mind some veggies, with lots of dip, of course!), but we were able to fit a few more than a dozen people in my not-large living room while we played our ornament games. I love hanging out with friends - who doesn't? - and appetizers and dips are my favorite dinner. We were joking about how much more cream cheese must be consumed during the last few weeks of the year. Every holiday celebration seems to add a couple new recipes to my 'favorites' list. It's no wonder there's so much information available about weight loss diet pills!

10 Random Things for Friday

1. I think I'm on a roll today (luckily!). So much to do, so little time!
2. Why does my back pick this week to give me trouble again? Thank goodness for motrin!
3. I wish I had more sweaters. Hubby is tired of seeing me in hoodies, but I'm always cold!
4. But I don't want to have a billion sweaters like I did in the 80s (the decade, not the temperature) either.
5. I'm sort of justifying my dawdling on this post now because once I get some stuff I've already printed ready to mail, I need to get a shower...but the dishwasher is running right now, so I'm cautious about the hot water situation, you know?
6. I hope I can get my hair to look decent today since I'm going to see a bunch of my friends tonight!
7. Tonight is the big ornament exchange! I think we'll have around a dozen ladies. Thank you, old man weather, for not ruining my big par-tay!
8. I was sort of bummed that only one person showed up for my Dove team party last night, but we had a lot of fun anyway :)
9. Grrr.....I got a new game on my iPad the other day, but it doesn't work. I wrote the developer, and he says to resync the iPad. I hate, hate, hate doing that because it takes hours, and usually something ends up not working or deleted when I'm done. If I hadn't won the iPad, I definitely never would have bought it. It's a cool game machine, but totally not reliable for any real purpose. I've hated iTunes forever, and swore not to get anything that used it after the hassles anytime I tried to update my iPod.
10. And on the tail end of #9, Cut the Rope had better be worth it! (That's the game that's getting me to resync...again.)
    

Conference Football Championships for Die-hard Fans - A Guest Post

Content by Kyle Lowe

It's conference championship time again, and that means my Satellite Tv will get no rest this weekend. As a die-hard Virginia Tech fan, my interests will be focused on the ACC Championship between the Seminoles of Florida State and the Hokies of Virginia Tech. With Hokies quarterback Tyrod Taylor at the helm, it is possible that Virginia Tech will become champions of the ACC.

Another game I plan on watching is the non-championship game between Connecticut and South Florida. While it may not be a true conference championship, the game will still decide the champion of the Big East. All Connecticut has to do is win and they will become BCS Bowl eligible. I really like Connecticut and will be rooting them on against the Bulls this weekend.

Most everyone will be watching the South Carolina Gamecocks try to defeat the #2 Auburn Tigers. The Gamecocks almost beat them during the regular season, so it is quite possible that they get their revenge in the championship game. Besides, it's South Carolina's first trip to the SEC Championship, so I think they will come prepared. As long as they don't choke, they could put an end to Auburn's national championship hopes.

All the Balls (almost) in the Air!

The holiday season inevitably means a lot going on. But I'm still basking in the fact that I'm done with chocolate shows until after the first of the year - yay! And I'm still on track to meeting my goal with just a couple orders between now and then :)

My house is in reasonable condition and will be spruced up again this afternoon before my Dove team celebration tonight. I may even have time to paint my nails between making the snacks.

Tomorrow is my second annual ornament exchange. The turnout isn't expected to be nearly as good as last year (because last year I mailed invitations and this year I just Facebooked it?), but it'll work. And since I'm doing that party right on the heels of tonight's party, all I'll really need to do to get ready is food, nametags, and numbers for the exchange.

There are a few other things I should try to get on my agenda like a bit of follow-up with my January chocolate hostesses, and working on getting those few extra outside orders I need. My office (as usual) could stand to be cleaned. But overall, I'm not nearly as stressed over holiday goings-on as a lot of people, and I'm grateful.

Christmas Cards with a Personal Touch - A Guest Post

Guest post written by Mary Cooper

Gone are the days when I just sign a Christmas card and stuff it in an envelope. Now that I'm in retirement, I have a little more time to personalize our Christmas cards and I'm using that to my advantage.

As soon as I decided to put a little more time into my cards, I started looking online to try and find all kinds of ideas that I could use for them. One night when I was doing some research for that, I randomly found the website www.clearwirewimax4g.com and read through it. After that I consulted my husband and we signed up with one of the internet packages.

I think that I had almost way too many ideas for homemade Christmas cards and I regret not getting to use all of them. But I made sure to the pick the ones that seemed like they wouldn't take so much time to do without sacrificing quality. I mean, I spent a little bit of time on each, but I just didn't feel like putting an hour into each one.

Random Tuesday Thoughts

I'm ornery. You've been warned.

I told hubby I didn't care if he left the car seat or not. There's nothing I need to do today. But now I've decided there's a couple things I want to pick up at the mall, and I should really get the deposit to the credit union, so I really hope he left it. He probably did - he's usually psychic like that ;)

I'm really glad this winter yuckiness didn't come while hubby was still gone last weekend, but I don't especially like it now either. I want to go to a quarter auction tonight and get some cool stuff for really cheap, but I can't if the roads are too bad for hubby to get home from work early enough. We'll see.

I've got a loose menu in my head for the parties I'm doing at my house on Thursday and Friday, but I should really get them solidified and make sure I have everything I need. I apparently have two work speeds - swamped and asleep. Now that Dove's holiday shipping deadline has passed, I'm chillin for at least a couple days.

Maggie just discovered Dora last week. Now she keeps saying Feliz Navidad. It's pretty funny. She says that's what Santa says.

Going to See Santa - A Guest Post

Content by Sol Rosales

My children always find the time to remind me that I have to take them to see Santa around the holidays. Once Thanksgiving is over, their immediately focused on their trip to see Santa. Sometimes I think they are more excited about going to see Santa than opening gifts on Christmas Day, ok maybe I won't go that far!

I take my kids to see Santa but every year we visit him in a different location. Last year I took them to the 4h center in Vanderburgh Indiana because it is free and my kids have more fun there than they do in places where I spend lots of money. I will probably take them there this year as well.

You get to take pictures of Santa and visit him in the workshop for a few dollars but it's worth it and even better is the display of Christmas lights that are set up every year. I also make sure that my kids are available to attend the dinner with Santa which was like only five dollars. My kids were so excited that they barely ate.

When me and my kids are out visiting Santa and taking pictures so every year I make sure I set my home security alarm from Home-alarm-systems.com/ so that our beloved things will be safe until we make it home.

The Twelfth Day of Christmas

I just realized as I was finishing up my holiday cards this weekend that I need a new address book. I really like this one, because it has pages that can be moved around (since we have a huge number of L and S entries...), and the little check boxes for sent and received holiday cards. I've used up all those boxes in my existing book. Since I've had it for five years, it's also just time to update the records, you know? A pack of refill pages wouldn't hurt either - I ran out of space in my old one, which I think was by the same company.

Great Skin Treatment!

Anytime I think I'm getting a blemish, I grab the organic tea tree oil. I can't even remember now how I first heard of it, but it took me a while to find in the nail section at the drugstore. The little bottles I find are intended to treat nail fungus, but they work great with a cotton swab on little wanna-be zits. I think it's mostly drying, but it makes those ugly little spots flake off and disappear in a day or two! Where was this stuff when I was in high school??

The Eleventh Day of Christmas

I've actually got another item that I think was on my list last year, and I received it, but I need more! I am perpetually cold, so I love layering my shirts. I have a few long-sleeved t-shirts, but I need some more in brown, since that's the color of the print on most of my chocolate t-shirts.

I've also pointed out some t-shirts that are chocolate themed. Those can be kind of tricky though, because I don't want anything too specific or any specific brand or product on it. I'm also not too big on cheez (unless I win it in a sales contest!). I went looking for a good example of what I do want, and I've learned - please be careful when googling for chocolate t-shirts. No, really. I found many stellar examples of what I don't want.

When in doubt, I can definitely use the long-sleeved t-shirts in brown without any message at all ;)

Gifts!

Wow! Based on my time at the mall, writing my wish list posts should be easy as pie! I wish it was as easy for hubby to find women's apparel for me. I realized as he texted me today that it isn't really my fault or his that he thinks I'm not easy to shop for. He was asking about my sizes for things, and I could never really give a straight answer. It always depends on the style and brand and such. But don't let that slow you down, honey - just hang on to the receipt and we'll make sure it's the perfect gift in the end ;)

The Tenth Day of Christmas

I've been eyeballing a few candy and chocolate recipes lately, and a fellow chocolatier shared that at least one of them tends to turn out less than perfect if you're not using a candy thermometer. How can I be in my line of work and not even own a candy thermometer?? So as much as I've tried not to ask for work things for my holiday wish list, the candy thermometer is really for me to try out some yummy recipes!

Making Home Sweet Home, Sweet!

What a busy day! Tonight hubby is coming back from Germany (as this is written, actually!). So today has been spent straightening, vacuuming, and polishing all the whirlpool faucets. He doesn't want to see what it was like a few days ago! I've been running ragged doing chocolate work and let the rest of is slide. Time's up! He'll want to see everything spic and span!

The Ninth Day of Christmas

Is it possible that I'm actually finding it difficult to list stuff I want for each day? Huh. I think part of my problem is that I'm currently so focused on meeting my goals with my chocolate business that I keep thinking of work things, but I really don't want to ask for work stuff for the holidays, you know?

Anyway, for my wish list today I'm asking for dinner out. At the Melting Pot - which I've never been to! I hear lots of people say how much they love it, but we've never been. I think part of the reason is because we actually prefer to take Maggie with us most places, and this looks like the sort of experience which would be seriously compromised if I were dealing with a pre-schooler at the same time ;)

So maybe my wish is a tad more complicated. I want a night out, including dinner at the Melting Pot, and I don't want to have to plan it. :)

Bling is Bling!

At a networking meeting tonight, I was surprised to meet a woman who was running her own home-based business selling jewelry. That wasn't the surprising part. She said the jewelry she sold is identical to stuff you'll find in stores. I know of several direct sales jewelry businesses, so I was surprised that someone would put the effort in to setting up their own distribution to sell produced (as opposed to hand made) jewelry.

That being said, there was some really festive looking stuff. The sparkly bracelets caught my eye first, but for folks shopping for the holidays or cubic zirconia wedding rings, her price range was between $5 - $50! That's pretty reasonable for jewelry!

The Eighth Day of Christmas

As I start building up the motivation to bake cookies for the cookie exchange I'm attending this weekend, I finally thought of something for my wish list.

More cooling racks. The one I have so far is from Pampered Chef, but I'm really not all that picky. It isn't something I'll use super often, but it takes no room to store when folded up, so it would be nice to have another one or two around :)

The cookies I'm making (probably in the middle of the night, since that's when things tend to finally get accomplished by me!) are simple spritz cookies, but then I'm going to spread tempered chocolate on the bottoms of half of them and set them on Dove's fancy cocoa-butter transfer sheets, so they'll have nice pictures on them. And you can never go wrong by adding chocolate to something, right?

The Seventh Day of Christmas

Some days you don't even know what you're looking for until you find it. At least in my world ;)

I was feeling moderately creative tonight, and while searching for my wish list post for today, I added several books to my Amazon wish list, but nothing really struck me as important enough to warrant its own post.

Until the Build-a-Zombie calendar from thinkgeek.com. I'm a zombie fan (no, I'm not really sure how that happened) and this calendar looks like quite the coolest thing I've seen all day.

I hope Santa sees fit to bring me one of my very own. :)

Wedding Made in Heaven - A Guest Post

Thanks for the post from Deborah Kline

It was a windy August morning; my best girl friend, Shanna, and I decided to catch-up on this day. I knew she and Andy have been exclusive for about four months now. A knock was heard at the door, my friend ran to meet her mysterious guest. It was Andy. We sat for lunch and savored our food with some kind of deep meditation and silence. It was Shanna who finally spoke telling me of their upcoming wedding.

A month later, I was in this court room witnessing the union of this lovely couple. I felt very happy for my best friend, but at the same time, I felt a little pity for myself - of being alone and feeling vulnerable.

I left my home and since I just moved in the neighborhood, I have no one to watch my house for me. Luckily, I have a reliable home security system. I made sure I set my home security alarm from Securitychoice.com before I went to the wedding, and that made me smile - the reassurance that my home is in good hands.

I went back to watch my best friend's life transform into a more meaningful one, full of love. I enjoyed this evening of a lifetime. It was a sweet and wonderful day. It sure pays to be in 'good company' all the time.

Random Tuesday Thoughts

I. Am. Freezing. I mean, I don't want an electric blanket or an electric mattress pad, I want electric pajamas. I'm so darn cold.

I had high hopes of getting stuff together tonight for my chocolate tasting tomorrow, but Maggie stayed up super late, and now I'm just shivering and considering crawling under the covers just to warm up. :(

When we went shopping on Sunday, I got a body pillow for Maggie for Christmas that's blue, with Beauty and the Beast on it. I thought I distracted her pretty quickly when she almost focused on it for a minute. Then tonight, while we were driving home, she says to me, "We got a big princess pillow with blue on it." Little stinker.

Have you seen Surf's Up? I got it from Netflix for Maggie last week. We've been enjoying it. It sort of makes me like penguins all over again.

Only a few more days of crazy schedule, and then I can take some down time :) There's a chocolate tasting party tomorrow, a networking dinner/meeting on Thursday, a chocolate tasting party on Friday, a vendor event all day on Saturday and then a cookie exchange in the evening, and then a chocolate tasting party on Sunday. Whew. And lucky hubby gets home in the middle of it all. Sorry, honey!

I'm still very cold. Just sayin.

The Sixth Day of Christmas

I know I've mentioned several times that I want a decent pair of tall boots, and a new dress to wear for the holidays. I have yet to find the right dress, but these boots just might work. Luckily, they're not very expensive! Even more luckily, I'm out of time to look at more boots and have more to do with my life than expand my wish list every day ;) Translation: I want tall black boots, that don't look like moon boots, and that definitely don't have much (if any) of a heel. These fit the bill, but some other ones might too.

Do you have a tall boot that you just love and would recommend to me? I really like my Docs, but it takes me forever to tie them up. I am, admittedly, a very slow shoe tie-er. Who knew?

Today has been a day of receiving random kindness for Maggie and I. Here's a few things that brightened our day, in the hopes that hearing about goodness in the world might brighten your day :)

• The drive-thru teller at the credit union corrected my math. Sure, it's her job, but I've had tellers before send me the slip back and forth for initials for any silly thing. I'm glad this one was able to make our visit more efficient.
• The shoppers at the mall were entertained by (or at least tolerant of!) Maggie's story telling. Maggie likes talking to people, and I like when they're not rude in return.
• At the post office, some man let Maggie and I go in front of him in line when he heard Maggie say she had to pee.
• And then, the postal clerk let us into the office area to use their restroom!
• The customers and other vendors at the event we were at tonight (and I say 'we' because Maggie came to chocolate work with me) were very nice about the kids running around. Maggie made some friends, and there was no drama.
• As we left chocolate work, one of the other vendors waited outside in her car until Maggie and I were safely packed and on our way as well. It was dark in that back parking lot, and we were the last two cars!
  

Thankful for a Stranger? - A Guest Post

This guest post from Walter Horn

My favorite Thanksgiving TV special is from the King of Queens. I watch it on Satalite TV channels whenever it's on. The episode is titled "Thanks Man" which originally aired November 26, 2003.

In this episode Carrie and Doug invite their friends over to celebrate Thanksgiving. While the dinner is being prepared a stranger, wearing an eye patch, knocks on the door to use the telephone to get a ride because his car broke down. Carrie is immediately distrustful of him while Doug thinks he's harmless.

During dinner the gentleman stays on the porch waiting for his friend to pick him up. None of the guests are able to enjoy the dinner with the stranger on the porch. Carrie refuses to let him inside insisting he might be deranged and kill them all. Carrying his dinner plate, Doug gets up and joins the man out front. Little by little each guest follows. Finally, Carrie goes outside also. The stranger says he will need to use the bathroom before his friend picks him up. Carrie lets him inside and everyone stays outside. It's then that they realize the man robbed them and went out the back door. My favorite line is at the end when Doug says, "Told you he wouldn't kill us."

The Fifth Day of Christmas

About a year ago, I had a party for a home party plan company called Jewel Kade. With my show, I used my free spending and hostess credits to get a cool necklace just available to hostesses, and a holiday charm that said something about 'Santa stop here.' I loved it and wore it a lot between the time I received it and the end of the holiday season. A friend of mine was planning to have a party after the first of the year and I figured I'd get another charm then.

Unfortunately, the show wasn't at the top of my friend's priority list (not that I would expect it to be!), and the consultant never called my friend to follow-up! In conversation, my friend said she would book a show, but she didn't feel like looking up the consultant's information. Totally fair, and I don't know that I'd want to keep working with someone who didn't follow up when they said they would. I called the consultant about her order with my company, and she asked if my friend wanted to have a party. I told her I didn't know why she wouldn't, and suggest she call my friend. But she never did.

That gets us around to the point that I still only have a holiday charm for my necklace! I'm too busy now to have another show, but I'd love to receive the charm pictured to go with my necklace year round. On their website, it's called the 'American Heart Association Glitter Charm.' It looks like you can order straight through their site without contacting a consultant. Bad news for consultants who don't follow up with potential hostesses and customers, but good news for me!

Hear that, Santa? I'd love to receive the 'American Heart Association Glitter Charm' from Jewel Kade.

The Fourth Day of Christmas

Today I'm listing another item that shows up on my holiday wish list, and would probably show up again even if I received it. I would love to go see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra perform. This year they're at The Palace of Auburn Hills on December 30, but when I do a search for the best available tickets it shows me some that are nearly behind the stage. Are all the decent seats already gone? Hmm...

I'm a fan of performances. I like plays, and fashion shows, and concerts. I like to be entertained. Maggie and I went and saw Cinderella on stage last month. I'm hoping she'll inherit my appreciation for these things. She seemed to like it, but I had to laugh when every time the lights went down for a scene change or whatever, she asked, "Is it done?" Every. Time.

10 Random Things for Friday

1. I'm tired and should have just gone to sleep instead of starting this list :)
2. My dinner consisted of munchies at a ladies' night out open house. I loved the scallops wrapped in bacon. YUM!
3. Whoa. Really tired.
4. I hope I don't regret the fact that I'm going straight to bed after this, then getting up early in the morning to pack for tomorrow's event.
   
5. I have no idea how I made it through college. I remember sleeping very little, and cramming very lot. I can't even imagine functioning like that now. Especially while consuming as much alcohol as I did then :P
6. It was probably all the alcohol that kept me from realizing that I was asleep while walking...and writing...and talking...and working...and....
7. I love spending an evening with successful people. The event tonight wasn't great business wise, but I got to spend it chatting with fun and friendly people, as well as catching up with an inspirational woman from another direct sales business. All-in-all a decent evening :)
8. The bacon-wrapped scallops were really good.
9. I meant to put another coat of clear nail polish on my nails tonight so they'd hold out through the weekend, but I forgot. It's too late now, since I plan to go to bed ASAP.
10. Hope you have a fabulous and restful weekend :)
    

The Third Day of Christmas

I think you'll laugh at this one. But I really miss my old orange handled Fiskar nice scissors. Apparently I'm not the only one who likes them, as they're called 'The Original Orange-Handled Scissors' on their website :) I'm almost inclined to ask for a couple pairs, so I don't find myself without them for so long again.

These were the scissors that my mom kept from us so many years ago, because they were her good 'sewing scissors.' Sometimes I snuck them for important projects anyway, because they cut so much better than the other ones in the drawer for our use. Lately I've been reduced to using our scissors in our knife block for everything, since my favorite Fiskars walked away. Although I'm sure as soon as I finally get a new pair, they'll come back again. Doesn't it always go that way?

Homemade Lace Print Wrapping Paper - A Guest Post

Guest post written by Piper Brown

I think that it's just so much more fun to make my own wrapping paper for every occasion than to go out and buy some. I've actually been doing that for a while after I bought several roles of white paper a few years ago and pledged to myself that I would make my own for the fun of it. Actually, it's a whole lot cheaper to do it that way anyway.

I have a lot of craft supplies anyway, but I saw online not too long ago on one of my favorite craft sites that they were having a huge clearance on lace, so I knew that I could do something with it and bought up a bunch of it. When I was doing that I came across some Providence 4g INTERNET offers and decided to order one of them for our internet at home.

Once I got all the lace shipped to me, I still couldn't believe that I had gotten all of that stuff for so little money! I've always loved wrapping paper with lace print on it so I decided to kind of make my own by laying it down on top of the paper and then spray painting on top of it.

The Second Day of Christmas

Easy peasy. I still want another pair of diamond studs for my second hole. Well, technically, smaller than the ones I have, so the bigger ones will go in my second holes and the new ones will go in my third holes, but whatever. And I definitely want them screwback again since I leave them in all the time.

I'm honestly not all that much of a jewelry girl (although I can think of at least one more piece of jewelry to include on my list). My diamond earrings really just stay in all the time. I like wearing big hoops for my main holes (especially with my short haircut), but for the rest of the piercings (four total in my left ear and three total in my right), the only way I wear anything is to just leave the pretty little studs in all the time.

What a Difference....erm...

Or maybe not ;)

Someone just tagged a picture of me on Facebook from a year after I graduated high school. I know I'm not sharing any 'news' since I recently talked about my 20 year reunion, but it's been a while since that picture was taken. Of course the picture has to be of me in a bathing suit, right?

After spending a little while trying to remember who all the people in the picture were (with some success), I happened to glance at myself in the mirror while getting ready for bed. I'm not 19 anymore, but my own reflection didn't send me researching how to reduce body fat quickly either. I suppose that's good. Now if only I could remember the actual picture....

The First Day of Christmas

I've developed a thing this year for zombies. I love Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, Planet Terror, even Zombie Strippers! So the first item on my wish list this year (not necessarily the most wanted, just the first one I'm mentioning) is a Shaun of the Dead t-shirt. It says, "We're Going to the Winchester!" If you don't know what this means - Stop Reading and go get the movie!!!

According to their size chart, the shirts run a little small, so I'd have to ask for a large if I trust them. And why shouldn't I trust them, right?