Hello 2010

Yep, twenty ten is here.
Or do you say two thousand ten?
Whatever the case I couldn't be happier a new year is upon us.
It's like a clean slate, starting all over, a brand new beginning.
And I am ready for it.

2009 totally sucked.
There, I said it.
And have heard it a lot in the last week on Twitter and Facebook.
Sure, there were a few great things that happened in the year but as a whole, it pretty much stunk.
The year just flew by, working way too much and there were so many sour notes that I am happy to welcome the new.

When I was looking back at the 'ol blog for posts about previous holiday seasons and new year's thoughts, I found it VERY interesting.
I forget how long I've had this thing.
Almost 5 years!!
And I forget how interesting and insightful it is as a journal.
Well, back in 2005, I wrote this about what I had learned that year.
And I thought, "That was a great idea, wish I did that every year".
So I am again this year.
And I HIGHLY recommend it.
So, here it is, the good, the bad and the ugly...

What I learned in 2009

1. Buying a house is not as fun as you would think.
2. Even the best dog can do bad things.
3. Sometimes doing hobbies can feel like more of a chore than a joy.
4. Friends you've never met in real life are sometimes your closest friends.
5. It's never too late, for anything.
6. Puppies are a good substitute for a baby, they sleep in cages.
7. I'd rather a BBQ in our backyard over a restaurant any day.
8. Living together is much easier with more square footage.
9. Parenting a teenager is very frustrating.
10. The kid is way more like me than I ever thought.
11. Sometimes your very best friends aren't who you thought they were.
12. Labeling boxes for a move cannot be underestimated.
13. I'm not married to the most amazing man.
14. Vegas with this same unmarried amazing man is not as much fun as I thought.
15. Sacrifice should never be at the expense of family.
16. Holidays at home are the only way to go.

17. Working at a craft store is one of the best jobs on earth.
18. Working at a craft store is one of the worst jobs on earth.
19. I've missed a lot of my old friends, thanks Facebook.
20. I am one lucky girl to call this my family.
2010 is seriously a new chapter and I am excited for what it will bring.
Hopefully all good stuff. (fingers crossed)
And I'm not making any resolutions this year, is anyone else?

Preferred Lawn Santa?

In our house, we are very opinionated.
Shocking, I know.
And we like to "express" ourselves.
Again...you're shocked.

Well, the current debate is over holiday lawn decorations.
Whether the old school plastic Santa

Kicks the new school inflated Santa's ass!


And every time we see one or the other, the argument continues.
Good thing we have neither, not even lights or nuthin'.

And the kid says, "they're both stupid".
What do you think?

Pick your Jaws off the Floor...

Yes, it's a post.
Yes, it's been a LONG time.
I know, I know, I know....
Apologies, now let's move past all that.

There's a lot going on in my world, most of which is still whirling and buzzing.
I don't even want to talk about anything just yet since the whirling and buzzing is still so new and fresh but it is giving me some free time that I haven't had in a LONG time.
And so I am playing full time mom to the kid.
And woman to the man, clean house and hot meals every day.
And catching up with my friends who were placed on the back burner.
And that all feels good, real good.

And I am making lots of stuff too, just for fun.
I have almost completely found the love of it all again and it makes me happy.

The kid is real good, he won his school's Science Fair and is now on to Regionals in January.
And for the most part, other than the nagging and help with the poster, he did it all on his own.

His project was on Using Bacteria to Speed Up Decomposition and for the most part, I understand it all but the crazy math equations had to be explained a few times.
He's still in the Nerd Academy on Saturdays, so we have a 6 day school week with all the homework that is involved with that and we are still getting straight A's but it has not been easy this year.
And we are still in the whole hellish High School Search, you would not believe the paperwork!
Entrance exams start in January and anxiety is really starting to set in, poor thing.

I am up and running in my Etsy Shoppe too.
Mama's gotta make money somehow, right?!
This little cutie is in the shoppe...


I have lots of projects to post, I swear I could use an assistant to just photograph and post these things.
And I have stamps to sell as well that will go up in the shoppe too.

I look forward to getting a look at everyone's blogs and catching up on what's been going on, I am sooooo outta the loop.
Off to catch up on my blog reader...


(Card Details: Stamps by My Favorite Things, Colored with Copic Markers, PP by A muse Art Stamps, Stamped with Memento Ink, Punches by Marvy)

My Busy Life

(that title's an understatement!)

I don't think that title is larger enough or bold printed enough for the magnitude of my busy life.
I miss blogging.
I miss being bored at work.
I miss having extra time, just a few extra minutes to breathe.
I miss my friends and family.

But life is good.
Real good.
We are all moved in and settled (for the most part) into our new house.
There is always something to do or fix, but compared to a year ago and living in a tiny 2 bedroom apartment....we are in heaven.
Our family has been a major help to, installing water heaters, painting rooms, advising, and helping in about every way you can ever imagine, thank god.
Here we are the weekend we finally moved in back in late May...
(the kid IS a lot taller but he's standing on a higher step too, he's not THAT big...yet)

And the store, everyone is always asking, "How's the store doing?", well it's fine.
Could be better, could be a lot worse.
I've met so many crafty people at the store and am so lucky that part of my job is to hang out and talk crafts.
That's probably the best part about the store, the people.
I am even more busy this year than last, you would think that I would have learned to do things a little more effectively or been more organized but sadly I am a person who creates work for herself.
Like I tell my friends, I am the person standing in a large hole and instead of climbing out, I'm digging myself deeper.
We celebrated our first year anniversary and we have learned a lot in the first year, so hopefully we will have an even better second year.
And we've learned some lessons, the hard way but will just grow stronger because of it.

And since I have so much spare time.
And I'm already so deep in that hole.
I dug even deeper....much, much deeper.
And adopted this little bugger from PAWS.
Meet Nasdaq. (this picture is the best representative of the massive size paws this little guy has and just how big he will grow to be)

He's my new baby.
Everyone is always commenting about how I ONLY have ONE kid.
Well, I actually have three now.
And they are all adorable.
And two out of the three don't talk back.
Our old dog Neo is still getting used to having the little troublemaker in the house.
But he has a #1 fan who is always giving him undying attention, so that has to makes him slightly happy.

And he is an amazingly good puppy.
We've had him 3 whole weeks and I really think we are about 90% housebroken and he already knows sit really well.
He eats EVERYTHING, especially sticks, but luckily if you just tell him to drop it, even from a distance, he does.
And he is kinda lazy for a puppy so we are lucky he isn't a hyper little fella.
Oh yeah, since I know you are all wondering since you saw the size of those giganto paws...He's 13 weeks old today.
Like I said...He will be HUGE, bigger than our Rott when full grown.

Oh and the kid, well, he's still a teenager.
And he has lots of teenage angst from being misunderstood, naturally.
But luckily the nerd academy is finished for the summer and he's been off a few weeks now and the happiness that comes from a lack of homework has definitely made him nicer to his parents. (and vice versa)
He starts 8th grade in a couple weeks and I can't believe we aren't in kindergarten anymore, time flies.
And he's learning very quickly about girls.
And his mother is not happy about it at all.
Or handling it well.
I find it hard to accept that my baby isn't a baby any more.
Which is exactly why we now have a giant puppy so that I have someone at home to baby that doesn't tell me how uncool I am all the time.

And I still make crap.
Tons and tons of crap to be exact.
I am teaching about 20 classes a month at the store, so I'm still crafty if not craftier than I was.
Here's a little proof...










If you want to see more of my creations and need a little inspiration, check out the CraftFancy Gallery, I make most of that stuff as well.
Or on our CraftFancy Blog.
I also just started unpacking all my crap from when I moved it all into storage back when we moved into the tiny apartment and man, do I have too much stuff!
I am working on organizing and arranging, but expect pictures soon as well as a big giveaway and little garage sale.
I couldn't possible use all this stuff in my lifetime.

And I am teaching a couple online courses as well.
(there she goes again diggin' that hole deeper and deeper...see what I mean??!)
When I get more details and set dates, I will link it all up on this blog.
Since I will be blogging more, it's on my lengthy To Do List toward the top, right below Sleep, Feed Family and Breathe.

That's about it for now.
Back to work, lots and lots of work.
And then off for the week to get ready for our Housewarming Party on Saturday.
Talk about stress.
Hope everyone is well, I need to catch up with my bloglines reader that has over 5000+ unread entries.
Yikes!
Chime in and tell me what's new, save me from my blog list, please!!

Hello 2009!

(this is for my buddy Michele who begged me at the beginning of January to update my blog, I finally updated Michele! Can you believe it?)

It has been a crazy few months.
The holidays always throw me for a loop and this year it was even more insane with the store and the crazy snow we have been having, I am amazed I haven't checked myself into the funny farm yet.

Here's a quick recap of the last few months.
We had Thanksgiving with the family and of course there was lots of wine involved.


My sister and her fiance, K-Fred were there.
Did I mention before, she's engaged?
My nephew was showing off his new facial bling.
Nice...real nice.
And of course there was turkey.
And I tried to get a nice photo of me and the kid but I refuse to be shorter than him.
While I was trying to tippy toe my sister was jumping up behind us to try and get in the photo.
This cracks me up.
And now when I say I am the tall sister at 5'3", you will all believe me.
We had originally thought that we would have bought our house well before Thanksgiving and been able to host the major holidays in our new home but that just didn't work out as planned.
This made for an even grumpier holiday season.
I pouted about not having a tree.
I pouted about not getting to bake since all my cookware is in storage.
I pouted just to pout.
It was not a happy time in our house for sure.
And now looking back, I think it was probably for the best.
I didn't need all that hassle this year.
I didn't have the time for the tree or the baking or the decorating.
I did all my Christmas shopping 3 days before Christmas for christ's sake.

So I sat back this year and just went through the motions of the holidays.
We had Christmas at my dad's first, before Christmas.

And while opening presents, my father wouldn't turn off the golf game, so Tiger is in all my photos.

I got some really nice gifts.
And my parents weren't really thrilled that I still haven't opened my expensive cookware from last year.
But they bought me new kitchen goodies to go with them when I do eventually open that box.
My sister was there and I only see her a few times a year.
Nice to see that the kid ruins pictures he takes with everyone, not just me.
Christmas day was spent at my mom's house which is convenient because she lives so close.
Most of my siblings weren't there.
Only these 2 were.
The kid was being himself as usual.


And apparently I was in a totally pouty mood that day too because when I went searching for Christmas photos I only had about 5.

When my brother and his girlfriend came back from her family in Minnesota, we had Christmas for the third time and apparently by then I had had enough because I don't have a single photo!
I have to admit, not having pictures is kinda sad but not having to be the one taking them all the time is kinda nice.
It was good to just sit back and enjoy.
Even if there is no proof.

New Years was low key as usual.
We went to dinner to celebrate my psuedo-SIL's bday.
My little sister was there with her new beau.
Here's my brother and his 'stache.
Oh yeah, that's Katie and the kid too.
That 'stache kinda steals the photo and I forget there are other people in there too.
And this is officially the first photo of 2009 the kid had ruined.
Love my triple chins in this picture.
And am I singing??
WTF?
The kid turned 13 on January 1st too.
And I don't have a single picture of that either.
I think I just freaked out all day.
Pray for me people...pray that I survive these teen years.

My word of the year....TIME.
Make time for my friends.
Cherish time with my family.
Make time for me.
I need more of it and to learn to use it more wisely this year, for sure.

And for all you crafty people, I have made a zillion things in the last few months.
So feast your eyes on these...












(If anyone needs details about any cards, just shoot me an email or check out the CraftFancy gallery.)

I bought a paperwhites kit at Target after Christmas on clearance for $2 and last week they shot up like this...
This week they are gorgeous and smell great...

I am off work for 4 days and I am trying to distance myself and just enjoy being off.
Easier said than done.
I'm heading to the south side later.
I'll probably get lost like I always do.
I am meeting up with my friend Josie tonight to check out her new house.
Then it's off to see the stamping divas.

Tomorrow I am having a complete makeover and I am toying with the idea of an extreme change in hairstyle.
But I am a total chicken when it comes to hair, so we'll see how that goes.
And then out to dinner with my favorite friends and family tomorrow night at one of my favorite restaurants, Friendship.

Have a great weekend.
And enjoy it without your cameras or from the other side of the lens.