Jingle Balls

Can you believe this exists?!? At Christmas, my father-in-law bought me the newest Cheetos--- Jingle Balls! They are HUGE white-cheddar cheesy-poof-balls! Wha-wha-what?

Gray Lace Cardigan

Here is the latest Wardrobe Re-fashion that I have completed. This sweater was originally a plain gray short-sleeved turtle-neck. The neck somehow got a hole in it, so I decided to save the sweater and jazz it up a bit. I cut off the neck, sliced open the front, added on some bias tape around the edges and some lace for fun, sewed on a couple of buttons, and VOILA! It's a completely different look!

I liked it so much that I decided to wear the new sweater for my Christmas Eve outfit. Here it is in action with my family. Don't we look cute?!?

Merry Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Watcha Wearin Wednesday

What I'm wearing today:

Black top- Anne Taylor
Black cardigan- Old Navy
Black and Purple Houndstooth Skirt- Goodwill- I altered this skirt to make it a pencil skirt (it was huge and shapeless when I bought it.)
Black tights- Old Navy
Necklace- A little Scottie dog that I made from the extra skirt fabric. It can be worn as a pendant or a pin. So cute!

My Birthday

Well, I've officially completed one more year of life, and today was a wonderful day of celebration thanks to my family and friends! I started off the day by PAINTING! --working on my painting of our house. It has been slow finding time to work on this project (can't believe that I started this back in August), but I'm loving how things are going.
While I was painting, my parents were kind enough to go get me a Starbucks and then to come over and make my favorite breakfast-- Orange Rolls and Fruit! Mmmmmmmmmm! Here's a pic of my dad lounging around after breakfast. I think that he may be the dog-whisperer.
We spent the afternoon preparing for my party-- a wine tasting party.
Before the party, we went to a local restaurant for dinner. They had these fun conversation cards on the table that had questions about food like--- "What flavor combination were you pleasantly surprised by?" and "If you had $1,000 and could go anywhere for a meal, where would you eat?" They worked really well as interesting conversation starters, so we quickly made up some of our own before the party started.
Here's my little family-- all ready for the party. I wanted to wear a dress that I had made, and I decided on the Coffee Date Dress. I really like this picture-- if Jack could have only sat still! Ah well, I guess that's what happens when your dog is like a little toddler.
The guests begin arriving. Let the blind-wine-tasting begin! We ended up with 8 wines in the running. And we even had official score cards to help us rate things like the nose, intensity, balance, etc.
And the winner is.............. NUMBER SEVEN! It turned out to be an Estancia merlot.

And no Birthday would be complete without a Birthday cake! My mom found a way to combine two of my favorite desserts-- brownies and cheesecake. Yummmmm!!! And I even managed to blow out all of the candles on the first try!
What a perfect Birthday. THANK YOU to all of my family and friends. YOU made my birthday special. I feel so very lucky to have such supportive family, and such a great group of friends. (Happy sigh.) What a great day!

Fabric Yo-Yo Necklace

Back in September, I blogged about being inspired by all of the fabric statement necklaces that have been out in the stores (read the post here).
A couple of months ago, me and a couple of my best gal pals got together to make some of our own... and last night, I finally finished mine! All I did was make some fabric yo-yo's in a variety of styles (see a great tutorial how to make yo-yo's here).

It's an interesting look, but I'm not sure how often I'll actually be wearing it. What do you think of fabric statement necklaces like this?

Sculpey Dogs and Nativity

My mom and I had fun with Sculpey this weekend! If you haven't used Sculpey before, it's a white clay that you can bake in your oven at home, and then you can paint it. We decided to make some Sculpey figurines of some of our family dogs, and some things to supplement one of my Nativity scenes.
Above, you'll see an arrangement of our family dogs. From left, we have Scout and Jack (ornaments that I already had), and then my mom made Tico and Sassy out of Sculpey. Don't they look great?!? My mom is a 3-D Sculpey Artist, and she didn't even know it.

Here is my updated Nativity set. Can you guess which figurines came with the set and which ones we made? I think it's pretty hard to tell!
I made the camel and the lamp-thingy for the 3 Wise Persons to bring. Also, my mom and I each made a sheep for the shepherd. (My sheep is the one with the crazy ears... what was I thinking?!?)

Trisha's T-Shirt Blanket Completed

I finally completed my very own T-shirt blanket (started back in March). The shirts are all from Middle School and High School-- Band, Theater, Art Fairs, Camps, and even Poms are represented. What's really cool about it is that I designed a lot of the shirts-- I guess I didn't originally realize how many high school T-shirts I helped design.
And it's completed in the nick of time-- only a high of 67 today. :)

Animal, Vegetable, Miserable-- in the NY Times

I am a vegetarian, and proud of it! There is a very well-written article in the NY Times by Gary Steiner about why he is a Vegan. Check it out.

Reusable gift wrap- a great idea!

I saw this great idea for reusable gift wrap on Zakka Life (a blog I follow). This looks like a pretty wrapped present, but it is a reusable fabric bag! I love the idea!

My only concern is that it has a velcro closure, so it might be tempting for some to peek!

I made some sewed-closed fabric bags for presents one year, but they had to be cut open, and really couldn't be re-used. If I had the time, I 'd make these for all my presents this year.... An even better idea--- why not wait until after Christmas when all the novelty Christmas fabric is on sale, and make them for next year?!?