The One with the Twenty Four Days of Christmas Stories

Back in the day (I'm talking 15, 16 years ago) our dear friends the Millett's gave us a binder filled with 24 Christmas stories and accompanying songs and quotes. Every year when the holidays roll around we dust the dust off the cover and read one story every night in December leading up to Christmas. It's one of my favorite traditions and it gets my Christmas spirit soaring. I retyped the stories several years ago and am now passing our tradition on to the world. Download, print, read, and enjoy!

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! Feliz Navidad! May your days be merry and bright!

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The One with the LOST Season 6 Official Poster

Hello, my name is Paige, and I'm a LOST fanatic. (HI PAIGE!) I'm so excited for the sixth and final season to start on February 2nd at 8/7 central. What I love about this show is nothing is certain. Lots of people have died/been killed off, but that doesn't mean they can't come back. Here is proof: This is the official season 6 poster. And almost every important character ever to appear on the show is on the poster, irregardless of whether they died and haven't been on the show in a few seasons.

From left to right: Faraday, Boone (long time no see!), Miles, Michael (where's Walt?? Waaaaaalt!!!), Ana Lucia ("Guns don't kill people, Ana Lucia kills people."), Charlotte ("I can't eat chocolate before dinner!"), Lapidus, Shannon (I still can't believe she played a 17-year-old in the movie Taken), Desmond ("See ya in anotha life brotha."), Mr. Eko, Kate, Jack, John (the only person with his back to the front, what could that mean...?), Ben ("My name is Henry Gale! I'm from Minnesota!"), Sayid, Penny or is it Libby (??), Sun, Jin, Claire, Hurley, Richard, Charlie, Burnard, Rose, and even the dog Vincent.

Any other LOST fans care to share in my excitement? Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeps!

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The One with I Be Scrappin'

I made my two monthly layouts for American Crafts last night.

This one is called Mt Rainier. When Eric first got home from his mission Chris and I flew out to Washington to greet him. Then Chris had to go back to Utah for school and I stayed a few extra days. The fam and I went on a hike by Mt Rainier and I was missing Chris something fierce, but it was still fun to see the sights and breath the fresh mountain air.

Supplies: White embossed cardstock, patterned paper, ribbon, buttons, and Thickers are American Crafts, Kraft cardstock is Scenic Route Paper Co. (RIP), the white pen is a Sharpie, the decorative border punch is Fiskars, and the scalloped scissors are Provo Craft.

This layout is called Happy as a Clam. The journaling says: "Moving from UT to CA was very stressful, let's be honest. Chris and Jay took Rachel in the moving truck and Allie and I had the rest of the pets in our car. I was most worried about the finches, but it turned out that Chandler the rabbit was having the hardest time. So Allie so graciously held him in her lap the entire 10+ hour drive. And he was as happy as a clam! Thanks Allie! Chandler loves you!"

Supplies: White embossed cardstock, blue and red cardstock, ribbon, Thickers and the black pen are American Crafts, the tiny letter stickers are Making Memories, the scalloped circles were made with Spellbinders Nestabilities die cuts and the Cuttlebug die cut machine by Provo Craft.

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The One with the Unbelievable Black Friday

I had my alarm clock set for 4:25am this morning, but I was so excited to go shopping that I woke up even before my alarm at 4:05am. I ate a bowl of cereal, took the dog out, put on some scrubbies then woke up Chris. We headed out for the only Wal-Mart within a 15 miles radius of our apartment at 4:45am.The masses and swarms of people was indescribable. But I shall try. The parking lot of this Wal-Mart is by far the largest I've ever seen, yet every single parking spot was taken. We had to drive a few businesses down the street just to find a place to park. Then the trek to the line began. The line just to get inside Wal-Mart was literally a mile long. A MILE! Kid you not, cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye, shake my bottom if I got 'em - a mile long! CRAZY PEOPLE! I guess I was one of them though. We stood in line for about 5 minutes, moved three feet forward, then said, "Forget this, our time is worth more than the deal we'd get on $2 DVDs which will probably be sold out by the time we got in anyways." Note to self: Never go to the Rosemead Wal-Mart on Black Friday ever again unless we want to do the whole camping out thing.
We went to Target instead and found the majority of stuff that was on my wish list. Score. I love Target.
It helps that there are 10 Targets within 10 miles of our apartment. Doesn't help that there's only one Wal-Mart within 15 miles of our apartment. Where Chris' family lives in Colorado there are at least five Wal-Marts within a five mile radius. I bet the lines to get inside at the Wal-Marts in Colorado weren't a mile long...
I'm tired.

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The One with Thanksgiving 2009

Took Joey for a walk this morning and he had a fun little interaction with a Tom Cat.I know, I'm blogging about Joey like he's a baby, but he's getting so big so fast I want lots of pictures to remember him at this stage. I promise there won't be as many once he's all grown up! Here he is in the car on the way to our Thanksgiving destination.
We spent Thanksgiving 2009 with my uncle John, aunt Natalie, cousins CAT and Daniel, and their family friends who own a cabin up in the mountains of Wrightwood, CA. It didn't feel like we were in California anymore! At least not the urban sprawl that we've become accustomed to.
Here were are on this blessed day. 11.26.09.
Saw a ginormous gray squirrel with a big fuzzy tail enjoying his Thanksgiving feast. I want one. (Just kidding. NO MORE PETS!)
Trees. I love trees.
I especially love evergreen trees. These babies produce some majorly big pine cones!
Here's an interesting tidbit about the wildlife of Wrightwood - the woodpeckers in these parts of town poke holes in the trees and then fill them with seeds for worms to get in and then they come back and eat the worms from the seeds.
Clever birds!Joey likes playing in the leaves. He sorta blends in.
We went on a walk to town and enjoyed the fresh air.
Have I mentioned I love trees? Cuz I do.
Here is "town," if you can even call it that. It's one street long. Quite a town! But really, I love the feel of small towns.
Surprisingly there was a little coffee shop open and since Chris and I hadn't eaten lunch we stopped in and had some breakfast burritos. They were good.
My handsome husband. I'm so thankful for him!
Back at the cabin we set up for the feast.
Joey was so worn out from the walk, chasing around Kenny the dog, and playing with people, that he thankfully fell asleep during dinner.

Now we're back at home, enjoying our time together, the glow of our freshly set up Christmas tree, and planning out our strategy for Black Friday tomorrow. We love a good deal!
Yeah, so, my camera sorta stinks and I figured, hey, if it's gonna be blurry, might as well make the most of the situation! Behold, our Christmas tree:

Happy Thanksgiving 2009!

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The One with Carol Hannah's Blog & Etsy Shop

What do me and Carol Hannah the Project Runway finalist both have in common besides the fact that we're both girls? Not a whole lot (she's blond, I'm brunette; she can sew, I most definitely cannot), but we both have blogs and Etsy shops! I was reading A Cup of Jo and every Friday she lists a bunch of things she's randomly found on the internet. One of her latest finds was Carol Hannah's Etsy shop. Fun! I want something just so I can say Carol Hannah made it. She should have won Project Runway, her stuff is all so stinkin' cute and wearable. And then there's her blog. I love getting to know people (and celebrities!) better through their blogs and Etsy shops. Facebook and Twitter might come in handy too, but I'm not on Facebook much and I have yet to jump on the Twitter bandwagon.Boy what an awesome blog she has! I love the colors, the pictures, the writing, all of it. She's so down to earth from what I can tell and that's cool with me.

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The One with Happy Holidays from Chris, Paige, and the Zoo

We've never sent out Christmas cards before but figure since we got a dog this year that's news worthy of sharing and it will make a fun picture. But then we felt bad about only including the dog and excluding the rest of the menagerie. Hence the following photos.

This one would have worked, but Chris isn't in it and Li'l Chinchilla is hiding. This one would have worked, but Chandler's head is cut off. And Chris is MIA.
This one would have worked, but I look silly. And Chris is still missing.
I think maybe we'll just have to wait for our photoshoot with Kate and only include Joey. Sorry Rachel. And Chandler. And Li'l Chinchilla. And Jadis. And Frank Jr. & Alice. Maybe next year :)

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The One with Jenny's O's

After the boutique on Saturday, Jenny and her husband Chris (that's a good, solid name :) helped me carry my stuff out of Ashley's apartment, but as we passed Jenny's apartment I peeked inside and stopped dead in my tracks. I had seen her "O" wall on her blog, but pictures don't do it justice. Seeing is believing. Their living room is heaven on earth! They had quite the adventure acquiring those lovely couches. Something like 12 weeks later they finally arrived. I remember sitting on their floor playing games and now look at this place! I love the mixture of modern and vintage: a few key pieces of furniture belonged to Chris' grandma like the side tables, the coffee table which Jenny refurbished, and these awesome lamp stands.
I had some questions about these O's so I emailed Jenny and she graciously answered me back.How long have you been collecting O's?
I had a one B (for Bawden, maiden name) in my room in college and I had always wanted to start a collection of my "new last name" when I got married. When Chris and I got engaged I started collecting O's. So I have been collecting for four years now!

What's the best story behind one of them?
The very round one on the far bottom left was my very first O. It was given to me by my mom. She had remembered that I wanted to collect O's so it was an engagement congrats present. The largest O, the silver one on the far left, is the one I had my eye on the longest. I saw it and LOVED it, BUUUUT it was a little out of my price range. My mom surprised me for Christmas and gave it to us. Thanks Mom!

How did you decide where to place them all? Did you sketch it out or just start nailing them up and going from there eyeballing it?
I set them out on the ground first and arranged them how I thought they would look best. Then I went next door to the Kuchenmeister's and apologized ahead of time and let them know that there was going to be a LOT of nailing for the next couple of hours.

Do you plan to add more?
I had always planned to add more, but once I got them up, I felt that I liked the look of it how it was on the wall. So I don't think I'll add any more, unless I find a really unusual one or something. In fact, the day after I got them all on the wall my mom was in town and we went shopping and stumbled upon another three or four O's, but I did not take them :(

What gave you the idea to make an O wall?
I don't remember what gave me the idea...I didn't see it anywhere, I just remember that I thought it would be fun and I had always wanted to do it.

Did other people help contribute to your collection?
Yes, others have contributed to the O wall. Chris has given me several. My parents. And my mother-in-law gave me one as well. In fact, last Christmas my parents pretty much gave me O's. My nephew went to my mom after we were done opening presents and said that he "was worried that Jenny didn't have a good Christmas...all she got was O's." My mom died laughing. She assured him that is what I had wanted. Love that my nephew has my back!

What's the most/least you paid for an O and where did you get them? (You don't have to answer this one if you don't want to, I'm just curious.)
I found them all over. You'd be surprised the stores that randomly have alphabet letters! Two of them were pretty pricey...that's all I'll give away!

I am so excited that I FINALLY got them up. We have not been in our own place for the last four years so every time I bought or got an O I would have to pack it away in storage, so towards the end I slowed down on purchasing them because I wasn't sure if I had that one already : )

Thanks so much for answering my questions Jenny! I love what you've done with your place and now I'm gonna start collecting E's (hint hint :)!

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The One with the Holiday Open House Review

Holiday Open House = success! With our powers combined, we put on a pretty good show. Contributors included (left to right): me, Ashley, Merrilee, Jenny, Autumn, Shanell, Carrie, and Lorraine.
Here are Ashley's suuuuuper cute earrings. She also has an etsy shop: PepperPerch.etsy.com
These are Carrie's beautiful frames and hand crocheted hats. They sold like hot cakes!
Here are Autumn's and Autumn's sister's sweet girly accessories.
Plus a few headbands for older girls which are gorgeous!
Shanell's hair accessories are each unique and lovely. I want them all for my hair, my clothes, my purse, my Christmas packaging, so on and so forth.
She had a super cute way to display them!
Here's my booth complete with a pom pom snowflake hanger thingy, handmade cards, calendars, handbound books, peanut butter Hershy kisses cookies, holiday magazines, and paper stars. Random stuff I know.
Christmas music was playing, a (pink!) Christmas tree was in the corner, and the treats put us all in a festive mood. If only it felt like Christmas outside. Driving to work with the air conditioning on is quite a change from every Christmas season I've had since I was 10. But who's complaining? Not me! I love wearing shorts and t-shirts in late November!
These are Jordan's cute aprons. She couldn't be at the open house, but she was there in spirit!
Here is Merrilee's professional booth. She also has an etsy shop: TuesdayMourning.etsy.com I traded her a calendar for one of her amazing prints which will go on my wall of art ASAP.
Next up is Jenny's booth. Jenny has the coolest sewing/embroidery machine in the world and can make all kinds of custom t-shirts and onesies and stockings. Look for a post of her radical living room soon!
Jenny just signed up for an etsy shop with a fantastic name: PrimAndProperShoppe.etsy.com
Last but certainly not least, Lorraine's adorable sewn bags, onesies, burp cloths, cards, and more.
With everything set up cute and nice it really looked like a boutique! And I loved how each booth had different things. Very inspiring.
Desserts at 10am in the morning, yum :)
I hope we can make a tradition out of this because it was F-U-N!

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