As Promised

Here is that garland!


And a little closer:


I love this garland, it's so fun and it's so easy to make! It just takes a little time. And it takes me even longer. I don't have a circle punch. Don't worry, I don't cut them all with scissors! I do have a circle cutter but my blade is getting a little dull so I have to push really hard and I just about get blister on my fingers by the time I'm done! There are around 1,000 circles on this garland.

I can't take all the credit for the idea though. My sister Jennifer pointed me in the direction of another blog that had a garland like this. Thanks Jen! I love it!

And here it is...almost

I'm a little late getting my garland posted, these past few days have been a little busier than I had planned! I'm not sure why I decided to do something like this during the busiest time of the year. Adrian is clearly stealing my brain cells. Speaking of Adrian, he has discovered his thumb. And his fingers. To be honest, he's not really picky but he's been doing this quite often:


He was laughing away today, it was so fun to hear! I was throwing him in the air and doing "oopsy daisy." He just loved it!

Anyways, my excuse for the garland. I had been behind on it by the end of the week but I figured I'd be able to get most of it sewn on Saturday. I went to a craft show in the morning with a few of the girls. I left around 1:00 maybe, I can't really remember, and went to do my grocery shopping like I had planned. Then of course, I was lured in by all the Christmas cheer so I decided to look around. I needed a gift for a party on Monday night either way. I also had gift cards for Adrian so I figured I'd spend some of that too. 4 hours later I finally headed home. I have discovered that I am NOT a shopper. Shopping is for the birds if you ask me! I cut out the last few circles for the garland when I got home and started sewing on it that night. Then Sunday came and I observed that day of rest. Now, if you recall, I said I had a Christmas party to go to on Monday night. So all of Monday was spent baking (for the party), making supper (homemade pizza and breadsticks), doing laundry, wrapping my one whole present, taking care of Adrian while I tried to do everything because Jeff ran out for a few hours...well the point is, I didn't get around to working on my garland.

I finally finished it today (Tuesday)! I didn't get a picture of the completed project yet, I'll be sure to show you tomorrow. For now, here's a little peek:


I'm not much for traditional Christmas colors. In fact, this really doesn't look Christmas-y all on it's own. I hung it between the kitchen and living room because we decided not to get a tree this year (mostly due to the fact that we don't have a vehicle to haul it away with after the holiday). I don't really love where it is though, I think it would look a lot better on a tree. Guess I'll just have to wait until next year!

On another note, I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...just like the ones I didn'tusedtoknow. We have a blizzard warning in affect until Wednesday night. Or technically Thursday morning. It's been snowing on and off for the last 6 hours or so. We have a couple inches already. Jeff went to get snow tires put on just in time! We didn't have them last year and it was pretty brutal. I sort of feared for my life every time we went up or down a hill. Now we may actually be able to make it to our friend's house on the first try rather than the 21st. (I'm hardly exaggerating.)

Circle Boutique Etc.

I have had so many projects and ideas floating around in my little head lately so I have decided to do a challenge of sorts. For myself. I am going to make one "fun" project a week until I run out of a ideas. And I don't think that will happen anytime soon! I'll be sure to show you each one along the way! This week I'm working on a paper circle garland, check back in a few days to see the completed project!

I think I may be crazy for doing this considering I should also be working on items for Circle Boutique. I guess I'm hoping I'll give myself some more ideas. As if I need any more, I already have a ton of ideas for that as well!

Speaking of Circle Boutique, a few new items have been added since the last time I mentioned it. If you've got a minute, be sure to check it out!

A weekend of Thanksgiving

I just loaded the weekend's pictures onto the computer and I seem to be missing a few.


...Due to the fact that I never took them. There's an idea for a new year's resolution (not that I really do those). I really do need to get pictures of everyone.

I do apologize for the red-eye in the picture of Adrian with Grandpa L. I tried to correct it but it ended up looking even worse.


I think the picture of Jenny and Adrian was taken by Jeffery. (Or maybe it was me, I can't remember.) Adrian was so funny laying there; he had been fighting sleep and he kept popping his eyes open and looking at everyone and smiling. Then his eyes would close. Then all of a sudden he'd pop 'em open and be grinning, looking around again. And then they'd close again...I could almost swear he was teasing us.

Those are the only two pictures I have of Jeff's family. Ridiculous, I know.

It was an interesting Thanksgiving. We all crammed into my little kitchen and somehow managed to find our plates among the dishes of food that pretty much covered the entire table. It was around 80 degrees most of the day, or most of the weekend really. We ended up throwing the windows wide open to get it back to a reasonable temperature. Ironically, our landlord had called a day or two before to say "I just wanted to remind you to keep your windows closed for the winter." (Our heat is included with rent so windows are supposed to be closed if it's below 55.) I told him that we keep our heat set at 65 and I don't remember the last time it clicked on and that it often reaches 80 in our apartment. I suspect the lady downstairs keeps her place pretty warm. Luckily, he's a pretty nice guy so he just said that it's fine if we "crack it open to get fresh air" but to make sure everything is closed up if we go out of town. The windows actually stayed open all Wednesday night and it never dropped below 75. And it was SNOWING outside!

The entire group (a whopping 6 people) played card games every night (Phase 10 and Skip-Bo). Of all the games we played, I won only one single time. It was fun anyway! Jeff and I used to play games fairly often but we haven't in a while, it was nice to get some use out of those cards again.

There was a Rangers hockey game on Saturday night. Adrian loved all the sights and was perfectly content even though it was so LOUD! He only got upset when he started to sweat...and Jeff was the one to figure it out. He is definitely his dad's boy. I had him all bundled up worrying that he'd be cold and he ended up being too hot!

This week's goal: to get Adrian to go to sleep on his own. These past two weeks have been a little crazy for him. We were up north twice and then had company so he's gotten used to falling asleep in my arms and going to sleep at all hours of the night. Hopefully it won't take too long to get him back to normal! And hopefully he'll really be sleeping through the night after this. He usually only wakes up twice to eat and goes right back to sleep but the past few nights he hasn't slept well at all...I'm crossing my fingers!

What's wrong with this picture?

Jeff's crew managed to get the plane done in time so he did NOT have to work on Thanksgiving. And for that, I am thankful.

We had a delicious dinner and of course, ate way too much. I had pie for supper and was completely stuffed again after eating just one piece. We all played Phase 10 in the evening and for some reason never finished the game. It happens. I was losing anyways.

Oh yeah, don't worry, the turkey didn't catch fire. That's just the light in the oven. ;)

A Picture from the ever fabulous Emily

The sweater and hat were made by my godmother, Laura. I'm so disappointed that the hat is too small already, I love it!

Jeff's family arrived safe and sound.
I promise pictures by the end of the weekend.
It's going to be 85 degrees tomorrow.
In my apartment that is.
I'm crossing my fingers that Jeff doesn't get called in to work tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's Officially Official!

Adrian can roll over!


He's rolled over a few times now when he gets really mad. He gets his little butt way up in the air and sort of tips over. I just wasn't sure if he actually knew how to do it.


Then, today, I had him laying on his belly on the floor while I was baking and he looked like he was trying to roll over. I kept watching and sure enough, he rolled over! And he wasn't even mad! The best part is, when he finally rolled over he just started chewing on his hands like "oh look, now I'm on my back, what's the big deal?" All the while, I'm practically jumping up and down yelling "You big boy! You rolled over! I'm so proud of you! Oh, you're so big!" and clapping my hands.


And then I made him do it 17 more times.