decking the halls with care

Ah the season has finally arrived. Time to use the ideas I've stolen from Martha Stewart, Real Simple, Domino, Blueprint (RIP), and apply them to the holiday decorating scheme at home. This year its taken me almost the full weekend to prune away at the decorations because I don't want to overload the place, subtlety is best.

The image is from our bedroom, on top of the dresser which is my favorite arrangement in our bedroom usually and this time its no exception. I've always thought all white trees were especially beautiful and so when I saw this little one on sale for $3.99 I grabbed it. Then I bought the ornaments for it and it is such a pretty picture, sitting on top of the dresser in all its white glory.

fall festivities prep

I am a free woman this week and all at once a captive of six families. Monday was my last day at work so for the rest of the week I can dedicate myself to the many mini-events we manage to squeeze out of one holiday. This is the trunk of our car, supplies a ready to begin some cookin', meat free.

open house for emily

Yesterday I threw my sister in-law Emily a baby shower/open house for my future niece. I was well financed by my in-laws in the party throwing and we threw Emily a hit of a party. I got most of my ideas from the coconut of a brain of mine aided by that coconut Martha Stewart.com and various blogs in the cyber world. My two favorite things were the candy buffet & the cheese plate I made with little tags. Here's a few pictures from my phone that don't quite capture it but I'll have to wait to get Jill's pics.

s*bux & neverland

We have to get the motorhome driver off the clock. Well I still have to upload the files. Just do it from home. I'll just go to Starbucks and upload it from there.

Thus it began...

Heat, concrete, and a rash were most of my day. Not my rash, though don't think I wouldn't admit it if it were mine, someone I work with. And I was the lucky person chosen to handle the situation, to find him a clinic, to make sure he had paperwork, to make sure he was safe, to make sure he could work tomorrow. Inside the motorhome the air conditioner blasted and I never removed my apple sweater while in there. Outside on the giant concrete slab of our shoot, it was blazing hot and I was rarely outside for longer than a few minutes walking to and fro, walkie and phone in hand.

I wasn't even upset that I had to try to upload the files after we'd all been wrapped and most heading home because Matt wouldn't be home for a few more hours and even then the odds of my still being awake when he gets home at 11 with a 5:30am calltime were slim. I figured I'd not see him except hazily in between a goodnight and a goodmorning kiss. My being stuck at the valley's most hit-on able starbucks didn't really bother me. Nor did the testy man who admitted he'd had a bad day to the man he was being testy with. He apologized to me but the damage was done. You sir, are an ass. Your attempt to hit on that girl with the drums is pathetic, she's way too cute for you and definately too young. What bothered me was my bladder. I'd had a giant glass of iced green tea earlier and I had to go and we all know that when you have to go at a Starbucks, the person in the bathroom before you is obligated by law to be the slowest bathroom user this side of the Sierra Nevadas. I actually had enough time to rush back to the car to grab my reusable cup so I could grab some decaf heaven to drink on the long drive back home. Still no free bathroom. Doing the bathroom dance now. Ohmygoshohmygosh hurry UP! FINALLY! Ah, yocata... I rinse out my cup, wash my hands, head to the counter.

To the counter comes a bear of a barista. He's about 6'5 with a thick beard. Maybe about 23 or so. Lots of pins on his shirt. What can he get me. This, I point proudly to the p-touch tape on my cup that states my favorite coffee drink at S*bux. Whoa, did you get this cup at Pike Place? Yes, I had to make a pilgrimidge I declare, and this one is the original logo, the one where you can see her nips. Oh yes, I see, I gotta make a pilgrimidge myself, I'm trying to volunteer. Volunteer?

My bear friend tells me that no barista may call the store on Pike Place market their home store. Whoever is staffed there is a volunteer from a local area. He also told me that Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks only has one key for a Starbucks store and its the Pike Place one. I have an old magazine, I told him, where he tells us his favorite drink which is something fairly basic that neither of us can recall. A drip? A latte? I move on down to await my drink where two men attempt to make conversation. Well one tries with asking if my drink is the one on the counter and doesn't believe me when I insist it isn't, after all, I'm holding the lid of my coffee cup. Now I know how that guy out there felt when he made a scene. The other guy just looks at me like he knows me and is trying to place me, which makes me wonder if I know him so I try to place him. My coffee is up, a masterpiece truly, I may have to return to this store, if only to tell my bear friend that Schultz's favorite drink is a double shot non-fat latte, three quarters full.

I'm still in a good mood. My coffee is fantastic, life is great, and then I get on the 134. Red lights. Hmm... Should I? Well hello. Hi Alexa, what are you doing? Oh, just closing up at work, what are you doing? I'm on the 134 stuck in traffic with everyone else. Did you want to come on by? I was thinking about it, want me to pick you up?

Baja Fresh it is. Not that salsa, the medium one, yeah that's the ticket. Conversations of blogs, jobs, leaks, calltimes, fires, CDs, money, husbands, grown up stuff after all, we're only a few years away from thirty. How time has flown.

As I drive home thoughts of books and happy things flood my head, of Christmas, of the many events we have coming up, and JM Barrie and his wonderful stories of Peter Pan and Neverland and should I read some more of them.

The car in front of me is a minivan, there's a DVD playing overhead for the kids in the back, its Peter Pan. Hook is chasing little animated Peter around as Wendy and the lost boys cheer him on. I shed a little tear, its been a magical day in the land of grown ups.

because i have an awesome mother in-law

After I'd spied with holiday eyes the fabulous Christmas loot at Target I made a mental list of the ornaments I wanted which I shared with my mother in-law. So she got them for me. She's the best!

I still have two more I want to get at Target. Matt thinks we have plenty... ha!

this young house

As promised, the people who run a decorating blog I am a big fan of posted my dining area before and after on their site. Five peeps have already commented, check it out: http://www.thisyounghouse.com/2008/11/reader-redesign-switchin-the-kitchen/#comments

target and the weird things i buy

Its all shimmery and pretty at Target down certain aisles because 'tis the season to buy pretty shiny things for that place you call home for that season we call The Holidays.

I love walking down these aisles even if I don't plan on buying anything, which is usually the case at Target stores, I don't PLAN anything, it just hops into the shopping basket and comes home, go figure. But during the holidays its even more apparent that I'm not buying what they're selling even though, gosh darn it its so freaking sparkly and pretty that it makes you want to get those spiky shiny ball things that look like icicles. I almost bought a $2 ornament too but with my determination not to start the Christmas thing until after Thanksgiving, the way it should be, I put the cute little thing back. Every year I buy a new ornament for the tree, it curbs many a desire to just go nuts buying crap willy nilly and makes the purchase more special.

However, during this shopping trip, I did purchase JR Watkins dish soap (I am a big fan of the JR Watkins line) and when I put it under the sink I realized that I have a weird ass kick for buying cleaning products and sponges. Yes, cleaning supplies and sponges. This past year I've bought a lot of cleaning supplies because I was getting rid of toxic ones and switching to more non-toxic earth friendly kinds but the sponge thing has no rational explanation. I stock up on them and buy one at least once a month. It could be attributed to a concern to get rid of nasty sponges that stock up on germs themselves but really, I have no explanation for my very odd desire to purchase sponges.

wait a minute, he's black?

The issue of race, of Obama being a black president never came to my mind during this election. I can say that with all sincerity. I felt that it wasn't him but those around him that played the race card. To me he was the young Senator running for office, his youth made more of an impact in my mind. Of course I realized he was white and African but it was just so much easier to blur the color and listen to the man.

Now that he's won, the biggest thing about it was that he was the first black president. With images of Jesse Jackson crying, of black people all over the world celebrating, I thought wait a minute, this him being black thing WAS a big deal after all. And memories of our past wrongdoings were brought to mind, slavery, racial discrimination and now our future, where someone eloquently said a child born this year and growing up in his term will not know him as black, but as president.

I just wish it wasn't a big deal. I wish that a Mexican, a Chinese, a woman could run for office and not have their appearance become an issue. I wish they could run for office and the fact that their last name is Gonzalez or Li or the fact that they have boobs not factor in their qualificiations or be a topic for public debate. I'm sure in their minds they can't escape their own feelings of being an ethnic minority or gender minority and they have to deal with that on their own. That it would cease to be a big deal, that it would be a deal at all. We're not equal yet, not by a long shot.

And yes, I wrote in Ron Paul.

awww heeeeeeeelllll no

My fantabulous former roommate and great friend Ambre called and informed me of where she was headed this lovely Sunday evening. Ambre always does interesting things and tonight was no exception, she was going to hear the Duggar family give a little talk about raising godly children because they know a thing or two. They have raised 17 and are pregnant with their 18th...

My grandmother on mom's side had 10, my grandmother on my father's side had 10. My mom had 5 so I am familiar with large families but this is ridonculous. They're not just raising kids, they're raising an army and running a hotel. Their kitchen is all industrial, they have three washing machines, I dare you to go on their site and look at a slideshow of their home and catch a glimpse of what its like to live there.

It'll make you want to tie your tubes: http://www.duggarfamily.com/

God bless 'em though, seriously...

looks like but isn't

YAY! Only 2 1/2 more days 'til the election. Soon it will all be over and begun...

Lately I want things that look like they're disposable but actually are made of hefty material to be kept forever or until you break it. Here's some of my favorites.