Mom's Latest Projects

I think my mom is turning into a one woman sweatshop.

Last week I called her to see if she could make a jacket to go with a dress I’m wearing in May and a few links patterns I found online. Mom called me back a few minutes later and said they looked pretty easy and she could do it, in fact she was running up to Joann’s and the patterns were on sale. (For those of you who don’t know, mom has all the craft store sale fliers memorized and phone calls inevitably start with, “I’m at Hobby Lobby/Joann’s/Michael’s, and they’re having a sale on their (insert item here).”

But I digress.

So Sunday I told her Steph and I were meeting at her house to go shopping and I’d drop the material off then. I picked the most outrageous, fluffy black fabric I could find with a warning from the sales girl: tell your mom this fabric is messy. When I showed up with said items in hand I told mom before I showed her the fabric she needed to keep an open mind – she showed very little surprise and said, “Actually, that’s about what I expected from you.” *smile*

Fast forward to an Express dressing room later that day – Steph wanted a cute, black blouse for work but it had a broken zipper and we couldn’t find any others on the sale rack. After much struggling I told Steph to call mom and see if she could replace it. So now mom has two more projects (on top of hemming my Juicy Couture pants courtesy Stephanie’s Charitable Contributions to Little Sister with No Clothes).

I think we’re probably supposed to start paying her soon but such is the price of having two girls.

Dinner - January 18, 2009

While I am waiting for my laptop from the good people at FedEx (and thus, still cannot get pictures off the camera), here is a dinner recap. The pictures came off my phone and the quality is so so.

After getting in late Sunday night we spent most of Monday running errands, cleaning, borrowing tools from dad…….the usual, we opted to celebrate our weekend in Arkansas and TJ’s return to school with Chinese food and chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. You can see TJ’s new and exciting twist on sweet and sour chicken…..blue sauce. A little quirky but kind of festive. We couldn't decide what to celebrate specifically with the cake and in the end I liked TJ's simple suggestion of the month of January so we made it a 2010 cake.

Next time….purple.

My sister, the career woman

Congratulations to my sister who got a promotion without even trying!

Just remember the little people in the form of cold, hard ca$h.

New, hilarious, must-read book

I finished The Lovely Bones and I don't think I want to spoil it for anyone but like my sister I agree that the end was a little bit of a letdown and that the family's grief - particularly her sister Lindsay's - was oversimplified. And I don't want to say too much but one of my favorite parts involved her childhood dog (of course), Holiday.

Anyway so last night we went to Barnes and Nobles so TJ could use the gift card his mom gave him for Christmas - fun fun! He got a sci-fi book by Robert Jordan though I can't remember the title. We had to drop by the library to return our books and I checked out a few vegetarian cookbooks and I scored Skinny Bitch! Hilarious. I was laughing to myself in the tub while reading it - next I want to get the recipe book but it was checked out. The authors are vegetarian but I think anyone could benefit from the book, it's pretty motivational and funny. Next time I'll get Skinny Bitch in the Kitch if it's not checked out still, it looked really good and I'm curious about the receipes.

What I'm Reading

I'm not good at updating the blog like Steph so I'm going to have to pick up the pace. I'm about to be computer-less at home for about two weeks so most of the pictures that need to be taken off the camera will have to wait - I have lots to update on though - weekends, adventures, and lots of interior design. The bathroom has been painted and I'm adding touches to it all the time, I can't wait for the online unveiling as the end result is crisp and girlie. Photos will be coming soon I hope!

In the meantime - beause I love to read I've often thought of keeping a book journal. I'm going to try that out right before your very eyes on this blog. I'm currently reading The Lovely Bones, the movie comes out in January so I'm trying to get it read before the release and before it's due back at the library. I saw the trailer for it at the New Moon premiere and my sister and I thought it looked REALLY good. We're both reading the book now, in fact I think we're keeping pace with each other. It's worth reading for all the bookworms out there. I don't want to spoil anything but I'll say briefly it's about a girl that was murdered in 1976 and she's watching her family from heaven (or what I think is Purgatory) and trying to give them clues. It's a very layered story. I wouldn't say it's a difficult read but you have to pay attention to every sentence - I think it's taken me longer to read than normal because I'll move onto the next page and see something written that makes me aware I've missed something key. So then I have to go back and reread. Subtle. That's probably the best way to describe it.

Anyway, more soon I hope.

Pictures with Santa!

I can't think of a better pack I'd rather load up and take to PetsMart to see Santa. I've wanted to do this ever since I've had Maddie but always missed it.

This was just the right year I suppose, I think everyone is ready for a new start in 2010.

Lighting of the Capital Christmas Tree

This is the first year I've gone out to see the actual lighting of the Capital Christmas Tree (I learned on the capital grounds TJ had never seen it at all - gasp). We dropped by our favorite haunts - Home Slice and Hey Cupcake first. I'm not going to lie, it was so cold that once we got the cupcakes and we landed our table at Home Slice I asked TJ if he wanted to just drive by the tree. It worked out though, TJ made it VIP and grabbed parking right in front of the capital. I like the picture of him in front of the water fountain, he figured out how to turn it on by himself.