American Girl Tea

Yesterday, my Mom, the girls and me had the distinct pleasure of attending the American Girl Tea at the Promont House. We are still talking about our day. As adults, my Mom and I were simply blown away by the attention to detail. They far exceeded what was expected for $20. Our food was delicious, the decor was gorgeous and the House itself is something to see. We'll be back for sure.

On today's agenda? Holiday Follies at the Taft Theatre.

Ho Ho Ho.

You know you have a puppy when...

Your shoes look like this. Thank goodness these are my walk to the bus/get my mail shoes.

Skipper loves Crocs for the winter and enjoyed Flip Flops during the summer.

Darned dog.

Capture Cincinnati Book

I made it! A very kind soul sent me this via Twitter: a photo of the page featuring my photo. Dang, this is exciting. Loving technology and the internet right now. L O V I N G!

ETA: Here is a link to all the published photos in the book.

a good mail day...

A mailer from Costco filled with these 3 new family photos which I promptly put in the frames.

A mailer from Kodak filled with my 100 Chrismtas photo cards.

The cards were thought to be pink, so I had printed out some of these cute envelope address wraps ahead of time in pink to coordinate. Well, they arrived looking more like red. I am thinking that is a Kodak color match error of some sort but they look good enough and I have no time to sweat the small stuff. Luckily, the blog with the wraps also has red, so I printed the rest in that color. This is my stack on the couch. In progress: filling envelopes, addressing labels, cutting labels, gluing labels to envelopes...
Card design freebie by Becky Higgins.
Envelope wraps freebie found ::HERE.

And here is my mantle as of this morning. I got my new stockings from etsy seller Rik Rak. I love them. I failed to confirm any dimensions so they are a bit on the small side but I actually think they work perfectly here. My kids hung Skipper's new stocking from a berry branch, I need to find it a better home. I made the Be Merry banner. The ribbon tree was made by my Mom although my sister and niece have whipped up some cute ones too. Last year, Olivia made the brick snowgirl with earmuffs as a class Christmas party craft . And yes, I was the room mom :) On my white chair is the Christmas tree pillow I made when Shelby was sick a few weeks ago.

Now to answer the question "how did you find the time to do this today" let me answer: now Olivia is home with the stomach flu. I seem to get my craft on when I am standing guard.

whoosh...

That is the sound of the weekend racing by me. So much went on, and not a picture to show for it.

Well, not exactly. There is this one, taken by Shelby.

And this one, captured by Olivia. Dave and I celebrated anniversary #11 last night and the girls each took a picture of us before we left for dinner. It's nice having kids big enough for stuff like that :)

The rest of the Holiday weekend was filled with fun and family...and another round of the barfing bug for Shelby. That is a big reason why I was not out and about taking pictures. She was sick Tues-Thurs so we did split shifts at each family on Thanksgiving, with the other one of us staying home with her. No pics required of that. What I wish I did have pictures of was our Thanksgiving with my family. Most of the cooking had been done on Wednesday, a good thing, since at 10a I got the call that my Mom's oven was not working. Yep, 10a on Turkey Day! So lickety split, Plan B was in place, all food and family moved to my sister's home and it went off without a hitch. We used plastic utensils, paper plates with jack on lanterns in the center and drank from disposable cups to make things as easy as possible. And guess what? The food tasted incredible, maybe more so than usual and the tiny prayer of thanks that came from each of us around the table, was definitely sweeter this year. I am not calling anyone out by name, but there were more moist eyes this year than dry ones. So, the picture of all that goodness is in my mind, not on my monitor. And that is OK.

Today, I have a persistent 8 year old BEGGING to get out the Christmas decorations. No rest for the weary, right?