THE QUEEN OF QUIRK

december daily: day 16

Sorry about the lapse in posting. We've been crazy busy around here and I have been SUPER sick. :( I have a horrible viral cold and feel like death warmed over. :)

Instead of trying to catch up, I am just going to post today's little diddy.

A day of shopping. Gotta love that!
Spent all day with Maria and Noodle...a girls days out if you will. Lots of shopping, browsing, bargain hunting, and planning for next year. (I now have Noodle's presents for her second birthday!)
Cappuccinos and hot chocolates managed to find their way in.

A couple of rides managed to sneak in there, too!

A spontaneous trip to see Santa, however, was not so well thought out.
He was nice enough, but Noodle just wasn't having it. We had to settle for a photo taken outside of the little hut with Santa in the background! Thanks for the photo, Maria! :)

The gift was a big hit, though. A kitty pillow that she snuggled with for the rest of the day. We came home just in time to pick up the big girls from school. A whirlwind trip to the library, post office and gas station took up another hour and then we raced home to get dinner cooked and eaten so that Lara would be on time to her school Christmas dance. Such a busy time of year!

Today I am thankful for movie nights, without which this last week would have been a nightmare. ;)

december daily: day 9

I received my December daily album goodies today, so I am hoping to get my album all put together. Can't wait to see it all come together! :)

They really mean it when they say the holiday "rush". It's just go, go, go around here!
Unfortunately, I don't do well with rushing around. I kind of repel it, actually. Many times when I am bogged down, I tend to slow things down a few notches. I guess it helps me get through the madness when I focus on just one task at a time.
Maria and I made 20 handmade cards today! It was so nice to sit and chat and work with a friendly face nearby. :) We're gearing up for our last 2 shows this weekend and then we will be concentrating on the shop in the new year. I can't believe 2009 is just around the corner!

Today I am thankful for my health. :)

december daily: day 8

Taking it easy today. Not much to report...just enjoying my family. :)
Noodle's Christmas tree.
Today I am thankful for my amazing group of friends!

december daily: day 7

Man, I'm glad I didn't have anything to do today.
I woke up this morning feeling absolutely horrible. Whatever Colin had on Friday, he passed it on to me today. My throat is killing me and my head feels so stuffy! Colin was so sweet and made us all pancakes from scratch and sausages, too! I also had a lovely cup of tea. I am so lucky I have him to take care of me when I'm not well.
I tried taking a nap this morning but it just wasn't happening. The kids were not getting along at all and it was just too noisy in our house!
I'm feeling better now, though, and I'm planning on making some vegetable soup for dinner tonight. YUM.

We just plain took it easy today.

Today I am thankful that I can cook a decent pot of stew.

december daily: day 6

Today started out with a visit to the MS Therapy Centre in Huntingdon. We set up a table at their Christmas Bazaar to help raise money for their center. Since they are not funded, we are trying to do everything in our power to help them. The show was from 10-4 and I have to admit that by the end of the day I was practically dead on my feet. Colin even suggested that Maria and I go out to eat and relax and we were too tired to even do that!
I got home around 5 to a spotless house. How sweet is that? I love my husband! The kiddos were all dressed and ready to go so we got in the car to head to our local nursery to pick up our tree! YAY! This is always such a fun time for us. The girls were climbing into the tree-wrapping tube and just having fun exploring the nursery. Norah was so excited and kept yelling "Christmas tree!" the whole time. We managed to get it packed in the car and then we did a bit of shopping (we ran out of Listerine) and we picked up some more wrapping paper. We completely forgot about the 5 rolls we bought a couple of months ago and now we are in surplus mode! Then half us had pizza and half of us had Subway for dinner. I was glad to not have to cook!
After we got home, we decorated the trees. Yes, that's plural. The girls have one in their rooms and we saved the tiniest one for the playroom. We put up the decorations and I decided to keep it a bit simpler this year. We didn't pull everything out and we even weeded out some of the things we're just not crazy about anymore. Then we put our topper on last and dimmed the lights and just watched the tree for a bit. I love this time of year. So cozy and snuggly.

We finished the night with a showing of the Grinch. What more could you ask for?

Today I am thankful for security.

december daily: day 5

Baby, it's cold outside!
The car was super frosted over this morning and the kids and I just barely made it to school on time! We thought our renter's inspection was today so we had our little casa all spic and span for our 8:45 appointment this morning. Too bad it's not today! :) Hopefully we can keep the house clean til the 15th which is actually when the guy will show up. Oh well. Better early than late! :)

Lots of things going on today!

Mia's Christmas play was this evening and Maria graciously watched Norah so Colin and I could see her play in peace. Mia was an angel this year and she was so sweet singing her little song. She was behind other children the whole time so we didn't get to see her very well and she didn't even see us until she was walking off stage. When she did, though she was so excited to see us! After we picked her up, we walked home together and we got her changed into regular clothes.

 

Then we headed back up to the school for Lara's school Christmas Bazaar. Colin stayed home with Norah because the bazaars tend to get a bit crazy and overcrowded! Lara and Mia walked around and played games and then we had a snack in the cafeteria. When we got home, we found Norah passed out on her bedroom floor. So cute!

After dinner with the family, I went to Maria's house for a Body Shop party! How cool is that? I don't even have to get in my car to sample all those wonderful goodies! We had a wonderful time and I am so happy I went. I got home way too late, though, and went straight to bed so I could get up in time to head out for our show on Saturday!

Today I am thankful for my many blessings.

december daily: day 4

Today was HECTIC. I stayed with Norah at preschool this morning to help walk the children to their Christmas caroling. They were so sweet. They sang a bunch of songs I'd never heard of before, and I will have to tape Noodle singing :"Christmas Pudding". It is adorable! The weather, however, left a lot to be desired. It was so rainy and freezy! After the singing, I went back with the kiddos to their school and played and helped out for another hour. After that, I went down the road to our printer to see if our holiday thank you notes were ready. They were, so I raced home to package them up and then Maria showed up and finished for me while I got ready for our show. You know, just the essentials...like putting a brush through my hair! We drove out to Hampton and set up our table and it was quite a disappointment. There weren't that many people and we made next to nothing. After that we were extremely disappointed but decided to stop by the MS Centre in Huntingdon to confirm our spot at their Christmas fair on Friday. The atmosphere there turned our whole day around. After being offered a delicious cup of Earl Grey, we showed them our stock and what we planned to sell on Saturday. They were thrilled and oohed and aahed so much that it more than made up for our previous 2 hours of frustration. We also got a couple of jobs from them: to stock their card rack from now on and to paint their hyperbaric chamber. SO COOL. Maria will be doing most of the artwork for that but I am going to help as much as I can. :) After that we came back to our house to pick up her kids. Colin was sweet enough to watch all 6 kids by himself while we went to our show. After we got in, Maria took a photo of us for our Christmas card. I know! We're so late! We spent the rest of the evening cleaning up the whole house because we have a renters' inspection tomorrow, first thing in the morning. After my shower and a beer, I felt a little refreshed. Now it's off to have some chocolate + caramel shortbread. YUM.
Today I am thankful for the many opportunities that come my way.

december daily : day 3

This is hard work! LOL All this blogging and making sure I write things down! ACK! :)

Today was kinda blah and laid back. Nothin' wrong with that! A lot of card making and a bit of cleaning. I'm hoping our show goes well tomorrow. We're both really excited. Hardly did anything on the Christmas front, though. Need to get in gear and do that this weekend. Can't wait to get our tree!  Today I am thankful for my friends.

december daily: day 2

Hello, all! Before I post my December daily from yesterday, I wanted to let you all know I have some products up at 2ps. You can check them out in my store HERE. :) Ok, now onto the good stuff. I have decided to add a little thing to each of my entries: something I am thankful for. So, at the bottom of each post I will add one thing I am thankful for that day. :)

Instead of working this morning, I went downtown with Maria to do some shopping. We stopped in Starbucks and had a wonderful, relaxing lunch with Norah and wandered around some shops in Huntingdon. Norah chased the birds in the plaza and jumped out of her skin when they took flight right in front of her! It was like a firecracker was going off in her face! So funny! Maria and I laughed so hard. Wish I had had my camera with me! Must remember to carry the pocket camera with me at all times! After lunch, we headed home to do a bit of card making before our show on Thursday. The handmade cards seem to be selling really well and we want to make sure we have enough for our next show. We did a bit of organizing with the stock in the guest bedroom and then had a cup of tea and settled down to scrap! Time flew by too quickly, though, and we had to go pick up the big girls at school. a couple of wee friends came over for a playdate and the kids played on the computer and played on the XBOX as well. We decided to take it easy and just had sandwiches and chips for dinner. I'm about to go upstairs and bathe the little chubkins and get them ready for bed. Not until we open the advent calendars, though! Hopefully tonight will go a little bit better.
Well, the calendars weren't a total disaster tonight! No tears=VICTORY! We snuggled by the fire and then got all the kiddos bathed and put to bed. Norah fell asleep in her bathrobe in bed. She loves that thing so much. After that, Colin played on the XBOX for a bit while I finished uploading all of my new kits to 2ps and then I sent out links to my CT. After that I snuck into Norah's room to peel her bathrobe off of her. Not an easy feat! I eventually got her out of it, told her I loved her and then kissed Lara and Mia goodnight. Not a bad day. We got lots accomplished and the kids were happy. Love that.
Today I am thankful for my sweet children.

december daily: day 1

Yay! So excited to do this project this year! All of my posts will be one day behind so I have time to experience the day, as well as compile which photos I want to use and write my journaling. I am also waiting on my December Daily album from Cocoa Daisy and as soon as that gets here I will update each post with my completed pages. Alright, enough gabbing. :)

december daily: day one
Today started out kinda rocky. With the new Songbird Avenue kit debuting, my internet, of course, decided to go all wonky on me! So, getting up at 4 a.m. didn't really have a happy ending. That all changed, though, when Colin came home and we got to do the Advent calendars. He wrapped all of them (including his own...not sure why!) and the kids had completely forgotten all about advent calendars since last year. Once they opened one and realized what they were getting, they kinda went a little wild! We forgot to assemble Mia's Playmobil calendar, though, so we asked her to wait at the top of the stairs while we hurried to get it put together. She was so upset, poor thing. At one point, everyone was crying. Lara didn't understand that they would be taking turns opening the 3 calendars and she was very upset that she "got stuck" with the Polly Pocket one. Mia cried when we told her to sit at the top of the stairs after she brushed her teeth and it took a lot of talking to make her come down from the ledge she was apparently on. Then Norah started up when she realized that not everything was going into her personal toy stash. Colin commented that he thought calendar night would have gone a little better than that. Oh well. Such is life with 3 princesses in tow. Oh! And our sunroom door is broken. It also happens to be the play room and the kids have been kinda lost without it. I need to call the property manager to have someone come out and fix this door! After the kiddos went to bed I wrapped about 2 dozen gifts to get it out of the way. With 3 craft shows coming up this weekend and a party to go to, the more I get done now, the better!
Today i am thankful for my loving husband.