Christmas!

Christmas was so nice since I have ALL my kids here. That was really the best gift there could be.  We started off the morning with opening presents at home and then went to my mom's to open presents with my whole family which takes hours now since there are so many of us. This year reminded me of when I was little and we would open gifts at my Grandma's house and everyone would be gone by the time it got to be her turn (we open youngest to oldest, one at a time.)

Mom's tree with the presents brought by everyone added in

The one time it's good to be a younger twin, Vincent gets to go first!

Emma

Ava

Robert

Adrian

Trevor

My mom got him a new Skateboard, he's in heaven.

Tony

Melissa

and last but not least Jessica!

My mom got her this cool hula hoop she's been wanting. I'll have to get her to send me a video so I can share, it looks like it lights up when you record it.

We all played a bit of pool, that was fun

Brother Louie and Emma

We had 18 people for dinner. Scott went and got his mom and sister Suzie and brought them over to eat. I took some pictures with my mom's camera, maybe I can update later when I get a chance to steal them.

Jess and I washed most of those dishes PLUS all the serving ones. Mom ended up drying when Jess petered out. I told mom next year lets just have pizza on paper plates. 

This was the best toy. It's called my first drone or something like that but it's really just a toy helicopter that is kid proof! They all had a great time playing with it.

For some reason I wasn't smart and had to go to work the day after Christmas. I won't make that mistake again! I was so tired and just wanted to lay around in my pj's instead of going to work.

Merry Christmas!

For not having any plans to go anywhere for Christmas Eve this year I'm exhausted.

I started off my day by finally going to the grocery store to get cookie and lasagna supplies. Then back home where Melissa and I got the cookies started. Jessica came over and helped and Trevor even got in a couple stirs of cookie dough. Then the girls had to go to work and Trevor went away and it was up to me to finish making a shit ton of cookies. I just finished making lasagna and doing the dishes and it's 10pm.

Meanwhile Scott is snoring and I really want to throw something at him.
But hey look how pretty the tree is.

Jessica will come over in the morning for present opening. Hopefully everyone likes their presents. Lots of little things this year instead of one big thing. After we get done here we'll go over to my mom's house to spend the day. Scott is going to go get his mom and sister and bring them for dinner (which is why we didn't go to his mom's today). Hopefully that goes ok! I'm hoping the little kids will like their bags I made and filled for them. I should have taken the day after Christmas off so I would have had a day to rest haha. 

Well guess I should fill the stockings and go to bed. It's been a long day and tomorrow will be too. I'm kind of looking forward to all the holidays being over so we can just chill for a bit ;)

I guess Christmas is Coming?

No matter how much I drag my feet Christmas always ends up coming.

We finally got a REAL Christmas tree because my kids hate the fake one. This only took two trips to town for Scott and the kids to finally bring one home. When they got home we only had one strand of tree lights. haha. Today we finally got another strand. Trevor put them on the tree but Melissa is at work so they can decorate it tomorrow.

Today we went and BOUGHT A NEW MATTRESS! It's a miracle. Our current mattress is taco like and has pokey springs. We actually went to buy Trevor a mattress since he got a new to him bed. He's been sleeping on the floor for ages after his other bed broke. One step closer to being civilized people. They all come on Friday when Scott can be here for the delivery. I think this means I need to clean my disaster of a bedroom but I've got a couple days for that still right? I would really like to tear the carpet out but I can't handle doing that right now since Christmas is next weekend.

Yesterday I went as an elf on the Christmas Caroling Train. I actually rode in a golf cart with my friend Traci behind the train and took out little gift bags to people that came out of the houses. It was fun even though it was cold.

A blurry picture of my parents and Robert

My brother Joe, Maegen and Adrian

Trevor was there too but I didn't get a picture of him and apparently no one else did either. He was sitting with some girls..

Santa came for a bit for pictures but I think his back didn't hold out well enough for the 2nd round of train riders. 

After we got back everyone was going out for dinner so Scott, Trevor and I went with them to Chili's. 

One Eyed Mr Pisser

Work was so busy today. I said outloud that I'm ready for a few of those "boring" days again. The only time I wasn't actively working today was when I was at lunch or the bathroom.  I probably would have just held it a bit but now that I'm "older" sneezing with a (slightly) full bladder is a bad idea.  I find this really annoying. Also annoying is how much better I can see to thread a needle if I put on reading glasses (with my distant glasses or contacts on also).  And that two inch long gray hair that likes to stick straight out of my forehead. Like where did you come from?

So in other news. Last week I had to take Buster to the vet. His eye had turned all white and while I was like "oh he's just went blind" the kids and my husband were texting me and telling me how he needed to go to the vet. Eventually I looked at my 14 year old cat who loves me and sleeps on my pillow every night and decided I guess he was worth a small fortune vet visit.  Even if his nickname is "Mr. Pisser" and I look forward to the day I can actually put rugs down in my bathroom.

He weighs 13.2 pounds now. And yes, he needed to have his eye removed. I signed away an entire paycheck and picked up my cat the next day minus one eye.  Doesn't he look like he was in a bar fight?

The next day after work I took off the cone and he perked up so much. He hasn't done anything that would hurt his stitches so he's remained cone free.  Here he is last night coming in for his nightly "I'm a better door than a window" while I tried to watch Netflix on my Kindle. (Currently watching The Crown and will go back to Lovesick when I'm done with it)

He has one more week and then he'll get his stitches out. I miss his pretty eye but I'm glad he didn't have a tumor. They said his eye had an ulcer, although I wonder what caused it. I went to a new vet and while I love that they didn't charge extra for a night appointment they were a bit lacking in the follow up phone calls. The vet I was going to built a new "Vet Mansion" for their new office so I doubt I can afford to go back there haha. They were pretty pricey to start with. I was quoted $200-$1000 when I asked how much they charged to spay back when I needed to take Lucy in. Uh yeah no..

Well off to hide in my bedroom. I have offered to pay Scott how much he would win for Fantasy Football if he would just shut the hell up and stop yelling at the TV but he doesn't appear to be taking me up on that offer. I should be sewing so I should probably start the bag for my co-worker but I'm kind of tired. Might just be a Netflix night!

Busy Little Bee

Oh my gosh you guys I've been so busy. I just drank like 2 glasses of champagne with the neighbor so hey! Good time to write haha.

Today I did another "Holiday Boutique" at a school.

Remind me not to do things at schools again. We'll add that to the list of things not to do.

Shows in a back room of a hotel
Shows at a golf course in November
Shows at a little bar/restaurant in the "back room"
Shows at a school

Basically if you don't see it advertised on Facebook at least 5 times before you go it's going to suck. That seems to be the way it goes.

Luckily today though I still made back my booth fees plus a bit more. I did meet some really nice people and got a bit of Christmas shopping done. When you don't have people coming in from outside the vendors start shopping eachother's booths lol. I did stop by Joanns after it was over too so, yeah. Hahaha.

When I got home I talked to the neighbor gal who wanted to buy a couple of my things so I went over there and drank some champagne and talked for awhile. And I came home with some more money in my pocket. WOOT.

There was another event in town today that my step mom went to and another gal I know was thinking about doing it. I'm interested to see how that went. I didn't sign up for that one because it's at our Outlet Mall which is now more of a dead mall.

I don't have anything else booked for the month but I've been thinking about doing one at my house. First I need to clean up and decorate though!

3 Day Craft Show

Well I survived my first 3 day craft show! I really really wanted to call in sick today but I knew I had a ton of work to do and shouldn't.

So we did Thanksgiving, more about that later. We got home fairly early and I did a little bit of last minute prep for my Black Friday set up! The directions said that set up started at 3am so we would be open by 6. I left my house around 4:30 maybe. Scott followed me over with the big tables in the truck and helped me set up the tent, tables, and even my stuff on the tables. That was so nice of him! Good thing he's usually a morning person ;)

I got all set up and the crickets. Finally a couple hours later I had a sale from a guy that had a booth down the way. Then he came back 2 more times to buy more mug cozies. I gave him an extra since he was my first and second sale.  Things finally picked up as the day went on. We were over at 4 but I think I didn't actually start packing up until a little bit after. The day had started warm, then got really cold when the sun came out (so weird) and then got blazing hot in the afternoon. I actually got a bit sunburnt on my chest and face (I did put sunscreen on my arms though).

Both of my girls came and spent some time with me but weren't there at the same time so that was nice.

This was down the main drag. I wasn't on the main drag but I still had a lot of people walking by so I think it was ok

There were several booths that were not craft items.

After day one I was pumped for day 2. When I got home I sewed up a few more cozies and then went to bed with dollar signs floating in my head ;)

Day 2 we left the house around 7:15-ish. I was probably not completely set up until 8:30 but it didn't really matter because like the day before we didn't really get busy until about lunch time. Melissa and her friend came to hang out for awhile and her friend called her mom to come buy some of my stuff. Gotta love the kids doing my sales for me ;)

I made what was left of the key fobs $1, they were mostly just floral ones left. I also marked down my little tooth fairy pillows to $5 since I was tired of packing them up. I sold all 3 of them at that price (2 to the same person).  Wine totes were marked down to $10 instead of $12 and the little tissue holders I put back down to $2 and sold quite a few that way. They are all made from scraps so don't really cost me anything but time and they don't even take much time to sew up. 

On day 3 a lot of people didn't come back since it was supposed to rain. I went outside and checked the weather app and it didn't look too bad so I decided to give it a go. When I got there I got moved on the main area which was nice to see how that worked out. I was kind of by myself though across from "the row." I still did fairly well even though it did rain a tiny bit and we all packed up about 1/2 an hour early to avoid the big storm that never came at 4:00.  All in all I'd say it was a successful weekend.

Something I learned:

1. Pack water! I got dehydrated the first day. I paid $2 for a WalMart brand bottle of water. That's desperation.

2. Pack meals and snacks so you don't spend all your profit on food.

3. Have people come hang out with you so you can take a bathroom break.

4. Pack weights of some sort to hold down your table cloth and or things on your table if the wind kicks up.

I'm sure there's a lot more but that's what is off the top of my head. I think I'm signing up for another event in 2 weeks but I keep forgetting to get my check mailed off. I will need to do it tomorrow to get it in in time. This one is at a school so it will be nice to be inside and in another city. I am going to take some of my profits from this weekend and buy some of those big tables that fold in half so they will fit in my car better and I won't have to borrow my mom's tables anymore.

Exhausted!

It's a good thing this is only a three day work week because it looks like it's going to be a stressful one! Things used to go a b c for the end of the year contracts and now they've changed them up to no more a b should be f and where did c go? I don't know I'm so confused and my boss is gone on a family emergency. So someone else is covering our office, but not IN our office. It's like the blind leading the confused around here. I almost thought about staying late but then decided my brain was on overload so I should just go home.

And pay bills!

Living it up here. Also I probably should have taken this meat out of the freezer this morning if I wanted to cook it tonight.

At least I had an enjoyable weekend. I spent two braless days (this is becoming a thing!) sewing.  I finished sewing up a ton of Christmas wine gift bags for the craft show I'm doing this weekend. I hope they sell! If not they will be getting cheaper throughout the weekend haha. I got a great deal on the fabric so they are mostly just paying for my time, which I should charge MORE for but we all know how that goes with handmade things.

Now I'm back onto Mug Cozies, although I should probably take some time out and clean my house a bit. BUT I'm sure the mess will still be here later right?

Oh and some other good news! Melissa started her first job last week. (Now I'm wondering if I said that already..) She got a job working at the same place Jess works at. She starting off as a busser but I'm hoping it won't be too long until she can be a server too and make some nice tips. Jess is a server now and seems to like it on most days.

People are all talking about getting ready for Thanksgiving. I'm just cooking an extra turkey to take to my brother's house (will probably cut it up and throw it in the crock pot & roasting pan after it's cooked). I still have to get "cauliflower" which I'm always wondering why in the world do we have to have cauliflower for Thanksgiving every year. It's just taking up space on the plate. Also rolls, which since have like 20 people I'm going to attempt to pick up at Costco tomorrow, say a little prayer for me. 

Oh and I came back to add, I finished watching all of The Fosters on Netflix. I watched the newest version of Beauty and The Beast (kind of) and then tried out Californication. I'm a little embarrassed to say I'm still watching that one. Definitely on the DO NOT WATCH WITH KIDS AROUND list. Like, I have to pause it just so the teenager can't hear what they are saying let alone what they are doing every time he walks into my room. Naughty entertainment lol.

Home

Well I'm back from my week vacation, I mean my week of working in another office. I've decided that if I am ever sleep deprived I'm going back to this hotel and asking for the same room.  I had the hardest time waking up every morning because it was so nice and DARK and although I was the end room with the door and stairs there I must have slept like the dead because I only ever heard people going in and out if I was awake already. It probably helped that I didn't have a cat laying on my head & pillow and dog sleeping between my legs and another one on the other side of the pillow and an occasional fat cat on my side or walking across my back.  But really what I missed the most was my stupid animals haha. When I got home they acted like they thought I had died and came back from the dead. Kids are like "I'm hungry" and Scott still isn't even home yet.

So my day basically went like this:

Alarm goes off, hit snooze 10 times until I finally force myself to get up, shower and get ready
Go down to the office area and make myself one of those gigantic waffles, delicious sausage, coffee and orange juice.
Work til lunch, go back to the hotel and watch "The Fosters" on Netflix and eat lunch in my room
Go back and finish off the day
Go to the hotel, turn on The Fosters and work on cutting out stuff to sew and or sew finally last night.

Repeat
I'm so exciting!

The first two days I may have taken a nap after work and went out to find food to eat before I decided I needed to stop being lazy and go to the store and buy some food I could make in the room. I swear everywhere to eat is at least $10 even for fast food. Plus I can only eat so much Jack In The Box.

So now I'm home. Only cleaned up one pee and poop mess that I've found so far (punishment for leaving I'm sure!) I just packaged up some stuff I sold on eBay because of course things that haven't sold in 50 days will sell the minute you aren't home to send them out. Thankfully the person that bought something on Monday is being cool just as long as they get it by the beginning of December lol.

Melissa picked me up from work since I had a work car and then we went to Joanns on the way home so now I'm set for a weekend of sewing. BECAUSE I signed up for a 3 day event next weekend. On black friday the setup time is THREE AM. I'm pretty sure if I had seen that before I signed up I wouldn't have.

Simple Sunday

Ah another day with no bra, gotta love the three day weekends when you don't actually have to leave the house. I feel like I'm going so much that I need to just put off any "quick trips" to town for when I am already out and about.  I should probably actually put away that laundry I was talking about putting away on Friday and wash my clothes for next week. Since I'll be living out of a suitcase and all that.

Yesterday I spent the day sewing the rest of the drawstring bags I had cut out for Christmas presents for the kids.

I made a significant dent in how much bias tape I have around here. I had to get a little creative on a few of them to use what I had but I think they are all really cute! If I made these for orders or to sell I think I'd go check out cording at the fabric store to make them look more professional.

After I finished those I started sewing up some more mug cozies I had already matched up and put together.  I just need to put the buttons on. I finished sewing those at 12:30 am. I had no idea it was so late lol. 

I was watching The Fosters on Netflix. Someone recommended that to me when I was saying I had felt like I had already watched everything that was worth watching on Netflix. It's actually pretty good for a TV series, I just wish I could cut out the theme song part when it switches to the new episodes. 

Drawstring Back Pack Making

I spent most of the day yesterday making these cute drawstring backpacks. I finally decided on making these for the kids for Christmas (nieces, nephews and a few friends kids that are like family). I am going to get a couple things to put inside the bags and then they will have a couple presents in one!

The hardest part is picking out and matching fabrics. I have a huge huge stash of fabric now so it just takes a bit of time to go through and match things up.

I had a huge stash of bias tape I had picked up at the thrift stores and such so I've been using that to start with for the strings. 

The insides are lined.

So far I've only made a couple small changes to the pattern. It had the strings going through the lining on the bottom section but I could not figure out how to make that happen easily so I just have it going through the outside fabric. I have also started making the top seam a bit bigger so I have more room to get the drawstrings through. Super easy and pretty well explained pattern! I think I cut out fabric for 11 of them so I only have 6 to go!