Merry & Bright

Oh what a wonderful holiday, I hope everyone enjoyed time with their loved ones! On Christmas Eve Celeste was celebrating at her dad's. I went to my Grandma Miriam's and enjoyed some homemade manacotti... it was just like I remembered from when I was a kid, Grandma would come and visit from California nearly every year around Christmas, and she would spend all day making her delicious homemade italian marinara sauce.
On Christmas day Celeste couldn't sleep (just like a kid!) and was up at around 3:30 a.m., asking if Santa had come yet. I told her yes, so she rushed out to see what Santa brought her. She opened her presents, saw her bike, exclaiming "Santa brought me the bike from  mom's office!" She had accidently discovered it a month prior, we hoped she'd forget, but I guess not! She went back to bed after that, and opened the rest of the presents when we all woke back up at 8.
She is very happy with all her gifts, planning when she will wear certain outfits, alternating playing with all of her new toys, trying to sneak bike rides in the living room. Unfortunately there is still too much iced over snow to take her to the park :(
Well, my dinner is almost done, so I better get to it, I will try to post some pics later-XO

Yule Tradition

So I tried to start a new tradition of having a Yule fire on the winter solstice. Also, to write down our wishes for the coming year on a piece of paper and throw it into the fire. So, I asked Celeste what she wished for in the coming year, "A Fairy" I said are you sure? It can be anything? "A fairy" After we threw our papers into the fire, Celeste sat there with a glum look on her face. what's wrong, I asked. "I'm never gonna grow wings!" she says. Too cute! All I could do was laugh..- XO

My 5 Favorite Things from 2009

As we draw near to the end of our year, it's fun to take a look back at what we've accomplished, and what we've loved about our lives this past year. So, without further adieu, here are my five favorites from 2009!

5. Celeste's ballet class:


4.Taking Celeste to the beach for the first time:


3. Celeste's first day of kindergarten:


2. Our vacation to California to visit everybody and take Celeste to Disneyland for the first time:




1. While most people wouldn't pick moving to be at the top of their list of the things they loved for the past year, it is definetly mine! Buying my first home was scary, was depressing at times, and is the best thing I've done this year! I have a home of my own for my daughter to grow up in, at a price I can afford. It is something I never thought I would be able to do with how exspensive homes were just a couple of years ago.

Busy Bee...

Been so busy lately I have been forgetting to write! Celeste had pajama day at school yesterday, she was adorable. And today i am just getting ready to go up to my mom's and bring her Christmas presents and some super cookies Celeste and I made.

-XO

Snowman Family

It snowed all night last night, and today, and now it's still snowing! Here is a pic of the snowman family I made:


Celeste is at her Dad's this weekend. I'm bummed she couldn't build the snowman family with me. She wanted to make one sooo bad this past week, but the snow didn't stick right. Hopefully she gets to make one at her Dad's!-XO

It's Sooo Cold

It has been below zero every day since the snow, ack! Today I wore my yoga pants under my jeans along with my snow boots and two shirts! Celeste and Leo know how to spend a cold winter night:

And one of our icicles:

-XO

And We Have Snow...!

It started snowing early yesterday afternoon. I was out at my Mom's at around 3:00 when it started to stick, so I started my journey home. Mom lives about 40 miles from town, through some mountains along the river, and the snow was really sticking up there. It was slow, and towards the end there was a five car pile up. When I woke up at 4:00 am I contemplated going in late, but I decided there would be less idiots on the road than later. I was right, coming home was far worse. I bought cables at the store, but the road condition was worse since it had been compacted to a slick coating on the street. Tomorrow should be reall fun, since it will all be ice! Celeste had her first snow day, school was closed!

Super Scrapbook Contest

Just wanted to take a moment to share this awesome contest from The Original Scrapbox





You can win this:










Also, check out this desk, how awesome is that? A crafty organizers dream...




. Click here to see more pictures and details of the EZ View Desktop.
Below is the EZ View Craft Desk. This desk is designed with a clear, glass-like top and the dimensions are 50"W x 25" D x 31" H
The desk is big, with 4 drawers with built-in partitions for easy organizing on any home project.


For more details about the contest see this blog:
http://stephaniehowell.typepad.com/my_weblog/

Gingerbread House

We made our gingerbread house last night. It is a lot of fun and has become an annual tradition for us. Celeste mostly cares about when she will get to lick the frosting spoon. I am constantly catching her run her fingers through the icing!

And here is my layout for this week's sketch at 52sketches52weeks.ning.com

-XO

A Lot of Fun

Well, we' ve had a lot of fun decorating over the past three days, here are some pics:

I am finally done with all my Christmas shopping, and I am fairly confident I have enough left in my budget to ship my out of state family's gifts. Celeste is working on a giant poinsettia to decorate for her homework this week, she is pretty happy to be back at school with her friends she missed over the November break. I have finally run out of Thanksgiving left overs... glad they lasted so long though, really helped to not have to go grocery shopping until today. I've been kind of lazy since then though, just playing on the computer :) --XO

Decorate

Oh no, the weekends over already!? I can't believe how fast it was. I had a lazy day yesterday, which was nice. We took down our autumn decor and put up the tree and most of the Christmas stuff. Celeste will be so excited to decorate the tree tomorrow, I will post pics. Here is the layout I did for this week at 52 sketches, sorry about the poor photo quality... this was last years tree decorating- XO

T-Day Prep

Well I'm in the kitchen preparing for Thanksgiving. I started by making a pumpkin cheesecake last night, but there are still some steps in that recipe to complete, so I will do some tonight and the rest tomorrow. I'm also making my grandma's jello mold (lemon jello with queen anne cherries, boysenberries and a sweet sour cream sauce-delish), one of my faves from when I was a kid. And lastly for tonight, the sweet potato casserole with caramelized bananas, a super yummy recipe I discovered last year. So tomorrow all I will have to do is constantly wash dishes, make a turkey and stuffing. Celeste is at her Dad's this year... I'm sure gonna miss her!- XO

Tah Dah!

Okay here it is, before:

And after:

Don't mind the cheesy eighties ceiling fan, my chandelier hasn't come in the mail yet. I am so happy with the paint. It really makes it seem more at home here, Celeste was at her dad's this weekend, can't wait to see her reaction!

I was planning on doing some serious scrubbing today in preperation for Thanksgiving, but the power went out for a couple of hours due to a tree limb in the power line, so I went Christmas shopping instead! There are some great deals out there, glad I was able to take advantage!-XO

Finished

Well,the painting is finished, just need to wait for it to dry so we can move all the furniture back and hang everything back on the walls. It's like moving all over again! Here is my layout for sketch #46 at 52sketches52weeks.ning.com:

Tomorrow the new sketch posts, I am so excited! I got my order of scrapbook supplies from two peas today. I was like a kid on Christmas opening that box! It so nice to have fresh product to work with, maybe it will help get me out of my slump... XO

In the midst

Well, we started painting tonight, still doing it actually, letting it dry between coats. Even though I got the paint and primer mix stuff at the recommendation of a friend who had also used it, it required about 3 coats, maybe 4, we'll see. It is a dark color, but the paint is expensive, and I had to go back for more because I didn't buy enough :( Hopefully I'll have everthing put back together again by the end of the weekend and can share some pics!

Part of the Way There

Well, I registered for my classes today, yay! Only part of the way there though, there are still some hoops I need to jump through to see if I can qualify for financial aid ***fingers crossed***. I decided to post some of my handmade scrapbooking posies on Etsy, check 'em out @ Mooninmygarden.etsy.com . I'm going to go see if I can get my creative juices flowing on this weeks sketch-XO

Rock Star

Yep, my little girl thinks she's a rock star, and she has the diva attitude to match. Lately she thinks that if she starts screaming and yelling louder than your speaking to her, she won't have to listen. Wow, is this getting very very aggravating! Today at Target, she decided to rearrange the color coordinated towels in the bath aisle. How fun to try and read those little yellow shelf tags to try and figure where it all belonged! As I type she is yelling at me to stop typing so she can spell her abc's on the keyboard, I better get the diva to bed... XO

New Additions

Sorry about not posting all week long, it was Dave's birthday yesterday , so I have been super duper busy trying to prepare for that and still Thanksgiving and Christmas is constantly on my mind. I had an impulse move on wednesday, went to the Humane Society and adopted two kitties. It has been so long since I have had cats, and now that I have a home of my own, I wanted to rescue some kitties! Their names are Leo and Luna, Leo is a 2 month old black fluff ball and Luna is a 6 month torti!

I've also completed sketch 45 for this weeks sketch at 52sketches52weeks.ning.com , these are pics from when Celeste was about 1 and my Nana came to visit! Unitl next time -XO

46 days left...

Did some Christmas shopping today, I really wish I could give more... my family and friends are so awesome I want to just lavish the gifts upon them, but I'm broke. I have a meticulously planned budget, and it is dwindling. Oh well, I had fun window shopping, and did actually find some neato gifts for some people!-XO

House work...Complete!

Well, we have accomplished some much needed repairs on the house today, and some fun stuff too! We had a second washer and dryer set we sold on craigs list to finance our ventures. D. finished the garage door opener today, yay! Who'd have thought something most of us take for granted could be so exciting? No more scraping windows or warming up the car when I have to go to work at 4:30 a.m., yay! I finished a page yesterday, it is and old baby pic of Celeste, love that big ol' happy toothless smile as she swings on her auquarium swing!

I also planted some bulbs, Astible and Peony. It was nice to get down and dirty in the garden, its been years...I have had container gardens, but nothing quite compares to a yard. I put up our autumn/thanksgiving decorations, I'll try to post pics later. Until then, heres one of Celeste, wondering why I'm bothing her while she is trying to have her Italian soda! -XO

Uggh, My Head!

Yep, it's definitely Monday. I do not feel like doing the dishes, I do not feel like cooking dinner, I do not feel like filling out more scholarship applications, I do not feel like doing anything but going to bed. Can I take a day off of everyday life, just a day for nothing?
I got the soaps from madhattersoap.etsy.com today. They are Christmas presents for some of my family, and they smell delish. Hope everybody loves them as much as I do! The stress of the holidays must be getting to me... I feel my wallet getting lighter and my headache getting bigger.

Our Halloween

So sad it has passed so quickly, it is my favorite holiday after all! We had a lot of fun though, for breakfast I made "Bloody Eggs and Coffin Toasts". Then we started cleaning out the pumpkins. Which was a huge mess, Celeste was covered in orange goop! She made a Jack-o-lantern face on her pumpkin, I attempted a spooky tree, and D. used the stencil to make a scarecrow....we lost both our carving knives though, snapped clean off, I guess its their way of making sure you buy a carving kit next year!






















































And of course, my miss Celeste was simply lovely as a snow princess! She was so cute when she was trick-or-treating, she kept saying "I loved that house" everytime we left a house. There were a couple that scared her and she clung to my leg "mommy, come with me". She got three whole candy bars, and filled up her little pumpkin bucket in an hour. Then we went home and passed out candy and watched scary movies. All in all it was a nice evening, not bitter cold, and we had a great time!

This Weeks Sketch

Here is my layout for this weeks sketch at 52weeks

The Egg

Tuesday evening Celeste and I were making banana chocolate chip bread. It is a delicious combo! After mixing all the dry ingredients, and most everthing else, it came time to add the eggs. I had two left, perfect! Except one was apparently cracked and had seeped out enough egg white to not notice, but to effectively "glue" it to the egg crate. GREAT! So I went to the garage to ask boyfriend how much one egg matters to such things. When we decided we had no choice but to go on, I returned to the kitchen... To find the egg had burst, and Celeste had dissapeared....
Down a winding hall, and sniffling under her covers was my sad little girl.
"What's wrong?" I ask.
"I-I just was helping. (Sniffle) I didn't mean to break it mama" and she burst in to tears.
Poor thing thought she broke the egg. I am always adament about her not handling the eggs, and she wants to prove she big enough to, and CRACK!

Time Flies

My weekend has just flown right past me. We've done a lot though. My little bug and I watched movies, baked cookies, made earrings. We even listed some in my new etsy.com shop @ mooninmygarden.etsy.com Check it out!

Went up to see my mommy, things are always hectic there, but we love and miss her! XO

Missing This Little Girl

Today we went thrift store shopping for some cheap jeans for Celeste to grow out of way to quickly. As I picked her up to put her in the shopping cart, I realized I can barely do so. It is only a matter of time before I can't carry her anymore, and then she really won't be a little girl anymore. It is so wonderful to see her grow up, but brings tears to my eyes to know she isn't a baby anymore. I feel I didn't do enough to remember it. With the divorce I got nothing, just some baby photos on a CD. Everything else is a fading memory, and it makes me miss my little baby. XO

Ashley's Tea Party

We had a lovely little tea party at work for Ashley's Birthday today. Everyone made such super cute and yummy little treats. I made a pumpkin pinwheel with cream cheese filling. I also added chocolate chips to the batter. I've never made a pinwheel, so it broke in half when I was filling it. It still tastes good though! Last night I made her a pair of earrings, Celeste, who just had her ears pierced, was going through all my beads making plans for all the earrings I should make her!

The only thing I managed to accomplish coming out of the weekend was my scrapbook page and my cleaning. I still had fun though!

Over so Soon?

I can't believe this is the last day of my weekend and it is over so soon! I had a blast with my girlfriends and the wine walk. I've never been, so it was neat to see all these local stores, taste some wine, and enjoy my friends. The new sketch has been posted on http://52sketches52weeks.ning.com/ I am excited and want to get scrapping. I have a bunch on my plate still to accomplish this weekend, so I better get to it! XO

Dinner and a Movie

So we decided to have a date night with some of our unexpected funds. It really nice. I got all dolled up, we went to PF Changs for dinner. I love asian food, it's so flavorful and fresh. Afterwards we went to see Paranormal Activity. You HAVE to see it! It is good, it is scary! I haven't screamed out loud at a movie since I am Legend. Curtain shopping time....

Surprise Money

Isn't it nice to receive unexpected money? Today I came home to a deposit refund from my apartment. Thats $150 I wasn't expecting! Of course, I'm planning on going to a wine walk with friends tomorrow so I spent money I didn't have on a new outfit, so I guess it kind of worked itself out!? Celeste had her first field trip today, the pumpkin patch! She was so excited to ride a school bus. She is at her Dad's this weekend, so I haven't had a chance to ask how it went. I hoping to get a lot accomplished this weekend, finish my vampire painting, scrap, laundry, sleep in, shop for curtains with my new found money... Oh my, we'll see how much I actually accomplish..XO

This day

Today I've decided to begin my blog. I have wanted to for some time now, and here I am. I am a young mother to the center of my world, Celeste. I love art in all forms, especially scrapbooking and painting. We have just purchased a home and are nervously looking forward to the tribulations of its ownership.... XO