Here's an "artsy" still shot of the flower in the pot...
Here's what it looks like from above...
"The Nubbin should be at a new home. I dropped it Christmas Eve. I sent a email to the toy society. Which is were I first found the link to your Etsy Page."
Check out this post at the Toy Society...the Nubbin was dropped at Child Haven, "a facility in Las Vegas that temporarily houses children who have been taken away from their families due to neglect or abuse". I sure hope someone finds the little guy so he can bring a little happiness to some child who needs a smile!
Thanks Mystery Rider!
"All roses say, I Love You, but each color has it's own meaning:
- Burgundy - Unconscious Beauty
- Orange or Coral - Desire
- Pink - Grace and gentility
- Red & White Together - Unity
- Red - Passion
- Sweetheart Roses - Darling, Dear or Honey
- White - Worthiness
- White Rosebuds - You're too young for love
- Yellow - Joy "
I wonder if "Red & White Together" means that one single rose has both red and white in it (like verigated) or that red roses and white roses are grouped together. I had red & white roses for my wedding bouquet...two red roses and one white. I had a specific reason I had that particular arrangement...the two red symbolized my husband and I, while the single white one symbolized God.
(believe it or not, this photo was not posed, my photographer just happened to catch me trying to open up the rose a little more.)
I got a lot more stains to go, but here's the first. It's the stain I make most often...usually on my hubby's cheek. And there's the lipstick color I use in case anyone was dying to know (it has to be 952A...the A is very important...952 is a completely different shade).
We tested all the pens in the "pen mug" at my parents' house and threw out the ones the didn't work anymore (there were less than I expected). Mom and Adam helped. I still have a lot of space left to fill though.
Believe it or not, the stuffed Fraggles and the DVD were given to me by seperate people. The 3rd Season DVD set was from CJ. The Fraggle toys were from my brother, Adam, and his girlfriend, Theresa. I guess Theresa got all of them out of a claw machine that is on the boardwalk at the New Jersey shore (while Adam supplied the quarters). The only one I don't have now is Mokey, which I guess wasn't available in the claw machine...but I consider it a labor of love to spend the time getting each of the characters from a claw machine.
The other really cool gift my Adam gave me was a Muppet Whatnot Gift Kit that he said should be coming in the mail soon. Then I can go online and order it from FAO Schwartz (a store in NYC).
"Once they get their puppet design just the way they want it, they can either visit the Muppet Whatnot Workshop in New York and have it made right there, OR starting in February 2009 they can use the online Whatnot Designer to submit thair orders, which will be completed in 3-4 weeks"
Oh, and that basket is an antique picnic basket Mom got for me. Apparantly I was asking once about where to get one.
Remember back when I posted about KittyPinkStars and mentioned that I wanted Wreck This Journal for Christmas? I guess my mom went right out and bought it for me after reading that post. I think I'll be taking my cue from KittyPinkStars Blog and photographing my journal's various phases of destruction and posting it on my blog.
(I think the shepherd looks like a hobo...it's the bindle.)
Mom has a ceramic Nativity Scene she hand-painted, and since the kings/wise men really didn't get to Jesus right at his birth (but historically closer to 2 years later) Mom puts her 3 wise men somewhere across the room.
"Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, "Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We have seen his star as it arose, and we have come to worship him."
Herod was deeply disturbed by their question, as was all of Jerusalem. He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law. "Where did the prophets say the Messiah would be born?" he asked them.
"In Bethlehem," they said, "for this is what the prophet wrote: `O Bethlehem of Judah, you are not just a lowly village in Judah, for a ruler will come from you who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.' "
Then Herod sent a private message to the wise men, asking them to come see him. At this meeting he learned the exact time when they first saw the star. Then he told them, "Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child. And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him, too!"
After this interview the wise men went their way. Once again the star appeared to them, guiding them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was.
When they saw the star, they were filled with joy!
They entered the house where the child and his mother, Mary, were, and they fell down before him and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. But when it was time to leave, they went home another way, because God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod.
After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up and flee to Egypt with the child and his mother," the angel said. "Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to try to kill the child." That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, and they stayed there until Herod's death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: "I called my Son out of Egypt."
Herod was furious when he learned that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, because the wise men had told him the star first appeared to them about two years earlier. "
- Matthew 2:1-16
You'll need to wait for the first layer to dry, then apply another layer of hot glue and put the magnet on. (I usually work on 3 caps at a time, and by the time you're done with the first layer of the last cap, the first cap's layer will be dry enough to apply the second layer)
And voila!...Bottlecap Magnets! 
We've rearranged the living room since last year and there's a bookshelf where we put the tree last year, so we really had no room for our regular artificial Christmas tree this year. Now I'm not really into all the crazy Christmas tree alternatives you see on sites like Apartment Therapy, but I had the crazy idea to put our Christmas lights on our artificial bamboo tree, which has a smaller footprint and is in the room anyway.
And of course a tag. The snowflake is rubber-stamped, but I "cheated" on the words...they're printed from the computer. It was a last minute thing and I didn't want to spend time on stamping all the letters. I'm a big fan of Jute twine (I'm quickly running out!), but I love this ribbon/yarn too. I've been using it a lot this year (you can see the blue version on my last post about the Oyster Crackers). I have 4 different colors of it...green, blue, orange/yellow, and red/pink. 
I've become a big fan of the "brown paper packages tied up with string" style of wrapping presents. I obtained a bunch of brown paper that was used as padding in the Pampered Chef boxes when the stuff from my party came...and I couldn't bear to throw it out and knew "I'd use it for something" (a phrase I know sadly contributes to the disaster area status of the office/craft room.) But a lot of times I'm glad I didn't throw something out...in this case I got brown wrapping paper for free rather than having to go out and buy it.
I finally finished making enough to fill 12 1 quart mason jars tonight so I can bring them to church tomorrow. Here's the recipe so you all can share a little of my holiday tradition joy. I warn you though, they're addicting!
*Most recipes you find now for these only have the Hidden Valley Ranch mix as the seasoning and leave out the dillweed, lemon pepper, and garlic salt, but those three extra spices add a lot to the taste! This is the old school recipe!
Hidden Valley Ranch Oyster Crackers
- ¾ cup salad oil (canola oil or veg. oil)
- 1 envelope (1oz. or approx. 2 tbsp) Hidden Valley Ranch Salad Dressing Mix
- ½ tsp. dillweed
- ¼ tsp. lemon pepper
- ¼ tsp. garlic powder or garlic salt
- 1 bag (12-16 oz.) plain oyster crackers
Whisk together first five ingredients.
Pour over crackers, stirring to coat.
Place on baking sheets.
Bake at 275 F for 15-20 minutes.
Makes 11-12 cups
And a dog cookie for Luna. Well...not really, I'm not going to let her eat it, but it looks kind of like her. I guess this one I'll give to Dad...he's our big dog lover.
Gingerbread cookies are addicting!...making them as well as eating them. I wanted to make some more, but didn't have enough molasses left from the first batch, so I looked up online what substitutes I could use...honey, corn syrup, maple syrup, or brown sugar. So my second batch I made, I used the rest of the molasses and honey...and look how much different they look from the first batch...but they taste just as good. I want to make another batch with maple syrup so I can compare.
And what, you may ask, am I going to do with all these cookies? Well, I already gave some away to Rachel downstairs, since she was kind enough to let me borrow her ground clove (I didn't have any) and her cool cookie cutters. But the rest I'm planning on bringing to church on Sunday and then bringing some to my parents' house Christmas Eve.
I got my recipie from Maya*Made's blog and found info on the substitutions from Yahoo Answers.
Can anyone tell me which one of this things is not like the others?...the gargoyle (that I wish I'd bought for my garden) randomly amongst all the Christmas stuff.
I'll be shipping them off to Vegas tomorrow...(seriously...the person who bought them is in Las Vegas!)
Last time I saw Angela was 5 months ago in July at her birthday party. I'm not really sure she remembered me tonight (she wouldn't say my name without her mom prompting her). I didn't see that look of recognition she gave me when I saw her in July. She pretty much wouldn't look at me at all. I actually think she was too distracted by all the stuff going on and trying to remember when she'd been to this place before. I did see a few kids from her afternoon classroom last year that remembered me (which surprised me) and I got to see the principal and a few of my old co-workers. They were thrilled to hear about my craft show and the consignment shop.
The poor thing ended up falling asleep after we had a snack in the cafeteria, and so I held her and let her snuggle up to me while her mother took her sister to the book fair.
It kind of felt just like old times (the familiar picture of Kira and Angela...always together...practically attatched at the hip!), but it was different. It was very nice to be there as a friend of the family and not just as "the aide". It felt good to know I was there simply because I love her and not because it was my job. I'm so glad her parents have decided to keep in touch with me. I guess I'm sorely missed, and the aide she has now (in her dad's words) "pales in comparison"...although I'm not sure how true that is. I don't think I was anything special. I just loved her...tried to do what was best for her, and listened to the more trained induviduals around me. 
I knew I was meeting an old friend at Spot Coffee tonight, and I figured it would be a good place for a drop since it's usually a pretty artsy place (although the artwork seemed very sparse tonight compared to other times I've been there). So before we left I went into the restroom to make the drop. Of course the bathroom was empty when I dropped the toy, but then two ladies came in before I could take a picture. So in order not to seem weird, I had to leave and come back a few minutes later to take a picture. One of the ladies did see the toy, but didn't take it...which is just as well, because I was afraid it wouldn't be there for me to take a picture of later.
I've been on a tag-making spree lately. I went to a Creative Memories open house a few weeks ago and my mom bought me a nice tag punch.( I bought the little alphabet stamp sets for $1 each at AC Moore).
And I bought this magnetic alphabet stamp set at a craft store in Ohio called Pat Catan's when I was visiting my in-laws over Thanksgiving weekend (using some of the money my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas). I love the little symbol stamps that came with it...especially the leaf and the snowflake.
I have a thing for alphabet stamps lately. I like them for card/tag-making and scrapbook page titles. It's time-consuming to spell something out with rubber stamps, but it's pretty. I tend to get picked on for my semi-illegible cursive handwriting that my mother describes as "jagged". So I save that for signing my name and/or personal notes and try to type or stamp the rest.
