High Expectations

So, I was originally planning on posting green ideas to wrap your holiday gifts. I even have quite a bit of it written, but I'm not ready to actually wrap my gifts yet. So, this week we will have a blogette to set the mood for my Holiday Theme: Festivus.

While it's still November, I wanted to at least introduce my first holiday theme for this blog. Might as well with all the lights, music & advertising. Jokes aside, the Holidays are my favorite time if year. I even like to encompass all the days (Thanksgiving, St. Lucia, Yule, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, New Years Eve, etc) and call this time of year "Festivus." I get very merry during Festivus and start baking and buying gifts like a fiend. It's sad, really.

So while I do not have a blog entry for green wrapping ideas, I've been very busy! Here's a snippet of what I've been up to since Thanksgiving:

While I started a knitting project a couple weeks ago, I am continuing the pattern. It will be a Christmas gift!

It's psychedelic, man!

Speaking of gifts, I made snowflake necklaces last night for two people. I got the idea from pinterest. Here's a link to the original blog entry. It's amazing what you can do with shrinky dinks.

I had a left over snowflake, so I used it as a trinket for another gift. The idea is from From Glitter To Gumdrops and is a great gift idea for newlyweds. I still need a hook and ribbon, but it's practically good to go. I would post a photo, but I don't want the recipients to see it.

Next week, I plan to cover advent calenders. By doing so, I'm going to show you how I'm making one that's an adaptation from Mod Podge Rocks. With the glue and paint, it takes a bit of time, so I already started working on it. I'm so excited.

And as I mentioned previous, I've been baking a lot. I most recently baked a chocolate pecan pie for Thanksgiving and a breakfast casserole for work. They are delicious.

And it wouldn't be the Holidays without shopping. And sadly, I was one of the crazy shoppers out Thanksgiving night and through out Black Friday. But in doing so, I got a lot of shopping done. I even got a few "gifts" for myself: A beautiful Kitchen Aid mixer & a gorgeous (and desperately needed) LG dryer. Oh, and the new dryer sings. I may call it Navi. Maybe.

This is the old dryer. It was free, but at a price. Now it's dead to me.

Speaking of new appliances, I'm also having to deal with an unexpected need for a new water heater. Thankfully, we rent our home, so our landlord will be nice enough to purchase said heater. Maybe now I can more accurately adjust it for energy efficiency.

Sweet.

Lastly, tis the season for Festivus, so why not get a festive Christmas tree? While I normally try to shop locally, we caved in a bought a huge scotch pine tree for a great price at the local Home Depot. They even threw in a few free boughs from other trees that would of ended up in the dump. Making my own wreath will be even easier now. I plan to show you have to do that later.

All of these great activities is paired with some good work news. I've recently been promoted to produce our local 6p.m. show. So I will be working "regular" shifts Monday through Friday... normally. With a few co workers needing to be off, we are currently playing the producer shuffle. So one day I'll do the 6 p.m., next will be the Midday show, followed by a morning shift. So much for regular hours, ha. But it is still great news and the hours are something many in my field would die for.

Yet, I also am in the process of saying goodbye to one of my best friends in Kentucky. It was a pleasure to even meet Jennifer, much less get to know the crazy, loving & strong woman that she is. She is moving on to better things, but I will miss her deeply.

Love you JHo.

And while it's not Christmas yet, I seem to be accumulating gifts at my work desk. Last week a coworker gave me a huge Aloe Vera plant followed by a beautiful winter rose poinsettia from my mother-in-law. After getting back from Thanksgiving break, I now have a carton of eggs which were raised from another co-workers farm. I could get use to this.

So I hope you are not too disappointed that I don't have a full blog entry pertaining to green gift wrapping. But not only will I soon cover gift wrapping ideas, but there are so many great Holiday gift ideas & crafts that I can't wait to share.