Life.

I don't have a great post for you today.
I hope to be back tomorrow with a post.
If not tomorrow, perhaps later in the week.
I am sorry.
Please pray for us right now.
We need it.
Thanks.

Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh, Christmas Tree...

Here is our little tree. It's a four foot tree and I love that it is so little! It is a special little tree to us! I like to decorate it to look like a "department store" tree, and I usually add ribbon wrapped around it, but I did the beads this year and I think I will be back to my ribbon next year. It's just not as dramatic without it.

I also wanted to show you this very cute advent calendar that I won from Sharla over at My Little Gems
! Isn't it just adorable! I love it! The letters are vinyl on a metal cookie sheet! It is simple, but perfect! Really, I love this thing. The small wooden ornament is magnetic and is moved from day to day to count down the days until Christmas! She did an awesome job with it! Sharla has an etsy shop, but she is taking a break at the moment. I hope to share with you again about her other stuff when she gets up and running again! She really does wonderful work!





OH! And while I have your attention, I want to thank so many of you for visiting my blog yesterday and reading my fun little story! I do have a question, though, and I would LOVE to know the answer. I got a TON of traffic yesterday - quite a bit more than usual, however, I only got a few comments. Now, some of you may not have found the post funny or interesting and that is fine, but my questions is more to those who did....what keeps you from commenting. It makes me so happy to get comments and if you add your email address (which I don't see) I can reply to your comments and that makes me happy, too! So what is stopping you? Why is it that you don't want to let me know you were here? LOL! Thanks for the input. It's a mystery to me and I would love to know the answer!

Have a great Friday!

Sesame Street on Crack and the Case of the Missing Pencil Sharpener

So, here is the story. My husband walks into my scrapbook room wielding two or three blunt, dull, and just overall pathetic pencils in his left hand.

"You have a pencil sharpener in here, don't you?" he asks inquisitively.

Obviously, the hope is that I do, indeed, have said small appliance, as he is in dire need of pencil sharpening. The thing is...while that may seem like a simple, easy response kind of question, you must bring in the "Jingle factor." Yes, that would be the factor that indicates that I have anything to do with the situation, therefore, it simply MUST be more difficult than it should be. The Jingle factor may even be present in your life, as my effect has proven to ripple from time to time. Anyway, I digress. The "Jingle factor" led to my answer to Sean's question.

{speaking rather quickly, as I do when I know the news isn't quite what one wants to hear, but I'm still sure a solution may be able to be reached} "The thing is I know I had one in here and I was looking for it not that long ago because you had mentioned that you needed one then and I never did find it but I'm almost positive it was in these shelves {mind you...both of us are looking around the room in various places for the pencil sharpener as fast chatter continues} but I can't find the darn thing anywhere and I totally put it there because it was easy to plug in and still have on the shelf but I must have moved it or maybe I put it in one of those brilliant places that I would 'remember' because I put it there have you checked on that table under that unsteady pile of who knows what? how about on the table over by the door? It has to be here because I know I own one and you can't just LOSE a big chunky electric pencil sharpener! Here, let me check behind these {pulling out 12x12 albums on the bottom shelf, which, had I thought about it, take up the whole shelf due to their size, but it was a random thought that I would have hid it behind there} WAIT!"

"There is a cord back here."

*****Insert break from really fast talking. Take a breath. Get to the Sesame Street on Crack part of the story.*****

So...realizing that the cord probably goes to the missing pencil sharpener, Sean begins to look at the shelf above the one with the albums since the cord is only so long and probably leads there. Enter this photograph:



As Sean looks, he considers that I would have probably hidden the hideous electric pencil sharpener behind something because it isn't at all inspiring...okay...so he probably didn't consider my reasoning at all, BUT IT ISN'T!!! Anyway, he picks up this bucket of foam stamps, which, by the way, IS inspiring. The stamps, being light weight foam, of course, begin to fall off everywhere leading to the following comment:

"This bucket is like Sesame Street on CRACK!"

Which quite simply led to him finding the pencil sharpener behind the bucket of letters and me laughing so hard I was no longer of any use.

Thus, Sesame Street on Crack and the Case of the Missing Pencil Sharpener - SOLVED!

Have a wonderful Thursday!

Organic Cotton with a Dose of Fresh Sea Air

That's what comes to mind when I visit this shop on Etsy!
Milo In Maine has some great choices! I love this long sleeve t!



They have a collection of great tee's with fun graphics reminiscent of my childhood vacations spent on the beaches of Maine! I love that!

Need a wonderful comfy scarf? They've got that, too! And in wonderful colors!!!

Also, Milo In Maine carries cute tote bags, which would make the perfect eco-friendly gift wrap for one of their tee's!

Check out Milo In Maine! I think you will like what you see!

I love highlighting Etsy shops and Independent retailers! If you have a shop that you would like me to showcase let me know and we can chat!!! Or...if you know of a great shop and would like me to check it out let me know about that, too!!! I am working to add giveaways to this segment, as well, so if you know of a shop that may be willing to sponsor a giveaway drop me a line! Thanks for your help and thanks for reading!!!

The Secret is in the Sauce: Welcome to the Merry SITSmas decorating party!

You totally have to go over to The Secret is in the Sauce to check out their holiday celebrations!!! It's Merry SITSmas time!!!

The Secret is in the Sauce: Welcome to the Merry SITSmas decorating party!

Thanksgiving Day, Kids in a Cage, Cornbake, and Pumpkin Cupcakes

Today you get a quick overview of my Thanksgiving day. Really, it was a wonderful holiday and great to see family again! Here are some of the highlights of the day.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Instead of the classic desserts I decided to bring pumpkin cupcakes as my contribution. They were SO yummy! And they came out perfect! I would love to tell you that they take great skill and amazing background knowledge to make, but really, I cheated, as I always do! LOL! One can of pumpkin and one box of your favorite spice cake mix. Seriously, folks! That's all! Then pour into your cupcake papers and bake at the usual 350 for about 20 minutes! I used a basic cream cheese frosting and sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar for an extra kick! That was yummy!



And the cornbake!!! We LOVE this stuff in our house! Sean makes it and he does a great job with it. It's amazing just how difficult this can actually be! One year his cousin tried to make it and it was more of a corn BRICK and every single time his mother tries to make it there is LITERALLY an explosion in the oven. I have no idea how they do it, but Sean makes it perfect EVERY time! It is SO SO SO good! I really don't know why we don't eat it more often! He even made this one a low-fat version just for me and it tasted exactly the same! It was wonderful!





This is my cousin (the adorable little 3 year old girl) and my other cousin's son (the super-cute 2 year old boy). They decided that the best way to spend Thanksgiving would be to crawl into the dog kennel and play. For a really long time. LOL! I sat there and took SO many pictures! They were totally cracking us up!


And....as this was going on we just sat and watched as you see Sean doing here. It was too cute! LOL!



So, overall, it was a wonderful day! We really enjoyed it!

I don't usually do a lot of family stuff on my blog, but I got some great photos this past weekend, so I may share our Christmas tree hunting experience with you, too, if you don't mind!

And...finally, I just want to show you this video. It is so dead on and I love that!

No, I have not yet fallen off the planet....

....just the usual "my goodness! when was the last time I blogged..." excuses. Super crazy busy, spent time with family instead of online during the holiday weekend. Tons going on. Haven't created JACK lately! And so on.... HOWEVER....I did make some REALLY yummy pumpkin cupcakes and got one of my best cupcake pics ever (imo) so I'll be posting that, along with an Etsy feature, perhaps some pics of my super cute cousins playing in the dog cage....yup...you read that right...and maybe if you (and me) get lucky I will make something cute and post that! I did get some fun pics when we went to cut down my parents Christmas tree, so those may be worth sharing with you, too. Maybe some youth group pics, I do have a few decorations up so I could post about that....I don't know... I'll come up with some stuff, though, I promise! I'm always full of good 'ole randomness!

What would YOU like to see this week?