Necessary Chocolate

Another reason why I can't complete the list

You can't put away the Christmas stuff when there are flowers to be designed. There are also cool posters to download, too (thanks, Petria!); just click on the framed picture on the right wall.

Other random Neil Gaiman stuff:

I found the book Coraline to be quite creepy, but the movie doesn't look half as scary as I'd imagined.

I recently watched Mirrormask, and loved it.

I wish that I'd already read the Graveyard Book, so I could look smug when it won the Newbery.

On the ironing board: 01/2009

I'm not teaching my early-morning class this week - it's Regents exams for the students. Gotta love NY! Next month is winter break; in April is spring break. In May we'll be almost done. Add in the snow days, and it turns out that I can fit in some other projects here and there.

This week, I thought that I'd catch up with planning for the class; finish a glitter cottage that I started over New Years; send out publicity for an upcoming church concert; make an apron for an upcoming birthday girl to go with her Kit apron; write my valentine cards (because I never did get the Christmas ones sent); and (this should be in small print so that you don't notice) take down the Christmas stuff. Oh, and I fully planned to eat a lot of pop-tarts. Last week was a doozy, and I desperately wanted to eat pop-tarts.

Three goals down. One box of pop-tarts eaten, the concert publicity sent, and the apron underway. Of course, the week's not over yet. The Christmas stuff may not come down, but surely I can fit in a few more pop-tarts.

Arizona

I was lucky enough to spend a few days in Arizona last week. Just a few of the highlights:

big handmade tortillas from Carolina's
hitting sites along old Route 66, like Meteor Crater, Two Guns, and La Posada

making cinnamon rolls and banana bread
singing "Waltzing with Bears" while waltzing
discovering that a five-year-old can handily beat me at Wii golf, but that my bowling average went way up with the Wii

saying goodbye to the twin calves, who are ready to head out to the pasture
and, most importantly, playing with family and friends

including the amazing box top lady. That's her hat. If the elementary school collects 10,000 box tops this year, the principal will spend the night on the school roof.

Inauguration!

I hoped to make fun treats for an Inauguration Party at the office. But after coming home from Arizona at 11:00pm the night before, I decided that donuts with patriotic sprinkles were celebrations in and of themselves.

I set the TV up in the conference room, and we watched together - people who love history watching history in the making. I love inaugural ceremonies. That peaceful transfer of power gets me, every time.

Loot (part 3)

From my parents, who listen to me: a cake plate to add to the collection!

Loot (part 2)

Another handmade gift this year: Laura (and her mother) made me a quilt. Isn't it wonderful? It's meant to go upstairs, where there are two beds waiting for quilts.

She promises that there will be another quilt for my birthday, for the other bed!

And Allison made me this great Christmas tree with ornaments in some of my favorite colors:

 

Loot (part 1)

In turn, Grandma sent me hotpads that my great-grandmother made for her years ago.

I knew my great-grandmother well; I'm named for her (my middle name). I still remember calling her when I was in graduate school. I had to write a paper on vernacular architecture, and I decided to write about the typical homes in her small Utah town. I asked why the kitchens were consistently big; my great-grandmother answered: "I always assumed it was so we could play ball indoors."  It made for an entertaining paper...

The only handmade gift

I knew, going into the 2008 holiday season, that this would be a store-bought Christmas. No making pajamas this year!

But for my grandma, who makes orange rolls for her friends and family, I managed an apron and labels. And she modeled them for me, and sent a photograph!

I'll post about her gift to me tomorrow. I did get some pretty great loot this year.

The cookie dough wrapped and ready

The cookie dough is wrapped and ready to give this weekend. I'd tried creating my own labels, but every effort seemed fussy.  Emily of the black apple blog came to my rescue, with her gift tags for downloading this year - thanks to Kathryn for reminding me of them. I just imported them into Indesign, added the cookie names (that's Olduvai font - I've used it on every project this season), and formatted them to print on round labels.

This little bird, bearing a beret and a banner, seemed perfect for World Peace Cookies.

Only three kinds of dough this year. I considered just doing pinwheels and World Peace cookies, but added ginger cookies at the last minute New Year's Eve - mostly so that I could use all three labels.

Delivery tomorrow. Tonight I'll be watching the Sugar Bowl, appropriately enough, where I will be saying, for one of the few times in my life, "Go Utes!"

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! One of my resolutions for 2009: put the outside Christmas lights up before December 31st. At least they're up before the Christmas cards have gone out, and before the cookie dough has been delivered... I'm blessed with patient friends. And hopefully with patient neighbors.

In past years, my resolutions were the usual: go to bed earlier, wake up earlier, study scriptures more, lead a more meaningful life, waste less time, exercise more. That last goal went all to heck - but my class required that I work on all of those others. And life is better.

Each day of the seminary class countdown to Christmas, I gave each student a different wallet-size print of an image that represented Christ somehow. Images that I like - which usually aren't the ones other people like. Some Rembrandt, a little Minerva Teichert, a Bruce Smith, and a Ron Richmond. I wasn't sure how they'd go over. But during the breakfast, Jenae told me that she liked "the chair one" best. So do I.  And now I know someone else who loves the chair painting best, too.

Now, I just need the gumption to work on my crafts on the off days. That's this year's resolution. Oh, and the exercise one.

Thank you - all of you who I've come to know through this blog, and to my family and friends who are kind enough to check in. My years are consistently better because I know you! Happy New Year!