What a Year!!

How should I end this year? It's supposed to be a monumental day, a time for reflection over this past year and all the years past. It's also supposed to be the start of something new. The day you spend planning for the coming year - new goals, new resolutions, new dreams.Yet, it doesn't feel like it has been a whole year. Everything has rushed by so fast.
I've been considering what to post for a few days and even have made a few lists of the blog posts of mine that have received the most attention and the keywords that have brought visitors here. I've got those lists, if you want to know. But, how boring is that?Instead - to commemorate the year, here are my favorite posts for each month. Let me know if you had any favorites.

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

While the world had its big events this year: the Olympics in China, the official start of the recession, the 'historic' election of Obama (aren't all elections historic?), the national disasters, and the deaths of some really great famous individuals; I found that my year in the blogoverse also had some highlights of it's own. Here's my top 10 - in NO particular order:
1. The creation of an official household "Shit to Do List" and the subsequent forgetting about the list.
2. The loads of time I was able to spend at the beach over the course of the year, including several overnight stays there.3. The death of two of my family members in the same week (my sweet Great Uncle Guy and my cousin Tommy)
4. The amount of time I spent stressing over and venting about not being pregnant.
5. The many trips I took: Hunts-vegas for Grand Assembly, Killeen for Grand Tea, aforementioned beach trips, camping in the RV, a cruise to Cozumel, and my recent trip to Disney World.6. The creation of and little interest in a new blog.
7. The fact that I did more crafting and organizing than I thought.8. Several attempts to change my blog into something more enjoyable to read, including a poll.
9. Lots and lots of rambling about my weekends, craft bags and obsessions, visits with my nieces, and time spent with my husband - Pat.10. And mostly, lots of introspection outloud about life, dreams, and goals. Usually, these were vague and undecipherable to anyone but me. Yet, many of you read through it as I trudged on through the year. Thank you!!

2008 has been one heck of a year.
2009 promises to follow it up with some excitement and disappointments of its own.
I'm not ready to set goals for the year yet, I didn't do so well on my previous ones. So, I'll just wait to see where the start of the year takes me.

Have fun celebrating the New Year. Let me know what you're doing. Be safe!!
See ya next year!

Catching up in Pictures

I want to keep the blog up, so I'm doing a quick picture dump

Mostly, I have pictures from the Disney trip that I want to share.

Here's me on our first day

Here's the reason we went to Disney - for the oldest niece to dance in the parade

The youngest had a good time too. She even turned Bambi into a reindeer, but she's a fairy - she can do that.

They got to design their own ears.

And see Cinderella's castle get covered in ice.

We had a really good time.

Oh, and here's some of the fusing I did with my new kiln. It's not great I know - but I'm still new at this.
Alrighty, that's all for now. I've got TONS more pictures, so I'll try to share those later.
I'm working on a big end of the year post for tomorrow. Hopefully it'll get done.

Christmas Unwrapped (MMSM)

Sooooo - how was your Christmas or other holiday celebration?
Mine was pretty darn good. It seems that everyone liked the gifts I found for them. Plus, it was a fairly relaxing day. Since my brother-in-law had the nieces, they just came over to my mom's for the present-exchange frenzy and then LEFT!! It was quiet, it was calm, it was awesome. I got to spend some time with them, but then got to really enjoy the company of my mom, step-dad, grandmother, and husband. How lovely!!
As well, both LOML* and my mom gifted me with some crafty tools - a microwave kiln for fusing glass and a mini craft sewing machine. I haven't tested out the sewing machine yet, but am LOVING the kiln.

Besides having all you shopping done and a New Year to look forward to, I've got some other topics to make you smile. It's "Made Me Smile Monday" at last!!

• I haven't watched all of this, only the first 10-15 seconds or so, but I was in tears over the music, just watch:
  
• QUOTE - "before they invented drawing boards, what did they go back to?" - Unknown
• 
• I think LOML* and I have shared this video with all of our family and most of our friends. The beginning is a little slow, but just keep watching.
• Now that the new year is almost upon us, it's time to think about what calendar you will be using in the upcoming year. This bubble calendar looks like it would be so much fun to mark off the days.

Hopefully, I'm back on a roll and you'll be seeing more of me (or more posts at least) now that the shopping craziness has ended. Happy Monday to you all!!

Christmas Morning

Christmas Morning
Originally uploaded by CraftyHope

Here's what a white Christmas in Southern Alabama looks like.

Christmas Spirit

I guess it's about time for a blog post, huh?
My Christmas craziness has calmed down a bit. Yes, it is Christmas Eve, but I'm done. It's all over but my favorite part - the giving. I love the look on my family and friends' faces when they open the gift I've selected just for them. I've spent almost every evening and lunch hour over the past week and a half to get my shopping done. Now, I'm bored and fidgety. I can't wait to start handing out the presents.
And, I know that it's not all about that - see there was this baby. Nevermind, you've heard the story.

Oh, and I got the biggest laugh today when I was listening to the radio and they were doing a report on the tourism in Bethlehem. Apparently, "all the hotels are full."
He, he - get it - there was no room at the inn.

Anyway, I guess now the best time to send you all my greetings.

Wishing you and yours a Very Merry Christmas!!

Tonight's the night all the magic happens. Remember to believe in the wonder that is the holidays and really cherish the time you have with your loved ones. I'll be back soon!

Catching-Up

Okay, okay - I have not fallen off the face of the Earth and am not that slow of a reader. I've just been. . . busy.
I have so much to say, it's overwhelming. So, I keep waiting for time to cover it all. That's not going to happen. Instead of going in to too much detail, lemmie just do a bullet list for you.

• Disney was great but exhausting. So exhausting, I lost TEN POUNDS!! I'll get some pictures up later of the experience (being in Disney, not the weight loss.)
  
• I haven't had much holiday spirit until this week. It's probably the almost 80 degree weather that's doing it. But I'm finally getting some shopping done and it's taking forever to do it.
  
• I did finish the Twilight series and loved every bit of it. I really want to sneak off and go see the movie (as LOML* will not go), but am kinda afraid it will lose the magic of the book. Hmmm.
• While I was in Disney LOML* bought a MacBook. Other than our iPhones, it's the first Apple in our lives. I've only gotten to play with it on a limited basis, but it's pretty cool.
• Several of you asked about "rick roll." Here's the Wikipedia explanation: Rick Roll. Basically, it's an internet prank where you click on something and instead, get this rather than what you thought you were getting.
• I'm a little disappointed that I haven't gotten much crafting done this Holiday Season. It's the perfect time of year for making stuff. Instead, I've been vacationing, READING, catching up with LOML*, and shopping. Instead of posting yesterday, I did sneak into the craft room for a few hours to decorate some glass ornaments. I felt so much better after that. I want to make a few other ornaments/jewelry items to use as package embellishments, but we'll see how that goes in time.
  

Okay, I hope I've at least covered everything for now. To help with my holiday spirit and yours, take a few minutes to enjoy this video. It spans generations and gives me goose-bumps. I hope you enjoy it too!!

I Exist

Real quick - I AM back from Disney.
I have not fully recovered AND am trying to finish the last book of the Twilight series.
My head is not in the real world right now.
I know some of you want to know about rick roll and some Disney details.
I'll get to that. Just - not right now.

I'll get back to regular blogging real soon.
Sorry for the pause.

You Were Right!! (& MMSM)

Oh my, oh my!! I HAVE to admit that I was WRONG (I hope you're reading today, because this hardly ever happens ;) ) I read Twilight over the holiday and LOVED it. I twittered earlier today that I was emerging from a turkey-induce coma, but really - it was a Twilight-induced coma. I read and read. After finishing the first book, I searched frantically at bookstores and Wal-mart for the second. I finally found it yesterday afternoon in Mobile. I read until two in the morning and had a hard time leaving it at the house when I left for work this morning. As I'm leaving for Orlando on Wednesday morning, I can't decide whether to go ahead and buy the next two to take with me (if I can find them) or to take a break from the frenzy. It kills me to think about not reading them, but I'm also not sure that I will be able to pull my head from the pages if I take them. I've already made some rules for myself about when I get home tonight - no reading until I get dinner done and laundry started (I need clean clothes to pack.) I can get a little obsessive about books (I read each of the last several Harry Potter books in a matter of hours after they came out- no sleeping.) So, those of you who recommended Twilight to me - THANK YOU (and damn you for not letting me get anything done this weekend.)

Other than that - How was your Holiday? Did you see the parade? Were you falling off the couch when Macy's Rick Rolled all of us? I sooooo was. It was great. The parade is always worth it, but that just made it even more awesome. Of course, you should have seen me at the dinner table trying to explain what rick roll means to my grandmother. That was pretty amusing as well (especially since I had just finished off several glasses of wine.)

Since I had a rockin', reading holiday weekend that made me smile, let me share the wealth with you with some of the other things that made me happy on this "Made Me Smile Monday"

• Octoberfest parking sign (look at the rules)
• I had no idea chickens were such peacemakers - too funny
  
• While you've got some time in the bathroom, you might as well out it to a creative use: paint by numbers TP
• Muggle quiddich - AWESOME! I wish I was still in college and brave enough to start this up.
  
  
• A pirate church??

Okay, I've got to get back to focusing on what needs to get done.
Happy Monday all!!