Snuggle-fest 2011

It’s getting colder and with each new passing day, the gray afternoons bleed into the dark night.
The alarm is waking me up too early-and I fight against it. After all, it’s still dark outside. The frigid wind squelches my desire to run outside-so-the treadmill gets some action once more.

Yoga pants are my outfit of choice, unless I’m forced to leave the house on some important errand which would require a jean ensemble. Then and only then, does make-up ever touch my face.

 

As I’m walking out of the door to retrieve much needed groceries with a Starbucks coffee mug in hand-of course, filled to the brim with Starbuck’s coffee-this is what I almost cannot bear to leave behind.

 

They make me second guess if we really couldn’t survive one more day on kidney beans and cream of wheat. I could turn around right now, throw the yoga pants back on and tell myself it was a valiant effort.

 

After all, these kittens are in their formative months. They need me. I shouldn’t abandon them while they are so young-even if it’s only for a few hours.

 

They need a lap to sit on, someone to pet them, to whisper to them how cute they are, to snuggle up to them…

 

…to share the warm covers with.
Stay strong, Rebekah. Your family needs groceries. Cream of wheat should not be eaten three times a day. And the beans, well, Biceps could use a break from the beans.
List in hand, keys in the door, I force myself to leave them behind. It’s hard to do.

On Fire, Mr. Fireman

Dear Readers:
Everything in our life has changed and I have been allowing bits and pieces of our changing lives as we transition from Touring the country with musician types to staying at home with normal types..
Well, scratch that. No one we hang out with is quite normal. Except you, Mom. You are soooo normal. (And I learned all my “normalness” from you.)
But, here we are with our lives changing overnight as Biceps pursues a career in fire fighting. Don’t worry, he’s not throwing in the towel on writing music and what-not. He just found a career that suited his fancy and still allows time for music.
And I thought you should have an up close and personal look at my man. In his fire fighting outfit.

 

Because he’s hot.
Every pun intended.

Mothers and Angry Birds

Following our Thanksgiving visit, my Mother-in-Law camped out in our van in her driveway in Minneapolis. She refused to leave the van as we said our good-bye’s. She had even packed a bag-several bags in fact, and she had her pillow, house shoes, bags of presents, bags of food and her new phone. We told her that we commended her on her preparedness, and understood it was hard to say good-bye to us-since we are so dang fun. But we reminded her that all good things must come to and end.
She said she wasn’t going anywhere and she sure as heck wasn’t about to say good-bye.
She was coming with us.

So, I did what any good daughter-in-law would do. I challenged her to a game of Sequence. Of course, I lost. I think she had the game rigged somehow.

 

She had some sort of motivation for coming with us. Apparently, there was a new baby about to be born in our family. But then, you probably already heard about that.
Off we drove into the sunset, eating dried apricots, playing Angry Birds (as shown here), speaking of things yet to come, enjoying the road…

 

…until this happened. We were 45 minutes from home when a real life Angry Bird went all kamikaze on our windshield. What did Mr. Bird have against our van?
Was it the fact that my mother-in-law so carelessly tossed around his friends during her enjoyment of said game?
Or was it mere coincidence?
Or is it some sort of Angry Bird conspiracy to redefine just how hard a bird can shatter glass since all that I consider them to be are cute and fluffy creatures?
Or was it everything combined?

My mother-in-law said that I was crazy and went back to her game.

Pretty Paper Christmas Trees

I explained in “Christmas No-No Decor” why I had to switch it up this year due to my naughty kittens. We are in the throes of training them…they are just a little hard-headed.

I was excited to try something new and this vision of blue and red came to mind. I went with it.

 

Apparently, the motivation from naughty cat-dom was just the challenge I needed. Without spending a dime and using things that I had on hand, I created a whole new fancy look for my mantel this year.

 

Here’s what you’ll need to make your very own Pretty Paper Christmas Trees:

3/4″ Dowel Rods or PVC pipe
3/4″ Scrap Plywood
Coffee can lid
Jigsaw
Palm Sander & Fine/Medium Sand Paper
Drill and paddle drill bits
Oops Paint or Spray Paint
Hot glue gun & glue sticks (not pictured because they were warming up for their duties)
Wrapping Paper (I used both robin egg blue and brown parchment)

 

I had two pieces of leftover 3/4″ PVC and a 3/4″ Broom stick that someone had gone ninja on. I used all three pieces to make my three trees.
Mark the desired height of trees onto the PVC or dowel rod with a sharpee. I cut my lengths to 18″, 24″ and 32″.

 

Using the jig saw and a wood blade, cut the PVC or dowel rods at the marked lines.

 

Outline the coffee can lid onto the scrap plywood. This will be the base of the trees.

 

This joke never gets old, “Cut it out.” (Courtesy Uncle Joey.)
Meaning, cut the plywood circles out with the jig saw.
Using a 7/8″ paddle drill bit attached to the drill, drill into the center of the plywood, without going all the way through.

Sand the pieces of plywood using the palm sander. Sand the PVC and dowel rods by hand with a loose piece of sand paper.
Make sure the PVC or dowel rods fit into the holes in the plywood.

 

Hot glue the PVC or dowel rods to the plywood. Make sure you burn at least two of your fingers in this process.

 

Spray the entire thing with two coats of your favorite paint. Let dry.

 

While the tree stands are drying, cut out 3″ square pieces from the wrapping paper.

 

Roll each square into a cone shape that resembles this one. Hot glue the very end to the cone.

 

Pour a glass of wine and then do that same thing about 20 times more for each tree-depending upon the height.
Some of my trees required about 20 cones, the tallest about 30.

 

Starting about 6″ away from the base of the tree, begin hot glueing the desired colored cones to the PVC or dowel rod. Move up about 3-4″ and add another round of cones. Continue doing this until you reach the top of the tree.
I made one tree that was all blue, one with rows of alternating blue and brown parchment paper, and one that alternated within the same row blue, brown, blue, brown, etc.

 

I insist you make a mess while doing this, just so I don’t feel bad.

 

Add one last cone to the top of the tree, covering up any of the remaining PVC or dowel rod. Add a few cute birds, candy canes or alternating colors.

 

Fancy it up with some cute deer, sparkly tinsel and leftover ornaments and call your mantel decorated!
Merry Christmas!