Doodle While You Work

So I was browsing Borders looking for Meeting in the Ladies Room but had no luck. What a DID find was a book called Doodle While You Work: Erase the Tedium by Staffan Gnosspelius.

Remember Wreck this Journal? It reminds me of that book but it's not quite as destructive. The book gives you a bunch of half finished doodles and prompts to finish them.

The best part is the book is only 13 bucks!



Other prompts include:

Dress Your Boss
Fill the Elevator with Penguins
What’s Hiding in the Filing Cabinets?

If you end up purchasing it let me know! I'd love to see the doodles you come up with.

I plan on playing in it while I watch TV or movies in the evenings.

NOW we can call it winter!

It started snowing yesterday! I mean really snowing for Texas!

Normally we get some flurries or freezing rain but this year we got SNOW!



Now you Northerners might be snickering at me a bit but all the Southerners know what a big deal it is.

It started snowing about 9:30 in the morning but didn't start sticking until early afternoon.

It kept snowing until after 8:00 that evening!



We let Dixie go play in it when I got home. OMG she had a blast! I was able to get a video of it with my fancy schmancy new camera.


When I was filming this I didn't really think about our conversation in the background. I cracked up when I heard Cory trying to take the cat outside and she clawed the fool out of him.

Cowboy Cookie Gift Jars

Remember those? They were my test run for the Cowboy Cookie gift jars I am giving away to our family friends.

I ran across the recipe and gift jar idea while reading Bakerella's blog one day. She has all the info for creating everything from the cookies to layering the jars here.

I altered my recipe from hers slightly as I like more chocolate in my cookies. I also used pinking shears on my fabric to give it a little more character.

Cowboy Cookies

1 1/3 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup cooking oats
1 cup m&ms
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup chopped pecans
1 slightly beaten egg
1/2 cup softened butter
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Starting with the dry ingredients everything together. It's easiest to use your hands to get the ingredients mixed properly.

Roll dough into 1 1/2" balls and bake for 10 minutes.

Bakerella has a pdf you can download, punch out and attach with double stick tape but for the life of me I couldn't get the dang things to line up with my paper punch. Then on the rare occasion I did get it lined up the edges punched all funky.

So...heads up for all you punch challenged people out there I used the Avery Inkjet 1 1/2" round labels and they worked like a charm!

Meet Allyson and George

Aren't they adorable?!?! We got them today inside Brookstone when we were shopping at the mall.

The frogs are African Dwarf frogs and apparently they live inside a their own living ecosystem.

I thought they would be a cool little pet to bring up to the office. I mean, what could be better? They don't smell and don't make any noise. I just have to feed them twice a week and clean their water out a couple of times a year.

I wanted to bring a beta up there a while back but I wouldn't be able to feed it over the weekend so I changed my mind. Well, that and their little bowls can get stinky.

I named them Allyson and George simply because those are the first two names that popped into my head and they always say go with your first decision, right?

I honestly have no idea what sex they are. I just decided they were a boy and a girl due to their completely different sizes.

Allyson George is the small camera shy one in the back.



George Allyson likes to come up to the front of the tank and stare at you.



I'm not sure if they sleep or not but they swim around and then get completely still for long periods of time. It almost looks like they've died. It's a little creepy.

The clerk said they are suppose to live for about two years and can go up to about eight years. We'll see how it goes.

Yea! I'm so excited about these guys!

EDIT: So I read up a little bit about these guys. Seems I DO have a male and female frog but I have the sexes backwards. Allyson is really George and George is really Allyson!

We say "Merry Christmas"

We say "Merry Christmas"

Jesus is the "Reason for the Season"

"It's not the "Holiday Season" it's the "Christmas Season". If you don't believe in Jesus you shouldn't be celebrating."

These are just a few of the things I've seen and heard in the last few weeks that are really starting to hit a nerve. Cory tells me I shouldn't let the opinions of others bother me and I try not to but it does at times.

Why do Christians in particular seem so threatened by other religions?

Why is Happy Holidays so offensive? You live in a country where there are different religions that celebrate in December. It is a time, a season of holidays. <------- See that? It's plural. Does saying Happy Holidays and being respectful of others make you believe in your God less? Does it make you believe in your God less because I don't believe in Jesus and I decorate my house and a tree and give gifts simply because it's a tradition for my family? What bothers me most is it seems okay for Christians to talk about and almost force their religion upon you but not the other way around. Personal Example: I work with a lot of fairly, if not highly, religious Christians who are not afraid to tell the world. Normally it doesn't bother me when they talk about it or send the occasional chain email. I expect people to talk about their religion to some extent as it's part of who they are.

However, most particularly at this time of year, I often get to hear little rants about who has the right to celebrate what and tend to find it insulting and a bit alienating. I've made the mistake of speaking up on occasion be it to the rant or just difference in beliefs and more often than not found myself being a) outright laughed at b) talked down to or c) ganged up on.

I don't understand it. You shouldn't have to defend your family traditions. You shouldn't have to defend your beliefs simply because it's not a belief of the majority.

To think all this started over a simple phrase that got deemed "politically correct". It stands to reason if the general public is so worried about the "Reason for the Season" they should be focusing a little more on that than going on about correct terminology.

It's suppose to be a happy,generous, peaceful time of year. Why would you not want to share that with everyone and instead spread bitterness and resentment?

Gangsta Craft

I ran across this the other day on Dispatch From LA and had to share!

It does have some cussing in it so if you get offended or have little ones around you may not care to watch.

It cracked me up! Him making his own knife is my favorite part. I hope you enjoy it too.

A Puppy Blunder

So today was a bit of an upset. I woke up early and well rested and thought everything was going to start out smoothly.

Little did I know about thirty seconds before I walk out the door for work I would discover my goat my puppy ate one of those little bags of chocolate coal. Yep, all 4 ounces of chocolate along with the foil wrappers and part of the netted bag.

Of course, I panic, call Cory, call the vet and call the office all while trying to stop crying, find my purse and get the dog together.

Once we got to the vet clinic they gave her some medicine to induce vomiting and then gave her more medicine later in the day once she was able to keep some water down.

They said the second medicine was to help remove the toxins from her system? I guess whatever was already digested.

Dixie is now at home resting in her kennel. The poor thing is exhausted. For her to go lay in her kennel and sleep while Cory and I are up and around is a big deal.

The vet said she should be fine by tomorrow. They gave us some special food we have to feed her for her next four meals and then she should be back to destroying our house normal.

I'm really ready for this chewing/eating phase to be over.

A Peppermint Tree gone awry

So I was browsing blogs today and came across this darling peppermint tree on One Cheap B*tch.

Saw it. Loved it. Had to make it.

She had posted she had a hard time with it due to the glue but didn't mention if she followed a pattern of any sort when she made it.

Now silly me, I didn't think to ask nor did I search the project before I dashed off to buy supplies. Had I Googled it I would have found this nifty set of instructions from Better Homes and Gardens.

Had I googled it I probably wouldn't have some up with this awful mess!




I did take her advice and paint the styrofoam red before I started gluing but unfortunately since I didn't follow a pattern it didn't help all too much.

I tried using my own idea and started adding a second layer of peppermint to cover the open patches but yeah, that didn't turn out too swell either.

{Top photo by One Cheap B*tch}

The Secret

Off and on for the last few months I have been reading "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne. I kept hearing how fantastic it is and was curious to see what all the hoopla is about.

Geez, when will I ever learn? The only secret I could find about "The Secret" was that the book wasn't all that great.

It sounded more like a broken record than this great enlightening phenomenon. You have to believe and expect and you will be. Over and over and over...

I believe in the law of attraction but is it really necessary to write an entire book about it? I started reading each chapter feeling like I had already read it in the previous one.

Then again, I'm the dummy who went out and bought the book. I bet they're laughing all the way to the bank.

Giveaway Reminder!

There are only two more days to enter this week's blog giveaway for Etsy Fort Worth! Click the image above to find out how to enter.

Monday So Soon?

Ugh, I am so not ready to go back into work. I took a couple of days off for another four day weekend though again I really didn't do all that much.

Thursday I prepped for our monthly meeting and drew up a couple of forms for Etsy Fort Worth. The meeting was an absolute mad house but I guess that can be expected every so often. We're having another meeting next weekend to clear up stuff we weren't able to get to on Thursday.

Check out the awesome earrings I picked up while running errands! They are a little heavy but I really like them. Plus they'll go with just about anything.

I tried to find something for my Secret Santa while I was out and about but had no such luck. I just couldn't find anything screaming her name.



Saturday evening Cory and I went to a company holiday party. It wasn't anything loud or outrageous but we had a good time. They had fajitas catered in and gave out gifts to everyone. Cory and I ducked out when they all started dancing.



I did the test run of the recipe I'm using for my holiday gifts. Oh and Mandy - these ARE from scratch! I was actually very please with the results too!

I'll show you what I'm doing later. Cory and I went all over today trying to find one of the main components of the gift but we fell short. Apparently the only place I can get what I need is at Hobby Lobby.

Oh! Before I forget - I posted the second giveaway for Etsy Fort Worth this morning. Be sure to hop on over there and sign up to win!

50 States/50 Plates

So come Saturday afternoon I decided I was going to play a little game. Remember when you were younger and you played those car games on long trips? Okay, well I never played this game on a car trip when I was younger but I bet it would make a good one.

I always think it's neat to see the license plates from different states when I'm driving around. I was looking at an out of state plate Saturday afternoon and decided I would make it a goal to try to find a plate from every single state. Thus, 50 States/50 Plates was born.

Cory says I'm weird and crazy. I got the laugh and head shake when I told him about it. Why anything I do even remotely surprises him at this point is a little beyond me.

Anyway, I think he's secretly having fun helping me out. I pointed one out earlier today and he jetted over to the other lane and went two lights past our turn so I could get a picture. He says it's funny to see me get excited over something like that. What? I'm having fun!

I only have two rules: 1) I can't do it while I'm driving. Can you imagine explaining that to a cop? "Oh, sorry officer. I broadsided this person because I was trying to take a picture of this other guy's license plate for kicks." Passenger seat or parking lots only.

2) You have to be able to read the state on the license plate. If it comes out too blurry that picture goes out the window.

So does anyone want to play with me? It's really fun!

You can see what I've got so far here. Saturday I had a major score of 7 plates! Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts and Oklahoma.

I completely missed a Louisiana plate earlier today but I did get Maryland and Nevada. I had to take them on my phone so hopefully they come out! If they do I'll put them up on my list.

If you decide to do it with me let me know! I'd love to hear about it.

Look What Stopped By

I've been meaning to post this for a couple of weeks now. I found him on our tree one weekend while I was sick at home on the couch. I do believe it's a woodpecker of some sort! Isn't it cool?

I've never seen a woodpecker here before! I saw him again the following day but haven't since. I probably won't anymore now that it's gotten cold. Maybe he'll come around again next year.

Oh and look at this!



I've been meaning to post this one too. I found a whole bunch of these dragonfly's in our backyard a few weeks back.

I was surprised how close this one let me get to it. All the other dragonfly's would fly away if I got even remotely close.

Etsy Fort Worth Giveaway Reminder

In case you have not heard, Etsy Fort Worth is holding weekly blog giveaways for the month of December.

There are only two more days to sign up for this week's giveaway! It's open to everyone so hop on over and sign up!