Stuffing

I made stuff...and took some pictures of it! I downloaded Picasa 3, a free photo editing software from Google and LOVE it. You probably already have it, but in case you don't--get it! Anyway, we're kind of snowed in (or slushed in--I think there's more ice than snow!) so I feel like this will be a good day to keep on rolling things out for my etsy site! Happy Saturday and please leave a comment to let me know what you think about my "stuff"!

In General

We've had a pretty laid back week here. Not much to report except some cute pictures and some budding ideas for me in the craft realm. Here's Charlotte in a sweet dress that her Aunt Elizabeth gave her. It has pretty embroidery at the bottom in some great colors.

These 2 pictures are from Saturday when we watched our friend Ella. She's about 5 months and cute cute cute! Charlotte had a good time playing older sister.These gems I'm really excited about. They arrived in the mail on Sat. and I've already proceeded to turn them into earrings, rings, and hair pins. I think they are too adorable. I've also ventured into the wonderful world of pillow covers. They are so easy and can give a room such a lift. More on this later.


Here's where we uh, stand with walking these days...

Photo Series, if you will...and you will :)

Is it still January?? I'm ready for spring. I think the 9+ days that we had of below freezing weather used up all my tolerance for winter! It's been GORGEOUS the last 2 days here and it's making me prematurely ecstatic about spring this year. We've been busy recovering from a great holiday season and hosting a friend a mine who we haven't seen in a few years. It was wonderful to catch up and connect and realize that we're still friends. PS--I'm thinking about starting an Etsy shop, pretty much due to some heavy peer pressure. Stay tuned.

Here's a little snippet from our year o' pictures...

Wish we could keep on some of the cute hats we've been given!

So before heading out for 12 days, we spent 2 days snowed in, losing power a few times, listening to trees snap in our neighborhood, and trying not to get cabin fever. Chris and I decided to play all the games in our house (by candlelight) and keep one big scoreboard. It was a close one, but Chris ended up with the win. Turns out we got 16 inches of snow that weekend.

View from the front window...

Chris trying to dig out our car so we can go to the airport in SC the next day...

Once we're out of Asheville, the weather is fine. We fly to Grand Junction and stay 2 nights before heading down to Santa Fe, NM for Christmas with my side of the family. On the way though, we are caught in Utah by a snow storm and have to stay the night in Blanding (oh what, you've never heard of Blanding, UT?!). In our hotel, the heat does not work and Chris proceeds to kill a black widow spider. Apparently, this is one of his worst fears unbeknownst to me...so we get a new room so that he can actually sleep that night. Oh, I forgot to mention that he has bronchitus and is on some pretty heavy medication at this point so I was the driver and the functioning parental unit!

Looks like we've been in this room for days, but no, I'm pretty sure it had been half an hour.

Terrible shot through the hotel window of mostly the screen, but you get the idea...

So when we got there, this is what Chris did for the next 3 days...

Except when we went to look at the lights. On Canyon Rd. in Santa Fe they have one night where the art galleries stay open and people walk from gallery to gallery enjoying cider, lights, and the season. We went on chilly Christmas Eve. Here's a picture of my uncle Pat, sister Luci, brother Sam, and Chris.

Pretty Santa Fe scene...
Big light display...

Christmas day I dressed Charlotte up and we headed over to my aunt's for food and presents. Charlotte and Grandma...

Great Grandma...

The day after Christmas we went to this amazing restaurant in Chimayo.

El Santuario de Chimayo, a church established for its curative powers. During holy week, thousands make a pilmgrimage here.

After several days with my family, everyone departs for either California or Texas or Colorado. We head back to Grand Junction. This time, Chris is feeling better, the roads are clear, and we're feeling good.

We spent a few days continuing to recover. We even saw a movie...in the theater! Then on our last day we went to Powderhorn for skiing and snowboarding. It was gorgeous!!

I can't speak for Chris, but I was really feeling my age. It was all I had to make it down the mountain! We had even tried to "get in shape" beforehand knowing that we'd be using muscles that don't normally get worked.

Making sure I don't have frostbite and adjusting my boot...

View from the lift...look at that powder! Conditions were perfect because of all the snow.

Spectacular!

All in all, a great trip. Glad we won't be traveling with Charlotte anytime soon. At this point, I wouldn't drive more than 3 hours or one plane ride at a time. We're back in town and of course there is snow, snow, and more snow. I'm SO over it!! Hope you're staying warm and dry and enjoying this new year! It's good to be home, although we left definitely longing to be nearer to our families.

Links That May or May Not Help You...

Here's a little tool that I've been using for a few days now and I have to say--I like it!! I haven't found anything that really motivates me for a several uh years now...which is probably why I'm still carrying around a little extra since Charlotte's birthday and well, since being married. We joined the Y and I actually use it 3-4 a week, I run occassionally, I've asked Chris for accountability before, but nothing has come close to being as tangible (and free) as this. It's called My Fitness Pal. I orginally just thought I'd use it for the calorie counter because I decided to take drastic measures and commit to a food journal...see Chris and I have a little bet going as to who will reach their weight loss goal by the end of Feb...but this website has some other great features too! I'm aware that I sound like an infomercial right now but I had to share this, seeing as I'm on the website several times a day lately. I have to also tell you that this was spurred on by an article that we read in the in-flight magazine on our way to Colorado about websites whose whole schtick is betting on weightloss--they'll charge your credit card for donations to organizations that you wouldn't normally donate to (the example they used was gift to the George Bush presidential library if you are a democrat and the Clinton presidential library if you vote with the republican party--either way the librarians are happy!). So we'll see what happens come Feb. 28 with all of this...By the way, there are plans for continued weight maintenance for the rest of the year to keep us at our goal weight.

Another post that I read on Donald Miller's blog gave a refreshing reprise of the same old New Year's resolutions (um, see above). My brother was telling me about his latest book over the holidays and that made me look him up. Smart guys (Don and my brother). Go look and see what he is talking about these days. If you are fans of his first book Blue Like Jazz (or not) then I think you'll find his candor, humor, and depth drawing you into reflection on this year and those ahead.

Happy Twenty Ten!

Homemade Christmas Photo Shoot

This is to tide you over until I get out a real Christmas post about our trip to CO and NM via SC. We did a little homemade photo session sans foil and lighting tricks as you will soon see, but I think they turned out okay. Happy 2010!