late night top 10.

This is my top ten list of blogs, written late at night.

In no particular order, I do this because Chad laughs at me because of all the blogs I read every day. I claim that I don't read them all every day but there are a few that I pretty much check on a daily basis (and get really offended that they have real lives and don't post every day!):

1. Nie Nie. Come on. She's fabulous. Her house, her life, her story. Too awesome.
2. Nie Nie's sister CJane. Equally as cute. and equally adorable children.
3. Matt Logelin. I didn't used to read as often but now he is in India and I can't help myself.
4. Young House Love. Maybe they will come decorate my entire house when I get one. Is that too much to ask of strangers?
5. The Pioneer Woman. I am getting her cookbook for Christmas.
Because I bought it for myself as insurance.
6. Style Me Pretty. I think I am going to get married again so I can use all of these pretty ideas. I am literally embarrassed to tell you that I check this blog once a day. But, I can also say that the photography is equally inspiring and I get ideas from that too!
7. A Cup of Stone Soup. My mom's blog. And she doesn't post every day. And I talk to her on the phone pretty much every day so I know all the possible news and I still check to see if she blogged. What can I say - I'm loyal.
8. Holy Experience. I know I have talked about her before but Ann over at H.E. is amazing. She has such a sweet life/testimony just of her every day experiences. Her photography is great - of simple and yet beautiful subjects. Her stories and daily encouragement is even better. Check her out!
9. Adventures of Bort. Or Mrs. Bort really. My friend Dani's blog...she is sorta my blog inspiration. I started reading hers and thought "hey, I could do that! It might be fun!" and here I am over a year later!

Oh dear...there are only 9 that I check on a daily basis. ONLY 9...I think I am doing great! There are others, obviously, that I check when I see a new post in my reader or most days but these are the ones I check every day. Fun! Now you know all my computer secrets and what I am doing after Chad goes to bed (which was 30 minutes ago and now I am headed that way!).

the good news.

Chad got home at 9:30 last night.
Yes, he was gone about 7 hours....while we were supposed to be putting up Christmas decorations and hanging out.
You want to know the upside of that?
The state of TN doesn't like to dole out over-time.

I know, it doesn't make much sense now but let's put it this way...
he has to take those 7 hours off another day this week so he won't be overtime.
Any day he wants. (ok, not any day but he can have a preference).
So guess what?!? He is going to take Thursday off and hang out with me.
Put up some Christmas decorations and maybe even get our tree.
See? Things work out after all.
Woohoo!

HL was bearable today. Nothing too exciting happening except for ordering (which takes forever when you get interrupted 100 times) and me selling over $800 of custom frames today.
Awesome...solidifies my winning this month for the most sales. I think there are two movie tickets and dinner at stake. Fun! A free date night sounds good to me.

you didn't know.

Maybe you already knew - and didn't tell me.
Or maybe I knew and pretended that it wasn't true.
But I am going to share a little tidbit of trivia with you for tonight.
Did you know that when you get a cat you pretty much have to completely revamp your home's Christmas decorations?
Things that were cute and dangly last year are just far too tempting this year?
All the fun ideas I had were not created in my brain with a flying fearles furball in mind.
Things that crinkle or sparkle or are fragile just aren't acceptable in our house this year.

Good luck cat owners.

sewing. sparks.

Since I am not in the mood to offically decorate for Christmas yet, I thought that I would go ahead and make the pillow cases for the bench outside. I got about halfway through my third and final pillowcase and my sewing machine make some strange noises and I got nervous and had to stop. The foot petal started sizzling. Sorry mom, I may have burned it up. It got too excited. I will let it cool off and try again...
but hey, they are cute!

plans change.

Sometimes our plans change and frankly, I don't always like it.
Don't get me wrong or misunderstand me here - I am so incredibly thankful that both Chad and I have jobs that not only allow us to pay our bills but leave some to spare for saving and giving to things we are passionate about.
But I really dislike it - no, hate it - when we have plans to do stuff together (fun stuff!) and he gets called out to a fire.
Welcome back to fire season in Tennessee folks!

Chad and I had plans for church, lunch (yes, Mexican food it was!), naps, trips to Goodwill and the recycling center, getting our Christmas tree, and putting up decorations. We got through the lunch part before the phone call came sending him to a possible fire up in Soddy Daisy. Yes, I said a possible fire. They called him away from me, on the only day I get to really hang out with him, for a possible fire.
Trust me when I say this - if I could get my hands (or even just my words) on the people that either irresponsibly (and illegally might I add!) burn brush creating forest fires or intentionally set fires for spite/fun - they would never, ever do it again.
Trust me.

So, I think I will load up the stuff that needs to go to the recycling center and Goodwill and make those runs by myself. Somehow I am just not in the right spirit to put up Christmas decorations any more.

reporting in.

Not too much to report actually...I survived the Saturday after Thanksgiving at the HobLob as well today. We were actually busier today than we were yesterday (much busier!)...I guess everyone exhausted the good deals at the other store and came to see us today! I pretty much went non-stop today so I am beat and looking forward to lazy Sunday with my sweetie. Chad is getting up to run with a friend in the morning and I threatened his life if he gets me up before 8AM (maybe he will take the dog and the cat with him on his run...?). Then we will head to church, do a little lunch (ooo....Mexican food.), and veg out the rest of the afternoon. My lovely, sweet husband did some major cleaning downstairs in the living room and kitchen and has pretty much made way for the Christmas decor which came out of the attic this morning so we might even get some of that stuff put up. It doesn't take long - we don't have that much stuff - but the house always looks so dressed up and festive that I pretty much can't wait any longer. We even talked about getting the tree tomorrow too...hopefully it will work out.

I bought some pillow forms at the HobLob one day this week and some Christmas fabric while it was on sale (50% off!) and I am going to make a couple of pillows for my bench out front. I think they will be OK outside - they are under the porch and far enough away from the sides that the only moisture they should get it is what is in the air. I will make them so that I can pull off the covers and wash them so I will let you know how that turns out. It is a Christmas colored paisley (come on...you should know how I feel about paisley by now!) and I think they will turn out really cute. It is about time to put out my mini trees by the front door and retire the pumpkins....pumpkin smashing anyone?

There will be pictures headed your way soon...

survival. and winning.

I survived Black Friday (again!) at HobLob!
In all honesty, I have no bad things to say about today at work. It was quiet and lovely back in our little framing room - we didn't take any more custom orders than we would any other Friday or Saturday. Since we opened at 8, I got a ton of stuff done this morning with few or no interruptions. The cash registers went steadily all day but I think everything ran really smoothly...

So...I bet you are wondering who won my first giveaway! It was really funny how it worked out, with all 5 of you commenting (for future reference, pass along the word! And I promise, the next giveaway will be cooler stuff and a little better planned!)...and since Random.org picked #1, that makes Dani the winner! Funny how she said that since she was first she should win...apparently Random Number Generator did too! So, I will be sending you a fun pair of earrings to wear (or give!) and a pair of snuggly hand warmers for your and your hubby!

Going to bed early and getting up to do a little shopping in the morning before i have to go to work and close (which I am dreading actually...the store will be a mess!). Have a great weekend!