We had a fun weekend which included a tour of the place pictured above. Before I share more photos, I thought I’d have a little fun and run a give away!

Can you guess where we went from the picture above? Don kept telling the boys it was “just like Hogwarts” all the way up there. That seriously made me laugh because he’s never read the books OR stayed awake thru the movies! In fact, this last time I learned that it’s better to go to the movies with my Mother-in-Law to see them because she reads the books and is just as excited as I am to see the movies.

Just leave your guess below, I’ll close the contest at midnight on Wednesday, December 3rd.

What will you win? How about my Candy Cane hostess apron just in time for the Holidays?

Doesn’t matter if you guess it correctly, just leave any guess!

Happy guessing!!

Yesterday, in Perrin’s class, we made an edible “Native American scene” that they could use for a Thanksgiving centerpiece. Well, with the temptation of all that sugar on one plate, it didn’t make it to today. After we got home he was able to restrain himself for about 1 1/2 hours then he and Owen devoured it.

Wishing you all a very happy and safe Thanksgiving!

Remember to hug all your family and friends that you see today!

What movie?? Hehehe!

No Crap Shoot Tuesday from me, today. Instead I thought I’d share a funny picture from an experiment a few weeks ago. The boys and I were waiting in the van after a hike while Don ran in to Best Buy to pick up Rock Band 2. Since we had been hiking, I had my camera and decided to take pictures of the boys making faces at themselves in the flip down mirror.

I ended up with a ton of these hilarious photos of the boys.

It was also funny to see the expressions on the faces of people walking past the van because this is what they saw:

Curious, does anyone know what movie that quote is from?

Gettin’ colder around these parts! Which really isn’t cold compared to the rest of the US. LOL!! But we’re going to be having some rain and it looks like we’ll be in the mid 60s to mid 70s for a while. I’m hoping for no more 80s! Seriously, I like the colder weather. Wearing shorts in November is silly!

In anticipation of this week, I made the boys hats and scarves! They are excited about the pocket on the scarf. They both scurry about for something to bring with them just about every time we leave the house, so I knew they’d love having a pocket to keep a buddy in. These hats were actually really easy to put together and went very quickly. I thin it took longer to cut out the patterns than it did to sew them.

I do have to look for more hat patterns, though. Perrin is wearing the largest hat pattern from the set and it’s a little snug, but it will at least last him for these next few months!

Last night I went with my Mom to the midnight showing of Twilight, thought I’d share some of my thoughts on the movie. I may share some spoilers to those who haven’t read the books, so don’t read on if you want to be surprised.

The film didn’t have the biggest of budgets and, unfortunately, it showed. Some of the vampire special effects - shots of Edward moving quickly - were a little silly with the “speed” effects. They did the classic “speed up the film” for some of them, and for some there was a weird movement special effect. The one time I felt they showed the quick movement the best was during the baseball game. I thought that was done well and was a fun scene to watch.

I didn’t feel like there was much character development. I wish that they had been able to write more character developing into Edward. I felt they established character traits of the other vampires too harshly. For example, no question in your mind that Rosalie doesn’t like Bella. It was a little harsh.

Jasper didn’t say much, but his facial expressions were pretty hilarious - not that I think they were supposed to be taken this way. But from reading the books you know how he has a hard time dealing with his new eating restriction. I kinda felt he was Christopher Walken-ish with his hair and facial expressions which made me laugh sometimes, but in spots where I *think* they wanted you to. (I’m kind of a terrible movie goer, I find lots of stuff funny when the audience is quiet)

I was tired of Bella’s character by the end of the movie, but this has to do with character development.

I did like how they kept the Bella narrative.

Look for Stephenie Meyer’s cameo. I think it went unnoticed since I only heard myself to react to it.

I wish time was spent on the lullaby Edward wrote for Bella. I thought this gave you such great insight to really how mature he is while reading the books. In the movie you don’t get that at all, you just see him playing it for her.

I could keep going, but I need to take the boys to school, then take a nap! Overall, I felt the movie was fine. I’m sad to see a budget really affect the story. I’m hoping that if this does well enough and they plan to film the next one, that they will have a better budget available to them. I think most of my “problems” with the movie were budget related. I liked the characters fine (Alice is charming), felt the dialogue was wanting sometimes, and mostly enjoyed getting to see the movie with my Mom.

If you see it this weekend, let me know what you think! As for me, I think I’ll re-read the books.

It’s the 20th, which means another DD/DDA Challenge! This month Sharon was the hostess and she came up with a lovely challenge! It just had to include a heart! She’s so nice, she didn’t even give us a restriction!

Challenge Focus: create a hostess thank you card or gift, Thanksgiving card, treat holder, table favor or placecard, or Thanksgiving home decor item.

Required Element: at least one heart

Restricted Element: None!

Here is my project for this month:

I’ve had this blank clip board for a few months, I picked it up at Michaels some time ago. I’ve been wanting to create something for the house that would utilize this as a place for us to leave little notes for each other. I thought it would be nice to have something like this to help encourage us to say “thank you” to each other for the big and little things.It was easy enough to complete. I began by taking off all the hardware then painting it white. I then cut strips of paper to fit the different sized panels, sanded all the edges, adhered the ric rac with craft glue, then reattached the hardware.

For the sentiment, I used a plate to trace the semi circle on the kraft paper. I then faux stitched inside the outline before cutting it out with wide scallop scissors. I had some left over letters from a previous project I did, so I used those for the sentiment. “Count your blessings” is a favorite church hymn of mine (I have several favorites). This one always tends to lift my spirits and it’s one that I really enjoy singing. I cut the felt heart out with my Cuttlebug and heart die, then attached the button with twine. I had to add a bird, since I’m married to Don, so I simply roughed up the edges before adhering it with foam tape. I then used my super sticky tape that I get from Taylored Expressions to adhere the sentiment behind the clip board.

Now we have a cute place to leave notes of thanks during this month of Thanksgiving, as well as all year long.

To view the other great participants, click here: Thankful Hearts

Thanks for the great challenge, Sharon!!

This adorable dalmatian puppy is my brother’s new puppy, Houdini. He surprised us all last week when he went out and got her. The boys were very excited to go over and see the new puppy and they both love her to pieces. My brother spent a lot of time thinking of a name for her. “Houdini” was a name he had thought of beforehand, since most dogs have a knack for getting in and out of stuff, plus it sounds cool! Then my Mom (who shares my excitement for the Twilight books/movie) thought that Twilight would be a fun name for a spotty dog. I have to admit, I like the way that one sounds, too!

So a name compromise has been made combining the two names. I’m not sure which way it goes - Houdini Twilight or Twilight Houdini - but the boys love to say Houdini, so that’s what they will be calling her.

I want to take some new pictures of her, she now has a cute red collar and name tag. Plus, she’ll give me lots of experience photographing very unpredictable puppies for when our own arrives to us sometime next Spring! Which means you’ll be seeing more of this cute spotty face!

I almost wasn’t going to worry about Crap Shoot Tuesday today, until I went to my Sister-in-Law Jenna’s blog and spied that I have been tagged! So I decided to share a recent praying mantis picture that *almost* turned out. I was bummed to see that the camera focused on Owen’s hand, not including the praying mantis. However, those bugs are hard to focus on, sometimes. It’s still a cute picture - just not one that I’ll be printing up.

Owen’s praying mantis friend returned this past weekend so I headed out to the backyard to take some pictures of them. He ran all over the backyard with his pal and I ended up with some cute shots. The boys have their own rooms now (in preparation for a dog to help eliminate them taking everything out of their room to play) and I thought it would be cool to get some pictures of them printed up to hang in their spaces, showcasing what makes them *them*. Know what I mean? Unfortunately for me, Owen and bugs go together.

Now for the tag:

8 Favorite TV Shows I Love to Watch: You’ll notice a lot of old shows on here, we don’t have TV. We have A TV but we don’t get reception and don’t want to pay for a service, we’d rather have our internet service.

1. Friends - we have all 10 seasons on DVD and I go thru these all year long. It cracks me up and I like having something lighthearted to watch, especially after watching several episodes from the next one on my list.

2. X-Files - Don and I have recently been borrowing these from my parents to re-watch. We used to snuggle up on the love seat when we were dating and watch these every week. Nowadays, I get a *little* stressed/grossed out with some of the episodes, but I still love the show!

3. 24 - this is probably the only current TV show we watch. We just wait until the season comes out on DVD then we rent them and plow thru the season in about a week. They are too good to only watch one a night!

4. Greatest American Hero - Dude, I know it’s SO old, but when I was little this was my favorite show! I don’t remember much about any individual episode, but I loved it so much that I picked out the single at a record store one day. I know some of you remember what records are - I had the 45 of Believe it or Not and played it all the time. LOL!!!!!

5. Angel - I think I enjoyed this show more than Buffy. Hated that it was canceled. In fact, Angel, Buffy and Friends were the only shows we watched and when they cancelled them we decided there wasn’t much else on TV at the time, so we cancelled our TV service. That’s how long we’ve been without TV.

6. Buffy - I went a little wayward towards the end, but this was one show I loved to catch each week. And the whole Twilight madness makes me laugh because I feel like it’s an Angel + Buffy love story for today’s teenagers.

7. Good Eats - like my Sister-in-Law Jenna, I really do like this show. It was my favorite thing about the Food Network and I still use the internet to get the recipes from his show.

8. Star Trek: The Next Generation - there, I said it. I like this show - a lot. Takes me back to the days of when we lived with our friends David and Debora. And let’s face it, Q is pretty funny.

8 Favorite Restaurants:

1. Miguel’s Jr - Hands down my most favorite of all times. It’s a local chain and the reason why I’d never want to leave this area. I think I’d die if I went too far away from one. My Grandma used to take us there for taquitos when we were little.

2. SGC Japanese Restaurant - My favorite place for sushi. Mmmmmm!!

3. Cheesecake Factory - Kinda cheating since I only go here for the cheesecake. But I think it’s forgivable once you’ve eaten Chocolate Tuxedo Cream Cheesecake!

4. La Cabana - Another local restaurant and another place my Grandma used to take us when we were little. Huge portions that we’d always have leftovers from and not a good place to wear white pants to! Enchalada sauce + white pants = BAD!

5. Anchos - I’ll be a good little Gunnell and put this on my list. They have a Santa Fe Chicken Salad that I could dream about. Each of Don’s brothers worked there at one time, and this is the only thing I’d order from there - it’s *that* good. Plus, it’s such a big serving that you have lunch for the next day!

6. Panera - I know some of you will know this place! All I can say is “YUM!”

7. PF Changs - I don’t get to eat here very often, but I love it when I do! I love the lettuce wraps!

8. Gerard’s - Another local restaurant. This one has yummy French cuisine! It did change ownership, and the atmosphere isn’t at all as charming as it used to be, but it was a tradition for Don and I to go there on our anniversary.

8 Things that Happened Yesterday:

1. Finished the pirate apron.

2. Took the boys to the dentist and Owen sat in the chair ALL BY HIMSELF!! So happy about this one!

3. Made yummy chicken croissant sandwiches for dinner! Super simple: croissant, chicken lunch meat, tomato, avacado, sprouts, and your favorite condiments. I like Miracle Whip and mustard!

4. Got my Death Knight out into the “real world”.

5. Did homework with the boys, which included decorating a turkey for Owen.

6. Did the dishes.

7. Talked to my brother on the phone - he has a new dalmatian puppy that I’ll post of picture of tomorrow!

8. Watched Friends and laughed.

8 Things I’m Looking Forward To:

1. Getting the house organization completed. Still have lots of stamping stuff to sell or toss.

2. Our puppy! We put a deposit down for the next littler of Nordic Spitzes!

3. Thanksgiving weekend! Should have some cool photos to share after that one! Not telling what I’m doing!

4. Taking our family picture. Hopefully we can get it done this Saturday. I want to get some new photos up in the house!

5. Twilight - going to the midnight showing with my Mom and brother (Sorry, Levi) on Thursday!

6. Harry Potter 6.

7. Decorating for Christmas. I love to decorate the house for Christmas! It’s like dressing it up for a formal occasion!

8. Reading! I want to start Brisinger, and after that I’ll try reading Pride and Prejudice again. I keep falling asleep! Sorry, Pro! Don’t know why I keep snoozing when I love the movies so much!

8 Things on my Wish List:

1. Long hair. I’m growing out my hair. I want it to go past my shoulders. I can see the progress when I straighten it, but when I let it go curly I feel like it isn’t progressing.

2. Play the guitar. I took guitar lessons years and years ago and forgot everything! B recently gave me his guitar tuner since mine doesn’t work anymore, so I need to stop being a baby about it and pick up my guitar and book again! At least the guitar is in the house where it’s safe and not in the garage anymore. I want to play Blackbird - that’s my first goal!

3. Travel! There are many places Don and I want to travel to. I look forward to those times.

4. Ott lamp. Mine died!

5. New shoes, mine are in pretty bad condition.

6. A baker’s kitchen. Oh, I have a dream kitchen …

7. A robot that folds laundry, or my Brother-in-Law David can just do it for me. He likes laundry. Mwahahahahaha!

8. Star Trek technology so I can beam all over the country to visit family and friends!

8 People I’m Tagging:

Err, I’m not good at tagging! But if you decide to play along, be sure to leave me a link in the comments section!

Okay, having way too much fun with the aprons! Just finished this one, I’m thinking I may have to keep this one for myself! hehe!!

I also need to figure out a way to show them off better in a photo. If only dress forms didn’t cost so much!

Finished another apron this weekend using the same pattern as the cowboy one below. I wanted to see what a holiday one would look like and loved the combo of these two fabrics together. I’m really happy with how this turned out, I think it’s such a fun hostess apron for the holidays! I am happier with how the pockets are attached and even went back to fix the ones on the cowboy apron. It was also much faster to put together the second time around, taking me only a long evening Saturday night.

For those of you who sew and might be wondering what the pattern is, I’m using Butterick 6567 Apron D.

There are some other cute hostess aprons that I’ll be trying from that pattern once I’m done with the next two. Well, maybe … I really like this pattern!