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Christmas Creations and Other Gifts

December 29, 2010 by

So I’m a day late and a dollar short when it comes to holiday updates, but you’ll take what you can get, right?

Christmas was pretty decent. I traveled this year, which is the first time I broke my no-travel-at-Christmas rule because usually, it’s such a hassle to bring all the stuff one normally travels with, with the addition of a ton of presents. Mister and I went to visit his parents, which was nice because we were with family instead of just us.

Mister went up on the Monday before Christmas, because his mother’s birthday was the 21st and he wanted to be there for that. He brought Greta, because I thought she was a bit too big to be a carry on doggie (she’s 12 inches at the back when she’s standing up, and airplane seats only have about 8 inches of clearance). Also, I figured that since Greta didn’t really like Mister very much it would give them a chance to bond, which worked out great. She goes to him when he calls now and doesn’t avoid him like the plague. I had 3 days of alone time – actually, 3 nights since I had to work during the day. I spent the time missing my husband and dog, cleaning the stove like a maniac, watching tv and installing my new theme. Not much sleep was had, though.

I flew up to Mister on the Thursday before Christmas, and we spent some time driving around San Francisco before meeting some friends for lunch. Greta was thrilled to bits to see me – it was the best thing that ever happened to her – just like every single day when I come home from work. In her excitement, she covered me in fur, so I was smart and packed a lint roller to try to get it off so I could look presentable. We took Greta to the beach. Mister rested in the truck while I walked her over the dunes to the ocean. Greta was very curious about the different smells, having to sniff every grain of sand, but when we crested the last dune to get to the water, the surf was so much louder and Greta was having none of it. I guess that’s better than having a salty, wet dog who goes swimming in rip tides.

After our beach excursion, Mister and I met our friends at the famed Cliff House, where we were lucky enough to actually see the ocean from our ocean-view table. I had my first taste of dungeness crab in their delicious crab cakes. I later had more crab at my in-laws house. It was awesome – a west coast version of Maine lobster. It was that good.

So, on to the loot. Since Mister and I were traveling for Christmas, we thought it would be silly to haul all our stuff up there only to bring it back, so we opened presents at home the Sunday before. Here’s what we got each other:

Me: a heated shiatsu massage pillow, 3 books on jewelry making, new jewelry tools, a metric ass ton of Swarovski crystal beads, and, um, I forgot what else because I was blinded by all the Swarovski.
Mister: a Blu-ray player, the Underworld trilogy on Blu-ray, Deck the Halls DVD, Get Smart DVD, a Peterbilt book, a Peterbilt model kit, and a metric as ton of stocking stuffers because his stocking is huge.

From the family: Some Longaberger loot from my mom, a digital photo frame, a nice wool jacket, the requisite toys, and of course cash.

After Mister and I got home from his parents, we ventured out on my last day off before going back to work to spend some of our Christmas money. I took Mister to the bead shop so he could help me pick out some more beads, and boy did he ever! Then we went to the hobby shop so he could get paint for his models, and he also picked up two more models – another Peterbilt and a Freighliner cab-over (yes, I’m married to a trucker. Why do you ask?)

Speaking of all this beading and jewelry stuff, I gave out earrings as gifts this year:

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Clockwise, from top left: aqua crackle glass and clear crystals for my stepmother, pink foil lined and clear seed beads for Mister’s aunt, greige foil lined and cream pearl clusters for my mom, and pink Swarovski crystals for my sister.

Everyone loved their earrings (not sure about my sister – I haven’t heard from her yet), and they were all thrilled that I made them. My mom’s were inspired by this necklace that she liked, and she’s been wearing the earrings every chance she gets.

Some of them didn’t come out as well as I wanted, but then again, these were the first ones I made. I made my sister’s first, then started on my mom’s. I had one of my mom’s done when I decided to watch an online video of some techniques, so I learned how to properly make a simple loop when I was halfway through that project. Now that I know, it’s full steam ahead!

So how was your Christmas? Did Santa bring you everything you wanted?

Filed Under: Crafty, Holidays

New Look!

December 22, 2010 by

I spent some time on this the other night, and I have my new theme active! For those using a feed reader, click through to see.

It still has some work to do, some fine-tuning to get it exactly the way I like, but overall I like it. It’s the StudioPress Pixel Happy theme. It was the closest thing I could find to what I wanted, and was close to perfect right out of the box. As I said, it still needs some minor tweaks, but we’ll get there. Though the basics of CSS and HTML don’t change, every theme is different when it comes to how it’s written. I got very comfortable with my old theme, and now I have to learn this stuff all over again – or so it seems. It will get done as time and motivation allow.

I’d really like a new header image, perhaps something with a proper logo, but the old one is as good as it gets for now. It helps give the blog some continuity through all the changes. I do really like the default turquoise color, and while I didn’t like them when I first started seeing them, I really like that I have a bottom bar. This will allow me to keep my sidebars a bit cleaner. I even have social media icons, because, like, everyone has them, and threaded comments.

There’s also the work I mentioned earlier when I first talked about freshening up around here. My blogroll and categories are tops on my list of things that need a major overhaul. Those are both the kind of time consuming tasks that I need to start at 8am and work until midnight, otherwise I lose momentum and it’s not the kind of job you want to leave half-finished.

Anyway, I hope you like the new theme. If you notice anything weird with it, please let me know and I’ll try to figure it out.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

The Stockings Were Hung…

December 20, 2010 by

When I first met Mister, he wasn’t all that enthused about Christmas. Having been alone, I can see how it’s easy for that to happen. But now that I had someone in my life to really share Christmas with, I was going full force. We got a tree and decorated it all up, and I even made Mister a stocking since he didn’t have one. It’s his style – black velvet with a red velvet ribbon loop to hang from. Nothing fancy, and if you look at the stitching you’d wonder how it stays together. I wonder the same thing myself. I didn’t have access to a sewing machine, so I did it all by hand, and let me tell you – I kinda suck at sewing. But he loves it, because it is his style, and because it’s huge. He said he would have loved a stocking like that when he was a kid, because it never ends.

My stocking is one I’ve had ever since I can remember. My great aunt Genevieve made it. It’s blue velvet, white netting, white faux fur, and angels cut out from cards. Tiny stitches in the netting around the angels hold them in place. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the most beautiful stocking ever. Observe:

My Stocking


My Stocking - Detail

It’s got to be nearly 35 years old now, and in all this time, it only has one tiny tear in the netting, as seen in the first photo. That’s where it gets folded when it’s put away for the season, so it’s probably from the stress point that it tore there. About 10 years ago, I carefully took off the fur trim and loop to wash and sewed them back on, with my Gram’s patient guidance.

I never understood how people could be so in love with their stockings when they had the basic red and white variety and their names written in glitter glue at the top. (Sorry if that’s your stocking – but I just don’t get it!) I’d rather have an original, or at least something made just for me with love.

My sister used to have one very similar, except hers had kittens on it, but after a difficult time in her life a few years ago, she no longer has it. My dad’s stocking is made from an old pair of jeans – plain denim, with the thick seam used as a loop. The top is unfinished, like a pair of cutoffs. And I mentioned Mister’s black stocking that I made for him.

What is your stocking like? Do you have an original one or something store bought? What are your stocking traditions like? Leave a comment and tell me!

Filed Under: Holidays

Improvements

December 12, 2010 by

Ok, so you don’t notice anything on your end, but I swear, there have been major changes here at the old blog.

For starters, I now have a new blog host. I decided to switch to GreenGeeks for a number of reasons. One, their prices rock. They guarantee 99.9% uptime and they are based in North America. Also? They transferred all my files, so I didn’t have to do the hard part. All I had to do, once they were done, was swap the DNS servers on my domain.

Also, since I am now at a new host, I upgraded to the latest version of WordPress. This means that I was also able to update all my plugins. My previous host (a private host) insisted on doing all upgrades themselves, and as a result, didn’t. Now I can do all that myself. I can also install the plugins I want (another thing discouraged by my previous host) and get rid of the ones I don’t. And the biggest thing, since I am now in total control, I can get a new theme! You don’t see it yet, I still have a lot of work to do on it, but it’s installed. The one I wanted required a later version of WordPress than I had, so all I could do in the past was visit the demo and stare lovingly at it. I’m not going to tell you what it is just yet, because I want you to be surprised. I may have to put my blog in maintenance mode while I get it all figured out, so I’ll try to work on that when I have more time, most likely over the New Year’s holiday.

So with all the back-end changes going on, I also plan on making a few other changes to my blog. I’ve already started a bit, but I have way more work to do on it. I am in the process of refining and consolidating my categories, to make them fit the theme of ME a bit more. I also have a few more tweaks to make, and they will get done as I have time to do them.

Please bear with me as I work through all this. My new theme is set up way different from the old one, and I need to read the forums and figure out how to make it do what I want, so it’s going to take me awhile. Posting will be slim here (the holidays don’t help much with that, either) but I promise, it will all be worth it in the end.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Freshen Up

December 8, 2010 by

You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t posted much lately.

Don’t you hate it when people start posts like that? So do I. But there’s a good reason for it.

I’m going to do a bit of freshening up around here at the old blog. Most of it is behind the scenes, but when all is said and done, you will see a nice, shiney new theme. I’ve had the current one for almost 3 years, and it’s high time I got something newer and fresher. Also on my list (it’s been on my list for awhile) is to consolidate and simplify my categories, which I’ve already started, but with nearly 700 posts, it’s a daunting task. Oh, and I’d like to revamp my blogroll. I haven’t done that in a few years either.

That’s basically it. Anyone who’s ever done back end stuff on their blog knows how time consuming it can be. I don’t have a projected completion date for all this, and I will try to post periodically throughout, but I would like to be done all this for the new year.

So please bear with me as I work through this stuff. I’m hoping there won’t be any downtime on the blog, but if there is I hope it’s quick. Also, I’ll be taking breaks to celebrate the holly-daze by watching holiday movies, wrap and ship presents (shopping is done, hooray!) and other stuff that gets done at this time of year.

Oh, and I’m still trying to properly potty train my dog. Anyone who’s ever done that knows that you need to keep one eye on the dog at all times to prevent unwanted elimination, and it’s been hard to concentrate on all the not blogging I’ve been doing.

Yeah.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Filed Under: Uncategorized