Day 364, 2010

Bad Daisy!!!   Guess I am buying a new remote control during lunch today!  Daisy decided it looked like a tasty breakfast this morning.....

Day 363, 2010

I downloaded Photoshop Elements 9 today.  I learned Photoshop on Elements 6, then I went to 8 and then I downloaded the full Photoshop CS5 and got rid of Elements.  I am keeping both versions, but  I am thinking I may do some videos next year on my other blog teaching a few things on Photoshop Elements... more people have Elements and even if they have the full blown version, it's very similar ... we'll see how it goes.  I haven't definitely made up my mind yet.  I absolutely HATE my voice and don't know if I could handle hearing myself!  It would totally just be screen recorded and my voice...

Day 362, 2010

Part two:
As we wrap up this year, I'm hearing so many "best of"... best songs of the year.... best movies of the year, best advice of the year.... well here's my best of POTD... :)

Wedding Dress Shopping with Ashlea

Senior Day at the Baseball Diamond

Alex Graduates High School!!

All my 365 Friends!

This oh so cute photo of Daisy

My Girls Weekend 2010

Time with Ashlea

My family all together for Christmas in our matching PJs!

Day 361, 2010

As we wrap up this year, I'm hearing so many "best of"... best songs of the year.... best movies of the year, best advice of the year.... well here's my best of POTD... :) To be continued tomorrow.....

Alex coming home for my Birthday!

The Day we Brought Daisy Home

Day 360, 2010

Doug's niece is having a baby and is due April 1.  She is a teacher in New York and is in town for the holidays so her baby shower is today.  I made this card for her... see ya after the shower

Day 359, 2010

Merry Christmas from Our Family to Yours! Have a blessed holiday.

Day 358, 2010

Merry Christmas Eve!   Tonight Ashlea and Richie had an Ugly Sweater Contest to attend at Richie's house.  Guess what...?  They Won!!!!  They stopped over beforehand and I helped accessorize them!  LOL

Day 357, 2010

Working on my new background for my other blog... wanted something wintery for after the holidays

Day 356, 2010

It was gift day at the office.  Look at my haul!  LOL  See those two blue boxes.. Tiffany's! :)  There are two champagne glasses in each.. isn't that fun?  Of course I won't ever let anyone use them.. ha ha   Anyway.. thought I'd share the fun gifts from my co-workers.   Did you notice the gift card to Michaels... guess I'll go shopping now! :)

Day 355, 2010

 Yay, the 365 charms are in the house! :)    Some of the 365 girls all did a charm swap, myself included.  Today the charms arrived and I couldn't wait to put them on my bracelet and show them off.  How fun!  I have to say, my charms pailed in comparison... sorry girls.. a jewelry maker I am not.  But it was so fun to participate and now I have this wonderful momento of our 365 year.

And to make the day even better, another bestie...Barb.. you may know her as Snowmanlover sent me this fun gift... socks and a Chick-fil-a gift card!  Everytime I talk to her I'm in the drive thru at Chick-fil-A... LOL   Anyway.. what a fun gift and what made it even funnier, was today on Facebook my post was "I LOVE SOCKS... SHOW ME YOUR SOCKS"... Barb didn't even know this.. then I come home and there's socks in her package!  LOL

Day 354, 2010

My cookie jars!   When Doug and I first met, either Ashlea or I literally made cookies at least every other day.  Doug bought me the bear cookie jar.  We lived in a log cabin at the time and it went with the motif, plus he loves bears.  A couple years ago my co-worker got me the snowman cookie jar for Christmas... he only comes out in the winter.  Right now, they are full of yummy goodness

I know I post a lot of dog photos... but I wanted to show you how Katie thinks she is a human.  She is sitting on her tush in the chair watching TV... this is nothing new... she's such a character and she is sooo happy her bubba is home.

Day 353, 2010

Today, Ashlea and I baked monster cookies, then chocolate chip cookies... both new recipes and thank goodness, they turned out yuuummy!  After baking was done she helped me wrap presents... we are all ready for Santa!  I'm in bed as I post this, but will add recipes later.  The monster cookies have Peanutbutter, oatmeal, choc chips, M&Ms... very good.  The choc. chip cookies have vanilla pudding in them... can you say soft and chewy... Oh my!  I must tell you.. Daisy had a few she snuck off the cooling rack when we turned our backs.. she's sleeping off the sugar buzz now! :)

Day 352, 2010

Today Ashlea and I went shopping. I had not done hardly any shopping yet.. and let me tell you.. .don't wait till the weekend before Christmas to venture out.. Oy Vey! I thought I was going to freak out a few times.. so many people, so much traffic.. ugh! But we went, we saw and we conquered! Then we came home and made scrabble (party/chex mix) and watched Home Alone 2 and 3 to keep up the holiday spirit.

Yesterday, while I was in Bloomington, yet another Christmas gift was delivered. This time by another bestie.. Lori. She had dropped off a package of goodies. Look at this cute idea. She used pictures from our Girls Night Out Weekend (GNO) and put them into these awesome glass coasters. How fun is that?!?!? She also made some peppermint bark and left a bag of scrapbook goodies. Thanks Lori...!

Day 351, 2010

Today I took the day off and Doug and went to Bloomington to pick up Alex and his roommate and bring them back to South Bend for the Winter Break.  Let me tell you... two boys bring a lot of stuff home.  I have an SUV and the back of it was completely full top to bottom... this is just Alex's laundry he brought with him.  I started it as soon as we got home and there's still a load in the dryer.... and just for the record.. this is an ex-large laundry basket!  LOL   I don't care.. I'm just so happy he's home... it was  a long drive.  4 hours down and about 4.5 back, we had on and off snow and traffic was terrible on the way home.

Day 350, 2010

Since we now have all that extra room, I thought it was time to put the new dishes we got for ourselves for Christmas!  LOL  Isn't that why we clean out space...?  Seriously, I love dishes, plates, etc.  I have wanted a new fun square set... so we bought the square set and the matching round set (top two shelves above).  they are by Bobby Flay.. a very rustic and eclectic set.. just like us! :)

Day 349, 2010

I swear if Doug was a woman I would think he was preggers and nesting! LOL He's been going through the kitchen cupboards and cleaning and purging. We love to cook and have collected a lot of gadgets and "stuff" throughout the years.. amazing how those things add up. He decided it's time to get rid of it. This is what he's decided we never use and/or can live without. It's nice that we have so much room now. He hasn't even done the pots and pan closet yet.. yikes!

Day 348, 2010

I got a surprise today.... Robyn of my besties in Florida sent me a Christmas gift.. and our rule "Open Upon Receipt" :) Look at this fun stuff. She cross stitches and hand stitched the stocking, the other ornament says "Girls Survival Kit".. LOL Wine and Chocolates... perfect! And look at the personalized tape runner... She rocked the fun gifts this year!

Day 347, 2010

I made this candybar tree tonight for Richie's family for Christmas.. isn't it cute!!!!

Day 346, 2010

Spent the day with Ashlea... we had a good time trying to get the dogs to pose in their Santa suits! :)

Expression + Photoshop = Cricut Imagine??

I've been toying with the idea of the Cricut Imagine... do I want it... would I use it? What do I like about it? Well to be quite honest, I rarely use my Expression and what I guess attracts me to the Imagine is the cute images I keep seeing on the infomercials.... so I sat down for about 10 minutes tonight to see if I could recreate something similar... here's what I came up with. The top image is my version of the Cricut Imagine image from the Imagine More Cartridge (bottom picture).

So, I guess, for now... I will just stick with my Expression and Photoshop. Sure I'd have to cut out the images by hand, but that's not all that hard and no, mine isn't exactly the same.. but I only spent about ten minutes.. I could've make it much more duplicate had I taken a little time... and on the plus size.. I can recolor all my layers without losing the detail, which appears to be an issue with the Imagine.

Day 344, 2010

I actually took a lot of pictures tonight.  Doug and I just put Christmas Music on and chilled all evening.  This is my favorite picture of the evening... I know.. enough of the dogs.. but they are truly like my children....

Day 343, 2010

Tonight I decided to post a picture I took of the reflection of our tree in the window...  I was going to take a picture of the gift I got my one of my besties.. but sometimes I think she reads this blog.... (Robyn, shame on you if you are still reading.. it's in the mail!)

Day 342, 2010

These are actually pictures of my Christmas Tree using the same technique of Bokeh with just a little bit different effect... isn't this wild.  I took these this morning.  If you'd like to try it... I found the directions here...You've heard me mention their website before... KevinandAmanda. 

Day 341, 2010

Alex's car.. waiting patiently for him to return....

OK... so I said it before... Still SNOWING!!!!  This is the road that was under construction all summer....

Day 340, 2010

No matter how old they get, they still want to lick the bowl and beaters!

Ashlea loves peanutbutter batter

Our peanutbutter balls for buckeys

Ashlea's favorite Oreo Balls before dunking in chocolate

Yesterday I posted my POTD before Ashlea came over.  We made Buckeyes and Oreo Balls... they were yummy... we had a great time.

By the way....

Still Snowing!!!