just sharing for a minute!

Just coming off of 5 days off... should be rested, but I was sooo busy!

Thanksgiving was here. we had a HUGE dinner and all the kids came over. My husband ended up going to his moms for the day, Her husband has cancer and is not doing well, so Tony went to sit with him so that she could go to his sisters and have some dinner. He is such a good boy sometimes! I feel bad for her. This will be the second husband she has lost. so sad.

Anyways, I managed to stress myself out to the max by getting christmas bins in the house. what a huge job! but its about done now.. I need to do a little tweaking.. but I like doing that part!

We didnt get our tree yet and quite honestly, I dont know where the heck it will go when we do !! That bird takes up the whole area that the tree would normally go it.. and I have a small house! Wondering how not having a tree would go over???

Did a little shopping and some creating over the weekend too! I made this awesome shadow box on sat at buffalo stamps and stuff.

Saturday night I went to my girlfriends house with my daughters and Torry for game night. We always have fun there!

Speaking of daughters.. Bethany is still pregnant. We're hoping that the baby comes this week. fingers crossed and say your prayers girls! she needs to have it before the 5th in order to be covered on my insurance. Her birthday is the 6th and she will get dropped from my insurance at that time! Obama put that new law into effect that they would stay covered until 26 yrs. But it follows the yearly enrollment dates or something like that of the county.. so she will come off and then I can re enroll her to start again on Jan 1st.. FREAKEN STUPID!!!! Oh well, its out of our control and what will be will be. But I am worried about it.

This coming weekend is WHITE CHRISTMAS. Lake plains players is putting it on and my Jennifer has a lead and is playing Betty Hanes. I went tonight and got a peek at everyone because I have to do makeup for the shows. Hope Beth doesnt have her baby at those times!

I'll be sure to post pics from the show.. and LOL.. of the baby when he comes too!

OK.. its almost 12:30 am.. and I have to get up at 5:30.. I really need to go to bed!

so GOOOD NIGHTTT!!!!!

sweet dreams!

Its thanksgiving!!

I love holidays! Though I usually get irritated with my family and try to cancel them before they ever get here. Ive never successfully cancelled one though! I used to tell my kids I was going to cut their birthdays off the calender if they didn't behave.. or Christmas.. Easter or whatever was up next!
I could never really cancel any of those things though, because quite honestly, I live for holidays and birthdays.. I always look forward to them more then anyone else in my family.. (thus the reason that they usually irritate me!) I love to make a big production out of all of them!

so for today,

The kids will all be here along with some of the boyfriends/girlfriends.

I always love having them all here.

Very soon we will be adding one more to our family, when Bethany and Torry have my little grand baby! I'm really getting very excited now as it will only be another week or two.

I actually have a prayer request, please pray that Bethany has her baby next week (or this weekend!) as she will be coming off my insurance on her birthday which is Dec 6. We need to have that baby and be out of the hospital before midnight on the 5Th! Of course more importantly please pray that her labor and delivery will be uneventful and that she will have no problems and little baby Torry will be perfectly healthy and beautiful! Bethany is a high risk pregnancy because of her diabetes. But shes had a pretty good pregnancy, so no need to worry about any bad stuff now!

The insurance is a big deal though. so thank you for your prayers in advance.

Wouldn't it be awesome if she had the baby today!?

and its Big Torry's birthday today!

did I tell you I'm going in with them???

♪♪I'm getting a baby.. I'm getting a baby♪♪

OK.. so whats on your menus for today?

We're having: Turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potato's, butternut squash, cranberry sauce, cranberry relish, corn with asparagus, brussel sprouts with bacon and cranberries, shrimp cocktail, deviled eggs, olives pickles etc, rolls and pies; apple, pumpkin, pumpkin/pecan, and sweet potato! I don't think I forgot anything..

I just found this recipe for cranberry relish.. and made it last night.. it is sooooo good! too late for you to make for today, but I'm sharing the recipe anyways.. you will want to try it! and its healthy and low fat.. Low points too!

The recipe comes from HUNGRY GIRL

Ingredients:

One 12-oz. bag whole cranberries

One 11-oz. can mandarin orange segments in their own juice

1 cup peeled and finely chopped apples

1 envelope (1/4 oz.) dry unflavored gelatin

2/3 cup Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (granulated)

1/4 cup Almond Accents in Original Oven Roasted

1/4 cup granulated white sugar

1/8 tsp. cinnamon

Directions: In a medium pot, combine cranberries, Splenda, and sugar with 1 3/4 cups water. Set stove to medium heat, cover pot, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer and continue to cook for 10 minutes, uncovering to stir occasionally.

Meanwhile, in a small dish, combine gelatin with 1/4 cup cold water, stir well and set aside.

Turn off heat and stir in gelatin mixture, stirring until dissolved and thoroughly combined. Stir in cinnamon and apples and mix well. Transfer mixture to a bowl, and refrigerate for at least 5 hours (overnight is best).

Once chilled and set, remove mixture from the fridge and give it a good stir. Drain juice from the can of orange segments. Roughly chop orange segments and drain any excess liquid from them. Slightly crush almonds so that they break into smaller pieces. Add chopped orange segments and almond pieces to the cranberry sauce, and mix thoroughly. Serve with lean turkey, pork, or chicken, or anything else you like cranberries with!

MAKES 12 SERVINGS

(PER SERVING (1/3 cup): 63 calories, 1g fat, 20mg sodium, 13g carbs, 2g fiber, 8.5g sugars, 1g protein -- POINTS® value 1* Dab or pile this stuff on top of your turkey. Or just eat it plain! (There’s so much good fruit in here, we wouldn’t blame you.) P.S. For quick day-of assembly, start this off the day before.)

Have a great day everyone!

Just want you all to know that

I'm very thankful for all my wonderful, kindhearted, creative and inspirational friends in blogland!

♥

cup of christmas joy swap!

Well, I wasnt going too, I had thought about it and thought about it and decided not too.. but then, someone twisted my arm.. and I am weak.... then the more I thought about it, the more fun it sounded!
SO with all that said, let me introduce to you a new swap.
A CUP OF CHRISTMAS JOY
Each participant will receive one partner to prepare a giftie for. YOu should find out from your partner if they are a tea drinker, or coffee drinker.. or maybe a hotchoc drinker and what kind of a cup do they prefer.. mug or teacup? I personally love a pretty teacup and saucer, I think tea tastes so much better in them!
Then, Purchase and fill up a special mug or teacup with neat christmasy stuff! You may purchase what ever you want to put into your package, but you have to create something special to go in your cup as well, maybe a christmas mouse, bear, ornament, snowman.. what ever.. The more I think about doing this the more excited I get! You could also throw in special coffees, or teas.. little cookies and candies, candles, christmas hankies.. charms.. jewelry.. whatever strikes your fancy! It doesnt all have to fit into your cup, you may overflow into your box!
This swap needs to be short and sweet because Christmas is so near and this is a last minute swap!
Sign ups are from now through thanksgiving day. I will email everyone their partner on friday the 26th and I would like everyone to mail out to their partners ONTIME by Dec 10th!
to sign up, email me your name, address and blog address to vivianneroni@yahoo.com
If for some reason people are not feeling up to adding something else to their already busy holidays and I dont get at least 10 people to play, then I will let you know and will cancel this one.. like I said it is a last minute thing. but could be a lot of fun!

OK.. I'll be waiting to hear from yous.
Oh and, please take the button and post to your blog, even if your not doing the swap to help spread the word.
thanks all..
now i'm off to work in santas bear land!

stuff, stuff and a swap

Lets start here..

last night an old friend and two of her daughters came over to learn how to needle felt! Diane and I have known each other for at least 22 or more years.. I know this because she reminded me that she used to hold Robert in the nursery at church when he was a baby! Our girls Lousia and Bethany used to spend a lot of time together and Diane and I have always had a very mutual admiration for each other. I think she is a wonderful person and she thinks the same of me! As the girls grew up and went their separate ways, we also sort of lost touch with each other . But one day, I discovered that Diane had a blog! and now we have gotten "reacquainted " (not sure thats the word I really want to use.. but it works). Dianes blog is Tomato soup Cake. You should stop by to visit her. She is always up to something interesting! So, last night her other daughter AMelia, wanted to learn to needlefelt so they came over to play with needles and roving. I didnt remember to take pictures until they were about out the door, but I did get this one pic! I have to say that Amelia is a girl after my own heart.. LOVEs Kittens as much as I do and Loves tiny things! And LOVEs to create ! It was fun to "play" with them for a while, though I've been thinking all day long about Milen missing dance class and how that went for them on the way home! anyways, do be sure to stop by and visit Diane!

In other news... LOOK AT THIS FREAKEN MOST AWESOME PINECONE FELTED TURKEY !!!!!!!!!! My swappy girl Kelly (from flickr, kelbug) made for me. I am just freaken tickled by him. I carried him in my purse today , because I wanted to be able to take him out and look at him, which I did at least a dozen times. You saw the one I made for her in my last post. Kelly and I have been swapping holidays together for about a year now, and neither of us have had enough yet! She also came up to meet me at my aunts cottage this fall to spend the weekend creating halloweenies (you might remember.) anyways.. thankyou again dear Kelly.. I LOVE mr. turkey!

so much good stuff came in the mail this week! I also received my package of apron tags from Elizabeths swap. talk about a talented bunch of ladies.. I have to say that these pictures I took suck.. these tags are soo amazing and you cant begin to tell just how much in these pictures. Pop over to Elizabeths at creative breathing to see 100% better pictures. thanks to all the ladies who participated.. If I wasnt so dog tired Id post all their names and links to their blogs.. but I just cant do it tonight. but I do have to say that I love everyone of their little apron pockets. Elizabeth is such an inspiration to so many girls... each little apron pocket also comes with a recipe card with something yummy shared on it!

and.. Elizabeth is one of the sweetest dearest girls I know in blogland.. she is generous and oh so kind hearted! She made each of us a little heart. I Adore mine! thank you E!!!! I've got quite a little collection of Elizabeth creations! TREASURES they are!

OK .. lastly.. I havent hosted an open swap in a while, but have recently been asked to host one again. So I got to thinking and have decided to do a christmas teacup swap! I will post all the details tomorrow. I think it'll be a fun swap. I made this button for people to post on their blogs. So check in tomorrow and I will have posted all about it!

Till then.. Ive got to get off the computer.. I'm REALLY tired and I'm thinking about popping in a movie and lying on the couch! (no ones home, or I really wouldnt be doing that!)

she yas later!

nightie night!

for a special swappy pal

One fat Turkey went strutting by

He shook his feathers and winked his eye..

He flapped his wings and

his head gave a wobble

He looked at me and said

"Gobble Gobble Gobble!"

mingling of holidays!

Ive been needlefelting my little heart out!

just finished this little turkey! hes so cute!

And he likes this happy little spot on my craft room for now..

though he really needs to come out into the kitchen where I can keep a better eye on him!

I've been having fun, not doing what I should have been doing.. but needle felting instead!

see the cute little snowman! inspired by nicole bowen on earth angels!

The turkey was inspired by Crystal

(but now since I lost my blog list, I cant tell you her last name or link to her site!!!)

Then theres my little reindeer, I've had reindeer on the brain for a few weeks, there are more to come.. all stuck in my head. waiting to get out!

But first I have to do my ever increasing bear orders.

I will be cuting out 10 bears this afternoon, and I have 5 more after that that I havent recieved the clothes for yet.

I'm hoping that by december all my swaps will be done, the bears will be done, and then I can just create on a whim.. thats what I like to do...

and thats what I did yesterday instead of working on those bear orders!

naughty naughty me! Those bears are certainly not going to make themselves! lol

Hey! Ive just uploaded a bunch of christmas music on my playlist.

If youre ready for christmas music, leave it up and running for a while.

I know some people arent ready for it yet.

I was ready the day after halloween!

Well, obviously I havent even begun to recreate my blog list, luckily I have a lot of sites marked as a follower.. still missing so many more though.. its so disappointing and will be so much work to search them all down and put them back!

so far today, I've been screwing around, really not doing anything very productive and its already noon! Now I have to go to the grocery store, we're running low in all depts here!

Some of the kids are coming over for dinner tonight,

and I'm dying for some chicken...

not sure what I want to do with it yet, I think I need to take a peek in a couple cookbooks before I go!

I

I'll need to keep it low in points and nice and healthy as I'm back in gear.. ready to lose the next 20 pounds!

I must behave.. I must behave I must behave!

nothing tastes as good as thin feels!

eat like a bird.. eat like a bird.. eat like a bird..

eat to live done live to eat!

these are the things I keep telling myself over and over and over!

I will do this!

OKeedokie girlfriends,

toodles for now!

its beginging to look alot like.......

Thanksgiving!

I dont really have much in the line of thanksgiving decorations,

but I guess I wouldnt want to have too much more then I have.

I have so much halloween and christmas and its so much work to get it all out and up, that thanksgiving is like a little transition between the too. and its only really out for about 3 weeks. from about a week after halloween til the day after thanksgiving!

I dont know what possesses us to collect and display all this stuff like we do... I have friends who dont decorate for any holiday other then christmas.. Im decorating all year long!

Lets see.. from about the second week in janurary til valentines day, christmas gets put away and then its all snowmen (the ones that arent too christmasy.) Then I have a bin full of valentine stuff that comes out and mingles with the snowmen. In march Easter comes out! (I have the cutest darn easter stuff!! I get excited just thinking about it!)

So Easter stays out as long as possible, then we do must spring things, nests and birds eggs, topiarys.. etc.. at the end of June summer comes out in all its patriotic and beach day glory! I usually keep all of that out til fall, when Halloween comes out! Early sept. Theres so much cute cute stuff that It needs to come out early so I can enjoy it for a couple months!

Then like I said before, a week after halloween we transition to thanksgiving and then to christmas! Its so overwhelming to get all those christmas bins out!! A lot of work, I love opening every single bin and box for every holiday or season decorating change! Theres always so much cute stuff that I'm happy to see!

I do have some cute thanksgiving pieces too. but its one of my "weaker" holidays.

My family thinks Im nuts! I probably am, but at least I have fun and enjoy myself! and you know what? They would miss it if I didnt get everything out!

So whats on everyones agenda this weekend?

I have major bear orders to work on and some swappy things as well.

In fact, I m feeling pulled in about 20 directions right now!

Also I'll be going to my daughter Bethanys apartment tomorrow to help her clean up and set up for her VERY soon to come baby! ONly about three weeks to go and I'll be a

grammiepie!

Im still sick about deleting my blog list... At some point here I have to try to start adding blogs back there. the problem is that I'm so forgetful and when somethings out of my sight its out of my mind!! (except for food.. thats always on my mind whether I see any or not!!)

so be sure to leave me comments so I can at some point this week add you all to my sidebar!

Okeedokie.. off I go, I have to go work on something..

some tags I think, then in the morning I will start cutting out all the next bears!

sweet dreams!