Houston we have a problem…
Had a very frustrating weekend. Don’t you hate it when everything you either touch or involves you ends up being a total disaster?! Let me vent my woes to you if you will…need a shoulder to mope on for a moment, please.
It all started when a milkshake plopped into my lap on Friday night after I left the drive-thru. Not pretty. Those little lids are invaluable when put on correctly. Not very useful if they don’t push them down all the way. Grrr! If I could have inflicted bodily harm on the Chick-fil-a drive-thru guy without getting in trouble I just might have done it. I went back through the drive-thru to show them what had happened. His reaction was “Oh. Sorry. Do you want some napkins?” — My inner-voice said “No, I just wanted to sit here in Oreo milkshake and chat with you while it melts. But thanks for asking.” I just said “Yes, please” and tried not to growl as I fake-smiled. Then he says “Exploding milkshakes was an experiment for my Science project and you were a part of my experiment.” –Yeah. That’s really funny. Now I’m going to punch you. 
Then I had a computer crash. Double grrr! I think it was a conspiracy brought on by my old desktop computer - it had just been put into the spare bedroom and was soon to be disassembled or sold. I think it was offended by being ‘put out to pasture’ so it showed me a thing or two. My response to it was “Well played. (Humbly) I need you for the next week. Are you available?” It smugly said “I don’t know - I was thinking of taking some time off in the spare bedroom. I’ll get back with you.” Fortunately it cleared its schedule and the desktop and I are reunited. It’s still bitter and being difficult - like dropping Internet connection frequently. But I can’t complain. Don’t have anything else so I’m at its mercy. Sigh. Being humbled is not fun. Anyhoo, I was able to get some data off the laptop before it completely crashed, but didn’t get things like my Outlook calendar and contacts. 
Very sad. So if I miss an appointment with you I’m very sorry, as I am completely dependent on my calendar to tell me what to do. I’m just lost wondering about in my appointment-less world until my very smart husband does his trickery on it. (Crossing fingers!!)
Then I tried to recover from the bad computer experience by pouring myself a glass of wine (that’s when Josh knew I was close to going over the edge) and popped in a movie. The first movie we couldn’t bare to watch after the first 15 minutes — that’s pretty bad. We’ve only done this with two other movies. It was The Good German with George Clooney. Very surprised that it was as bad as it was. If it were a satire then it would have made more sense. In this case it was just bad dialog and bad acting. Thumbs down as they would say. So we popped in the next movie — No Country For Old Men. Ummm…yeah…I’d like to talk to the Academy and ask them why in the world they gave this movie so many awards! Geesh! It was terrible!! It was supposed to be a rough, tough, serious movie. Josh and I were either looking away because it was so unbelievably, over-the-top violent or we were laughing and making fun of the scenes because of the bad acting. Maybe it was the wine loosening me up by that point, but I couldn’t take it seriously after it went over the edge. And the ending is absolutely, ridiculously, unbelievably BAD! Thumbs down again. So the movie thing didn’t work out. Huh. What to do next? Oh, I know. Go to bed!
Sunday went a little better. I was relatively productive as far as sewing goes. And then I watched my beloved The Tudors. Oh how I love that show!!! Good, good, good every time!! Two big thumbs up!! Also watched the finale of Rock of Love 2. Good ending on that one too. I won’t ruin it if you haven’t watched it yet.
Made this purse. I think this is what started all my frustrations. I hadn’t made this purse since I took the class and I discovered they made the pattern pieces wrong. I almost went running and screaming down the streets when I thought I had wasted most of my green, dotty fabric — fabric I can’t get anymore. Alas I found a way to work around it and finished it. This was a special order for a friend so I’m happy to give it to her soon. I like it quite a bit! What do you think?
Today I made another one just like it for another friend and made some final tweaks to the pattern.
I better wrap this up – I told Josh I was going to start cooking over an hour ago. I will end this post with the following video links. Both made me smile and laugh quite a bit! Enjoy!
Obie Kanobie – I’ve watched this about 6 times and each time I totally crack up and hear something new. Too cute and funny!!
Floccinaucinihilipilification
Since I haven’t written a new post in…oh…two months (shame)…I thought I would kick this off with an intriguing bit of useless knowledge for you. The word of the day is floccinaucinihilipilification. It’s a word. I swear! You don’t believe me? Go look it up on www.dictionary.com (tip: copy and paste the word into the site - don’t try to spell it on your own - unless you are a genius or something)…well, go ahead…I know you don’t believe me….I’ll wait here until you return…it’s 5am and raining so I’m not going anywhere soon. Are you returning with a look of shock on your face? See I told you! And did you see that it’s the longest word in the dictionary? You’re impressed aren’t you? Yeah, I thought so.
I understand why you didn’t trust me - I broke a promise to you that I would update this on regular basis and then I left you hanging for two months. I’m sorry I have been m.i.a. I do have many reasons/excuses of why I haven’t written. Please hear me out. Let’s start from the beginning: My last post was on Feb 13th. That was very near the time-frame that I was leaving on a secret trip to Wisconsin to throw my Dad a surprise 60th birthday party. I couldn’t tell you about it because my Dad reads this every once in awhile. And I knew if I said anything about going out of town that he would call and ask about it. So you see I simply could not write you! What’s that? You say you want proof? Still don’t believe me huh? Okay, here’s proof:
There now, do you believe me? Are we friends again? Okay good. 
Why are we wearing those crazy clothes? What do you mean by that?! Don’t you wear a tie-dye shirt or an American flag shirt to birthday parties? Oh. That’s not normal? Huh. (It was a sixties/hippie theme party) ;-) I had a GREAT time and really enjoyed visiting family and friends. And I really, REALLY enjoyed seeing all the snow! Wisconsin had record breaking snow fall this winter so it was awesome! But I have to admit it was nice to return to warmer weather. I was getting close to being sick of snow by the time I left. Close - but not quite. So I’ll still be excited to see snow again…but not until next winter!
I kinda giggled when I review the last post - so much has happened since then. Definitely not snowing here anymore. Yesterday it was 79 degrees and all spring flowers have bloomed.
Shortly after I returned I was preparing to go to Mississippi with a couple of gals to visit a friend and be in an open-house sales party. I wanted to make a lot of jewelry with spring colors before I left so I put my blinders on and just focused on that. Had a really great time despite low attendance at the open-house. That was my first visit to Mississippi and I really enjoyed it! On the way my good friend Sharonda took me to Tuscaloosa, AL to see the University. Very, very pretty campus! I was quite impressed! Here we are …kinda funny picture…we are posing kinda funny because we wanted to have a nice shot of our heads with the Alabama “A” over our heads…Charlotte took the picture and focused on our bodies..oh well.
My next big, fun adventure was working on the dreaded TAXES. Ugh! DOUBLE UGH! I hate doing that stuff. Fortunately my very good friend Angela helped me with inventory by entering my purchasing receipts into a spreadsheet. She is a saint. No, seriously. Amazing how much she helped me! Thank you Saint Angela!
What else? Oh!…
My very amazing friend Daryl Woods has been helping me with life/work balancing skills…oh yeah, I majorly need that! He is a Life Coach and owns his own company called Fearlessly Me. Daryl is amazing! I’ve met with him only twice so far and I already learned so much about myself, how to balance my schedule and work toward my goals. I HIGHLY recommend him and his coaching skills. Check him out! www.fearlesslyme.com
There, I think I have you all caught up now. This week I’ve been working on switching out computer systems, plans for hosting an open-house in the near future, sprucing up the back yard, and sewing. I hope you enjoyed the update to the site. I will try to be better about updating you more frequently and not repeat Floccinaucinihilipilification on this site.
Sending much love!
P.S. I’m sure you are wondering how I am familiar with the word Floccinaucinihilipilification. Don’t be impressed. I’m not a genius. And I’m certainly no word savant (I hate Scrabble! But I’ll play Uno anytime!). I just saw it on this very funny website - under the “Help - I am dumb” section. Very amusing site for me to peruse at 5am - couldn’t sleep due to the storms….and I was thirsty…and I was hungry. So I grabbed some milk, chocolate chip banana bread, and started clicking away. I recommend you check it out the next time you need a little amusement. Maybe right now… ??
Cool beans!
My theme of the day is “Cool beans!” Why? Well for two reasons. First because it’s SNOWING! And not just a little - alot! We have a very pretty dusting of snow and of course I had to take a ton of pictures to capture it. This is the view from my studio:
He’s excited to see it too:
View of the backyard from the kitchen window:
The second reason I say the theme of today is Cool Beans is because I’m currently working with this fabric:
You’ll soon see it as a tote in on my website!
Seeing Red
Good morning!
I thought I would share some photos with you from a Go Red lunch my very dear friend Sharonda arranged last Friday. It was to bring awareness to heart disease and to honor my Aunt Susan whom we lost to heart disease three years ago. Click here to learn more about Go Red For Women.
Wishing you a healthy, happy day!
Happy Super, Fat Tuesday!
Wow! What a title for a Tuesday! Not only is it Super…it’s also Fat!! We observed the Super part of the day by going to vote for The Primaries. Then we observed the Fat part of the day by eating pancakes for dinner! Yum! :-)
Unfortunately it’s been a wild evening with horrible storms. Lots of damage west of Nashville from wind and tornados. We were lucky and didn’t have much action from the first round of storms. However it looks like we will have some rough weather in our area with the next wave of storms. I think it will be a late night for me…the next wave won’t be in our area until around 1am. I don’t want to go to bed until I know we are in the clear because we may have to go to our safe place in the house. We don’t have tornado sirens so I just have to stay up and watch the news. :-( Wish us luck! And wish us (and many others) safety!
I hope you had a super, fat, pancakey-buttery-syrupy, and safe Tuesday!
Great time at CMT’s Crossroads event
Can’t believe it’s Friday already! Been a busy week - good stuff going on!
Last time I wrote I told you that we were going to the CMT Crossroads show. I’m happy to report that we did get to see the show! We had a WONDERFUL evening! First we had insanely delicious dinner at Saffire - if you haven’t been here yet then you must put this place on your radar in the near future. Everything we had was superb! We started out with a bottle of Treana Marsanne/Viognier. This was the first time I had this type of white wine and I must say that I really, really enjoyed it! It’s not to sweet and it’s not too dry. Great suggestion Gwen! Then we had the lobster empanadas for an appetizer. Holy smokes that was delicious!!! And then…the grand finale came…creole shrimp and grit cakes. Ahhh…heaven! Here’s a picture of us:
After dinner we waited to be let in for the concert. Adam from radio station 107.5 posted some pictures here. Scroll to picture #4 - you can see *barely* see us standing in this group photo - find the pole in the picture and then look at the person on the left - that’s me (well, half of me) - and then look at the person on the right - that is Gwen. If you continue to look through the pictures you will see the set and the concert. It was a great, GREAT concert! They played a good mix of songs from Sara Evans, Maroon 5 and a couple of cover songs by Edwin McCain, Stevie Nicks, and Prince. I can’t wait to see it on TV! I’ll let you know when its scheduled to air. Good times…
The website should be launched soon! Stay tuned…
Who? Me!?!
Yesterday me and two of my friends found out that we were chosen to be a member of the audience for CMT’s Crossroads show featuring Sara Evans and Maroon 5. Very cool considering it’s a) live to tape (so you may see me on tv one day!), b) it’s a small venue so I’m guessing that any seat will have a good view, and c) it’s FREE! Can’t beat that! I’ll let you know when the show is scheduled to air. Needless to say I am very excited!! While we are on the topic, be sure to check out the Crossroads show featuring Robert Palmer and Alison Krauss on Feb. 11th. Their newest album Raising Sand is very good!
Another “Who? Me!?!” moment: I’m going to be an aunt for the first time!! We just found out that Josh’s sister is 6 weeks pregnant. Wow! This has been an exciting week!
Cooking is not my strong suite
Last night I stepped outside of my normal cooking realm and made stuffed cornish hens. Considering my typical cooking routine this is *wild and crazy*! Before I cooked them I called my Dad, who is a wonderful cook, and verified the cooking instructions. Seemed pretty straight forward. After all, I have made stuffed turkeys for Thanksgiving so this should be a snap! Make the stuffing. Check! Wash the hens. Check! Dry the hens with paper towel. Check! I have to admit that I felt weird while performing this step. I know this sounds gross but I felt like I was giving little hens a bath before bedtime…like maybe the next step should be put them in pjs and put them to bed! (Crazy! I know!) The fact that I was about to cook them and eat them messed with my head a bit. So the only way I could get over this guilt is by talking to the hens. That’s seems logical, right? I thanked them for their life and handled them tenderly. That’s not crazy, is it? Now that the guilt was lessened it’s time to move on. Salt and pepper the hens both inside and out. Check! Now it was time to stuff the hens - but before I did that step I decided to get really *crazy* and add some rice to the stuffing thinking it would absorb the excess moisture and keep the stuffing from getting soggy. I was quite proud of myself for thinking of that…I was really *cooking* now! We are really going to enjoy this special treat tonight! So about 6:30 we sat down to eat. Imagine the next scene. Both of us put a fork-full of stuffing into out mouths and begin to chew….and this is what we heard…CRUNCH…CRUNCH…CRUNCH. Okay…get out the Notes to Self book…write down “Do not add dry rice to stuffing. While it seems like a good idea, it is not.” Oh well. Fortunately the meat was very good so that made up for the bad stuffing. Do I get an A for effort?
The website is coming along very nicely! Here’s another little peak!
Good times
Last night we helped Lindsay successfully pull off a birthday surprise for her boyfriend Taylor. He thought we were going to see a band downtown…little did he know that we were actually going to a Nashville Predators hockey game!
Hockey tickets - $62, concession stand hamburger - $6.50, the look on Taylor’s face when he figured out where we were going - PRICELESS! Good times…
Happy birthday, Taylor!
Cold night, warm heart
YIPPIEEEEEEE!!! IT’S SNOWING!! I love, love, love snow! I’m as giddy as a little school girl right now! 
I’ve opened the drapes so I can look out the window and smile at the snow while I write this. ((BIG CHEESY GRIN)) I know…silly, right? Well I have to explain myself a bit. About 10 years ago I lived in Wisconsin which, as you can imagine, got a lot of snow every winter. I moved to the South after high school and have been here ever since. So very rarely do I get to see snow and strangely I miss it quite a bit. It’s strange because when I lived in Wisconsin I hated snow! Go figure. So I’m feeling a bit nostalgic tonight.
How does the saying go? When life gives you ripe bananas, make banana bread? That’s not it? Am I close? Oh well. Tonight I was in a baking mood so I made banana bread. Wait. Not just banana bread. Chocolate chip banana bread. Yummmmm….
Wishing you a wonderful, warm night!