Designing....

Apparently, when my little sister was young and had dreams, she dreamt of being a famous fashion designer. Now, if you know us, you know that Lesley is 12 years younger than me - so it's not like we huddled together as children telling each other our dreams and aspirations. I mean, when she was 9, I was already killing it at hot spots like Sports Column and Jackson's Hole.

So you may wonder how I know this secret of Lesley's. Well, recently, I came across some of her first works as a young Donna Karan...

This one is nice. It shows school spirit and an eye for hairstyling as well as fashion... Being that it is on lined school paper, I picture Lesley in her obviously boring math classes, doodling away...

Next we come to the swimsuit line. The model in this photo is expressing my own thoughts on the swimsuit. Her "What the H*@!?!?!" posture is correct. I mean, if you're going to be wearing a sailor bathing suit and three scrunchies in your hair, you certainly shouldn't be wearing heels at the same time, right?!?

Now - evening wear. I fear, with this one, that there could have been some inspiration from a certain pink dress that I used to wear. Too bad I can't find a photo. But I promise, I never wore a huge pink bow on the top of my head like I was a puppy just back from the groomer. (This model will be getting lucky later on. All those holes in the dress? Totally asking for it.)

This last one is my favorite. The outfit alone, while a sign of the early 90's, is outstanding. Anytime you pair Salt N Pepa high top sneakers with a high-belted overall jumpsuit, you're batting 1000. Throw that outfit into a pizza parlour, and BLAM!, it's shoop-time!!!

Well done, little sister! I'm proud of you!

Joking...

I recently was listening to the radio in my car and Uptown Girl by Billy Joel came on. Seriously?? Uptown Girl - you know I can't afford to buy her pearls... But maybe someday when my ship comes in. She'll understand what kind of guy I've been. And then I'll win. Terrible, terrible lyrics. And I was laughing to myself at how bad that song really is (Sorry Billy Joel, but it's pretty bad.)

Anyway, being the sarcastic idiot that I am, I texted my sister "Why is Uptown Girl your favorite song?" Eagerly awaiting a funny response, all I got was "It is?" Boo.

Then I got to thinking that I should test that and send the text to 10 more people and see if anyone comes back with a good response....

I got one "It's not." Really? It's not your favorite???!?!

I got two "Huh?"'s Guess they didn't quite get my sarcastic tones coming over the text message.

Then I got a "Hahaha, what?!" OK. At least they understood the humor I was sending out, but didn't volley it back.... (Disappointed in you, Brendan.)

Finally... the brothers both came through with a "It just is." and a "Why would it NOT be?"

And another big FINALLY!! My good friend Tracey responded with "I don't understand the question." (At first, I was thinking she didn't get it.) "Isn't it everybody's?" YAY Tracey!!!

So that was it for the day.

Until the morning.....

Ahhh, Kristen.... Love you! I have to preface by telling you that Kristen's favorite movie is Dirty Dancing. So perhaps I should have expected... "Loved Billy Joel as a kid bc of the singer/songwriter/piano thing, and it's such a feelgood song. Actually like For the Longest Time even more. :)"

So I thought it was over with Tracey winning the best response. Until today when my friend, Bill, who has the worst cell service on the planet and can't get messages unless he's standing on top of his house or something, replied. He made me laugh with...



Sorry, Dave. I went way over my daily text quota for the day!

Reflecting...

My mom saw this video on Facebook and it really struck me - and made me cry. Worth the 10 minutes to watch it and be grateful for the time you get to spend with your loved ones nearby...

Enjoying....

Colorado Rockies Home Opener...

No tickets, no attempt to get tickets, Denver was crazy crowded. Beer and sunshine all around!!!
SWANKY'S...

FROZEN VODKA LEMONADE STASHED IN MY PURSE...

FREE ADMISSION TO PT'S????? HOW CAN WE PASS THAT UP????


ROOFTOP VIEW....
















BRIAN OWNING THE HAT....

SOMEONE ELSE OWNING THE HAT (HELP ME WITH THE NAMES, PEOPLE... I MAY HAVE HAD A LITTLE BIT TO DRINK...)

KAREN OWNING THE HAT...

ME. OWNING THE HAT.

KELLY OWNING THE HAT...

ANOTHER FRIEND OWNING THE HAT....
CHRIS OWNING THE HAT. (KIND OF)

Trying...

I'm trying again! Yes, I know. You've heard it all before. But I'm very tired of being at the bottom of everyone's Updated Blog list! But don't hold me to keeping this up.

I'll try, but I'm a very busy person! ;-)

So, I'm sitting here at home.

Annie is at her theater practice - it's 3 hours tonight and 6 hours tomorrow! It makes me really sad and a bit nervous. I have a knot in my tummy when I drop her off because it seems so long to me for her. But we'll just evaluate this after this play is done and decide if she wants to do it again... Her play is the first two weekend in March - three times each weekend!

Ryan is downstairs with two of our neighborhood kids. One of them is almost 8 and is helping Ryan unlock levels in his Star Wars Wii game. I would help, but I would bet that Ryan is probably better than me at the game!! I'm exchanging babysitting so their parents can have a Valentine's dinner tonight. Then Dave and I will go out next weekend.

Which brings me to Dave - who is gone and has been gone since Super Bowl Sunday! I have survived! He comes home tomorrow and the house is still somewhat in order, I had one child's doctor appointment which included 4 shots (one for me), one 1st grade Valentine party to put on at the school, one day of helping at the preschool, two batches of cookies to make, and lots of Sussies stuff to keep me busy. So I'm pretty pleased that I didn't lose it completely!

I even managed to make a batch of chocolate covered Ritz Bits with peanut butter. I had the chocolate and Ritz Bits and figured I would just do it. I added a Valentine M&M to the top of each. They turned out super cute. Unfortunately (but fortunately for my neighbors) they were too easy to pop into your mouth, I would have devoured the whole lot of them. So we made little plates and tied them up with bows and delivered them to the neighbors!!!

Snowing...

WOO HOO! I just love it when it snows! And, boy, is it snowing today!! There is at least a foot outside - which is just crazy for before Halloween! But it's been fun. Kids still had school - which was also crazy. So I had a few hours at home when I got to work on some more of the Christmas Advent Calendars!! That was fun.

During the day, I took some photos of our Halloween decorations out in the snow. I sent them in to our local Channel 4 TV Station! While I was talking to my mom on the phone around 5:15, she freaked out because my picture and name popped up on the TV! She had tivo'd it - so she rewound and made a video of the mention with her camera. Here it is...

(They did spell my last name wrong and mispronounced my first name, but still...)



And here's the photos that I sent in...





I wonder how long it's going to last!!

Creating...

I did some fun things this weekend! It felt good to be putting some of my creative juices to work. The first thing we did was to make this cute, little pumpkin. Our neighborhood was having our annual Halloween Parade with all the kids in costume and one of the activities was a pumpkin 'carving' contest. We haven't gotten our real pumpkins yet, so we had to make due with a foam one from Michaels. We didn't win the contest (I think the judges were crazy!), but the kids had fun helping me with this... I call it 'Fancy Dallas Pumpkin.'




Then, while I was perusing etsy, I found an adorable muffin tin Christmas advent calendar. I have a little craft show coming up in a few weeks where I will be going with all of my Scrapbook Sussies stuff. Craft shows in the past haven't always been the best for me - mostly because people want to take something with them (and, at past shows, I've only had subscriptions to sell.) This time, I have lots of kits, add-ons, and extras to bring to sell, but I saw this and knew I could make these and they would be a hit!

I plan to make 6 different ones - each with a slightly different color scheme - and sell them for $35 each (Including the adorable little stand that it comes on!). Then, I plan on having an 'add-on' which will include everything you need to fill the 24 cups - hershey kisses, shiny $1.00 coins, little pieces of paper and ribbon for them to write an activity for the day on, and other fun things. If you have any ideas of what might fit in the cups, please let me know! I need to be on the lookout for the next two weeks!!

If you're interested in one, I'll gladly take your order! (And 20% of the proceeds will go to my kid's school!!)