punch! Interior Design Suite

For Christmas this year, one of the stocking stuffers I got from Ted was the Interior Design Suite. I've been addicted since Christmas, but it's slow going for me. This program allows you to build your own house plans from the ground up- and then decorate EVERYTHING. Landscaping, siding, roofing, and all of the interior. It's so fun!! The first house I made was super small because I have no real feel for the realistic dimensions of things. So I used one of the sample floor plans they have to decorate. I actually really like this floor plan, but it wouldn't be big enough for my dream home... ;0) I thought I'd post the sceenshots of what I've been up to- ignore some of the ugly colors- I was just messing around.

First-floor plan (click each photo to enlarge):

Second-floor plan:

Front Exterior (I didn't do flowers or trees here):

Entryway:

Living:

Kitchen:

Master Bedroom:

Bedroom 1:

Bedroom 2:

See how much fun you can have? You can design EVERYTHING, all they way down to custom-drawing the trim. It took me a full day to figure this program out, and even now I think I only have a grasp on the basics. It's very addicting though- Stay tuned for my dream house, once I get this whole shebang figured out!

Merry Christmas!

First of all, I want to say Merry Christmas to everyone, especially those we didn't get a chance to see or talk to yesterday!

Speaking of holiday spirit, I had a bit of a Christmas card fiasco this year. On the 21st (at least three weeks after I ordered them) my Christmas cards from Snapfish finally arrived. I was so excited because I really love writing Christmas cards and addressing envelopes. When I opened the package, the cards looked terrible! Not at all like it did on my computer. Ted's face was really dark- too dark to even see that he was almost smiling. And I looked a sickly shade of yellow. Doesn't that just say Merry Christmas! Come to find out, I'm a bit of a perfectionist about Christmas cards. I got a refund from Snapfish and ordered another batch with in-store pickup at Mom's local Wal-Mart. I don't know if they are any better since I haven't seen them- but it's probably best that way. I'll stick with Shutterfly from here on out. So, if you received a card with my mom's return address on it, that's because she and my sister kindly sat down and did them all for me. Love them!!

We started off the holiday weekend right with a gorgeous sunrise and I just have to share pics. The sun doesn't shine very often in the winter months, so this was kind of a Christmas gift:




Christmas morning Ted and I woke up had a delicious breakfast of steak and eggs (ribeye, no less!). Don't let anyone tell you men can't cook- Ted is always showing me up in the kitchen! On Christmas Eve he made tuna steaks and for me, shrimp sauteed in butter- with garlic breadsticks. SO delicious!
While we ate or breakfast of champions, we watched Rudolph. Then we opened our stockings from each other. Ted did a great job picking out gifts for me this year, and even though I said I was going to clean the house today, my Christmas gifts are begging to be used!

Here's me on Christmas morning by our "tree". Next year we'll have our first Christmas tree... I hope.

We spent Christmas afternoon with all our friends at the Oradat home. We had ham and a turkey roast, salad, pumpkin casserole, homemade bread (thanks Jak!), and sweet potato casserole. Oh, and I brought whiskey-glazed carrots and cinnamon rolls. Michaela made delicious mint-fudge ice cream cake for dessert! We had a good time, and we played "dirty santa" before going home. For that game everyone brings a gift (it can be a gag gift) and as each person opens a gift, the next person can "steal" that gift. I got some lovely puppy slippers. Let me show you:


No one stole them.

I drove home from the Oradats (which took about 45 minutes to an hour because I drive like a granny in the snow) and we called our families to wish them Merry Christmas. We had a great holiday weekend, and hope yours was just as wonderful. Of course we miss our families and can't wait to see them!

Merry (day after) Christmas!

Christmas Card Photo: The outtakes

Last year I did a photo card and it was quite a hit. I think it's fun to receive photo cards as well, so I had my heart set on doing another one this year.

Those of you with husbands know how hard it can be to have a "photo shoot;" the smart ones among you probably don't even attempt it. I had almost given up on doing one this year, because Ted comes home after dark, and starting this weekend I will be in class all day...so that left no daylight hours that we would be together. Somehow a photo taken in the dark with just our white eyes shining doesn't quite convey the message I intend to send: holiday cheer, good tidings, good will towards men, etc...

Then, it snowed. You all know it. I haven't stopped talking about it. I can't decide if I'm excited or elated or full of dread at having to drive my car to work in it....Maybe all three. It snowed enough to give Ted a day off work, and the first thing on his mind was getting out of his sweats and braving the cold to smile for the camera.

Not.

He'd rather do anything else. Even clean the toilet. Which he did. But when he saw how much it meant to me, he got dressed and followed me down the road to give it a shot. And I'm still grateful (for both the photo shoot and the toilet cleaning I don't have to do now).

So we ventured out into the cold (cold, Cold, COLD!) in search of a good backdrop. I kind of had in my mind an area I wanted to go, but it was a bit of a long walk through deep snow, and I was terrified that at any second Ted might give up and walk back to the house. So I located the first evergreens with some snow on them and set up the tripod. Now I will present you with outtake number 1:

Eww. What a terrible angle. Do I look nervous? Ted turned out nicely, though.

We'll try again.

Crap. Eyes closed. The green snow fence isn't too scenic either. Honestly at this point I wasn't sure what to do. It was getting REALLY cold. Then my hubby saved the day, and pointed out the most beautiful landscape I could have hoped for. It turned out really well, and you'll have to wait to see it until you get your card in the mail! On the way back to the house, Ted noticed a little trail... and we got ANOTHER contender for the card. Two good ones, both thanks to Ted's good eye! :0)

Isn't that beautiful? Then, we even got to try once more.

I wouldn't call it fun, exactly. I'm still glad we did it, because we got a couple of great pics! Thanks again to my husband for trudging through the snow with me. Now all of you go drag your husbands outside...I wanna see some holiday pics! :0)

Swan Butts

So, the other morning it started snowing. And snowing, and snowing, and snowing. By 10 am we had quite a pile, so I decided to take a snowy little stroll to see what I could see.

Me, on a snowy little stroll

It wasn't long before I came upon a lovely little pond; just the little pond I was looking for, in fact. Last year two lovely swans inhabited this lovely little pond, and to my delight, they moved back in for the winter. They are the same two swans, of course. Don't ask me how I know.

Lovely little swans on a lovely little pond, floating around and enjoying life

As I was standing there with snow packed all the way up the legs of my jeans (boots. when it snows, wear boots.), a flock of ducks or some other large white bird (but not swans) started circling the lovely little pond. They made huge laps, and every minute or so they would circle again, looking for the lovliest of lovely ponds to land on, I'm sure. Mr. and Mrs. Swammy Swan were none too pleased at the prospect of sharing their lovely anything.

Every time the birds flew near, these ruffle butts got their feathers all in a dander. I think they are looking at each other saying, "What the heck!?! This will not do!"

I stuck around long enough to see if the lovlies would be invaded. They were not, and all was lovely again.

Don't you think the one in the back is the male, and the one in the front is female? He's saying, "Come along now, wifey. Get a move on."

That's the end of that lovely story. See the pic below for the scene outside my window right now. They have forecasted 10 inches of snow by morning, and shut down the entire post for tomrrow! Snow Day! :0)