Goodbye 2009!!!

Well, it is time to say goodbye to 2009 and all the joys and tears it has brought. Goodbye Christmas tree which to me symbolizes the end of the year.....

(Family Tree with all the pressies)
I had a great Christmas....as usual Mr. Papitag, Gizzy and I went to visit my Mom and Brother down south! Too bad we didn't have a bundle of that warm southern weather this year....it was actually pretty chilly but it surely beat New England weather that is for sure. Gizzy did great on the plane ride to and from thanks in part to the most wonderful stewardesses we could ask for that let us cater to his cries and nervousness by letting us hold him the majority of the flight. As always there was a bit of drama around the holidays.... but who doesn't have drama with family? It was a blessing to get to spend my nephews (turtle) first Christmas with him:

(Turtle...our little Christmas Elf)
Gizzy enjoyed spending time with the family too....he especially loved hanging out with his cousin Turtle:

(Gizzy couldn't stop himself from trying to steal Turtles bottle, as you can see Turtle wasn't too thrilled...but Gizzy sure was happy)

(Gizzy knocked out from all the excitement)

(Gizzy enjoying warmer weather and also a fenced in yard)
(The two peas in a pod: Gizzy and Turtle playing with one another)
We had family card night, IHOP breakfast, drinks galore (not me of course) oh and not to forget one of the most unusaual items....I got to eat fried pickles....boy what a trip!

(Mmm...fried pickles)

(Mommy and Turtle eating Christmas Eve cookies)

(The family on our last day down south....back to new England we go)
(IHOP breakfast: the three amigos)
(Me opening my pressies...)
(Daddy (My brother) and Turtle)
(The family at Card night)
********************************************************************
Goals for 2010 (no particular order):

- Birth of our first child
- Save more money
-Buy less unnecessary items
-loose the baby weight after her arrival
- visit family and friends more
- live more green and Eco friendly
- cook more at home...

- find a career I absolutely love
on and on.... the list continues...

well, I hope you have a wonderful start to 2010....HAPPY NEW YEAR!

(Me.... ready for a new year...Happy 2010)

Happy Snow Day

We woke up to about 10" of snow this morning. It was so beautiful....we just couldn't help ourselves and had to go play in it. Needless to say Gizzy didn't last that long even bundled up with two sweaters and his winter coat. I kind-of....key word is kind-of felt bad for Mr. Paitag who had to shovel our driveway and walkway this morning...he seemed to like it though. He actually ended up making a few bucks here and there helping our elderly neighbors even though he wasn't looking for any monetary gain out of it...just being a good neighbor...but they kept insisting (lol). Well I hope it is warm where ever you are and if you happen to be in this fluffy white stuff you are nice and bundled warm!

Cheers!

Happy Saturday

What are you up to today? Me, just chillin. Got up this morning and cooked a huge breakfast and have been chillin most of the day. I have finally finished cutting out a couple of patterns and fabric to put together Gizzy a new winter wardrobe....I can't wait to see how it will turn out. The little guy seems to be busting out of the seams of all of his winter clothing from last year. I will have to post the pictures tomorrow of the patterns that I am making. Well, there really isn't much to post today...just a relaxing Saturday at home with my family. Hope you are enjoying your loved ones today!
Stay Crafty!!!

First New England Snow Day

Tonight we got our first glimpse of the snow to come in the near future. It is so pretty and yet so cold outside. I can completely forget about walking Gizzy outside in this weather....out comes the puppy pads, now I wish I had stocked up on them when they were on sale for $10 bucks! Speaking of Sales, last night I scored a cute purple bubble jacket (which can be seen in the pic above) at Walmart for only $7 bucks! How exciting...a coat for $7 bucks, granted its not the most fashionable coat but I'm not trying to win any fashion awards...it does it job in keeping me warm. I made sure to get the coat 2 sizes bigger than I normally am so as I continue to grow during my pregnancy I won't have to worry about finding a winter coat to fit! I also managed to score 2 $10 dollar 100% wool sweaters at Old Navy! Yes, it seems like the sales keep rolling. Old Navy has been holding it down with the sales. I hit Old Navy up on black Friday and got a whole bunch of fleecy sweaters and sweats and long sleeve shirts! An entire bag of clothing for only $25 bucks, can't beat that with a stick. Before I move on I wanted to also mention that there was 30% off already reduced items at Old Navy so I couldn't resist buying a couple more large shirts (my maternity wear)! A great bargain buts a smile on my face! =)

well, we are going to chill, watch some football, I might even brush the lint off my sewing machine and get started on a couple of things here and there....ummm....well, a nap sounds a bit better.

until I am back in the swing of things....stay crafty!!!

Its a Girl!

We are very proud to announce that we are having a Baby Girl! I am so excited. Gizzy will have a little sister and I will get to have the little girl that I have been dreaming about. I can't wait to lay my eyes on her. Finally the house will be even...two boys and two girls!

Nite Nite!

Happy Happ

Well Hello everyone!

Today we have reached 19 weeks~! I am starting to feel the weight gain in my back lately. Last night was horrible...I was literally in tears from all the pain that was shooting up and down my back. The midwife said the pain was most likely from the baby resting on my sciatic nerve. After about a good 2 hours and shifting my weight from left to right the pain subsided and I was finally able to get some rest.

Just the thought of walking around is making my back ache. I couldn't even last 1 hour walking around the mall before my lower back started to ache. As you can see from the pic above I am starting to get the "sway back" posture from all of the baby weight gain. I hope it all disappears once the baby is born! Phew....now I am going to get some rest and continue with my insane cravings which i will have to comment on later. hehehehe!

hugs and kisses!!!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Yeah today is my birthday! Next year it will fall on Thanks Giving. I couldn't be more excited to celebrate my birthday today. To start my birthday off, Mr. Papitag surprised me with flowers and a card at my office this morning (he completely tricked me and pretended like he was on his way to work this morning). He knows my favorite color is purple and they just happened to have a new line of seasonal multi-purple bouquet of purple Carnation's .....oh how I love them. I can't wait until they start to dry out a bit so I can preserve them and dry them out completely to put them in my "purple" office at work....they are so pretty. Tonight we are going to my favorite restaurant "Papparazi" (however you spell it) which you may notice I blogged about last year....I absolutely love this place, mostly for the yummy scrumptious cheesy Italian bread and dipping sauce that they have...mmmmmmmmmm I can smell it now. I will open up my gifts later on tonight. Its funny how after you hit a certain age everyone including your parents forget how old you are....I have been having a great time telling everyone that I am all different ages....hehehehehe! Well, I just got finished with work and although it is my birthday I still have to complete things that are part of my normal routine which includes walking Gizzy....

So, if it happens to be your Birthday today...many joyful wishes to you!

Smooches!

Baby bump and Muscles

So I have been trying to see the difference in my body that this pregnancy is changing so I took some pictures of me at 4 months pregnant. I was shocked by the changes in my thighs and hip areas but I completely anticipated the belly bump to grow and grow and grow. Thank goodness my "baby potions" has continued to help my skin stay smooth and healthy around my belly and hips. I will have to share my "potion" at a later date...until then...I will continue to grow and I hope you will continue to stay crafty!

Baby Baby

My Lovely Baby Bump!

Well, here it is. My ever growing belly (for now) at 4 months! We aren't sure what we are having yet, but we find out at the end of the month. The second trimester has been interesting...no one told me about the following:

the itchy skin, facial break-outs and the horrible dry hair. I guess I can't complain though because I haven't had any nausea (thank goodness)!!!

I will keep more pics coming as I keep growing (lol)

Make a Smilebox greeting

Doggie Halloween

Gizzy says Happy Halloween!

Well, I finally ended up locating my digital camera after ripping through numerous boxes which I didn't intend on opening until the house is a bit more settled...oh well it was better than having to shell out money for a new one. Gizzy had his annual "small breed" doggie Halloween party yesterday. He had a blast....and actually ended up winning "Most Spooky Costume!" His prize for winning was a bag of organic sweet potato doggie treats, a Frankenstein squeaky toy and a little squeaky ball (the ball he wasn't suppose to take home but the owner let him have it) that little thief (lol). We had such a great time watching our little guy play with his doggy and human friends and we also got to socialize with our doggie owners who also come to the play group (yes, we are all those crazy dog owners who do anything for their pets).....hahahahaha....

Anyhow... Gizzy wanted to wish you and your pets a Happy Halloween...this Saturday we (the humans of the family Mr. Papitag and I) are going to a Halloween Party...I am excited but Mr. Papitag could probably care two sh**s about dressing up and being silly! oh well, he will have fun...

Later!

Lost Camera!

I have so much to post and no pics to show! Sucks right...! Somehow while moving into the house I misplaced my digital camera...so a). I am going to have to rip our messy house into pieces and make it even messier to find my camera or b). I am going to have to suck it up and shell out some dough on a cheapo one that will hold me over...I am not particularly excited about either option but I am missing blogging and missing my camera. Ok, I don't want to give away the secret but there is so much that has been going on in my life and I am itching to just blurt it all out at once..........Oh but I should wait...the pics along with the post are going to be so much better.

Ok, Later

Stay Crafty

October already

"Feeling like I can't catch my Breath"

Wow, Time is surely flying by...I haven't been able to blog that much lately because of the continued home renovations. We are almost done so I should be back on track soon. Oh and did I mention that I have a craft show to prepare for in the midst of all of the crazy messy home stuff!

I think back to myself and wonder where in the world did the summer go. So many things have changed for me in such a short period of time: the birth of my nephew, track nationals, buying our first home, and some more surprises (can't disclose just yet). No wonder I feel like I can't catch my breath lately, so much has been happening all so fast. (memories of summer)
(Favorite summer meal: Fresh green salad with mushrooms, red onions, cucumbers, fresh garden tomatoes, and to top it off chicken and avocado chunks. YUMM!)

Goodbye sweet dandelions and yummy summer salads...hello hearty soups, comfy blankies, the crisp air of the fall and all of the Halloweenie goodness!

Until next time....

Sunday....

Vamps, Blood, Love...Oh My!

The day has come...the season finale of True Blood..

I am so excited to watch the season finale of "True Blood" (sad). There will absolutely be no interruptions tonight during my show...lol...so I hope! Yes...oozing with excitement for 9:00 tonight~

Stay True!

Adventures of Sponge Bob

Hello!!! (Throughout our renovations, I have been addicted to these cute little "Sponge Bob" ice creams that are sold at our Dollar Tree....since we seem to be in Dollar Tree for little things for the House I keep nabbing one of these little tasty treats)!

Well, as I assumed before our home renovations I have had minimal free time, so I haven't had the time or energy to turn on my computer to blog lately. We only have 2 weeks to go before we need to be out of our hole in the wall apartment.....can't wait! So far we have started to tile the floors, took down wood paneling in the family room, put up dry wall, skim coated almost all the walls that are finished and even started painting. Here are some updated pics of the house:

( Pic of the side of the house)
(The one room that was renovated before we moved in...doesn't look like it because it is a mess filled with clothes and this and that...we still need to change the wall color and put in a new vanity/sink to make our mark on it).
(The front entry way...another room finished.....which Mr. Papitag let me complete without any of his interventions. I tiled, painted & finished the walls all by myself....now we just need some art on the wall and a few coat hooks to top it off)
(Looking into the Dinning room from the family room...both rooms are still in the mid stage of renovations. As you can see we need to finish grouting and taking down some wood paneling, etc...)

OK, until next time....

Check out my favorite sites for some home design and DIY inspirations:

Design Sponge

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com

DIY Network

Flickr

Keep it Crafty!

Trying Times!!!

Not Quite Home Sweet Home!!!

I have been away from crafting, blogging, working out, just about everything I love to do in my free time because.....We finally own our fist home!!! Yeah, the search is over. I posted a while back when we were in the midst of searching for our fist place....boy was it trying times. I am glad that it is finally over. We finally decided on a 1920's colonial home. Its cute but needs a lot ofwork. Thank you Mr. President for your wonderful incentive for new home buyers....

Me In the "Family room" doing some construction. Who ever invented wood paneling "sucks!"

Mr. Papitag in the master bedroom wrapping up the disgusting carpet that was in every inch of the house

The Family room before Demo..but after we ripped out the carpet, to our surprise the hardwood floors were in great conditition...they will be excellent after a nice sanding and a nice chesnut stain.

entrance & Living room before Demo but after we ripped up the hideous green carpeting...again nice hardwood floors.
The Dinning Room before demo but once again after we ripped up carpet and to our surprise there was horrible sticky lanolin tiles underneath the carpet....WHAT IN THE WORLD! LOL

As you can see, we have a long way to go and only 2.5 more weeks until we have to be out of our apartment. I will be sure to keep the pictures coming. Silly me, I forgot to take a pic of the outside of the house....

To be continued....

Happy Friday

Hello,

Thank goodness today is Friday...it almost seems like I am wishing my days away to get to the weekend. I have been crafting a bunch lately and trying to increase my inventory for my annual craft show at Transcongretional Church here in town. Last year was my first craft show and I did great...overall I had the highest profit (exciting) glowing with glee just thinking about this year!!! Below are a couple of items that I have added to my etsy shop...I haven't made any for the craft show yet...

All Items can be found in my etsy shop at: http://www.dadootdoots.etsy.com/

The family has been doing a lot of stuff together lately even though Mr. Papitag doesn't get home until after 6:30 most nights. We have been taking loads of day trips to the parks and taking full advantage of the "free" things that our state has to offer. We are both addicted to physical activity so the natural parks have become a great past time of ours...and Gizzy has been loving chasing the Geese!

Hopefully this weekend I can convince Mr. Papitag to join me in my quest to recapturing my title of "thrift store queen." I will have to keep my fingers crossed because he typically lasts about a good 10 minutes in a thrift store and if you are like me 10 minutes just doesn't cut it when you are trying to find lovely treasures. I will be sure to bring my camera to try to capture all the great or not so great finds!!!

The Family

Until Next time!

Sunday Television

TRUE BLOOD............

I am so addicted to this show....for all that don't watch it, its not to late for you...you can rent the episodes and catch up! Trust me you are missing out! AHHHH there is nothing better than a glass of red wine and a dose of True Blood Vamps....

Poor Suki...I can't wait to see what happens next, next weeks episode can't come soon enough...what is the deal with Godrick? Only time will tell....until next week!

Keep it True!!!

I thought we lived in the City??

Hello...hope your Friday is going as great as mine

Well I thought I would share a couple of pics from earlier this summer. It was sometime in early July that Mr. Papitag yelled into the window from outside " Re...Re...come here you have to see this!" Apparently he was walking Gizzy and ran into this fellow right down the street:

Yup...it was a freaking turkey...walking in one of our neighbors yard! I was so quick to run and get my camera I didn't even care that I still had on my pj's, hadn't brushed my teeth yet and lets not mention what my hair was looking like. It was all in a days work of sacrificing looks for a great photograph...plus its not everyday that we see a wild turkey lurking in our neck of the woods...or shall I say "city." Hopefully none of my neighbors had their cameras taking a picture of my "wild" looking self (lol)! NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC...I am still waiting on that phone call (LOL) !!! No, but seriously I am =)

(gobble gobble)

I wonder if someone had him as a pet because he wasn't afraid of me getting too close to him. Mr. Papitag at this point kept yelling "Re, get away from him...he is going to attack you." I was just concerned with getting a good glimpse of him before he ran off into the empty lot down the street that makes it seem like we live in the boonies...that is another story though...I will save the hideous, nasty empty lot story for another day!

enjoy your Friday

Get out and do something Crafty...I sure will

A Day in the Park!

Hello!!!

Blogging has been a stretch for me lately. I have had so much on my plate that the last thing I have considered doing is blogging. Now that my track season is over I have dedicated a heap of my time to my little boy (gizzy) and my Fiance (Mr. Papitag). Actual quality time like trips to the park and simply taking a walk together are scare when track is in full effect...Track season leaves very little time for a lot of thing...so I have really been enjoying the "down" time and doing things that I typically don't have the luxury of doing.

(Here we are at the park on the Great Giant Swan Paddle Boats)

Gizzy has been taking full advantage of having all of Mommies time. We even got to escape to the park just the two of us; I tend to give him a little more breathing room than Papitag to roam and be free, which ultimately ends up biting me in the butt because somehow he ends up off the leash or either in a not so good situation....like almost being eaten by the real life Swan and geese (lol)....no really it wasn't that funny when we got swarmed by a gang of ducks (lol) ....but I can look back and laugh now...he was seriously almost lunch meat!

(Gizzy on the boardwalk at the park)

(The dangerous Swans that almost ate Gizzy) LOL!

(Gizzy amping up his retaliation)

(The swan getting a little to close for comfort at this point circling us. Gizzy was barking like crazy)

(Gizzy wanting to attack or either play with the duck... don't think so buddy that water was iiky)!

The following week the entire family got to go on the paddle boats. We had so much fun. Gizzy was so fascinated with the water!!

(Me and Gizzy on the paddle boat)

(Mr Papitag and I on the paddle boats)

(The ultimate Geese fighter) lol!

(Cutsie little turtle on the lillipods at the park)

Until Next Time!!!

Stay Crafty!