It's not like in the movies

In the movies, especially holiday themed movies, blizzards and mountains of snow mean cups of steaming hot cocoa, baking cookies and family fun time. In reality they mean shoveling snow until your back and arms hurt so bad you can no longer blog. Also, that you're stuck at home without milk or any ingredients that go together to make a decent meal. I don't think I've gone three days in a row without writing since I started this blog and I blame my recent lapse on the weather. I have been exhausted and then frozen to the core. Today is still cold, but it's in the 20s and after a few days of 30 below wind chills, it feels much better and the sun is shining!

I was able to get some cleaning done while stuck and I sewed a few totes for Christmas presents. Two of them turned out especially well, but the recipient reads this blog, so no pictures until after Christmas. I am going to have to do one big Christmas gift post on the 26th because I feel like I bought/made a lot of great gifts this year.

One last gift idea for me: I love the Dogwood Ruffle Bags by Sweetgum Handbags on Etsy. She currently has only blue and gold ones listed, but I like the orange best. So cute!

Snow, snow, go away, don't come back another day

I live in Iowa. I have no idea why people live this far north. My excuse is that I was born here, my family is here and I'm trying to move sometime soon. We got about 3 inches of snow Sunday night and another 2 last night. In the next 24 hours we are supposed to get 7-12 inches more! It isn't supposed to reach above the freezing level within the forseeable future. Wednesday, after the foot of snow, we are predicted to have sustained 35-40 mile an hour winds. For those of you who don't live in a frozen tundra, that means as soon as plows clear the roads, they are covered in drifts of snow again. It also means less than a quarter mile of visibility. I. Hate. Winter.

On a happier note, I went to the mall last night. I am done Christmas shopping but I had so many good coupons, I couldn't resist. $15 off a $15 purchase, $10 off a $10 purchase and free item up to $13 when you spend $10. I consider myself a savvy shopper, but even I was impressed with the results:
1. $50 sweater, on sale for $40, with $15 off coupon = $25
2. $24 candle, on sale for $12, with $10 off coupon = $2
3. Two $13 lotions, on sale 2 for $10, plus got a $11 body wash free = $10
Grand total: $110 worth of stuff for $37.

As the savviest shopper, Staci Reynolds of Examiner.com and ReynFashions, says, "Don't buy it just because the price tag is right." I didn't. The sweater I already own in grey and purple argyle and I love it, so I bought the solid blue version. You can always use free body wash, use a candle as a gift and either use or gift the lotion.

Ding, fries are done

Our tree - the picture makes it look like it only has white lights, but it has white and colored

I'm done Christmas shopping. I have two gifts that I am making; one of which I haven't started and one that is partially started. But other than that, I am done Christmas shopping and it feels great. Everything is wrapped too. We finished up yesterday while out running errands. We were super productive today and cleaned the whole house plus put the tree up.

I finished making this apron today for my sudo brother-in-law for Christmas. It was a PAIN but it turned out really well. (The grill is a pocket.)

I made these damask stockings last year. I really like them. We don't have a fireplace or mantle, so they get hung on the ladder. I just wish they were a little bigger!

Yesterday I finally found goat milk that wasn't ULTRA-pasteurized. Tomorrow I am going to make my first attempt of making goat cheese and I am really excited. I think I am going to leave 1/2 plain and just use cracked black pepper for the other half. I feel like I'll be able to get a better idea on the base flavor of the cheese that way. Then next time, I will be able to better judge what spices to add in and how much. I'll be sure to let you know how it turns out. If all goes well, I am going to make another batch to take to family Christmases.

Random thoughts for the day

I bought the game Pig Pile last month and we can't stop playing it. It is so fun! It is not the game where you roll the pigs. The tiny plastic pigs only serve the purpose of score keeping in this game. Yes, that could easily be done with tallies on a sheet of paper, but then we wouldn't be able to build pig pyramids and name our points. The game plays sort of like a combination of Skip-Bo and that drinking game you played in college that's called a bad word. I bought it for $10 on Amazon. The games says its for 3-6 players, but we have played it with two and with more than 6 and it worked just fine. I think it says 6-years-old and up. We've also been playing a lot of Backgammon, which I love.

Today I bought some low-fat donuts from Holey Donuts, which I drooled over in this post. I'll let you know how they are once they arrive. They have a 40% off coupon code (HD50) that is good until Saturday night at midnight (December 5th).

I am going to a cookie exchange tomorrow. I love to cook, but I really hate baking. Cookies are the worst. I don't have the attention span or patience to wait for more than one pan to cook. Thankfully I managed to acquire the requested 7 dozen without baking a single one myself! Thanks, Karen & Terra.

We found out we have to do a week of furloughs at my day job before June 30, 2010. If we take it all at once, in theory, we can collect unemployment. I'm not sure if that would be enough to get us through the month or not. I am thinking that getting off at noon, every other Friday for the next 20 weeks sounds good. Then I'd only be missing 4 hours of pay in an 80 hour pay check, which shouldn't be missed that much. And short Fridays are always good. Has anyone else had to do furloughs? Did you collect unemployment?

Someone brought in puff popcorn covered in almond bark today. It was good but I think it made my stomach hurt. Or it could have been the extra spicy gyro with jalapeños for lunch. Now that I think about it, that seems more likely.

Fabric

I got an inquiry about other fabrics from an Etsy shopper, so I thought I'd post some fabrics that I have on hand. (Click on the pictures to see larger versions)
I have only have enough to make 1 tote each from these:

Red Hat

Pink Paisley

5 different black and white designs.
*These are lighter weight fabric that I would line with either black or white canvas. 

These three would look very cute as a set of totes.
*They are light weight and would be lined with canvas. 

A variety of white, tan & black fabrics.
*These are lighter fabric as well, that I would line with canvas.

I have enough of these fabrics to make three totes:

Blueish grey with ginger flowers

Green flowers

Ginger dots

Ginger leaves

I also still have the fabrics I posted on this post, except for the hot pink fabric with leaves. The only tote I have left made from that fabric is listed in my shop.

100! and one

I made my 100th Etsy sale today! I immediately sold something else so I didn't even have time to take a screen shot of the 100th. I also counted up the totes I sold in November, my first month with my It's Easy Being Green shop. I sold 40! My goal was 18, so I am super excited to have sold more than double what I hoped for. I am also done with all my custom orders for Christmas. That means more totes for the shop again, finally. I have a ton of really cute fabric that I can't wait to start cutting into.

Begin countdown, in 3, 2, 1...

It's December. Every year seems to go a little faster than the last and I am worried that I am going to blink and be 85 years old. The good news is I am almost done Christmas shopping and I feel like I did really good - almost everyone I have checked off my list is getting a present I am really happy with and I think they'll love (many from Etsy). I can't wait until after Christmas when I can post some of the gifts here, but most of them read this blog, so it will have to wait.

Anyway, I started wrapping some of the gifts this weekend. I bought this robot wrapping paper from Hallmark a while back but didn't realize it was self-adhesive. When I opened the roll I thought a sicky back was gimicky and going to be a pain. I was wrong. I love this stuff! It works amazing on rectangles and squares, but even more impressive, it is way better on irregular shapped gifts than normal wrapping paper. It comes with adhesive tabs (read precut tape) for ends in case you overlap too much and lose the stickiness. I was only going to wrap our nephews' presents in it but was having so much fun I wrapped stuff for my dad's stocking and a couple of friends too.

I highly recommend self-adhesive wrapping paper. I know Hallmark makes it and some of their products are available other places like Wal-Mart. I have an $11 off an $11 purchase coupon at Hallmark and I am going to stock up on self-adhesive wrapping paper for all occasions. So fun!