Craft Spasms

I've been having some SEVERE muscle spasms in my lower back.  It started last Saturday (not THIS last Saturday, but the one before) and didn't get REALLY bad until this last Friday evening.  I went to the doctor today.  He adjusted my back and prescribed some steroids to help reduce inflammation and some heavy-duty pain killers.  There's something about pain killers that makes me wanna get all crafty up in here, so that's what I did when I got off work today.  Before I get to all this craftiness, though, I have a picture I want to share.  When I go to my craft room, all three boys go with me (the dog, Ernie, and the cats, Smith & Wesson).  Ernie always takes a nap while the cats bird-watch from the window.  This one will probably wind up in a scrapbook and will be titled "Brothers"...

I just LOVE those boys!!

Well, this card is going to look familiar because it's nearly identical to one I made over the weekend.  I changed the sentiment, though, because I needed a card to go with a gift that I've made for a friend.  Besides stamping, I also enjoy sewing and crocheting.  Most of my crochet is thread crochet and I mostly make doilies.  I won't go into details about this card and bookmark since the information for products used is in a previous post.  I thought the bookmark turned out BEE-YOU-TEE-FUL and I made two matching doilies to send, as well.  I hope she likes everything!!

The doc said I probably wouldn't get much relief from these muscle spasms until about Thursday, so I'm not looking forward to the next couple of days very much.  I'm hoping and praying for some relief before then and am doing everything I can to make it happen.  Until then, maybe these pain killers will help me create some more "neato-mosquito" stuff!!

Toodles,

It's a Card-Makin' Day!

I think I've mentioned before how much Smith and Wesson like sitting under my Ott task light when I'm trying to be creative. Today was no exception. I managed to get one card made before Wesson had parked his buttocks under the warmth of the lamp.

It was okay while he was sitting off to one corner of my work table since I still had the majority of it to work with.

Then the little bugger decided he'd take a bath while enjoying the warm light. Smith slept through the entire thing, which is unusual. He's usually the one beating a path to the light as soon as it comes on!

This card is one that my Mom made as one of her Christmas cards this year. We worked on them last Saturday and they turned out GORGEOUS! We started with a card base of Pale Plum. The large snowflake from "Snow Swirled" was stamped on another, slightly smaller, piece of Pale Plum in Pale Plum classic ink. We matted that on a slightly larger piece of Chocolate Chip. A piece of Chocolate Chip taffeta ribbon was added about 1/3 of the way from the top of the card. The tree (Lovely As A Tree) was stamped in Chocolate Chip craft ink on Pale Plum CS and was heat embossed using the Heat and Stick Powder. While that was still warm, we sprinkled Fine Cosmo glitter in Orchid on it. We tapped the excess off and heated the image again to set the glitter. That piece was matted on Chocolate Chip CS and then added to the front of the card. The sentiment comes from the "To You And Yours" stamp set and was stamped in Chocolate Chip classic ink on Pale Plum CS and then punched using the small oval punch. The large oval punch and Chocolate chip CS were used to create a mat for the sentiment and it was added to the card front using Stampin' Dimensionals.

Here is a close-up of the card, although neither of these photos do this card justice. It is absolutely STUNNING in real life!

Ok... so that last card was done in non-traditional colors, but I wanted to get REALLY funky with it! Here I stamped the same tree in Taken With Teal craft ink on Pink Passion CS and heat embossed it using the Heat & Stick Powder again. While it was still warm I added the Turquoise Fine Cosmo glitter and tapped off the excess. I heated the image again to set the glitter. The back panel on this card was stamped using the same image from Snow Swirled, only I stamped it in Whisper White craft ink this time. The card base is Whisper White and the other panels are done in Tempting Turquoise and Pink Passion. This is definitely funky and, although I like it, it probably won't be the card I send out this year.

Here's the closeup of the glitter on this one and, again, the photo just doesn't do the bling any justice!

This is my favorite card of the day. It just looks so stinkin' fun! I wanted to participate in Beate's Weekend Sketch challenge and this stamp set came to mind immediately! my card base is Bashful Blue. The patterned paper panel is Frosty Day Designer Series Paper from this year's Holiday Mini Catalog, matted on Close to Cocoa CS. The main image was stamped from the "Holiday Lineup" stamp set. I used my AquaPainter and Bashful Blue classic ink pad to create a shadow behind these guys. Once that was dry (I'm impatient and used my heat tool) I colored the image using Stampin' Write Markers in Old Olive, Certainly Celery, Brilliant Blue, Bashful Blue, Apricot Appeal, Pumpkin Pie, and Close to Cocoa. The sentiment was stamped in Chocolate Chip classic ink on Whisper White CS and punched out with the 1" circle punch. Mats were created in Tangerine Tango and Close to Cocoa using the Spellbinders Nestabilities. A piece of Tangerine Tango striped grosgrain ribbon was added behind the sentiment before adding it to the card front using Stampin' Dimensionals.

This card started with a Kraft card base and uses the Ski Slope DSP. This also follows Beate's layout for her weekend sketch challenge. The DSP was matted on Chocolate Chip CS, as were the main image and the Felt Flurries embellishment. The main image was stamped in Chocolate Chip classic ink on Whisper White CS. The edges were sponged with Baja Breeze classic ink and a sponge dauber. I used my two-way glue pen on the dove to add Dazzling Diamonds. A rhinestone brad from the Pretties Kit was added to the center of the snowflake. I used my Signo White Gel Pen to add "swirlies" around the edges of each piece before adding them to my card front. A piece of Chocolate Chip felt ribbon from the Alpine Ribbon Originals (Holiday mini Catalog 2008) was added to finish the card off.

Hope you've enjoyed my cards and more cat antics! Toodles!

The Rest Of Today's Projects

Before I get started, can I just get an "OOH" and an "AHH" because these guys are just so darned cute (when they're sleeping)? This means that they weren't in the middle of my stamp table, trying to take a nap under the warm bulb of the Ott task light. Not sure how I managed to make three cards undetected... they must have been pooped!!








This card is the same as one I made last week, only I made a small change. I couldn't decide if I liked the look of the jumbo eyelets and ribbon on the original card, so I switched it up a little. I'm still not sure which one I like best.








This is the Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge (TECC39) for this week. I started with a card base of Pink Pirouette and added strips of Bella Rose DSP matted on Chocolate Chip CS. The cupcake stamp was colored with Chocolate Chip and Pretty In Pink Stampin' Write Markers and then stamped on Whisper White CS. I punched those out using the 1 3/8" circle punch and matted each one on a Chocolate Chip scalloped circle. I tied three little bows using the Chocolate Chip taffeta ribbon and added them to my card using mini glue dots. The cupcakes have Dazzling Diamonds sprinkles, although you can't tell in this photo. It's much prettier in real life.








This is my favorite card of the day. I used this weeks color challenge (Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, & Pink Pirouette) and this weeks sketch challenge from Splitcoast Stampers. I used the "Snow Swirled" stamp set and added dazzling diamonds to the larger snowflakes (see next photo). I added a rhinestone brad to the center of each of the Chocolate Chip snowflakes. A piece of Pretty In Pink taffeta ribbon was added to the Kiwi Kiss panel. The Kiwi Kiss and Pink Pirouette panels were embossed with the Cuttlebug snowflakes A2 embossing folder. I really like the way this one turned out! Toodles!

An Ornery Streak? WHOOO... ME???

Owls seem to be one of the latest crazes in the rubber stamping world. I, personally, haven't done any stamping with owls. No particular reason... just haven't had the urge. Today, however, I woke up and had this idea for a card in my head and IT WOULD NOT GO AWAY!! I like to keep the blog rather family friendly, but I find this just a little bit humorous and couldn't resist sharing. I started with a card base of Very Vanilla and then added layers of Choco Chip and "Apple Cider" DSP. I stamped the tree branch from Spring Solitude after coloring the stamp with Choco Chip and Garden Green markers. Since my branch wasn't long enough for two "hooters" to sit on, I extended it by drawing it out longer and coloring it in with my Choco Chip marker. The owls were stamped from the "Just Celebrate" stamp set in Jet Black StazOn. I used my pastels and a blender pen to color them in. Once all that was done, I masked my owls and added clouds using a 1" circle mask, soft sky ink, and a makeup sponge. I stamped the sentiment using "Simple Serif Alphabet & Numbers" and Choco Chip ink. I used my 3/4" circle punch to round the ends and then matted it on Wild Wasabi. I used the 1" circle punch to round the ends of the Wild Wasabi piece. I added a couple of eyelets... one to each end of the sentiment and then ran a piece of poly-twill Choco Chip ribbon through each one. I don't know what compelled me to do this... honestly!!




They grow up so fast, don't they?? It seems just like yesterday when he was a baby. Our little "Tripod" is losing his little white baby spot on the top of his head. It just keeps getting smaller all the time and he just keeps getting bigger. It's very evident that his little leg was, obviously, broken sometime in the past. It sticks out to the side of his body, as you can see fairly clearly in the second photo. He still gets around pretty good for only having three good legs, though.



We hadn't seen any of Tripod's siblings since the night he came to stay with us. I happened to look out in the back yard at just the right time, this morning, though. This one is the same size as Tripod. Well... kind of. Their bone structure is the same size, but this poor little thing must be starving!! Look at how you can see his little shoulder and leg bones sticking out. It' just pitiful! It's OBVIOUSLY not a healthy rabbit like Tripod is! Tripod's siblings, though, aren't quite living the good life like he is... rabbit food he doesn't have to search for including shredded carrots, oatmeal, and hand-picked clover.

Well, I think I'm off for a bicycle ride. Enjoy your day! Toodles!

Raindrops on Roses & Whiskers on... Bunnies??

This photo was taken last weekend, just off our patio, after a rain shower. I was hoping the raindrops would show up better than this, but what you see is what you get. (Click on the photo for a closer view.)

This little guy is, apparently, the newest addition to our family. Curtis was mowing the lawn last night when he saw this little guy. The bunny wasn't moving very fast and Curt was afraid he'd run over him. He put the dog crate in front of the bunny and he hopped right in. I wasn't home at the time and Curtis really should have known better than to keep him around until I got home. When I got here he said "Do you want a new pet?" I asked him what kind of pet and he just said that it was cute and furry. Now how can I resist cute and furry??? Anyway, when I picked the bunny up, he snuggled right up against me and didn't seem to mind the attention a bit. After checking him over, I discovered that one of his back legs has been broken, in the past, and never healed correctly. He has no mobility in that leg and it kind of sticks out to the side of his body. That would be why he wasn't moving very quickly in an effort to get away from us. Curtis saw three more bunnies who were, obviously, siblings to this one, but they were VERY fast and ran for cover. Normally, I would have sent this one back out to live with the rest of them, but we have a dog as do most of our neighbors. I just think that if I send him back out there I'm just tossing the dogs a snack. I can't do it!! I HAD decided that if he didn't eat very well for the first 24 hours, that I'd send him back to live with his siblings. If he wouldn't eat for me, then he'd probably be better off out on his own. I shredded two baby carrots last night and gave him some dry rolled oats and water. By noon today, all that was gone, SSSSSOOOOO... I made a trip to PetsMart to get a rabbit cage, a dish, and a water bottle. He's snuggled safely in his new little Wabbitat now and seems very content. I took him to work for the second half of the day today and my friend, Christy, called him Tripod (he's only got three good legs). I think that name just might stick.

I'm Connected!!!

I can see some of you right now... you have one eyebrow raised, saying "That girl has NEVER been connected - at least not connected RIGHT"! My internet access has been restored and I'm no longer isolated from the real world!! Ok, ok... I had internet access from 8 am to 5 pm every day at work and then brought my laptop home so I could do some surfing on my own time. I guess I wasn't totally isolated, but it wasn't my world as I'm used to it! My good friend, Tom, gets all the credit for getting me back to blogland. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, Tom... from the bottom of my big toe!!


Before I get to any projects, I wanted to share this picture of one of my babies. Wesson (of Smith & Wesson) looks like he had a wreck with our front door. NOT SO! He, actually, fell asleep like this. I had the front door open yesterday afternoon and he decided to nap in the sunshine. The white thingy is the door, if you hadn't figured that out yet. His right paw was under the door and his nose was literally against the door. Almost looks like he fell asleep mid-play! Silly rascal!






On to my most recent creations...

This card was made using last week's SCS sketch challenge. This is "traitor" (anything "traitor" is anything that didn't come from Stampin' Up!) cardstock. I have a big pile of it that I need to get rid of. I don't know why I thought making one card would make a dent in the pile. I still have a stack of the "traitor" stuff that's 8 inches deep, and that's only the 8 1/2" X 11" stack. My stack of "traitor" patterned paper is bigger than that! Anyhooty, I stamped some "traitor" red with Real Read classic ink using the "In The Stars" stamp set. That's "traitor" ribbon, too. The rocket, from "Pun Fun" was stamped in Jet Black StazOn and then colored with my Sakura Stardust pens. I punched the stars using the two star punches from SU! and adhered them with Stampin' Dimensionals.

You can see the dimension in this pic. The sentiment is also from "Pun Fun" and was punched using the SU! oval punches.







There's a sad story that goes with this card. Our neighbors, across the street, lost their dog on Saturday evening. They were enjoying the evening in their front yard, around 9:30 pm, where their kids and the dog were playing. Curtis and the kids were in our living room watching a movie and I was in my craft room making cards. I remember hearing Curtis say "someone's been hit" and I ran for the front door. The kids across the street play in the street VERY frequently. The teenagers skateboard out there, but I'd never known them to do it after dark. I've NEVER seen the smaller children in the street. Their Boxer was always on the front porch or not very far from it, so it never crossed my mind that she was the one who had been hit. Thank goodness, it wasn't one of the kids, but I know much a dog can be part of the family, too. I couldn't sleep that night and found myself staring out our front window at 2:30 am on Sunday praying for their family. They all saw it happen and I know how devastated I was, so I can't begin to imagine their pain. Anyway, this card was for them. I wanted to do something for them, so badly, but there's really nothing we CAN do, except to let them know that we care and are thinking about them and praying for them. This card was CASE'd from a past issue of Cards Magazine (I think... It might have been PaperCrafts, now that I think about it.)

This card, also uses the SCS sketch challenge from last week. There is NOTHING "traitor" on this card! The card base is Chocolate Chip and the DSP is "Outlaw", which retired last year. The images were stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock with Chocolate Chip craft ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I used the ticket corner punch on the Sage Shadow matte and added a Really Rust matte under that. I punched the sentiment out using the Designer Label punch and then cut the "humps" off with my paper snips. I used the 1 1/4" circle punch to cut a Sage Shadow piece and the 1 3/8" circle punch to cut a piece of Really Rust. The sentiment was adhered to the top of those two circles. The ribbon is the Chocolate Chip poly-twill from the Occasions Mini Catalog. That reminds me... if you want to order anything from the Occasions Mini, you only have until June 30th. There's nothing I DON'T like from the Occasions Mini, but that ribbon is SPECTACULAR!! You can feel the quality and it lays just perfectly.

That's all I have for now. I've got to go get busy on something else! Toodles!!

Long time, no post...

I've been slackin' on my bloggin', but that's because I've been organizin'. I have a "stamp closet" in my stamp room and I think the contents had been spontaneously multiplying when the door was closed. It was to the point that I couldn't find what I was looking for, although I had a general idea of where everything was. My stamp sets had no room in the closet and had migrated to a bookshelf in my stamp room. I would have taken "before" pictures, but the chaos actually looked organized. Everything was stored in neatly labeled boxes, but there was just TONS of STUFF... stuff I'll never use and hadn't thought about using in a year or more. I have downsized considerably and will be having a sale on Saturday, May 3rd. I've already notified all my fellow stamp addicts, and I can envision this turning into a stamp party quick, fast, and in a hurry. I am TOTALLY not against a stamp party, so come on over!!

Our little canine visitor has moved on. I absolutely didn't want to take him to a shelter, but we wound up taking him to a local no-kill shelter and making a donation to help with micro-chipping and neutering. He was just the sweetest little guy, but he was a nervous pee-er and you never knew which direction it was going to go. We have fairly new carpet and furniture so we tried putting him in the kitchen with a baby gate. The little guy was quite a jumper, though, and could bound over the baby gate in one leap. We put him outside, but he just cried to come in and tried to dig out under the fence. We never got any calls from anyone trying to claim him and couldn't seem to find anyone who wanted a loving, nervous, peeing, leaping, digging Dachshund. Ernie had had enough by the time the little guy left, too. He had a great time playing for the first 24-48 hours and then the "new" wore off. Ernie realized someone else was begging for my attention and he just wasn't going to have it. We're confident that he'll find a new home soon, if he hasn't already. The shelter was sure he'd be adopted quickly based on his size and age and the fact that he was so stinkin' cute.

I have some more big news... MY SEWING MACHINE IS HERE!!!! I had ordered the Singer Futura CE-250 sewing and embroidery machine through JoAnn's (it was out of stock when I went to buy it) and it arrived today! Curtis just doesn't understand my excitement, so if any of you would care to jump up and down while screaming and embarrass yourself with me, I would really appreciate it! I really, really want to take it out of the box and play, but I have to finish some other projects that I had already started. Like reorganizing my stamp closet and getting everything ready to sell. Hopefully, I'll find some time this weekend to get it set up and play around a little.

This card is a result of cleaning out the stamp closet. I had stacked all my patterned paper up next to a stack of "traitor" (that's non-Stampin' Up!) card stock and the floral piece happened to be lying on top of a piece of brown. I kept looking at that paper and saying to myself, "Self... that floral paper looks splendiferous on that brown cardstock and it kind of reminds me of the Doodle stamp sets". I used the "traitor" patterned paper with Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, and Blush Blossom card stock. The Blush Blossom was supposed to be cut 1/4" larger than the Certainly Celery piece all the way around, but I was on the phone with my sister-in-law and cut it the wrong size. It still worked and looks quite nice, if you ask me. I stamped the corner swirl stamp from "Doodle This" on the Certainly Celerly panel in Certainly Celery classic ink. The flower was made by stamping Ruby Red card stock with Whisper White craft ink and heat embossing it with detail white embossing powder. I stamped the flower again on Blush Blossom cardstock using Ruby Red classic ink. I used my glue pen to add Dazzling Diamonds to that piece, which you can't see very well in the photo. I stamped the flower again on Certainly Celery card stock and just cut three petals out to use as leaves. The stamped image is on the back side, so I just stamped it to have the shape to cut around. The center of the flower is a "Build A Brad". I used the 1/2" circle punch on Certainly Celery cardstock and then added dots with my Signo white gel pen. Once that dried, I added the acrylic topper on the brad. The flower was added to the front of the card using Stampin' Dimensionals.

Well, I guess that's about all I have to say right now. Hope you're having a fabulous week! Toodles!

Our Dog Has A New Home!

We put posters up today in our neighborhood, hoping someone would call about the dog I found yesterday. We haven't heard the ring of one phone yet, so we've decided that we're going to give it to Curt's sister and her family! Congratulations on the new addition to your family, Nicole!!

JUST KIDDING!! She'd KILL us if we gave her a dog! We'd be banned from ever visiting again! Actually, it would probably be worse than that!

We Have a Visitor

My parents would be the first to tell you that I have a soft spot for any critter that looks the least bit homeless. It started when I was VERY young and I've NEVER grown out of it... not even slightly. Tonight, on my way home, I saw this little guy standing right by the side of the street. He was dining, but it was far from fine dining if you know what I mean. He was scrawny (you can see his ribs) and was shivering and had no collar. I whipped my vehicle into the nearest place I could pull over and called to him. He came to me, although a little reluctantly. I brought him home where I introduced him to the back yard with a bowl of fresh water and some food. He ate a couple of bites and headed straight for the back door. It wasn't too long until those brown, pleading eyes had convinced me that he really needed to be inside. SSSSSOOOOOO... we brought him in and introduced him to Ernie, our Lhasa Apso, and Smith & Wesson, our two cats. He and Ernie have had the grandest time playing and are already quite comfortable with one another. Curtis is out in the garage now, cleaning our extra crate, so our little visitor will have a place to sleep tonight... in our bedroom... right next to Ernie's crate. I think all the commotion has given Curt a headache, but he sure is a trooper! When we got married, he didn't like the idea of indoor pets AT ALL. I wasn't going to part with Smith & Wesson, though, so he caved. That was in February 2004. In September 2005, he bought Ernie for my birthday. Tonight he really didn't have a choice since I just showed up at home with doggie in tow. I'll be calling the radio station tomorrow morning so that, HOPEFULLY, we can find his home. IF it happens that we don't find his home, he WILL be learning some manners. He seems to be very comfortable indoors, but lacks some much needed manners that Ernie learned in obedience training. He appears to be a Dauchsund mix, but we're not sure. With all the exitement tonight, I didn't get much else done, so I'll try to post some new projects in the next couple of days.

It's Definitely Missouri Weather!

On Saturday we enjoyed a 12 mile bicycle ride in shorts and short sleeves while the temps made it into the low 70's. This morning we awoke to almost 9 inches of snow and temps that didn't make it out of the 30's today. Ernie enjoyed the snow several times today for very short periods of time on each outing. I'm not sure you can see it or not, but his lips are covered in snow in the third picture. He likes to "root" in the snow!























This is a card that I made when I was trying to figure out what I was going to do for the swaps I'll take with me to this Friday's Stampin' Up! regional meeting. I had already made 20 of the "Essence Of Love" cards seen in a previous post (River Rock, Basic Black, and Whisper White CS) and wanted something that wouldn't be too terribly time consuming.

The image was stamped with Taken With Teal Craft Ink and heat embossed with Iridescent Ice embossing powder. I used Taken With Teal, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, and Whisper White CS along with Bali Breeze DSP. The ribbon is Pumpkin Pie grosgrain ribbon.


By the time I finished this one, I had decided that it took way too long for me to think about making another 19 of them.








Then I started tinkering with some other ideas last night and came up with this card. With Curt's help (he punched all the pieces for the flowers) I was able to get 20 of them made in a reasonable amount of time. The stamp set is "She's All That" from the Occassions Mini Catalog. I used Basic Black, Pretty In Pink, and Whisper White CS. I ran a glue pen along the edges of each flower piece and added Dazzling Diamonds before assembling the flowers. The flower was added to the card with Stampin' Dimensionals. The image was stamped with Basic Black Craft Ink and then heat embossed with Iridescent Ice embossing powder. I thought it turned out very "crisp" and I love it mostly because it's got lots of bling! The second photo is a closeup at a little different angle so you can really see the sparkle.

When I finished with those cards, I still wanted to have some more swaps, so I made fourteen of these cards real quick. These are "business builders" and are little cards measuring a whopping 2 1/2" X 4" that hold a business card. I used More Mustard, Old Olive, and Brocade Blue CS and classic ink. Images are stamped on Whisper White and include stamps from the "Baroque Motifs" and "Sincere Salutations" sets. The "tabs" to hold my business cards were made using the Slit punch.

I STILL didn't think I had enough swaps and I had eight of these 2008 calendars left and wanted to use them up. I added Fall Flowers DSP to a 4" X 4" chipboard coaster. The calendar was added using Sticky Strip. The stamped image is from "Time Well Spent" (Level III Hostess Set) and was stamped in Jet Black StazOn. The flowers were colored with a Really Rust Stampin' Write Marker and the word "Friends" was colored with Soft Sky classic ink and a blender pen. The image was matted on Soft Sky and Really Rust CS. I also stamped the itsy-bitsy flower from "Time Well Spent" in the bottom corner of each page of the calendar in Really Rust classic ink. Of course, I used a glue pen on the flowers and added Dazzling Diamonds to finish it off. Each calendar has magnets on the back. I put one on my fridge just to test it out and they look maw-velous!

Toodles!

Update

We had our first snow this last weekend. Curt took these pictures on the morning of the 24th. It was a light dusting and was completely gone by 9:30 or 10:00 A.M., but it was pretty while it lasted.

Ernie, being the arctic Tibetan dog that he is, loves the cold weather. He almost blends in with the snow...

I've started my Christmas card-making process, but haven't settled on a design for the majority of my cards. I'm trying to stick with a simple layout that I can mass produce fairly quickly. This next card is NOT it. I absolutely love the card, but it would take FOREVER to produce about 80-100 of these and since that's how many I'm going to need, I'm going to have to pass on this one. There isn't much real estate on this card that doesn't have some sort of bling on it, which is precisely the way I like it.

I put our Christmas tree up last night. I had decided that I wasn't going to put one up this year. By the time I finish decorating the tree every year, the cats are starting to take it down. I have an artificial tree that I've had for years, but didn't want to put it up. The problem with that tree is that the branches fit into little holes in the trunk and come out very easily when cats climb the tree - especially when there are two cats climbing the tree... at once... chasing each other... batting Christmas ornaments... slapping... hissing... you get the idea? This year I had a "bright" idea - I'll just buy a pre-lit tree. One where the branches are permanently hinged to the trunk. So far so good. I slept on the couch last night, right next to the tree, with a squirt bottle in one hand and one eye open. Apparently, the one eye didn't stay open too long. I was awakened close to midnight by Smith and Wesson "talking" to each other (it's a half purr/half meow) and running circles around the sofa. They had played Christmas tennis with one of the small ornaments and had it stuck under the sofa perfectly in the center... just far enough under that they couldn't reach it no matter how hard they tried. I got up from my post and went to retrieve something long enough to remove the ornament and return it to it's proper home. I settled back in for another nap and this time, the boys decided to join me. I think their game of tennis wore them out... BRIEFLY. As soon as I started drifting off again, I heard the "tinking" of Christmas ornaments. I was SURE that a large bear had a grip on my tree and was trying to shake dinner out of it. Nope... it was two cats... sitting exactly halfway up the tree, INSIDE the tree, right next to the trunk. Well, they weren't exactly sitting. It was more like a little Christmas Kitty Carousel. As soon as "the boys" heard the sloshing of water in my weapon as I picked it up, they both bounded straight out of the tree looking very innocent. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep last night, but "the boys" had the times of their lives! This morning, I left the tree in the care of my two little Christmas angels while I went to work. All day long I didn't have one vision of sugar plums. I had visions of a horizontal tree in my living room... An angel who would need a proper burial... Christmas ornaments strewn across the living room floor, resembling one of those ball pits that kids play in at amusement parks. I was pleasantly surprised when I came home only to find the angel taking a nap, face down, next to the tree.... her beautiful, peaceful face all in one piece. She had obviously been playing with two ornaments. I know this because they were lying suspiciously close to her little body. It couldn't have been my feline angels who caused this scene. They were sleeping so peacefully on the other side of the room - nowhere even remotely close to the tree. Here are a couple of pictures I took of the tree before Smith and Wesson added their finishing touches...

And here are my little Christmas angels as they were when I arrived home today... worn out from a hard day's work, I'm sure...

This picture isn't very good, but you can kind of see what the outside of the house looks like when I have all the candelabras plugged in.

In other news, I have a date scheduled for my tonsillectomy (now THAT'S some exciting stuff!). I saw the ear, nose, and throat specialist today and will be having my tonsils removed on December 28th. I made sure they were going to knock me out COMPLETELY before the surgery and Dr. Bell assured me that they would. I told her that I was a weenie when it came to stuff like this. Her response was "we specialize in treating weenies". That makes me feel MUCH better! She did tell me that the first week after my surgery was going to be VERY rough. By the sounds of things, the second week probably won't be a whole lot better. I'm planning to be out of work for two weeks or more, depending on how quickly I'm healing and how I feel. Thanks to all of you who have been praying for me. I received a card from my Uncle Don and Aunt Rosalia this last week, which was VERY thoughtful and was a VERY beautiful card. Thank you to both of you for your kind, thoughtful words and your prayers.

My bed is calling, so I'm going to run for now. I think I'll give up my post and actually sleep in the bed tonight. I'm hoping the new has worn off the tree and "the boys" have forgotten about it... IN MY DREAMS!!!