2006 Christmas Loot List!
OK, it’s of course a little late but here is my annual list of Christmas loot (just to document it)… I did so well this year!! I mean really, Kenny abso-friggin’ spoiled me!
From Kenny:
35 mm Fisheye Lomo camera
Whole flash kit for my Canon Rebel XT (flash itself w/ mounting bracket, diffuser & other acessories)
50 mm f/1.8 lens for my Canon Rebel XT
a Gorilla Pod (more camera stuff!)
ear buds for my iPod
set of cube world people
Beanie Baby frog
docking station for my iPod
book
a music CD
digital indoor/outdoor weather station
And my cell phone does not necessarily count – that was just a bonus gift from Kenny!
From friends and family:
pretty shawl
hanging frame set
Texas Gardener magazine subscription
various music CDs
PhotoShop CS2 book
froggie bathrobe
more books
set of oil lamp candles
$$ 🙂
Christmas Weekend Re-Cap
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I know I had a great holiday. Kenny spoiled me with so much loot! I am working on a list of gifts that I will post later… For now, here is the holiday weekend re-cap:
Thursday night: Since we were both taking Friday off, Kenny and I decided Thursday night to head down to the Houston MFA. It was their weekly free day and I wanted to see the dog exhibit before it was gone. I also got to see a lovely photography exhibit. It was wonderful to be at the museum at night and there were no crowds. Kenny says he wants to always go on Thursday nights from now on, it was such a great way to enjoy the artwork.
Friday: This was a very lazy day. I can’t even remember what we did (or didn’t do). I do remember going to a salsa training class that evening. And I remember *still* not feeling 100% better in terms of my head cold. Maybe that is why we were so lazy…
Saturday: All the Christmas shopping was done but I still had not mailed some packages out (I know, I know, bad Elaine). We got the packages mailed and afterward hit Best Buy to tentatively look at PDA options (my Palm Zire is having sync issues). We were surprised to find out Best Buy no longer carries PDA’s – most stores do not since PDA’s are not “the thing” anymore – and instead were sucked into the cell phone section. Now I did not want to give up my trusty old Samsung but the reality was that it was starting to die on me. And although I had looked before I had not found anything I liked. Until I saw the Samsung A900. What a beauty! Half an hour later it was mine and I was annoying Kenny with the camera phone. LOL
And to show you how loyal I was to my old phone, I found out I had had it since December 2002, exactly 4 years. That is ancient in terms of cell phone longevity nowadays!
So, yeah, I feel like I am finally in the 21st century – I’ve got picture mail & internet access (had it but at a cost and it was very slow so I never used it). I can check my blog on my phone, get movie times, check the weather, post pictures to Flickr. Man, I didn’t know what I was missing! And all for no additional cost on my plan. Heck, my plan went down a couple of bucks! Thanks Sprint!
Spent the rest of the day shopping for ourselves, enjoying ourselves. Well, except when Kenny accidentally ran over a glass bottle and slashed open his tire. Thankfully it was fixed within 30 minutes though!
Sunday – Monday: We headed up to Waxahachie (just outside Dallas) with the dogs to spend Christmas with Kenny’s side of the family.
Tuesday: Slept in, tidied up a bit then decided to actually get out of the house. We got a late start but managed to fit in some geocaching which we had not done in a while (found 5 caches, even in the dark), had a lovely dinner at Empire Cafe and caught the latest James Bond film.
I’ve got pictures to post from the weekend which I will do so tonight!
How was your holiday weekend??
Is it almost Christmas?
Wow! Christmas is almost upon us! It sure sneaks up, doesn’t it? Especially when we have unseasonably high temperatures (think high 70’s – low 80’s). I haven’t been able to wear a sweater at all this month!
Anyway, my birthday weekend came & went, we threw a birthday/holiday bash at our place and I blew out a bunch of candles. It was wonderful to see everyone and I wanted to send out a huge thank you to my wonderful husband who did such a great job helping me get ready for the party. He bought all the food and drinks, set up almost all of it (the presentation looked beautiful) and even vacuumed/mopped the house for me. It was the least stress I have ever had to deal with in terms of getting the house ready for guests and I really do appreciate it!
I can’t remember what else we did that weekend but I think it involved vegging around the house, maybe even doing some shopping.
Now it is already Thursday and I have another day off tomorrow making this a long holiday weekend for me. For Christmas itself we are driving to Kenny’s mother’s near Dallas Sunday night for a one-night stay.
So all the shopping is done though, the gifts are wrapped and under the tree and most of my cards are finally done and were mailed today (yes, late but at least they were mailed before Christmas). All I have left is to mail some packages (they can arrive after Christmas, so no big deal) and a handful more cards that will all go out tomorrow at the latest. I am disappointed the cards got out so late but considering I made them myself instead of just using store-bought cards, I am not going to be that hard on myself!
I am really looking forward to the end of the day today, to sleeping in tomorrow, to spending the day with Kenny (we hope to go to the Museum to see the dog exhibit before it ends)… Yippee!!! And we decided to open presents on Saturday before we head out the next day so I even get my presents early! Double yippee!!
What are your Christmas plans?
Sleeping in late on my day off…
Wow. It fell good to sleep in today despite the nagging list of things to do sitting next to my purse. I did wake up congested around 8 AM but some nasal spray solved the problem and I was able to get some more much needed sleep. It is now 1 PM and I am sitting in my pajamas on the couch with Heidi curled up beside me. Taking days off is so nice. 🙂
And my birthday has passed without too much fanfare. Yes, I turned a whopping 33 yesterday! I got a couple of cards, a few e-mails and Kenny sent me flowers and a balloons to work – they were beautiful, thanks Hon! Kenny also gave me a 2-set studio lighting umbrella kit to add to my photography equipment. Now I have to figure out how to use it, LOL. Seriously, I need to learn how to take more portraits because people ask me about this all the time. This light kit is the first step. Next I need a good flash and we are going to look into digital background kits.
Still, the day was low-key. We didn’t even go out to dinner to celebrate but that is OK though because I think most friends are waiting to help me celebrate this coming Saturday. We are hosting our 2nd annual holiday/birthday party that day… another reason I needed the days off because I need to get the house ready!
Well, I am starving so I must go scrounge around the kitchen for some food! TTYL…
I hate being sick.
Ugh. I have been battling congestion since last Tuesday – a full week ago!! It started off as allergies (unknowingly went to a house that had cats) that required taking Claritin for a couple of days. Then it evolved into something more sinister over the weekend.
Sure, I was fighting off exhaustion and I knew I was doing too much but hey, gifts had to be bought, events needed attending, friends had to be seen… Well, I never shook off the stuffy nose and fatigue and yesterday it became a cold. *sigh*
I have now been taking some generic NyQuil equivalent (which is just as effective) and although I am sleeping soundly at night I am still fighting the scratchy throat, stuffed nose and head congestion throughout the day. It just sucks. Add to that the complete feeling of dehydration all the various medicines I have taken have caused and you get a better understanding of how miserable I feel. Since I plan on taking Thursday and Friday off already though, I don’t want to call in sick. I did come in 2 hours later today so I could let the medicine take effect but I still have one more full work day to survive! Ack!
And of course, my weekend was once again busy… A quick re-cap can be found in the extended section… Read more…
Fresh Weekend Update
Sorry – I have been busier than ever these past few weeks and my schedule isn’t letting up. I have had something to do every night of the week since the Thanksgiving holidays and I am tired of running around!!
This past weekend was no exception but it was mostly taken up with Fresh Photography activities so my update will focus on that… The details are in the extended entry but I can give you a shorter summary here:
A lot of work was done to get ready – and manual labor at that. Thursday and Friday were late nights for me (3 AM & 4 AM respectively) and there were some stressful times but nothing was too difficult.
The festival itself I think went well although I had wished we had sold more or at least had had more traffic (the festival in general had lower traffic than expected). The weather was brisk but nothing my jean jacket, scarf and Santa hat couldn’t keep away.
I managed to sell half a dozen prints and a couple of cards. One of my prints was even bought in the frame itself. I feel compelled to tell you that all of my sales were to people I knew but hey, it’s a start and they are customers too!! Christine did about as well.
We have some ideas on how to improve the booth for next month – yes, we will be back on January 6th – but overall loved our blue, wicker and white theme that matches our logo.
Thanks to everyone’s support and for all of you who visited and/or bought our prints. For those of you not in Houston, I remind you that you can buy prints through our website as well. Not all images are up there yet but you can go this set in Flickr to see what images I am offering then drop me a line if you see something you like. The prints make wonderful Christmas gifts for that hard to buy person on your list!! We accept PayPal, checks, credit cards…
OK, for the one or two of you interested in reading more detail… Read more…
Congratulations Hanna & Michael!
Dec. 3, 2006 @ 10:04 AM
7 lb., 12 oz., 21″
Disaster avoided!
Christine and I have been hard at work getting ready for the debut of our photography business, Fresh Photography!! Our first art fair is this Saturday, December 2nd (info above in sticky post)!! There’s been lots of activity to get ready of course…
A major disaster was averted this morning though!! We were late ordering matting supplies (precut mats and the backing) but this vendor shipped very quickly last time so we did not expect a problem. We were getting anxious though so I called this morning to get a tracking number only to find out they order had not even shipped yet!! The vendor had moved locations and there was an unexpected delay in the processing of the order. They didn’t even have enough supplies in stock so there was no way to fulfill our order today and overnight it.
Imagine my panic and horror! These matting supplies were absolutely necessary. Without them we would just be selling un-matted prints in baggies and it would be a disaster. Fortunately, a local art supply store has a wonderful website and to my surprise, they had the volume of supplies we needed (we are matting over 150 prints) and they had them on sale right now. We will be picking the items up this afternoon and will actually save a significant amount of money (about 25%)! The only setback? The backing is not pre-cut so we will need to spend our evening measuring and cutting the large foam board sheets (they are 32″ x 40″). Woo-hoo.
So, I am still nervous and I won’t be settled down until the foam board and mats are sitting in my living room but I am breathing much easier now. And I was able to avoid breaking into tears which is always good. The rest of our to-do list is dwindling so this is good. Yes, all of the manual labor is left (matting all those prints) but the ideas and research and brainstorming and organizing and designing are essentially done. Yay!
I took Friday off from work so Christine and can work on the final preparations, finish assembling prints and buy any last minute supplies, etc. The extended entry section gives further details on where we are at on our to-do list…
Read more…
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