Nov 30th 2005 09:29:09 pm

These are my two new Neopets. They are cute online buddies that I take care of. Neopets.com is pretty much a kids website with video games and other fun things. You create a pet (or up to four) then you collect Neopoints (NP) by playing the online games and exploring Neopia. It is pretty fun even though the site is mostly advertising. I haven’t really done much with my pets yet, but the Neopets site is very intricate. You have to feed your pet and keep them happy by playing with them. There are also special rare objects you can collect. It is hard to explain it all… My favorite part of the whole thing are the Petpets. They are pets for your Neopet! So cute. Here are my two cuties’ cuties!

To sign up for your own Neopet, click here. I get one hundred NP if you sign up from my link. That could buy my pets a lot of Neofood, so get to it!

4 Comments » Categories: Cute Things, Just for Fun, Website

Nov 29th 2005 02:54:16 pm

I received my November Sampler probably two weeks ago, but I barely had time to even look through it until yesterday. It was a nice large bunch of goodies! I am so impressed by the people who submit to every Sampler. I wanted to send in some of my own stationery samples for the Holiday Sampler, but I didn’t get my act together. I only have 12 samples ready. I will have to try to work on getting in the January one.

My favorites of this Sampler are:

- Mermaid Stationery set from DeMarco Designs. I like the shimmery seafoam envelopes!

- Three Wise Men Soap from Molly Artisnal Soap. Smells delicious, like Thanksgiving!

- Autumn Arrives notecard & envelope set from Egg-A-Go-Go. I think this was made on a Gocco. The best part is that the envelope is printed as well!

- Squirrel card from Young & With It Industries. I love squirrels! I think this was also made on a Gocco… plus they included a cute acorn sticker!

- This isn’t in my favorites photo up top, but I also really like the Pumpkin Cinnamon Mashup perfume oil from Lizzie Sweet. Her website isn’t up yet, but I really love the smell of her perfume!

Also received in the mail about two weeks ago was my order from the Piddleloop Store. I had ordered some cards and 1″ buttons. The buttons are so cute and Wendy & Jenny sent me a bunch of lovely extras. Everything is adorable. I especially like the holiday tag with the monkey holding the Christmas ornament. I already have two pouches made by the Piddleloop gals, so I can also vouch for the quality of those!

That is all of my mail updates for now. I have an order in for a broach from the Sampler shop. I forgot who made it, but it is an apathetic whale! Trust me, it is cute. I can’t wait to get it!

1 Comment » Categories: Crafts

Nov 28th 2005 05:32:19 pm

Mom & Dad left this afternoon for the airport after having lunch with Travis and me at a Thai restaurant called Sweet Basil. It was a fun visit with them, packed full of activities. I already wrote about our Thanksgiving meal and the coast. On Saturday we went to the Holiday Craft Market, then the Museum of Natural and Cultural History, then we went to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire! Sunday we went to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Steelhead Brewery for lunch, the 5th Street Market to shop, and then to Hendricks Park to hike a bit. We really hit most of the sites Eugene has to offer! I would have liked to take them to Spencer’s Butte like we did with Brad, but it was rainy and muddy almost all weekend.

I was really looking forward to seeing the new Harry Potter movie. I was not disappointed. The movie was very condensed, and it had to be because the book was like 700 pages long. They did a good job condensing it, but it did seemed rushed at some points and they cut out a lot. Despite wishing that the movie could be twice as long, I really had a fun time watching it. The actors they have cast for all of the roles seem perfect. My favorite is (of course) Ron, but I really enjoyed Cedric and Fleur and Victor, too. I also think Ginny and Cho are cute. I can’t wait to see them in the next movies! It will be interesting to see how Ralph Fiennes plays Voledmort. You could not even tell who he was in this movie. His nose was computer animated to be a snake nose.

I really enjoyed the beginning pf the movie at the Quidditch World Cup when the quidditch teams flew in. My second favorite part was definitely the Yule Ball. It was a funny part. I also liked the second challenge of the Tri-Wizard tournament, the underwater one. I just love that part of the book because Harry tries to save all of the “treasures.” I think it shows that his character cannot be corrupted. Anyway, those are my thoughts on the Goblet of Fire. It is certainly a fun movie, but I think it might be too scary for little kids, like under 7 or so.

I had a really fun Thanksgiving break! I can’t believe it is over. I have been trying to work on homework today, but it is hard. Only two more official weeks of school, then I am on Winter Break! Amazing!

4 Comments » Categories: Family, Just for Fun

Nov 25th 2005 11:34:52 pm

We drove out to the coast today. Well, dad drove. I talked and looked out the window. It was a bit rainy, but when we got to the coast it was clear and we walked out along the jetty. Climbing on all of the rocks was a workout! I had a fun time. We also ate at Mo’s. It was ok. I had something called slumgullion. It is clam chowder with shrimp. Read more about the trip from Dad. See more photos here.

I have kind of dropped the ball on my “thankfulness project” for the month. It is hard to write meaningful posts every day. Especially when I am writing so many papers for school! That is one thing I am NOT grateful for – homework. I don’t care what anyone says! Other than that, I am pretty much grateful for everything. Most especially Travis, and my family, and Travis’ family, and all of the good fortune I have had in my life. I will try to make a few good “thankful” posts before the month is out, though.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Mine has been delightful.

2 Comments » Categories: Family, Photos, Trips

Nov 25th 2005 12:12:09 am

By some sort of miracle my Thanksgiving meal turned out perfect! The turkey was moist and salty, the green beans were tasty, i loved the cranberry sauce, and even the Stove Top stuffing was delicious. I think all four of us enjoyed it. Oh, and the pie was the best pie I have ever made!

I also got to talk to Adam today for a bit, and I talked to Seth on his new cell phone in Kenya… but only for about one minute! He sounds good. He finally got the package I sent out a while ago. I think he is having a good time. Adam, on the other hand, was home alone for Thanksgiving this year, but I think he was ok with that. He had Max to keep him company.

Tomorrow we are going with my parents to the coast. I think it will be fun, but it is kind of chilly here. We are going to go to a seafood restaurant called Mo’s. Sounds delicious to me!

4 Comments » Categories: Family, Food

Nov 24th 2005 12:31:44 am

I keep thinking that I will have more time to post to this blog, and write back all my friends on email, and clean my house… but then I keep having papers to write and projects to turn in…

This week was hectic again. I got sick on Monday and since I was dumb and spent my weekend shopping and baking, I had to finish all of my homework in between sleeping and blowing my nose. Anyhoo, I survivied! And now here we are the night before Thanksgiving!

My parents are coming to visit tomorrow. I am excited! I am trying to make a traditional and fairly simple Thanksgiving meal. Of course, I couldn’t resist trying just a few Martha Stewart recipes. (I know, I know, bad idea.) I cooked up a brine for our turkey to sit in overnight. I hope it will work out. It wasn’t until after I had submerged the 7 lb turkey breast in the concoction that I read that brines are best for fresh turkeys, not frozen. Now, don’t panic, I did thaw it first… I just wonder if the extra work of a brine will actually pay off… I am going to attempt another crazy Martha trick tomorrow by covering the bird in a butter-soaked cheese cloth. I’ll let you know if my Thanksgiving is brought down by my stubborn inner desire to be Martha Stewart.

Tomorrow we are also going to attempt to make real cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, tarragon string beans, Stove Top stuffing (at Travis’ request)… oh, and I forgot that we also have an apple pie baking in the oven right now!

I better get to sleep. Mom & Dad will be arriving at around 1pm and I think we will eat at 3 or so. Wish me luck!

2 Comments » Categories: Family, Food

Nov 21st 2005 02:02:32 pm

I have so many things to post photos of (I received my goodies from the piddleloop store and I received my November Sampler), but I am just going to have to start with the current stuff and work my way backward…

Yesterday I decided to try out some baking. I made two recipes from the Martha Stewart Holiday Cookies magazine. Who would have guessed that recipes from Martha would be difficult! ha! I made the surprise cookies (chocolate cookies with marshmallow and chocolate icing) and the peppermint meringues with chocolate filling. The meingues were basically attempted as a novelty. Their photo in the magazine just looked so cute! They turned out ok, but I think I didn’t whip the meringue enough or i didn’t cook them long enough because they are slightly sticky today. The surprise cookies are tasty, but quite rich… plus they don’t look like the perfect round cookies in Martha’s photos. Oh well. I took them to a group meeting today and almost everybody ate one, so that is a good sign.

You may be thinking, hmmmm, that girl is supposed to be in grad school, doesn’t she have homework to be working on? The answer is indeed yes, but this weekend I just had other plans!

Travis and I drove to Portland Saturday to go to Chipotle and to do some shopping. It was a lot of fun! They have a huge downtown shopping mall that takes up four city blocks! Travis was a dear and was patient while I tried on clothes at J.Crew. I ended up getting some pretty good deals on some nice new school clothes. We also bought some Christmas candles (from Illuminations, not J.Crew). Also, I think we figured out what our little cousin Liam was trying to say recently… he wants to come visit us in Oregon! Booya!

10 Comments » Categories: Christmas, Clothes, Family, Food, Travis

Nov 18th 2005 06:06:35 pm

I had heard a rumor that a certain mother-in-law took this week off of work in order to properly prepare her beautiful home for Christams… so I decided that I needed to follow suit. I set up our tree in about 15 minutes on Tuesday night instead getting started on the paper that was due on Wednesday. (I can always come up with distractions!) This is the third year for our little tinsel tree. I can’t believe Travis and I have been married for three Christmases (spelling?). That is wild! Travis took all of the photos of me, obviously… He was sitting on the couch. He loves Christams decorations, but he is not so much into putting them up. I also bought two new descorations at Traget, but they are not in the photos. Target always has such fun seasonal stuff, I really have to restrain myself from buying too much junk!

We are going back to Kansas City for Christmas this year. I am very excited because we will be home for close to two weeks. I think I am mostly looking forward to being done with this first semester of school! This week was so hectic. I had to write a bunch of papers… School is hard for me. I don’t know how my classmates who work full time or have families can do it. I just feel like we have a lot of homework. Of course, there are only two weeks left, then a finals week, then the semester is over! Plus, I don’t have too much to work on this weekend. I think I only have one paper due next week plus some design assignments. I am also working on another small website for the art center that I volunteer at. I need to work on that this weekend for sure!

I have been feeling sad lately. (although these photos don’t portray that!) I don’t know what my problem is. I think it might be the anxiety of having assignments due all of the time and having to worry about grades. I don’t know. This weekend should be fun, and I have been exercising this week which always helps. I am looking forward to the semester ending, but I feel like I have so much more school work to do before I am done with this program. It is daunting. I have to find an internship for the summer and then I have to WRITE A THESIS! I don’t have any idea how I am going to do that. Don’t tell any of my professors, but I don’t know if I am cut out for this grad school stuff! Although, don’t panic, Mom, I am still getting good grades… it is all just really intense.

10 Comments » Categories: Christmas, Home, School

Nov 18th 2005 11:28:50 am

These lovely goodies are from my Swap Meet craft swap partner, Angela. I received the package a couple days ago, but this week has been so hectic I didn’t have time to post. Angela sent me a beautiful cloth bag made of gold and turquoise kimono-style fabric, a cute set of hand-printed “doggy bags,” and my favorite, an adorable terrycloth bunny! I love that bunny! She named her Ms. Stumpy because she has such short arms, but I think the little arms just make her even more endearing! I have her propped on top of my bulletin board in my craft room (also our office), so I can see her all the time.

Angela has a website she is still working on, but I think it is already quite nice.

I have received a bunch of stuff in the mail this week, so I will be making more posts shortly… stay tuned!

4 Comments » Categories: Crafts, Cute Things, Swap-bot

Nov 14th 2005 11:05:06 am

I just stumbled on these while reading this blog. First of all, Junior Mints are my favorite candy. Second, I love limited edtition candy. Third, I love Christmas candy. I will admit, I have already had the Christmas colors version (and I love them!)… but I must try the Inside Out Junior Mints! They look delicious! Although, I wonder if the outer coating is minty, or if it is white chocolate and the inside is chocolate-mint… so many questions! I must try them!

3 Comments » Categories: Food