Happy New Year

I welcome 2010 – may it be a year that touches us all with positive energy, peace, happiness and prosperity.
2009 was a personally a year of heartache, but a year of good times and proud moments too.

January – I celebrated my 27th anniversary with Fidelity Investments.
I reconnected and got together with a high school friend I had not communicated with or seen in over 30 years.

February – I became a “reduction of workforce” and lost my job.
I had a weekend away in upstate PA with my “creative friends” girlfriends.
Started blogging

March – began my relentless and frustrating search for a new job.

April – Went to “Parents Weekend” at UMass to see my daughter.
Interviews at 3 different companies.
Had the opportunity to see my daughter row 3 times during the month.
Saw my daughter and UMass with the Atlantic 10 Championship!



Spent a weekend with 2 high school girlfriends I had not seen in more than 30 years in our old hometown.



May – My son graduated from Xavier University in Cincinnati (and did it in 4 years)!
Saw my daughter row 2 more times.

June – One interview during the month.
Went to the beach in Delaware for our annual week at the end of the month, into the first of July.

July – One interview during the month.

August – my son moved back from Cincinnati (and home) to start an internship at Villanova University.
I had 4 interviews with one company during the month and did not get the job.
Interviews with 2 other companies.

September – My son moved out.
Annual weekend at the beach with my rug hooking friends.
Interviews at 4 companies, and my 1st and 2nd interviews at United States Liability Insurance Group.

October – 3rd and 4th interview, and a job offer at United States Liability Insurance Group!
Started my new job on October 19th
Went to Saratoga Springs, NY for the weekend.

November – Had the Friday after Thanksgiving off for the first time in my life.

December – participated in the House Studio art show.

This year the month of December seemed like a whirlwind. I can’t believe Christmas is over and the new year is upon us. 2009 was full of frustration and disappointments and laughs and love and happiness and accomplishments, and new friends.

Cheers my friends – thanks for sharing the year with me.

More......

Oh my gosh, they just keep coming. Today, another plate of cookies arrived. This batch is a little smaller than the last plate but boy are they good cookies! I'm beginning to feel like we have a sign on our house that says, please deliver your baked goods here!
I was chatting with Kathy at Four Dog Day and she said I might as well just go ahead and eat them all and be done with it! LOL! I like that suggestion!

If anyone has a way to exercise while blogging, a virtual blogercize, let me know....I'm going to need it.

More and More Goodies

Oh my gosh, the treats keep coming. We got yet another plate of cookies tonight. That's a couple of plates of cookies, a Cheesecake Factory cheesecake, another cheesecake sampler, a Key Lime Pie, 2 loaves of Banana Bread, and that is all since Christmas Eve! I feel like I'm going to burst, not to mention my clothes! I don't feel bad that I did not even do any baking this year!

I am a very inactive person in general. I don't exercise except to walk, and I don't do that in the winter months. I need to stop eating all these treats now! Thank goodness at work I'm on the 3rd floor and I do take the stairs but doing the stairs twice a day isn't going to work miracles. LOL - anyone else out there having the same problem? Why do we do this to ourselves?

It sure is nice to be back visiting you all out in blog-land. I've missed you all.

Wonderful Holiday Swap

I participated in a great holiday swap thanks to Angela at Pickles on Pizza.
She had the great idea to suggest a swap and paired those of us who wanted to participate up randomly.
Today I received my package from Abby Bohn at The Handbag Girl. Abby has taken her love of purses and started a business of making lovely bags and clutches.
Look at the lovely package of goodies I received!

Not only did I get a tin full of chocolates (what could be better), and a sweet candle scented like sugar cookies baking in the oven, but the icing on the cake (or cookie) was the lovely clutch!

I love it, and the colors - like a fairy god mother, Abby knew my favorite colors - there is magic in the air!
Thank you Abby, and thank you Angela!

I wish you all magic and peace and happiness.

Sitting Pretty

I feel kind of like this little guy sitting with a grin! Things are winding down, things are falling into place and I'm sitting pretty, as the saying goes!

The last gift has been purchased - I need to wrap 2 more presents tonight, get a few last minute items at the grocery store tomorrow after work, and I'm done!
Tomorrow is the last day of work - we are closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - Wow, I've never had Christmas Eve off before. An extra bonus is we close at 1PM tomorrow and have a reception/party in our cafeteria with an auction - I can't wait to see what that's all about!

Winter Wonderland

Wow - First of all, I can't believe that the last time I blogged was Thanksgiving! I think my life is finally slowing down and will get back to a normal pace and I can have some time.

Secondly, I can't believe the beautiful snowfall we had yesterday. If you don't live on the east coast you may not know about the big storm that came through and dumped at least a foot of snow in most places on the east coast. When I went to bed last night the news said 17 inches in Philadelphia but it was still snowing - don't know what the actual count is but it's a lot of snow.
It looks so pretty!
This is our 2nd snow of the season too - very unusual. We got about 3 inches the first weekend of December, when I was participating in my weekend show, and now this big snow!
I drove up to Massachusetts Friday to get Katie and the traffic was so awful coming home we stopped at my sister's house in New York and spent the night. George called me early yesterday morning and told me I better get on the road cause we already had gotten a couple of inches of accumulation in PA. I'm glad we did leave early and made it home safely only driving through snow the last hour and a half of the ride.
I was supposed to work at the shop today - another reason I've had no time for anything because I've been working weekends at the shop in addition to my real job - however with all the snow the shop will be closed (and once Christmas is over I will stop working weekends).
It will be nice to be home today for a change and catch up. Like I said, I think things are finally beginning to wind down and life should get back to a normal pace.


Our beautiful holly tree. I love having the tree right in our yard at this time of year. We are able to cut fresh holly and bring it indoors for the holidays.




It will take me a while to catch up to all of you but I'm looking forward to it to read about what has been happening in your worlds. I've missed you all - you have all become such a wonderful part of my life and it really has been empty without you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have been spending every free second hooking ornaments and have totally been neglecting my blog and reading others, but I will be right back in the blogging-swing of things very soon (after my show the first weekend in December).

Happy Thanksgiving and Love to all....

Hooking Away

The pressure is on - less than 3 weeks till my show and I'm spending every free moment hooking. It's a slow process - I've been hooking 4 ornaments a week for the last couple of weeks so if I can keep up this pace hopefully I'll have enough when I add them to my inventory from last year.
I was not happy with the set I did 2 weeks ago but I really like 3 of 4 I did this week, which I've shared with you. I can't decide which is my favorite!
No more computer time - back to hooking......
Have a great Monday.

Happy Birthday Sesame Street!

Wow! Forty years old! I remember it like it was yesterday! I was babysitting for a little girl in the neighborhood and we watched it together. Even then as a 13 year old I enjoyed it, and I sure loved it with my kids. What's not to love about it?! What a great collection of characters, a great method of teaching and introducing cultures and topics otherwise thought to not be appropriate. I just had the news on and they did a story about it and it brought such momentary joy to me.
Congratulations Sesame Street!

I've felt like I was on another planet since Thursday. I came down to eat my breakfast Friday and check my emails before work only to find I did not have a connection. My router was dead and it was not until today that I recieved my new one. I went to the public library once over the weekend to check my emails but I totally felt like a fish out of water not being connected. No emails, no Etsy, no blogging, no shopping, no Goggle, no nothing! Boy do I feel good being connected again.
I have a lot to catching up to do.
Life is good - being connected again and enjoying warm memories of Sesame Street!

Driving in the Dark!

I hate driving home in the dark! My old eyes just aren't what they used to be. I don't mind the daylight savings change except I HATE DRIVING HOME IN THE DARK after work!
On the upside, I can get up and walk before work at 6:30 AM. With the weather getting colder that plan won't last long, but I'll take what I can get at the moment.

I got my annual mammogram after work tonight so hopefully I'm good for another year.

Productive Week

I'm not sure how productive I've been at work the last 2 weeks but I was productive at home after work this past week. I was able to do the hooking for 4 ornaments, and today I was able to actually make them into ornaments. My favorite is the chicken!
I need to get an inventory built up for a home tour show I am doing the first weekend in December so I'll be hooking like crazy - I hope!

Happy Halloween/Happy Fall

Happy Halloween everyone.
This will be the first year we are not home to answer the door for trick or treaters. I feel bad but we have been invited out to a friend's for dinner. We have a lot of kids in the neighborhood too. I did get candy and I will put it in a basket at the door. I hope the first kids are not greedy and leave some for the others.

The last couple of evenings driving home I have been so in awe of my gorgeous surroundings - it is distracting driving looking at all of the incredible colors of the trees. It is amazing. I took these pictures driving home last night. I wish my pictures could capture the true beauty.




These are taken in my neighborhood - I just can't get enough of this incredible display of color.





Don't forget to turn your clocks back tonight!
:-)

A Good Tuesday

I've made it through day 7 and actually came home for 2 days now headache free! Yeah, maybe I'm over the hump! I am feeling better about what I'm doing on the job too - phew!

It was also a good day cause I had 2 sales on Etsy. I "almost" pulled my pumpkins last night thinking no one will buy them now since Halloween is on Saturday but 2 mini pumpkins sold today! The customer lives in a neighboring state so I assume they will arrive by Friday at the latest.

I just added my "Sweet Nothing" stitched owl to the shop. I hooked him last month and forgot all about him.
I need to start hooking - hopefully I can get myself in a groove to start hooking at least an hour every night. I used to be able to work full time and hook enough to have inventory for shows so I know I can do it again! I have a home tour show I'm participating in coming up the first weekend in December yikes - I need to hook!!!

Saratogo Weekend

We're back from our weekend in Saratoga Springs. It was great! I feel relaxed!
We left early Saturday morning to face the 5-hour ride and meet Lori at the appointed restaurant at 12:00. It was a rainy day.

Driving on the PA turnpike enjoying the beautiful colors through the rain.

Just a drizzly mist of rain but beautiful colors as we started going north in NY.

We had a nice lunch and walked around the town with Lori but it was raining so hard we were totally soaked and could not take any pictures :-(
It is such a beautiful historic area in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains, famous for it's race track and the beautiful lake making it a wonderful retreat in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for the upper classes.

Saratoga Lake around 7:30 AM getting ready for the events for the Head of the Fish Regatta.

This is Katie (pink boots) and her partner in the "Double" carrying their boat to launch. Whether one rows in a single or an Eight, it is the rower(s) who are responsible to get their boat to the water.
This was her first event.
A Double is a sculling (2 oar) event. Katie learned "sculling" in high school but not many are taught to scull. The majority are taught "sweeping", which is using one oar.



Katie's position (she is the one without the hat) in the boat is called bow which means she stears.


Here is Katie with her 2nd event - rowing in an Eight, taking the boat to launch. This is a sweeping event.



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It was a cloudy, gray and chilly day on the lake - we're headed home.

The further south we went the nicer it got and it was a lovely ride home -

I could not resist photographing this beautiful tree at a rest-stop


I feel nice and relaxed - I'm hoping my week will be that way too :-)

TGIF and Fall Foliage

We are peaking in Southeastern PA with our fall foliage. It is a beautiful explosion of color. These are all views out of my bedroom window. Sorry they aren't too clear.





This is our big sugar maple in the back yard that has lost all of it's leaves already. It seems to be one of the first to drop. I love the look of the burning bushes over our neighbor's fence. You may remember I mentioned we lost our tree in the front yard - it was even bigger than this tree. It was so beautiful and I really miss it.

We're driving up to Saratoga Springs NY tomorrow to see our daughter row in the "Head of the Fish" regatta. I think it may have already peaked up that way since it is so much further north. It is also supposed to be raining all day tomorrow. I guess I won't be able to get any pictures - darn - it is such a pretty area.
Katie rows for UMass and this is the only fall regatta we will get to. One of the reasons we make it a point to go to this one is just to be able to go to Saratoga Springs!
I'm also excited to see my good friend Lori Eurto who lives in upstate NY. She is going to drive over to meet us for lunch and stop at one of her favorite bead shops.

Now I can say TGIF! I came home exhausted again today, and with another headache. What's wrong with me? I think probably part of it is the stress of the new job. I need to get back in the groove again. I sure hope I adjust soon.
Hope you all have a nice weekend.