Great Christmas Gift #10

One of my recent issues of Bon Appetit rated these loaf pans as the best on the market. Anyone who is working at their less than awesome bread making skillz (ahem, ME) would love to get a pair of these babies.

Plus! GOLD! How pretty are they?

Williams and Sonoma Gold Touch loaf pans

Lets get serious

This is a really important topic to me. So crucial to me, in fact, that I can't believe I haven't broached the subject before in this forum. It is a topic that touches me every single day of my life. I cannot turn it away. I cannot ignore it's significance.





My hair dryer.





In the last year I've bought 3 of them. And all three have broken. I can't even begin to explain to what levels of frustration this has brought me. I'm at the end of my rapidly fraying rope.

Maybe it's because my hair is exceptionally thick and a bit unruly wavy, but they always burn up. Probably its because I've always bought the $25 device at my nearest and dearest Target?

Whatever the source, this frustration has cost me at least $75 in cold hard cash.

Like the day I realized that GAP jeans just aren't going to cut it for me, I'm pretty sure the day has come that I invest in the Citizens-level of hair dryer. Back then it seemed crazy to pay $100 for a pair of jeans that actually fit but now it's perfectly logical. That gives me hope that the $140 price tag on this Sedu dryer will, in time, not seem like something only an INSANE person would spend.

Should I save up my pennies and get it? Anyone have a hair dryer that they love and is under $100?

Socially awkward

The omnipresence of cell phones has made me really socially backward when I'm calling someone I don't know.

I'm so used to calling people who look at their caller id and know that it is me who is calling. There is no need to identify myself. Usually the person picks up and says, "Oh, Katie, I am so happy that you called me. It has brightened up my entire day! I hear birds chirping and feel the warmth of your sunshine entering my soul and cheering my heart."

I don't even need to say a single word.

Recently I bought some tickets off craigslist. Don't get me wrong, I love craigslist with every fiber of my being. I've even started referring to it as THE LIST. There are no other lists before this list. It is the alpha and omega of lists.

The thing I find awkward about craigslist is the whole contacting-a-complete-stranger aspect of it. There is always that first chain of impersonal emails where you exchange information, haggle prices, and set up some kind of plan to meet.

Then the phone calls start. The first call left on a voicemail. The second reply...usually to voicemail again. You finally connect and there is that strange identification conversation. It goes something like:

Me: "Hi, this is Katie, the girl from the Internet, who wants to buy your blah blah blah for $50?"

Them:"Oh yeah, this is so-and-so. I have blah blah blah to see for $50"

Me: "Cool, when and where can I meet you to buy the $50 blah blah blah?"

Them:"Well, I'm in South Denver, where are you?"

Me:" I'm up in Boulder."

Them: "Oh, well, can you meet me at the grocery store that is right next to my house that is terribly inconvenient for you to get to?"

Me: "Umm, I guess."

Them: "Great. I'm going to have you call me on the morning of the day we're meeting, then again when you are on your way, then again when you are in the parking lot, then again after we make the exchange, then again next year for a follow up."

Me: "Um, that's strange, but OK"

Them: "OK, I'm programming your number in speed dial so that I can call you a bazillion times before we make this excruciatingly simple transaction. Sound like a plan."

Me: "OK, you're kind of creeping me out so I"m going to ask a co-worker to come with me to make the exchange"



Oh, wait, this isn't the way your experiences have been? Hmmmmm

Great Christmas Gift #9

As someone who read the first book in this series, trust me, I'm hooked! These books are easy reads and pretty fun. Both by Stephanie Meyer.

New Moon and

Eclipse

Great Christmas Gift #8

Nie Nie featured the artists of this beautiful jewelry on her Friday face a couple of weeks ago and I really liked a few pieces.

This bracelet is really quite stunning...

As are these cute earrings. I could wear them almost every day!

Katie's Christmas

Well, I haven't done one of these in a while and since I love sticking with a holiday theme the ENTIRE month of December, here is a little info about me:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper, especially if I someone puts the effort into designing their wrapping paper look like Jordan or Emily!

2. Real tree or Artificial? I can really go either way on this. Growing up we always had at least our artificial tree and usually a live one two. If you get a nice artificial tree I think it makes trimming a little easier.

3. When do you put up the tree? TREE DAY, duh! (the day after Thanksgiving)

4. When do you take the tree down? Hmmm, we probably won't take our tree down until we get back to Colorado from visiting the ear doctor's parents in California. That means a big mess probably, but that's alright.

5. Do you like eggnog? I can't get enough of the stuff! I love it with every fiber of my being. However, I do thin it down with milk because I think it is way to thick on it's own.

6. Favorite gift received as a child ? Wow, that is really hard to say. I really loved the doll house that my dad built by hand and used scraps of the wall paper that was in our house. It was stunning. I also really liked "my" telescope.


7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes (finally). My mom got the ear doctor and I the most beautiful modern looking white ceramic nativity this year. It looks breathtaking on low black entertainment chest.

8. Hardest person to buy for? My brother-in-law Dan. He's so non-materialistic that its hard for me to think of something he'll actually want.

9. Easiest person to buy for? My sister. I just get her anything that I would like.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Hmmm, I think cards are going to have to wait this year. They are always at the bottom of my list and this year I think we're going to run out of time.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Nothing really comes to mind. Hypothetically, I'd probably just say something that someone re gifted without even thinking about it.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? White Christmas. Hands down. Best movie of the season (and maybe all time?)

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? It's different every year. Sometimes I collect all year long and sometimes I do it last minute. This year it's seeming to be more toward the latter.

14. Ever recycled a Christmas present? Nope.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Handmade chocolates or my Grandma's divinity or that apple cake with the rum FLAVORED sauce. Yummmmm.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear, I like the ornaments to take center stage.

17. Favorite Christmas song ? This year? A tie between the Josh Groban "I'll be home for Christmas" and "Winter Weather" by Peggy Lee.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? I've almost always traveled for Christmas and I like it that way.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Please, that's child's play. Who can't do that?

20. Angel on the tree top or a star ? Either. The significance of either is important and a great reminder of the season!

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Morning for sure! Gifts should be opened one at a time so that everyone can enjoy the giving and receiving of them!

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? The Debbie Downers. I get it that you may not like the season as much as I do (hardly anyone does) but please don't rain on my parade.

23. Favorite ornament, theme, or color? I'm really traditional when it comes to Christmas. I love red and green and anything with a sort of vintagey feel.

24. What do you want for Christmas this year? Peace on earth, goodwill toward men.




The idea for this meme is from Tricia, so go give her props.

Great Christmas Gift #7

Right now they are totally sold out, but this big orangey-red bag is BEAUTIFUL! I am in serious need of a large fabric bag like this. I'm sure anyone on your list would love it too. They take 3 weeks to make because they are all done by hand, so get it quick if you're planning on giving it as a Christmas Gift.

Cool

Has anyone else noticed how cool it looks when you write the months down in order?

I've noticed that if they are all left justified, the ends of the words make a cool wavy shape. This has made me happy for the last 6 months and I just thought I'd share.

Its the small things in life, right?

Another evidence of my company's coolness

I just got a huge, mass email inviting me to come see a slide show from a stranger's vacation to Nepal.

Beat that!

Great Christmas Gift #6

About 5 years ago my little sister got me a beautiful pair of ginger scissors for Christmas...or my birthday...I can't remember which. Anyway, I loved these scissors. Unfortch, between moving almost twice a year for the past 5 years the two of us have parted ways...the scissors and I, not my sister.

If you know someone who likes to make crafts, a great set of scissors is a perfect gift! At Costco last month they had a whole 6 piece set of beautiful ginger scissors for $80 which would be great. Although, there is something nice about getting a pair of handmade scissors.

They remind me of a pair hanging of the edge of my Grandma's sewing table. Beautiful.

Well, jeez

The other day I got the best compliment on my blog. The best EVER. I cannot say how much I loved getting this compliment. Even if someone gave me a Pulitzer prize for what they thought was a creative turn of phrase on my little corner of the world wide web, I would not mean 1/10 of what this compliment mean to me. Even if I started getting the crazy style following of Dooce or Wonkette or any of the other well-read blogs, it would never compare to this.

In an email from my mom:

I was talking with Grandpa this morning and he was chuckling about your blog. He told me that he reads your blog all the time. He thinks you should be a journalist or a writer. He loves you and thinks the world of you. In his eyes you can do anything.

Nice, huh? I wish everyone in the world could get this kind of love and support from their families.

Great Christmas Gift #5

I almost bought one of these for myself last year because I think it would look so cute on my desk at work. This would be a great gift for a friend!

Letterpressed calendar.

Good idea Bad idea

Good idea: sleeping in this morning. Last night I did so many barrel rolls in my bed that I almost turned into a river otter.

Bad idea: rushing out of the house without eating a crumb. Not even a little splash of egg nog passed my lips.

Good idea: wearing my bright yellow jcrew sweatshirt and my big fluffy puffy black vest.

Bad idea: wearing ballet flats without socks. It was 17 deg F this morning. Brrrrrr

Good idea: listening to my new Josh Groban Christmas CD on the way to work. Hooray for the holidays!

Bad idea: listening to Josh Groban belt out how he'll be home for Christmas. Even though I love my in-laws, I'm really going to miss being with my parents this Christmas.

Good idea: getting my daily hit of free hot chocolate at the work dispenser.

Bad idea: using a Styrofoam cup and messing up the environment.

Good idea: Looking for tickets to go see White Christmas on stage in Denver in the next couple of weeks on craigslist.

Bad idea: Trying to haggle someone down in price and end up frustrating myself.

Good idea: Remember the holiday cheer that should be in my heart and try to be nice to everyone at work.

Bad idea: Eat too many of my co-workers candy out of her candy bowl. Feeling slightly sick.

Good idea: Print off the invitations to the small Christmas party I'm throwing for some of the kids at my church.

Bad idea: Don't notice that the printer is out of colored ink until after they're printed.

Good idea: Think of the perfect gift for my dad.

Bad idea: Realize that the gift might weigh a ton and I'll have to ship it out to him.

Good idea: Get excited about spending a WHOLE WEEKEND with my sweet ear doctor.

Bad idea: Realize it's only really 2.5 days, not 2.5 weeks that I want.

Great Christmas Gift #4

If you know someone who likes to cook and bake (like me), and who likes to know the history of a recipe (me, again) and who likes trying new things every time they cook (me), this cookbook looks like it would be great. I don't have it....yet....but I've flipped through it and it looks stellar!

America's Best Lost Recipies!

Our first together

Last night the ear doctor and I finished putting up all our Christmas decorations, capping the experience off with trimming our first tree together. Here is our step-by-step tree decorating process:

1. Ear doctor slowly rotates tree around and around while I stand across the room to determine the exact angular position that shows of the most beautiful sides.
2. Pull out the new string of fancy 8-phase blinky lights and make sure they work alright.
3. Our tree is tucked in a corner of our living room, so we debate back and forth about whether we are going to loop the lights around the back of the tree, or zig zag across the front. Decide on the zig zag technique.
4. With the ear doctor on one side of the tree and me on the other we zig zag the blinky lights up.
5. Both cross to the other side of the room to make sure blinky lights are even. See that they are decently spaced and return to the tree.
6. Add two more strings of cheap normal tree lights so that our tree has a magical, only a few little lights twinkling effect (the ear doctors great idea!)
7. Add the light up Christmas star that I bought for $10 4 years ago. Not my dream tree topper, but it looks ok.
8. Stand across the room and again appraise our work. After some poking and prodding the light phase of tree adornment is deemed acceptable.
9. Have a moment where I look at my wonderful husband and realize that this is the first of many, many Christmas trees we will trim together.
10. Get a little choked up.
11. The ear doctor stations himself on the other side of the room while I get the bead garland under control. The ear doctor is very particular about the spacing/drooping/alignment of the bead garland, so he directs while I do the placement.
12. We decide the beads look alright.
13. Move on to the Christmas ornaments.
14. All special or sentimental ornaments go up in the best spots at eye level.
15. Place the reindeer my good friends got me last year dead center, next to the blown glass wedding cake from my mom and the cute little Santa I had from last year.
16. Get a little overwhelmed at how much I'm loved.
17. Decide the the tree is looking a little bare still and pull out the sparkly wide gold wire ribbon and add bows across the tree.
18. Impress myself with how good that looks.
19. Stand back and admire the tree.
20. Decide that we should get some candy canes to hang on it.
21. Look down at all our unused red ball ornaments and ask the ear doctor if candy canes are the only thing missing.
22. Wonder why he left the room for a minute.
23. Hear him call out from the other room, "there's one more thing it's missing."
24. Fall head over heels for him again when he comes back to the room with a pretty bag and an white tissue paper wrapped present.
25. Unwrap the present (I love presents) to find a custom ornament that he'd picked out for me with our last name and 2007 on it.
26. Like a jerk, ruin the moment by commenting that the little girl on the ornament has yellow hair, not red.
27. Test the ear doctor's patience....again.
28. Throw arms around man of my dreams, then turn and place the perfect ornament in the perfect spot of our perfect tree.
29. Stand back and enjoy.
30. Try to take a picture to share on my blog, but realize the camera's battery is as dead as a doornail.
31. Hope people who read my blog will have patience like the ear doctor.

Great Christmas Gift #3

Every time the ear doctor and I go to Costco (once a week) we look at these cool books. Inside they teach you everything from first aid to how to fight like a pirate. There's history and crafts and all kinds of awesome ways to spend an afternoon. I'm sure they're supposed to be for kids, but they are really really cool. For the kid inside every grown-up:





Daring book for Girls and Dangerous book for Boys

An email from the ear doctor

This is what it said:

Babe,

I hope your day is going well. I just saw a 3 MONTH OLD baby in the clinic who had more bling than any adult I've ever seen. Not only did he have a fat gold necklace and ring on one hand, but he was also sporting the ring in the attached picture. Note how many finger holes there are.

And here is the attached photo.

Yes, that is a gold ring with holes for 2 little infant fingers. I think we're going to get one for baby Charlotte. All the other kids in the St. Louis ghetto will be so jealous!

(Charlotte doesn't really live in the ghetto, that comment was just for effect :)

Great Christmas Gift #2

For anyone who likes to do projects (ahem, me) this 5 piece basic Gocco printing set is an awesome gift! I could use this for SO many different things! Plus, buying things off Etsy is SOOO good!

Tree Day

I cannot begin to tell you how great it was to be home with my family for Thanksgiving! Seriously, so amazing. I got to play with the baby to my heart's content. She is at the wanting-to-be-bounced-all-the-time-by-aunt-Katie phase, so I gladly performed the task. Guess what. You have to be SO strong to be a mom and lug that dead weight around all the time! My biceps were KILLING me the next day! Who knew?

Thanksgiving is great and stuff, but my favorite day is the day after Thanksgiving which my mom has turned into another holiday....TREE DAY! I've explained the genesis of this most wonderful of holidays in many years past, so I'll skip with that. I'll just have to say that I loved that the ear doctor could help my dad put up the lights on the house. I love that he was there to help me with the tree. His help on the gingerbread house was crucial. And seeing his eyes light up at his snoopy, smartie-filled race car was priceless.

Great Christmas Gift #1

This awesome poster (in seafoam green) could find a place in anyone's house!


Poster from Keep Calm Posters, and black 19.75 x 27.5" Ribba Frame from IKEA.