3 Funny Funny Things

If I was a more consistent blogger I would call this Tuesdays Laugh Blast, and promise you something funny every Tuesday. I feel like that would just be too big of a promise so here is at least one post of some things that made me laugh this past week.

1. Share it Maybe: Cookie Monsters cover if Call Me Maybe. R and I listened to it three times in a row while making his Grover and Cookie Monster dolls dance to it. We also danced. Nannying has brought back to my attention how funny and brilliant Sesame Street can be. I am tempted to share so many more Sesame Street goodies with you but I am restraining myself to one, you are welcome.

2. This picture had me can't-breath-laughing. Lord may it be true!

3. Mindy Kaling: I just read her book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? HILARIOUS! It's written in the same style as Tina Fey's book. I just watched all of the episodes of her new show The Mindy Project, and laughed many many times. I recommend both.

Happy Laughing!

Tree Trimming

Another title for this blog post could have been, "My mom and I are sentimental saps." That is really what this post is about. 

Over Thanksgiving I got my belly full of turkey, and sat back and let the tryptophan lead me into a food coma. While many people gear up to go Black Friday shopping,* Mom and I prepare ourselves for a day full of memories. Our Christmas tree is one big, pine scented scrapbook of our lives. We don't know how to decorate our tree without crying.

Walking down the wooded path.

Getting a tree has been the same every year that I can remember. We call the Christmas Tree farmer, and let him know that we are on our way. Dad, Adam, Kurt, and I, and for the last two years Jack, load into our truck and head over. When we get there we walk down a long wooded path. It opens up into a field full of trees just waiting to be selected to be taken home and covered with lights and cheer. When we were little we would play hide and seek among all of the trees.

We always argue over how tall the tree should be. I am on the taller side of the argument, and contrary to popular belief, I don't always win. The tree farmer cuts down our tree. We bring it home and Mom declares that is the best tree we've ever had, even if it is a bit small this year. After making sure the tree is secure, straight, and watered, the boys depart to do something manly like watch football or repair a toilet (they really did that this year), while mom and I are left to decorate the tree, because "you two love that sentimental girlie stuff." Kurt did put the lights on for us this year, which was a huge help, thanks Kurt!

Looking for just the right one.

Tree Picked

Adam adding water.

Mom and I then start to pull the ornaments out of boxes and place them on our tree. They remind us of places we've been and people we love. We tear up over the ones that remind us of people who are no longer with us.

When my mom was little some of her relatives didn't have enough money to buy presents for everyone. Instead they collected nuts from their yard and painted them making these ornaments.

This is one of the ornaments that used to be on my Grandma Joyce and Grandpa Don's tree. It was one of my favorites when I was little. Now it gets to be on our tree.

Every year my Aunt Lori gets us ornaments. Last year I asked for a lion to represent Aslan.

My Dad's Aunt Emma made this beaded bell, we have a few of them on our tree.

Three pairs of baby shoes for the three of us kids.

Mom brought this home from her family trip to Hawaii, it was the last trip they took before we lost Grandma.

Grandpa's loved to play monopoly especially with his grandkids. We got him this money clip one year for Christmas. I don't think he ever used it, but Boardwalk with a Hotel was his favorite way to take us down, and it reminds us of him. If we landed on Boardwalk, he would sit back in his chair like a king, half smoked cigarette in hand, and gleefully exclaim "Oh yes, my most expensive one." The butterfly was on his flowers at his funeral. 

This year we lost a big beautiful tree that stood in the middle of our yard. This tree provided our house with shade and privacy. It provided a home for countless squirrels, which provided us with countless hours of entertainment. You know how much we love squirrels, and they seriously yelled at us for taking down their home. All this adds up to us being pretty devistated about losing our tree so i decided to make us an ornament from the saw shavings.

Our tree in the center, on a summer day.

The top of the tree on Easter when we released sky lanterns.

As the squirrels call it; The Massacre

Drying out the wood and filling the ornament.

A new memory added to our Christmas tree.

What memories are on your tree?

*Black Friday was named thusly because it is the day that the stores ledgers go from being in the red to being in the black, therefore it was meant to be a positive name, instead of the negative one that it has become. I prefer the postivie meaning.

Thanksgiving Heart Preparation.

I think we have already established that I cry as often as you can find a rerun of Friends on tv. If football makes me cry, it only logical follows that so also do many many things. Well today friends there were buckets of tears as I began reading One Thousand Gifts.

I remember when it first came out, the Zon (Amazon.com) told me I would like it. Fool that I am, I didn't fully trust the Zon's recommendation; and so I put it on my wish list thinking I might get to it someday. Slowly I started hearing people talk about how great One Thousand Gifts is. It started being recommended to me, so I decided that November would be a great month to read a book about thankfulness. I invited my roommates to join in, and I started reading yesterday. Oh how I wish I would have trusted the Zon and bought the book two years ago. I have to force myself to keep from reading more, and instead meditate on the dosage that I have been given.

Ann Voskamp's words are like dark chocolate melting in your mouth and warming your insides. The are profoundly poetic, and I find that I prefer to read them aloud. I thought I was a thankful person, and now I am broken hearted over the arrogance of my unthankfulness. Although only two chapters in, I highly recommend that you join myself and my roommates, and make it part of your Thanksgiving celebrating. I submit this sampling to entice you:

"I wonder too... if the rent in the canvas of our life backdrop, the losses that puncture our world, our own emptiness might  actually become places to see. 
To see through to God.
That that which tears open our soul, those holes that splatter our sight, may actually become the thin, open places to see through the mess of this place to heart-aching beauty beyond. To Him. To the God whom we endlessly crave."

Trick or Treat Memories

I'm all set up. I've got some Halloween music playing.  My Jack-O-Lantern is lit and better that ever!!! Don't you agree?

My stash of candy is by the door waiting to go. I hope it's enough. It is full of Reese's peanut butter cups, Grandpa's favorite. It's at this time of year that I miss my grandpa the most. His birthday is in October, and I think he just liked to claim the entire month. He always made sure to hand out full sized candy bars to the many many trick-or-treaters that came to his door. Grandpa never had a lot of money, but he never skimped on dessert.  He loved watching all of the neighborhood kids come to his door year after year. As a kid growing up his neighborhood was epic when you measured your haul at the end of the night. My own neighborhood was fun, but Grandpa's was where the candy was at. Over the years I made appearances as a crayon, Princess Diana, The Statue of Liberty, a Witch, a ladybug.

My neighborhood was pretty spread out so my Dad would hitch our wagon to his tractor and fill it full of hay. All of the neighbor kids met at our house and Dad took us door to door together in one big group. The very first year there were only four of us in the whole neighborhood. We got pretty incredible homemade treats that year, because the neighbors were so excited to have kids finally trick or treating in it again. Now our neighborhood is much bigger. Too many kids to fit in our hay wagon, and many more houses to stop at.  My last year trick-or-treating was my favorite. My next door neighbor, Kristina and I dressed up as old ladies together. Our acting skills could have won us Emmies that night, and they did get us kicked out of our local mall.

The Trick-Or-Treaters have arrived, so I must go, but what are your favorite Halloween memories?

Election Thoughts...Be Nice

Every Halloween I look up and down the aisle at all of the ridiculously skimpy costumes for sale, and I wonder how Halloween became a free pass for women to dress so inappropriately. I'm all for dressing up, but you still need to be just as smart about your choices as any other night, maybe even more so.

I now watch election season unfold, and I wonder how election season became a free pass to be so hateful a disrespectful to one another. I'm not even talking about political adds. You would think that at a time where people hold these issues so close to their hearts, people would take special precaution with what they say as to not hurt each other. Instead the very opposite happens. I understand that politics are passionate. We should get fired up about such a crucial decision as who is going to lead our country. However, this does not mean that it is okay to be unkind to people who have opposing views to our own.

By my own family members, I have been called uneducated, and through facebook, a cry baby, and a moron. I'm not going to pretend that didn't hurt, especially since I don't post political things over facebook unless I think they are pretty safe. I watched family members dish out much worse to each other. I have even seen someone wish death to a candidate. 

I want to turn to these people and ask them, "Do you really believe that I don't want the best for America? Not just the best for me, but the best for you as well. Do you really believe I don't educate myself about the candidates and the issues? Do you really believe I would make my choice just because that's what my parents did or that I just don't get it? Finally, do you really believe that when you make your unkind comments to me, or really to anyone who believes the same things I do, that I'm not invested enough in my decision that your comment didn't hurt?"

Hear this. I take great care in forming my political views, and I vote the way I do because I truly and passionately believe it would be the very best choice for the whole country. Most importantly I believe the same is true of you. I believe that you made your decision (even when it is different than mine) because you believe that it is best for the country. I do not think that you are uneducated, or that you simply don't get it. I believe that you have put thought into your decision, and I respect you for it.

I am not afraid to declare that I believe Mitt Romney is best choice for the 2012 election. I feel very strongly about this decision that I have made, and I am very fearful for what America might look like after eight years of Obama. I hope that if you are voting for Obama you feel just as passionate about your decision as I do about mine, and I believe that you do.

I want you to support your candidate on facebook, twitter, and where ever. We absolutely should be advocating for what/whom we believe in. I am just so very weary of watching what could be a respectful discussion turn into words that are hurtful and unkind. Can we all agree to be a little more respectful of each other? Before we post or comment, lets choose to believe that we each want whats best for the country, we just believe that we will get there on different paths.

One thing that is certain, is that every four years there are millions of Americans that are disappointed, because the candidate that they fought so very hard for was not elected. Still, we progress. Yes there are ups and downs to our history, but if past Democrats and Republicans, Federalists and Whigs, and even the Bull Moose found a way to survive what they thought was certainly the ruin of our country, so can we. Whoever we turns out to be.

My Not-So-Favortie Things

To distract me from the disappointment of what's happening in the Buckeye game right now, I decided that since I made a list of my favorite things I would also make a list of my lest favorite things. All of the things I don't like. Not the obvious things most people would dislike, such as murder, household chores, and that state up north, but things that are unique to me.

Sprinkles (not all sprinkles just this kind)

Long shirts under tank tops.
Gum. I don't like to chew it and I don't like to listen to you chew it either.
Chai
Nuts
Doritos
Shirts covered in rhinestones.
Female commentators for male sporting events. (This one is very prevalent to me right now.)
Over used font styles. (Comic sans, papyrus, you know who you are.)
Having to plan my own Birthday
Carnations
Seafood
Running
Flavored Coffee
Flavored Creamer
Yogurt (I have tried so hard to like it!)
Grammar, If you understood what I said then my communication was successful.
Subarus (I know a lot of people love them, but I just don't get it.)
Orange Juice
Pencils
Blue and Black ink pens.
Halloween decorations. (This a new development. I love fall decorations, but I have found that I no longer like Halloween decorations)
Milk Chocolate (I can eat unending amounts of dark chocolate, but a single milk chocolate chip makes me queasy)
Candy (unless of course its made out of dark chocolate, and has no nuts ;)
Political and Religious bumper stickers. (I might even agree with you, but the butt of your car is just not the place.)
Plastic Cups
Boys on Pinterest
Cats!!!!!!

Luckily this list is much shorter than the things I like list. Also a plus, the distraction seems to have worked and The Buckeyes won in heart attack inducing style.

What are some things that you dislike that would surprise people? Do you dislike anything that most people love? Please share!!!

Football Makes Me Cry

It does. It sounds ridiculous but I get so much joy out of football that it makes me cry. They are always happy tears. I don't ever remember crying over football out of sadness, oh wait yes I do. I cried in sadness over on of my brother's high school games, but to be fair there was a lot more going on there in addition to football. It's not just the football, it's the band, and the drum major, and the tradition. It's being in a stadium with 100,000 other people all desperately cheering their team and praying for a common goal. It over coming obstacles and beating the enemy. I have a friend who is convinced that this kind of unity among fan is a reflection of community in Heaven.

Football movies tear me to pieces. When Big Mike is drafted, when the Titans win the last game, when Rudy makes the sack and is carried off of the field, buckets of tears. It's really quite embarrasing.

The lastest football related something to make me cry? Feast your eyes. TBDBITL for sure!!!

(if you're wondering it was the horse that made me cry, and it probably should be noted that I cry very very easily)

A Few of My Favorite Things

I knew it! I knew that my blogging would be sporadic at best, but I really do aspire to be a regular blogger. I thought I would start back up with a fun blog that I saw the Pioneer Woman do, and I've always wanted to do one of my own. A simple list of my favorite things. Feel free to agree or disagree. I have now scheduled actual time for blogging into my calendar, lets see if I can stay on top of it now.

A Few of My Favorite Things (in stream of consciousness order):

Musicals
Football
Ohio
Family (a blanket favorite to you ALL)
Autumn
Chalk
Chalkboards
Conference calls wit my family
Mail
Rubber Stamps
Castle
Pride and Prejudice
Shark Tank
Labrador Retrievers
Pumpkins
Apple recipes
Peach (the color)
Mythbusters
Chevrons
Pot roast
Amazon
Anthropologie
Easton at Christmas time.
Candles
Dresses
Dresses in the Fall with tights, cardigans, boots, and belts
Books
Coffee
Herbal tea before bed
Pinterest
Hulu
iPhones
Dyson vaccumes
Kitchen Aid Stand Mixers
Mountains
Flowers ( not carnations)
TBDBITL
The Horse Shoe
Grey
Skinny Jeans
Skiing
Knitting
Crocheting
Sewing
Pixar movies
Disney Everything
Sweaters
Boots!
Belts over your clothes
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Weddings
Dancing
Catching the boquets
T.J. Maxx
Facebook
Pumpkin
Christmas
Fall and Winter Smells
Winter
Snow
Sunshine
Parenthood
Kira Knightly
Jimmy Fallon
White Christmas lights
Manicures
Pedicures
Ikea
Blankets
Home Decore
Being at a football game when its freezing outside
Journals
Stabilo Pens
Gift cards (I use to hate on them, but now I'm all about them)
Gift giving
Mail (yep again)
Tea Pots
ESV Bibles
Baths
Wine
The Pioneer Woman
Bowling Green
Church
Barns
Weddings in Barns
Sephora
Neutrogena products
Football movies
The Jesus Storybook Bible
Giving stuff to Goodwill
Getting stuff from Godwill
Doilies
Harry Potter
Sunglasses
Narnia
Stuff Christians Like
My friends blogs
Nana's cooking.
Fancy Denver Restaurants
Clean Kitchens
French Presses
Mail

Not a complete list by any means but it is a start.

27 Wonderful Things About My 27th Birthday

1. It's 13 days away from my trip home.
2. 7-11 is the easiest birthday date to remember and everyone remembers my birthday.
3. Facebook birthday wishes all day long.
4. With the time change I started getting birthday wishes at 10pm the night before.
5. Anthropologie Jellyfish.
6. Christmas Tree inbox. On Christmas you wake up to presents under the tree, today I woke up to actual presents in my email inbox.
7. Stuff Christians Like post.
8. Epic voice mail from Uncle Larry
9. An invitation to Disney World with Kaitlin.
10. Breakfast Muffins
11. Erica Reese in Denver
12. Birthday Tom's
13. White Roses and Chocolate from Lance, Allison and Family
14. Wearing my birthday dress.
15. Knowing my mom and Dad looked through my baby pictures.
16. Home made chocolate cake with heart shaped sprinkles sprinkles.
17. G and R singing me Happy Birthday
18. Homemade drawing by G.
19. Michael's gift card.
20. Framed pictures of me with G and R.
21. Pasquini's happy hour.
22. Free Tiramisu
23. So You Think You Can Dance.
24. Sunflowers.
25. Watching people (including a man in a dress) bicycle past Pasquini's
26. Making plans to see Joyce and Jacquline.
27. Knowing that the Lord brought me through this year and to the place that I'm currently in. He provided abundant blessings throughout the day. Knowing that he will be with me through all the years to come.

Rocky

I love squirrels. To me they are not destructive rodents, instead they playful critters that have provided me countless hours of entertainment. In Ohio we put squirrel feeders in our front yard, and we sit at our dinning room table and watch the squirrels every day. They chase each other around and stand guard over the feeders until the next bigger squirrel comes and takes their place. For Christmas we got my Dad a new squirrel feeder with a huge glass jar for the squirrels to eat in so that you can watch them better. It took the squirrels a little bit of time before they got brave enough to use it. I am not exaggerating when I say that we waited in anticipation for weeks for the squirrel to start using it. When they finally did, calls were made that went like this:

Erin: "Guess what I'm look at right now in the front yard."
Dad: "What?"
E: "A squirrel in the feeder with the glass jar."
D: "Nooooooo."
E: "Yes."
D: "You can actually see him in the jar eating?"
E: "Yes, he is in the jar eating."
D: "Nooooooo."
E: "Yes!"
D: "Take a picture! I'm missing it."

When I went to Bowling Green squirrels scampered all across campus. There was an albino squirrel for a while, and it was like you were given a badge of honor if you were one of the lucky ones to spot it on campus. (It was hit by a car before I got to see it. There was an article written about it in the BG News when it died, unfortunately their archives do not go back that far for me to link it for you.) Watching squirrels play has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.

This is why I am being completely serious when I tell you the day a squirrel showed up in our back yard, I felt like God sent that squirrel to me. I walked out and there he was perched on the wooden fence watching me as he ate food he had pilfered from our compost. A couple days later I watched him drag a rotten pear out of the compost to his little nook behind our trash cans. When I found an ear of corn in the back corner of our fridge, I put it in his spot on the fence, and I was rewarded the next day when I came home a saw him eating it.

I named my new friend Rocky (after the mountains). If I'm working in the back yard he sits up in the neighbor's tree and watches me, and we make polite conversation. I tell him about the squirrels at home, and he asks me why I'm not bring him more food. One day when I put the trash can back in it's spot near his nook, he was not happy and chided me rather loudly from his tree branch.

This is Rocky's friend Oscar. I'm pretty sure Oscar was put there to scare Rocky away, but they became friends instead. Oscar is a really good listener!

Botanic Gardens

My friend Kaitlin and I went to the Botanic Gardens thanks to some free tickets! We felt as if we traveled from the world of Jane Austen to Narnia to the desert to Hobbiton to the rain forest. These picture will do more justice than my words ever could.

 

 

 Kids laughing and playing in sprinklers and rolling down the hills. Better that any of the flowers we saw.

 

Jane Austenish

 

 

 

The Entrance To Hobbiton

Mountains and Lighting and Mumford and Sons

One of the hardest things that I have to do since moving to Denver is saying goodbye to my friend Jacintha. She and I went to Bowling Green together, and I moved here a month before she had to move back to Ohio. Before she left Jacintha and I got to spend a wonderful day together in Fort Collins. On our way back to Denver we decided to detour through the mountains. The sun was just beginning to set, and we put Mumford and Son on for our traveling soundtrack. What happened next we both consider to be a huge gift from God to bless our hearts. Lightning and thunder. We watched and listen to a thunderstorm stay just in front of us. It lite up the sky and silhouetted the mountains. We found a Chick-fil-a for a late night snack. Finding ourselves in a blinding downpour, we caught up to the storm on the busiest part of the highway. The day was spent reminiscing about Bowling Green, remembering life changing conversations, awkward moments, and being so grateful for the people who have molded into who we are today. Such sweet memories.

Here is a picture Jacintha took on our mountain drive.

Looking Past My Teddy Bear

If you read my last blog post, Keys, you saw that at the end I gave a little rant about octopuses. They have been made into adorable stuffed animals and cartoon figures, but in real life they are terrifying and in my opinion, gross as heck. Super slimy with eight legs that will suction cup you to death. Why oh why do we make them cute and cuddly? (If you happen to actually love the real version of octopuses, please don't take offense.)

Same goes for Bears. Stephen Colbert has proclaimed a war on Bears for this very reason. We let kids hug their teddy bears and fall in love, yet let a kid hug a real bear and chances are they will be eaten. The grizzly man was convinced that Bears were just misunderstood, but even he was eaten by a Bear.

We like to take things like Octopuses, and Bears, and many other things and portray them as much safer than they really are. We take all of the fear out of them and think of them as comforting and cuddly. I was thinking about this, and I realize that I do the same thing to God.

It is so easy to remember the safe characteristics of God, to think of him as a dotting Father, to camp on the stories of Christ loving on children and dining with prostitutes. To celebrate the verses in Zephaniah that declare that God rejoices over us with singing. The reality is that we are also commanded to fear God. 

Philippians 2:12-13
 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,  for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Psalm 128:1
Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways!

I've been reading through the old testament this year, and God is indeed scary. People are struck down for what seems to be the smallest of sins. There is war upon war. Oh and there is also that little story of a flood that wipes out the entire population, save Noah and a boat full of animals. What do we do with this God who is worthy of fear and trembling?


I know for a long time I just didn't dwell on the scary side of God. I would steer clear of Acts, because I didn't want to think about Ananias and Sapphira. I made excuses that the Old Testament was a different time, a different covenant. The reality is that God is constant and never changing, and the fearsome God that the Israelites worshiped it the very same God I talk to everyday.

It is also true that God is only good. There is no evil in Him and so these parts of God that are scary, they too are worthy of my praise. They are to be embraced and rejoiced over. It seems very strange to celebrate some of these things, like a flood wiping out the worlds population, or a woman turned to a pillar of salting for looking back at her old life, (however wrong her old life was) but this is what I am learning to do. I am learning to rejoice over all of who God is, not just the parts that are comfortable and easy. I am learning to look past my teddy bear aside, and to see the bear as he truly is.

Keys

Just a super quick post to show you my latest Pinterest inspired project. I now have a key to my home in Denver that looks identical to my key for my home in Ohio. There is no way I'm taking my Ohio key off my key ring, so I wanted to find a solution to differentiate between them quickly. I at first thought to pick up those cheesy key covers, but Pinterest offered a much cheaper and more attractive solution:

Nail Polish!

Coral for Denver, Teal for my Ohio barn, and brown sparkles for my Ohio home. The technical name of the brown sparkles is Warm and Fozzie, and it is currently on my fingers and toes as well. 

Oh and the carabiner is a moose obtain many years ago from a Caribou Coffee... so I guess is actually a caribou. The point is no, it is not an octopus, they are cute and all in their cartoon/plush versions, but the very real octopuses totally creep me out. Who decided to make them cute and cuddly?

Wash Perk

There are so many fun locally owned coffee shops in Denver. Thanks to my friend Kaitlin, I m now a fan of Wash Perk. It is my favorite coffee shop... so far. It is very community driven, with bulletin boards covering the walls, and local art for sale. There slogan is Coffee, Conversations, Community, I love it! The coffee is great, but what I love most is the atmosphere. It's in a residential area away from all the busy roads, its quiet but still busy. I can really get a lot of work done there. Also it is dog friendly, there are spots to chain your dog to where you can sit by him and drink your coffee. Last time I was there, there was a Lab that reminded me of Jack, and it was all I could do not to go and get a dog right then and there. The best part of Wash Perk is that it is on Ohio Ave. Come and visit, and I will buy you a drink.

Before and After: Desk

A couple things that I have been needing for my room is a desk and chair. Though I do love Ikea, none of the desk options that they had were what I was looking for. I decided to try and find a desk a thrift store that I could gussy up and make my own. Thanks to Yelp I found an awesome store in Lower Downtown (LoDo) called Cash from Clutter. When I walked in the door I was offered a beer, and the woman who owned the place was so helpful and accommodating. I found just the kind of desk I was looking for and an amazing wooden chair on casters. My total for the two pieces was only $45, which was way under what I had budgeted.

I loved the chair as it was, but I really wanted to do something special with the desk. after a little research on Pinterest I had my game plan. Here is the desk before.

I started to sand the desk by hand, and God bless him, my neighbor, Mike, saw what I was doing and offered me the use of his electric sander. I don't think I would have made it through the project without that electric sander. I spent the entire first day sanding, and even part of day two.

Next I stained the top and the front of the drawers. I had originally planed to paint the drawers gray, but I was loving the stain so much I couldn't stop. I also painted the drawer pulls a brass color. Some day they might be replaced, but I like the effect for now.

Last I primed and painted the body of the desk.The whole project took a total of four days, and three trips to Lowes. (Thanks to Mom and Dad for decided to return that huge Christmas tree and for the resulting Lowes credit you bequeathed me.) Here is the final result.

Before and After

 

I love it!!! It looks great in my room and will look even better when the room is painted.

Fancy Tiger

Kayla told me that I had to check out this fabric store called Fancy Tiger, I needed some fabric so I decided to hit up today. I don't know exactly what I was expecting, but I was blown away by what I found. Feast your eyes!

 

Doesn't it already scream me?

 

Do you ever look at a project someone created online, you love the look of it but for the life of you, you can't find any material as cute as the material they used? This happened to me all the time, Jo-Ann's and Hobby Lobby just didn't have quite the right look. Now I know that those fabrics have been hiding at Fancy Tiger!

 

I want this to be my living room, LOVE IT!

 

One of the coolest things about Fancy Tiger is that they offer classes. Sewing, quilting, knitting, crocheting, even spinning your own yarn, you name it the teach it. You can take a class on how to make this awesome fox guy. I think I need to take that class and make a quilt of him, he is sooo cute! I would also love to take some of their beyond the basics in knitting and sewing clothes.

Fancy Tiger is in an incredible part of town, so I did some nearby exploring. I found the very best Goodwill ever. Zanesville seriously has no idea what it's missing, our Goodwill is so sad. Though I didn't do much purchasing, I did find The Help for $.99, and I grabbed it up right away. There is also a pretty great coffee shop near by, it has the perfect atmosphere for lots of Bible reading. 

What a fruitful exploring adventure, Denver just has sooo much to offer, it's fun to know the discoveries will never end.

All is Well

I just want to quickly describe the pure joy that I felt today when I realized that the Ohio State Spring game was taking place today. I didn't get to see it, and I don't know what happened (yet). Just the sheer joy of Ohio State Football existing in the world today, the beginning of the Urban Era, **Sigh** All is well.

Downton Abbey All Day Long

As a wonderful "Welcome to Denver, We Are So Glad to Have You" gift, I was caught by a nasty stomach flu. It involved all manner of nasties which I've decided I don't need to explain, I'm sure you can imagine them yourself. I'm sure Denver itself had very little to do with the flu, but it was still awful timing, a week in and I am stuck in bed for two days. I am happy to report that I am fully recovered, I'm back to drinking strong coffee and eating Jimmy Dean's Sausage wrapped in Pancakes on a stick.

As I was starting to feel sick I decided to put Downton Abbey on my computer to help distract me from all of my icky feelings. It's another Pride and Prejudice story set in April 1912 with the sinking of the Titanic. I had already watched the first season through once, so I knew I would feel the liberty to fall asleep while watching. It was and is the very best sick day TV ever. It was soothing, funny, witty, entertaining. I could easily fall asleep to it, or I could stay up and be entertained, and distracted from all of the yuckyness. Now that I am well, I still want to keep watching. I haven't seen any of the second season, so please, no spoilers. I'm waiting for it to appear on Netflix. In the span of the last three days I watched the 1st season through twice, and I still want to put it on again tonight. Let just say that if I'm gonna be stranded on a deserted island, Downton Abbey is coming with me!