Year in Review

In looking back over '09, I made a New Years resolution of trying something new each month and then documenting it on my blog. Well, as all good New Years resolutions go...I didn't quite make it every month.

Sue me.

I was actually pretty impressed at how well I DID keep up with it, but what I found out was that towards the end of the month I would just look back over the month and then say "Hmmm....what did I do that I haven't done before?" Instead, I had kind of set out to actually THINK of something and then go DO it! Not just find something to squeeze into the category.

All that said, here's what I ended up with:

In January, there was Zumba.
In February, I had my kitchen tiled.
In March I was featured on Tip Junkie. That was cool!
In April I taught creationism in my 6th grade science class.
Nothing for May. Boo.
In June, I got on a budget.
In July, I had a couple of things such as going to a new cake store & trying some asian food.
In August, I made a vlog.
September's was kind of boring...I tried a new Chicken Pot Pie recipe. Contain your excitement.
In October, I was asked to write some curriculum.
In November, I attended my first book signing.
December's will unfortunately not be finished in December. I have been reading trough the bible this year and my NEW for December was supposed to be to finish the bible. I'm reading this bible:

I like it because it has you read a portion of the old testament, a portion of the new and then a Psalm & Proverb. I was doing really well...up until about my birthday. My birthday is near the end of October which seems to really kick off all the fall/winter holidays: my b-day, Halloween, my sister's b-day, Thanksgiving...and well, let's face it, after Thanksgiving, it's all down hill until January!

So needless to say, I got a little behind and just never caught up, but I AM going to finish it. Right now, I'm on November 7, so there's no way I'm gonna read a month and a half in a few hours. Just not a real big reader.

To read other blogger's reviews, go to Musings of a Housewife.

Happy New Year!

Vintage Christmas Cards

Do you have old Christmas cards stashed away in a box somewhere? Well, I do and for the longest time I've wanted to do something with them, but just couldn't figure out what! I searched all over cyberspace and no one else seemed to have any great ideas either.

Then, in a little impromptu stroll through Michael's it hit me! (Isn't that how all great ideas come about?)

Well, I don't know if this is a great idea or not, but I did think it was worth sharing. Unfortunately, it's a little too late for this year, but bookmark this for next year.

Start out with some cute, vintage Christmas cards:


Next, take a cheap, plastic stand. I found these in the frame section.


Then take a can of spray paint (spray paint made for plastics) and have at it:



Pardon the mess in the background! Pre-Christmas dinner ingredients.

Finally, add the finishing touch:





Another option, is to use a cheap frame and do the same idea. Here, I started with a frame, a piece of paper I cut out to fit in the frame to serve as a backdrop and another cute, vintage card:


How cute is this?!?!


Do you have any other cute ideas on how to showcase vintage Christmas cards?

Aggrevated

'Tis the season of giving...I know.

It seems more so at this time of year, that every check out line you go to asks if you want to donate a dollar or round up your total to benefit "fill-in-the-blank" charity.

I give faithfully every month to a non-profit that I'm involved in, Square Peg. On top of that, I give to several other charities through my work's charitable giving fund.

So when I'm asked that question, I don't really feel bad about saying, No thank you. I know I may come across as a scrooge but I don't really want to hold up the line and explain that I'm not a scrooge, I just give to other places. Normally, the cashier is very nice about it and I've never gotten the impression they thought any less of me...

...until this weekend.

I was shopping at one my favorite stores. So that this one idiotic employee doesn't ruin the image of the whole chain I won't tell you the name of this teeny-bopper store who's name is the same as a popular children's book spider web.

He was very nice and upbeat when he greeted me. He asked me if I wanted to add any accessories to my purchase because they were on sale. I politely said, "No thank you. Not this time." He was fine with that and continued being upbeat and positive.

Then came the question.

"Would you like to donate $1 to _____________________ charity?" While I know this charity does great things, I gave him my standard answer of "No thank you."

His tone IMMEDIATELY changed.

You would have thought I shot his dog, stole his ice cream cone, or told him there was no such thing as Santa! Literally, his facial expression changed, his voice dropped 15 octaves and the light in him was gone...

...all because I wouldn't give one more dollar to one more charity.

It infuriated me! Had I been bolder I would have said something to him. But I'm a chicken, so we continued with the transaction and he told me my total.

The next thing out his mouth was even more appalling.

"Would you like to round up your total?" he asked.

"For what?" I inquired.

"For [the afforementioned fill-in-the-blank charity]" he depressingly said.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME??

"No thank you. I already give to other charities" I responded.

My blood pressure was boiling at this point and it had now become a matter of principal more than the money. Yes, I could have afforded the dollar. Yes, I could have afforded the 30 cents of rounding the total...but that's NOT the point!

That guy probably thought I was the rudest, stingiest, crabbiest person because I wouldn't donate to this very worthwhile charity. But what he doesn't know is that aside from donating money I also donate my time whenever I can.

What aggrevated me the most is that his level of service immediately changed when he ASSUMED that I'm president of the scrooge fan club.

What about you? Do you normally donate? Am I out of line? I just feel like you've got to draw a line somewhere.

CD Winner

And the winner of the "Have a Fancy Yancy Christmas" is...


Ashley..whose favorite Christmas song is "Joseph's Lullaby" by Mercy Me. Well, sorry Ashley, but that song's not on this CD. There are, however, some new songs that I hope will become new favorites for you!

Thanks everyone for playing! I hope the rest of you will go buy Yancy's CD anyways. It would make a great stocking stuffer!

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Free Computer!

Does that get your attention? Kelly is giving away a free HP Touchsmart computer.

Go here to enter!

The Pioneer Woman Book Signing

Last night Becky and I went to go see, Ree Drummond, AKA The Pioneer Woman! Her blog is full of goodies! I particularly like her recipes. Girlfriend loves herself some butter! But you definitely couldn't tell by looking at her. She's a cute and stylish little thang!

Back to the book signing...

She's quite the rockstar in the blogosphere. (She gets about 30,000 comments on her giveaway posts!) Her signing was advertised to start at 7:30. Becky and I knew that it would be packed so we got there at 6:00. To our surprise, they had changed the whole format and the thing started at 6:00?!

Come again???

We were no longer early and ended up being right on time. Come to find out, it actually worked out better. We were given wristbands to wear. There were different colors and letters. Orange was the first group and each color group was divided into letters A through I. We were green (the second color group) and letter B. Not too shabby...or so we thought.

We probably waited about 3 1/2 hours to finally get up to see her. But we had fun in the mean time.

Besides Ree, one thing I was excited about was the possibility of meeting Bakerella! If you've not checked her blog out, she is uber creative in all things baking. So much so that Martha Stewart took notice and had her on her show! I was excited because Bakerella had tweeted earlier that day she was having dinner with Ree so I thought there was a good chance that she'd be at the book signing.

She was!


And I went right up to her and told her how much I loved her and I followed her on Twitter and her blog. (I'm pretty sure I sounded like a babling idiot!)

She's so cute and stylish! I just want to hang out with her and make cake pops all day :)

To pass the time, I had brought my laptop. Yeah, that was fun to lug around. With thousands (yep, there had to be about a thousand people there) the internet was not quite lightning speed so that didn't last long. Bummer. So between tweeting, taking pics of ourselves and shopping there was some great people watching.



And, how crazy is this, we ran into a lady, Lynn, who we hung out with at our last book signing! Small world.

They finally called our color and letter and we got so excited! We got to get in the official line where you had to stand single file and it zig-zagged like a real line. Up until then we were just all jumbled all over the store waiting for the glorious sound of our color and letter. We also got a post-it note where we had to write our name so Ree could easily sign our books. All night, we tried to think of something clever and cute to say that would stand out other than the typical "I love your blog!".


As we got to the front of the line, we really became starstruck! There she is...right in front of us!

Our turn! She was so nice and very personable. I asked her if she was going to be at
Blissdom. She wasn't sure, sounded like she was still working things out. How great would that be?

After Ree, we got to also meet her sister, Betsy and friend, Hyacinth.

They were so cute and just full of personality. Hyacinth commented on my earrings and took a picture of them! Here's hoping I'll end up on the blog!

All in all, it was a really fun night!

Look who's joined the party!

This is what my Nativity set looked like last week.


This is what it looks like now.

Friday at work, a student handed me a bag and said it was from Santa. I didn't really think anything of it because we're collecting gifts for our Adopt-A-Family project. I peeked into the bag and quickly realized it wasn't for our family...it was for me! I chased down the student and asked her who it was from and she wouldn't tell me.

Oh, you wanna know what was inside?


The three wisemen for my nativity set! A co-worker had overheard me talking at lunch one day about how I was collecting the Willow Tree Nativity set. Are you believing that?! These things aren't cheap. I mean, it's not like picking up a candy bar in the check out line or something.

So thank you "Santa"! You have no idea how much that means to me. I truly appreciate you :)

A Fancy Yancy Christmas!

Looking for some really great Christmas music? Maybe something along the lines of a mixture of traditional Christmas carols and contemporary favorites, but all performed in a very fun and modern way? Then this is the CD for you!

Yancy takes the old stand-bys and puts a rockin' twist on them. It's a great way to ring in the Christmas season. You'll definitely want this when all the radio stations are playing the old, traditional songs and you're wanting to spice things up a bit.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Yancy's voice! I love how simplistic and pure it is. She doesn't have to complicate a song with runs and trills everywhere...it's just her. And, boy, can she sing! Three of the songs are Yancy originals. One of my favorites that she wrote is "The Greatest Gift". It beautifully describes the ultimate gift of love as God gave us His son to save us. We all need that reminder this time of year.

Check out the other songs on the CD:
1. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
2. Merry Christmas, Happy Christmas
3. Wonderful Christmastime
4. Joy To The World
5. Christmastime
6. The First Noel
7. Medley: Jingle Bells, Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree, Feliz Navidad, We Wish You A Merry Christmas
8. Angels We Have Heard On High
9. O Come All Ye Faithful
10. The Greatest Gift

You can buy it on Amazon, iTunes, or Yancy's website.

BUT...one of my lucky readers will WIN one for free! Leave me a comment telling me what your favorite Christmas song is and you'll be entered. Please make sure to leave an email address.

Want extra entries? Tweet this giveaway for an extra entry, facebook it for another, or blog about it for another! Please let me know if you've done so in your comment and link all back to this post.

Giveaway ends Friday, December 11 at 12:00 AM. Winner will be chosen the following day and notified by email.

Thanks for joining and hope you have "A Fancy Yancy Christmas"!!

Christmas Tour

Welcome to my little corner of the world. I luh-ove decorating for Christmas! I actually had all mine up about a week before Thanksgiving. So make yourself at home and take a look:




















And moving upstairs to my bedroom:




Yes, I have a tree in my bedroom :)

Thank you for stopping by. Take a handful of M&M's on your way out: