Marriage = full of delightfulness

So last night I was in a deep sleep, probably dreaming about laying on a warm beach with a fruity cocktail in my hand, when something happened.

I remember being all curled up and happy. Then I vaguely remember a large forearm looming over my head. Next I felt the pillow---the one on which my head was comfortably resting--- yank out from under my skull. I think it actually caused my forehead to slam onto the mattress. Seriously.

So I tried to wake up from my slumbering stupor. I sat up in bed and looked down at the spot that used to house my favorite pillow. Then I looked over at my snoring husband and sure enough, he was cuddling with my freaking pillow just like nothing had happened. He stole the pillow out from under my head, you guys. Why would he do that to me, his loving wife of 1.5 years? Bastard!

My voice crackled, "Um, baby? I think you just stole my pillow."

One eye opened from across the bed as he said, "Wha?"

I woke up even more as my mood turned from confused to downright angry. "That is my pillow you are holding. You just yanked it away from me."

He handed the pillow back to me saying, "Oh, sorry." Then he fell back asleep as if he were an innocent little lamb. I willed myself to drift back to my pleasant dreams instead of starting a fist fight right then and there, but I tucked this event into my brain for discussion later. He would not get away with this.

So this morning, I was all "Remember how you stole my pillow for no good reason last night?"

And he was all "Yeah, well that's because you stole all the covers AND you elbowed me twice last night in your sleep."

WTF? Exaggerate much? Nate seriously claims that I grasp the corner of our comforter, and then begin to roll myself into a burrito with every last inch of fabric. Like I'm spinning out of control in order to steal every bit of warmth from our frigid bedroom. Fat chance. I think he makes this up [but I will admit that sometimes I'll wake up with the sheets wrapped around my entire body three times over. But I doubt I roll around like a Mexican food dish just to piss him off. I would never do that, now would I?]

So yeah, apparently I stole all the covers and also managed to 'flop my gangly arms' into his throat twice. I suggested that maybe I was trying to cuddle, to which he responded, "No, you were trying to slap me." Eh, same difference, right?

Ah, the beauties of marriage and sharing a bed with the man you love. I steal covers and he steals pillows. But I will always get the last punch with my 'gangly arms' because I rule, boys drool.

Are you with me, ladies?

Someday, when the world is a perfect place, we will own a king size bed [instead of our measly little queen] and have comforters the size of Texas so I can make my little cocoons without causing marital distress. Someday, my friends.

Carded

It's as if I have 65 teenagers who I've spent years raising and then all of a sudden they go off to college and make me proud, but leave me with an empty nest. Yep, my Christmas cards are like college-bound children for sure. And I must say I'm happy to see them go.

Well, I did spend a lot of time creating them [not years or anything, but still]. And then I shipped them off to their destinations across the nation. Yes, I was a little jealous of the ones going south to Texas but I told them to hold it down for their Wisco roots. Now I'm enjoying a little free time to my self in this empty nest, without crafts or projects [except Christmas gifts of course. There will always be SOMETHING to do around here]. It's nice. Very nice. I should do this 'free time' thing more often.

Would you like to see my little babies?

I could not bring myself to design them via Photoshop and have them printed using one sheet of paper. Just couldn't do it. Mostly because I need a break from computerized crafting for a while and Photoshop is taking over my brain [album design for Christmas time turned out to be quite demanding.] There is just nothing quite like the texture of real paper designs. Nothing like the feel of scissors cutting and final layered product coming together. Yes, it took about a gajillion hours longer than doing it on the computer but it was theraputic for me. I missed my old school paper crafts!

Anyway, let's see them in the making, shall we?

First you go nuts in a scrapbooking store and purchase tons of 12x12 papers.
You also find a pimp rubber stamp. Note some of my favorite paper patterns, too.
Get your paper cutter out and get to work. I used the white card stock for my base layer and cut out lots of rectangles for the fronts.

Yes it was a lot. I printed out our text [the horror, using the computer for text! But I just love fun fonts so I had to do it].
I picked our picture [it was a winner with you blog readers, too!] and used one teeny tiny digital scrapbooking embellishment for a frame. Again, I just HAD to. I printed the images at Walgreens for ungodly cheap on a 4x6 background.
Then came the worst 'traditional scrapping' moment---cutting out all the stupid pictures, with their curvy frame included. I recruited Nate for his first real crafting project on this one! At first he was all about it, like, "Ohhhh, look at me: I'm so fast with this cutting, and mine are so awesome. I can even cut 3 at once. This is easy." Then about 30 minutes later he was all, "My thumb hurts, I think I just got arthritis in it. I quit."

His crafting career was short lived, my friends. But it sure did help me out a lot on this project!
So then I took the text and cut them all out, and adhered them to some more fun papers. I had to cut those too, of course.

I didn't like the text pasted directly onto the papers so I tore them all off and added the black background. MUCH better. Now my inner OCD freak can relax a little bit because the text background matches our frame [black and black]. Sigh.

Every one was a little different, as you can see. Most of them had shades of green and reds but some were all funky with browns and blues. :)

I used my same red envelopes this year and still *heart* them.

And on the inside? Well the first half of the alphabet got lengthy personal messages. I was all inspired and feeling connected to our friends and family. Then by about the letter 'M' I lost my flare and started jotting a few words only, as seen here.
Sorry for that, last half of the alphabet. I was getting antsy!

And that, my friends, is how I made our Christmas cards this year. My babies:)

I cannot promise to produce this labor of love each year and I'm sure I'll break down and do digital cards in the near future. But for now this will do.

In other news, the forecast was right and we did get hit hard today. Some areas got up to 11 inches but I'm guessing we were only at 5-6. Please. I thought this was going to be a regular BLIZZARD but 5-6 is totally doable. Anything over a foot and I'll freak out, but I can handle 5-6 inches.

However, this is the depressing view I have during my lengthened drive to work [it sucks when the plows can't catch up to the downfall].
Patio side table at 7 am:
And at 7 pm:
Patio table at 7 am:
And at 7 pm:
It was a heavy and wet snow so I think it all compressed down on itself. Very pretty, I must admit.

Oh and wanna see something cool?


Here is the parking lot at work and THAT would be a gigantor snow pile.
Hi lady! Don't mind me sticking my camera out at you! I'm just taking photographical evidence for my blog. Happy car scraping! :)
You see the size in relation to the cars, right? Yeah. That pile will be there until May....mark my words.

Brace yourself.

If we still lived right next to the lake, I wouldn't be worried. But since we are a little more west perhaps I should brace myself for the next 24 hours? And is it just me or does Lake Michigan look like a giant jelly-belly-of-doom on this map?



Big fatty flakes on Henry's last outing of the night could only be captured via camera. Sorry for the poor videographer skills but it's really pretty when it snows at night, isn't it? I wish I had a headlight on this puppy or something because you don't get the full effect via the streetlight.


You know how some bloggers suddenly focus every post on wedding planning, or little babies, or cooking yummy meals? Well apparently this blog has morphed into Winter Wonderland zone. I apologize if you are beating your faces into the desk out of boredom but this snowy insanity both frightens me and amuses me.