Thanks

We had a successful Thanksgiving today:

*Slept in

*Ate giant cinnamon rolls for breakfast

*Went to my Aunt Dianne's house for turkey

*Ate two types of turkey, along with Aunt Pam's cucumbers, Uncle Doug's Snickers salad, green beans, stuffing, and at least four kinds of mashed potatoes. Plus a ton of other stuff.

*Found out exciting news that TWO of my cousins are pregnant, while a third was experiencing contractions right there at the dinner table.

*Opened secret pal gifts

*Gifted baby gifts for the baby that is probably being delivered any minute now

*Gifted squirrel mittens to my Grandma

*Went to my Aunt Beth's house for dessert

*Someone forgot pumpkin pie, but we brought a giant peanut butter cup pie that everyone enjoyed along with three other kinds of pie

*Gifted owl mittens to my other Grandma

*Ate a little bit more food and dessert

*Played Scrabble with a cheating 9 year old, then some frog phonics game. I won.. I think.

*Stopped at Redbox on the way home for a free movie (The Proposal - we wanted My Sister's Keeper but it was checked out everywhere)

*Watched the movie with homemade popcorn and the whole family plus my sister's ex (haha)

*Watched UP next

*Planned our shopping for Friday morning

Which brings us to present time- my sister and I are waking up in a couple hours to hit Old Navy, Target, and Joann's. We must be insane. But we have fun.

A quick picture from the day:

I counted 34 people in the picture. These are all the grandkids (minus 2) and all the great-grandkids (I think they are all in there) plus three more great-grandkids in bellies. With our Grandma/Gaga/Nana squeezed in the middle there.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Now for some sweet shopping dreams...

Caped Crusader

I've got an urge to make a cape. Not like a superhero cape, more like a capelet or a cloak. Something warm for these fall months (it's still in the 70's here in Nashville, but it's bound to get cooler), fashionable, not too bulky, and a neutral color.

I'm not exactly sure what bit my capelet bug, but I think it started here.

This tutorial from Ruffles & Stuff for a no-sew cape. Disney makes awesome stuff and this little fleece cape is so cute. I started to envision it on a larger scale for myself...

Then Disney made this beauty.

And wrote up a little tutorial .. She was inspired by Blair Waldorf, and I do love me some Gossip Girl fashion. I must have one of my own ...

So I started searching-

Gap is doing it.

Old Navy is doing it.

Burberry is sooo doing it.

This National Geographic clothing distributor(what!?) is kind of doing it.

American Apparel is doing it with fleece, which is probably how I will end up doing it.

Burda is even doing it without pants.. 

if it's cold enough to wear a cape, it's too cold to wear spandex, just saying.

I love everything about the Burberry cape- the neck, the big buttons, the arm slits. How hard can it be to make a cape? Just fold a big piece of fabric in quarters and cut in a circular shape. Cut up to the middle, cut a circle, sew on a neck... right? Right? Please tell me I'm not totally underestimating this project.

In case I am, there are always patterns to fall back on, but I'm not really a pattern kind of girl.

Obviously it looks fabulous in a wool blend, but I'm cheap and not really up to sewing with wool right now, so I will probably make due with fleece. Maybe fleece lined with a nice satin or soft cotton for some contrast? I like that about the Burda one.. that little pink poking out of the pockets is just so cute.

I need to go to the fabric store soon anyway, I think I will peruse the fleece selection and see if there is anything cute enough to make a cape.

Shopping Spree

Have you ever played on Polyvore? It's a fun waste of time but also a great source of inspiration. I wish the controls were more user-friendly and customizable, but beggars can't be choosers.

Here's a couple outfits I threw together. I would love to wear any of these clothes and accessories.

Clearly I have a thing for dark wash jeans and cute flats. And simple outfits with fabulous accessories.

My closet is bursting with flats, but I still feel the need for more. I don't think I will be satisfied until I have a pair in every color. And I do not have flats in either of these lovely yellow or pea green colors. Well, I do have a pair that is grey with yellow polka dots, but I don't think that counts. And would you look at those bows?! I girl can never have too many frilly things.

So... who will loan me their credit cards?

Karma is ...

I swear I've been crafting, I swear. I just have no photographic evidence to share with you. But I still felt the need to blog a bit about life. And I guess when I say blog a bit, I mean bitch a lot. Because life, like karma,  has been a bitch this past week.

Last Wednesday I got a call from Curt's boss saying he wasn't feeling well and could I please pick him up... it was 6:30 in the morning and we live about 45 minutes from his work. So I talked to Curt to get the whole scoop. Seems he stretched and pulled a muscle in his neck. He couldn't move it and was in a lot of pain, but he decided to drive himself home. I ended up getting out of work so I could drive him around town to interview guitar players for the band later in the day. We did the same thing after my shift on Thursday.

I made fun of his lack of neck function the whole time. He had to turn his whole body to look to either side, and it was just too cute not to laugh about. Let it be known that I would not make fun of him if he was seriously injured, but I knew he would survive, so the jokes ensued.

Enter my neck injury.

Yesterday while driving to meet Curt and the rest of the band for rehearsal and errands, I was rear-ended. I was turning left {coincidentally onto the wrong street} when I heard screeching brakes behind me. I looked into the rearview mirror just in time to see a pick up truck swerving to the right to [try to] avoid me. *cRaSh* there goes my car. I was able to drive to a nearby parking lot to examine the damage. The truck's front end was smashed into the front left wheel so he was stuck there on the side of the road. Police were called and a very friendly Captain Hill of Berry Hill gave the guy a ticket and made sure I didn't need an ambulance.

Damn it all.

I've been successfully driving that car for 4 years and then some idiot comes out of no where, not paying attention, and totally wrecks it. Who knows what insurance will say, whether we will be able to have the car fixed or if we will need to buy a new one. {We really, really, can't buy a new car right now.} Thankfully the guy swerved, but he took out my back right side, rearranging the bumper and making the tail light disappear.

I now have limited use of my neck, looking right is just not a possibility. So thank you karma, for being such a pain in my neck. Pun intended, obviously.

In completely unrelated news ... The Hills has got me really worried. What if Spencer & Heidi actually do reproduce? The publicity stunts, the drama, the eventual demon spawn of Spencer... it's just too crazy. Almost as crazy as that Jayde girl Brody is doing - what is her problem?! That girl needs some serious medication. And how much work has she had done? Her face looks like the Barbie lady, and I'm sure she chose her cup size.

Also, I think it's funny they use Superchick music for the preview of next week's episode.

Tomorrow I go back to work lifting heavy trays to deliver endless soup and salad refills. Neck, don't fail me now.

Halloween

We didn't do anything special for Halloween. We went over to a friend's house for a nice dinner and played Toy Story on Wii. They put candy out on the porch and it was gone after three or four groups of trick or treaters. Darn teenagers.

I loved seeing all the creative costumes on the blogosphere, but this one was the best:

A mutant three-armed baby! It's just genius. Get more details here.

I can't wait until we have kids and can do crazy things like that.