Merry Chrismahanukwanzakah

I hope everyone had a wonderful present opening holiday (whatever that holiday was). I thought I'd be really greedy and show off some of the wonderful things that I was blessed with this year.

Jay and I actually celebrated the 25th this year. Partly that was because we now live in Charlotte where his mom lives, and it's important to keep my agnostic/pagan status as hush hush as possible. And lets be honest, regardless of religious leanings, who doesn't like to open presents!

Usually, I do some sort of solstice ritual as well. I love to bake a hearty wheat bread from scratch to celebrate that our needs are met, even in this dark/scarce time. And if I'm not working the next day, I like to stay up all night (or as late as possible) and welcome in the sun on the morning of the longest night of the year, knowing that it's down hill from here. But with the Solstice being on Sunday this year and already being in the mountains, that became not easily done. And that's the nice thing about being an agnostic. You're not really tied to anything. Tradition and ritual is meant to help us, not tie us down and make our life stressful. So this year, I just celebrated it in my heart.

Anyway, back to the 25th. Our tree had been sourounded by gifts for a while. Jay and I did a lot of ordering online, so things had been arriving for weeks. It was funny because we were both tracking out gifts online and forbidding the other to get the mail the days when their gifts were being delivered. Thankfully, only one day did two things get delivered on the same day, and he SWORE he didn't look at the return address. And since both of us have a tendency to peek, and since we live in a one bedroom apartment without much hiding space. We wrapped up the gifts pretty much as soon as they arrived.

But then... Jmom (who is Jay's Mom and my MIL for those who don't know), went on a shopping spree and our tree was abounding with gifts. The sight was so beautiful and very comforting. This is the first full size tree I've had since I moved out of my parents house a long, long time ago. On top of that it's the first fullsize tree Jay's had in an even longer time. So, it really felt like the beginning of a new family.



Oh how I love thee Paper Source!






So what was in these lovely packages? First and I think my most favorite was the Military Spouse Medal of Honor that Jay got me. It's sold by navywives.com and truly brought me to tears. It came with the actual medal, a certificate explaining it, and a neclace so I can really wear it, since I probably wouldn't wear my actual medal. I think we're going to have that framed, just like his. :-)







Next came the gifts from Jmom. She got me a beautiful rob.



MMMMmmmmmm. So soft!

And this beautiful throw that she crochetted herself for both Jay and me!



Isn't it beautiful!


She also got Jay some jeans (which he really needed! He's destroyed most of his others at work.) And she got us a wonderful Caulfalon Pan. It's a skillet, but you can also bake in it. I actually used it last night and it worked wonderfully!

Now comes my crafting gifts! Oh how I love paper crafting!

First Jay got me a heat embossing gun. I've played with it a bunch since I got it, but haven't taken any pictures yet, so for now all I have to show you is the actual product. I promise that there will be project blogs coming very soon.



And finally... dum, dum, dadadum! MY CRICUT!!! So many of my friends pitched in to help buy it, and I was so excited to get it. Jay made me wait to open it until all the other gifts were opened! But I think he knew best. If I'd opened it first, I probably wouldn't have opened anything else!



So, hopefully, tomorrow, I'll show you some of the things that I did with the cash I got from a couple of people, including a raid on Paper Source and a second cartridge for my Cricut.

Hope everyone is getting back into the swing of things. I don't know about you guys, but I'm glad to be back sleeping in my own bed. And as much as I like seeing my family, I'm glad to not be driving anymore.

So, what did you get for Chrismahanukwanzakah? Anything really cool or special? We'd love to hear about it!

Holiday Cards

Now that all the Holiday Cards have been mailed, I can share them here. I decided to do something fairly simple this year, and I'm so glad I made that decision or else they wouldn't have gone out at all.

To save money, I decided that we would go with a post card instead of a card in an envelope. Because of this choice we only spent 27 cents each instead of 42 cents each. So when making card for mass mailings like holidays or weddings, consider doing a post card instead of a card an envelope. But make sure you check on the maximum size of a post card approved by the post office. It's no fun to get there and realize that they are too big.

Anyway, I grabbed pictures from gettyimages.com. (My dad has a subscription because of his business and I can get low res files for free.) I love wreaths, so I decided to make a collage of different ones and then add one of us in front of our wreath.

Here's how the front came out.



Since this was our first holiday season as a married couple, I decided to play off the Home for the Holidays idea. I love dictionary definitions, so I looked one up. Once I had that, the back pretty much wrote itself. :-)



So there you have it... the Stafford's 2008 holiday cards. Hopefully everyone got them. Did any of y'all make your own holiday cards? If so we'd love to see!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas ... Threw up all over our house! Part 2

Well, it's finally time for the big reveal of our indoor holiday decorations. I got a picture of the Happy Holidays banner that I made the other day and that was the last piece I needed in order to finish this post. Since I'm super excited about the banner, I'll start with it.









This was a very simple and yet effective project. All I did was buy different yet coordinating papers and cut them into 4 x 5 rectangles. Then I found a font I like and printed out letters on the computer that would be the right height. I placed the printed out paper on top of the nice paper I was using (since my printer wouldn't print on the dark brown paper), and cut the letters out using my "template".

Next we have the kitchen table set up.













This picture is really bad (hate, hate, hate flashes), but you can really see the cranberry's I used to pull out the red.



Next up we have the bar decorations.



I'm learning the VAST uses for scrapbooking paper. Here I wrapped it around some vases. (Not my idea by the way. I saw it on another blog.)






When doing a party, an easy way to give a coordinated look can be to use the same coordinating paper throughout your decorating. It can be used as napkin rings, case liners (on the outside of course), banners, place mats, table runners, etc.

And as in the other blog, shot glasses are awesome!



I wish everyone a happy holidays! And I'm sure there will be lots of blogs to come if I get what I think I'm getting for Christmas! ;-)

Sorry for the delay...

Hello all and I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season!

Sorry for the delay in posts. I promise there are a couple coming. But...

This Monday night, my dad had a mild heart attack. He hadn't been feeling well for a few days and Monday night decided it was time to go to the hospital. I got a call from one of my brothers and headed up there first thing on Tuesday morning. I spent Tuesday night with him in the hospital. He is fine now. They think there was a blood clot or plaque that clogged up the artery and the meds they gave him in the ER disolved it. He is feeling fine now and should be discharged today.

The experience was a challenge though. Anything with my dad always it. I'm glad to be home, though. And ready to wrap up the last holiday plans and get back up to the mountains this weekend so that I can see my mom.

Take life as a gift, for you never know when it will end. Hugs those around you extra tight this year. And hopefully, there will be some new blogs in the days to come.

bonnie

The Amazing Adventures in Decorating with Shot Glasses

I'll admit that this wasn't wholey my idea. But truthfully, what ever is a purely original idea. I saw this picture on http://www.hostesswiththemostess.com/. By the way, her blog http://www.hostessblog.com/ is AMAZING! I'm usually over at least once a day for ideas and inspiration.

Anyway, here's the original idea.







Here they wrapped double shot glasses in scrap booking paper. Well, this got me started thinking, what else can I do with shot glasses? Unfortunatley, we only have one double shot glass and one single shot glass which you can't really do anything with due to the size and shape. Amazingly, just a couple of weeks ago, our best friends bought us our belated wedding gift. And what was it??? A set of 10 double shot glasses. Shannon said when she gave themt to us that they were going to just get us four, but she knew I'd end up decorating with them. Here are two of my recent uses for them.

Here we have them sitting on our kitchen table almost as a runner. I cut a few springs of pine and put in there with a couple of sticks of cinnimon. Note: Don't use that fancy dancy cinnimon from the grocery store that is literally highway robbery at like 6 bucks for 5 sticks! I found a big thing of it at Garden Ridge for like 99 cents. Or you can go to a bulk foods store and get it there for much cheeper too!







And here I sorted red and green m&m's into them and alternated the colors.







Now, I'm not showing you the full decorations because I want to wait and get one more picture of a project I finished just last night before I have the big reveal. So, stay tuned. Hopefully, they will be ready to upload tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and creative day!

Holiday Cheer for All (or at least my office)

I've been wanting to make something small for the folks at my office for a few Chrismas seasons now (since I've been moving so much that has been three offices in three seasons). But each year, everthing else going on in my life overwhelmed this desire. This is the first year where things have been calm enough to actually see my vision come to fruition.

I've been making chocolate covered pretzles rods for a few years now. It started out as a challenge (as most of my projects do), because I couldn't figure out how they did that, and how I could do it without filling my bathtub up with melted chocolate in order to dip the pretzels. Through trial and error, I realized that if I melted just a regular amount of chocolate in a double boiler, I could use a spoon (or this years epiphany was a spatula) to scoop up the chocolate. I then drag the pretzel through the chocolate filled spoon/spatula and twist the pretzel so that it is completely covered. The twisting also creates an interesting patteron on the pretzel as well and is an added bonus.

Unfortunately, I did this project on Thursday when I was off and Jay was at work, so I wasn't able to take pictures of the process. (I really need to figure out how to add a 3rd or 4th arm, oh and while we're at it, a couple more hours in the day would be totally SWEET!) But I do have a few pictures that I hope you enjoy.

Here they are drying all over our kitchen. Not surprisingly, when Jay got home we decided to order pizza since there was no room to prepare dinner of any kind in our kitchen!









And here they are after I wrapped them in celephane, tied them with ribbon, and added the tag/tree ornament.









Are you doing anything fun, creative, and cheep for your co-workers, or even friends and family since budgets are tight this year?

Paper Source Holiday Card Contest

Paper Source does a Holiday Card Contest every year and request entries using exclusively Paper Source products. Since this store is so new, this is absolutely the best year for me to enter since there will be so little competition! ;-) Two winners are chosen from each store, and the winners receive a $50 gift certificate to the store! Woohoo! A couple of weekends ago, Shannon and I made a shopping trip to Paper Source to collect all our supplies and then spent a wonderful Saturday evening designing and assembling our entries! There's nothing better than good friends, good crafting, and good drinks to spend a weekend evening with.


Here are the end results. Unfortunately, I did not take "how to" photos of this project. I've been a little lazy when it comes to that. Plus I've been really eager to do some of these projects and just didn't think about taking pictures of the process.

Here is my entry.













And here is Shannon's entry.













Love her monogram envelope closure! We've got our fingers crossed! I'll keep you guys updated when the winners are announced!

Transition...

Sorry for all the archived blogs recently. This is another post that I wrote in response to a Navy girl who was asking what to expect when her husband (and therefore she) got out. I figured this was a good place to archive this writing.

My husband (and therefore I) got out of the Navy this past January, and it has been a transition. Funny thing is, it’s been more one for me than for my husband. He knew he wasn’t reenlisting for a long time, including the whole two years we were together, so when the time finally came, he was glad to get out and move to our hometown. He found a job within a couple of months, and although it doesn’t pay what he was making in the Navy, and he doesn’t like it very much, it’s steady work and he’s thankful that he at least gets to come home every night. He’s on the lookout for another job, but in this economy he’s glad to have one at all.

For me it’s been a little harder. I never, ever, ever thought that I would say I missed the Navy life, with the separation and loneliness, but I do. I miss feeling like a part of something larger than myself, I miss feeling that by supporting him I’m helping him keep us safe, I miss the camaraderie of other navy significant others, and truthfully, I miss having time to myself.

During the first year we were together (including his deployment), I was in California living by myself. Once he came back, I moved to VA to be with him, but he was still in and out on underways and had duty nights. I really miss the designated time that I had to call my friends and catch up with everyone. I miss the quiet time to force myself to write blogs which I love to do but takes a lot of concentration and quiet time to think. And I miss those days when he finally came home after days away. One of my biggest fears has always been that I would lose my sense of appreciation for him. That I would forget what it was like to be without him for days and months at a time. And although I told myself that it would never happen, it’s so easy to get into the day to day swing of things and take things for granted.

So, my advise to anyone getting ready to get out is to start talking with your partner about it now. Communication is the most important thing. Be ready for the transition to be harder and more unexpected than you think it’s going to be. You could very well be surprised by how you and your partner react. Try your best not to take things personally. He’s been use to having time with his buddy during duty shifts and underways, and you’re use to having time to yourself or with your friends during those times too. It’s totally ok, for you guys to create some alone time, or time with friends. It’s not because he/she doesn’t love you and you don’t love them.

If you start missing that sense of meaning, then find it somewhere else. There are thousands of battered women’s shelters around the country that desperately need volunteer childcare workers in the evenings. There are hospitals that need volunteers to cheer up the patients, or consider getting involved with the local office of Operation Homefront. Wear your military gear with pride and keep your bumper stickers on your car. Be a cheerleader for troops and their families everywhere you go. I’ve been amazed at how many people have no idea what it’s like to be in a military family. I feel that it’s important that I share what I’ve experience so that people can have a more compassionate opinion and more respect for our troops and their families.

And never forget that any large transition is difficult! Graduating high school or college, getting married, moving to be with a loved one, and later in our lives we may be called upon to put our lives on hold to take care of an ailing family member. Don’t expect to let go of something that has been such a large part of your life without some time to grieve or at least transition. Be patient and understanding with each other.

Good luck!

bonnie

Letter to a Navy Girl

I wrote this in a message board post a few months ago and thought I'd archive it here. It's interesting to see the difference between the two post (the first one having been written during my deployment experience, the second a year and a half afterwards). Hopefully, this will help someone's journey be a little bit easier!

First of all... Know that my thoughts are with you! This is a huge thing, so the anxiety and other emotions you are experiencing are normal and understandable!

My deployment with my husband was a little different, since he was on a carrier the whole time and only gone for 8 months. But my best friend is going through a 15 month deployment with the Army right now and I see a lot of parallels between her experience and mine.

First... know that the closer it gets to his deployment the harder it will be! I know that’s not very encouraging, but sometimes just knowing what to expect helps. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself getting in arguments in the weeks before he leaves. Sometimes being angry is easier than being sad. But try to identify what is going on and combat the tendency to substitute feelings. I’ve heard of a lot of girls who’s guy goes off while they are angry and it’s no good!

Second... once he leaves, the first few weeks will be the hardest! But take comfort in knowing that it WILL get easier! Try to make as many plans as possible for the day he leaves and the following days. My girlfriend was at the base for 10 hours the day he left because they kept pushing back the leave time. She said she really wishes that they would have established a length of time for her to be there. If he wasn’t gone by then, she wishes he had walked her to the car and let her go on and leave. She said it was excruciating! We had made plans for me to come down and be with her that first night. She said that really helped.

Surround yourself with military folks if you can. Civilians (as much as they love us and want to be there for us) often times just do not know what to do or say. It’s almost like death; no one wants to say anything. Another military person will know that you may want to cry or you may not want to think about it at all.

Make as many plans for those first few weeks, and especially the weekend (or whatever your usual days off are) as possible. The last thing you want to do is find yourself with nothing to do because believe me you will end up sitting around being depressed and that won’t make anything better.

Routines help soooo much! Stay busy! Take up a new hobby; find a volunteer opportunity, or a second job. Try your best to see this as time to take care of you and do the things you might not have time to do with your guy there all the time.

And most importantly, during this phase, know that simply getting up every morning, putting one foot in front of the other all day long, and making it through the day is an accomplishment in and of itself, and be ready to celebrate that!

Third... expect there to come a time when your routine becomes a rut! I saw it in my deployment and in my friends. At some point all the things you put in place to try and keep one foot in front of the other starts to become a burden instead of a help! When this happens be ready to change up your routine. At this point, you may also realize that you don’t need the routine as much as you did before.

Fourth... once you get through the rut stage, expect to hit the groove! This seems to be the time around half way or so when you stop simply "surviving" and you start to "thrive" in the situation! You become more confident in yourself, as well as your ability to survive through this tough time!

Fifth... as homecoming gets closer and closer, expect things to get hard again. It’s kind of like running a long race or hiking a long trail. Knowing that the end is in sight actually makes it harder to wait! But when you get to this stage you are almost there. Throw yourself into deciding what to wear to homecoming, making plans with your guy for after homecoming and such and so forth!

Just in general... Know that you will have bad days throughout! I found that the harder I fought the bad days the stronger they became. If I would find a quite, safe place, sit back, take a deep breath and let the worry, anxiety, loneliness, wash over me, that it would often times simply pass right through and I could get on with my day.

Some tips I found helpful: create rituals around the passing of time. I had a standing dinner out with my girlfriends the first of every month to celebrate making it through another month.

My desk drawer at work looked like a cross between a Hallmark store and a post office. It was full of note cards and envelopes and stamps and such. Every time I felt like it, I wrote him a note. My husband said that every single time they got a mail plane, he got something.

I decided not to count down at the beginning, that only made me feel worse. I only counted up until half way and then I started counting down.

Be very careful watching the news. It’s easy to get freaked out. I use to shoo people away from my desk when they started talked about stuff like that.

Be very careful of the rumors that will start to fly around! Don’t believe anything until a high up person says it! You’ll go crazy if you believe every rumor that flies around.

But most importantly, know that this too shall pass! Not only the deployment but the bad days and the hard times. Try to see this time as a time to invest in you and not just a time to "get through". And you’ll be surprised how much stronger you and your relationship can be through these hard times!

Good luck honey!

bonnie

Once a Navy Girl, Always a Navy Girl

I wrote this back in March of '07. We were about 6 months into Jay's 8 month deployment. I figured I would archive it here too in case there are any military significant others reading.

Well, my sailor and I have been together for what will be a year in May. And we will be able to say that during our first year together we spent a grand total of 7 days in the same state and for 8 months of that we weren't even in the same country! But that's the life of a Navy girl. HOORAH! I found myself sharing the things I've learned over this deployment with someone the other day and I figured it would be a good idea to blog it.

It's hard sometimes because it seems like a lot of this information isn't out there. It is via word of mouth but there are relatively few books on military relationships and the ones that are out there are usually bured in the "military history" sections of the bookstores or something equally stupid. So every military significant other has to invent the wheel again.

So here goes....The most important things I've learned over the last year...

1) TIME!!! It does get easier! The memories fade and as hard as that is in itself it also helps a lot. The first few weeks of a separation are the hardest, when you can still feel his hands and his kiss and smell his cologne. Then after that you just end up having a few hard days here and there.

2) STAY BUSY!!! OMG, a weekend job where I do something i enjoy has been my lifesaver! Volunteer your time with an organization you enjoy (or that would help you get some kind of experience) or anything to help you feel like this time is productive for YOU and not just a time to spin your wheels and wait on him.

3) FIND FRIENDS!!! My myspace navy girls are my life line! They are the only people who truly and actually DO UNDERSTAND! There are a million groups! Keep looking until you find one with girls you feel comfortable with and who you have something in common with besides the military. And keep in mind that there are crazy people everywhere so don't get discouraged if the first few you meet you don't click with. There's nothing like being able to text message or IM someone in the middle of the night when you just don't feel like you can do this one more moment and have them say, YES YOU CAN! (You guys are AWESOME!!! Thank you all for everything you've done for me over these past months! NAVY GIRLIES ROCK! See y'all on the pier!)

5) Be positive! We all need our occasional pity party but keeping a positive attitude and surrounding yourself with other girls with positive attitudes will help immensely! You need people who when you're having a hard day will help pick you up instead of seeing it as an excuse to wallow as well!

4) There are a few books out there... Separated by Duty is one although I found it to be a little religious with a hint of anti-feminism (but that could just be my hyper-sensitive women's study minor talking and the older I get the more I realized that the answer to EVERYTHING is balance). ;-) http://www.survivingdeployment.com/ is a great website and really helped me deal with some of the sleeplessness issues I was having.

5) Give yourself permission to do whatever makes you feel better when you're having a bad day (within reason and legality of course! Hehe!) Buy as many Proud Military Girlfriend/Wife/Fiance shirts as you want if that makes you feel better. Sleep in his shirt, or under a blanket of his. Wear his cologne (I do that all the time! hehe!), get a bumper sticker. Anything that helps you feel connected to him.

But most of all understand that if your guy is worth it, you can handle anything and everything that's thrown your way. It's going to be hard and there are going to be moments where you don't think you can put one foot in front of the other, but in the end, when you're standing there watching his ship or his plane or his bus pull in, you'll forget all of it and only remember how much you love him. And you will be more grateful for him, for your relationship, for y'all's love then the vast majority of the people in the entire world will ever experience. That sense of gratefulness is the absolute most amazing thing I've gained from this experience! The only thing I hope for, is that in 20 years I have the same sense of awe... the same feeling of overwhelming gratefulness to have Jeremy in my life that I do right now and that I expect to have the day I stand there on that pier and watch that carrier pull in!

thanks y'all,

bonnie

GO NAVY!! HOORAH!!!

Public Service Announcement: New Charlotte Store, Paper Source, Will Literally Sucks Money From Your Walet

It is important for the public to know that now that Paper Source has opened a brick and mortor store, here in Charlotte, you may find money dissapearing from your bank account. Please do not panic! This can be explained by your beloved paper crafter finding the Holy Grail of paper crafting supply stores. For a paper crafter, walking into this store is like walking into a back packing outfitter for an avid outdoorsman!

Drumroll please...

I now introduce to you Charlotte's own Paper Source at Phillips Place.







(image curtesy of paper-source.com)


And since this blog title involves money being sucked from walets, let me show you some of the stuff I've gotten so far.







This is my entire loot from the first trip. There have been three (strike that four) trips now, and I've gotten to the point that I'm so excited when I come home that I'm like, "screw cleaning off the table and taking cool pictures! I want to play with my stuff!" So, unfortunately, I don't have pictures of all the wonderful stuff I've gotten. I know you're really upset. I can hear the muffled sobs from here. ;-)







This is some of the wonderful paper that I got. This was purchased specifically to make a Happy Anniversary banner for Dan and Shannon's first anniversary. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of the finished product before I gave it to them. But take heart! I'm making a similiar thing for us tomorrow and will certainly be taking pics of that!







This is an envelope template which allows you to make envelops in all different standard sizes out of anything... craft paper, the comics, wrapping paper, your old high school year book, your ex boyfriends letters where he reveals his deepest love for you right before dumping you for someone thinner, blonder, and dumber (well, maybe not that last one but you get the idea!)







This right here is some of the best $10 I've ever spent! It's a little sticker maker. You put your paper in one side, pull the tape out from under and when you peel the cover off and peel up your paper, it's not got adhesive on the back and can be stuck anywhere. I know some girls who have done their entire multi-layered inviations with the larger version of this machine, but for stuff that large I prefere my double stick tape. But for little tiny stuff like, stuff that's too small to tape, this machine is a god send!







This my friends is a bone folder! (Except that it's not actually made out of bone, but tefflon. Bone makes things shinny when you score then and this doesn't.) I really wish I'd had this baby when we were making all of our wedding programs. Folding that heavy cardstock would have been a breeze with this baby. Oh well, the blister scars are a nice reminder. (just kidding, I don't have any scars. Not from that project at least!)







Now let me introduce you to my glue pen and the best glitter in the world! This stuff does wonders! I wish I had a picture of the holiday tree ornament that I used it on. All I did was draw over a specific part of the pattern in the paper with the glue pen, then covered the whole thing in glitter. Once all the excess glitter was shaken off it just enhanced the pattern of the paper. Now it is very important that you be very careful with glitter! I can get very out of hand very quickly, and I mean both all over your house and totally gaaaawwwwwdddddyyyyyy!!!! So, use sparingly and only as an accent!







Finally, we have a beautiful round punch. I have long known the virtures of shaped punches, especially round since I can't cut a straight line let alone a circle! We used them non-stop during our wedding preparations. But this one is just perfect for those small project. This will eventually be used to make stir stick toppers for drinks for a party I will throw in the future. And when combined with the Xeron sticker making machine, it's a miracle!

Actually, I fell so in love with the punch and sticker combo that I had to purchase another punch.










I mean how awesome is that!

I've gotten a bunch more cool things, but like I said, I've forgotten to take pictures of them. Tomorrow, I'm hoping to upload some of the projects I've been doing with these great tools, because I promise they have not just been sitting around the house collecting dust.

But I will leave you with one of the small projects I've done. These are the tags I used on the chocolate covered pretzles I made for everyone in my office. I was able to use the new, wonderful stamp I bought. Once I started looking at them, I realized that they made nice simple tree ornaments, and nice gift tags, so I will probably make more and put them on all our gifts this year.







So, what crafty things are you doing this holiday season? I'd love to hear! If you're blogging about your exploits, then simply place a link in the comments so we can all go check them out!