A Little Obsession (Confession!)

I've come to the conclusion, not recently mind you (I think I've known this for a while now) that I have a little obsession with  . . . . . Magazines! Only certain ones, but the ones I like I just can't bear to part with and so over the years they seem to have mounted up - just a tad! I thought I'd share with you just a few of my favorites!

Of course right now, these are all of my favorites! As we near the Holidays I'm seeing all the new lovely Christmas magazines hit the shelves, but I keep telling myself I shouldn't buy any more. These (above) are some of the ones I pulled off my shelves last night to browse through when I went to bed!  Seriously, if I never buy another Holiday magazine again, I'm sure I'd be just fine - but I keep thinking I may be missing something 'new' in the most current edition :-)

As well as Holiday mags, there's my knitting magazines (this is where the obsession really kicks in), I seriously can't stop buying these, because there's new knitting patterns in them every month. 

I counted each pile and there's about 30-40 mags in each. That's over 150 knitting magazines!!! And I still keep buying more.

In the magazine holders below that I have my food magazines. More Paula and Sandra Lee mags that I've bought over the years, Clean Eating magazines, Taste of Home magazines and a few other odd ones that I just can't resist when I'm in the grocery store!

So, that's just a few of the mags I'm browsing right now. What about you, do you have a favorite magazine you can't resist buying every time it hits the stands? Do you have subscriptions to any of them. Right now I'm surprised I don't have any subscriptions to my favorite mags! I may have to rectify that shortly.

With Christmas on my mind, I've made a start at wrapping the hand knit gifts I've made. I've kept the wrapping very simple and 'rustic' looking. Tissue paper and yarn! I think it goes well with the hand made theme. I hope my family members appreciate them. I've been knitting all year so I would have something sweet and personal to send to each of them.

I also made a start on some online shopping at Amazon this week. Should be fun when that arrives next week. I can't believe it's already that time to start wrapping up gifts! Perhaps not for many of you, who don't start til December, but I personally like to start getting things done now, rather than later ;-) Have a wonderful weekend, I'll be back Monday.

Thank you Judy for my sweet Thanksgiving Sig Tag.

Party Night - Picture Overload!

Two posts in two days, I may be on a roll!  Here's some pictures of our fun Halloween Party from Saturday night. I posted these on Facebook earlier this week, but my sis doesn't use FB, so I'm posting them all here mainly for her ;-)

My costume was from Pirates of the Caribbean. I have to say it was not that comfortable to wear, the 'off the shoulder' thing was rather frustrating and the cummerbund and belt just felt like they were riding up all the time! But it was still fun dressing up.I wanted Jason to be Jack Sparrow but the costume was $60 and we didn't want to spend that much (mine was on sale for just $29!). So he was a prisoner instead.

And here's why he picked a prisoner costume. . . .

Ha ha ha! Poor Boo! but really, I think he loved every minute of it!

 Here's pictures of the food and decor!

 I was going to make a pumpkin cake but Kristen saw this snake in a magazine I had so we did this instead.

 

I loved the guacomole!

and the first time ever we bought dry ice - it looked so cool in the kids punch bowl.

 the gorgeous Cheryl (she's an angel really!) :-)

 I loved Gabby's Ninja Turtle costume!

 Loved that Rene was Woody and his little boy was Buzz :-)

 Angry Bird!

 me and Angry Bird's Mom :-) AJ!

 I set up a cookie decorating and mask making table in the dining room for the kids.

 and outside I had 3 boxes of 'monster body parts' for the kids to FEEL!!!

 Monster Intestines! (spaghetti and oil)

 Goblin Eyeballs (grapes and olives)

 Zombie Brains! (oatmeal and oil, with pumpkin guts underneath!!)

Cheryl has more fun pictures on her camera (more importantly, ones with me and her together, that I haven't seen yet). Hopefully I can share them later. We certainly had an awesome night and I'd seriously consider doing it all again next year :-)

We had a blast. . . .

at our Halloween Party on Saturday night. Kristen had fun last night too Trick or Treating, so I have lots of photos to share with you. First up, Kristen's costume this year - she was a Ninja! and pictures from trick or treating. . . .

Her friend Emily was 'Hermione'

and Connor was also a Ninja!

Our neighbor Dave (Cheryl's Dad) always sits outside and hands out candy. His is the first house we stop at.

 

there were lots of kids out this year. It was a lovely warm evening.

 I don't know these guys, but they looked so good I had to get a picture!

the ghost actually kept popping in and out of this jack o lantern!

We hosted our very first Halloween Party on Saturday night. It was a ton of fun and we ALL dressed up.I'll post pictures later tonight, or I think this post will be waaaaaaay too long!!! Hope you all had a fun Halloween. Next on the calendar is Kristen's birthday party, and Thanksgiving. Kristen's birthday falls the day after Thanksgiving this year so I think we'll be having a party the weekend before.

10 Green Bottles. . . .

. . .  hanging on the wall - well, not exactly, and they're not all green either! But here's a little birthday treat hubby brought home for me on my birthday . . . (but not including the champers, which I picked up myself that day) ;-)

I told Jason not to buy me pressies to wrap up for my birthday, because I'd already treated myself to over $80 worth of yarn the week before AND we went ahead and finally ordered a storm door that I'd wanted for the past couple of years (it gets installed next Monday) - but being the sweetie that he is, he came home on Tuesday with 6 bottles of wine from the grocery store. We buy six at a time (when we can) because the store offers 10% discount when you do and they give you a convenient 6 pack carry case :-) 

I love the selection he brought me too. 3 reds, a Cabernet Sauvignon , Merlot and Pinot Noir, and 3 whites.- Riesling, Pinot Grigio and a Pinot Gris.  As I mentioned before I've taken quite a liking to red wines lately, finally after many many years of thinking I didn't like them at all. Both Cheryl and I are really enjoying them.  Cheryl bought me a lovely bottle of Bordeaux wine for my birthday too and a book on wine tasting, and a large pack of wine label removers!!! This is perfect because I tried recently to remove the wine labels so I could start keeping them in a journal and they wouldn't come off without tearing.

You can CLICK HERE and see the labels she bought me. I've never heard of such a thing, but they actually laminate the label and you peel it off and get a neat plastic covered label. I want to start keeping notes in a journal about the wines we try, but I can also keep track now in a wine note book that Cheryl also bought me ;-)

So, it's Friday . . . . wonder which bottle we'll open tonight?   It won't be the champers, I drank all that on Tuesday!!!! CHEERS!!

Not bad for 48!

Yesterday I turned 48! I honestly don't know where the years have gone. I don't feel 48, I'm told I don't look 48, but I AM 48. . . . .

48?!!! how? when? It's like you blink and your 30's disappear, then your 40's go even faster. I know many of you know what I'm talking about. And if you're like me, you get to this age and you really start thinking about yourself, and you wonder how long this 'ole body' will keep going? 

 

 I joined the gym again a few weeks ago, I'm trying to watch what I eat so the pounds don't keep creeping up and up and up. I got my yearly 'well woman' check up yesterday (can you believe I scheduled that for my actual birthday! that's what happens when you get old, you forget what day your birthday even falls on). I will schedule my mamogram for next week, go to see my ENT for more allergy drops - all in the hopes I can keep myself in the best shape possible as I head toward 50. . . . and beyond! 

My birthday was a quiet day, but I had a fun couple of hours last night when Jason got home from work and then we all popped next door to Cheryl's :-) On Sunday we went to the Melting Pot with my inlaws (their birthday treat to me), and I got to open my pressie from them - wanna see what I got?

 The UGGS from my wish list :-)

I was SO surprised when I opened the box - what a HUGE treat. We joked that I should put them on with my dress to go out to dinner, but I didn't actually do it :-) I just had to put them on and pose for a picture though.  Here's some more pics from Sunday night (a little blurry cos I had the camera on the wrong setting!)

 the best 'inlaws' a girl could ever wish for!

We love Fondue!

the waiter fetched us glasses of champagne after our meal 'on the house' to celebrate my special day, even Kristen got a glass of (non-alcoholic) strawberry bubbly so she could join in the toast :-)

a little blurry, but we're all in it!

I realize why I haven't been blogging so much. I was telling my sister yesterday when she was asking where my posts were. It's ever since I got my Ipad!!! I don't really come upstairs to use my computer much but typing on my ipad isn't that great, so I just don't get around to posting, and one day passes and then the next and I realize over a week has gone by without any entries. I will try to do better and make an effort to sit here and write something, even if it is just a couple of times a week.

Thank you all for the lovely birthday wishes (most of them on FB), you all made me feel so special. 

Still Here!

Yes, I'm still here and I know I haven't posted in over a week! Life was pretty blah last week and I really didn't have much to post about. That plus the fact I knew my sister was on vacation for a week, and because I knew she wasn't popping in to 'read me', well it felt like there was little point in posting anything!

I don't really have much to post about this week either! Not sure if or when I'll  even post this week, perhaps I should just take a little bloggy break until I come up with some 'blog worthy' material? For anyone that was wondering where I was, I just wanted to pop in and say hi, I'm here and feeling fine, just not in a bloggy mood.