gobble-gobble

Mmmmm, don't you just love Thanksgiving dinner? It's one of my favorite meals of the whole year! I think its funny that even though its one of my favorites, I only have it about once a year...why is that? I guess it makes it all that more special when you don't have it very often...you appreciate it more. Well, I appreciated it a great deal and I ate A TON!

My first Thanksgiving meal this year was in the office with my coworkers. We had our lunch on Tuesday, and we had a yummy potluck. Its always nice hanging out with everyone, I feel like we bond so much more when we do big group activities. We sat around the big tables, ate our turkey and mashed potatoes...and all the other yummy stuff, and chatted for a little over an hour. It was a nice long lunch visiting with everyone. I'm very thankful to be working at this office with such wonderful people!!(tom's christmas gift)I was very blessed to spend my Thanksgiving Day with family. I was a little depressed when I realized that I wasn't going to have my immediate family around this year for the holidays, but God still blessed me once again and I was able to spend time with family anyway.

First, I got to go visit my Grandparents and have lunch with them, and I invited my cousin Cathy to come with me. I'm so glad that we got to spend the afternoon with them, it was a very nice time! I love them dearly! Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa, for being so wonderful...and thank you for giving me such an amazing mom! You two have been great role models and I am so blessed to have such godly and wise grandparents. I love you so much!!!
Happy Thanksgiving...I give thanks for YOU! lunch at Mimi'sGrandma & MeGrandpa & CathyThen, my sweet cousin Christy invited me over to her house for Thanksgiving dinner this year, and it was fabulous! So much good food! However, she did make me try GREEN BEANS and SWEET POTATOES....so NOT my favorite! Green beans were actually the one vegetable I swore I would NEVER eat again in my life! I don't know how she convinced me to try them {she's good at that}. But I have to say that they didn't make me throw up...or gag for that matter! So I guess they weren't all bad! hahaha :) No seriously, they were ok, but I don't think I'll be eating them again anytime soon. Sorry, I just can't do it. I'll stick with my regular meat and potatoes! :) Anyway, the night was great...I had a ton of fun hanging out with everyone, and so did Annie. Well, Annie had fun attacking the other dogs {she might be a little thing, but she's a big bully!}. I hope you too had a very special day with family and friends!!
my second plate of food...
yeah, I ate WAY TOO MUCH!we didn't feel so good after all our pigging out!Me & Annie with Christy & Minnie
{our babies had on the cutest sweaters} Annie's Thanksgiving sweater...isn't it so adorable! :)

i'm thankful for...YOU

I hope you all have a very special day!
I will post about my special Thanksgiving later this weekend.
Love you all!

my new workshop

My friend Carissa and I went to a craft fair a couple weeks ago out in Santa Ana and it hit me...I want to start putting my creativity to some good use. Being there and seeing all the artist display their pieces and share their talent with total strangers was so awesome. It totally motivated me to start making my own creations. I've hit up a couple thrift stores to get material and odds and ends to use, as well as the craft stores, and am excited to get started (if you have scraps you don't want or need, I would gladly come pick them up). I have also been super busy creating a workshop in my house in the spare room (that was used for storing a bunch of my junk). It was a lot of hard work because I had to first clean out the garage to make room for all the junk from the house. So my back is hurting, along with muscles I didn't know I had...but it was worth it!

BEFORE
{storage room}



AFTER
{workshop}


I still have some more organizing and cleaning to do in the new workshop, but isn't this so exciting?!?! I can't wait to really get things going! I have a few ideas of what I want to make already. Carissa and I are going to start having a craft night once a week (or every other week, depending on how it goes) and then hopefully we can have a booth at one of the next craft fairs. I bought a little display case at the thrift store for super cheap, and will be on the hunt for more creative display pieces as I mosie through the thrift stores in the coming days. The one below is what I've found...I just need to cut some glass for the shelves, but that will be easy.

A girlfriend of mine, such a sweet friend, is giving me one of her old sewing machines...I'm so excited to start learning to sew! I have known how to sew by hand since my junior high home-ec class, but have never learned the machine. So this is fabulous! Its going to be so much faster this way, goodness!

I am also interested in purchasing an adjustable dressform. If you have one you don't need and would like to help my cause (start-up biz) I'd definitely love to take it off your hands. I just can't afford a brand new one right now...they are a little pricey. Anyway, let me know if you have one...I can buy it off you too, if its a reasonable price. Thanks!

I will be starting up a new blog for my handmade items soon and I will also be creating an Etsy account where I will be selling some of my products. Etsy is a site for selling handmade items only, and I've bought a few pieces on there from other artists and have been very pleased. When my account is set up, please check it out {I'll post the links soon}!

snuggles

Oh, this morning was rough! I did not want to wake up.
Annie and I were all snuggles this morning in bed...it was so hard to have motivation to get out of bed and get ready for work. Why can't I win the lottery and sleep in? Well, at least its Friday and that means that for the next two days I can take my time in the morning, sleep in if I want, stay in my pjs all day if that's what I feel like...and just relax.
I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE WEEKEND!!! :)

Happy Friday!!!

my naked eye

Is this scary? I didn't wear any makeup today, and when I looked it the mirror late morning I was taken back, I had forgotten. At that moment I realized how naked my eyes felt. Sorry to those who saw me today and had to deal with makeup-less Jody! But besides no makeup...aren't eyes so interesting? All those intricate details...God got so creative, didn't he?

Psalm 121
I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From where shall my help come?
My help comes from the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps Israel
Will neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD is your keeper;
The LORD is your shade on your right hand.
The sun will not smite you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
The LORD will protect you from all evil;
He will keep your soul.
The LORD will guard your going out and your coming in
From this time forth and forever.

Oak Glen - fall fun day!

Today was so nice! I spent the afternoon with my girlfriends out in Oak Glen. When we first arrived at Oak Tree Village, we were really hungry. So we got in line at the little country restaurant there and thought we'd be sitting within 10 minutes, which is what the sign said the wait would be. Well Holly had brought along little Manhattan (her super cute little dog), so the wait for a table outside was a bit longer...about 50 minutes longer! Yuck. But it was worth the wait. We got to sit outside and enjoy the beautiful weather and it was nice having her little doggie with us all day. Boy did she get lots of attention! :)After lunch we walked around the cute little village there and saw a kangarooa pet possum (boy they're ugly)a balloon animal guylittle Manhattan wasn't afraid of the bear warning - haha :)cute little area where people sell their craft itemswe got put in jail! - well, not really :)a grave yard...check out the leg coming out - yuck! haha :)Kristy fed the deer and I took a picture with a horseand then I just had fun taking some random photos...Next we drove up the hill a bit and found another area where they were selling lots of apples and such. They were even showing how to make apple cider. I spent my time taking photos outside while the girls shopped. It was just so beautiful! My photos don't do it justice!
Oh, how I love the fall! I just wish it would cool down a bit here...it was in the 90's today, but still enjoyable. But I'm ready for sweater and scarf weather!