The Glass is Half Full

The good news is: On Saturday I got a haircut and it came out pretty well. (It’s always such a nail-biter whenever I go to the salon!)

The bad news is: For breakfast this morning, I was eating some crunchy cereal with almonds and one of my fillings fell out – waaah! 🙁

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The good news is: It was close to 60 degrees here in New England yesterday.

The bad news is: We also had an oil delivery and the bill was . . . are you ready? $610.00! (Yikes!)

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The good news is: I was doing a little organizing of my craft space and I found some great supplies that I forgot I had!

The bad news is: I think the area looked neater before I organized! 😉

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The good news is: I am having a lot of fun getting back into crocheting again!

The bad news is: Now I have a two-page list of crochet projects I’d like to make! Oh well, it IS nice to have a choice . . .

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The good news is: All of you make me smile from ear to ear with the great comments you leave here on the blog.

And there’s nothing bad about that!!! 😀

Hugs,

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I’m getting nervous . . .

christmas-calendarIs it just me? Is anyone else feeling that the holidays are coming too fast? I don’t want to scare anybody . . . but do you realize there are only about TEN weeks until Christmas!

santasurfEvery year I promise myself that I’ll start my holiday preparations EARLY! I mean why couldn’t I write Christmas cards in the summer? No reason! That way I’d have time to write a personal note on them, which is something I really like to do, but I can’t when I’m pressed for time.

And I could certainly begin the following year’s gift shopping in January. After all, my money would go so much further with all those after-Christmas sales.

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Cookie baking could begin in October. I could freeze them. It would be so nice to make a dozen different kinds for once!

giftsThen there’s wrapping – I love wrapping!!!! I get pretty worn out when I have to do it all at once, though. What if I wrapped each item as I bought it?

“Ok Crystal . . . Take a deep breath!

Ten weeks is reasonable.

Make a to-do list.
Break it into weekly goals.
Enlist help from the family.
Remember it’s supposed to be fun.
Eliminate the unnecessary tasks.
Take time to stop and smell the roses Christmas tree.

Whew! I feel better, now. Thanks for listening! 😉

What do you do to avoid holiday stress?

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Another Way To Say “I Care” . . .

birdhouseOne of the “questions” for this week’s giveaway is to share a quote that means a lot to you, and there sure have been some wonderful ones mentioned in the comments so far!

They all make you stop and think (or giggle, thanks Carol!).

I’ve been trying to decide which quote I would choose if I were to answer the question. I must confess that I do love quotations (which is probably no surprise to you regulars who read my Friday Favorites posts).

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Today though, as I was thinking about my favorite, all of a sudden one popped into my mind. It’s not famous. In fact, it may never have been heard by anyone outside of my family. It’s something my father always says just as we are about to drive away after visiting him and my mother. Our seatbelts are fastened and the motor is running. The car window is open, and Dad is standing nearby. We exchange some last minute thoughts, and then as he waves goodbye, he says: “Watch out for the nuts!”

On the surface, this probably sounds pretty comical, but he means: “Be careful driving home – there are crazy drivers on the road.”

We always giggle and immediately reply: “We will!”

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The thing is though… Dad is really saying something else – something he would never actually say out loud, and that is: “I love you. Don’t let anything happen to you on the way home.”

He started saying it to us years ago. Since then, my siblings and our kids have also adopted it. We say it to each other all the time as part of a goodbye.

Isn’t it funny how a silly little phrase like “Watch out for the nuts!” can mean so much.

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10 Things That Drive Me Nuts!

It’s better to laugh than to get aggravated, right?

blogfromheartSome days, doesn’t it seem as if life is filled with little annoyances? A bit of venting usually makes us feel better and can also help us realize that, in the grand scheme of things, these little stresses are pretty insignificant!

So let’s list some of the things that bug us. Then we can smile for the rest of the week! 😀

I‘ll start. In no particular order, here are things that drive me nuts:

1. In my neck of the woods, the milk we buy comes in plastic bottles with plastic caps. It drives me nuts that no matter how many times I wipe off the bottle after using it, the next time I open it, there will be a mini blizzard of dried milk flakes that fly everywhere. You’ve heard the old saying: “They can send a man to the moon . . .” I’d like to add . . . “so why can’t they engineer a better milk bottle?”

2. Mail-in rebates! I hate ‘em! Just give me the sale price up front, please!

3. Grocery store loyalty cards – See #2

4. People who breeze by, without a word, when you stop to hold a door for them.

5. It drives me nuts when I’m just about to hop into bed at night and I suddenly see a giant spider crawling across the ceiling (or I hear a mosquito buzzing!) Eeks!!! Let me tell ya – there will be no sleeping until we extricate that unwanted visitor from the boudoir!

6. The amount of junk mail and telemarketing that still squeaks through even though you’ve jumped through hoops to remove yourself from the appropriate lists.

7. Trying to pay for a purchase and being asked for a zip code, a phone number, of if I would like to apply for a store charge, the coupon club, or the frequent buyer program. I know it’s not the clerk’s fault, but it gets very, very old – especially when “no thank you” doesn’t seem to suffice and I’m asked: “Why not?” and “Are you sure???”

8. Public restrooms that are in such an awful condition that I ask myself if I really have to go! 😉

9. Watching the weather forecast on TV and having to listen to so much superfluous blah blah blah, that by the time the guy finally gets to the crucial details – like tomorrow’s temperature – I’ve tuned out and I miss that part!!! Grrrrr!

10. Spending time going through sales racks at a department store only to discover at the checkout that the item I’ve selected is one of the few things that is NOT on sale!

What drives you nuts? 🙂

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It’s the Heat Talking . . .

We’re havin’ a heat wave so today I have one of my “a little bit of this and a little bit of that” kind of posts! Some of it silly, some of it helpful, and hopefully none of it boring!!! You’d let me know, wouldn’t you?

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Would you believe I just put a snowflake cloth on the table? Yes, snowflakes!!! It is so darn HOT here that I’m hoping it will have us imagining that we’re cool! 😉

Oh and I’m so excited about something I’ve just figured out! You may have read about my saga at the hair salon, (see it here). Recently though, I tried a new tactic! Next time you want a haircut, bring a photo of YOU – one that was taken on a day when your hair looks just the way you like it. No explaining for you to do and no guesswork for the stylist. I just tried it and it worked!!!

Have you noticed that fortune cookies don’t really tell your fortune anymore? I miss that! Lately they all seem to have pithy little sayings but no predictions for the future!

I‘d also like to weigh in on this week’s questions . . .

Pampering at a hotel or camping under the stars?

I’d have go with the hotel stay as opposed to camping. I love the “idea” of sleeping under the stars – but I’d rather do it from the balcony of a penthouse suite in a fancy hotel. Hey! I can dream can’t I? Since I married for love and not money – I fear the penthouse suite will forever be a pipe dream, though! You see, I didn’t listen to my grandmother. She used to jokingly say, “It’s just as easy to fall in love with a rich man!” You would have loved my grandmother – she was a riot!

What would I find hard to live without besides family, friends, and pets??

Definitely indoor plumbing. I know this because we have a well for our water, and of course the pump is run by electricity. Whenever there’s a surprise storm and we lose our power; it’s not just a matter of worrying that food will spoil or that we don’t have enough candles. No, no. Our problem when a power line is down is that we can’t . . . flush! Having had that experience several times over the years has convinced me that I could never live without indoor plumbing.

So, if it’s hot where you are, put out that fabric snowman!

It couldn’t hurt. 😀

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