Halloween Fun!

Normer and I had quite the halloween this past weekend! I spent about 2 days making our costumes. I have really learned a lot about costume making over the years so it was fun to put all of that to use this year for myself!

Here we are!

I never got a full shot of the Eiffel Tower but it goes all the way to the floor! And Normer is Big Ben if you didn’t get it. Last minute I decided to make a little beret for myself to wear. I asked Normer if he had any old dress pants that he didn’t wear anymore. He scronged up a pair for me and I cut them up to make the hat. It needed to be a little more poofy on top to look like an actual beret but I thought it did the job pretty well. It was super easy to make so that has inspired me to make more hats for myself!

Oh and sorry for the red eye in the pic. I’m too tired to edit it. We might be getting a new camera for Christmas! Yah!

Happy November everyone!

Fun Blogs!

Wow, I have come across some really fun blogs lately and I thought I would share!

This first one if full of printables and costumes ideas for kids. But I think a lot of these could be adapted for adults too! And I LOVE FREE printables!!!!

http://www.familye.com/

And speaking of free printables and all things to do with beautiful paper, check out Paper Crave. She even frequently blogs about letterpress. Be still my heart!

http://papercrave.com/

Going with the theme of offering printables, here is the site A Field Journal. It’s just plain gorgeous!

http://afieldjournal.blogspot.com/

Now, if I can just talk Normer into purchasing me a color printer….seems like I’m always trying to talk him into something.

Dog Campaigning

Ya’ll. I am so excited. I love animals. I always have…but there is a major problem, I’m severely allergic to all animals. Cats, dogs, horses…anything furry and I’m allergic.

This weekend I went to visit my very fun friend Becca. She lives just outside of Denver and I love to go visit her whenever I can. We had such a fun weekend of sewing, baking, and catching up. But hold on, more on those fun times in a second.

I have finally found a dog that I’m not allergic to. You don’t know how HUGE this is for me. Becca and her husband, Jake, have a Miniature Poodle. His name is Tank. He is the most adorable dog and I AM NOT ALLERGIC TO HIM. Did you hear that? I’M NOT ALLERGIC TO HIM!!

I mean, look at this cuteness:

I have spent my whole life with this scenario: Touch an animal and then immediately go scrub down my arms so I don’t break out or start sneezing.

Now look at this picture:

There I am….holding a dog. HOLDING a dog. I’m not sneezing, I’m not itching. I’m smiling while holding a dog. What a concept.

Now,  the only problem with this is that we live in a small condo on the 4th floor and there is no end in sight of when we might be able to move. We are stuck here for awhile. Yet, now that I know I am able to have a dog in my house, I have dog fever. Probably worse than baby fever. Ok, maybe not that bad, but it’s bad.

I want a little “Tank” of my own. But the husband is resisting. And he is resisting for practical reasons of which I totally understand. But come on, how can you resist this?

How could you deny that cute little face, Normer? Hmm???

Ok, back to the fun weekend in Denver. Becca is an amazing cook. She has been to culinary school and worked in a bakery. I think I gained 10 pounds from all the baked goods I ate this weekend. I got to Denver Saturday morning and the very first thing we did when I arrived was play Settlers. Ha, Becca and Jake are my kind of people. The next thing we did was bake a delectable White Strawberry filled Layer Cake with one of Becca’s friends.

Later that night we went up on one of the mountains to visit a house that Becca and Jake are remodeling. It was absolutely gorgeous with fantastic views. How would you like to wake up to this everyday?

After grilling some yummy chicken kabobs and watching the sunset, we made smores over the fire. What a fun night!
On Sunday, I woke up extra early and was able to go running with my new friend Eve. Eve is great friends with my close friend Jackie. I met her through Jackie’s wedding and she just happens to live in Denver. She took me running on a beautiful trail with mountain views. Then Eve and I meet Becca for a breakfast at a cute little coffee shop. After breakfast, Becca and I headed back home to start sewing. We worked on napkins, purses and I even appliqued on a onesie. Here is Becca with her napkin:

And after all that sewing, we had to make a cake. So we made Pioneer Woman’s Apple Cake.

Yum-O. It would have been a lot better if we had let the butter brown more, but we got too impatient. After the apple cake, we were quite exhausted so we called it a night!

I had such a fun weekend in Denver. Thanks Becca and Jake for having me over!

Oh, and one more thing…I’m dog campaigning. Here is my first official act on this official campaign trail.

Normer, I want us to get a poodle. All of my life, I have had to cast aside my affection and love for animals because of my stupid allergies. I have always wanted a dog. A little dog of my own to love and cherish.  For 28 long years, I have suffered because of my allergies. But not anymore. Now, with your help, we can put away those painful memories and fulfill my heart’s desires. Oh, my sweet husband, won’t you let us get a little puppy?

Want to join me on this campaign? Feel free to write a comment on here telling Normer why we should get a dog.

My 2009 Wish List!

For some reason, I feel Fall coming. I know it seems like a million light years away with the heat we’ve had lately…but it’s coming. And with Fall comes my favorite time of the year! Not only do I love the cooler temps, the beautiful leaves but I finally get presents!! Now I know that may sound a little selfish, me wanting presents. But you see, everything comes at once for me. I have my birthday on Nov. 10th, anniversary on Nov. 18th and then it’s time for Christmas. So whenever I want something that I consider not budget friendly, I have to wait a long time to get it! I told Normer I was already prepping my wish list and he just laughed at me. And then said, “Are you going to post it on the blog?” And I said, “Why not?”

So here it is!

1) Stamps- I already have the Landscape set of these gorgeous stamps from Yellow Owl Workshop. They are my absolute favorite stamps and I can’t wait to get the other sets!

CityscapeSeascape

Bird in a Cage- You know my love for birds! How could I not have this??

2) DVD’s- I think it’s time I own the complete set of DVD’s for:

Lost

and How I Met Your Mother

3) Running Watch- I really want a fun running watch, but I haven’t found one I like yet. I want something that will tell me my heart rate, keep my time and it would be pretty cool if it told me my mileage as well!

4) A new Catan Game- Normer and I have pretty much worn out our original Catan game so it would be nice to have a different edition!

Catan Seafarers

Catan Cities and Knights

Hurry up and get here Fall!!!!

Sandals

I really need some brown sandals. I have been looking all summer for a pair. I saw some I liked back in the Spring but I didn’t buy because it was too early…then they were all gone and it was too late.

I almost think it’s not even worth looking anymore. But tonight I decided to look online and just see if anything turned up. Um, nothing. And you know why nothing turned up? Because there are way, way too many ugly sandals taking up space.

Seriously. Please tell me that you wouldn’t wear this.

THIS is a sandal? I was on the DSW website in the FLAT SANDAL SECTION. I guess I know why they left the peep toe, because if I wore this out in the GA heat I would need all the air I could get up to my poor sweaty ankle. Ugh…moving on.

This is what I found next;

Umm…I’m sorry, I forgot to bring my sword and shield to work with me today but I did remember my shoes! Seriously?

And the next two would be in the same category….
??

Seriously? I know I am not Ms. Fashionista, but I just can’t imagine any normal person wearing these “sandals”…..

100 Things about Stacee

It’s my 100th Blog! So here are 100 things about me to celebrate!

1) I have been to 5 continents. All I have left is Australia and Antarctica. I’m hoping to visit Australia this year. Antarctica probably never.

2) I eat a bagel with strawberry cream cheese for breakfast every day.

3) If I don’t eat almost every 2-4 hours I get really bad stomach pains and become very grumpy.

4) I sleep with a small heart shaped pillow between my knees. I hate sleeping without it.

5) I don’t wear deodorant. My armpits never sweat. I can run a 10k and my whole body will be covered in sweat except my armpits. Weird, huh?

6) I love being organized but most of the time I’m messy. I tend to not put things away and then I’ll spend all day picking things up. My roommates in college told me that my room was bipolar. One day it would look like a tornado had come through and the next day it was totally spotless.

7) I am deathly allergic to shellfish and pinenuts.

8 ) I almost died in Beijing, China in 2002. I discovered I was allergic to pinenuts when I ate a BUNCH of them in the airport. It really is a miracle that I am alive today- all my doctors said I should have died.

9) I have a very good sense of direction. If I’m not sure how to get somewhere but know what direction it is, I will just figure it out on my own without the help of a map.

10) I love looking at maps. I could look at them all day.

11) I am very forgetful.

12) I am a total clutz. I am always running in to things or stubbing my toes.

13) When I was in elementary school, I ran into a telephone pole and knocked myself out. See what I mean about being a total clutz?

14) I love coffee but I try not to drink it because it hurts my stomach.

15) I have been on probation before. It’s a really long story and it was a mistake that the city of Atlanta made. Basically, I was in a wreck and didn’t pay the complete fine because the city wrote the wrong amount on my ticket. I got a phone call 6 months later saying I missed my probation check-in and was about to get arrested. Haha. That’s when I found out that I owed the city $6 and they were going to arrest me over it. Nice, huh? I worked everything out with my probation officer and just paid the $6 I still owed. No arrests were made. And I still have a clean record.

16) I was born in Savannah, Ga and lived there until I was 6.

17) I grew up in the middle of no where- McRae, Ga.

18) I worked in a roller skating rink when I was in high school. I was a DJ and skate guard. I got to blow my whistle at you if you were skating too fast.

19) I will not watch scary movies. Don’t like them at all!!

20) I keep the clothes in my closet organized by color.

21) I hate the taste of white milk. I’ll drink chocolate milk or put milk in my tea but don’t like it plain.

22) I eat my cereal dry- no milk in it! Mainly because of #21 but also because I think soggy cereal is gross.

23) I am horrible at Math. I can’t add anything and definitely can’t multiply. I always use a calculator for any math problem.

24) My high school piano teacher would set a pair of nail clippers on the piano if my nails were ever too long. I couldn’t even grow them out for the prom!!

25) Because of #24, I still keep my finger nails cut short to this day!

26) I have never been able to keep a plant alive in my house. I always forget to water them. I’ve even killed a cactus!!

27) I’ve read the Twilight series twice. And I would totally read it for a third time!

28) I used to read books 10 hours a day as a kid. I’ve recently picked that habit back up again.

29) I have very, very, very dry skin. It’s completely annoying. I am constantly putting on lotion and it’s never enough.

30) Because of #29, I’m always putting on lip gloss. There’s nothing worse then chapped lips!

31) I put Vaseline on my face every night before I go to sleep. Helps a bunch with #29!

32) I shave my legs every day. Yep, even in the winter!

33) I’m a middle child.

34) My brother is 3 years older than me.

35) My sister is 7 years younger than me.

36) I suck at playing sports.

37) In middle school, I signed up for the tennis team. I have NO idea why I did this. My partner and I lost every single game. It was mortifying.

38) I can’t do a cartwheel.

39) I tried out to be a cheerleader in 6th grade. I didn’t make the squad because I couldn’t do a cartwheel. Sad, huh?

40) I have played the trombone since 5th grade. Band was the only organization that didn’t reject me.

41) I can play 5 chords on the guitar. And I can play them really good too.

42) Do you remember playing the recorder when you were in elementary school? (Maybe you played the song flute?) I can play a mean recorder. You’ve never heard Hot Cross Buns sound so good until you’ve heard me.

43) The first cassette tape I owned was Michael W. Smith’s Go West Young Man. Oh yeah.

44) I was born at 10:41pm on November 1oth.

45) My birthday is my favorite day of the year.

46) I get very upset when people don’t remember my birthday.

47) I like to celebrate a birthday week. You get whatever you want the whole week before your birthday. If only the husband would play along…

48) I got really mad at my mom when she made me do chores on my birthday when I was a kid. I told her that you weren’t supposed to do anything but eat cake. She told me that she did chores on her birthday every year and I better get in there and clean those dishes! I will never make my kids do chores on their birthday. EVER.

49) I hated high school. I never felt like I fit in.

50) I hate dancing to fast songs in public.

51) I love swinging dancing though.

52) My first car was a Red Pontiac Sunfire. I was pulled over way too many times because I had a red car. Oh, and because I was probably speeding.

53) I hate asparagus. I’ll eat it if I’m desperate but I hate it. And yes, I’ve been starving enough to eat it.

54) I carry benedryll every where I go.

55) My email inbox has to say zero. I can leave no email unread.

56) I know all the words to the Little Mermaid soundtrack. “Look at this stuff, isn’t it neat?…”

57) My favorite color is pink. Brown is a close second…

58) As a kid, my favorite color was purple. I used to wake up in the middle of the night and change into my purple pajamas if I wasn’t already wearing them.

59) I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid. I really wanted to go to space camp.

60) When I take a pan or dish out of the cabinet, I always rinse it off before I use it.

61) I wipe off my library books with disinfectant before I read them.

62) I really, really, really want to be pregnant right now.

63) I want to have 4 kids.

64) The first time I flew on an airplane was after my Freshman year in college. I went to San Diego for the summer.

65) I think I’ve been on an airplane 200, 000 times since then.

66) I’m allergic to cats, horses, dogs and roaches.

67) I had a cat named Minx growing up. He was the best cat in the world. He lived outside and I would spend all my time outside with him. I would have to scrub my arms after petting him because I would start to break out in welps.

68) Minx had a sister named Missy. I loved her dearly too. She went a little crazy and my parents told me she ran away. I would lay in my bed and wish for her to come back. I found out years later that they took her to the vet and had to put her asleep.

69) I wanted to be an opera singer in college. Teaching was just my back-up plan. It turned out to be a pretty good back-up plan.

70) When I was in elementary school, my teacher was really upset because I was holding my pencil wrong. My mom had to buy these special pencil covers to “teach” me to use the correct fingers. I did eventually learn to write the correct way but I still like to do it the wrong way too. I’m a rebel like that.

71) I eat way too much food. All of the time.

72) I get sunburned very easy but then I tan.

73) I have a 3 inch scar on my back from getting too many sunburns. I had a mole removed and they had to take a lot of skin out as a precaution.

74) I am all about efficiency. If something isn’t efficient then I won’t do it. I hate wasting time on silly things.

75) I hated writing papers in college. It was the bane of my existence.

76) I was an RA for 3 years at Berry College.

77) My favorite children’s books are the Little Miss and Mr Series. Ya know, Little Miss Sunshine; Mr Lazy. My future kids will get those read to them quite often!

78) I’m an elementary teacher and I’m a crazy one. I like to talk in funny accents to my classes. They eat it up. They especially enjoy my British accent.

79) My favorite drink is Sweet Tea from Chick-Fil-A. I could drink it all day long.

80) I make really yummy Sweet Tea.

81) I have been proposed to twice because my sweet tea is so good. They asked me to make sweet tea for them for the rest of their lives. I had to reject their proposal. Mainly, because one of them was dating my best friend.

82) I am a very loyal friend. Once you are in the inner circle- you’re there forever. Seriously.

83) My first memory is of me riding in the back of a car and my mom trying to get me to take some nasty medicine. Yick.

84) I’m a news junkie. I have to know what is going on in the world.

85) I enjoy reading manuals. If I’m bored in the car while Normer is driving, I usually just pull the manual out and read that.

86) I get addicted to TV shows very easily. Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Ugly Betty, 30 Rock, The Office. I want to watch True Blood and Mad Men but I need to get them on DVD. I’m excited about the new show called Glee that comes out this Fall.

87) I do my make up in the car while I’m sitting at red lights. I always pay attention to the light so I make sure I don’t miss it turning green. No need to honk buddy.

88) I have bad road rage. Sitting in Atlanta traffic for hours will do that to you. I mainly just talk smack about other drivers. My favorite thing to say is “G FREAKING O!!! GO!!!” I have no idea where that came from.

89) I love sweets. It’s hard to say no to sugar.

90) When I graduated college, I couldn’t find a teaching job in Georgia so I moved to Maryland for a year. I lived in the Gaithersburg/Germantown area and taught over by College Park.

91) I loved living so close to DC and took a lot of time to visit all of the National Monuments there.

92) I met Normer in November 2005 and was married to him by November 2006. We dated for 9 months and were engaged for 3 months.

93) We got married at the Margaret Mitchell House in Midtown.

94) We went to St. Lucia on our honeymoon.

95) I am starting up a girls running club and I’m super excited about it. We’re training to run a 10k in 45 minutes.

96) I am a food snob. There are certain places that I just can’t eat.

97) During college, I was so broke that I paid for all my meals with change. The cashiers always hated me.

98) I met Normer at a Fusion 20 gathering through North Point Community Church.

99) I really want to start my own business and actually make money. I have lots of ideas but no winners yet.

100) It took me almost 4 months to think of a 100 things to write about myself. Seriously.

Whew..glad that is over. Here’s to many more blogs to come!

Another stamper!

Go check out Michelle’s blog. She just started carving stamps and they are super cute!

Meet Atlee and Lantis

There have been more hawk sightings this week. I love my little feathered friends that make city living so enjoyable. I have decided my two hawk friends need a name. This time I even captured a picture of both of them together. Too bad I don’t have a better camera with zoom (Cough…normerweneedanewcamera..Cough).

 Look closely…there are two!

 Meet Atlee (on the left) and Lantis (on the right). Since they are residents of Atlantic Station, I felt they needed a name to represent.
Normer and I will yell “HAWK” and then both rush to the windows when we see them. I could watch them all day.

And how about that rain? I guess my rain stamps worked!!

Peachtree Road Race Update

Due to Normer’s injuries, I tried to convince him to not run the Peachtree. I even threatened that I would buy a new computer and iphone if he ran the race. I knew that if he ran the race, I would be stuck nursing him back to health. And that’s exactly what happened!

Normer stubbornly decided that he was going to run the race whether I liked it or not. I hid his number behind a picture frame on Friday night, but he ended up finding it and didn’t tell me. I left for the race around 6:15 and was waiting for the shuttle when he came jogging up with his number. He ended up running for the majority of the race and really hurt his leg even more. I think his time was around 72. (That’s pretty good when you have a fractured tibia..haha) I ran the race in 65 minutes and was happy with that time for not training at all.

I did hold Normer to my threat and ordered my new computer yesterday! I’m so excited! It’s a 13 inch Macbook Pro. We customized it so it will be another week or so before I get it.

And yes, I had to take care of my poor hurt husband all weekend…he is still limping and refuses to go to the doctor.
But at least I will have my new computer to console me.

Normer’s Consequences

Dear Friends-

You stand as my witnesses that if Normer Adams runs or walks the Peachtree Road Race tomorrow he will face severe consequences.

You see, Normer went hiking this week and injured his leg. His shin is all swollen and he can barely walk. We think he may have a stress fracture. Now, why would someone who is that hurt want to go walk 6.2 miles? Who knows, but he is crazy. And I will not allow him to go.

So friends, you stand as my witnesses that if Normer participates in this race he will face the consequences that I have picked. And the consequences are that I will buy myself a new computer AND replace my shattered iphone. All in one swoop. So Normer- are you ready to give up all that money towards my new gadgets? Or are you going to do the sensible thing and rest while you are hurt? The choice is yours my dear.

-Stacee

Update: I have hidden his number in the house. He can’t find it and he also can’t find safety pins. I’ve hidden them too.