The light at the end of the... sidewalk?

Yay! Today was my last full day of work! I may be going in on the weekend to help out {sigh- when people call in sick over the holidays, I really think they should be reprimanded- it screws everyone over!}, but then I am OUT until early January. SQUEEEE!

Consumerist Overload

The holiday season sends everyone into spending overdrive. Even me. And I don't really buy many gifts.

Oh, but I do love to window browser shop. Etsy is a fav right now, even though I seriously don't need to buy ANY of this stuff. I still want so many things for myself and to give to others!

from ScreamPrinting

from SukanArt

from Marolsha

from KatieViggers

from RikaRika

from trinketsforkeeps

from heartfeltwool

from TheDContinuum

from ScreamPrinting

Project 365- Round 2

Sometime in October, my general interest in doing the Project 365 sputtered out. Looking at all those blank calendar spaces made me feel a bit hopeless, so I finally made a pretty obvious groundbreaking decision- I will start over!

I've been able to fill in from Dec 1 through today because, thankfully, I've been taking more pictures lately. Hopefully I'll be able to make it all the way through the end of Nov '11 without missing any more days!

Of course, I have to leave you with a couple recent pictures of the 2 critters who will probably get the most camera time. Enjoy!

NOLA in 23 words.

Historical.

Outspoken.

Liquid.

Equine.

Elegant.

Voodoo.

Messy.

Thirsty.

Fen.

Old-Fashioned.

Meaty.

Musical.

Laid back.

Glam.

Immortal.

Eerie.

Wild.

Delicious.

Eclectic.

Rambunctious.

Devout.

Inventive.

 

Colorful.

Need a bike?

Try one of these!

Practical and easy to use! Straight from the streets of New Orleans!

Blinky!

It must be December- bunches of homes in the area have pretty lights up!

Finally- I can listen to TransSiberian Orchestra's non-traditional holiday music again! My favorite is Wizards in Winter, which has a fun light show video on YouTube as well:).

A quiet morning

The morning cup of coffee has exhilaration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected to reproduce. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

I'm currently reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. If you are at all interested in the history of medical research, this book is pretty amazing {and heartbreaking}. Highly recommended by yours truly. 

Look at what I built!

And stained! Mr. Pony outgrew his bookshelf long ago with scholarly-type books and requested that I build him a bookcase. After hemming and hawing and pretending to design a bookshelf myself, I found this lovely plan on Ana White's site and decided that it was the one!

I used pine because it is cheap, and used MinWax Polyshades in Mission Oak. They recommended 2 coats of stain, but I did one and was happy with the results, with the added bonus that I didn't have to do another coat of poly to finish it up. This is the first time I've ever stained anything (and my 2nd building project at all), and I'm pleased with the results. I had a few issues with measuring {on the 6th or 7th try, I finally decided it was fine} and made a bit of a mess with some of the staining, but it came out well. Plus, for a total cost of $40 (and I have a 1/2 can of stain left over for another project), this was way cheaper than buying something of equivalent size and solidity.

Now Mr. Pony is quite happy with his more suitable bookshelf, and I'm considering what my next project should be!

Dinner!

We didn't do a traditional holiday dinner, unless you regularly take a page out of A Christmas Story {for the uninitiated- their turkey gets destroyed, so they go out for Chinese}. A bunch of our friends called out for Chinese takeout, and we joined in- yay Thanksgiving rangoons!

For dinner tonight, we had at least one of the normal holiday food-ing components! Behold! Mashed sweet potatoes {the holiday ingredient}, collard greens and fried porkchops! AMAZING!!!!

And it really was quite tasty:).

Guess where!

Mr. Pony and I went on a vacation this past weekend. Guess where!

My friends have cute dogs!

A few days ago one of our friends asked me to take a couple shots of their pups. I'm no pro, but I did manage to get a couple cute pics! The dogs had a FABULOUS time, their parents got pictures, and I got to practice- we all win!

Nearly there!! {gross pictures invovled}

It has been over 6 months since I was called out to the barn to see this.

 Then we spent the intervening months wrapping, and wrapping... and wrapping some more... while looking at this...

And this isn't even the worst of it! But now... We have this!!!!

Sorry, I know the photo quality is crap, but it shows that there is NO LONGER AN OPENING!!! His leg has completely healed up, and now I'm just keeping the leg wrapped to prevent him from reopening it before it heals completely.

He now gets to be turned out (the past few months he has been in the stall almost totally), and he is so happy. Now we are just a couple of weeks away from Copper getting turned out completely- hooray!

The edge of the world...

It has been almost 6 months since we went to Europe, and my case of travel-itis has flared up again. I recently went to visit my bestie, but that trip was for the company, not the location. Now I'd like to go someplace... exotic... vacation-y... beauteous! Hmm... Let the planning begin!

Hmm...

In lieu of a real post, I'll just update with some pictures I've taken recently. I've become more motivated again recently, and hope to create more substantial posts soon. Until then- photo candy!!