Though not a fan of country music (at all) I came across a quote from country music singer, Brad Paisley, that has been 2-stepping around in my brain this morning:
"Tomorrow, is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one."
Although I begin 2013 facing an assortment of challenges (some big, some small),
I'm looking forward to the New Year and the first chapter of 2013.
What sort of book will YOU write?
As you prepare for an evening of festive frivolity, I ask you to please be safe.
'Tis better to wake up hungover after passing out at your friend's house in a pool of your own vomit with last night's smoky eyeshadow and mascara smeared all over your face than it is to wake up dead.
Or in jail.
Next to some sweaty, smelly, hairy hungover fat guy in a wife beater shirt.
As the house returns to normal after a fantastic Christmas,
I thought I would share some of my favorite memories...
So, I still haven't gotten around to painting those lampshades after my DIY fail but you hardly notice them with the tree all sparkly and awesome and present-laden.
Hopefully you've finished all of your holiday shopping already but, if not, this could be a very busy day for you!
This recipe for Asian Chicken Salad can be thrown together in about 5 minutes or less so you can eat fast then be back out there picking up those last few stocking stuffers!
Asian Chicken Salad Ingredients: -1 bag of salad - I use the romaine that is mixed with carrots -2 cups of coleslaw mix - you can find bags of coleslaw mix located near the bag salad -1-2 stalks of green onions, cut into really small pieces - I use kitchen scissors to snip mine -1 can of sliced mandarin oranges, drained of all the juice handful of sliced or slivered almonds -1 rotisserie chicken - I just use the breasts for the salad and pull it apart into bite size pieces -1 bottle of Makoto Ginger dressing (you can find it near the bagged salads):
OR -1 bottle of Kraft Asian Sesame Dressing if you like your dressing sweeter:
Directions: Put all the salad ingredients (except the dressing) into a big bowl and toss together. You can add the dressing to the big bowl and toss again or each person can add their own.
I like to keep my salad simple but you could add some of these if you wanted: Snow peas Edamame Chopped up broccoli Wonton strips Crispy Chinese noodles
It got me thinking about Christmases past and what kind of ghosts/skeletons are in my past Christmases.
There were quite a few to say the least and some of them were real doozies.
(If you need to look away, I'll completely understand.)
Let's see what we have first...
It's Dancerella Christmas!
This is the first Christmas that I can actually recall from memory.
Dancerella was a ballerina doll that danced when you pressed a button on the top of her head.
She was made of super hard plastic.
And she made weird sounds when you moved her limbs.
She was creepy.
Maybe that's why I'm sheet white and look terrified in the picture.
But she was so awesome in the commercial:
Rest in peace creepy little dancing doll.
Moving on to...
A Very Brown Christmas
Unfortunately I had to take my cousin down with me on this one since he looks even more 'special-er' than I do!
Don't you love that our pose is so natural yet sophisticated at the same time?
Pretty sure our moms were already egg-nogged up and giggling at us from behind the camera.
"Why, cousin, you're looking so dapper in your combinations of beige and brown polyester this evening."
"Thank you, cousin. And I really admire those black patent shoes that your mother only lets you wear twice a year."
(Yeah. I'm still bitter. I loved those shoes.)
Speaking of my cousin, we were together again at Grandma's house a few Christmases later for what I refer to as
THEBESTFREAKINGCHRISTMASEVER!
That's because I was completely obsessed with Barbie (and I'm an only child) and I got the fully furnished Dream House, The Camper, and the horse named Dallas that year!
See how excited I was to find the Dream House AND the Camper under the tree from Santa?
So excited that my cousin and I sat there next to Dream House and Camper and looked through the blank pages of an empty scrapbook.
WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!
My parents should have kicked me in the head!
But instead my mom did this:
Matchy Christmas
Sigh
My mom sewed.
We matched.
End of story.
But wait!
We also have the sequel... Matchy Christmas #2
She stepped it up a few notches this year with skirts AND vests.
AAAAAND, she suckered Dad into it, too!
Well played, Mom!
Let's jump forward a few more years to White Collar Christmas
Um, yeah.
It's self explanatory.
(And I really don't want to talk about this one outside of group therapy.)
And one final Ghost of Christmases Past...
Side Hair Christmas
The key is to pull all that giant hair to one side and tilt your head slightly.
Then no one notices the giant fuzzy caterpillars above your eyes.
That is a rare gift there.
A little decorating sidenote to go with the sidehair...
Do you see that flippin awesome vintage brass floor lamp in the picture?
If my mom still had that I would totally steal it from her.
It would be my reward for her making me wear matchy Christmas outfits.
You walk around feeling all proud and showing off your little project off to everyone who walks through the door.
And it doesn't even matter when they say,
"Great, mom. Glad to see you worked so hard today throwing paint on a pillow while I sat through 7 college level classes in 8 hours. Way to strive for excellence."
But sometimes your DIY doesn't go exactly as planned...
A few weeks ago I decided something must be done about the outdated lamps in my living room.
I am planning to replace them eventually but for now I needed to make them work.
The first step was to tackle the base.
I started by priming it then spray painting it in a nice glossy white.
It was a huge improvement!
But the shade is off white and looked really lame next to the bright white lamp base.
New shades are quite expensive and since I am not planning to keep the lamps any longer than I have to, I didn't want to invest a lot of money on new ones that may not work with future lamps I will likely purchase.
I decided painting my shades would give them a great new look without costing me anything except a little bit of time.
So, I raided my daughter's art studio for some paint and a brush and mixed up a color I thought would be a bit 'unexpected' in my very traditional living room.
I wanted an aubergine or eggplant color so I mixed some purple with a bit of black to make it really warm and dark.
Then I set to work painting the shades:
It was actually looking pretty darn good and I was feeling like the bomb-diggity!
I finished painting both shades with my perfectly mixed custom color then I cleaned everything up and put my lampshades back in place on my lamps while they dried and sat there all pleased with myself.
Until the sun went down...
..and I turned on my lamps.
Then stood horror-stricken at the sight before me!
(Enter slashy violin music from the Psycho movie shower scene)
It was then that I understood why Jenny at Little Green Notebook applied 2 coats of paint to her lampshade.
Because if you don't, your painted lampshade DIY project comes out like this:
'Streaky' was not exactly the look I was going for.
"Why not just apply another coat of paint?" you ask.
Well, like I said, I mixed this color myself and, of course, didn't measure out anything so getting an exact color match would be like trying to find a really good Taylor Swift song.
It just ain't gonna happen, people!
So now I think I might just paint these guys black.
Because that's what the Rolling Stones would have wanted.
