My Grandmother

My Grandmother died last night.
Peaceful.
94.
Good life.

Note to self.......

Remember Kerry, the lipliner is for your lips...
NOT your eyes.
(how many times????!!!!)

Getting There

I'm slowly, but surely getting my house together.
You see, I have a terrible disease called....
DECORAPHOBIA -fear of making a mistake decorating
so you do nothing.
I took a terrific leap of faith by buying curtains and
nothing bad happened so I went ahead and 'gulp'
had an old chair reupholstered. I actually chose fabric
and everything. Here is how it turned out:

I love it, love it, love it!
So, now, a YEAR later, I took another leap and decided to get
some more furniture fixed.
Here are my chaise lounge and another favorite chair.


The fabric is flocked and the cushions are down - so comfy!
That pillow on the chair, I had that, it lives there.
And yeah, I know...wicker in the house....what do you want from me?
I'm going with the shabby chic look I guess.
Now this chair came out so well, I can't believe it.


It's a very old chair, it was dark brown with horrible pleather like stuff covering it.
Now look how beautiful it is!!! It's perfect in our bedroom.
Look at the terrific work the man did.
Wow, my pics are terrible, I have to learn how to use my camera.
Any suggestions? (canon rebel)

Today is MY day.

I'm tired.
I'm exhausted.
Paul was away for the past 2 weeks.
Dylan has been sick.
I've been sick.
We had Thanksgiving here.
We went into the city yesterday for a reunion.
I'M TIRED!
So I'm taking a day today.
I'm not doing anything today.
I'll shower and put my hair up
(it takes a long time to get these curls looking natural)
I'll put sweats on, or maybe I'll just put another
pair of pajamas on.
I'll sit on the sofa and watch old movies.
I have a crafty thing I want to make, maybe
I'll toy with that.
Today I'm doing what I WANT TO DO and
that's it!
I'm not even going to answer the phone so don't call me.
(but I'll be online so you can email me)

....add to the list.....

Ok, we've all put things through the wash
that we wish we hadn't, and I'm not talking about
the occasional tissue, or dollar bill.
I started out with a red lipstick, which I did
not discover until I started folding the clothes,
Crimson Red, baked right in to everything.

I then graduated to the kitchen phone.
Yes, you read correctly - the kitchen phone.
I was carrying the portable phone around in
the laundry basket waiting for a call.
Apparently I forgot and as I dumped the clothes
into the wash, the phone went with them.
Didn't realize it until the load was finished.
Yeah, that baby was fried.

Earlier this year I sent Dylan's iPod through
the wash. That one wasn't my fault. He left
it in the pocket of his jeans. The good news is
that it worked perfectly after it dried out.

Well, today I get to add to the list.
I'm trying to catch up on laundry.
I just went to throw the wet load into the dryer and was
looking for the dryer sheets, I have a brand new box.
I know they were here.
Hmmmm.
Whatever.
I open the washer and start pulling the clothes out and with
them come dozens of drier sheets.
Yup, the ENTIRE BOX including THE BOX went in the wash.
And you know what....I can't find the box.
I think it disintegrated.
I HOPE it disintegrated.

I Am Thankful For.....

With Thanksgiving only 3 days away,
I thought it wise to take a moment to think
about what I am truly thankful for.

I am thankful for caller ID.
-When my relative who is "fond of the sauce" calls to
complain about the family, I can now tell ahead of time
and just not answer instead of pretending I can't hear
her as I drive through a tunnel..... while on the house phone.

I am thankful that my 7-11 is right next to my Starbucks
-so that when I'm getting into my car with my $1.75 cup
of joe, I can see those jerks who just spent $5 on bitter
crapopla and laugh at them as I drive away.

I am thankful for those little lift up things in the seat part
of the grocery cart...
-so that when I put my $1.75 cup of joe on the seat of the
cart while I go through every apple just to get 5 good ones
and then start to move the cart and forget that my coffee is there,
that little plastic lift up thing is there to catch the coffee instead
of letting it fall through the leg space in the seat. It took me a while
to figure that out, but I am thankful that I did.

I am thankful for that woman who parked next to me
at the grocery store.
-as she got out of her H2, I noticed she had about 10
reuseable canvas bags to carry her groceries.
I'm thankful she's going that extra mile for the environment.

I am thankful for all the things that make my life a little easier:
-catalogs
-ebay
-Tide to Go
-microwaves
-long yellow lights
-Purell

Now if someone could just come up with something to
empty the dishwasher for me...........

So Great.

I caught this on VH1.
John Lennon and Cheap Trick.
So great!

Saturday

Feeling much better - thank God, too much to do.
It's Dylan who isn't feeling well.
He was sick Tuesday with a fever
and swollen glands. He had giant marbles
on the side of his neck, so weird.
Took him to the MD, no strep.
By Wednesday night he feels better, no fever.
Thursdy he wakes up crying because his
sides, under his arms, really hurt.
No fever.
I give him Tylenol and off we go to school.
Under arms hurt all day and he's very tired.
Falls asleep in the car which is
SO NOT LIKE DYLAN!
He hasn't taken a nap since he was 2!
Stop at mom's house, she's a nurse.
She thinks he as a virus, keep him home.
Friday, he wakes up crying again, sides
really hurt, but he wants to go to school for
a presentation they're putting on.
Ok, tylenol and off we go.
Right after presentation he's at the nurse.
Off we go to the doctor.
Again, he falls asleep in the car.
I'm thinking maybe it's mono.
Doc says it's a virus.
What virus - who knows?
Motrin every 6 hours.
If it still hurts in a few days,
go back to the Doc.
It still hurt this morning, but not enough
to keep him home from a birthday party at
Yankee Stadium.
Hope he doesn't fall asleep there!

Just can't win.

Up since 2:30.
Sore throat.
Stuffy nose.
Didn't I just go through this???
crap.

Thanksgiving Approacheth

Yes, Thanksgiving is upon us, although
you'd never know it if you visited the stores
lately. You'd think Christmas was tomorrow.

I like to have Thanksgiving here.
It's better than Christmas - it's a one day
thing, no presents, great food, go home.
Perfect holiday.

Sheila, my awesome step-mother, asked if
I'd be brining the bird again this year.
No freakin' way.
I shall share with you the Great Brine Disaster of '06.
Yes, I decided to brine the bird.
I had an enormous zip lock bag which came with the brining herbs.
I put tons of liquid in the bag.
All looked good.
I put the briny bird on the bottom shelf of the fridge.
I didn't like the way it looked, so I tried to move it a bit.
In order to get a better grasp, I sat down on the floor in front of the bird.
I pushed the enormous bag full of bird and liquid.
Apparently the enormous bag didn't like that I pushed it.
I OPENED and all that brine had to go somewhere.
That somewhere was ALL OVER ME!
There will be no more brining in this house I tell ya!

Love the people I work with.

Dylan is selling Christmas Wreaths for Boy Scouts.
I made an announcement at our morning meeting.
Didn't think I'd sell any.
Quite often there are things in the teacher's lounge, asking
for sponsorship for a walk-a-thon, or cookies for sale, etc.
Never much response.
Sold 16 wreaths in one day.
As the admissions director was handing me her check for
2 wreaths, I told her I was overwhelmed by the response.
She said "It's because we love you."
Tears.
Love the people I work with.

The Best Shoes

These are my new favorite shoes.
They are Dansko Glennas.
LOVE
THEM
I have them in this color.
Aren't they me??!!!
I'm going to get them in grape too.
Love 'em.
They don't seem to want to kill me like my old
Danskos wanted to.

Good and Bad

Well, apparently something I sent to
Gift Maker Mag which was to be published in their
June issue, has gone missing.
Bummer.
I told them I could whip up another right away.
We'll see what happens.
*note: all is fine! They apologized profusely for loosing it
and asked if I could make another. No prob.)

On a good note -
I'm the December guest designer over at
My Scrapbook Nook.