I posted a movie quotes quiz a few days ago, but I think everyone was so busy with the Christmas craziness that no one got a chance to look at it and I only got one guess at it. I thought I'd give you all another chance before I post the answers. To take the quiz, click here.
For those who are interested, here are some new office rules to take effect in the year 2008:
Dress Code:
- You are advised to come to work dressed according to your salary.
- If we see you wearing Prada shoes and carrying a Gucci bag, we will assume you are doing well financially and therefore do not need a raise.
- If you dress poorly, you need to learn to manage your money better, so that you may buy nicer clothes, and therefore you do not need a raise.
- If you dress just right, you are right where you need to be and therefore you do not need a raise.
Sick Days:
We will no longer accept a doctor's statement as proof of sickness. If you are able to go to the doctor; you are able to come to work.
Personal Days:
Each employee will receive 104 personal days a year. They are called Saturdays & Sundays.
Bereavement Leave:
This is no excuse for missing work. There is nothing you can do for dead friends, relatives or co-workers. Every effort should be made to have non-employees attend the funeral arrangements. If there are cases where employee involvement is necessary, the funeral should be scheduled in the late afternoon. We will be glad to allow you to work through your lunch hour and subsequently leave one hour early.
Bathroom Breaks:
Entirely too much time is being spent in the toilet. There is now a strict three-minute time limit in the stalls. At the end of three minutes, an alarm will sound, the toilet paper roll will retract, the stall door will open, and a picture will be taken. After your second offense, your picture will be posted on the company bulletin board under the "Chronic Offenders" category. Anyone caught smiling in the picture will be sectioned under the company's mental health policy.
Lunch Break:
- Skinny people get 30 minutes for lunch, as they need to eat more, so that they can look healthy.
- Normal size people get 15 minutes for lunch to get a balanced meal to maintain their average figure.
- Chubby people get 5 minutes for lunch, because that's all the time needed to drink a Slim-Fast.
Thank you for your loyalty to our company. We are here to provide a positive employment experience. Therefore, all questions, comments, concerns, complaints, frustrations, irritations, aggravations, insinuations, allegations, accusations, contemplations, consternation and input should be directed elsewhere.
The Management
My goodness! Life at Adrian's Crazy Life is just as crazy as usual. Even though I've been on "vacation" for the last couple of days, I've been working a To Do list that would choke a horse! I haven't even wrapped a single present for my kids and I NEVER leave my wrapping for this late.
What have I been doing you ask? Well, I'll tell you. I'll even show you some pictures. First of all, I put out a record number of cards - about 80 this year. Not all of them were home made, but about half were. The rest were very cute photo cards I put together using these pictures.
I hadn't made photo cards before, but my niece always sends me photo cards of her family and I really enjoy seeing the kids grow each year. So I decided to try it this year. But of course, I had to include our kitties in the pictures. That is why the caption said "Meowy Christmas". They were very cute.
Blake had his Christmas program which was really cute. They have had a recorder class and his group got to play their recorders instead of singing. I was quite impressed. I thought they did extremely well with as little time as they had to practice. He's been really into it. I think he's picked up some of my musical abilities. I was a music major in college and at different times I have played five different instruments (none very well, sadly!). I also sing in the church choir and will be singing at both Christmas Eve services tomorrow night. 
Here's Blake with his Rudolph nose and his Santa hat and of course his beloved Utes sweatshirt! Cute boy!
Last night we went to our friend's home for a combination Christmas/birthday party. We had such a fun time with them and didn't get home until after midnight. After a few of Pat's patented Tom and Jerrys, I slept like a rock! Poor Blake was so tired after staying up so late, he fell asleep in front of the TV this afternoon and he almost never does that. See what I mean about a busy week?
Tonight we had our family Christmas party. My sister has recently moved out of the area, so I decided to pitch in and invite everyone to my new house for Christmas this year. It was a good test to see how many people my house could hold. I had about 40 for Matt's graduation party, but that was in the summer, so I could have people outside. This time we ended up with 25 including kids and a couple of our good friends from church. It was a tight squeeze and some of them ended up having to eat off TV trays in the living room, but it all worked and we had a simply wonderful time!
My family is such fun when they all get together. My mom always had a tradition that she would always try to find a really cool and unusual gift for each family every year. One year it was something called a "bang-twister" - some kind of a hammer/pliers combination. Another year it was hand-held collanders that were shaped kind of like lacrosse racquets. The last year it was special kitchen scissors with a magnetic holder that sticks on your fridge. We all still have ours and use them to death!
I can't ever manage to top Mom, but I do try to find something fun and interesting for the herd of little boys we have. This year it was Snow Throwers. It's a long plastic tube and you stick it in the snow and pick up a snowball and then you can fling it clear down the street. I got 5 of them for all my little great-nephews plus Matt and Blake - but I wished I bought an even dozen or so of them because immediately all of my big nephews in their 30's and 40's decided that they wanted to get in on the fun. The little ones were happy after about 10 minutes, but the big guys were out there for about an hour flinging snowballs at everything that moved. Fun stuff.
I wish I'd gotten some decent pictures, but I was so darn busy. Usually I try to keep dinners like this pretty easy, but I got it into my head that I needed to cook a big turkey and that was our big downfall. I was worried about having room in the oven for the side dishes, so we borrowed an electric turkey broiler from some friends.
Unfortunately, it didn't work as well as we had hoped and we ended up with a living room full of hungry people and a decidedly unbrowned turkey. So we made a hasty transfer to the oven and put out more chips and Christmas candy. Eventually, it all got done and we had a delicious dinner. (This is a picture of Blake's nutcracker collection. He wanted me to add it in "just because".)
Whew! I am one tired cookie after all that. And I still have three presents to buy (the mall on Christmas Eve - ugh) and about a zillion gifts to wrap, plus singing at the two services. Hey, we don't call it Adrian's Crazy Life for nothin'! Oh well, I have some great books set aside and after Christmas morning, I am going to park my butt on the couch and tear up all my to-do lists and get down to the business of enjoying my Christmas vacation.
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
I heard some very sad news yesterday. One of the families in our church lost their husband and father yesterday. He was only 48 and left behind two boys aged about 10 and 12 or so. How sad! I knew he had been sick for a while, but it didn't seem to be anything imminent, but I guess he had a sudden complication that took him very quickly.
What horrible timing. I just keep thinking of those boys and his wife and how sad they must be, right at a time of the year that is supposed to be so happy. They are having the memorial service on Saturday at the church and I thought how wrong it will seem to be having a funeral service in a sanctuary that is all decorated up for Christmas with the manger scene and all. Every time those boys see a nativity set, it's going to remind them of their father's funeral. That's so rough - it just breaks my heart.
Nothing you can really do but offer your condolences and whatever little bit of help you can and just keep them in your prayers. And hug your own loved ones SO tight! You just never know when something awful like this can happen.
One of the funniest blogs I check out is called "Because I Said So" or also Mom to my 6 pack - http://mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/. Dawn is the mother of six children and has sort of an Erma Bombeck sense of humor. She will have a book coming out soon and I'm sure it will be hilarious. I hope you'll buy a copy. She had this quiz posted today and I thought it was so funny, I asked if I could post it on my blog too. I like it because these are some of my favorte quotes from some of my very favorite movies. No prize for this one because I'm not 100% sure of all the answers, so this one is just for fun. I'll post the answers in a couple of days.
1. Can you fly this plane and land it?
Surely you can't be serious.
I am serious, and don't call me Shirley.
2. Give me a word, any word, and I show you that the root of that word is Greek.
3. Go that way, really fast; if something gets in your way . . . turn.
4. You'll shoot your eye out, kid.
5. We're alike, me and cat. A couple of poor nameless slobs.
6. Nobody puts Baby in a corner.
7. Look, I think it's only fair to warn you that I'm practiced in the ancient art... of Origami!
8. We're gonna need a bigger boat.
9. Gotta get my boxer shorts at K-Mart.
10. Yeah. The funny thing is - on the outside, I was an honest man, straight as an arrow. I had to come to prison to be a crook.
11. No more rhymes, now I mean it. Anybody want a peanut?
12. I'd like to make her look a little more attractive, how far can you pull back?
How do you feel about Cleveland?
13. You realize of course that we could never be friends.
14. I like Mass better in Latin. It's nicer when you don't know what they're saying.
15. What do you mean he don't eat no meat? Oh, that's okay. I make lamb.
16. In the heat of battle, my father wove a tapestry of obscenity, that as far as we know, is still hanging in space over lake Michigan.
17. Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
18. I'm real sorry your mom blew up, Ricky.
19. He looks like a deranged Easter Bunny!
20. It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
21. When I was your age, television was called, "books."
22. Are you happy now Clark? She's deaf.
23. These potatoes are so creamy.
24. Toe pick
25. Inconceivable.
Yay! I've you've been watching my little exercise tracker down at the bottom of the page, you'll see that I have now reached 10% of my goal of walking 500 miles! Whew! Who would have ever thought that I would manage to walk 50 miles? Not me!
This is the first time I've ever stuck with an exercise program for more than a week and I am so proud of myself. I've "walked" at least a mile a day since the 1st of November. The only day I missed was Black Friday when I got up at 4:00 in the morning to hit the stores. I cut myself a break on that day.
I'll tell you, these Walk Away the Pounds tapes really work for me. I like it because I can exercise, in my pajamas right in my own little living room. Of course, the kids have to poke their heads in a million times to pester me, but at least I'm not out trying to exercise in the ice and snow, or having to pack myself off to a gym somewhere. And I do feel a lot better. I'm not seeing a lot of results on the scale (sigh), but I do sleep better and I feel a bit better when I go up and down the stairs. I think the results will be gradual, but hey, it took a few years to pile the pounds on, so it may take a few months to get them back off.
The belt ceremony was actually a bit suspenseful. They generally do the lower belts first, so we waited and waited and watched the stack of belts on the table get lower and lower. Finally, they started calling up the new red belts and the supply of red belts was going fast. Finally, they were down to the very last red belt and I was so sure it was going to be his, but then they called someone else's name and my heart just sank. I thought he hadn't passed his test and would only be moving up a rank on his blue belt. 
I was fortunate to be involved in a conference call this week with our Stampin' Up! founder, Shelli Gardiner. I guess they have these every quarter, but usually they are for the higher levels in the company. However, this time, she decided to open it up to all demonstrators.
I was quite impressed. I've always loved Shelli as do many of our demonstrators. She's a very warm and geniune person and you can really tell that she puts her heart and soul into this company. She started this tiny company with her sister 20 years ago and now it's a huge international company with thousands of demonstrators all around the world. I think it's quite amazing.
Every year during Convention, we get a chance to tour the Riverton facility and you can see that it has her personal and elegant touch all over it. Look at this gorgeous rock waterfall in the atrium. You can't see it, but at the bottom level, there are chairs and tables all around so the employees can look at it while they have their lunches. What a neat touch!
Anyway, during this conference call, Shelli restated her commitment to Stampin' Up! and to our demonstrators and helped explain some hard decisions that have been made in the past. I guess there have been complaints from some demonstrators over some recent policy changes and it's nice that they really take our comments to heart. They can't always change the policy due to business necessity, but it's nice to know that you've been heard and acknowledged.
She also shared her excitement over the upcoming new catalog. She had just gotten her own copy just that day and she said she is very excited about the beautiful new catalog and all the new products that are coming up in 2008. She did share a few tidbits of information with us about the new catalog. She told us that the stamps were unfortunately, not die-cut yet, but that the stamps in the mini catalogs throughout the year would be die-cut, so I think we are gradually heading in that direction - yay!
She also told us that any new sets that were introduced in the 2008 catalog would be available for at least a year, so that was good news for us demos. It's hard to keep a supply of current sets on hand when they retire so fast.
Shelli also shared with us that the long-awaited personal websites update is coming up very soon. She wouldn't commit to a specific date, but I think she was hinting at some time in January. Whoohoo! I've been waiting for that one for YEARS, so I am very excited. I am the Website Coordinator for my Utah Divas group, so I'm sure I'll be busy as a one-armed paper hanger trying to help our Divas get their new websites up and running.
So, all in all, it was a very enjoyable call - even if I did have to take it on the freeway on my way home from work! I hope I'll be invited to participate in more of these calls. It's really nice to have a brief time with Shelli and kind of get my batteries recharged a bit and build some new excitement for our company!
Remember when I did my Supercraft Saturday event at our church last month? Well, I finally got the pictures from it. Our historian was having problems with her computer, so she ended up having to burn a disk for me.
This is our "Sock Puppy" group. You've all seen the little monkeys that people used to make out of woolen socks. These are the same thing, only they're little puppies. Very cute!
This is the Knifty Knitter group. As you can see, this was a popular option with the teenaged girls. After I finished my project, I drifted over and gave it a try myself. I had bought one of the darn things a couple of years ago, but I couldn't figure out how to work it properly. Either I was using the wrong yarn or I wasn't wrapping it right, but I remember throwing it against the wall because I was so frustrated with it. I finally ended up packing up the whole thing, yarn and all and sent it to my penpal in Kenya. I figured she could find a good use for it. However, with a proper teacher, I was able to master the technique easily and I've made a number of different hats and scarves. In fact, I've made two hats that are exactly like the ones the girls are wearing here. Very cute! I finished another one just this morning in a very pretty lavender for my granddaughter. Can you say hooked???
This is the Christmas card group. The redhead in the middle is Carron one of my customers/students/hostesses and she graciously agreed to teach the card class for us. She came up with about six great designs and seemed to have a great time teaching the class. 
Here's my class, of course. I focused on gift wrap ideas this time and I've posted pictures previously of all the projects we did. I kept it pretty simple and it was actually very relaxing. Last year, I did a fully stamped birthday calendar and a whole slew of card designs and ended up hauling almost my entire stamp room along and finished up the day totally exhausted. Now my philosophy is "KISS" Keep It Simple, Silly! Much nicer...Following is the list of the accessories and wheels that will be retiring January 1st. I'm not quite sure why Stampin' Up! decided not to post them on the customer website, but I'm sure they had a good reason. Maybe they have a limited supply and didn't want customers upset if their favorite items sold out too quickly. And some things will sell out very quickly! Already there are several items that have been dropped from the list, so if there is something you want, better grab it quick!
Retired Accessories List
Accents & Elements Borders & Blossoms
Accents & Elements Little Reminders 2
Accents & Elements Tagged
Album Leather Post Black 8-1/2x11
Album Linen Post Mellow Moss 8-1/2x11
Album Linen Post Natural 8-1/2x11
Album Linen Post Navy 8-1/2x11
Album Linen Post Real Red 8-1/2x11
Album Linen Ring Mellow Moss 8-1/2x11
Album Linen Ring Natural 8-1/2x11
Album Linen Ring Navy 8-1/2x11
Album Linen Ring Real Red 8-1/2x11
Boxes & Tags Pockets & Pieces Assortment I
Boxes & Tags Pockets & Pieces Assortment II
Boxes & Tags Tiny Takeout Confetti White
Boxes & Tags Tiny Takeout Kraft
Boxes Stamp & Supply Extra Large
Boxes Stamp & Supply Extra Large Divided
Boxes Stamp & Supply Extra Small
Boxes Stamp & Supply Jumbo
Boxes Stamp & Supply Large
Boxes Stamp & Supply Medium
Boxes Stamp & Supply Small
Brayer Attachment Foam
Cards & Envelopes Greeting Very Vanilla Medium
Designer Series Paper Brocade Background
Designer Series Paper Cerise
Designer Series Paper Charbon
Designer Series Paper Creepy Crawley
Designer Series Paper Darling Doodles
Designer Series Paper Dashing
Designer Series Paper Petals & Paisleys
Designer Series Paper Linen Prints
Designer Series Paper Notations No. 2
Designer Series Paper Outlaw
Designer Series Paper Uptown
Designer Series Paper Wintergreen
Envelopes Open End Very Vanilla Large
Envelopes Open End Whisper White Large
Envelopes Shimmery White Medium
Envelopes Square Vellum Large
Envelopes Square Very Vanilla Mini
Envelopes Vellum Medium
Envelopes Very Vanilla Large
Envelopes Whisper White Large
Eyelet Tool Kit
Eyelets Bold Brights II
Eyelets Silver
Eyelets Soft Subtles II
Fancy Fibers Bella
Fancy Fibers Elizabeth
Stampin' Glitter Romantic Red
Stampin' Glitter Silver Shine
Greeting Glue
Liquid Glue - Already gone!
Page Protectors Post 8-1/2x11
Page Protectors Ring 8-1/2x11
Paper Vellum 12x12
Pastel Refills Bold Brights
Pastel Refills Earth Elements
Pastel Refills Neutrals - Already gone!
Pastel Refills Rich Regals
Pastel Refills Soft Subtles
Perfect Layers Tool
Post Extenders - Already gone!
Punch Spring Bouquet Flower
Simply Scrappin' Creative License Hostess Level 1
Simply Scrappin' Happy Me Hostess Level 3
Simply Scrappin' Out & About
Simply Scrappin' Primary Colors
Simply Scrappin' Round Up
Simply Scrappin' Secret Garden
Simply Scrappin' Winter Bright
Simply Sent Friendship Shapes
Simply Sent Happy Day
Spectrum Pad Blue Frost
Spectrum Pad Celebration
Spectrum Pad Cotton Candy
Spectrum Pad Pumpkin Patch
Spectrum Pad Un-inked
Stamp-a-ma-jig Imaging Sheets Refill
Stampin' Around Cartridge & Ink Refill Clear Embossing
Stampin' Around Cartridge & Ink Refill Whisper White
Stampin' Around Ink Refill Clear Embossing
Stampin' Around Ink Refill Whisper White
Stampin' Emboss Powder Hologram Highlights
Stampin' Kids Pad Bear Brown
Stampin' Kids Pad Beetle Black
Stampin' Kids Pad Boxcar Blue
Stampin' Kids Pad Gumball Green
Stampin' Kids Pad Poppin' Purple
Stampin' Kids Pad Princess Pink
Stampin' Kids Pad Robin Red
Stampin' Kids Pad Yahoo Yellow
Stampin' Pastel Applicators
Stampin' Pastel Erasers
Stampin' Write Marker Going Gray
StazOn Ink Refill Timber Brown
StazOn Pad Timber Brown
Tag Sheets Bold Brights
Tag Sheets Confetti White & Kraft
Tag Sheets Earth Elements
Tag Sheets Kraft
Tag Sheets Rich Regals
Tag Sheets Soft Subtles
Watercolor Brush Flat
Watercolor Brush Medium
Watercolor Brush Small
Wire Works Metallic
Wrapping Paper Whisper White
Stampin' Around wheels
Acorns
All about Birthdays*
All about Christmas*
All about Gratitude*
Autumn Dots
Bloomin'
Bodacious*
Bouquet*
Butterflies & Blossoms
Fishy
Happy Jacks
Ho Ho Ho
Hot to Dot
Leaf Prints
Leaves Awash*
Rough around the Edges*
Snowman Fun
Speckled*
Spooky Skyline*
Spotted*
True Hearts
Wings & Things
* Jumbo Stampin' Around wheels
I simply cannot believe it is time for another catalog already. I was just getting used to the current one. But I am excited to see some of the offerings in the new catalog. I've already seen the Preview Brochure and it looks like there are lots of fun things that will be included in the new catalog. I'm most excited about the new rub-on designs. They come in both black and white and they look really pretty and lacy. They'll be handy for putting designs on glass jars, cell phones, and all sorts of stuff that was hard to stamp on before.
Here is the link for the retired list. Check it out to see if there are any of your favorites that will be retiring at the end of the year. Thankfully, it's a lot less extensive than the last list. I only lost about 4-5 sets this time and none of them were my absolute favorites. Tomorrow they will be releasing the list of retiring accessories. You can click on the same link and see the retired accessories list any time after Monday morning.
For my retirement special, if you purchase any two retiring sets or accessories, I will offer 10% off of your order. I am also offering current catalogs for $5 each, or free with a $40 order. If you would like to pre-order the new catalog, I will offer it for $5 also. The new catalogs should be available between Christmas and New Year's (I'm hoping!). That way we can relax and enjoy looking at them after all the holiday hullabaloo is over.
Don't forget that our new Sale-a-bration sale is coming up starting February 1st. I'll post some details on that once they're released.
I thought this was worth passing on:
You always hear the usual stories of pennies on the sidewalk being good luck, gifts from angels, etc. This is the first time I've ever heard this twist on the story. Gives you something to think about.
Several years ago, a friend of mine and her husband were invited to spend the weekend at the husband's employer's home. My friend, Arlene, was nervous about the weekend. The boss was very wealthy, with a fine home on the waterway, and cars costing more than her house.
The first day and evening went well, and Arlene was delighted to have this rare glimpse into how the very wealthy live. The husband's employer was quite generous as a host, and took them to the finest restaurants. Arlene knew she would never have the opportunity to indulge in this kind of extravagance again, so was enjoying herself immensely.
As the three of them were about to enter an exclusive restaurant that evening, the boss was walking slightly ahead of Arlene and her husband. He stopped suddenly, looking down on the pavement for a long, silent moment. Arlene wondered if she was supposed to pass him. There was nothing on the ground except a single darkened penny that someone had dropped, and a few cigarette butts.
Still silent, the man reached down and picked up the penny. He held it up and smiled, then put it in his pocket as if he had found a great treasure. How absurd! What need did this man have for a single penny? Why would he even take the time to stop and pick it up?
Throughout dinner, the entire scene nagged at her. Finally, she could stand it no longer. She casually mentioned that her daughter once had a coin collection, and asked if the penny he had found had been of some value.
A smile crept across the man's face as he reached into his pocket for the penny and held it out for her to see. She had seen many pennies before! What was the point of this?
"Look at it." He said.
"Read what it says."
She read the words "United States of America"
"No, not that; read further."
"One cent?"
"No, keep reading."
"In God we Trust?"
"Yes!"
"And?"
"And if I trust in God, the name of God is holy, even on a coin. Whenever I find a coin I see that inscription. It is written on every single United States coin, but we never seem to notice it! God drops a message right in front of me telling me to trust Him? Who am I to pass it by? When I see a coin, I pray, I stop to see if my trust IS in God at that moment. I pick the coin up as a response to God; that I do trust in Him. For a short time, at least, I cherish it as if it were gold. I think it is God's way of starting a conversation with me. Lucky for me, God is patient and pennies are plentiful!"
When I was out shopping today, I found a penny on the sidewalk. I stopped and picked it up, and realized that I had been worrying and fretting in my mind about things I cannot change. I read the words, "In God We Trust," and had to laugh.
Yes, God, I get the message. It seems that I have been finding an inordinate number of pennies in the last few months, but then, pennies are plentiful! And, God is patient..
My friend Carol sent me this. I had seen it before, but it was good for a laugh anyways.
HOLIDAY EATING TIPS
1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Christmas spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they're serving rum balls.
2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly. It's rare. You can't find it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who cares that it has 10,000 calories in every sip? It's not as if you're going to turn into an eggnog-alcoholic or something. It's a treat. Enjoy it. Have one for me. Have two. It's later than you think. It's Christmas!
3. If something comes with gravy, use it. That's the whole point of gravy. Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat.
4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they're made with skim milk or whole milk. If it's skim, pass. Why bother? It's like buying a sports car with an automatic transmission.
5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control your eating. The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat other people's food for free. Lots of it. Hello?
6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year's. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do. This is the time for long naps, which you'll need after circling the buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of eggnog.
7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position yourself near them and don't budge. Have as many as you can before becoming the center of attention. They're like a beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind, you're never going to see them again.
8. Same for pies. Apple. Pumpkin. Mincemeat. Have a slice of each. Or if you don't like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin. Always have three. When else do you get to have more than one dessert? Labor Day?
9. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it's loaded with the mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost. I mean, have some standards.
10. One final tip: If you don't feel terrible when you leave the party or get up from the table, you haven't been paying attention. Re-read tips; start over, but hurry, January is just around the corner.
Remember this motto to live by: "Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!" Have a great holiday season!
This is an article that I found in my Zig Ziglar newsletter. I'm big on positive thinking and The Secret, Law of Attraction and all that new age stuff, so I really like articles like this:
Talk Yourself Up
By Dr. Lee Colan
Did you know that you talk more to yourself than to anyone else in the world? In the face of challenging situations (and we all have our share), the words you choose for that conversation with yourself will directly impact how long you will find yourself in those situations. Use your words to change your situation, not to describe it. The moment you speak something – good or bad – you give birth to it as an idea, an expectation, a desire. You have planted the seed that will, sooner or later, grow into the results you will reap.
When you're feeling somewhat down-spirited, don't tell people how you feel, tell them how you want to feel. By controlling what you say and how you say it - using positive words with enthusiasm - you help to change your physical and mental state. As George W. Crane said, “Act the way you'd like to be and soon you'll be the way you act.”
I remember the year I started my own business. I jokingly refer to it as “the year I told a million lies”. Let me explain. Like most start-up businesses, I had my share of challenges, disappointments and adjustments. I recall many well-intended friends asking me, “Hey, Lee, how’s your business coming along?” I could have described my situation by saying, “Gee, it’s been a tough year. I have had to really dig into my savings to keep things going and it’s been a lot harder than I thought it would be to convert my existing business relationships into paying customers. To boot, it’s a lot more work than I thought it would be.” Trust me, I had my moments, when that was exactly what I said, but I noticed a trend. That type of response not only dragged my friends down – and no one wants to hang around a downer for too long – it was planting the seeds of doom for my business. So, I decided to use my words to change my situation rather than describe it. I wasn’t telling a lie, I was simply “choosing my view”.
So, I said something like, “I feel good about my prospects and am confident that I am doing the right things that will pay off long-term. Most importantly, I am passionate about my work and that’s a victory in itself.” My words planted the seeds of the success that was to come. The good news was that I only had to tell a half-million “lies” my second year!
Most people enjoy working and living with people who live and work with a positive, upbeat attitude. Tell people how you want to feel and it won't be long before you do. So, the next time you are feeling gloomy and a friend asks you how you are doing….talk yourself up!
Lee J. Colan, Ph.D. is President of The L Group, Inc., a Dallas, Texas-based consulting firm. He is a high-energy executive advisor, author and leadership expert. To learn more about Lee visit his website.
One of the blog candy challenges over on Maria's Card Inspired site is to post a picture of your stamp room. So here are some pictures of my stamp room. It doesn't usually look like this - usually every surface is covered with paper, punches, samples, and just about everything else you can imagine. When I get to the point where I can't see the wood on the table any more, then I take an hour or so and clean it all up.
My very favorite feature is my built-in shelves. The man who sold us the house was quite the handy fellow and he had these marvelous shelves already installed. I love it because I can sit at my table and reach around to get nearly anything I need from the shelves or from the Rubbermaid drawers I keep on my table.
This is the view from the door. I've turned my second table the other way so they are now parallel to each other. That way my customers have a bit more room to work when I have classes.
Doing all the decorating kind of got me in the mood, so we decided to dig out all our Christmas stuff and get started. We had to change our decorating scheme around a bit due to the kitties and also due to being in our new house. I guess we were kind of in a rut after 7 years in our last house. You kind of get used to putting your decorations in certain places, but it's a whole different ballgame in a new house. I used to have this beautiful nativity set that I would put across the whole mantle with a lighted garland. But I was a little worried that the kitties might find a way to get up there and knock it down, so I decided to try putting it on my little shelf instead. It just barely fit, but I kind of like it. 
As for the tree, it's so nice to actually have a space for it. We used to have to get the smallest tree we could possibly find and we'd have to put it up in the bay window because we had such a long narrow living room. Or else we would have to move our chairs to block the fireplace and tuck it back into the corner. 
