Clean Slate And All That

Once again, greetings and salutations and much thanks for the sticking by me. SO... First point of business, because I've been A Very VERY Bad Blogger and also A Very Bad Email Friend and let my Yahoo email get completely (HEE! I remembered some HTML!) out of control to the point that it haunted me and I avoided it because apparently I am immature and a champion avoider (just ask Visa and Mastercard and, by the way, who ever said money can't buy happiness never glimpsed the 9th Level of Hell that is my financial situation) AND SO, I humbly beg for an almost clean email/comment slate. I have/will read every single comment left since the ::gulp:: beginning of December BUT if you would grant me a mulligan, I shall mostly not comment back. Just know that I Internet Love You and even though the majority of you don't know me in so-called RL, I am totally touched by your concern and encouragement and all that mushy stuff. PLUS, I am determined to go through my Bloglines and read all of your entries that I've missed. Just so you know, my lack of commenting on all y'all's sites means I haven't actually been reading them since the plan was to catch up and then I didn't and it just got worse and OH what a tangled Blogline we weave when once we wait to read. (Yeah, yeah I know... lame.) OK THEN. Clean slate?

Now on to the second point of business. As previously stated, I am now gainfully employed. While, of course it's YAY exciting and Wells Fargo Financial is rather relieved, it's also YIKES scary, I have no idea what I'm doing ::whimper::. Lucky for me my boss is a long-time very good friend and so far everyone at my new company has been very nice. I spent last week training and this week we've started setting up the office. I don't plan on blahging much about the job, since this blog isn't the most anonymous of sites, but you can check out the cool product we manufacture here. (I have to admit I only almost remembered how to link without reminding.)

In much more devastating news, I am now the mother of an actual teenager. Surprisingly the earth did not stop spinning and fire did not rain down from the sky. It might feel like it at times, but I'm told that it's all in my head. I'm also told (by my long-suffering husband who has taken to desperately asking anyone he can find with a 13 year old girl) that the angst, strife and epic conflict that are the key elements to the mother/teenage daughter relationship are all perfectly normal and I am not, in fact, being singled out by some capriciously sadistic demon intent on seeing how far I can be pushed. Happy Birthday, kiddo. Just accept that no matter how old you get you will always be my little girl and that is, despite what you think, a good thing.

Whew. I'm exhausted. I shall end this entry here as I have a little work to do and I am hoping to start getting up to speed with all your blogs/lives.

Hugs, Kisses and Exclamation Points!

(P.S. Should I just give in and sign up for the New Blogger? Feedback requested.)

Looking To The New Year

Here's hoping you all had a very lovely Christmas. (Or whatever you celebrate. At my house, it's Christmas.)

In short, my Christmas present was a new job being an office manager/administrative assistant for a very dear long-time friend, at her new branch office. (Thanks Karla!!) I'm planning on returning to the cyber world after the first of the year. (I'll be training the second week of January, so it will probably be after that.) Can't wait to catch up with all y'all. I hope you're still out there!!

Hugs and kisses and exclamation points,
Teri

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Blahger Friend

Wearing the psychological equivalent of a hair shirt? Check. Mentally flogging myself? Check. Getting down on my hands and knees and begging for your forgiveness and your leniency? Check. Check.

Patience with me you must have. Groping my way towards some sort of center am I.

(Haven't checked email, haven't looked at blogs, so don't think the silence is the cold shoulder.)

Hugs and big sloppy kisses to you all.

What?? I Napped. So Sue Me. Oh. I Mean: Wordless Wednesday Dodici (12)

(Yep. That's right. Click Pic To See Ginormous.)

It's Still The 28th Here.

A little peace offering. Yeah, I know you can only stare longingly at it. Trust me, best cupcake evah. I, however, did not make it. I've had some struggles with buttercream frosting. Just ask my long suffering father-in-law. ( Sorry Pops! Rest assured, I think I've found a better recipe, but I promise to practice it before I make you another birthday cake.)

This is going to be pretty short, since it's already past my bedtime. We are having gloriously cool weather here which means that I should sleep well. On the flip-side, it also means that it will be harder to get out of bed!

I haven't been doing anything particularly productive with my time away. I did read Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere in one day. Good grief can that man write. (Note: I put the B&N link instead of my usual Amazon link because, well, ya know... working there and all...) My bestest friend from high school, Mandy, came over for dinner with her two gorgeous children. (If you click on the link you'll see about the cuteness. I mean, hello beautiful people!) Then we went to the Zoo. The World Famous one. Unfortunately the petting zoo was closed for remodeling. Don't you think that maybe they should mention that somewhere before you start telling the kids how fun it's going to be?? We had a nice, quiet Thanksgiving at my grandfather's place. And I can tell I'm starting to ramble....

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday and I would also like to say thank you for sticking in there during my unscheduled absence. (Did I say that already?) Tomorrow? Wordless Wednesday makes it's triumphant return.

Hoping You Haven't Given Up On Me

It's sort of been like this:


I'll be back tomorrow. (That's when I'll return emails as well.)

Hugs and kisses to all.

Photobooth Friday Twelvsies

I rediscovered this on Saturday when going through a little stash of ephemera that I brought. I'm guessing WWII. I looked up "Banaziak" and it would appear that it is a Polish surname. I just love how it's made up to look like a postage stamp.

Short and sweet today. I'll be adding links to the other Photobooth Fridays later.

Tales From An Episcopalian Craft Fair

Wow... does it feel like midnight to anyone else? And no fair answering in the affirmative if you are in the Eastern Time Zone. Up at 4:45am tomorrow but then 3 full, glorious days off. (Not so glorious for my bank account, but I will have to work my first Saturday weekend after this and it will even all out.) I am going to apologize ahead of time if I start to ramble unintelligibly or boring, er, ly. In a nutshell, the craft fair was rather small, but the table was only $25 and the proceeds from the table fee and any donations are going towards the church's Thanksgiving dinner for the homeless. It was held in what we Southern Baptists call the Fellowship Hall. (I don't know what Episcopalians call it.) One, um, shall we say unfortunate thing was that it smelled like sauerkraut. Now, I have always loved sauerkraut (yes, even as a child), but it's not the most attractive odor. It was made from scratch and rather delicious, still, I'm thinking that maybe it should be kept outside next time. Saturday was pretty dead but thanks to my SIL's foresight we brought things to work on. Sunday was a little busier as parishioners came in after services. We made enough to pay for the table and have a little to split. Plus one very nice lady, and our biggest customer, bought a card I made there with a vintage image (genius here forgot to take a picture) and said that she was going to send it to her granddaughter who has started a linens business and the lovely lady thought that since I offered custom orders her granddaughter might be interested in commissioning some thank you notes to send to clients. Fingers crossed! Jenni made some beautiful hand painted Christmas cards that the same lady snatched up. In fact, they are what lured her to buy. Yay for Jenni!

::cue awkward segue:: The picture above features some of the cards I made for the event. You, as always, can click on it to see it up close and personal. I think I'm getting closer to opening the Esty store. And, thanks to one who shall be recognized later, I even have a name for it. Now I'm going to take the trash cans out to the street and then collapse into my bed.
Sweet dreams my darlings.

Friday morning update: News Flash! I'm A Bonehead! Got to work this morning to discover that what I thought was an "a" after the 6 was actually a "p". Obviously Ms. Attention To Detail here needs to watch her p's and a's. Badumpbump. I'm going back to bed. I will however post a photobooth photo later, because I found one that is supah cool and must be shared.

Wordless Wednesday Eleventy. Fascinating Craft Fair Talk Tomorrow.

(click it, see it biggah and with notes)

It's Wednesday, Do You Know Where My Wordlessness Is?

Well my darlings, my Best Beloveds (as one of the most fantabulous writers on the face of the planet would say), I have woefully neglected you. I haven't even looked at my Bloglines since last week, which means I have read none of you and am soooo far behind on what is going on in all y'alls' lives. This sad state of affairs will continue on through Sunday, after which I promise to do my best to catch up.
My excuses are twofold. I am a working member of society again. So far mostly only 5 hour days, but starting at 6am is kickin' my gluteous maximus. AND I am preparing for this craft fair thing this weekend. Thanks to all the students working for B&N, it looks as if I will be spared from working weekends. YAY.
As I am a wee bit sleepy, I'm going to cut this short. In honor of All Hallow's Eve yesterday I give you Fidget and Jynx:


Hugs and kisses to all.