Hrumph...

Okay, know how I was super excited about online shopping shipments coming?  Well, they came (and they were awesome) so this morning I wanted to wear this new top that I got for myself.  Seems reasonable.

The new shirt looked super cute with the skirt I was planning to wear, but I needed to iron out some of the creases.  So I pull out the iron...and the shirt melted.  I've never had that happen to me before!  AND I checked the tag, and it said it could be ironed!  Well, it said "cool iron", but I always iron everything on the same setting and have never had an issue...but seriously, I mean this thing just melted like a piece of cheese.  Talk about starting off your day on the wrong foot.  Hrumph.

So...not sure what I should do now.  It's my fault, right?  So I can't really return it?  Do I buy another one?  Do I try to return it?

Blah.  At least there was no traffic on the way to work and they had Starbucks Christmas Blend in the cafeteria this morning.  Honestly, I think it tastes the same as the normal stuff, but the label is way more festive and put me in a cheery mood =)

Too much excitement!

...WAY too much excitement for Facebook!  Whenever I'm insanely pumped about something, I will typically provide my digital "friends" with a happy little FB post or a G-status update.  It's efficient and gets the point across.  However, I don't want to be one of those "a million updates a day" types of people - sorry, I think that's obnoxious - but I still want to update my cyber-buds!

What's a girl to do? 

Well, I'm going to do one long "Yay!" post, much like some of my other girfriends do.  I love reading their little happy diddies, so I thought I'd share some of mine that have happened over the past couple of days =)  Enjoy!

It's almost Turkey Time!!!  Our dear friend, Gord(on) is coming to visit for the weekend and I.Can't.Wait!  Marc and I decided to "host" Thanksgiving for all our transplant friends in Denver who wouldn't be with family for the holidays, and we were quite excited that the guest count could get up to about 8 people (it would be my first time hosting Turkey Day, so that's a lot for me!).  Well...now it's just the two of us plus a 12 pound turkey.  Gord is coming in Thursday evening so he won't doing the actual "dinner" with us, but we'll definitely have pleeeeenty of leftovers.  Even though it's different than what we originally thought, I'm so excited and really looking forward to it!

That being said - I'm also excited that we decided to go with a fresh turkey from a local shop this year.  There's this awesome meat market right down the street from our house that we've been going to, and we can't wait to pick up our little gobbler tomorrow.  It will be my first time playing with a fresh turkey, and I'm excited because I know that he was living a fun and happy, natural life in Colorado just a few days ago.  It's kinda neat knowing exactly where your turkey is coming from (only a few miles away)!

I'm going to Florida in a few weeks!  An opportunity came up at work and our little team is going to take a trip to Clearwater for a meeting with a new partner.  This is way exciting for a few reasons:

• -  I'm pumped to be a part of the contract negotiations...this is a new venture for us and it's really neat to get to see this side of the coin - great development opportunity! (okay, that's way lame but I am actually really excited!
• -  We'll be in Florida.  In December.  And our hotel is on the beach - yayyy!  The meeting is on Monday and we're flying in Sunday to get some time to soak up the sun beforehand.
• - I get to see my team plus a co-worker who just left the company.  I miss all of them and it's always nice to get together =)

Second Annual Denver Ornament Exchange and 5th Annual Atlanta (remote) Ornament Exchange!  That's a lot - but I can't wait!!  I love my girlfriends and I love that we keep these traditions going - plus it helps to keep my tree from being totally naked =)

Christmas!!  I'm so looking forward to Christmas decorations, Christmas music, Christmas cookies, Christmas parties...all things related to holiday cheer =)  I'm also excited for all the other holidays we celebrate at this time of year (look at me, trying to be PC).

Awesome weather!  I have been loving the fact that it's still in the 60's during the day so I can go run with my pup.  I'm ALSO excited that I have been slowly but surely improving my mile time each week...and since I've been taking care of my body, actually stretching and icing after every run, my knee hasn't hurt me at all!  Maybe the hopes of a 1/2 marathon aren't completely out the window just yet =)

Along the same vein, I'm excited that I finally discovered the "genius" setting on my iPod, so I have new and fun playlists to run to.  Today, I was kept pumped up by the likes of my favorite boys bands and ladies of the late 90s (thanks a lot BSB, N'Sync, Brit, Mariah, Celine and Christina...you guys rock).

Shipments a-comin!  This is really what started the whole thing.  I did some online shopping and I just got notices that all my stuff has shipped - Yahoo!  I don't like battling the holiday rushes at the mall this time of year, but I enjoy taking advantage of the sales...AND I haven't shopped for myself in a while and I needed some new winter stuff.  So, I've got some cute clothes on the way, plus Marc and I decided to add a couple place-settings to both our casual and fancy china since it was on sale.  I can't wait for the Lenox box to come to my door =)

I hope everyone is having as much fun as I am getting ready for the holidays.  Happy (early) Thanksgiving!!

It's Crafty Time!

Okay - so I'm officially, like, the least crafty, artsy or creative person ever, but I wanted to share a fun little diddy I made for the neighbors last weekend.  I stole a bit of inspiration from none other than Miss Martha, put my own little spin on things, and ended up with these:

 

Beetle Muffins!  Enjoy at your own risk.

 (okay, seriously, if you have one of those point-and-snap cameras, how do you get it to zoom in on text and take non-blurry pictures?  I took a million pics of this on a bunch of different settings and this is the best I got...annoying!)

I've referenced this before, but because of our garden, we've had quite a plethora of zucchini, so I've been doing lots of experimenting with different recipes over the past few months.  I've made more zucchini muffins, pies, cakes, and fritters than you can imagine, so I figured I would put a spooky spin on one of my new favorite recipes and give them as gifts to the neighbors.

Here's where the idea for the "beetle muffins" originally came from:  

Creepy Crawly Invites from Martha Stewart

 I kind of loved the "bug" idea for a spooky spin (I'm not a fan of "bloody" or "corps-ey" Halloween fare), so I took this muffin recipe and made a few additions to it.  I omitted the nuts/cranberries and added chocolate chips instead (they would be my "beetles"), plus a dash of cocoa powder for extra chocolatey goodness =)

They came out pretty good!

Then, it was time for "crafty" part.  I made little "beetle muffin" labels and printed them out on card stock.

I had gone to Michaels to buys some of those fun "chinese-food" boxes in orange and purple, plus some halloween ribbon.  After the labels and the muffins were done, it was time to stuff the boxes.

I cut out sheets of parchment paper, since the boxes are not "food compatible".

Each box got 2 sheets of paper...

...then were stuffed full of my "beetle muffins"

Time to decorate!  The orange boxes got the black and white polka dot ribbons.

And the black boxes got the purple ribbon.  Very "Halloween-trendy" =)

And they're done!  I like the color combos =)

I made a few batches to hand out to the neighbors and a few work people, and overall, I was pleased with the results.  Again, I'm not super crafty or creative, but I had a lot of fun doing this over the weekend while we were getting ready for Halloween.

Just wanted to share a fun little crafty-outlet I created for myself =)  Hope you enjoy!

In other news...who's ready for LSU / Alabama tonight??  Georgia Tech is off this weekend in preparation for our Thursday night game next week against Virginia Tech.  I trust they will also be taking the bye-week to get they're heads back on straight after the fun little romp-fest they had over the Tigers last weekend (yeeeeah!!!!).  Because we're not playing, I'll be supporting my girlfriend in cheering for the Tide versus LSU =)  Roll Tide, Karen!!!

EPIC touchdown reach by David Sims =)

Go Jackets!!!

Have a great weekend!!