Tea Party On-the-Go Anti-Procrastination Tuesday

Today I am linking this post with Between Naps on the Porch for Tablescape Thursday.

This post is also linked with New Nostalgia for Anti-Procrastination Tuesday.

I am seriously procrastinating this week!  My husband and I are taking a quit holiday this weekend but this week seems to be full of random to-do lists.  I really need to figure out what to pack, and I’m hoping to be able to pack light, as in warm weather clothing.  Still, there is always time for tea.

Wednesdays I spend at a Homeschool co-op, waiting for my oldest son to take three classes.  The first class starts at 10 AM.  The last one ends at 3:45 PM.  Yes, that sounds like a lot of waiting time, and it would be, if there were not many of us moms doing the same thing.

Kind of a funny photo of me but the teapot looks good.

I threw my hot pot, my tea pot, a few tea cups and some snacks in my bags for a tea party on-the-go.

This was a no-frills tea party which meant no sugar cubes, no creamer, and no snack plates.  I brewed one pot of tea, which was lychee.  Lychee is a great no-frills tea because it is naturally sweet.

I grabbed some simple cookies from Trader Joe’s.  Those Meyer lemon cookies are so amazing!  The kettle corn cookies are like eating a popcorn ball, without the work.

I wrap each cup snug so they won’t chip or break during transport.  I usually wrap my tea pot the same way.  When someone walked by and commented on the cute table or the fun idea of having tea, I invited them to join us.  It’s surprising how many women won’t “impose” but I made them, if they had time.  Everyone enjoyed it.

del.icio.us Tags: Anti-procrastination,On-the-Go,Tea party,Tablescape Thursday

Nail and Cuticle Maintenance

  I’m linking this post to today’s Anti-Procrastination Tuesday.

It’s too bad gray days don’t give us an internal sense of joy.  I love the gray, wet weather of winter but that is not the default mood for the average northwesterner.

We just ended an exciting week of snow.  What was suppose to be a passing day or two, developed into a full-on storm.  As someone said, “what do you call a week off between Christmas break and winter break?”  Clearly, without extra schoolwork, no job to drive to, and warmth of a comfortable home, our house was full of winter snow joy.

So now that play week is over, I have to get myself back in order; ready to be in public.  My hands get trashed by being in water and chemicals.  I wear gloves whenever my hands are at risk of either.  These Aloetouch Nitriles are awesome!  I get the large so I can take them off and put them back on several times to save on using too many throughout the day.  (I can’t use my touch screen phone with them.)

By the end of the week, my cuticles are dry, cracking and sore.  My go-to hand cream is Gold Bond Ultimate healing lotion with Aloe.  Of course lotion can only do so much.  Eventually, I have to do cuticle maintenance.

The usual tool would be cuticle nippers.  I can’t use these efficiently. 

Usually I end up cutting myself.  Instead, I use the dremel tool that came with my nail dryer.  I think it is suppose to be for acrylic nails but I have found it does a beautiful job sanding all the rough spots of my cuticles.  The best part- doing this makes my nails grow straight and strong.  Of course, the skin on my hands and around my cuticles is pretty thick and tough from years of manual labor.  I don’t know how this would be for soft, gentle skin.

The only other step I like to do to keep up my nails is to buff them.  The concept is simple.  You start with the course side and work around to the smoothest side.  The end result is a beautiful, shiny nail.

Of course, I have to be able to keep up my hands and nails at home but I’m still looking forward to using my Groupon to try out shellac nails.  My efforts help my hands stay healthy but I want my nails to look fabulous for my daughter’s wedding.  Do you get your nails done at the salon?  Have you tried shellac nails?  What’s the difference with other “fake” nail treatments?

del.icio.us Tags: Snow,nails,wedding,job

Snow Days

I’m linking this post to Outdoor Wednesday

Well I have been a bit distracted.  The Puget Sound area has been hit by a rather aggressive snow storm.  We weren’t expecting much, but by Wednesday, we realized the weather report was not going to go according to plan.

Tuesday, January 17th

There was nothing pressing at work on Tuesday, so I took a snow day.  I expected the snow would be limited on Wednesday and I would work a long day to make up the time.

Work on Wednesday

The drive into work was quite revealing.  We don’t have regular TV so my only clue to Seattle area traffic was radio reports and traffic cameras.  They can only tell so much, and I did not expect there to be so much snow in Seattle.  Fortunately, most people stayed home.

Unfortunately, I overstayed my welcome, attempting to get as much done as possible.  I had to drive home in freezing rain.  There were a few spin-outs.  Two transformer explosions could be seen lighting up the dark sky.  My windshield wipers were sticking to the windshield as the temperatures dropped, and a huge tree limb, heavy with snow, crashed down on the highway next to me.

My husband gets home from work around 6:30am and when I asked him how is drive was, he said it was “fine, but you’re not going out there.”  I assured him I would be fine and needed to go to work at some point, regardless of the conditions.  He must have been praying because my boss called and said it was too bad out to go to work.  We all got a snow day!

The temperatures stayed around 23 degrees and it snowed all day.  Eventually, not even the dog would venture out.

All in all, we’ve had it really easy.  We are warm, and we have electricity and internet.  A lot of our friends and family are not so fortunate.  When the rain finally comes, it’s going to be a mess around here.  Just the same, we are grateful for our very mild, northwest winters.

del.icio.us Tags: Winter,Snow,Work,drive,airport,dog

Anti-Procrastination Tuesday Snow Day

Nothing makes me procrastinate more than a snow day.  We have waited all winter for a decent snow day- the kind that makes it absolutely impossible to go anywhere.  It snowed a little on Saturday, and it is snowing a little more now.  My area does not have enough snow to keep us home.

The snow on the suburban is just what accumulated from the time my husband got home- about an hour of snowing.

I should have had this post done yesterday, in time to link up to New Nostalgia for Anti-Procrastination Tuesday.

The activities I am hoping to get done today are call my hairdresser to make an appointment, work on my One Notebook of my daughter’s wedding, and otherwise get ready to make wedding invitations.  Working on wedding stuff is so much more interesting than ironing today.

We are within the critical six month period before the wedding so there is a lot to plan, organize, order, and create.  Daughter and I ventured into the snow yesterday to pick up a dress she found for the rehearsal dinner.  Oh, is it cute, and we got it for $20.  Sorry, the picture on the Macy’s website is no longer active.

While we were out, I opted to take advantage of the Michael’s coupons and get supplies for making the wedding invitations.  I was able to get a beautiful selection of paper from Paper Zone, before they announced their store closing.  (sad)  All that I really needed was the tape.

There are a lot of options for tape these days.  I bought a selection so we can work with them and see what works best.  My daughter and my friend have designed the invitations and we want to insure they are held together securely.  I’m excited to see how the finished product comes out.

I also insisted we purchase some inspiration items.  My daughter’s wedding theme is vintage country.  It’s an evolving concept.  She has changed her colors from a bright, sherbet selection to elegant peacock colors.  There are a lot of twists along the way and one is, instead of corsages, of which neither of us are fans, we are making brooches for the “moms.”  Moms is loosely defined for our purposes as it includes aunts.

Daughter already made one but I can’t find it to take a picture to share with you.  It’s probably just as well since I imagine she will want to keep them a little secretive.  It turned out so pretty, and it was easy.  It’s so hard to decide whether to buy stuff or make our own.  There are pluses and minuses to both options.

One more accomplishment on the wedding to-do list is getting the save the date cards ordered.  That was a lot more confusing and expensive than I imagined.  I will save the tediousness but there are a lot of printing companies, with a wide range of options, and costs.  The frustrating part is after I got them ordered, I got an email for “free- 100 postcards from Vista print.”  Really could have used that…

Daughter did not want me to design the cards but I think I did a great job.  She agreed, eventually.  Besides, she really designed it; I just did the technical stuff.

Believe it or not, I have other children.  In the midst of all this wedding planning, my two sons have celebrated birthdays.  My youngest was last week.  He turned 14.  Instead of blogging and reading blogs, I spent all my time putting together a photo album of him.  Another printing decision- which photo album company do I choose?  I’m waiting for a coupon.  The picture snipit is my picaboo design.  I really love picaboo, and I’m thinking they are my best option.

Today is my oldest son’s birthday.  He is 16.  No driver’s license yet.  He’s working on it.  Instead, I got him two cases of his own label Jone’s Soda.  I love it when kids are so easily entertained.  He is so happy!

The artwork on the label is a picture Connor drew, and he couldn’t have been happier with my selection.

So I’ve rambled on now.  It’s still snowing but I guess I better see if I need to go to work any way.  Hoping I get to spend the day reading everyone’s blogs, and getting my ironing done.

del.icio.us Tags: birthdays,wedding,snow,kid art,Anti-procrastination

Anti-Procrastination Tuesday To the New Year

I’m not big on new year’s resolutions in general, but I do like to reflect on the previous year and assess my goals for the year ahead.  Right off the bat, my first goal is to post to my blog consistently.  What better day to practice consistent blogging than on Anti-Procrastination Tuesday.

The To-Do List

To start my anti-procrastination To-Do List, I updated my blog layout with a new background.  If you haven’t been here before, I had a Christmas theme before.  I like to play with my photo editor program to create background tiles and images.  Updating my blog is part of my Christmas clean-up.

Christmas Clean Up

Christmas clean-up is my primary To-Do list item.  I have seen a few blog posts already about already getting the house back to pre-Christmas order.  It’s kind of sad, but also rather satisfying.  I’m sad to see the season end but I’m completely satisfied with the length of time we have spent celebrating Christmas.

The kids were so good at getting everything decorated for Christmas, I told them I would put it all away.  I haven’t been hugely inspired yet but I did get the tree taken apart.

Never Ending Laundry

In between taking Christmas down, I got a little bit of laundry done.  One of my FB friends posted she was sure someone was coming into her house at night and leaving laundry behind.  That’s about how I am feeling these days.  Still, I insist on ironing about half of everything and my ironing pile is out of control.  My goal is to get my ironing board unloaded and my laundry baskets empty by Friday, January 6.  I’m dating this goal for greater accountability.

Planning Travel to Arizona

When these two projects are done, I am going to do some research for a short get away to Nevada and Arizona for me and my sweetie.  I have read the mere planning of a trip is great for fighting winter blues and also to inspire creativity.  I completely agree with this so I look forward to just the planning process.  I also find breaking up physical tasks with mental ones keeps me motivated to keep working.

del.icio.us Tags: Anti-Procrastination,To-do list,accountability