Give New Life to Wrapping Paper Tubes

The hubs asked me to take the lights down from the tree.

I wanted to get out of it somehow (I can only imagine how disorganized they'll be next year — lights always end up a tangled mess).

But.

I had an idea... and it worked!

1. Find a few empty wrapping paper rolls; cut slits on one end. (Wait until later to cut a slit at the other end.)

2. Start at the bottom or top of your tree. Slide the cord end into the slit, then wrap the light strand around the tube (starting at the top and working your way to the bottom).

3. Wrap until you reach the end of the strand. Cut a slit at the other end of the tube so you can slide the end of the strand's outlet in.

Voila!

Crossing fingers for untangled lights next year!

Keeping Christmas lights from tangling. Organizing Christmas lights.

Quote of the Week (Atlanta Housewives Style)

Sisters

(At the nail salon, getting pedicures)

Me to my sister: "Hey! We're just like Kim and NeNe [of The Real Housewives of Atlanta]!"

Sister: "Why? Because we don't always get along but we have fun?"

Me: "ummm.... not exactly what I was thinking. I meant because we are out getting pampered on weekday..."

Recapping Christmas in Raleigh

On the twelfth day of Christmas, Raleigh gave to us...

12 Jello Shooters

11 curling rod ringlets

10 place settings (2 parents, 7 kids, 1 husband)

9 ounces of mustache wax

8 inches of snow

7 varieties of dessert (cookies, coconut bars, chocolate pie, pecan pie, danishes, cinnamon rolls and peanut brittle)

6 strands of baubles

5 hours of dancing (Paul's party!)

4 idiots watching a turkey fry

3 new watches (Anna was one of three that received a new watch from Santa)

2 sisters named Katy/Katie (I have a stepsister named Katie!)

And 1 cod fish face!

What a great Christmas holiday! Thank you to my dad and Susan for hosting an awesome Christmas week gathering.

(Hope all your holidays were fabulous as well!)

- Katy

Story Time: Holiday Edition

Being in that I'm a semi-new employee at my company (eight-ish months in), I felt compelled to make an appearance at our corporate holiday party.

The hubs and I suited up in our best cocktail appropriate attire and headed up to the Cobb Galleria (big events facility in metro Atlanta).

We followed other cars and the parking attendants' light sabers to a parking deck flush with the facility. I left my coat in the car, making the executive decision that a coat check might be more trouble than it's worth.

We entered the party and double-checked with a banquet employee to make sure we were in the right place. Check. We quickly made friends with the photographer, the wife of a company structural engineer. She was hilarious — encouraging people to take photos in front of the Christmas tree and telling people they ought to come back after a few more drinks. The photographer, who's name I can't remember (Lisa maybe?) introduced us to her husband. I learned he works with the Facilities department on waste water and building management projects. I shared with him that I'm in a semi-small part of our organization that sells advertising to the car manufacturers (Ford, Toyota, etc.). I asked him if he'd moved to the new office yet. So we talked for a few minutes about the new building and how nice it is and about an interior fountain that's not going to be installed after all (I didn't know there were plans for an interior fountain!).

Dan and I mostly hung out on the periphery. We were nervous to sit down at a table and get engrossed in conversation because we could only stay for an hour or so. After all, we didn't want to miss my bro and his girlfriend's annual tacky sweater party. Keeping to ourselves wasn't challenging, as I didn't really see anyone I knew. I mean, I heard that a lot of people opt out of this party for other Saturday night plans, but I was hoping to see a colleague or two.

Xylophones were chimed and dinner was served. The long drink line prompted a good idea on Dan's part: me go stand in the drink line while he went to grab a plate of food for us both. While Dan was in line, a woman asked him, "So, do you work for Arcadis or does your spouse?" Dan took a moment to reply but said, "my spouse." The woman replied, "Oh, what group?" Dan found the answer that made the most sense at that point in the conversation: "National Accounts." The woman seemed like she wasn't familiar with the department but didn't ask questions.

Dan and I found each other then found a vacant table where we could sit down. He told me about his conversation in the food line — and we promptly inhaled our food, hoping that no one would talk to us or that no one would ask me anything else.

And that's how we found out we were at the wrong holiday party... for 45 minutes. That's right... my employer's name also starts with an "A" but it's definitely not Arcadis.

Traveling = Invitation for Murphy's Law

Murphy's law has its way of descending on me when we have well-intentioned plans of traveling — and getting out of town on time.

Here's a little recap of Wednesday afternoon:

• I cannot locate my husband's great aunt's china that we were supposed to bring to Nashville after looking everywhere possible — and spot a leak from under the water heater
• I call husband who tries his best to instruct me on how to inspect the leak, which is frustrating for both of us because I can't really describe what I'm looking at very well and he's not there to see it in person
• Husband walks me through how to turn off the hot water valve and gas line; he texts our tenant to say we won't have hot water for a few days
• I start loading up the truck with my stuff, husband's stuff and the dog — in the rain
• I drive over to husband's office to pick him up with dog in back of truck in hopes of continuing on our way... only to see that our dog pooped in the bed of the truck sometime on the ride over
• I scrape up most of poop using a Kroger plastic bag
• We drive to the closest gas station (2 miles away); husband tries to get dog's poop from in between her toes and under her toenails
• In the mean time, I go to wash my hands and buy a hotdog because I didn't eat lunch
• Husband asks me to wipe the bed of the truck using baby wipes while he continues dealing with dog poop in between dog toes
• I set down hotdog in its packaging on console in truck
• I miss husband putting dog into cab of truck
• After some light scrubbing, I open truck door to sit down and eat my hot dog... only to see hotdog has been eaten by dog
• Husband finds some humor in this while I do not; I toss the hotdog bun in its box at husband and get ketchup on his shirt (I thought the packaging was closed)
• Husband is not amused
• We each apologize
• We get on road to brave traffic to Nashville
• Sister calls and says she is locked out of our house, where she planned to spend the night (whoops... I forgot to leave the key out for her)
• I coach sister through breaking into our house, hang up the phone
• I announce to husband, "why don't we just rear end someone to really put a bang in our travel plans?"

All that being said, we finally made it to the Nashville area and had a great time. With 30-plus of Dan's family members, 8 large dogs, great food, precious kids and karaoke, how could we NOT have a blast?

Pictures:

Halloween 2010 Costumes Revealed

At work on Monday, I told people we dressed as an airline pilot and a flight attendant... though as a couple we had a different name for our costume. Can you guess?

Friends were:

Kat Von D and Bret Michaels

The rabbit from Monty Python and a Ghostbuster

A peacock (or showgirl - you decide) and The Joker

Sorry for the delay... I killed my laptop charger this week and had to wait on another one to arrive.

Lurve me some Halloween...

5-Minute Funny Break

This has been cracking me up since I watched it last weekend:



I mean, the lyrics to Pearl Jam's Yellow Ledbetter are pretty hard to understand... watch the video... hilarity ensues.

Enjoy!


(Kudos to James Wiersma at the basically now defunct "The Anthology of James Wiersma" blog for passing this link along to my hubs)

p.s. Safe for work. I think.

Domestical

I'm still here!

I've just been busy traveling for work, traveling for fun/family and being domestical.

Aside from racking up frequent flyer miles, I finally made one set (two panels) of curtains using that fun brown and creme-colored print fabric I bought a while back. (And oh, Erica and Julia, Hancock Fabrics never contacted me after I filed my detailed and mostly polite complaint...)

Fabric from www.fabric.com.

Note to self: buy a new ironing board pad. Yours is looking a little sketchy.

The bedroom. As you can see, it's rather neutral and plain, so I wasn't afraid to use a bolder pattern in the curtains. And brown and cream go well with the light celery walls.

About these drapes:

• I used a liner/backing material for the first time. This helps block out more sunlight but creates a little more work when hemming. With the first panel, I tried to do lose running stitches between the two fabrics to hold them together. That didn't work so well... I used pins for the second panel and that worked much better.
• Fabric is by Waverly and feels very durable/substantial. And it arrived in less than a week (double points!).
• I didn't do it purposely, but using a geometric pattern made cutting and measuring easier than if I'd used a solid print. I could pick a line and follow it across
• For consistency (okay, I admit it... laziness and lack of sewing skills), I used the O-rings with curtain clips again for these. The alternative was creating tabs or folding over the fabric so the rod would slip in. Unfortunately the rings I bought didn't match the curtain rod/hardware so I spray painted them with a metal-friendly spray paint (Rustoleum, I think, from Home Depot).
• Overall, I'm happy with how they turned out. Scratch that — how they've turned out so far. I still have two more panels to make.