Gifts to Myself

Cabal woke me up. Early. Mofo. Grrr.

Found myself making coffee at 6am after our walk and his feeding. My load of towels were dry, too. As I was inserting the yellow towels into my double ribbon, it occurred to me that I never took those pics I promised a while back of my bathroom towels.

The pics below are just one of the set of two I have hanging. Obviously, I don't use these towels. I could if I wanted to, but mostly these just hang pretty while I have another working set hanging elsewhere. I have a few more sets of towels before I have to use the ones below. They are washed at least once a month whether they need it or not. I love ribbon -- what an easy way to dress your towels and bathroom! I added the faux jewel ornaments after buying them on sale after Christmas. The colors were perfect, non?



There is a lady online who has a store on e-bay selling resin, resin molds and accessories. Her mold choices were more expanded than the online art supply stores so I bought four from her along with two different sizes of reusable plastic cups and pipettes. Those should arrive before the end of the week. Yippee!

On the other hand, the reply to my query e-mail from the gourmet shop has yet to arrive. Well, I couldn't wait anymore because the class choices were narrowing each day and the Cooking Class Assistant orientation is next Sunday. I had to find out whether there was still room today during a Pizza class. It was raining and for some reason I wanted to drive around in it.

After talking to a gal who apparently needed to suck down some serious caffeine, I was registered for the cooking class that will allow me to attend orientation next Sunday. Your AGOL was saved from taking the Pizza class this afternoon. The lady bragged that there was still a waiting list. More power to them -- you know I don't like pizza unless some conditions have been met in making it. High maintenance? Yep.

(Drum roll please..)

The class I ended up prepaying today was very appropriate for the AGOL: Aphrodisiac Foods. While I am sipping wine on Tuesday night, I get to watch a chef prepare the following tantalizing dishes:

Gulf Oysters laced with Chipotle Mignonette, Grilled Asparagus Spears with Lump Crabmeat over Baby Arugula, Roasted Pine Nut Gorgonzola Timbale and Goat Cheese Stuffed Figs wrapped in Prosciutto with Balsamic Raspberry Gastrique. The finale is Chocolate Truffles with Strawberry Amaretto Jam and White Chocolate Martinis.

Are you jealous? My mouth is already watering. I'll have to cancel on Happy Hour with the gang and tell my boss I am leaving at 3:30pm to take care of the dog and still make it on time. I'm sure the chef will allow me to take a few food pics to share with you...

My day was not to be wasted. I drove to two art supply stores for supplies, mostly related to resin. The grocery store took some more of my money on the way home because my freezer was near empty again. Is Grey Goose vodka a frozen dinner? To some, it might be. Ha! I needed to take advantage of some of the Buy Guy Get One Free deals. Making sure I have stock in certain staple ingredients makes it that much easier to put together a good meal quickly that is full of flavor.

Tawny was back in town tonight from her vacation with her sister to see their parents and to pick up Tawny's daughter for part of the summer in between college semesters. She texted me earlier to let me know when she was in Florida and when she arrived home. I didn't expect to see her for a bit, but she called me tonight to drop off a small gift and to show me some goodies that came in the mail for her. How I missed her! Not sure if she will be able to take one day off to play during my creative week. I will have to ask her again. Well, my lovelies, it is off to bed for me.


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Gifts to Myself

Sweet Thoughts

Sunday...Mother's Day. I had thought about this on Friday and it got me a little depressed. I didn't have a mother nor was I a mother. Would I ever be one other than to my Pretty Boy Dog? Luckily, I was too busy to let it sink in. Today I was too exhausted to have it sink in further. Getting home at 1:30am will do that to you. Any plans I had were scrapped in lieu of long naps on the sofa.

Updated my blog and made my little welcome packets mainly for four of the marketing people I know moving over tomorrow. They are getting a painted wooden angel/princess ornaments (I did not make these) to have in their cube and a card filled with iridescent heart sprinkles. Don't the packets look cute with the iridescent shreds and red heart sprinkles? Perhaps they are a bit childish, but are sweet thoughts nonetheless.

Sweet thoughts...


I couldn't help myself. It was better than wallowing in self-pity. Used the energy into making things that are sure to bring smiles tomorrow. Made four more packets for a total of eight that I will give to the other four gals I talk to at work. They get to play musical cubes, too. Oh, joy!
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Sweet Thoughts

Happy AGOL Day: Spread Love

HAPPY VALENTINE's DAY !!

It's my day. Won't you celebrate it with me by giving a little love to everyone you see today? Call those loved ones near and far away and tell them you love them. Give hugs. SMILE BIG!

A closer look:



39 Good Lovin' bag treats and 24 cards to give out today:


(I know they are just bags of crazy candies, chocolates, fabric heart-shaped petals and fun wrapping, but I know it feels good to get something nice and unexpected on your desk. I love doing this stuff. Believe it or not...this is restrained!)

...and homemade ooey gooey chocolate chip cookies!

These are huge!


So happy together...



SPREAD LOVE !!

Kisses to you my lovelies,
AGOL
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Happy AGOL Day: Spread Love

Playing Santa

Shopping cart in hand, I walked towards Dan in the store where he was waiting for me a little after 9am. After our good mornings, I told him two things: 1) How shamed I feel that my words from nine years ago has brought us here and 2) How proud I was of him and have never been more proud of him until that moment. Dan never forgets anything and I know he values me and what I think. After telling him how I felt, I didn't wait to see the look on his face for fear of my eyes filling with tears. I think he was feeling it, too, and knows me enough to switch gears and start joking with me. Great friends pay attention.

Dan kept teasing me that all we had were girls to buy for and accused me doing it on purpose so we didn't have to buy boy stuff. After looking at the shopping list, five girls (16 yrs, two 11 yrs, 10 yrs and 1 yr) were indeed girly with the exception of one who wanted more masculine toys. I actually would love to buy boy stuff, but other people in our company beat us to the angel tree last week.

I outlined a plan of buying one or two articles of clothing and getting two or more of the other stuff. For example, one girl received an outfit and her CD player, a CD and some nice brand batteries for her new CD player. I let Dan choose the higher ticket items or gave him choices. Wouldn't let him skimp on the batteries though so he picked ones with an oversleeves of pink for supporting breast cancer. I made sure we bought batteries for all the toys that needed them. We even bought a girl a set of gold earrings and a bracelet. It wasn't about having set limit on each child, but a nice set of gifts.

Then there was gift wrapping. We have to bring the gifts unwrapped, but I wanted to make sure that they got gift wrapping, boxes, ribbon and a roll of tape for each child. The baby toy set we got requires an extra roll so she got two for her toy, clothes, shoes, etc. Dan did an AGOL No-No by picking out drab rolls of gift wrapping. Christmas is supposed to be magical so we need wrapping paper that has foil or Mylar. Shiny for magic. You should have seen the look on this man's face when I explained my reasoning. I am used to seeing the look for years because I try to stun him at every turn. He picked a really pretty one out and a matching metallic ribbon while I put the rest I had already gathered in the cart. Poor thing.

We're not done shopping yet even after going to another store. Dan assured me we had time and he would complete the rest this next week when I began to get concerned about not having everything. We will give the ones we have already completed on Monday and meet again to combine his additions to mine since I am sorting and putting everything together. It will be several bills well spent.

It was lunchtime and I asked him to meet me at this Italian place up the road. We scarfed our breakfast/lunch combo of pizza and stromboli while we discussed our shopping expedition and my interview. He was happy for me and gave me encouragement. It was about 12:30pm when we parted ways. He, to finish remodeling his bathroom with upgrades and me, to resting from an exhaustive week. For a few hours, I was able to suspend my feelings on Christmas. It was heaven.
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Playing Santa

Pretty Packages

Hearing thunder made the decision for me to skip The Saturday Four. Perhaps tomorrow or Monday, but the forecasters have predicted rain the next few days...

I've just wrapped my stepmother's birthday gifts: two blouses and one box for the special musical card and Florida-themed treat. Gathered her favorite colors of purple and gold. The tissue inside each box is different and in a tropical theme to set off the gift inside. Yes, I know I have way too much time on my hands. If I were not mailing these, the bows would be more elaborate. I like the bows to be big, complex and overflowing with the ribbon undulating around the edges of the gift.



The best part of giving the gift is more gratuitous for me and that is the wrapping. Even if I'm not necessarily fond of you, the wrapping will never let you know. The gift inside is for the recipient and the wrapping is...correct!...for me.

I didn't grow up with a lot and couldn't necessarily give a more expensive gift, but what I could do was make the wrapping beautiful. I learned (while living in the Philippines) from watching the painstaking task my mom or other live-in relative would take to make the gift presentable, more often than not the popular technique of multiple folds at the seam as seen at the top left hand box in the picture above.

Now I have an arsenal of dozens of gift wrap paper in various themes and spools and spools of mostly fabric ribbon. I try to buy them when they are on sale because I am not stingy with them when I wrap the gift. More yardage of ribbon on a gift, the better. It's the sensuality of it, too. Feeling the textures of the paper and ribbon...and feasting my eyes on the various colors heightens the experience.

This is not to say I have not thought about the gift inside. I always imagine what the recipient might think when he/she opens it. It is rare that I do the gift half-hearted. Even if I pick up something small and it would be okay to give as is, it will still have a small coordinating fabric ribbon(s) tied around it. It's just the AGOL way.

Pretty Packages