One of our only Christmas photographs

Someone gave this little play place to us for our kitties (because their cat didn't use it) so we promptly declared it the kitties' Christmas present.

Despite Gepetto's probing alien eyeballs and Pisica's disgruntled scowl they actually do enjoy it. 


The hubs put a little space heater in front of it and then tries to force them to go in there once it gets all warm and cozy. I'm sure they enjoy that as well.


Daisy likes it too. She likes to perch on top of it to look out the window and keep an eye on the mail man. Although you won't find her hanging around there while the other two are - the three kitties unfortunately still do not get along. Still lot's of hissing and growling going down in our house! Boo on that.


Just be friends guys. In the words of Gob Bluth, "COME ON!!"

Sketchbook Day - our little house on a hill

I don't usually draw buildings. Like, ever. Or anything with straight edges for that matter because...I'm bad at making straight lines. But I suddenly had the urge to depict our little home with our Christmas tree twinkling through the window.


So I did.

Please take notice of the...not straight roof.


The Christmas season has seemed to sap all my energy! I need to get re-motivated. 


I joined a gym. ahh!!


A quick Christmas recap post will be coming soon. BUT I neglected to take ANY pictures over the weekend so...we'll see how that goes.


Right now I'm watching The Great Muppet Caper and trying to keep the hubs awake throughout the whole thing. Because I don't like watching movies by myself. hehe. Miss Piggy is the star of her own synchronized dancing fantasy.

A green, I mean, brown Christmas!

Today is shaping up to be a pretty good day in the Points household. Sleeping in, exchanging gifts, watching It's a Wonderful Life (turns out I know the whole thing by heart, but the hubs knows Home Alone by heart so I guess we're even), wrapping presents for the rest of the family celebrations, watching our kitties turn psychotic as they play with their new catnip mouse toys, and pondering the strange fact that we are in Minnesota at Christmas time and yet the temperature is in the 40's and there is no snow outside. The hubs informed me that this also happened in 2006, although I must have blocked such a disturbing and bizarre event from my memory.

As I mentioned before, I'm not a winter person. And 40 degrees is a whole lot better than...anything that's colder than that. But I DO like snow for Christmas. I like snow for Christmas, but then for it to be gone by like...mid January. But the way things are shaping up I'm guessing now that we won't get snow UNTIL mid January and then it will be here until like, mid April.

Not cool Minnesota. 

BUT. Christmas is still fun, brown and all. Yes. Today I got to use my new COOKIE PRESS! 

My first time ever making Spritz cookies, and they turned out nice and tasty. And also cute. Just the way I like cookies.

Success.

We have more time to relax today and then will be off to Christmas celebrations with the fam. I DO love this time of year, snow or no snow. :) And who knows, maybe good ol' MN will grant us a bit of Christmas eve snowfall tonight. Merry Christmas friends!

Ch ch changes

You may have noticed the lack of animal doodles around here lately.


And for that I apologize.


But after awhile you can only get through so many animals when you wonder how many more can there possibly be? (As I'm sure Andrea has wondered as she has put the lists together.)


So. I'm taking a bit of a turn in a different direction. I'm going to start doing sketchbook posts at least a couple (hopefully) times a week. These very well could be more animal doodles, or sketches of anything else I happen to be working on. Some of them may be nothing more than a few squiggly lines or a silly cartoon, and some may be elaborate and detailed. I actually really love drawing people and faces but haven't done that for awhile, so I'm looking forward to getting into that again.


And when life starts to get just a little bit too crazy (as it so often seems to) I may post a few doodles and drawings from some of my old sketchbooks just for fun.


So in short. There shall still be doodles, but the doodles shall not be limited to just animals. I have loved the daily animal doodle project because it has made me keep up with drawing way more than I have in the past. And since drawing is one of my absolute favorite things, it's good. It's gooooood. I'm excited to continue on in a bit of a different direction. 


So without further ado, a doodle. Of the Christmas variety.

Oh and ps. I've got some fun plans coming up for my animal doodles from these past few months - so excited to show you!


In other news the hubs and I finally watched Christmas Vacation tonight. Such a fave.


"Well why is the CARPET all wet TODD?"
"I don't KNOW Margo!"

Just checking in ya know.

Hi! I'm back!


From where, you ask?


San Antonio, Texas. Yes that's right! We ventured to the big ol' state this past weekend. I'd never been there before, but I'll be darned if it wasn't basically as cold down there as it's been up here.


What.


BUT. It was a very fun city. And a very fun trip. The hubs and I went down there with his family to see his lil' (but in all reality very tall) bro graduate from the Air Force's basic training. It was awesome to see what he's been up to these past few months and his clean shaven head. And his new dad glasses.


He was an honor graduate. Congrats Brent!

Brent and his sweet little nugget of a girlfriend Mackenzie.


Stay tuned, for I'll be posting more pics and a recap of our little trip later this week!


But now we are back and it's Monday and you know Mondays. They're just...so...annoying. Like, having to wake up and stuff. Not to mention going Christmas shopping for three times as long as you thought you would due to your inability to make decisions. 


And on top of that forgetting to eat lunch beforehand.


How can a girl possibly make important decisions about what to buy and wrap up for her family members when all that's sustaining her are two frosted sugar cookies consumed at 7am?


So, it's like that today. All Monday-ish. 


But tomorrow is Tuesday and I almost ALWAYS like those.

Blast from Christmas past

I stumbled across these veeery old Christmas pictures scanned onto my computer and thought that I would share them. Because that's what bloggers do, right? Share?


Here's me and my little bro all dressed in our Christmas spirit best. Complete with festive red carpet.

Me and my violin. You can tell that it's Christmas related because of the holiday cheer ribbon tied to my instrument. Complete with festive red curtains. And bangs. And awesome jeans.

I'm assuming that this next one is a Christmas-y occasion because it appears that I'm wearing a Christmas-y dress (but my mom might tell me that I'm wrong). Complete with festive Christmas card pose.

That's all for sharing right now. Hope you are having a veeery great week!

Gift Ideas

Hi friends.


I'm wondering, are you like me, and need help with your Christmas shopping?


If so, which I'm assuming some of you MIGHT be, I have a solution for you. Check out my friend Kris' sweet little shop, Life at the Table.

Kris makes lovely handmade goods including market tote bags, produce bags, reusable sandwich bags, and beautiful drawings for your kitchen.

Now. I know from experience that her stuff is fabulous. A couple of months ago I snatched this super fun market tote bag from her shop. I LOVE the bright color combinations and intricate detailing. I'm excited to try it out at the farmer's market when summer comes back around (eternities away!!) but in the meantime I've been using it as a book bag.   

I have a lot of books I like to cart around with me (sketchbook, whatever novel I'm reading at the time, journal, bible, blog journal, to do list journal, planner, devo book, help books....AND the list goes on.) This bag is strong and durable and gets compliments wherever it goes.

So. If you like cute, lovingly handmade and awesome things or you think that someone you need to buy a Christmas gift for might, head over to Life at the Table and check out Kris' work! The Christmas deadline for her made to order items is the 15th (um...today!! hurry, don't dawdle!) and for her in stock items the deadline is the 18th.

Happy shopping!

Weekend Recap.

Hi! 


I had a great weekend.


It started Friday night with appetizers, chats, and Love Actually with a couple of my gal pals. What a perfect Christmas flick.


On Saturday my friend Mel introduced me to THEEE AWESOMEST little vintage treasure store in south Minneapolis. I got some huge old orange and gold dangly earrings - I am loving me the big earrings even more than usual these days since my short new hairdo allows them to hang longer than my hair. And I like it.


Saturday night the hubs and I went over to my Grandma's house for her annual tree decorating party where we yes, decorated her tree, and also ate cookies, created ornaments and set up nativities. It was good warm family fun.


THEN my sister slept over because we hadn't hung out in way too long. We watched Friends, chatted, went to church Sunday morning, chatted, ate good food, went shopping, watched Arrested Development, chatted, watched Jerry Maguire and laughed at Tom Cruise and his 90's clothes (and finally looked up what "shoplift the pootie" means), did a little more shopping, did a little more chatting, until I reluctantly drove her back to school.


Unfortunately I managed to snag zero pictures of the fun weekend.


BUT. One of our shopping destinations was my most favorite of Targets where I picked up some cookie cutters (I had none) and a cookie press for SPRITZ! COOKIES!


I'm so excited to make them.


Speaking of making food, I have been making a lot of food lately. I'm just going to take a small moment to make a braggart list of all the things I have made in the past few weeks.


Italian Stew with HOMEMADE meatballs. 
Pumpkin truffles.
Parmesan crusted chicken.
3 cheese enchiladas.
Lemon pepper tilapia.
S'mores cheesecake bars.
Little veggie dip appetizer things.
Gnocchi with homemade alfredo sauce.


Impressed?


No?


Ok well it may look like a pretty small list to cover a few weeks but it's a big one for me because, I don't cook.


Very much.


Or very well.


Until lately! Apparently.


It seems to be a new development of my life.


So anyway.


I had an unproductive day today. My to-do list was small, but somehow I wasted the hours away doing WHO KNOWS what and forgot to do laundry, only did half of the horrifying pile of dishes on our counter, meant to go Christmas shopping and promptly did NOT, managed to be late to violin lessons for WHO KNOWS what reason, and here I am blogging and working on projects in the middle of the night instead of getting them done in the daylight hours. 


Brilliant.


In other news, we've had a break through with the kitty drama! We have been letting Daisy out of her room almost all day each day now and only keep her in there at night. And today ALL THREE cats sat on the couch with the hubs without a hiss to be heard!


But then later they got crabby with each other again. BUT. Progress is progress. Eh?

Swan Doodle

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle


Trying and failing to think of something, ANYTHING to say about swans.

Oh well.


Today is cleaning day. Cleaning on sunny days is annoying because the sun shines in and alights on every small particle of dust and every stubborn cat hair. No matter how much I dust, sweep, scrub, it seems I can't get it perfect. And I'm somewhat of a perfectionist so...it's annoying.


Cloudy day and night time cleaning is more satisfying. Though I suppose not as thorough.


Looking forward to a fun weekend filled with friends and family, starting with an appetizer and Love Actually night tonight with some pals at my place! (Hence the sunny day cleaning.)  What do you have going on this weekend?


November Doodles: Sparrow, Badger, Poodle, Wolf, Narwhal, Cocker Spaniel, Turkey, Goat
Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here, July's here, August's here, September's here, and October's here.

A Festive Living Room

Here's a teeensy little sneak peak into our Christmas living room.  

We don't have a fireplace but hanging the stockings over the bookshelf is the next best thing right? My mom made our stockings - and I love them. Mine is the red one with the curly elf toe.


Basically all of our Christmas ornaments have either been given to us or we bought them in thrift stores. Which has been nice - we likeuh to saveuh da moneys.

This fabric antique Night Before Christmas book used to belong to the hubs' great great grandma (we think??) The copyright is 1908!

We have a fake tree - each year we wonder if we will give up the cash to pay for a real one BUT...we haven't yet. Our tree was given to us and fits perfectly in our front window. I just buy a bunch of Christmas scented candles including PINE - mmmm so wonderful. Christmas candles are my happy place.

As I mentioned here - our cats like to destroy our tree. A reader gave us a helpful hint though - to bend the branches over (since they are fake) so the ornaments can't be pulled off. It has helped! 


Here's a pic that's all nice and glowy. 

Hope your Christmas preparations are coming along stress-free! The speed at which December is passing me by is blowing my mind right now.

Goat Doodle

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle


I drew a lot of goats today.


None of them turned out, they all looked frightening.


I was about to give up, but at the last minute drew this little guy in the corner of my creepy goat-filled sketchbook page.

Good enough, I thought to myself.


What's my favorite goat memory? So glad you asked. On an extended overseas trip I took in college, my group and I found ourselves camping in a village in Mozambique. Goats wandered around everywhere, and in the morning when I awoke and looked out the tent door, there was a goat. Right outside, staring at me with his very wide forehead and creeper eyeballs.


The end!

November Doodles: Sparrow, Badger, Poodle, Wolf, Narwhal, Cocker Spaniel, Turkey
Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here, July's here, August's here, September's here, and October's here.

Kitty Drama

Interwebs, meet Daisy.

What?? Who is Daisy?? Don't you already have two cats??


I hear you asking that. Yes I do.


Daisy is a sweet 4 year old kitty who makes lots of funny noises and belongs to a friend of ours who is not able to take care of her right now, so she is living with us temporarily and has been here for about a week.


Now. Back to the part where we already have two cats. Before Daisy came I was worried about how the kitty introductions would go. Pisica and Gepetto have never met any other cats since we adopted them, and they are basically inseparable and have complete charge of the house and us. What?

I didn't know how all the cats would get along. In particular I was worried about Pisica - so small, timid and worried. 

"Pisica," I would say to her in the days leading up to Daisy coming to live with us, "there is a new kitty coming, but don't worry. We still love you. And no matter what, always be yourself."


Yes I did really say that to my cat. Multiple times. Much to the hubs' shock and dismay.


BUT. As it turns out I was worried for the wrong reasons. My precious, frail little Pisica...


...is a bully!! I've never heard such noises as the ones that come out of her little body. If you can imagine a cat screaming - that's it. And no it's not pleasant. Screams, deep throated growls that sound like a lion at the zoo rather than a house cat, strange groans, and hissing. Oh the hissing. SO MUCH hissing.


According to multiple internet sources, we should be keeping the new cat in a "safe" room with everything that she needs and gradually introduce the cats more and more until they can get along. Or at least be in the same room with each other without Pisica having a psychotic episode. So that's what we've been doing. Apparently it can take a pretty long time.


We HAVE seen improvements however. We can spend time with Daisy and then come out to the other two and they now sniff our hands without hissing and arching their backs. And Daisy has been coming out of her room more often (when we are around to supervise) to explore while the other two keep a close watch. There is still hissing and growling, but not as much.


Any tips from those of you that have added new cats to your home before? Some magical trick we should know about? I know we need to be patient, but Daisy could be staying with us for over a year, so I definitely want her to be comfortable here at some point! And able to come out of her room - she's super social and I know she gets antsy in there.


Any hints to speed up the process?

Shop update and some old tunes.

I added some updates to the shop today - I now have a "choose any 6" and a "choose an 12" option for note cards! I know this will make things run smoother and less confusing. 

I also retrieved music off of my old ipod today. As I worked I found myself listening to the likes of Savage Garden, Imogen Heap, the Garden State soundtrack, Blink 182, and Green Day's International Superhits (the old stuff.) All music that I don't think I've touched since shortly after graduating college. It made me want to stay up all night writing a research paper I had procrastinated on while eating cookie dough, chatting on AIM, and trying not to wake up my roommates. 


(I mean, but not really.)


Ah nostalgia.


What tunes bring you back?

It's that time of year again.

The time of year when I stand for too long outside of my car trying to unlock it with it's remote but my mittens are too bulky and I keep opening the trunk by mistake.


The time of year when we put that weird plastic stuff over our windows with a blowdryer (that our cats will inevitably poke holes in at some point while they watch birds in the feeder) to keep our house warmer and cheaper.


The time of year when I daily thank Jesus for our glorious two car garage and that I no longer have to curse my existence every morning as I scrape ice off the windshield with freezing fingers when I am already running late.


The time of year when commutes are doubled every time it snows.


The time of year when we put huge cement blocks in the trunk of my grandpamobile so that it doesn't slip and slide as much. (Except that we never actually took them out from last year so...check!)

The time of year when my fingers and toes routinely lose circulation and become white and frozen.

Proceeded by the time of year when I stock up on the huge boxes of hand and feet warmers from Costco.

Wait. Please remind me. Why do I love Minnesota?

The time of year when I come to accept that my winter coat is staying out of the closet and won't be going back in for quite some time.


The time of year when I stop caring about my outward physical appearance and caring only about my annual mission: to stay warm.


Even if it means looking like a neckless marshmallow.

As I was telling a friend the other day, I take staying warm very seriously.


That's a pic of me a few years ago in our old apartment, about to leave for work. Which was only a five minute drive away. 


Don't be deceived by the smile on my face. Winter is not my friend.


Winter. There I said it.


It's here.

More Confessions

It's time for some more late night Sunday confessions!


18.) Lots of times I have a hard time finishing projects that I start. I lose interest about halfway through and have a hard time getting into it again. Case in point - the mural that I started painting on the wall in my room at my parent's house while I was still in college. Still only about halfway done. Sorry Mom. Someday I will finish it and it will be awesome.


19.) I have an undying love for the Muppets.


20.) I talk to myself. A lot.


21.) And I talk to my cats. A lot.


22.) I have watched the complete collection of Friends dvd's more times than I care to count or admit. It's like comfort food! On the t.v.


23.) I have a zoning out problem. I lose myself in thought....very frequently.


24.) I licked a dirty ash tray in Romania. I don't remember why, maybe a dare or something. Ewww!!


25.) In my growing age I'm not as much as a night owl as I used to be. But I'm definitely not a morning person so then what kind of a person am I??


26.) Showering makes me sneeze.


The end! I promise I will blog more this week than I did last week.

See ya November.

The last bits of November are trickling away.


The last bits of November have been good bits.


I got a new short hairdo.


We put Christmas decorations up.

I got to see the Muppet movie with the hubs, cousins, and sibs. It was hilarious and everything I hoped it would be and more and I wore my Kermit hat.


We got a bunch of photos printed for free! Did you know that one of my favorite things is putting photos in albums? And then looking at them? It is.


I found two new perfectly fitting pairs of jeans on super clearance.


I baked a delicious stew for the hubs which included HOMEMADE MEATBALLS the likes of which I have NEVER attempted before. You know, rolling balls of meat with my bear hands! Squashy. And they actually turned out well! Even with my slight panic in the middle where I realized I had raw meat all over my hands and HOW WILL I TURN ON THE FAUCET TO WASH THEM WITHOUT FOREVER INFECTING MY SINK WITH MEAT GERMS???


I decided at the end that my entire kitchen needed to be sanitized because of everything that was probably infected by my raw meat hands, but I think it was worth it because the hubs was a fan.


Of the meatballs, you know.


Mission make a delicious meal for the hubs because I haven't for a looong time: successful.


Here's me in my Kermit hat.

Except that you can't see Kermit. This is probably like my 5th or 10th attempt trying to get Kermit's face in the picture, but I was in the car, and the roof was like, too close to my head or something. Or my arms weren't long enough. Or I should have been looking down, maybe. But I swear that's a Kermit hat.


And I realize I look a bit ghost-like in this picture, but that's what happens when you live in Minnesota and the last bits of November are trickling to a close. Your skin becomes very very white.


Ok, see ya. Happy last bits of November to you!

Cyber Monday

Hey everyone! Just wanted to stop in to let you know that I am jumping on the Cyber Monday bandwagon and will be offering 20% off your entire purchase in my shop! Just enter the coupon code 20CYBERMONDAY and you are golden.

The discount will end tonight at midnight (CST).


Hope your Mondays back after the vacation are going wonderfully and not terribly! :)

Thanksgiving was here

Hey folks! Thanksgiving has come and gone, and it was of course as great as ever. We spent some time out in Wisconsin with the hubs' dad, mom, and sister. There was lots of hunting and watching of football games going on, and since I don't normally participate too much in either of those activities it gives me a great excuse to do lots and lots of reading. 


Which I love.


There was also lots of game playing, laughing, playing with kitties, talking, and eating of delicious food. 


Which I also love.


Here's the hubs' dad carving the turkey.

And the hubs' mom setting the lovely table.

AND THEN. After we came back, I swung into full Christmas spirit. I mentioned here that we like to hold off until Thanksgiving is over...and usually a little longer. But this year I was all psyched up to get my cheer on the day immediately AFTER Turkey Day. Which means that this past weekend has been full of the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack, decorating, Elf, pine scented candles, and the Transiberian Orchestra. 


AND getting annoyed at cats who like to pull ornaments off the tree in the middle of the night and bat them around the house until you get up in a irritated groggy haze and squirt them with a water bottle.


What?


But no Christmas shopping yet. AH! I gotta get on that. It's a whole month away and it's ALREADY stressing me out. 


So. How was your Thanksgiving?


And does Christmas shopping stress you out too??


And how do you keep your cats from stealing your ornaments??? Our tree is ridiculously empty along the bottom section and yet they STILL manage to swipe them! Little weasels.

Turkey Doodle

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle


Happy Turkey Day everyone!


Also Happy Thanksgiving.


Tomorrow, that is.

I decided to draw a more cartoon-ish turkey rather than a lifelike one because I prefer not to draw things that look like they have slabs of roadkill for faces.


So anyway. 


I'm thankful this season for a hubs who is always supportive and encouraging in my hopes and endeavors. Plus he makes me laugh all the time which is a SERIOUS plus.


Thankful for our loving and encouraging families. Who also make me laugh. It's a great big ol' laughing fest around here.


Thankful for fantastic friends to have fun with and to challenge me in my faith walk.


Thankful for jobs that we enjoy, a warm roof over our heads and kitties to cuddle with.


And thankful for a few days off to relax during these busy weeks! It's all warm and fuzzies over here folks. 


Hope your holiday week/weekend is very good. Great. Fabulous, even.






November Doodles: Sparrow, Badger, Poodle, Wolf, Narwhal, Cocker Spaniel
Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here, July's here, August's here, September's here, and October's here.