Parties, Parade, Panic?

Okay, one of my photos was accidentally deleted while typing (could I already be that rusty?) so you may have to scroll up after you read! Weekend before last we went to a birthday party for my great nephew. He is in the top photo, Finn, on the left, sitting with his little friend, "Snow White", while Finn's cousin, Stevey, my great niece, the monkey with a banana on her head looks on. Finn's birthday is Dec. 23rd (my mom's too) so they had the kid party earlier. What theme did he want? Halloween! So the party was a "Nightmare Before Christmas" themed party with the children wearing their costumes, Halloween decorations amongst the Christmas decorations! My niece made an awesome cake for the party.

Mr. Unplugged, VolleyGirl and I went to Christmas parade this past Saturday, the first time in many years that we have. The middle photo is Finn's younger brother, Eli, holding a friend's little yorkie while his mother pushed him in the parade......aren't they both adorable....I know, I am a bit partial! It had snowed a whopping half inch here and was very cold! That's Mr. Unplugged and VolleyGirl in the last photo as they waited for the parade to begin!

Quick update....last week was my first week on my new job. It went well, felt really weird since I have not worked regularly, training and such in over 21 years!!!! There were constantly little puffs of dust coming out of my ears as I learned something each day!!!!! It is a wonderful atmosphere, the co-workers are all really wonderful, one of them started the day before I did and she is my best friend. I work Tuesday through Friday this week and should be cleaning and putting up my decorations inside. I washed all weekend and put items out of the way for the decorating. I also worked on my photoshop skills a bit with some of my artwork that was already scanned in. I also worked on the zentangle some last night that is "commisioned"! Just must be very careful about this cleaning and decorating....how many Christmas seasons has my back "went out"? Hmmmm, at least four.....not this year hopefully! Tried to catch up on my commments....I miss reading and posting daily so much!!!!! BigBoy comes in at the end of the week for about a month for the holidays! Yeaaaaaaaaaaaa! I want to have all the decorating complete by then. He and his dad put up the outside decorating over the Thanksgiving weekend....will post photo soon!

Too Cute Not To Share but then I Bore It Up Some...

Yes.....many already have visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads and perhaps making the grocery list for the Thanksgiving meal but I never got around to sharing these photos of my great nephews, Finn and Eli. Finn, the robot, will be 5 on Dec. 23rd, my mom's birthday, Eli was 3 in early July, he is Samurai Jack (recall, I helped my niece make a SJ birthday cake. They live very close to us but sadly with both our schedules, I do not see them that often. It is a tradition that they are the first trick-or-treaters at our door on Halloween. My niece really enjoyed the fact that Finn was unable to run in the robot outfit......so as not to get waaay ahead of them.

See the little "ponytail" on Eli?

Okay, we all had been in the front yard awhile and they were ready to move on! Those boys have endless energy but they are adorable, at least to me.

Here is the full sheet cake that I made for the volleyball banquet. Not one of my better works but it was done and tasted good!

Spent a full day helping my friend choose curtains, meeting with the seamstress and going to a nearby town to look for fabric.......it was fun, but knee/back tiring.

I have been getting updates from my friend, she may get more definitive answers on Monday.....what I have learned so far doesn't sound very good to me.

Going to have an article in the paper on my show this week....have to meet photographer at the coffeeshop for a photo...grrrrrr.....hate being on the opposite side of the lens!

I am itching, itching, itching to do some art, perhaps tonight!

Thank you all for your wonderful comments and support, you don't know just how much it means to me. I will have some Royal Canine Duties this week, hopefully finding out my start date for my job, doing some drawing, pen and ink too! Try to catch up with comments soon!!!