Saturday, December 31, 2011

Dear 2011, I have some things to say to you.

~ Memorandum ~
To: The Year That Was 2011
From: Deb @ PaperTurtle
Date:  December 31, 2011
RE: Year-end Performance Evaluation

Dear 2011,

I’ve been thinking about this letter to you for a few weeks now. I had formulated all the things I wanted to say about how much you totally sucked. Yes, sucked. But then I felt bad about blasting you because I certainly don’t want to seem ungrateful for all those amazing lessons you provided for me. Oh, let’s see… there was a father-in-law with throat cancer and months of horrendous treatments {he’s fine now}, financial challenges that were beyond us, a weekend in the hospital for Doug, the ‘letting go’ of our beloved northern Arizona property, a move to a…well…fixer-upper-house, ridiculous personal health issues for me, the loss of my job {and even worse, a friendship}, my mom’s ongoing battle with ovarian cancer, and my right arm in a sling to complete the year. Gosh, 2011, are you proud of yourself for all of that?

You know, 2011, I had to really dig deep to find the blessings you provided. Amidst all the aforementioned junk, you did offer up some good times in the mix, and I credit my trusty camera for capturing moments of joy that make me reconsider labeling you, 2011, as The.Worst.Year.Ever.

The ignorant bliss of good health was turned upside-down all around us. Thank you, 2011 for helping me to appreciate the gift of good health and the ongoing desire to maintain it. Thank you for showing us what it’s like to love someone with cancer and to cherish every moment and say all the things that need to be said. Thank you for keeping me humble in terms of where I live, and for proving to me that walls and location do not make it home.

Thank you for all those trips to California to be with my family – four of them in one year {when the norm is one or two}. And if it wasn’t for you, 2011, there wouldn’t have been that awesome road trip with my girl C to meet up with three different blog friends. Amazing. Oh! And what about that trip to Tennessee in May to witness the fairytale wedding of my brother Ron to my sweet new SIL, Ryann? Yeah…that was really cool.

I turned 50 during your reign, 2011. Carrie gave me the most amazing gift of love and friendship and surprise I could ever imagine. And the incredible gift that is “Team Teal?” Words just can’t express! I made new friends, reconnected with old friends, and really appreciated all those in between.

So you see, 2011, while you were busy doling out all those lemons, I came back at you with some darn good lemonade! Gosh, 2011, come to think of it, you really rocked in terms of friends and family and love and laughter this year. Maybe I’ll reconsider the “you sucked” part.

Respectfully {and with gratitude},
~ Deb

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
~ Memorandum ~

To: The Year That Will Be 2012
From: Deb @ PaperTurtle
Date: December 31, 2011
RE: Welcome!

Dear 2012,

Hello new friend! You are a sight for sore eyes, and not a tough act to follow given the talents of your predecessor. It is with hope and eyes-wide-open that I welcome you. I understand there are some amazing things in store for us during your tenure!

Let's do it!

Peace and love,
~ Deb

Monday, December 26, 2011

Christmas Weekend Recap


Greetings, dear blog friends! Thanks so much for your well wishes. My shoulder surgery went well and I am recovering nicely. I'm getting better at doing things with my left hand, but have safely determined that I am definitely not ambidextrous! Doug has been a huge help, and I'm sure he'll be just as glad as I am when my arm is out of this sling {another 5 weeks...ugh!}.

We had such a great time with family on Saturday - we do Christmas Eve and a gift exchange with Doug's family. Christmas day finds Doug and I on our own {Carrie goes to her dad's that day} and we really took it easy this year. We had my mom's annual pumpkin bread for breakfast, and drank coffee from our cool new coffee cups from my sweet SIL {Meta}. Then we spent the afternoon on the couch watching John Wayne movies.

Doug cooked a prime rib roast and we kept things simple. It was awesome that way.

Taking photos is not so easy for me at this time. Typing with my left hand is slow and not-so-accurate. I've been reading blogs here and there and leaving comments as I can. It seems to take me forever to get the message across! I just wanted to do a quick post to send my love and gratitude for your friendship and kindness.

I hope each of you had an amazing Christmas!
I'll be seeing you around...
xoxox!

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Just a Quote for Friday - the book.

A gift for my grandma.

If you're a regular reader around these parts, you know I do a Friday feature where I post a quote and a photo {Just a Quote for Friday}. 99.9% of the time, the photo is one that I've taken.


Every year I'm challenged with what to send my grandmother for Christmas. She's 91, folks. It's hard. This year I decided to give her a little book containing some of my favorite photos and quotes from this past year, and I just couldn't be happier with the way it turned out. {For this one I used Shutterfly and was quite pleased with the quality.}


I added the yellow ribbon - and I ended up ordering a few extras to give as gifts to other people...and one for me to keep. Since Grandma doesn't read my blog, this will be a brand new set of photos she's never seen before. I'm not sure she'll understand that I've "blogged" each of these, but that's ok.


I know her sentence will start with, "That Debbie..." when she opens it.
And that's all I need to know.
:o)

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Lights! Camera!


Just a few random photos of lights today.
Peace.

{I used Bokeh Masters Kit for the shapes - but you could easily make your own!}

Totally accidental shot, but cool:

Shot at f22 on a tripod to get the star effect:

Shot at f5.0 with a piece of metal screen webbing held in front of the lens to get this star effect:
~sigh~

By the time this post publishes I'll be recuperating from shoulder surgery...
taking it easy for a little while.
How's your Christmas shaping up?

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Twas the weekend before Christmas and all through the house...

Greetings, merry blog friends. 
Welcome to another exciting edition of what went down at my house this past weekend.
:o)
 {recipe here}
I'm pleased to announce that I am officially ready for Christmas! Oh, you might be really jealous right now. You might be thinking, "Ugh. That DebTurtle is so dang organized."  Well, yes...but I had to be done a bit early this year to allow for the shoulder surgery I'll be having tomorrow morning. {Hm. The life of DebTurtle doesn't seem so awesome now, does it?!?!}

Anybody want a cat? Part II:
At first I thought it was just that big lug of a cat Whiskers Jay. Never would my sweet little Fancy Jane be so naughty as to mess with my little Christmas kitchen vignette. Turns out that this little tree is made of plastic which is exactly what Fancy loves to eat, so I've been cleaning up plastic-pine-needle-laden-cat-vomit for three weeks now. And Whiskers has been a monster where this tree is concerned. So when I heard the crash and found my vignette in this shape I was officially over it. I took the tree down. {That'll teach those cats!}

And the exciting news from our backyard is that Doug and I are the proud growers of the cutest little tiny baby tomatoes you've ever seen. :o)!!!
~sigh~

I made some more white chocolate goodness for a friend who is gluten-free {found the recipe here, but I used popcorn, M&M's, and cashews in the mix}:
Had a fun time shopping with Carrie on Saturday afternoon,
and we had lunch with our dear friend Janae too.

Planning ahead because of my surgery, I've spent the past few weeks baking mini-loaves of nut breads and freezing them to use as Christmas gifts. I've made banana-chocolate-chip-walnut bread, my grandma's zucchini bread, and I tried a new recipe for orange cream cheese bread that is a real keeper! {Stirred some chocolate chips into a few of the loaves because I LOVE orange and chocolate together. It was a huge success as far as Doug, Carrie, and I are concerned!}

I put together a bingo game for our upcoming Christmas gathering. I used all the names of our family {we were one short so I included "a guest" - someone usually shows up with a friend in tow...}. As each person arrives you check off their name...  {Note from Uncle Doug: You can't check off a name until that person is in the house.}
I made a spreadsheet in Excel and just moved the names around, sorted them, copied, etc. until I had 16 unique cards. I'm excited to see how it goes.

I finished up all the rest of my wrapping, including this one for my SIL {don't look, Laurie!}. Isn't that deer just the cutest? {It was a free printable I got here.}
Phew. Glad that's all done!

So, I've been nursing a tear in my right shoulder rotator cuff for about a year and a half now and I'm finally getting it taken care of. I will be oh-so-glad to have that behind me! I've been crafting like there's no tomorrow these past few weeks, and my shoulder is paying the price. After tomorrow I'll be out of commission for a while - not really sure what to expect in terms of recovery but you can bet I'll be chomping at the bit to be back in the game. I have a few posts scheduled for this week, so until I return:

Wishing each of you an amazing Christmas time full of
love and laughter and surrounded by people you love.
~~

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Before, During, and After - The Kitchen

Thought I'd take a break from Christmas posting and give you a tour of our kitchen.
:o)

Before:  Here's what the kitchen looked like back in August - the first time we looked at the house with our realtor {too bad the photo doesn't reflect all the grossness of this room...or does it...}:

During:  We'll eventually replace the cabinets and counter tops, but for now Doug did a lot of painting and making them look good...


After:  :o)

And here are some before, during, and after shots taken from the other end of the room:

Before: {first time we looked at the house...}

During:

After:
 

Here's a list of what went down:
- popcorn/acoustic ceiling in dining area removed
- all walls retextured and painted
- new base boards
- linoleum floor replaced with ceramic tile
- cabinets painted
- fluorescent light fixture replaced with can lights
- ceiling fan/light fixture in dining area replaced
- new blinds
- new door for pantry {forgot to photograph that}
- incorporated some antlers into the decor  :o)

* * * * * *
I still need to figure out some window treatments,
but for the time being I think we'll just let it ride.
What do you think?
Wanna' come over for a spot of tea?
xo

Friday, December 16, 2011

Just a quote for Friday

"For fast-acting relief, try slowing down."
~ Lily Tomlin

{Virtual} Christmas Cookie Exchange

If you like your cookies soft and chewy - and easy to make - this is a recipe for you!


1 box of cake mix {I used a German Chocolate cake mix I had on hand}
2 eggs {room temperature}
1/2 cup melted butter {cooled so it's not hot when you add it to the mix}
1 cup chocolate chips {plus I added some M&M's and sprinkles to the top for color}

Mix it all together, roll it in 1" balls, bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes.


Yum-a-licious!

Want some more great cookie ideas?
Head on over to BEglorious where my friend, Beverly
is hosting this virtual cookie exchange.
http://BEglorious.blogspot.com

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Candy-Covered-Candy-Canes

~ ~



Every year I make little sweet gifts to hand out to our nieces and nephews at our annual Christmas gathering. It might seem kind of silly at this point - they are all grown up now and a few of them are married with babies of their own in the making.


Oh well.
I'm Aunt Deb.
It's what I do.


I saw this idea a while back and thought it would be an easy treat to put together. Turns out it was easy, but a bit messy and didn't really turn out the way I'd expected. Ugh. Anyway, I salvaged them and am fairly happy with the results after all.


I have to laugh when I see these little stryofoam balls between my cooling racks. I needed something to support the candy canes while the white-candy-coating dried so I rigged up this contraption. All was fine until the weight of about 15 candy canes caused it to shift, leaving me with white-candy-coating all over the place and calling "Doug!!! Come help me!!!" like the house was on fire or something. ~sigh~ He's used to it.


So anyway, pretty basic:  melt vanilla candy coating, dip the candy cane in it, sprinkle with some pretties and let dry before tying them up in individual bags.  The result - if/when they are eaten - is like peppermint bark. Yum!

How about you?
Do you do any assembly-line treats like these?
I made 23 of them.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

White Chocolate Chex Mix {aka White Trash}

Or, I like to call it "Reindeer Munch"
I know what you're thinking. Yeah, yeah, we've all had Chex mix, but let me tell you! This stuff is the bomb!


It makes a whole bunch and I like to tie it in bags, put it in pretty containers and give it away as soon as possible! It's highly addictive and you cannot have just one bite!


I'll give you the recipe so you can try it yourself...


one bag of mini-pretzels
5 cups corn Chex cereal
5 cups Cheerios cereal
2 cups M&M's
2 cups salted peanuts
2 16-oz. bags white chocolate chips
2 T. vegetable oil

* Combine first five ingredients in a very large bowl.
* In a separate bowl, microwave white chocolate chips and the vegetable oil for 1 minute. Stir. Continue to microwave at 15-second intervals until chocolate is melted.
* Pour melted white chocolate over cereal mixture and toss to coat all pieces.
* Spread coated mixture onto waxed paper and allow to dry before storing in an air-tight container.

Enjoy!

Monday, December 12, 2011

A Very Christmas-y Weekend

Hello, blog friends!
~ It's a dark and rainy morning here in Arizona ~
{That makes the Christmas lights look even better, don't you think?}

We had a busy weekend and I took a lot of photos, but I'm only posting a few here today. I'll give you the rest during the week. ;o)

I got a start on some candy cane treats I saw a while back. I totally should have done this project before I mopped my kitchen floor.

And on Saturday afternoon I took a drive across town to see my niece, Savannah perform in The Nutcracker ballet. This year she had some solo parts and I was super proud of her talent! Her brother took a few pictures of us after the show, and this was the best one {with his artistic tilt}.

We finally figured out why there were so few ornaments on our tree. Turns out we are missing a Christmas box filled with tree ornaments and most particularly, all our angel ornaments. O:o\ With the move last year it must have been stuck back further in the storage unit than the other boxes. We'll find it by next year!


Fortunately, we do have plenty of other angels hanging around.
 
PS: So, this week it's game on for me. I'm scheduled for shoulder surgery next Monday (the 19th) so I can finally get that over with! That means I have to have all my Christmas stuff done before next Monday. I think I can do it! I think I can...

PSS for Team Teal:  My mom {Marti} is having minor surgery tomorrow. Please hold her in your thoughts.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Christmas Mini-book ~ 12 Days of Christmas

Welcome to Deb's
December-Daily-Journal-Your-12-Days-of-Christmas
~ ~

I have been on a mini-book roll lately and loving every minute of it. I made this one to document the 12-Days-of-Christmas  photography class I'm taking, generously offered by Cheryl Johnson. I have loved this class! The daily prompts seemed to fit me just right, I met some nice people, and I learned a lot of fun techniques.

As a way to document something this month, I vowed to print each day's assignment photo and pop it into this little book. I'm a few days behind on the printing part of it, but I'll get there! Here's a look at what I have so far:





The Christmas tags I used are from the same template that I created for my Thanksgiving favor tags last month. If you'd like a copy you are more than welcome to print them {click here}. {And I also made a blue set that you can print by clicking here.}



Oh yeah! How the book is made... I've used this design a lot over the last few years - it's quick and easy to assemble and you can find my original tutorial here.

How about you?
Are you a fan of mini-books?
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