My Word for 2018

 I finally decided what my word for 2018 will be. Me. Yes, just "me". I want to work on myself this year. Learn to stay calm & not let little things bother me. I want to lose some weight, eat heathier & simplify. I'm also planning on doing a vision board to help me work on these things & things that I want to accomplish this year (we're so close to 2018). I really think that 2018 is going to be a great year. Lots of new things will be happening. I have a lot of ideas that I am working on.

 Right now as I am typing this I am working on my vision board. I'm looking through a magazine & cutting out words & photos. I will post a picture of it when it is finished.

Stuff & Things

 *It's been so cold here. It was 7 degrees today. I really don't want to go out in it. We went out yesterday & I went out & warmed up the car before we left. That helped a lot, but when we came out of the store, the windows were all frozen. So we had to sit there a few minutes for it to unfreeze.

*I swear that school vacation is punishment for parents. My daughter is off until Tuesday & I can't wait. I have chest pains. So not fun.

*I'm looking forward to going shopping this weekend. I got a gift card for Sephora & 1 for Michaels too. I try to avoid the mall around Christmastime. So now I can go back. I haven't been there for a while.

*I got a few new planners &journals & I'm excited to use them. I love writing & planning. I want to get better at decorating my pages. I follow a few You Tubers & they have inspired me. I love that about You tubers. That they inspire me to want to do things. I really want to get this book below since I love lists.

Wordless Wednesday~Summer Dreaming

The Day After a Big Holiday

 So another Christmas is over & Anthony went back to work, T is off until next Tuesday. I took a few X-mas things down. Did a bunch of laundry, washed some new clothes. I threw away some old Christmas cards from 2013 & some from 2016. Things really need to be dusted & I need to vacuum again. I vacuum just about every day. I think we are taking our tree down on Saturday. So little by little I'm going to start getting stuff together to put away. Taking things down, like the stockings. I think it helps to do that. Doing some Winter cleaning & destashing. When do you all take your trees down?

Merry Christmas

We didn't do much today since we had a snowstorm & celebrated Christmas yesterday. We just relaxed. These are some of the presents that I got & Tara.

These candles smell really good. They are from Costco.

I picked this out & ordered it online a few months ago when Sephora had a big sale.

Tara got this cute blanket. Anthony picked this out. He did most of her shopping.

These are presents from Anthony & Tara. I also got a fitbit, 2 pairs of pjs, some cat socks, another shirt & some other stuff.

Christmas Eve

Decorations

I got this blanket at Five Below for $5.

T decorated these shelves. A bit much, but it works.

 

 Some of the Christmas cards that we got.

I got this pillow at Five Below for $5.

T made this Gingerbread house in school on Thursday.

Nail Files. Week # 308

This week I have on China Glaze~Sweet as Pinky Pie. It's from the My Little Pony collection. I just got this polish this week. I think it's a pretty pale pink.

Reflecting

I've been doing some reflecting, thinking about this year & things that happened.

Cleaning & being organized: I'm happy that I've done a lot of organizing & got rid of a lot of things. I've been watching a lot of cleaning videos on You Tube & it's inspired me to clean more & keep organized.

Stepping out of my comfort zone: I've also started my own You tube channel. I'm not very good at being on video. I really hate it, but this year I have been stepping out of my comfort zone. So that's another positive thing that has happened this year. I've stepped out of my comfort zone a lot this year in other things besides being on video.

Heath: I'm still struggling with Fibro & chronic fatigue. Just trying to get through the day. I usually take 2 naps a day. Hard to get things done, but I'm hanging in there.

Wordless Wednesday~Cool Christmas Trees (From Pinterest)

Tasty Tuesday~Butterball cookies (from my Godmother)

Butterball cookies

Ingredients:

2 sticks of soft BUTTER
1/2 cup confectioner  sugar
 2 cups flour
1 cup (or more) chopped pecans

Mix all together, roll into balls. Bake at 350 for 20 min. While still hot roll in conf. sugar and put on cookie sheet.

New Ornaments

I got my 1st Starbucks ornament. I thought it was really pretty. It has a rose gold trim & heart. It has little specks on it too.

My friend gave me this at my cookie swap. Not sure what picture I'm going to put in here yet.

This cute cat ornament I got from a girl on a fb group swap. I  mentioned that I wanted a cat ornament. It's made from wood. I think it's really cute. It has a bell inside it.

Cookie Swap

Today I hosted my 1st cookie swap. I've only been to 1 about 8 years ago. There were 7 of us today. 2 were Tara's friends that came alone. It was a lot of fun. So nice to see some friends that I hadn't seen in a while. We want to make this a yearly thing. Next year I will be more organized.

What I'm Reading Now

I just started this book a few days ago. It's about a girl who loses her job & her boyfriend. She inherits an Inn & decides to fix it up. I like it so far, but I've only read 1 or 2 chapters.

Tips & Ideas for Hosting a Cookie Swap

   Photo from Pinterest.

*Send invitations
*Decide how many dozen cookies that you want everyone to make.
*Decide how many different types of cookies you want to make.
*Look up recipes on Pinterest.
*Get the ingredients ahead of time.
*Clean your house the day before.
*Set up the table for the cookie area.
*Get prizes if you are going to do a contest to vote on fave cookies. Most festive, Best tasting etc...
*Print out Voting form
*Get recipe cards to write out recipes for people
*Make sure you have drinks, tea, milk, water, egg nog, hot chocolate & some savory snacks.
*Tell guests to bring tins or containers to bring the cookies home in.
*Have fun.

Wordless Wednesday

Nail Files. Week # 307

 This week I am wearing this awesome blue. It's Revlon~Sultry. I got it at Dollar Tree for $1. I love it.

Cozy Vibes

1st snow of the Winter & Glow Party

So today we got our 1st real snow storm of the season. I'm not sure how much we got. At least 3 inches. We had to go out tonight because we had a birthday party to go to. It was a Glow in the Dark party. It was pretty cool. During the day I wrote out some Christmas cards & wrapped a few presents. I kind of wanted to stay in & stay cozy, but these friends we haven't seen for just about 2 years & we don't live too far from each other. So it was nice to see them. I didn't get any pics of the snow.