this little life of mine

Good afternoon, everyone! The Favourites List is something I've been doing for most of my life. Starting back in grade school I would send lists of my favourite colour, season, song, actor, TV show, etc., to pen pals, and receive their lists back, excited to see what things we had in common (and silently judging their juvenile taste in pop music or cute little boy actors because I was WAY more "mature" and basically a big, fat snob!). So, I noticed a while ago some folks online were doing Favourites Lists on their blogs and YouTube channels sharing what books, movies, cosmetics products, or special moments they've enjoyed over the preceding month.  Periodically I've done my version here on my blog, but like most things with my blog, I've let it slide. Well, it's back for Holidailies, at least! So without further ado, here are a few of my favourite things for the month of November 2017. Enjoy!

The best part of November was over the Veteran's Day Holiday when I took an awesome trip to Las Vegas to hang out with some of the coolest people on the planet. Obviously seeing some of my favourite people in the whole, wide world is the biggest, bestest part of the whole thing, but just to sweeten the pot, here's 5 favourite moments from the weekend:

This amazing vegan grilled cheese and pesto panini sandwich from Simply Pure. Honestly, I don't know how you make not-cheese taste like cheese, but this stuff really tasted like cheese!

This fabulous Sigma Derby casino game. In the end I totally lost on this game, but it's addictively fun to watch and play.

This hilarious statue of "Manneken Pis" outside the D Hotel.  The original is in Belgium, and is from the 1600s (or something like that), but apparently the owners of the hotel were on vacation, and loved it so much, they bought a replica to put in the fountain in front of their hotel.

The fascinating Mob Museum.  Seriously, you guys, this was SO cool! There's tons of displays, films, interactive experiences, and more! You really need to set aside several hours to really experience it! I'm totally planning to go back when they've completed the Speak Easy in the basement!

And, the super fun karaoke. Loved the intimate, private room!

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, my mom and I refinished our kitchen cabinets. Now, we didn't go all out and take the doors off, and sand them down and re-stain them or anything nuts like that. We purchased some McFate's Restorz It wood finishing, and cleaned and degreased the cabinets (with a McFate's cleaning product), then gave them several coats of the wood finishing. Now, our cabinets are clean and glowing! All that's left to do in the kitchen now is get some new tile!

Okay, so those are all the things I liked, now, here's a couple things I didn't like so much:

The D Hotel where I stayed in Las Vegas didn't have a coffee maker in the room. While this is a really minor thing - the room itself was very nice, and the hotel itself is nice, too - it was annoying. Every morning I had to get dressed and go down to the lobby to buy a cup of coffee from the kiosk (delicious coffee, btw), when I would have preferred to just have a cup of coffee in my room in a bathrobe whilst getting ready for the day. Also annoying was the fact that my room was right above one of the stages on Fremont Street, and the bands played until nearly 2AM. Now, I know it's Vegas, and I'm an elderly woman, and all that, but, dang, can't you kids keep quiet after midnight?!?

So, that's it - lots to love about November, and really not that much I didn't like! Here's hoping December is just as much fun! Cheers! 

Each month this past year I have been sharing a page from my hand-stamped 2017 calendar on my Instagram page.  The December 2017 image above is my last entry for the year. It was stamped with a pretty and simple Christmas tree from Hero Arts, and colored with Prismacolor pencils.  It was around this time last year I decided I wanted to stamp our calendars for 2017 rather than purchase one, or make a photo calendar off of Shutterfly.com (which I did before because I got a coupon for a free calendar and made it for, I believe it was 2016. I didn't get a coupon in time to get a 2017 photo calendar, so I stamped one instead)  I purchased two (one for me and one for my mom) pre-made blank calendars from Top Notch Calendars, and stamped and colored various designs, usually related to the season or holiday celebrated during that month. I really enjoyed sharing my hand-stamped 2017 calendar this year! I have already stamped my calendar pages for next year and I plan to share those pages throughout 2018! Look for them coming soon! Cheers!

Hey, everyone! Here’s one of the Christmas cards I made for this year using the "Coolest Yulest" stamp set and matching dies from Simon Says Stamp, as well as two stitched circle dies and a stitched rectangle die also from SSS. I used the stitched circles to cut out the corrugated kraft paper and white card stock and layered them together with Tombow Mono Adhesive. The small reindeer was die cut from silver glitter paper I bought at Michael's and ahered tot he circles using the Xyron Sticker Maker.  These were all layered over a piece of blue card stock die cut with the stitched rectangle die and adhered to a kraft card base. I created the sentiment ("Wishing you a Merry Christmas") from those included in the "Coolest Yulest" stamp set and embossed it with silver embossing powder. These cards were super quick and easy to make, and I ended up putting 12 of them together in a little over an hour. I am planning to use the same design for another set of 12 cards, but use red card stock instead of blue, and gold glitter paper for the deer, and gold embossing powder for the sentiment instead of silver. I do have several other Christmas stamps, stamp sets, and dies I would like to use this year, and I will share them here if I manage to get any of them done! Have a great day! Cheers!

Sunday is cooking day in my house. I like to have meals prepared for the week so when I get home from work and the gym, all I have to do is take a container out of the fridge, heat it up a few minutes and, voila! Dinner is served! This week I baked up chicken breast with some Mrs. Dash tomato basil seasoning, and little red potatoes, and added some fresh broccoli that will steam up perfectly when the meal is heating in the microwave. It’s a lot of work, but it’s so worth it to have a quick and healthy dinner after a long, hard day! I hope you all had a great Sunday! Cheers!

So, I haven't done any monthly resolutions* for a very long time, and it's about time I did! I'm keeping it simple since I have a lot of things on my plate this month, but I'd like to at least accomplish the following three things:

1. Gain no more than 5 pounds this month. It's the holiday season, and time for indulging in delicious, but fattening fare. I'm not going to deny myself any Christmas treats, but I do want to be conscious of what I'm indulging in, and make sure I don't go too far! I've been doing pretty well with my weight loss this year, and don't want to mess up all my good work! Realistically I know I will gain weight this month, but if I can keep it to 5 pounds or less, it will make losing it next year more manageable!

2. Curb my spending. I've been shopping online a lot lately, and I really need to cut back and start saving money for next year's adventures! I'm pretty sure I have enough rubber stamps, dies, make-up, decorative paper, crafting supplies, clothes, and shoes to keep me busy for a very long time!

3. Clean out the closets. As well as not buying so much stuff, I also need to start getting rid of excess stuff I have, but don't use. I've been doing a pretty good job this past year of going through my closet and drawers every 3 or 4 months, and getting rid of anything I haven't worn in that time, that doesn't fit anymore, or that I just don't like. It's time for another tour though the closets and another trip to Goodwill!

 OK, that looks like a list I can accomplish! Do you have anything you'd like to accomplish this month? Let me know in the comments!

 *Inspiration for the Monthly Resolutions from Kim at The Kim Challenge. Check her out!

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Hello, and welcome back to this little life of mine! Yes, I know I haven't been journalling, blogging, or even writing much this past year, but I thought I would try to back into the swing of things by signing up for Holidailies. I've also signed up for one of my favourite photo challenges, December Reflections, to get my photographic juices flowing, and you'll be able to enjoy those posts here as well as on my Instagram page. I'm not sure why I haven't been indulging in what used to be two of my favourite activities for about a year now ... okay, well, I do: I'm TIRED all the time! I go to work, I come home, and I'm exhausted, and really only have enough energy to watch mindless television shows or YouTube videos before going to bed. But that's really a crappy excuse, if I'm being honest, so for the month of December I'm going to try to write a little something every day, and take a picture every day, and by the end of 2017 I hope to recapture the joy I used to get out of both hobbies. Wish me luck! Cheers!

Welcome back! Today's letter for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge is N, and I chose Night. I bought this gorgeous Hero Arts stamp of a deer in the woods around Christmastime last year, and I think I only used it for one card. This time I just stamped it with black ink on some white card stock, and cut it out using a rectangle die from Simon Says Stamp. I love the simple but elegant design of the stamp! Cheers!

Today's letter for Blogging from A to Z Challenge is M, and I decided to use this pretty Mermaid stamp set from Unity Stamp Co. I love how she's holding a bottle with a ship in it! The swirly waves stamp and the sentiment stamp come with the set also. I used my Prismacolor pencils with this and blended the colour with some Gamsol and blending stumps, and I really like the result! Cheers!

Hello, and TGIF! For today's Blogging from A to Z letter L, I chose Love, and used my Stampa Barbara heart ornament and ribbon, which I believe is exactly what I did for Valentine's Day, and used the Well-Connected Alphabet stamps from My Favorite Things for the sentiment! I used Prismacolor Pencils, and gamsol to blend the color.  It was quick and easy! Cheers!