BUT it will be Monday before I write about it!  The nice thing about having the word CHANGE as my 2013 goal is that I can change my mind too!

If there are any bag types you would like me to try, let me know!

Also, feel free to send me some “ASK MABEL and Jean” questions.

Enjoy the weekend.

Let’s talk about our Christmas and New Year, shall we?  We had a lovely holiday.  Randy, the boys and I headed out the Saturday before Christmas, traveling to Fayetteville, Arkansas.  While there, we met up with Charlotte and Christian.  The 6 of us spent the next 24 hours visiting, eating, eating and eating!  We also had a lovely visit and dinner with my brother and his two children.  My niece and my youngest son also managed to go to see the Nutcracker, performed by the Moscow Ballet Company.  Yep, we did a lot in 24 hours.  OH and we met with the contractor to discuss the renovations on the house.  Here are some of the befores:

Living Room from Dining Room

Living room towards Dining and beyond

Guest Bedroom

Guest bedroom towards living and dining

Master Bedroom

I don’t know why we are renovating as it looks fine to me!

After we had eaten at Jose’s and Hugo’s we headed to MJ’s house for  a night of crowded and noisy sleeping.  Next morning, we headed to eat (yes again) at Emilia’s before we headed over to Big Cedar Lodge for Christmas.  The weather was okay and at times a bit gloomy.  In other words, the weather was perfect for hanging out and doing very little else.  Here are a few views from our balcony of the lake:

We also had a lovely, decorated Christmas tree in the unit:

There were two or three presents under that tree.  With that few gifts to wrap, we went the recycled paper route.  Randy and I did stencil on some cute snowflakes with Sharpies.

Well, now on to the New Year!  Randy, the boys and I went to a Thunder game.  They won’t ever let me in again. Here are the pictures:

The reason I won’t be allowed in going forward is because not only did the Thunder lose, but Kevin Durant was ejected from the game.  Remember, I was THAT CHILD!  Happy 2013.

Later this week we can talk about my word for 2013, CHANGE, and what it means to me.  In the meantime, what are you focusing on this year?

Happy 2013 and hope everyone had a fabulous holiday.  I will be back to blogging next week.

My resolution is too embrace the change coming to our family in 2013.

Until then, keep warm and keep those resolutions.  Let me know what your resolutions are so I can keep an eye on them!

From our family to yours –

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Our Christmas Tree

Thank you for all the comments since I started this blog.  I have enjoyed them.  See you next year.

Randy and I had a Christmas party to attend in Oklahoma City this past weekend.  We decided to head out early and meander towards Guthrie, Oklahoma for a bit of sight seeing.  Guthrie is legendary in Oklahoma.   Guthrie was the territorial and later the first state capital for Oklahoma. Guthrie is nationally significant because of its outstanding collection of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century commercial architecture. The Guthrie Historic District has been designated a National Historic Landmark.  We had a great lunch at the Blue Belle Saloon:

Blue Belle Saloon

And met these great townfolk:

Guthrie Townfolk

After lunch we decided to do some strolling and shopping.  Guthrie is such an interesting town, very different from most of Oklahoma.

Old Building

Street scene

The weather was beautiful, the shopping delightful and the people so friendly.  We really enjoyed and did some buying, though not much.  I picked up a cute Frankoma Pottery covered dish.  It was not a pattern I was familiar with, but the color is fabulous.  Here is a quick picture:

Frankoma Pottery

One more landmark photo before we leave town.  This one is the Scottish Rite Temple.  The building was designed by architects Parr & Hawk and built in 1919 in Classical Revival style. It was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1987.

Scottish Rite Temple

At this point, we had to leave Guthrie and make our way to Oklahoma City.  We stopped by the Mini Cooper store after we arrived and Randy test drove a car.  I think he liked it.  There wasn’t room in the car for me to go along, so I took a quick nap and grabbed a cup of coffer.  I liked it.  We dashed to the hotel to change for the party and made it right on time.  After a wonderful evening playing bingo and eating, we were ready to hit the hay.

Sunday morning brought us another beautiful day and after breakfast and much coffee, we were off.  Randy took the back roads towards downtown and we enjoyed some site seeing in the Paseo area of Oklahoma City.  Here are a few pictures we snapped:

Paseo Area

Street Scene Paseo

Paseo Art Gallery

Art Gallery

And finally, we drove by the State Capital.  Oklahoma has producing wells on the State Capital grounds and this is an oft photographed scene:

Oklahoma State Capital with Derrick

We headed down to Bricktown for lunch with our two sons.  This is the first time I have seen the new Devon building up close.  It is such a gorgeous color.  This building is now the tallest in Oklahoma!

Devon Energy Building

After a wonderful lunch, we said our goodbyes to the guys and headed north to do some antique shopping on Western Avenue.  That might just take a whole separate post but here is a quick shot of Emily’s Christmas present:

Tea Trolley

The most interesting part of this Tea Trolley (soon to be bar cart) is that it folds flat!  Perfect for Washington DC sized apartments.  Not to worry, Emily knows about this purchase.  In fact, I had trouble reaching her and when she finally checked her phone and saw several missed calls and a text, she panicked.  I felt so awful that I had led her to believe that there might have been a family emergency.  She was so happy to find out that the only emergency was to decide on the cart!

Well, that was our weekend.  It was nice to be away from the television and the computer for two days.  Enjoy your week.

Well, dear readers, I have very little for you today.  Sometimes (more often then not) I am one really, boring person.  Work, eat, sleep, drink coffee and repeat!  One would think I could come up with really interesting, funny posts at least twice a week, but no.  You will be happy to know that my New Year resolution is to become an interesting person.  Wish me luck!  So here goes another boring leather post.

I made a few bags over the weekend.  Here are three of the iPad cases I came up with:

Embossed Croc on Leather

Tundra Sheep and Black Leather

Brown Leather

As soon as I get my act together, these will be up on the Etsy Store, but I wanted you to get the first peek.

I also have two vintage bags I will be posting.  Here is one of them:

Snake Skin Bag

We had our very first COLD day today.  It was sunny and around 25 degrees this morning.  Luckily, no wind on the plains.  Here are two pictures from our two blizzards (a first for Oklahoma) two years ago.  Makes me cold just thinking about it.

Our Backyard

Out our front door

Well dear readers, send me something interesting to write about.  You know what might work?  A new car or perhaps a trip somewhere warm. Both of those would elicit quite a great post for this ole blog of mine.  Well, I am off to watch Randy flip between Michael Buble and the CMT awards.  Life is good.

Well, well, well three readers, it is I, just back from an incredibly quick trip to Fayetteville to see the house, some art and attend a couple of meetings.  First I will let you in on a few of the discussions we had with the contractors.  They put two sinks into the very petite bathroom plan.  I told them we were not really the “we have to have two sinks or we will die” kind of couple.  I do not know if it is because Randy is one of 5 kids or I am one of 6, but we can manage just fine with one sink.  We are just glad we have a bathroom.  Now, on another subject area, we will have a kitchen in the house.  That disappoints me greatly because I am DONE with cooking.  30 years of meat, potatoes, green beans and bread are enough for any  one person to deal with.  Yes, I can cook, but I choose not to.  I guess Randy will have to learn or starve.  We told the designer that we had never had granite countertops and you would have thought I told her we were from MARS.  I thought I was going to have to use smelling salts to revive her.  Here are some “before” pictures we have of the house:

Front of the house

Back Deck

The best part of the backyard is the fireplace and the view of OLD MAIN on the University of Arkansas Campus.

Backyard looking towards OLD Main in Upper Right Corner

And here is a closeup of the Fireplace:

Close up of backyard fireplace

This part of the yard won’t change much, hopefully!

Here is an inside living room picture from when the artist lady lived there:

Living room towards screen porch

We also went to a city council meeting regarding parking garages.  Luckily, they didn’t pick our backyard to build it.

After that, we headed over to Arsaga’s on Dickson for an art reception, that included my brother in law Ray’s painting of “Girl in Blue Sweater”.  Here is a great picture that I (the woman that is photography phobic) managed to snap:

Ray Parker’s “Girl in Blue Sweater”

After the reception, we headed over to my sister’s house for some sleep.  I am ready to go back again.  It will be interesting to see what all we do to the house, so hang around.  In other news, Emily went to a book signing for the Young House Love book!  She said Sherry and John were so nice in person!

Talk soon and have a great weekend.

Okay, let’s put this trip to bed, shall we?  When I last posted we were just back from our annual Thanksgiving trek to Kansas City.  This year we were excited that Emily’s boyfriend, Mills, was able to join us.  It is a bit bittersweet (as are so many things in life) in that they will head to Michigan to visit Mills’ family for Christmas.  SO, we had to make the trip memorable.  Hopefully we did, but Mills might need to join Voight-anon, which is the corollary to Willett Anon, a group for those married to or involved with the Willett family!

On Friday, we shopped the PLAZA.  Everyone picked up a few articles of clothing, shoes and nickknacks.  By noon we were done!

The Beautiful Country Club Plaza

Here is a close up of the Boar statue or as we call them RAZORBACKS:

Replica of Bellini 1857 of “The Wild Boar of Venice”

And everyone (except possibly those that worry about germs) that walks by the boar, rubs his nose and that it why it stays polished.

Everyone headed to Charlotte’s for yet another fabulous meal.  Our boys were headed back early for the BEDLAM game, so we gathered mid-afternoon.

Saturday had us headed to the Belger Arts Center to see the Katie Parker and Guy Michael Davis exhibit.  Here are Emily and Mills on our visit:

Emily and Mills at the Belger Arts Center

Because it was a random Saturday when we visited, Mo took us on a private tour!  We were also able to see the break room where this guy lives:

The “fake” guy statue at the Belger Arts Center

I am sure the fake guy has a name, but alas, I do not know it!

We also got to see this guy:

My next husband?

And these fabulous teapots made by ceramics student at the Kansas City Art Instute:

Teapots and Tiffany

After the art gallery, we headed back to Lake Quivira and celebrated the recent marriage of Jean and Peter.  Pat and Martha served up yet another wonderful meal, this time barbeque!  I tried to take pictures, but by now, people were on to me!

Please do not take anymore pictures!

Sunday was more of the same, eating and visiting and then sleeping.  Emily and Mills had to leave for the airport at 4:30 freaking a.m. to catch an early flight home on Monday morning.

Well, in a HUGE nutshell, that was our trip.  I will leave you with two random pictures from the brewery tour.  I am not sure what is going on in these pictures!  The eyes look dangerous and James is emulating the “fake guy” look.  I think he nailed it.

It is all about the beer

Talk soon, shall we?

Fill me in on what is going on in your life.

Wow, we had a fabulous Thanksgiving trip to Kansas City, Missouri or as some call it “Paris of the Plains“.  All I can say is that we had the best time and spent it eating, drinking, visiting, shopping and much more.  We were able to visit with 9 of the 11 (if I counted correctly) grandchildren of Mimi and Pops.  Such a wonderful group of young adults.  I have absolutely no concerns that the world will be a better place with these capable kids at the helm.

Actually, our trip started with a quick trip to Fayetteville.  We met with our future contractor to start the process of remodeling the house there.  We also were able to grab a quick pizza with Mary Jean and Ray.  After that, we did a walk around the Square to see the lights.  In addition to the wonderful lighting display, there were camels, ponies, reindeer and a razorback or two!  Such a beautiful Christmas display to start off our holiday season.

We got to Kansas City in the early evening.  After checking into our favorite hotel on the Plaza, Randy and I headed out for another meal.  Emily and Mills were flying in around midnight, so Charlotte came to the hotel early for a visit.  Luckily, for me, Randy and Charlotte did the airport run.  After the kids arrived, we visited for a few minutes and then we all called it a night.  The boys came in the next morning, so we had everyone there, which was so wonderful.  Of course, no visit to Kansas City is complete without a Boulevard Brewery tour.

Mills’ introduction to Kansas City

More from the tour

I am pretty sure the tour was the highlight for my kids!

We also managed to have two great meals on Wednesday.  Here are some pictures from our outdoor dining, in November, on the Plaza:

Aunt Charlotte with lovely Annie from San Diego

Yep, we got Nick’s picture alongside Emily and Patrick

Randy, Emily and more!

Rod and Becke

Christian, James and Randy

Wednesday night we all went out to eat AGAIN and then some of us headed to the hotel to try out some New York Apple Whiskey.  Emily brought it to me from DC.  I think everyone agreed that it was a wonderful sipping whiskey.

Thursday dawned and we did what most everyone did on Thanksgiving.  We headed out to Lake Quivera where Pat and Martha had prepared a wonderful meal of turkey and all the trimmings!  Martha’s mom brought my all time favorite side dish of pea salad.  I was in heaven.  After a great day with friends, family and a few people we didn’t know, we all headed back to the Plaza for the lighting ceremony.

Plaza Lights

More Plaza Lights

Lights and fireworks

The guys favorite part of the Plaza Lights

And then back to our hotel with a great group to eat “Pizza” in the lobby.  It was such a great day.

WELL, that brings us halfway through our trip.  Stay tuned for Monday’s post on the next 3 days.  I would add it to this post, but to be perfectly honest, I am whipped.  This blogging stuff can really take its toll on me!  Somedays, works sounds so much easier than blogging!  You think I am kidding?  I am not kidding.  In fact, I would be happy to have any of you do guest posts.  MJ and EV, I might be talking to you!  Or, I might be talking to the one headed to Austria this weekend.  Just think of the pictures he could post…. Just saying.

Let me know how your holiday went if you weren’t with us!