Life At Korthuis Manor

Life At Korthuis Manor
Captain Randy and his First Mate!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Just like the good ol' days

Tuesday evening I sat down to make a gift for the girls at work.  I had been indecisive about what to make until I opened a cupboard in the laundry room and found a plastic shoe box full of paper pads and post its pads that I had forgotten about.  Decision made - I would make them all a post it pad for their purses.
I haven't stamped forever - it was so fun!
 A little velcro action
This picture keeps turning sideways - but this is the finished product.
All wrapped and ready to deliver...................
The tags were even fun to make.


I forget how much fun it is to sit and craft and play with stamps, punches, ink and cardstock.  I'm gonna need to do that again...............someday :(.

Lot's of fun and festivities here, Monday making almond stick with mom

and then dinner with the kids.   Tuesday was my crafting night.  Last night dinner with friends - I can't show the pic cuz' there are rebellious ones one in our group that don't like to their photo to be shared (I'm sure you're familiar with the FBI protection program :).  Tonight company for dinner.  Tomorrow Christmas with the in-laws, and then Christmas Eve and Christmas!  Just reading all that makes me want a nap - besides the fact I was up for 2 hours last night with cramps in my leg that just about killed me!! Is it too much partying or too much age?


Monday, December 12, 2011

A big sigh..............

That is what I did about 5pm Saturday evening!  Where have you been lately - you ask?  Why haven't you blogged yet in December - you ask?  Well this is why.............
Advent Calender I made for Emily

My friend Chris made me this wreath out of Music - it's PERFECT!!
Susan saw these on pinterest and Grandiflora carries the wire so we made these!
 

This is the garland on my tree - should've grabbed one more - I love it!
So happy with the tree!
I love the lighted branches - I keep them out year round!


The stockings were hung by the "stair rail" with care?
This was my Favorite new thing - I love this look!
Randy "whipped" out this table for me 2 weeks ago!
 

The votive cups were sprayed with adhesive and rolled in Epsom salts.
Gotta have an apothecary filled with ornaments!

We were asked to put our home in the "Home for the Holidays" Christmas Home Tour for Bethany Christian Services.  We've been busy at it and now I can enjoy all the decorations and the REALLY clean house!  But now - maybe I should start buying Christmas gifts?!?!  :)  My dear friend Susan helped me so much - she even cleaned a toilet or two!  this pic is not the greatest of either of us as we were in sweats - no makeup - cleaning mode, but I couldn't leave her out since I couldn't have done it without her!!
Upstairs will be another post- too many pics on this one already.

Are you taking pics for your Daily December?  :)

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

It's that time again!

Daily December is only 2 days away! Are you ready?  If you don't know what Daily December is................let me catch you up to speed!

You make a mini album and EVERY DAY in December you take a picture and your book can go through the 25th or the whole month - I have done both ways.

Here are my books from the last 2 years.
I am excited to do this again.  It's so fun to look back through each December.  It makes me take pictures of things I probably wouldn't otherwise.  Such as, coffee with a friend, the decorating process, baking, etc.

Here's my book for this year.
It doesn't have enough pages, so I am adding pages with my handy dandy punch....so fun!  I just can't decided if I should add more cream colored pages, kraft brown pages, or maybe be really daring and add patterned paper?!?!  Any thoughts?

 Are you going to DD?  You really should it's SO fun!  I'm going to start putting my pages together tonight so I can start adding pictures right away.  The last 2 years I did the pages as I added the pictures - there are NO rules - EXCEPT - take a picture for every day!  Hope you will join me!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Where oh where is the bear.....................

Every fall I bring out the fall bears my kids gave me years ago (aka: Boyds Bears era)........
Saturday night we had a group of about 30 people over for a dinner.  It was a great evening, lots of fun and laughter......AND MISCHIEF!!! 

All evening I was finding styrofoam cups upside down on plants, napkins wadded up behind picture frames..............you know the drill.  As I was accusing one person of interest said "you can't blame your lack of housekeeping on us"  - clearly a remark that hints of guilt.

Anywho - at the end of the evening Mr. Bear was M.I.A.  I looked everywhere -
I guess I just didn't occur to me that Mr. bear had stuffed himself (pun intended) on too much good food that his stomach just couldn't handle it ;)!!

Happy Tuesday - hope nothing important blew away last night!!!

Monday, November 14, 2011

Leaf time again!

Every year around November my friend Beth (who's an awesome photographer) takes Em's "Leaf Pictures".  We started when Em was 16 months old and haven't missed a year.

Here's a few from last week's shoot......................









It's always so fun, and Beth and Emily have fun working together!  I got kind of sad when Beth and I realized that next years pics will be Senior Pictures - so weird!

I am so thankful for my daughter............she  is full of life and beauty and keeps us on our toes :)  She makes me laugh, and when she hurts, my heart hurts!  I look forward to the years ahead with my beautiful daughter!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

We pushed the button!!

.....now to most of you............that doesn't mean a whole lot!  You're thinking "my kids push my buttons every day" - but this is a TOTALLY" different button!! (That's my boss Trisha as she is actually getting ready to push the button!)

For the last several hours we (as in the Grandiflora Girls) have been working, nights,extra days - really whenever we could, to launch.......DRUM ROLL PLEASE.............................
Grandiflora Home.com

This has been a dream for a long time - and Monday night we pushed the button - that is the "publish" button.  What that means is everything we've been photographing, weighing, measuring and entering is now available online.  I'd love to have your visit the online store.  There are items available in the online store that are not available at  Grandiflora Home and Garden and the best part is - when you buy something online, at checkout, you can choose to pick it up in the store with no shipping or handling fees!! :)

Also,  if you haven't seen the store in a while - it's full of Christmas and BEAUTIFUL (trust me, I had nothing to do with it!!)  Grandiflora won Best of Western Washington - Gift Shop for the second year and it is such a privilege and an honor to be part of a business that excels (besides they are the Best to work for too!!)

Now that all my extra hours at work are slimming down I have a little breather and then I have to switch into high gear again to get ready for the Christmas Home Tour for Bethany Christian Services. Our home is one of five on the tour this year so it's going to be busy.  I PROMISE to keep you updated!

Friday, October 28, 2011

Grandiflora just won!!

Grandiflora Home and Garden just won Best of Western Washington for the 2nd year in a row!  I just had to quick "toot" their horn!!  They are certainly the best to work for!!

I have been working a LOT of hours lately as we are getting ready to launch our online store, Grandiflora Home in the next couple weeks!

Here is the beautiful tree that I get to look at every day outside my window....
 And here is what I have for breakfast every morning right now............  :)
I LOVE my job and my bosses are the best!  And obviously there are a LOT of people that think Grandiflora is the best!!  Just a hint - if you haven't been in there recently - it looks AMAZING right now!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

A DYI episode

I use to get my hair cut every 7 weeks and colored every 14 weeks and highlighted every 21 weeks.  Now I'm into being cheap (thanks to the economy :) and I have become a DYI in the hair dye department.   I have my hairdresser highlight my hair 2 times a year - that way when I color it myself it isn't one dimensional. 

It was time - my hair is naturally almost black (it keeps getting darker as I get older - minus the grey hairs), so after a summer of bleach out - proof we had SOME sunshine - it was time because the grow out line was about 2 inches!
Monday night I donned my ol' sweatshirt and pulled out my favorite box of Loreal haircolor........
.........and 45 min. later it looked like this! This is the just blown dry version.

With my coupon I got my box o'color for $5 - so I think I just saved about $70! 

Monday, October 24, 2011

I must be getting older..........that's right - I did!

I've decided I must be getting older because I forget things every now and then (like THIS POST a few weeks ago proves)................

So this last Saturday we had dinner with the friends for my birthday and I DID remember my camera, and I DID remember to take pics of this..................
 and this.......
 ....the fabulous food
 ......the beautifully plated dessert
....................but that's it............not ONE picture of any of us!  YES, I AM getting older!!!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

A Perfect Day!

Yesterday Kathi and Marla took me away for the day (and my bosses gave me the day off:).  We started with Latte's and scones and headed to Mt. Vernon to go shopping.  It was so relaxing and fun!  It was one of those days where we all 3 found stuff that fit (miracles at our age!).  Lunch was at Jimmy Carrino's

 Spinach Artichoke dip on garlic toast - AWESOME!

 The restaraunt called this "grown up" mac and cheese!
 and then we shopped some more (as you can see we were "successful").
Dinner at Cancun with Randy, Miranda, Nathan and Emily (if Brandon were there it would've been perfect!)
So many wonderful birthday wishes, via text and FB.  Presents from so many friends.....and I'll show you what Randy got me when I'm home long enough to use it and photograph it in action!