So, I normally try to avoid being to martha stewart ish, craftiness is often associated with her, and I really think that I am cooler, so damn her for having all the staff on her side thinking up things first.

Anyway, I get her Kid's magazine, it is so cute, helps me come up with good ideas to use for programs and this holiday season: gifts. So these are pictures of my button ornaments. it would have been cooler if I were 80 and had a button collection of my own, but I made due with some day camp and purchased buttons. Pipe cleaners really are under-rated you can do so much with them.
It is really hard to pick a favorite. The pictures are pretty cool.

Janet took them for me at the nature center's solstice event, my buttons were up on our lame silent auction. they were a hot item!

So it is the biggest eve of the year. I think that i will just be drinking with my hubby at home. Wow are we lame... no we still are cool we went out last night. Fat city was happening, with orange and blue sprayed all over and Illini fans coming in after the game. Man do they have bad beer there and they got rid of all the good bar food. I ate shitty nachos with iceburg lettuce, jared salsa, gross cheese and not enough jalepenos. At least the shuffle board table was fun and I got to meet the infamous Smoke and Joe, who dominate on Friday nights. Sweet outfits, cigars, and their own finger towels really made for some competitive shuffle board-- I think Smoke, was starting to flare up a bit when Eric took the lead on him. He was hitting the wall at one point when he failed to block his puck, I wanted to assure him that I sucked and wouldn't ruin his game, but there is only so much you can say to a 5'4" man with a finger towel attached to his belt.

Tomorrow is the day of roast pork loin, and our countdown to the honeymoon. As much as it sucked on not going on one in September after the wedding, it is going to be so awesome to go away now. Our friends that just moved to Australia will be meeting us at the airport for 5 fun days there and we have our first few hikes planned for New Zealand. I packed last night- the trial run as I am only allowed 6 tops, 2 pairs of shorts and 2 pairs of pants. I have to take things that I really like and am okay wearing a lot over the course of the trip. It isn't as easy as you might think.

The Wine Stash

I don’t think that I ever gave due props to the most amazing gift that my college roomates, their significant others and Fran gave to Ben and I on our wedding. I just uploaded the rest of the pictures from Connie and Dale and just had to post these for all to see and appreciate.

First off the vessel that it came in. Check this out, not only did it weigh a lot, (just ask my uncle john who moved it into our house) but it was completely hand crafted and designed by Dale, with recycled timbers some of which came from an old(ish) chicken coop (very appropriate for our home). So they brought it all the way to the wedding and then actually used the golf cart to transport it to the art center. Some good shots of this.









Then you can see the double-hinged doors, revealing all the coolest little compartments, which are latched with nails that were bent and also recycled from old wood. there are a lot of hinged on this thing all intricately placed. what a great design.
Then inside each of those, more presents. We were given the best twist on the wine of the month club, the wine from your most favorite people, with hand made cards for each month. See the bottle sticking out. With each is a scroll describing the wine and there is a bottle of red and a bottle of white for each month up until our one year anniversary. The gift that just keeps giving. We have enjoyed some great wine and sampled quite a few that were actually made in Wisconsin... I was suprised how good these were- you know Wi being known for cheese than wine- but hell they go great togehter. So we have really enjoyed the first 3 months. Each time giving us a chance to reminice about the wedding and how perfect it was. Thank you to everyone who made that possible.

Here we are reading the most thoughtful card that went with the gift. I don't know where this idea came from, but I was so honored to recieve something that obviously took so much work I was crying everytime I thought about it. Holy crap do we just have the most amazing people in our lives.

I love everyone today.

I have been working on the coolest presents and am swamped with holidays, but I love these rushes!

Later

Kate