a second christmas

today was an amazing day. it was basically the first day back to normal schedules for our little family after all the holiday craziness that's been happening for the last 6 weeks [mr phipps manages retail, so you can imagine] and i use normal loosely because technically i normally don't work wednesday, but tonight will be the start of four, that's right four, days off together, so i thought working wednesday and 3 hours on thursday would be a great trade!

my loving husband was back with full force! more "i love you"s, texts & sweetness than ever today. which i have to say is probably my favorite gift yet. also, he so thoughtfully recalled that i have been secretly & not so secretly wanting an electronic book. i kinda put it out of my mind since iPhone has a book app, it just felt silly to ask for one with that knowledge. but anyway he remembered & picked one up for me as a surprise!


it's a literati. i really hadn't heard of this one, but i'm sure glad he did because it's amazing. if you're in the market for one read on...
it came with a sturdy yet sleek case & 150 free books. it has a 7' screen and is only 0.5" thick. it's wi-fi, has a full color screen & one-click buy option. there are over 2 million titles available & they now offer magazine & newspaper subscriptions. also,  i guess you can sync documents from your computer to it if you need to get some work done on the go. i am really impressed so far. it's much better than i expected & i've already begun my first read. i'm so stoked to get reading again. thank you to my wonderful husband.

paint by tablet

this year for christmas i received many wonderful things and i was so excited about everything. tonight while mr. phipps was video gaming it up i decided to try out one of my new gifts which was a bamboo pen tablet . it works similar to the way a mouse would work with your computer, but it offers many more options such as writing, drawing, editing and painting. i chose to work on my painting skills and went to town with water color [which i still have yet to get the hang of haha], oil & acrylic. i made myself a cute little kirby painting while learning the controls.

hopefully, i'll be able to get a hang of the writing aspect, which can translate your handwriting into a text. i'd love to create my own font at some point, but that will be much further down the road.
anyway, getting back into the swing of things today was a lot less challenging than i thought it would be, although i'm getting antsy for the 4 days off we have together this weekend. yay new years!

8 days...

well, after 8 days of being away from the blog world, i've rejoined. the holidays are always a great, and hectic, time. we had tons of fun with all the family this season and everyone was so sweet and generous.

i was able to make a couple of handmade snow globes [idea from this blog] they turned out pretty okay and i'm glad i tried them. they were simple & fun and great for gifts!
i hope the holiday went well for everyone! i cannot wait for new years. mr phipps and i promised each other an outrageous & fun one. hopefully that'll all come to be.

long day, hard work

it has been an incredibly long day, but i finally finished my gingerbread house after work. i guess today was fitting seeing as it snowed quite a bit. i can say this is one of the hardest things i've ever done. holy cow! i'm not sure if it was so tough because i thought it should be pretty easy or what. although my mom did tell me that a coworker of hers said it was really tough, so i feel a bit relieved about it.

it definitely looks homemade, but i like that because it is! haha and really... i couldn't get it any other way. i did go a bit above the basic and made actual windows on each side of the house out of candy. so i'm pretty stoked on those. they aren't as beautiful as the ones in the book, but they'll do for my first one. i opted for a more basic house because as i was attempting to roll the dough out i realized that something fancy probably wasn't going to happen, especially in any normal amount of time. i can honestly say this will most-likely NOT be a phipps christmas tradition, but you never know. i could get brave again some year and pump another one out. i'm glad i tried it out; i no longer wonder about it.

as for the recipe... i'm still not sure what i think about it. i want to say it was good, but it was so hard that i want to say it was terrible. user error i suppose. there was a lot of tips though, i will say that. the book called for a cathedral not really a house, which i think would be nearly impossible! she also included a royal icing recipe which worked okay. i had to adjust it a bit because it wouldn't stiffen, but we are pretty highly elevated, so that could've been the problem. she has so many recipes for christmas cookies, ones i've never heard of before, so ultimately, if you can find a copy, you should pick it up.

good find

here is the chair we purchased. i'm super excited! we got it for only $60 i can't wait until moving time to figure out the perfect place for it.

sweet & simple

quick update:

tried out the previously mentioned gingerbread house today. i'm still working on it. it's proving to be quite a task. i started it at 3:30 and it's almost cool enough to ice. homemade gingerbread is hard work!
on the plus side of the last couple days, we are 85% done with our christmas shopping. we did it all in like one day.
also, mr. phipps and i bought our first antique chair. i'll try to get a picture up soon. it's absolutely perfect. i love it oh so much and cannot wait to pick it up.

hope the holiday has begun to treat you nicely!

so close & so far away

i can't believe that there are only 5 or 6 weeks until our lease is up, and that means moving time! even though there is so much to be done in that amount of time and the holidays make it seem like a lifetime away, i know it's approaching quickly. i'm getting excited to organize and decorate a whole new space; i've been trying to draw inspiration from everywhere! as much as i hate moving i absolutely love putting it all together once everything is in the new spot. hopefully we will get into our dream house. if we do i already have a vision for most of the house!

[2008 winner luxist.com, click image to visit site]

speaking of houses, i'm going to make my very first gingerbread house from scratch this week. i love the one above. it's reminds me of "Home Alone" for some reason. stay tuned for pictures and a review of the recipe. baking time has finally arrived this year.