Houlihan's + Carrie = A fun time

This was our weekend to host Dinner for Eight at our house. Everyone is so busy these days, it has been difficult for us all to be available on the same date. We thought we had a day picked but then Becky & Juergen had a last minute conflict. So, we decided to make a girls night out with Karen, Carrie and myself. At the last minute, Karen had to cancel.
Carrie & I met at Houlihan's and had a great time. I had been there a couple of times before but wasn't overly impressed. Tonight was a different experience. It was very good - I am still stuffed.
We both started with a Martini Flight (3 smaller drinks), the Adam & Eve Apple was my favorite, they rimmed the glass in cinnamon, very unique. We shared 2 appetizers. Fried asparagus and Lettuce wraps (yum!) Then came the french onion soup. Nothing to brag about but still good. We were really wild and ordered two mini desserts to share. Banana cream pie for Carrie & Bourbon pecan pie for me. They were only $2.49! What a deal!
The best part of the night was spending some time with a good friend. Thanks Carrie, you were just what I needed today. Did I mention I am still stuffed??

Baby Mini Album

This is the album I made for Joy & Brad's new baby, Jayla. It is a simple little album that Joy can add her own photos to. (I couldn't avoid the glue spots on the velum but they will be covered by the photos she adds - I just wanted to clear that up because I didn't want you to think I would do sloppy work!) It was fun to make & I hope they like it.

Jayla, If you are reading my blog, close your eyes- I don't want to spoil the surprise!!

Crafting always makes a bad day better

My sweet husband came by work today and slipped me two $50 bills and told me to buy something for myself. I had a very stressful day and I knew just what would make me feel better. SCRAPBOOKING STUFF! I stopped by Target on my way home and picked up some storage for my ever growing paper collection and went to scrapbook 911 and got a few things to finish up a project I have been working on for baby Jayla.

I locked myself in the room and didn't come out until it was in tip top order. I have all of my photos from the last 25 years categorized in boxes (I didn't do all of that tonight) and sorted through all my supplies while watching the VP debate on TV. I have some before and after pictures that really don't do the room justice but you can see I got a lot done!

My disaster of a closet before:

And after. You can't see all the photo storage boxes I have on the side. That is what took the most time. (Not the fun part.)
While I was in the process of organizing my photos.

Below is what I accomplished tonight. I do need one more table and a better chair to make it super comfortable. I have everything to start on my Christmas cards (big job) and am working on a family Christmas gift. It's nice to know I now have a place to go hide when I've had a bad day.

We drove 100 miles for a steak!

Today Mike & I met Marty, Darlene and Horace at Hermann Sons Steak House in the big city of Hondo. Darlene has been telling us about it forever so we all decided to get together for lunch today after church. We all had the Pepper Steak -although we ordered various levels of heat. I was the wimp and ordered mine mild (I still thought it was hot). The salad bar was very good too. I will try the Pecan Chicken if we go again. Looks yummy! Being that the place is 52 miles from our house, it will probably be a while before we go again but it was a nice day for a drive and we had a good time. Marty even behaved!