Among the first items to make the great trek north, is one of our three cars. Bob (my husband, if your new here) has his step fathers ’95 Mustang GT. today was the perfect day to move, the weather in Nor.Cal is mild and Bob was already heading north for a business meeting.

As you may know, things with 10+ year old cars don’t always go smoothly, and we ran into our first set back before we even made it to the freeway. One new tire and four of the little tubes you add air to your tires with, we made it to Bobs business meeting. It’s a beautiful afternoon in West Hollywood, as I’m writing and standing guard over the car.

Why not go to a coffee shop and people watch you may be asking, such is life when your car has no back window. He loves this car, and I love it too, but I’m ready to keep going as I watch the traffic on google maps go from yellow to red.

More later I’m sure, for now check out our sweet parking spot.

I’ve put together a group of awesome sales. There weren’t many options on StumbleUpon, so this weeks Sunday Stumbles are hand added by me. Check out the StubleUpon interface for adding new website to there database below.

Cyber Monday Deals

Some Small Business ETSY ♥

Better than your boyfriend’s cardigan jacket asymmetrical buttoned sweater

From ETSY shop sewmore is custom made with awesome buttons and coler. Grab it tomorrow for $95 not the normal $137.

Peacock Leaves 80s LS Jewel Purple SILK Beaded Evening Dress Small

Vintage 70s/80s long sleeve heavily beaded maxi evening dress in bright jewel purple silk with a zipper up the back to close, and then a hook and eye closure at the back of the neck to finish the open keyhole back. In excellent vintage condition.

Grab this purple pleasure from Etsy shop VonlenskaVintage for $44 tomorrow.

Sweet San FRANCISCO Designs by finchdesignsf

Featuring great color blocking and urban style, they are offering free domestic shipping and 1/2 off international shipping + a discount code for 10% off.

Handmade and Vintage TREASURES from CMolloy

This white knit sweater is in perfect vintage condition and is on sale for Cyber Monday for $7.70. Not only will you get a cozy winter multitasker, but 15% of sales will be donated to OPUSA.org for Japan Relief Efforts.

Wonderful floral necklaces with matching earnings

http://www.etsy.com/listing/85196392/cyber-monday-etsy-25-off-pink-rose

kbjhandmade Etsy shop has awesome deals on unique pieces. I love these floral and vintage feeling necklaces in colors that are perfect for weddings or other spring events. This Cyber Monday you can pick up this piece at 25% off, making this Pink Rose Necklace with Champagne Glass Beads and Matching Earrings $33.

 Natural Material Clutch Purse

This clutch bag from Etsy store Oyeta caught my eye with the wooden hart closure, and simple but bold pattern.  Get this sent to you or to a friend (who wouldn’t love this as a Christmas gift) for $20.

 The big guys cyber Monday deals

REI winter Sale

LL Bean Free Shipping + $10 Gift Card

Macy’s Christmas FIESTA WARE

You can take home the Christmas tree jumbo mug for $12.49 tomorrow instead of the regular price of $25. Fiesta ware is quality dinnerware that has stud up to the daily grind at our house.

Update 11/21/2011: Today we went shopping at Trader Joe’s (TJ) for our Thanksgiving Essentials plus some additional entertaining goodies for time with the family for $70. The menue items below are my time tested favorites, I’ve tried other store brand options at Vons but they are not as good. We splurge on our favorite items, either with high quality engreedents or in quantaty for leftovers.

You’ll also find descriptions of where we’re delegating, with both sets of parents and friends coming to our house were sharing our kitchen with our many family chefs. 

Appetizers:

TBD

I’m going to leave it up to Bob’s mom, Chris.

Main Course:

Fried ROASTED Turkey w/ Pan Gravy

Frozen TJ Brand, Brained Young Turkey at $1.99lb. Our lead player weighed in at 18.18lbs and cost $36.18 for our dinner for eight.

Sausage Cornbread Stuffing

Two Boxes of TJ Cornbread Stuffing mix at $7.98

Garlic Mashed POTATOES

Sour Cream $1.79

Salted Butter Quarters $2.99

Garlic (Peeled Whole Clove) $1.99

Red Potatoes 6.5lbs $5.78

ROASTED VEGETABLES Green Beans with Garlic & Almonds

Toasted Sliced Almonds $2.49

Garlic

Green Beans from the Farmers Market you can get them at Trader Joe’s Frozen for $1.99

Cranberry SAUCE

Fresh Cranberries $1.99

Cranberry Juice Not from Concentrate $3.99

Salad

Tom,  our dearest Polish friend and old roommate, makes a mean Greek salad.

Dinner  Rolls SPINACH Bread

Desert

Pumpkin Pie

Bob’s mom is going to be making her favorite, and there family staple, Pumpkin Pie.

Carolyn, our college buddy, has brought Pumpkin Pie three years running.

Apple Pie

My mom is going to bring our family favorite Apple Pie.

Drinks

Wine

Red

White

Beer

IPA

Holiday

Thanksgiving Cocktail

I had planned to ask the bartender to collect a few bottle caps for me so I could make Mary the awesome bracelet, as a wearable keepsake of her day. With all my good intentions, I dropped the ball and totally forgot until Jenna, Bob and Mikes cousin from Ohio, asked me if I got any bottle caps. Needing a refill/restart on my glass of wine*, Bob and I went over to the bar and politely asked the bartender if he had any bottle caps.

The craft gods were on my side that day, they had saved all the bottle caps in a cardboard box from the whole night! I chatted with the event coordinator about my plans to create the bracelets and where the idea had come from. He was really kind and even asked for me to send him pictures.

There were 143 bottle caps, of a whole variety of colors. Looking at the bottle caps, and thinking about Mike and Mary and there Opposing Bay Area Baseball Obsession, the idea to make A’s/Giants bracelet for them came to be! Check out the awesome results below.

♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥

1. Bottle Caps (12 men, 10 women) + 5 for practice

2. Needle Nose Pliers

3. Hammer

4. Old journal or book (something you don’t mind trashing)

5. Round Nose Pliers & Wire Cutters (not shown)

6. Awl

7. Glass Beads (2 strand of coordinating color for each bracelet) + spacers 2x amount of beads

8. 24 Gauge Wire (I used silver, go with what matches)

9. Clasps (one set each) and Jump Rings (2 per bracelet)

This was my first attempt to create something I pinned on pinterest, and it was really rewarding to reverse engineer these gifts for the enginerds in our family. So here’s the step by step with images, I hope you give this a try!

Prep work:

Step 1. Choose your bottle caps.

There were 143 bottle caps, of a whole variety of colors to choose from for M&M’s wedding presents. I had an Idea to make a dome with a hart in the middle, M&M’s reception was in a geodesic dome, but scratched the idea in case the two lovebirds wanted to create something themselves.  I wanted to make sure that there were enough left after my project so setting aside enough caps for the dome worked out well, and can also double as an idea for M&M future project.

Step 2. Shop for coordinating bead, wire, clasps and any additional tools.

I had to do a little research into the craft of creating jewelry out of recycled metal, especially what could be used to create the holes for stringing. The tool I needed to pick up was an alw, or more specifically a Scratch Awl, used for wood working. I picked mine up at the Dixieline Lumber for $7.19 + Tax at my local hardware store in Solana Beach. They had a few options, and I went for the awl with a metal button at the top for extra strength for as well as a target for hitting with a hammer.

Additionally, I picked up beads at South Sun Beads, their showroom is in the same neighborhood as my office, so it was a great stop on my lunch break. Let me tell you, if you’re ever in San Diego and looking for a great place to brows for beads, they have an giant showroom, and a sidewalk sale with discounts daily.

Step 3. Dry run of bead making.

Be sure to practice with spare bottle caps, we always have beer in our house, but you could pick up a six pack of your favorite micro-brew bottles on the way home from picking up your supplies.

(1) Practice Bottle Caps, at least 5 (2) Project Bottle Caps, separated & put aside (3) Tasty Beverage, I chose vodka lemonade in M&M’s wedding pint glass ♥

Follow the steps bellow on how to make beads from bottle caps.

Bead Making:

Step 1. Use needle nose pliers to score bottle cap on the median.

Step 2. Using both hands continue to fold the bottle cap along the median, until the edges meet.

Step 3. With the rounded edge facing you, flatten the corners with needle nose pliers. Repeat on other side.

Step 4. Place flat edge of bottle cap on the journal or book. Using your non dominant hand hold the awl with the pointed tip on the flat edge of the bottle cap. With dominant hand firmly hit the awl with the hammer. Inspect cap to make sure the whole is all the way through. Repeat on the other side.

Step 5. (not shown) Using round nose pliers carefully straiten the now pierced flat edges of the bottle caps.

Step 6. One you think you’ve got the process down with your practice bottle caps, repeat steps 1-5 with the caps you selected for your project.

Stringing Bracelets

Step 1. Lay out pattern.

Step 2. String bead one side at a time as fallows. Start the strand with 10 spacers to make up the height of the bracelet. For the bracelet: spacer, bottle cap bead, spacer, bead, spacer, repeat until all bottle caps are used, finish with a spacer. Finish with 10 spacers to make up the height on the other side.

Step 3. String the other side with the exact count of spacers, making sure that the bottle caps lay flat.

Last Step 4. Attach the clasps using a jump ring. Be sure that the loops of the bead strands are together with the clasp on the end. Placing the clasp in between the bead strand loops strains the wire and can cause breakage.

conclusions

From a scale of easy to epically difficult (1-5) I would give this project a solid 4. This project is time intensive and technically challenging to execute with the use of the awl.

♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥•♥

I hope these Stumbles put you in the entertaining spirit♥

Thanksgiving on a Budget

This Thanksgiving Menu from Epicurious can be prepared for a family of 8 for $10 each. The meal include; (1) Butternut Squash Soup with Cider Cream, $25. 83 (2) Roast Turkey with Oranges, Bay Leaves, Red Onions, and Pan Gravy, $20.60 (3) Herbed Bread Stuffing, $5.49 (4) Brussel Sprout Hash with Carmelized Shallots,$7.00 (5) Cloyerleawf Rolls, $7.29 (6) Pecan Pumpkin Pie,$13.26.

The article also give money-saving tips.  Including buying a supermarket bird, in lou of a heritage turkey, saying that after brained a  $2lb bird will taste just a good as something you can pick up at Whole Foods for $10lb.

Thanksgiving Turkey Cake

This gem from mental_floss goes right up there with Turducken or TurBacon Epic Thanksgiving, but in cake form. I would totally make this for Friendsgiving, or any Turkeyday celebration where you will find that one guy who can’t let food go to waste.

This cake comes together as follows: The first is a sort of turkey loaf, topped with a mashed potato filling and a quick spread of cranberry sauce. The next layer is made of stuffing shoved on top of the cranberry sauce, which is then covered with another layer of potatoes. Another layer of turkey loaf is then added and then the cake is baked for about a half an hour before the mashed potato frosting is applied, topped with a coating of sweet potatoes followed by marshmallows.

I would try it, would you?

Printable Planner with Tips and Recipes

Why not get a little organized this Thanksgiving! This free e-book from food your way seems like the perfect way to stay organized including a calendar to keep track of when guest come to town, and make a head items.

Perfect Pie Crust

I’m sure that there’re twice as many pie crust recipes as types of pie, here’s some insight from the folks at The Food Network.

DIY Linen Thanksgiving Napkins

This tutorial from the Purl bee gives step by step instructions with images for 12 napkins in shades of fall.

From my quick look, it seems as though they have there own line of crafting supplies including a pack of 12 100% high quality cotton 18″x12″ rectangles for $30 in Spectrum Bundle-Fire

If your feeling a little bit more froogle, like me this thanksgiving, you could find your own supplies at a local craft store or if your lucky in the supplies you already have around the house.

5 Starches For Gluten-Free Gravy

Have a guest with a gluten allergy, here are 5 wheat free thickners to replace flower in pan gravy; (1) Arrowroot (2) Cornstarch (3) Guar Gum (4) Kuzu Root Starch (5) Tapioca Starch.

Top Chefs on How to Do Thanksgiving Right

Stuble upon brought me to Shine from Yahoo, and there article on how to do Thanksgiving where top chefs were asked about there preferences on thanksgiving favorites. like  Marshmallows on the sweet potato casserol or  smooth vs lumpy mashed potatoes?

Vote for your Favorite Thanksgiving Side and Win $1,000 to Whole Foods Market

All you have to do is vote for your favorite Thanksgiving Sidedish; (1) Cornbread Stuffing (2) Creamy Mashed Potatoes and Parsnips (3) Spiced Cranberry Sauce (4) Wild Rice Stuffed Mini Pumpkins (5) Shallots and Almond Green Beans (6) Brussels Sprouts with Bacon (7)Sweet Potatoes with Macadamia Nuts (8) Cheddar Popowers.

With every vote $0.25 cents will be given to the Whole Kids Foundation,  whos  mission is to improve children’s nutrition and wellness with the goal of ending the childhood obesity epidemic. When I cast my vote for Cornbread Stuffing, a hard pick over Spiced Cranberry Sauce, there were already 2091 votes!

ENTER TO WIN $1,000 AT WHOLE FOODS MARKET AND VOTE TO DONATE TO THE WHOLE KIDS FOUNDATION

I hope you enjoy this collection of internet wonders

New Blog A Beautiful Mess Blog:

I love to find new blogs, and this Sunday StumbleUpon brought me to this amazing new addition to my Google Reader. This post is about Thrift Store Tips and includes 10 really great things to keep in mind on your next searching session.  My favorte is #4 If in Doubt, Don’t.

What do you want to do before you die?

This website is a collection of Polaroid pictures with hand written notes about what the individuals want to do before they die. The creator of this project has done a great job of providing the voices of a large cross section of people, including Hospice patients and old and young, men and women from different cities in the USA and India.

How to make a Bug Out Bag: Your 72-hour emergency Evacuation Survival Kit

This is my first step into many topics, mostly because the name of this blog is The Art of Manliness.  Everyone should be prepared for an evacuation and this list gives a great place to start. The guys at the art of manliness seem to be preparing to make it alone, so I suggest making a pack for everyone in your home.  Also, they forgot an important, though space/weight hog, camping french press and ground coffee.

Blank Music Paper

Music Paper

Looking to get that symphony out of your head, me too! this site provides blank sheet music for all of your needs. Styles included. Solo, Ensemble, Band, Orchestra, Choral and General

10 Wise Choices to Skyrocket Your Happiness

The Change blog, brings us a list of things to help you get happy.

(1) Take responsibility. (2) Embody enthusiasm. (3) Drop your old baggage. (4) Become intensely interested in your inner life. (5) Question your beliefs. (6) Appreciate presence. (7) Study your emotions. (8) Live from your heart. (9) Choose freedom over fear. (10) Let happiness pervade your life.

50 Problem Words and Phrases

Daily Writing Tips

Difficult and often missed turns of phrase and similar words are described correctly at this website.

Bioluminescent algae:

Nosh brings us some information on red tide and the awesome natural wonder of bioluminescent algae the glowing sea.  I got to check this out in person at La Jolla Shores, San Diego two weeks ago, awesome I hope you get to see it someday.

I had planned to ask the bartender to collect a few bottle caps for me so I could make Mary the awesome bracelet, as a wearable keepsake of her day. With all my good intentions, I dropped the ball and totally forgot until Jenna, Bob and Mikes cousin from Ohio, asked me if I got any bottle caps. Needing a refill/restart on my glass of wine*, Bob and I went over to the bar and politely asked the bartender if he had any bottle caps.

The craft gods were on my side that day, they had saved all the bottle caps in a cardboard box from the whole night! I chatted with the event coordinator about my plans to create the bracelets and where the idea had come from. He was really kind and even asked for me to send him pictures.

There were 143 bottle caps, of a whole variety of colors. I had an Idea to make a dome with a hart in the middle, Mike and Mary’s reception was in a geodesic dome, and even after the expanded wedding gift idea there are still enough. Looking at the bottle caps, and thinking about Mike and Mary and there pposing Bay Area Baseball Obsession, the idea to make A’s/Giants bracelet for them came to be!

Tutorial on how to make your own bottle cap bracelet is coming soon, so check back for all the information. For now you can cruse the photo gallery.

Sunday Stumbles for your back to work distractions

Interactive Circle of Fifths:

Not so interactive here, but if you click on the circle you can see the awesomeness that is this Circle of Fifths for transposing music, composing, and understanding key signatures, scales and modes.

A Dreamy Vacation Getaway:

Just think about the vacation of your dreams with a close group of friends, renting an awesome ocean front bungle-lo in South America. This awesome deck/sun-room/dive spot would be connected to a five bead room, 5 bath modern home, and you would spend your weak putting the plans in motion to make it your own.

DIY Tutorial for 3D Owl Greeting Cards:

These 3D owls are sweet, I’m an owl enthusist these days. Some people are into turtles or lighthouses, but for me my icon of choice is the Owl. This awesome website Skip to my Lou has some awesome inspirations to craft, create, and celebrate. This tutorial even includes a PDF download for printing the pattern. I’ll be headed back to see what other ideas the folks at Skip to my Lou have to share.

A Blog post from Prana, Handbook for Life…2010:

This blog post includes great advice for four important aspects of being. My Favorite (category); Take a 10-30 minute walk daily & Smile (Heath). Dream more while we are awake (Personality). Forgive everyone for everything (Society). Do the right thing (Life).

Wired’s Atlis of the Human Ecosystem.

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/09/mf_microbiome/

This awesome image educates about the amount and types of microbes that are with us from our birth. Check it out, this picture is deffently worth 1000 of my words.

25 Insights on Becoming a Better Writer:

http://the99percent.com/tips/7082/25-Insights-on-Becoming-a-Better-Writer

I’m always looking for resources on how to improve my writing skills. I’m sure you’ll see typos and errors here, but I’m really concentrating on building my voice, I can always pay an editor right.

Big Finale…

Confetti Wrapping Paper:

Watch out if you receive a gift from me, this idea is defiantly a must do for me. In fact I’m thinking this is going to make it’s first appearance in my Gift Bag of Tricks with Mike and Mary’s wedding present.

Thanks Stumble Upon for finding these and many more awesome websites.  If your new to stumble upon check it out at Stumble Upon.

When life gives you unexpected circumstances, why not take a vacation. Today marks my second day at home, and at least tomorrow will be the weekend, and I’ll feel less out of place not going to work. Yesterday was a rough one, but we did come to one decision; were going on a road trip

Back story, on Wednesday I  completed my assignment due at noon and went to meet with my supervisor after lunch. The rest of that day was spent getting my things together and transfering files to my coworkers, I was on furlough. I had a list of questions like, do I have to pack up all my stuff & do I get to keep my space (I’ve got a sweet small cube by the window). To which her answer was abrupt “No, it’s like our going on vacation but were just not paying you”, awesome the vacation no one an afford to take.

My previous post concluded with the open ended, what do I want to be when I grow up, this was emotionally driven “woways-me” banter and I apologize. I’m pretty stoked about what I am, and like the advice of everyone (from supervisor to best friend) it’s just time to find something that will make me happy. Now I can’t promise that you wont find some “woways-me-ish” things here every now and then, but I can tell you that I will try to admit when I realize they have come to be. This is a path of growth, and I’m excited to see where it takes me.

I plan to look for something new, but I’m taking a few days to “decompress” as my mother put it, and figure out what I want to do for FUN.

Lets have some fun list: (1) Road Trip thought the Pacific Northwest, I’ve never been north of Chico. (2) Halloween costumes for ALO in Monterrey with my girls. (3) Tahoe/Donner for an awesome housewarming party. (4) Craft up wedding presents for M&M. (5)San Francisco for the Mom-in-Laws 50th Birthday bash.

It’s currently Saturday September 24, 2011, I have been informed of the possibility of a furlough, and the career advice from my supervisor to be happy. It’s been nice to take the time to write about the meeting I had with her yesterday. Bob (the husband) has been very supportive but is a firm believer that it hasn’t happens yet, so don’t be upset about it now if your going to be more upset when it happens kind of way.

Last Friday, my supervisor brought me into her office and dropped the news that there is talk about furloughs, and that it obviously wasn’t going to happen today being as though it was 4: 30. My supervisor is a vary kind an genuin women, and she explained that she was telling me so i wouldn’t be “caught off guard” if/when it happens.

She rattled off what it means and for how long, and that some senior people in the office were taken reduced work weeks. She then pulled out the sheet of paper with my name on it covered in her thoughts with a business card attached.

At this moment, I figured that I wan’t getting a reduced workweek, I was going on vacation to furlough.

I half listened to her as she rattled off the names of others who where on the list, and how people were doing numbers every-which way to see what the best solution for the company would be. I did catch the part about “there just isn’t any work for you”, and getting called back to help with marketing and at the re-start of the field work i had started two years ago.

“I’m not encouraging you to leave. I just want you to be happy”

So it could be Monday, it could be two Fridays from now & the longer it goes with out happening the less likely it is to happen. I have a company to research that does field work/data management, and a card from a local small business, and the advice that the environment of a small bushiness may be better for me.

Now for the interesting part, What do I want to be when I grown up?