Pooped!

I am pooped! My brain isn't quite functioning well enough to write something coherent at the moment, so I'll just post some pictures and tell you what they are, and we'll just call that good enough for tonight, eh?

I took this on Friday, in the parking lot of the place where I go to get the Friday morning bagels for work. It's a higher-end kind of shopping street, with yummy restaurants and shops that are mostly frequented (I believe, anyway) by 30-somethings with disposable income...you know...Papyrus, Crate & Barrel, Anthropologie, Restoration Hardware. Places I wish I could afford. Anyway, the decorations are nice. I like these little multi-colored ball things.

I went to the dentist today, and walked past this tree outside the house next door to his office. I think it's a holly tree? Does that exist? It's pretty anyway, and the people who live there decorated it with jumbo bulbs and giant gold ornaments. It's festive, and I thought it was such a fun idea!


This is my brand-new gift wrap organizer. I love it. You probably don't know what my solution for gift wrap storage was before...let's just say it wasn't pretty. Wrapping paper standing up in a little paper bag in the linen closet (which tipped over constantly), tissue shoved into the bag all crumply-like, ribbons falling all over the place...not so nice. I still have two small plastic bins (one for bows and one for cards/little boxes and bags/gift tags), but I am super stoked about my new way to organize all the rest of this stuff. It was $12.99 at Target, and unlike the plastic bin versions, this one will slide nicely under the couch or bed when holiday wrapping season is over. For now, it's standing upright in the linen closet for easy access.

Ta-da! A blurry picture of the presents under the tree. This is *almost* all of mine (Will hasn't wrapped his yet...he was gone all day watching various sporting events). I am still waiting for a few things to arrive, but this is the main bulk of it. It looks like there are more presents than there are due to the small surface on which they sit (though there are quite a few, I'll admit!) It took me about 3 hours to wrap them while I watched TV this afternoon. This is mostly because I had to unwrap many of them from their Amazon.com boxes before wrapping them in holiday paper. Also because I love to wrap presents, and take time to curl the ribbon and choose a nicely coordinated bow. Hopefully they don't get TOO messed up when I pack them to go to LA/Olympia.

So that was my day. I went to the dentist and wrapped a bunch of presents. I also baked a loaf of apple spice bread (Trader Joes) and am in the middle of laundry. I am pooped.