Angry Julie Monday

Home for the Holidays

December 24, 2011

I am off work tomorrow, Christmas Day, so I will be home for the holidays. Some of my co-workers will be at work, and I will be thinking of them.

Angry Husband works in retail so we have NEVER traveled to visit some of his family during the Holidays. Total bummer. But at least we will have my parents at our house for the Holidays.

I love all of the super fun videos that have come out the past few weeks about Christmas and The Holidays. T-Mobile made this super fun one. I love the girl’s dresses.

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by T-Mobile.

Filed Under: Reviews 1 Comment

I’ve had most of my Holiday Decor up since the day after Thanksgiving. BUT, I waited to take photographs of my Holiday decor until my house was clean. I’ve had no time to organize/clean/etc. But I’ve been working on it for the past few days. I also made a frantic call to the woman who cleans my house. I haven’t had my house professionally cleaned in about three months, and you could tell. I waved the white flag and made the phone call. So this morning, my house was cleaned, and I have inner peace now. Yep, I’m a spoiled brat. But my husband and I both work full-time, and we Angry Kid, we have no time lately to clean, etc.

So after I finished indulging in the smell of bleach, I broke out my camera and started snapping away. My husband gave me one of my Christmas gifts a few days early, and I was so happy to use my brand new tripod for taking pictures today. Angry Husband has seen my frustrated lately, when I’ve attempted to take photographs without a tripod. He bought me a very fancy Sunpak Pro Carbon Fiber tripod. I used it today to take about a billion photographs of our Christmas Tree. I’ve never been so excited about a tripod before, hahaha. But now, here is my little tour of my indoor Holiday decor.

Our Christmas Tree, faux, of course. I am allergic to the real stuff. My husband doubted me one year. He learned his lesson that year. Angry Husband made the “Mickey” tree topper the other day. It is one large plastic Christmas ornament ball with two smaller balls. The smaller balls are glued onto the bigger ball. I’m pretty sure that Angry Husband cut some holes in the larger ball. There is a dowel attached to the opening on the top (actually bottom) of the larger ball. The tree top is then wrapped around the dowel.

The “Peace” and “Joy” signs are made by Julie of Joy’s Hope. I bought them from her at a craft fair. The signs are kinda hidden behind the tree. We usually put our tree in a different spot, but Angry Husband moved around some furniture this year and put the tree in the corner of our family room.

My primary Holiday Card display. We received an overabundance of cards this year, and I had to make a second display. I have metal chain hanging up, and the cards are affixed to the chain with the glitter clothespins that I made myself. I love seeing all of the beautiful family photos, and fun ideas that my friends and family have used for their cards.

I had to make a second card display earlier this week. We have a metal fixture hanging on the wall in our dining room area. I had a ball of twine in my hand. Angry Husband had the idea to string the twine on the metal fixture. I then used plain clothespins to hang the extra cards. Our dining room has some awful lighting, so the pictures are not very good.

I hung ornaments from our dining room light fixture. You can’t see the fixture in this photograph but here are the ornaments. They are hanging from fishing line. I was looking at the photos and saw my reflection in every one of the ornaments. I should have known that the ornaments were going to be like little mirrors, but what a surprise while editing.

I made my own bunting with my new sewing machine, and hung it on the dining room mirror (cellphone picture), and the doorway over our home office. I’m glad that I bought the fabric in October, because Christmas fabric sells out fast.

On the console table in our family room is framed photos of Angry Kid and his friend, Stella, taken at Disneyland in 2009. The trees and wide snowman are from Pier 1 Imports. The larger snowman was made by Angry Kid at his school party last week. It is made with a sock. So cute!

And one last photo…I took this tonight with my iPhone. About 10 minutes before this post went live…

Happy Holidays!

Filed Under: Holidays, In The Home, Just Julie, Photography 10 Comments

Wordless Wednesday: The Science of Gingerbread

December 21, 2011

The Holiday Season is quite busy in Orange County, and there is definitely not a shortage of fun things to do. The problem is, which events to attend. Last week, we went to an event at The Discovery Science Center here in Orange County. They have two special exhibits going on right now. The first exhibit is “Star Wars-Where Science Meets Imagination” and the second is “The Science of Gingerbread”.

We attended an event for The Science of Gingerbread, even though it seemed to be, Star Wars Meets Gingerbread. The Discovery Science Center has a Gingerbread Competition each year, and there were several people who went with the Star Wars Theme. I have to admit, I was pretty impressed with the Star Wars creations.

During the event, they even had a candy derby car race. Angry Kid created his own little car, which is featured in my last picture.

The Science of Gingerbread Exhibit is open from November 25, 2011 to January 1, 2012. It includes daily activities such as: Participate in hands-on kitchen science activities, Find out all about kitchen tools, recipe science and more, and See award-winning Gingerbread Competition entries. Be sure to check it out. They have some special activities scheduled during the Holiday Break.

Welcome to “Angry Julie Monday’s Wordless Wednesday Linky”!

If this your first time here, HELLO! I do a link-up every Wednesday! Post a picture(s) and link back to it here. Wordless Wednesday is a great day to post an awesome picture that “speaks” for itself, no words needed.

Be sure to check out Wordless Wednesday Link-Ups at these other sites also:

Project Alicia, Better in Bulk, By Word of Mouth Musings, Dear Crissy, Five Minutes For Mom, Live and Love…Out Loud, Parenting By Dummies, Seven Clown Circus, Supermom, The Divine Miss Mommy

Also, Lindsey from The Pleated Poppy does “What I Wore Wednesday” every week with a great big link-up.

And, I can’t forget Krystina from Lollipops whom does “What I Love Wednesday” every week with a great big link-up.

Disclosure: I was provided entry to Discovery Science Center free of charge. I was not paid to write this post. All opinions in this post are mine. All photographs are mine except for the Discovery Science Center Science of Gingerbread Logo which is Courtesy of Discovery Science Center.

Filed Under: Orange County, Photography, Wordless Wednesday 26 Comments

Our 2011 Holiday Card with Blog Hop

December 20, 2011

After I had picked out the photo that I wanted to use for our Holiday Cards, I searched all of my favorite card websites for the perfect design to match. Unfortunately, I could not find the “right” design to match our orange and navy blue outfits that we wore for our Fall Photo Shoot with DrewB. Because I’m completely OCD and a perfectionist, I turned to Etsy. I heart Etsy and all of the creative people on there. I found katie-did designs, and contacted the owner Katie. I loved all of her card templates, but I am difficult. I asked her if she could merge a couple of features/graphics from multiple card templates to make the Uber-Awesome Design for my Holiday Card. After going around and around with 3-4 designs, she achieved perfection status! I had our cards printed via Overnight Prints as 5×7 postcards with rounded corners. They turned out perfect! I love their rounded corners feature.

May I introduce to you, our 2011 Holiday Card:

Photo by DrewB. Card Design by katie-did designs.

Because, I love Holiday Cards and all of the FABULOUS Photos that go along with them, I am hosting a 2011 Holiday Card Blog Hop. It is my first ever Holiday Card Blog Hop. Yippee!!!

So make sure to post your Holiday Card on your Blog or Website, and Link-Up.

Please visit all of the fabulous other bloggers that have shared their cards also. I love all the creative ideas that people come up with.

And I even have a button that I created for the Blog Hop! So be sure to grab that code!

Angry Julie Monday Holiday Card Blog Hop

Filed Under: Holidays, Just Julie, Photography 13 Comments

One Mile Penguin Waddle

December 19, 2011

Angry Kid did the Surf City Kid’s Run in July. After that race, he was pretty excited to do another. We had soccer all Fall, so he didn’t have the opportunity to do any kid’s races. After speaking with Danica via Twitter, I signed him up for the One Mile Penguin Waddle, which was the Kid’s Run in conjunction with the Holiday Half.

Angry Husband and I got him all prepped and ready to run the race. We got to the event a little early and picked up his number. We pinned on his number and headed to the starting area.

We had to wait a bit since they had the kid’s runs split up between different age groups. Having the kid’s runs split up made a ton of sense. Otherwise, it would have been chaos.

I kind of loved the start line banner. It was so bright and festive. The kids were running without adults, so they had all of the kids line up early. It was cute to see all of them ready.

And then they were off, the kids bolted out from the start line. I took about ten photos of them running at the beginning. I finally found one with Angry Kid. I have an green arrow pointing to him in the picture.

Since the run was only one mile, it went pretty fast. Angry Kid ran in the 7-and-under group. Even though the kids were seven years old and under, they were fast. There were some fast little tykes in the group. A large group had come through, and we kept looking for Angry Kid. I kept thinking, “did he get lost”? Finally, he came to the end of the start line, trotting along.

After he made it through the finish line, we saw that both of his shoes were untied. Go figure. Angry Kid is very stubborn and refuses to properly learn how to tie his shoes. I’m sure that this was part of the reason on why he was going so slow. I also think that he was a little freaked out by us not running with him. My friend, Monique, ran along with Angry Kid during the Surf City Run. I guess we need to work on that running. I am saying, “We”, because I need to work on my running too. I’m such a slacker lately.

I love that penguin medal. Isn’t it cute!! Angry Kid looks so proud with that medal around his neck. He looks quite adorable in his Holiday Colored Running Gear.

I’m trying to play catch-up with some Holiday events that we’ve participated in lately. There are soo many things to do during December. Angry Kid is on vacation from school for two weeks now. I’m trying to arrange to activities to keep him entertained. Wish me luck!

Filed Under: Parenting, Photography 2 Comments

Project 365: Week 50

December 18, 2011

The Holidays are here! I’ve spent my free time attending various functions, baking, eating, changing into multiple outfits, and pretty much ignoring my house and laundry. I will be spending the next week cleaning, cooking, shopping, organizing, and whatever else it takes to catch up on life!

Project 365 344/365: Random things at the gas station in Orange County: an entire display of Mexican Coke.

Project 365 345/365: Me and My Mixer. We’ve been BFFs today. #cookieexchangepanic.

Project 365 346/365: Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar: Day 9. X-Wing Starfighter. The Incom T-65 X-wing is the fighter that killed the Death Star. Note: The tiny blue Lego on top represents R2-D2 riding on top. #starwars #adventcalendar

Project 365 347/365: I like to take iPhone pics of my tree. The hodge podge of random ornaments, lights, and garland makes me smile.

Project 365 348/365: Where else can you see a gingerbread AT-AT but @discoverycube #gingerbreadDSC #starwars

Project 365 349/365: Bad Julie. Christmas themed Krispy Kreme.

Project 365 350/365: I have a thing for Mary Janes. My Goodwill purchase from a few months ago. They were brand new in my size!

Filed Under: Holidays, Just Julie, Parenting, Photography, Project 365 Leave a Comment

The Surprises of Motherhood

December 16, 2011

I learn something new every day about Motherhood. Sometimes, it is good things, and sometimes there are bad things. But there are a ton of surprises.

For the past month, I have been a Community Leader for the Million Moms Challenge. I have learned some great things from the blog posts, and discussions within the community. Hey, even I started a few discussions about vaccinations, nutrition, healthcare, holiday traditions, photography during pregnancy, and even that little trend of Elf on the Shelf.

For my last discussion, I am talking about “The Surprises of Motherhood”.

I took this photo today of Angry Kid reading to my friend’s son, whom is four. Isn’t it precious? I think so.

Please join me in the conversation over at The Million Moms Challenge Community, about my Surprise of Not Knowing That Angry Kid Could READ.

Filed Under: Parenting, Photography 1 Comment

Wordless Wednesday: Cookie Exchange

December 14, 2011

I was invited to two Cookie Exchange Parties this Holiday Season. Of course, both of them are within the same week. Both of the cookie recipes that I am using are from blogs. I LOVE LOVE LOVE food blogs.

Sunday night was the first Cookie Exchange Party. I chose a recipe and bought all of the ingredients. I need to remember to read the directions several times, and understand the hours of prep work involved. I decided to casually go to the gym, do some errands, and other things before making the cookies. I did not realize that the dough needed to sit in the refrigerator for two hours, and the cheesecake balls needed to be in the freezer at least two hours before even baking the cookies. Let’s just say that I was thirty minutes late to the cookie party, because I was still baking cookies when it started.

So the cookies that I showed up with, Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies from Two Peas & Their Pod. Besides not reading the directions beforehand, the cookies were pretty simple to make, and a HUGE hit. You couldn’t miss the plates of BRIGHT RED cookies.

Of course, there were other cookies too. Here are a few pictures of the cookies. Go figure, I took pictures of the cookies and not the people at the party. Typical.