We had our friends, Jake and Cindy, over for Christmas lunch and a little poker. Can’t you tell who won? Joel was thrilled as we never play poker and Jake and Cindy do!  The NO shirt was one of Joel’s Christmas presents from Amanda. We love Think Geek!

I made a yummy Chicken Provencal from Weight Watchers. It was a hit with Amanda and me, and will be used again. It made a ton, so there is enough for leftovers. I kicked up the seasoning a bit because I find that a lot of recipes are bland, and this Louisiana girl doesn’t do bland.

Today is New Year’s Eve and we have spent it hanging out. Joel has been in the garage all day detailing my car…see, I caught him:

I watched the season of Glee and knit on a bucket hat..

And I took pictures of the beautiful Florida sky…before the clouds rolled in:

Bacchus was not impressed:

Happy New Year everyone! See you in 2010!!

I know that a lot of bloggers use the last day of the year to look back, but I prefer to look forward to 2010.   I plan on knitting more because in 2009 I pretty much slacked off knitting. My mom-in-law gave me Knitting Little Luxuries for Christmas and there are some lovely things in there that I already have lined up to knit. I also am going to knit on some plain vanilla socks tonight as we wait for the new year. I think I have some Knitterly Things Vesper sock yarn in Lollipop in the stash, that I might knit with,  or who knows, I might just something out of the cream colored Malabrigo sock yarn that I know is in there.

So what am I looking forward to in 2010?

Becoming a better photographer.

Getting Healthy.

Knit more.

Pass my Elementary K-6 test.

Get a teaching contract after two years of long term subbing.

Finish the three quilts I have in the craft room.

Visit my parents more.

So there are my goals for 2010. What are yours?

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! We did here at Chez Belle.   We stayed home this year and just had a blast hanging out with each other and our friends. Amanda has worked for most of her break and Joel is on vacation so it’s pretty relaxed around here. I have a ton of lesson plans to do and I’ve hidden my school stuff in the garage until this afternoon. I didn’t want to worry about it the first week! Santa was good to all of us, even bringing me a beautiful pair of fleur de lis and amethyst earrings. I was shocked that Santa actually found some! I took exactly two pictures last week….and none of us opening presents. I know, slacker mom and photographer. One that I did take was actually a milestone in our house!

That, my friends, is my car hitting 200,000 miles. It’s a 1995 BMW 318 ti hatchback that we drove off the lot with 12 miles on it. It still has it’s original clutch, transmission and suspension, although the old girl is ready for a new suspension! It has been one workhorse of a car and runs as good today as it did when we bought it 14 years ago. Amanda is planning on taking it to college with her in a couple of years and I think we could probably get 100,000 more miles out of it if we take care of it! I tell you, only having one car note over the last ten years has been wonderful. I dread the day when I have to buy a new car!   This week will be pretty low key. I’m knitting another bucket hat for a friend a school and there are a couple of hats that Amanda has requested and since she might be able to wear them in January, I’ll try to get them whipped up!  Have a great week.

Nearly eight years ago my husband was offered an opportunity to move to Florida and work for Goodwill. Up until this point, the only thing I knew about Goodwill was that we had a couple of stores in the town where we lived and we dropped off clothes that we didn’t want anymore. At the time, I had no idea what exactly went on at the Goodwill Organization. I just thought they were a thrift store. Once we got here, I learned that Goodwill was more than just a place where your old clothes went after you were finished with them. In addition to operating twelve regular retail stores and seven specialty stores (including two bookstores)  in the local area, Goodwill Manasota offers other services such as job counseling and placement, a HomeBuyers program that enables people to become first time home buyers,  educational services and many other services. Our Goodwill has the reputation of hiring people who other employers would not even take a look at. Some of our success stories include a former drug addict who has straightened her life out after coming to work for Goodwill, an ex-con who was able to become a productive member of society after he was released and was employed by Goodwill. The  list of people that Goodwill has helped is endless. This summer when Amanda was old enough to get a job, she went to work at one of the retail stores as a sales floor associate. She runs racks, cleans up the dressing rooms and anything else that needs to be done to keep the store clean. It has been an invaluable learning experience for her because not only has she learned the value of a dollar, she has also worked with people who have not had the privileges that she has had and I think she has seen first had the differences that Goodwill has made in the lives of others. I know that Goodwill has made a huge difference in our lives…it moved us here to Florida where we have had opportunities that we would not have had in Louisiana. I know that this post is something out of the norm for me, but I wanted to let you know what Goodwill does, so that the next time you have a bag of clothes to get rid of, an old car you don’t want, or even furniture you can’t figure out what to do with, call your local Goodwill, you never know who’s life you might change.

Goodwill’s mission is to turn donations into good jobs, good homes, and good neighborhoods.

Well, it’s pets and animals and since my Italian Greyhounds favorite pose is lying under a blanket all day, I chose this photo of a giraffe that I shot while on a Press Trip to Cocoa Beach. It’s one of Amanda’s favorite photos so I’m submitting it for this week. Click for big so you can see the details.

For more pets and other animals, click the button.

Look! Knitting…and felting!

It’s the Felted Bucket Hat. I knit it and felted it all yesterday. It’s for my Secret Santa pal at work. I think I like the ribbon on it, what do you think?  I’m thinking the ribbing adds just a bit of something special. And of course I can’t leave you without a photo. I took this last year. and it’s actually part of a larger photo that I cropped.

Of course, click for big!

So you get more photos! The first one was taken at the beach on Memorial Day weekend, but I played around with curves in Picnik yesterday. It reminds me of old photos that I see when I look though my Aunt Eva and Aunt Deva’s photo box. The last two are me playing around with the Christmas lights down the street. I finally figured out how to do that with lights without getting all blurry. (well the second one is a bit blurry, but oh well)  I have papers to grade and lesson plans to write this afternoon, and hopefully will get our Christmas tree up if I can get my husband out of the house to go get one!

First let me say thank you to everyone who commented on my last photo. I was so thrilled with the reception that I got for my entry over at I <3 Faces. This photo is the latest entry in a challenge over at Digital Photography School. The challenge was “shoes” and I took a shot of my Converse that I had on this morning. There are probably my favorite pair of the eight pairs that I have. If you look closely, you can see that there are sheep on them…sort of an homage to knitting!   I processed this over at Picnik using Holga-ish. I cropped it down to make it a square then added the effect. I love how it turned out, and even better, I didn’t have to break out the Photoshop Elements to do it! I’ve also entered this over at Lolli’s

In other news, it looks like I will be teaching my ESE class for the rest of the year. The teacher has decided to take an extended leave so, I’ll be in Elementary school for now. They are a challenge, but they’re cute!   I am going to come up with some cute Christmas crafts to do for the next two weeks. Have a great weekend. I plan on watching the SEC Championships later this afternoon after I pick Amanda up from work. This is the only time I’ll ever say this “Go Gators!”

One of my favorite photos ever.   Check out I Heart Faces for more great photos by clicking on the button!

Recently I was sent the Holiday Blends Gift Set from Community Coffee to review and let me tell you, it did not disappoint! In this set that comes boxed for your gifting pleasure, are four full size Holiday Blends, Bread Pudding, Breakfast Blend, Holiday Jazz and Cinnamon Roll, which is a new flavor.

Since I had a whole house full of relatives coming for Thanksgiving, I decided to do my own coffee tasting. All off these coffees are a medium-dark roast which offers a rich, smooth and bold flavor. The Breakfast Blend was the perfect start to each morning.We started Thanksgiving Day with this coffee and my inlaws kept going back to the coffee pot for more…it was that good!  After lunch we tried out Bread Pudding and this blend takes me back to my favorite dessert ever….bread pudding. My sister in law added some half and half, a bit of caramel syrup to it and some whipped cream and made a drink that would rival most coffee houses! It’s a dessert in a cup!  Holiday Jazz was also a great afternoon coffee and I think we went through half a bag by the time we were through! The new Cinnamon Roll blend is sitting in my coffee cup as I type this, and I think I might have just found my new ‘go to’ coffee in the morning. It has a hint of cinnamon in it, but it is not too overwhelming, and it smells like those places where you can get those ooey-gooey cinnamon rolls with all the calories. Try this coffee instead and save yourself a hour at the gym! It’s yummy, delicious and it makes the whole house smell like Christmas. (Which is great for me since in Florida, the absence of cold weather in December makes it sometimes hard for me to get in the Christmas Spirit).  Thank you to Community Coffee for sending me these awesome coffees to try out. I highly encourage anyone who is looking for a gift for the coffee lover in your life to send them Community Coffee . If you’ve never tried Community Coffee before, now is a good time to try out their different blends and flavors. They truly do have something for everyone’s tastes.