Happenings

This past weekend my friends Tonya and Jessica hosted a fantastic jewelry party at Tonya's house.

The first party, which they hosted as a benefit for Baby M, is documented here and here.

Friday night after work, I helped set up and get things ready with them - I love being with those girls and knowing that my life is about to change 150%, every little second with them counts. I labeled and priced a bunch of earrings and necklaces, plus made the little cardboard backings they hang on - you have to punch holes in the card, then add the label, then hammer grommets into them, then another set of holes for the earrings, then label, price, and attach the earrings. It was quite a process and I really started to appreciate how much work goes into running your own business.

I am so proud of my friends. They worked so hard and the displays looked amazing. Of course I forgot to take photos, but take my word. It was classy, Christmasy and wonderful.

If you want to buy any of their amazing craftsmanship check out their stores Lola Breen Boutique and Jett Jones Designs. Someone gave me the "Kara" necklace - named after me and inspired by the dominant colors in Baby M's nursery - black, white and red. I also landed the Macy bracelet and Macy earrings. I can't wait to wear them with a purple sweater and brown accessories. I also bought some Christmas presents, but I can't show you photos because that person might be reading this post and I don't want to ruin the surprise!

In other news, today was a record low in our city - a blistery 19 degrees. And yesterday was pretty darn cold too. I used to have a high tolerance for cold weather when I went to college in the NC mountains, but not anymore. Ironically, I decided to wear a skirt and tights yesterday, and a dress and tights today - on the two coldest days of the year so far! It's better to look good than to feel good right?

Yesterday I spent most of it inside, but today I had to get up extra early for a presentation that started at 7:30 a.m. so I wore my mom's fake Ugg boots to work, put on my heels for the presentation (I was presenting), then pulled the boots back on at my desk. I can't take them off. I've worn them all day - at my desk, to the ladies room, across the street to Chick fil A for a little lunch - I hope no one notices because I'm considering wearing them all day. Ok enough about the weather!

Matt and I are going to be STARS! Kidding. But we are going to be a part of this pilot our adoption agency is conducting - they want us to create a video profile!

As I've told you before, Matt and I had to gather 50 pictures, plus write a few mini-essays and a letter to our potential birthmother to create our family profile. The profile is shown to potential birthmothers either in paper form or on the agency's website. Now the agency is trying a new venture - creating video profiles for adoptive families. The purpose is to give birthmothers a more tangible way to see the couple interact, and hear directly from them about why those chose to adopt, see their home, neighborhood and family and friends.

We are really, really, REALLY excited about this. Matt is about to complete his degree* in Multi-Media (a fancy term for graphic design, video and sound editing and animation) and has been making his own mini movies for years. So needless to say, this video will be a fantastic opportunity for him to put those skills to use - he is even trying to convince the agency to let us edit the video ourselves - we'll see if they agree! We just received an email today that the camera and instructions will be shipped tomorrow and will arrive in about a week.

We'll make a little cut of the video no matter what and share it with you!

In other news, I've had a lot of our friends, family and a few of my co-workers tell me that they have a "feeling" we'll be getting a call for a baby this month - sometime around Christmas. My boss even had a dream about it. Whether it happens or not, it's nice to dream about Baby M sleeping in my arms while we look at our Christmas tree.

This is our Christmas tree last year with the dog and cat. It was a sad fake tree with very few branches. This year we used the same sad tree but added some more color and ornaments to fill it in - looks a lot better this year - I'll take a picture and post it soon.

Happy Wednesday!