Post Holiday Bliss

After all the time I spent dreading this holiday I’m sitting back and just marveling at how much I’m enjoying this time off. I can’t remember when, or if, Karlo and I had time off from work and just spent it tinkering around the house - not working, but just relaxing and kicking back. It has been amazing to say the least. And now that the whole big production is done and over with I’m actually thinking that maybe the hosting of the dinner wasn’t all that bad. Maybe I made it out to be more work and stress than it needed to be. Gee, do ya think that’s possible?

Aside from my oven giving me all sorts of stress and problems and the slightly chaotic changing of the plates and silverware mid-meal (perhaps this is just a crazy Hungarian tradition that the Italians think was pointless) it all went pretty smoothly and easily. Oh and there was also that little morning cooking incidence . . . I decided weeks before Christmas that we should have something Hungarian as part of our meal. After all, the dinner was being served at the Apro residence. I wanted Karlo to have something familiar that might remind him of Christmas at home. I thought this would be a nice gesture, but the cooking (of course) would have to fall on Karlo. Little did I know this would mean upsetting my apple cart.

The day before Christmas I was busy doing last minute cleaning and prepping. I burnt candles all day long to make sure the house had the perfect “Christmas” smell. I figured the smell of pine needles mixed with sauce would be the ultimate holiday experience. I even told Karlo that we could not have pancakes, eggs, or french toast for breakfast because I didn’t want the smell of ‘frying’ to ruin my perfect little atmosphere. So you can imagine my surprise when suddenly the entire house was filled with the horrible smell of frying ONIONS. Oh my dear Lord, what on earth was he doing in the kitchen? I ran downstairs to protest and tell him that this did NOT spell like Christmas!! Karlo’s reply was, “Sure it does. It smells like a Hungarian Christmas.” Well, who’s fault was this? My own. What the heck was I thinking? No worries, a half a can of Oust or Fabreeze and we were back in business.

So now it’s all over and done with and we’ve been spending quality time in and around the house. I’ve been having a ball with my new dance game. Love it! We took time to play in the blizzard. The dogs loved that. We even spent time researching and brainstorming our next vacations. The time went peacefully slowly. We slept in, relaxed, played, tried to start the generator when the power went out . . . It was just the most enjoyable few days at home. I don’t want this to end. And having snow to play in was just the icing on the cake! Thank you Mother Nature and thank you God for all the blessings in my life.

Dog Days

And we can't forget to recap the holiday from the dog's perspective . . .

(footnote: You need to click on the "x" when the annoying ad pops up at the bottom of the video.)

Christmas Recap

Well, I survived. And more importantly, so did our guests. I can't say it wasn't an adventure for some of my family to find us–despite my directions and hand-drawn maps. There was some stressful moments and a list of screw ups . . . most of which involved cooking, but all in all I guess the day went pretty well. Luckily most of the screw ups went unnoticed and my brother saved the day with stepping in and solving my convection oven issue. Here's a tip for you . . . don't ever try something you never tried before on the day you are entertaining. Never a good idea and I won't make that mistake again.


Once all the food was served I finally felt the stress melt away and was able to really enjoy the evening. Karlo and I managed to get some of the youngins out for a little after-dinner hike and that was really a treat, both for us and the hounds. We had just enough snow to make it pretty and we got to give my cousins a taste of "Christmas in the country."


It was so nice to just sit around and catch up with my family. We had some quality down time together and I wish it didn't fly by so fast.

As always I wish I spent more time visiting and less time stressing. I wish didn't make any hosting mistakes. I wish I took more pictures. I wish I got into the whirlpool last night like I promised myself I would. Well, I'm going to make up for it all over the next couple of days. I plan to do nothing but play, relax, take pictures, and sit in the whirlpool while watching the snow fall.

To see more pictures of our special day, please click here.

Or if you have more time on your hands and want to watch an animated slide show of the day, please click on the play button below.

Christmas Letter 2010

I swear these letters get harder and harder to write every year. It is such a challenge to remember what I did yesterday, let alone recap the entire year. But I know this is a good exercise to do–to take the time and look back, to reflect on our lives, and be thankful for everything in them. And this year, like all the others, has been chock full of exciting things.


I do remember one thing . . . our New Year’s Resolution last year was to try to have more fun. I know that seems like a crazy resolution, but Karlo and I really seem to struggle at having fun. We tend to get too bogged down in work and I knew that we needed to make some changes. The first thing I did was go out and buy us a Wii system. How can you not have fun playing with a Wii? I positively love it and I’m still playing with it a year later. It sometimes requires some arm twisting to get Karlo to play, but he usually caves. The Wii sure did make the long Winter go by faster.


When Spring rolled around I positively couldn’t wait to get back to taking pictures and was thrilled to grab a great deal on a photography seminar vacation. We had a ball driving down to the Outer Banks in North Carolina for this trip. We visited friends both on the way down, as well as on the way back home. I managed to get some great pictures and learned a few things to boot. It was a dream come true for me and even Karlo had a good time. Another score in the fun category.


We bridged the gap between Spring and Summer with a fantastic trip to Croatia and Montenegro. Seems like it’s always easy for Karlo and I to have fun on two wheels so this was an easy one for us given that we biked every day. We could not have asked for a better vacation than this. Well, maybe a bit less hills to climb. OK, who am I kidding? We loved the hills. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. Fun fun.

I have to say, this Summer is going on record as our most fun and relaxing one. Seems every year up until this point we always had some ridiculous project (either a major home improvement project, a construction project, and we don’t even want to remember that book writing ordeal) going on. But this time . . . this time I can’t think of one major thing we took on. The only thing I committed to was opening my art gallery 4 times and each and every opening was an all-day socializing event. We had loads of fun at every opening visiting with all our friends. Maybe having fun is easier than I thought it would be.

My birthday this year was incredible and lasted 4 days. It started with a limo ride with friends down to the casino and ended with a two day motorcycle tour of the Litchfield Hills. This time I rode my own bike and I was very proud of myself. The only damper on this weekend was the severe shoulder and neck pain. To THINK I’m having all this fun and yet still stressed enough to be in pain. I still don’t get that, and I’m working on it trying to fix it. That will be part of next year’s New Year’s resolution . . .

The rest of the Summer was filled with more fun. We had a great visit with Jessica, took some day trips to the shore, bought a fun car, and even celebrated our anniversary in our favorite city.




Enter Fall–my favorite time of the year. We took a surprise weekend get-away to the Berkshires. What a pretty place at that time of the year and we really excelled at the relaxing and having fun thing during this weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed that trip because it was sandwiched between a whole lot of business travel. It was nice to get away and not work for a change. Of course, our vacation came soon after and where we managed to work there - a lot. It was one of those burn-a-zillion-calories-a-day kind of trips, the ones that I love the best and we did it in one of our favorite spots in the world, Acadia National Park, Maine. Our hearts still beat a little faster when in Maine and not because we are hiking or biking, because we truly love the place. It was hard not to fantasize the entire time about moving up there. Maybe one day if I could make peace with the cold it will happen. Until then I’ll be curled up next to Cooper by the wood stove.

Unfortunately this really nice year is ending with the usual chaotic stress. I’m working on improving this situation. I’m slowing making small changes to simply my life and I have to continue to move toward simplicity. Gee, I like that word, “simplicity.” I think I just found my theme for 2011 . . .

We pray that your holidays are filled with joy, happiness and most of all good health. Cheers and here's to the New Year.

If a Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words . . .

This is worth a novel . . . It's sort of a flash card autobiography of the past couple years of my life. You can make your own for free at http://pummelvision.com

The Scarecrow Continues to Struggle

This weekend was mostly all work and no play. The house needed some serious pre-Christmas cleaning and there went two full days. uuuugh. It was dreadful. Between the dust killing my allergies and then the chemical-filled cleaning products making me sick, I just wanted to curl up in a ball and sleep. Getting outside for even a brief time was such a nice and welcome break. It’s been weeks since the poor dogs got a hike and they were simply thrilled. They got all dressed up in their cute coats and tore up the yard. I got suck a kick out of watching them be so happy. I thought, “Now that is what the Christmas spirit should be all about–pure joy.”

And Cooper managed to bring me joy at the end of the hike . . . I simply can’t help taking pleasure in poking fun at his complete lack of intellienge. As we were walking out of the meadow toward the pond Karlo said, “What are the chances that Cooper is going to try to drink out of the pond?” I knew the chances were extremely high given that is his usual routine. After every hike the dogs are thirsty and treat themselves to a drink. Funny how this never happened when Bentley was alive, but sure enough, Cooper runs to the edge of the frozen pond and nearly gets his tongue stuck on the ice. Nothing was funnier than watching his shocked reaction to what just happened. I could just see the bubble cloud over his head. “What happened? Where did the water go? Why is my tongue stuck to this solid freezing thing? Maybe I should move down a foot. Maybe the water is over there.”

So he walks down a foot further and tries again. Again his tongue hits the ice. OK, maybe two more feet would be better . . . . He proceeded to make at least 6 attempts at getting water from the shore of the pond until he finally ran out of pond. Good thing because I’m pretty sure he would have continued trying for a mile if there was that much shore. What a shame I didn’t have a video camera for this little episode. My poor clueless wonder sure is entertaining.

And speaking of entertaining. We are making some progress with the dining room. I started to set the table on Saturday and decided I needed more table decoration. I asked Karlo if he would ‘go shopping’ for some decor with me and the look he gave me said it all. There was no way he was going shopping. Can you imagine his relief when I told him that I wanted to ‘shop’ in the back yard? We went outside with some cutters and ‘bought’ some pine clippings and pine cones to adorn the table. It maybe not be Pier One, but it sure is Eastford chic.

Here's a shot of the table, put together and right-side-up. Don't worry Penni, there are extra legs to support the heavy plywood.

Since I couldn't get Karlo (my rooster) to wear his Santa hat, I adorned my 'other' rooster with it.

I guess it's finally beginning to look a little like Christmas around here. Now all we need is a little snow . .

Unneccessary Over Complication

Karlo and I are hosting dinner for 13 people on Christmas Day. This shouldn't really pose that much of a problem. Our house is plenty big and given the fact that we practically have no walls, it should be easy to expand the dining area. We also just happen to already own two 6 foot banquet tables. What a cinch it would be to just turn our table sideways, insert a couple of leafs, and place one of the portable tables at the end. I have two matching table clothes and it would have been an instant table for 13. But no. Somebody had other ideas and apparently it was much smarter to buy plywood, nearly destroy our dining room table, and turn the dining room into a construction zone. The photo above shows the scene from last night with our living room chair being used to hold everything together while the glue dried. Yeah, that was easy!

This Was an Accident

Today Karlo and I dressed alike and we are being teased at work. I personally think we look cute all matching in our purple outfits ;-) Sorry for the bad picture. Jill is baffled with taking photos with a phone camera.

Another Lame Cop Out

Yup, I'm short on time again and drawing a blank. So in lieu of words here's some comic relief.

No Time for a Story

You would think that given the fact that I took today off from work I would have had time to write a nice blog. I had thoughts of summing up my trip to Florida and then I realized that I don't have any pictures. Well, I have work-related pictures, but how boring is that? And this blog topic would require me to actually sit down and think. Something that I just can't seem to do right now. I'm a human ping pong ball with a hairline fracture in it. I can crack at any moment.

So rather than fighting a losing battle and rambling aimlessly I thought I would borrow some of Lisa's pictures to amuse you. I can't even remember the last time I snapped the shutter for pleasure (for shame). I hope you don't mind me stealing your pretty pictures Lisa!

Here's some snapshots from our holiday sale two weekends ago. I still can't believe it was TWO weekends ago. Felt like it was just a couple of days ago.

Here's me setting up my table . . .

Here's a couple of shots of some of the vendors, including Lisa's table . . .

Here's a shot of the cozy fireplace . . .


And here we are dancing to keep warm . . . (Note to self, do not try to dance in furry boots with pom poms dangling off them.)

A Wake Up Call

Boy am I glad to have half of December behind me. So far the past two events (the holiday art sale & my business trip to Orlando) went fairly smoothly. I can feel a little bit of tension releasing as I get further and further into the dreaded month of December. I always have a countdown to Christmas, but usually for different reasons than most. I just want to get through it, ship all my orders, and have happy customers. I have to say my new handy Droid has made this year go much smoother than any year in the past. Thank you Droid.

But one thing did happen before I left for Florida that really scared me. A couple of weeks before our trip I contacted our neighbor to ask if she can watch the dogs while we were away. I was convinced that she never responded to my email and I went ahead and made other arrangements for the dogs. Then, on the day I was leaving, said neighbor contacted me to ask if she was still on for dog sitting. I wrote back and explained that because she never got back to me I had made other arrangements. Without saying a word, she forwarded me the email correspondence between us that clearly showed her response saying she could indeed watch the dogs and MY response saying, “Great I’ll be back in touch next week.” Holy Lord I still have NO RECOLLECTION whatsoever of this email correspondence and this really bugs me. In fact it SCARES me. Karlo said, “Paula, this is a sign that you are doing too much.” And I know he’s right. I can’t keep this up and I’m not sure how to fix my issues.

I still can’t get this little incident out of my head. I’m so embarrassed that my neighbor thinks I’m a complete ditz. I have got to somehow get a better handle on my life! After I catch up on the paperwork for dozens of new orders, accounting and inventory issues, a pile of emails, loads of laundry, endless work issues, and last minute xmas shopping I'm going to ponder my problems and come up with a really good New Year's resolution. I hope it involves a home jail sentence or maybe solitary confinement.

In Between Events

I’m smack in the middle of a couple of events. We just wrapped up a nice holiday sale in Eastford this weekend. It was a fun and relaxing two days. Lots of work and stress went into preparing for it, but once the actual event arrived it really was quite enjoyable. There were about 10 artists all together and we all gathered in the coziest spot. We had a crackling fire, xmas music, yummy treats, and great company for two consecutive days. It really was a God-sent break for me from the typical chaos of my life. There was nothing else I could do all day, but sit back, relax, socialize, knit, play with my iPad and even do a little bit of dancing. Fun fun fun.

But the party is over now. I’m just about to shut my computer down, pack up my bags, and head to the airport. uuuugh. This is by far the worst part of traveling. Not only are the actual travel days a burden, but the impending stressful preparation also sucks. I hate running around at the last minute trying to pack and organize myself. That last part is a mere impossibility. I finished packing at 6 pm last night and then for the next two hours I sprung off the couch every 20 minutes gathering the things I forgot. You would think, by now, I would be a master at packing, but it really works against me. Because I travel so much I get very cavalier about it. I figure it’s no big deal and don’t give it the proper preparation that I should.

So now I’m all packed with all the things I ‘think’ I need and it’s a waiting game of the “I don’t want to go. I’m wish Karlo was coming with me . . . “ bit. I guess I should stop procrastinating and just get going and get it over with.

Be back in a week . . .