I have been a Browns fan all my life and wanted something unique to support my team. Being a Cleveland (I love the Indians and Cavs, too) sports fan there are certain phrases that you get used to saying, like "there's always next year." But even with that, I'm a die hard, loyal fan. It's almost ridiculous. This year my husband has a season ticket and has been to every home game and I have been to several games. Including the Monday night game when we beat the pants off of the New York Giants (who are now 7-1 and we're the 1). We also went to Baltimore for the Ravens @ Browns game--which I don't want to dicuss.

To make a long story short, I wanted a Browns purse. I've seen a few never ones I really like, so I decided to make one and here it is. Now I have something that no one else has. Hopefully, the Browns will do something else this season but it not, I'm still a huge fan, I still have my purse and there's always next year!

FYI: This is now a craft blog!!!

I saw a card similar to this at a friends house and thought to my self "that's super cute & I can make it." So, I did. The original had the ears on the ends but I think it looks more like a cat and less like a bat this way.

I'll be adding a lot more fun things later.

Here's what I did: I cut the shape out of black cardstock then cut the eyes out of orange and the nose out of black. I masked the area where I wanted the eyes and nose to be with the shapes and sprayed with adhesive. I turned the eyes and nose over and then coated the entire thing with black glitter. I cut thin strips of black cardstock and then snipped them from one end almost to the other (keeping them in one peice). I curled the whiskers with scissors and voila!!

Vacation

Brad & I just got back from what has become our annual fishing trip to Bob's Lake in Canada. It was so nice to be unreachable for a whole week. There are no phones, no televisions, no cable, most cabins don't have showers or even hot water in the bathrooms, although we ended up in a cabin with a private shower (that was nice). We took our portable DVD player so that we could watch The Dukes of Hazzard. We went to the closest town which is Westport and got fresh fudge and visited the Lower Rideau (the lake where Westport is). I already had "sea legs" by the end of the second day on the boat. Let me tell you, its no fun to feel like you're still on the boat when you're not. I have some pretty good pictures which I may post if I ever get around to it. It's not like I haven't been promising other pictures for almost a year now!!

I have been very busy at work since my last post. I have been doing an Interim Controllership at a client for more than a month now. Their books were a mess and I was charged with straightening them out in a matter of about 3-1/2 weeks, which I did (for the most part). There are still a few odds and ends that need to be cleared up, but I am basically done!! I look forward to spending more time in my office and less time at this client!!! I spent about an hour or so at my office this morning and will be there again Wednesday morning, but aside from that I will be at the client. People don't even know I work there any more--everyone is surprised to see me come in to the office. They say "I didn't know if you still worked here" and "wow, nice of you to pop in every once in a while." It's kind of funny. I think they had this project in mind for me long before I accepted their offer. It sure is a good thing that I have experience cleaning up messes!!

Next Monday is my company's annual golf outing and they offered some alternative activities. I am attending a gourmet grilling class which should be fun.

Brad & I are going to Chicago (land) the weekend of June 30th. I love to go there and Brad hates it. He says it's too flat and busy and there are way too many stores. I love to shop, so needless to say I tend to think otherwise.

More to come later.

More words

I plan on sitting for the CPA Exam within the next year, and hopefully becoming certified. There are several reasons I haven't taken the exam yet, first there was no reason for me to be a CPA at my old job, second it's a very difficult exam and third it's very expensive. I know, I know, all excuses--but my time for excuses is diminishing, as I am required to sit for and pass the exam since I am qualified (with more than 150 credit hours) to take it. And if I weren't, I would have to go back to school for my Master's Degree and then take it. Which is one of the reasons I decided to take this postion, sometimes it's easier to do something difficult if you have the help and support of people whom you respect and who have been through the same experience.

So, that's pretty much what has changed . . .

There will be pictures coming eventually (I'm not Chicken Little).

I love you, you're perfect, now change!

One of my Christmas presents from my hubby was a gift certificate for the Carousel Dinner Theatre. So on February 10th, Brad & I went to see I love you, you're perfect, now change. It was a little racy, but hysterical! The show was all about relationships, from the first date to being married for 30 years. There were only 4 actors in the entire show-which was about 3 hours long-who did all the acting, singing and dancing. I would recommend it to anyone with a sense of humor. We had a wonderful evening, I love any event that gets us both dressed up and expecting to enjoy ourselves (like weddings). We were both exhausted by the end of the show and we didn't get home until about 12:15 am, which is really hard on Brad since he can't sleep past 5:30 on a normal day. I swear, he should be a rooster, the latest I ever remember him sleeping was until, maybe, 7 am. And he's an annoying morning person, singing, happy and ready to go! "They" say early to bed, early to rise, makes a person healthy, wealthy and wise. I say, early to bed (so I can lay there for an hour or two or three trying to sleep), early to rise (by 5:30 I've been asleep for maybe 5 hours), makes me a sleepy, grumpy crabcake, not to mention how my eyes look!

I plan on posting more stuff soon and some pictures for those of you who are interested.

My Valentine

Brad & I had only celebrated Valentine's Day (Hallmark holiday) twice since we've been together. On our first Valentine's Day, he made me dinner and bought a dozen of the most beautiful peach colored roses and a fuzzy, sparkling teddy bear to match (which I still have). The other one we celebrated was last year, because it was our first Valentine's Day after our wedding. This year we were supposed to exchange cards like most other years, but I don't think Brad got that memo! He sent a gorgeous basket of daisies (my favorite) to my office. He is so sweet. The rest of the evening wasn't super romantic, Bob Evans for dinner (we used a gift card we got for Christmas), and to the grocery store after that, but we had a nice evening together. It was so busy that I forgot to give him the card I made for him. Oops! In fact, he still hasn't gotten it. I'll let you know when he finally gets his card.

There are also some important life decisions which are in the works too, but since no decisions have been made yet, I am going to wait to share details.

It has been a while!

A lot has happened since my last post! First, in September, I went on a girls' 30th birthday trip with some friends. There were 5 of us, Michelle, Danielle & I (all turned 30 in 2005) and Nicole & Alisha (who turned 30 before 2005). Michelle had her heart set on Aruba, so that's where we went. It was wonderful and so much more beautiful than I could have imagined, the perfect tropical vacation. Maybe I'll post some pictures later!

In December, Brad & I had our second Christmas as a married couple. We had a wonderful Christmas with both of our families. I am part of a Stampin' Club that started in January, I love crafting (which comes as no surprise to anyone who knows me).

Since I went to Aruba with my friends, I'm going to miss out on the University of Akron Ski Club Western Trip to Jackson Hole, WY this year. At last glance, the base was around 70" or so, and it was snowing like crazy, 15" in 24 hours. I'm taking Brad & Cheryl (his 21 year old baby sister) to the airport at 6 am this Sunday, and they won't return until 11:30 pm on Sunday the 15th. It should be a lot of fun and I'm somewhat jealous because I have never been there. I've been on 4 western ski trips so far: Copper Mountian, CO, Sun Valley, ID, Winter Park, CO & Telluride, CO, all of which were amazing, but this year my Bradley is going without me :( I think that's the worst part. I'll post some pictures of this too, as soon as they get back.

Hurricane Katrina

My thoughts and prayers are with everyone who has been affected by Hurricane Katrina. I wish there was more I could do, my minimal donation seems less than miniscule when I think of all of the damage, flooding and widespread loss. For those who weren't directly affected, it is so easy to ignore the happenings on the Gulf Coast and continue with life, but we cannot forget to pray for those who have the burden of such a horrific loss.

I'm new to this!

Right now the only thing that is new is that I set up this blog! I don't have anything to post as of now! New stuff will come soon.