I love eating mushrooms and now like so many others I am becoming obsessed with mushroom everything. I got these Decole mushroom magnets in Boston.

And these Decole mushroom pushpins.

They hold up my Williams Sonoma recipe cards and Martha Stewart craft project cards from Michaels nicely.

I forgot to link to my pictures from my NYC trip. I have them on My Gallery. There are some pictures of the amazing Christmas display windows at Lord&Taylor.

I have been collecting plastic deer for a few years now. My mom has found quite a few for me at yard sales and flea markets. I even decided that they would play a big role in this years Christmas theme.

So you can imagine how surprised I was when I saw this spread in this month's Martha Stewart Living.

Little plastic deer everywhere.

Sometimes I feel like she is watching me.

But I am using her Michaels craft stuff for my "Woodland Creatures" Christmas themed projects so it's all good.

When we were home for Thanksgiving I got to meet my grandma's new puggle puppy, Maggie. Half pug, half beagle. I enjoyed picking out her pug-features... eyes, back feet, tail trying to curl over. Her beagle characteristics were obvious as she tore around the house and bounced off the walls. She is a little Hyper Hypo.

Oscar took it all in stride.

I just ordered these LED Christmas lights for our holiday decorating. They are amazing for so many reasons.

• They use 80% less electricity than incandescent lights.
• They last for about 20 years.
• They don't get hot!

I am thrilled because we have been trying to be greener at our house, and I also fret over the risk of our lights getting too hot and catching fire.

These bulbs are suitable for outdoor use which is great because I need them for our window boxes.

I got these stuffed Deery Lou and Mushroom Christmas tree ornaments when I was in Las Vegas. I love Deery Lou. I think they are cute enough to have up year round.

Aaron got me two of these little chocolate cats at Beacon Hill Chocolates when he was in Boston. I just found that our local Parkleigh carries them too. Aren't they the cutest? They had toffee and chocolate inside. Stewie thought it was barbaric.

Does this look weird to you? A few weeks ago I came home from work to find this scene in my living room, all three of them perched on the couch... Oscar and Stewie staring straight ahead... Aaron seemingly oblivious. It just seems odd. I am convinced that I have a strange cat, a strange dog... and most likely though not apparent in this photo, a strange husband.

We are home in PA for Thanksgiving. I wish our drive to my parent's house took us past Erie. On our way back from Cleveland a few months ago, we were going through Erie where I noticed a sign for a Steak 'n Shake. It sounded good I persuaded Tina to stop. Apparently Steak 'n Shake was founded in Normal, Illinois in 1934. (I wish I could say I was from Normal, Illinois)

The burgers were good, but what really blew me away was their shakes. I especially liked the Side-by-Side Shake. It's two flavors in one glass! Brilliant! I had dark chocolate shake and banana shake. By merely moving my straw from one side of the glass to the other I could switch flavors. Genius.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

(a knit turkey I saw in the window of the NYC Public Library = awesome)

I saw this pink VW Bug in NYC and got really excited. Thoughts of trading in my 2000 green Bug raced through my mind. But when I checked the VW site, no pink Bugs to be had. *sigh*

I wouldn't mind one of these old school bugs either.

I just happened to be in NYC when the Muji SoHo store opened. I had been reading about it everywhere online, so I was thrilled to be there the weekend it opened. I have been to the ones in London so I knew what I was in for.

I have a sad habit, however, of purchasing items when traveling that will be a challenge to carry home on the plane. Check out the size of this bag.

I just had to have this recycling sorter. Fortunately it folded flat and actually fit in the plane's overhead compartment. I LOVE it. It holds three plastic grocery bags (which despite my numerous reusable bags still find their way into my house). We use one for plastic, one for glass and one for aluminum. It was so worth carrying it home.

When I go to NYC there are certain places I just HAVE to go to... Jamba Juice, Pomme Frites and Secret Burger Joint. Thanks to some suggestions and wandering around... I have three more.

Max Brenner's Chocolate Cafe. Chocolate heaven.

Pinkberry Frozen Yogurt. Not as sweet as I expected... I loved the fresh toppings. Their design is so cute too.

The Kati Roll Company was recommended to us by Shruti. We went back twice.

Here are all the pictures from the trip on My Gallery

On this trip to NYC we did something I have always wanted to do, we went to see the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall. It's the perfect time to go because it's their 75th Anniversary Christmas Spectacular.

The Rockettes first came out as reindeer. They had a lot of acts and it was all amazing.

I was excited about the live camels, sheep and donkeys in the nativity.

Radio City Music Hall is gorgeous and the show was great. I walked around with stars in my eyes for hours afterwards. And I HAD to have the Collectors Edition Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular Program.

I am in NYC where I spoke on a PR panel about social media yesterday. I don't leave until this evening and Aaron flew in last night to join me. love NYC at the holidays!

I don't want to push Christmas before it's time, but here is something you will want to start early so you have it ready for the first of December... a Photo Advent Calendar.

I love advent calendars and wanted one that was personalized. So I created this house design in illustrator and the template for placing the photos behind it.

You can download the pdf's to make your own Photo Advent Calendar on 1000 Words and more detailed instructions for making it.

You can open a window for each day in December and see one of your favorite photos!

I also made an Oscar and Stewie back panel so you could have a Pug and Cat Advent Calendar if you don't have time to fill one in with your own pictures. Or maybe you just want a cute Pug and Cat Advent Calendar. You can download this panel at 1000 Words too.

I already have a nice sewing machine my mom gave me... but check out this HELLO KITTY SEWING MACHINE I saw at Target!!! So cute... it's disgusting. I bet everything sewn on this machine comes out perfect and adorable.

Thanksgiving is next week and I have turkey on the brain. Check out my Extreme Turkey post over at Rocha-chatter.

I joined NaBloPoMo and got tagged by Michelle and imagined-community for the 7 Weird and Random Facts About Me. What? Only seven?!

1. my husband and I have a matching freckle on the same spot on the same ear

2. I have a collection of 73 smashed pennies.

3. I hate hate hate the word nipple. Brrrrrr.

4. I don't swear. Well, I did say the f-word once when a bottle of grapefruit juice spilled in my handbag... but no one was around.

5. I didn't get contacts, pierced ears or my drivers license until I graduated from high school.

6. I did, however, get the top of my ear pierced the summer after I graduated high school, and my mom nearly passed out. I still wear a tiny hoop in it. It won't grow shut.

7. I really like Harlequin Romance novels by Betty Neels. Only Betty Neels. Her stories are all pretty much the same. Poor mousey English nurse meets tall, handsome Dutch surgeon. I can't help myself.

So here is the dealy for this meme.

• Link to the person who tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
• Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.
• Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs. You have to use this randomizer, no, you can't choose your friends - go meet new ones!
• Let each person know that they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Up next...

Frogalog
Finding wonder in the mundane
Gummiespaz
On Being a Sports Girl
the tao of jon
Binary Blonde
OurYoungFamily
Oh and This little life of mine jumped in too!

Does this look familiar?

How about this?

They should. They are projects I did for Christmas 2005 and 2006. And I just provided them for the Christmas Crafts magazine that is in stores now. I had to create samples for the photography and write up the instructions for them. Not hard... but it was time consuming.

It was pretty exciting to see the magazines in the grocery store check out line... and so cool to see my stuff inside! I can say that I am "published" now right?!

I am a bit dehydrated. Lips cracking and a bit headachey. Not sure if it's from the airplane air or the sudden cold weather that has arrived in town, but I am arming myself with the two following items.

#1: I'm taking a little break from my Vitamin Water Addiction with these super adorable bottles of bot fortified water. "All natural, no artificial flavlors, sweeteners or preservatives. Low in sugar and vitamin fortified." And look how cute they are for cryin' out loud! So what if they are for kids? Grape bot = esp yummy. 

#2: This is my new favorite lip balm (of which I have a wee addiction to also). We Live Like This Everyday Lip Balm. I currently have the orange. I appreciate how it swivels up lipstick-style so I can pretend I am a real grownup.

Back from Vegas and looking at the pictures. We stayed at The Paris Hotel and had a nice view from the room window.

I didn't take a lot of pictures, but I am getting good at the "hold your arm out as far as it will go" self portrait technique. You can see the rest of my Vegas pictures on My Gallery.

Did I mention Maroon 5 was playing at the Palms the last night we were there. *sigh* So close, yet so far.

Oh... and I am booking another flight to Vegas this very moment... for CES in January. That's a lot of Vegas.

Vegas sure has a lot of shows.... things like Chippendales, Thunder from Down Under... and what do we go see? Menopause the Musical! Bah-hah. Tina's brother got us the tickets, which was so nice. It was cute... and funny.

We also saw $250,000 Game Show Spectacular. I went in there hoping I wouldn't get called up on stage but by the end I was hopping up and down "Pick me! Pick me!" I didn't get picked and I didn't win $250, 000. Jamie Farr seems like a really nice guy.

I was pretty excited to see Cupcakes Take the Cake post about cupcakes in Las Vegas. I love trying out cupcakes in different cities.

Last month... before I went to Cleveland I put a call out for cupcake bakeries that I could check out. A couple folks emailed/commented that there weren't any there.

To the contrary, at the West Side Market I found Grandma Freda's cupcakes. There were strawberry, wedding cake vanilla, peanut butter cup and deep chocolate almond.

They were goooood. Lucky Clevelanders. Hopefully I will get a chance to see what cupcakes Las Vegasers enjoy. Or is it Las Vegasians?