Cousin Eddie or Nephew Nicky?

I love movies....all kinds of movies. We have quite a few Christmas movies in our collection, and we try to watch as many of them as possible over the holidays. One of my favorites is Christmas Vacation. The first time I watched it, I laughed so hard at Cousin Eddie's (Randy Quaid) outfit with that black dickie under his white sweater and his white shoes.

I write all this to prep you for the following photo of my fun-loving nephew Nick. Nick has such a wonderful sense of humor and often has us laughing so hard at his antics. This past weekend, we were at my sister-in-law's (Nick's mom) house celebrating Christmas and when Nick arrived, we all were laughing so hard at his attire because he dressed similar to Cousin Eddie.  Nick even had the moose-shaped glass exactly like the one Cousin Eddie used in the movie.  Isn't his outfit hysterical? (And, yes, that is me wearing my tuxedo t-shirt that I bought at the Tennessee Aquarium while on vacation there in October---I got to see my beloved penguins!!!)  Nick, we love you and so appreciate your wonderful sense of humor and the laughter you bring to our lives!!

As a side note, Nick is the father of my sweet great-niece Zoe featured with me in my avatar picture.  Zoe will soon be three, is very, very smart, and is just the cutest little girl with her curly, flaming red hair.  Here she is in her beautiful Christmas dress. 

I also had fun making several cards this past week that I'd like to share.  This first one I titled Classy Simone.  Simone is a Rubbernecker image, and I love coloring this classy-looking lady with my Copic markers.  For Mothermark's Teapot Tuesday challenge this past week, the inspiration piece was a pitcher with a red and purple hat on it.

My next card also features Rubbernecker images from the martini glass set and phrase set #2.  Kim Hughes challenged everyone to use silver in their design for the Ways to Use It challenge on Splitcoaststampers (SCS).  I used:

silver embossing powder
silver ribbon and cord
silver charm

I colored my olive with pencils. I used my paper piercer to pierce two holes on each side of the glass stem in order to thread my silver cord through and attach the silver charm.




For this Trendy Tree design, I used the colors Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, and Wild Wasabi as given to us by the Clean and Simple challenge hostess, Jenn (Miss Boo on SCS).   

Granddaughter Emma's birthday was this week, so I pulled out this darling Penny Black image for her birthday card.  I used Copic markers to color her.  The "love" hearts on the balloon kite string are from Stampin' Up's I Heart Hearts set.  Isn't this little girl adorable?  I just love her.

My other big event this week is that I am now an officially retired person!  Yup.  After 34 1/2 years working as a public servant, I took advantage of an early out retirement incentive.  I am looking forward to being able to keep up with posting to my blog in a timely manner, as well as visiting my friends' blogs that I haven't had much time for these past few months.



HAPPY NEW YEAR to you and yours with wishes for love, laughter, health, and happiness!