Where has the time gone this year?

Hi People!

I know.. i know.. i don't blog enough for what is good for me.. but I will attempt again to make this sound worthwhile. I must say, this month I was completely taken off guard with the amount of BOOKMARK orders I received! I mean, they just kept coming in.. it was like a bookmark cult.. and they were from all over the country! I wound up calling it by "Bookmark Bonanza Extravaganza!" I think I have done 30 in all. I did several personalized notepads as well. My favorite being the CLEARLY notepad. The husband to whom this notepad is being given says, "Clearly..." all the time. His wife and I just cracked up thinking about how funny it would be when he opens this up. I had given the Queen notepad to his wife. I told her, this is what I want SooBoo to be.. just a lot of fun to come up with your ideas and make them into great, unique gifts! Here is the notepad~


Another fabulous design came from one of the bookmarks. SooBoo Designs has an animal print that is really cute in the typical browns and oranges and blacks.. but this customer has a daughter Liza and her favorite colors are pink, orange, yellow and red. Her request was for me to do Liza's bookmark in animal print in Liza's favorite colors. When i received this order, I thought, "What a super fun idea! Why not those colors?" I wrote the customer back and voiced my excitement over these colors for this style. So here is the final outcome. Is this not the cutest thing?


Another great order for me was a new sorority notepad for my niece who's at Iowa and joined a sorority.. Alpha Delta Pi. Online, I found the sorority mascot and hand drew it and used the computer to add the color for a uniform look. This is the notepad that was so much fun.

I also am trying something new to expose SooBoo Designs. I found this new artist's community called Artfire.com. They have a lot of things planned to make them well known for 2009 and beyond. The owner seems extremely dedicated to the artists and has a great staff, as far as I can tell. I don't have nearly what I have on this site, but here is how you find me.. http://sooboo.artfire.com OR if you want to see all the other cool things on this site, click here.

By the way, here is a cute idea for Valentine's Day!

The weather has been weird. It's been coldish, sunny, cloudy, windy, gorgeous, windy, rainy, really rainy, really cloudy, really windy and really pretty.. no wonder there's sickness all over the place!

I did my annual baking for Christmas. I gave to the one neighbor we like and sent to my family in Chicago. Mom said they arrived in perfect condition.. that's a first. Usually, the Greek cookies, koulourakia which are drenched in powdered sugar, drench all the other cookies in the tin. I finally smarted up and put them in a ziplock.. and then of course, my husband is an expert packer.. where he packed them at work and shipped them. This was Mom's gift from me....and of course Dad's as well and whomever goes to their home will experience a Greek cookie delight. I made another Greek Cookie called Koulourakia which are twisted little snappy cookies.. and another called Melomacarona??? I call them macaroons but they don't resemble any macaroons I have ever eaten. These are made with butter and OIL!!! lots of it.. and some sugar.. but are dipped in a simple syrup of water, honey and sugar.. totally outrageous! I took pictures of some which, when i figure out my new laser printer, I 'll get them posted here.. I can't wait. Oh.. the peanut brittle came out fabulously this year. I wonder if it was the Fisher peanuts or that i decided to stir the ingredients while coming to a boil for the entire 25 minutes! YIKES.. my achin' back. Anyway, it is ALWAYS worth the effort. I love baking, but am happy when it's all cleaned up, especially since I have the worlds smallest kitchen. I don't know how I would handle a big kitchen now! Everything, and I mean everything is at my fingertips.

I made this mid sized notepad for my husband, Jeff. I combined all three UNC logos/mascots in one notepad to show off his love for the school!


New Years Eve was fun with both the boys here. They love staying up late so it was easy. We watched U Party 2009 on Fox ...the cable station and Bill Hemmer and Megyn Kelly were great as usual. They were freezing, but adorable together. I bought the hats and horns at WalMart, where else?, and these poppers.. Little Tootsie Bella was freaked out and I hid her on the couch next to me under a fleece blanket with her little black nose peeking out. She finally calmed down. Rommel, the standard poodle, by the way, is fantastic to all who know and ask about him.... anyhow, he just got up from his bed and meandered into the computer room.. he said, "Who needs this noise?" He's so smart.

Through an old artist friend, Krista, who has a great business, I found this fantastic drug for Rommel that actually makes the cartilage regenerate! It's a series of shots, directly into his back thigh, twice a week for a month. At the end of the third week, Rommel was bup bup bup..UP those stinkin' 6 outside stairs by HIMSELF! We didnt have to carry all 75 lbs of him any more! His last shot was in September and we've only given him one since... as a booster. Strangly, but not surprisingly, my VET never told me about this miracle drug called Adequan. Krista uses it on her horses. There is an equine recipe and a canine recipe. Well, when I approached my then Vet ( I dumped her!!) regarding this subject and asked what they thought about us giving it to Rommel ourselves, we got a very negative response. We did it anyway and the results have been dramatic and miraculous to say the least. To think, we were seriously toying with putting him down. I look at him with such loving eyes now... thinking how sorry we would have been if we had done such a thing. His time was not up.. he was not ready.. we could see that in him, yet that Vet said that she would put him down today if we thought his quality of life was not good anymore. So, people, don't make hasty decisions regarding your pets. I happened to reconnect with Krista just a week or so before we were up in arms about Rommels future and she told me about Adequan. She was our angel. Truly.. and I thank you for being there, Krista! You Rock!

One more thing I guess before I bore you to death anymore.. My husband decided to bite the bullet and get me a spankin' brand new HP color laser printer! The blacks are black and the colors arent pixely any more and I could go on and on.. I am thrilled with this gift.. the gift of great color and speed! yipee for me!

OK.. thanks for listening..
happy NEW YEAR to ALL! May it bring all better things... constant health, patience, lots of laughter, good feelings and inspiration for a better life; a better you. or me!!

Susie