So, it's officially that time of year when I start to get so stressed/overwhelmed that if I let my brain think too hard, I literally start shaking. Christmas is my family's big holiday, even though I was raised a full-blood Jew (long story), and my mom and I have a tendency to go nuts. This Christmas had to be different, though, mostly due to the economy but also because we're hosting extra family members. Since this year was particularly difficult for Joe and me fiscally, and since we're trying to save up for a wedding in the not-so-distant future, we thought we'd put our craftiness to good use and make a lot of gifts. Only, the second bedroom - the one we've been trying to turn into an office/craft room for me since August 2007 (note: 2007, not August 2008) - was still unfinished as of last month. Which means we've been hustling our butts off trying to finish it, seeing as how nearly all of my craft supplies are stored randomly in what we refer to as the Jungle Room (a bonus room off the side of the house that's getting zero use because it's crammed full of everything we have no place for).

Anyway, Saturday and Sunday were largely spent working on the craft room. And, as of 6:15 p.m. yesterday, all of the painting is officially DONE! The walls are my favorite shade of robin's egg blue; the trim, which Joe sanded down to bare wood practically, gleams a bright white. Now he just has to finish pulling up tape and getting paint drippings off my hardwood floor and we can move me in. Well, that and installing the black glass chandelier I purchased on deep sale sometime last spring. And measuring the window for a roll shade I want to fix up with fabric and trim like I saw on DECORATING CENTS. And taking down the doors and sanding/painting those to match the trum, cleaning and sprucing up an old floor lamp by attaching fabric that matches the roll shade to its drum shade spray adhesive, painting the pegboard white and attaching some peel-and-stick trim in glossy black, painting my old Target bookshelves white and nail-gunning the luan backer boards to the wood after painting them the same robin's egg blue as the walls ....

Okay, so we still have a little ways to go. But we were able to get one corner fixed up enough to move my "new" desk in (it was purchased on deep, deep discount last December, assembled in August, and taking up major space in our bedroom since we dug back into the project last month). And my old dining room table is about to become a craft table, thanks to some lovely black-and-white oil cloth I'm going to staple to its top. The larger is issue is that of the projects we need to get underway, the first of which must be ready Friday, since that's when Joe's team at work is doing the holiday party thing. We thought it would be fun to put together jars of homemade cocoa mix and make homemade marshmallows to go with them. I'm using Tyler Florence's recipe from a Christmas special the Food Network did a year or two ago. Most of the ingredients were wicked cheap at BJs, and we decided to substitute semi-sweet chocolate chips for bittersweet chocolate chunks, since neither of us are a fan of bittersweet.

Yeah, so there's that and I'm making soy candles and coffee foot scrubs and crayon-batiked picture frames, and then for Joe's dad in Mexico we wanted to get one of those photo books you can order from the Kodak Gallery. He hasn't seen Joe or his brother in several years, and I probably won't even meet him until our wedding, so the book is kind of a recap of our last 18 mos. together. But I was up until 3 a.m. Photoshopping pictures (yay for the zit-removal tool!) and designing the pages, so I am officially teh exhausted.

The good part is that except for the last few supplies I need to purchase for crafty-type things, I'm finished with my shopping and just need to get wrapping. And cooking, of course, since it's never a holiday without me having to make several dishes. For Christmas Eve, I'm making Alton Brown's Christmas Soup (mostly because kielbasa was on sale at Shoprite last week), and then I'm making some sort of strata for breakfast Christmas morning (recipe to be determined). For dinner that night, I'm making this scalloped corn thing Joe's grammy made at Thanksgiving, and for dessert I thought I'd give Ina Garten's old-fashioned gingerbread a whirl. Finally, for day-after-Christmas dinner with Joe's friend Mike's family, I think I'm going to attempt another tiramisu. I'm determined to beat that thing into submission.

Our weekend wasn't ALL work. We hit the gym twice (arms = owie) and took time out to watch TROPIC THUNDER (hilarious) and WALL-E (best. movie. ever). And I got a little caught up on sleep before last night's marathon Photoshopping session. So, you know. All in all, a good time.

Happy Monday, everyone!

P.S. Did anyone else read this article in EW and want to run right out and buy a DVD of THE ROOM? It's totally sold out on Amazon, but I'm so getting my hands on a copy as soon as it's back in stock.