Random Thoughts

It's a dreary, rainy, windy and cold evening here in Ohio.  I'm waiting to go get my youngest daughter at the airport later.  We are hoping her flight isn't cancelled.  She is flying in from Miami, FL and she is in Baltimore right now and she called to say "It's Cold!"  Wait till she get here.

I just have not been relaxed enough lately to write anything of interest and my photos have not been good either.  I wish I could buy a new small camera.  Please excuse the images in this post.  I am going to just write some random thoughts that have been rattling around in my head lately.

I was working on some paper garlands for my Christmas craft shows.  While I was threading the ribbon through the punched holes I remembered those sewing cards I had as a child.  Did you have those?

My mom was a professional seamstress and I never understood the point of those cards until now.  I was training to make paper garlands when I turned 50!

I have been using a lot of skills people learn as children finally in my older years.

I used a machine to cut the window blinds at work.  You had to fit the top and bottom rails into perfectly made cutouts or the machine would not work.  Every time, I was trying to get these metal rails to fit exactly in the slots I would think of the shape blocks that have to fit into the opening in the ball my kids had.  Who knew that would be a necessary skill?

Remember the matching game?

Well this is kinda like that.  We draw names for Christmas.  I put the papers (face) down somewhere.  Then I have to remember what was on them and where they are.  Only thing is the table is my whole house!

We found them tonight and we were close.  Only missed 1 person and my husband does his shopping on Christmas Eve anyway!

Another skill I used in school was how to pass notes or talk without the teacher catching me.  Well we had to use this skill at work when we (the coworkers) wanted to talk to each other.  Hide from the cameras, talk in abbreviated conversations between dept. managers walk bys.  Needless to say that place just wasn't for me.

I finally got my tree up.  I just don't feel like redoing my whole house any longer.  I like it now that it is up but it's just so much work.  I read on another blog and on FB all these people doing this Elf on a Shelf stuff.  I am SO GLAD my girls are older.  The one blogger was cracking me up pointing out all the work some of the over achieving moms are making for themselves. 

Maybe I'm just lazy....yeah, that's it.  Oh Well.

Well I am not lazy if it involves craftiness and fun for me!

I wanted some of those bottle brush trees for my vintage farmhouse look so I decided to try making my own.  I needed pink and blue and white.  Good old Youtube.  I found a few tutorials and got the bleach, dye and trees and made my own.  I love them.

I did good with the bleaching and dying but the glitter was pretty messy.  I wasn't good at glue and glitter in grade school either.

One more topic.  I can't remember if I have posted about my neighbors dog Remmi on here before but I have some images of him I took recently.  He is a German Shorthaired Pointer and is very spastic.  He spends the night sometimes because he likes us!

 He is very sophisticated...Not!

Our cat has finally gotten used to him.  He realized he's not going anywhere soon.  At least not soon enough.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas holiday!  My girls are going to be here and I plan on spending as much time with them as I can so I may not post for the rest of the year. 

I'll make notes and write about it later.

Maybe

Happy Holidays!

Welcome To My Parlor

I'll start off with wishes for a Merry Christmas to all of you.

I thought I'd share with you some Christmas decorations and views of my parlor.

In my Grandparents 1800's farm house there are 2 front rooms that have doors opening to a large front porch. I am not sure why there are two doors to 2 adjacent rooms but one has always been used as a formal living room and the other is used as the master bedroom.

Lucky for me, I can continue to use this living room to indulge my love of shabby cottage and vintage finds. The soft yellow walls work well with my blue and pink items. There is another room that has been used as a dinning room/family room so my husband uses it to watch TV and have his computer.

So, here is a holiday glimpse of my vintage feminine personal space, decorated just for me.

I gave up the family live tree the last few years due to finances and just decorate my pre-lit tree with the soft white, pink and gold decorations that make me happy. I plan on dividing up the family ornaments between the girls this year so they will have decorations for their own trees.

I love this angel. She isn't old but she matches the era I love so much.

This is the view I like to look at when I am reading on the couch. The fireplace is closed off but with the beautiful grate, I draw attention to it by lighting lots of different sized candles to replicate the fire. This is my favorite ritual each evening I can spend here reading.

(Hopefully soon I'll be surfing the net here too!)

Now you can envision me writing my blog and reading yours here in this room.

I wanted to decorate the mantel with live evergreens and candles but I could not purchase them and I was disappointed to find out we have no evergreens on the property. So I just left what I had just put on the mantle after moving in and added a few of my old favorites.

Do you see the awesome mirror and gilded frame? I got that this spring at an auction for $15.00! I had no idea what I was going to do with it. I just had to have it. I thought maybe I'd paint it white and sell it in my Etsy shop. Who knew it would be perfect in my new home just as it was.

Absolutely LOVE this grate!

My first stocking my Mom made me over 50 years ago.

I will leave you with this wonderful antique Santa that belonged to my Mom.

Isn't he wonderful? I'm sure he actually hung in this house at one time.

I think his face looks like the man in the moon but he is old and shabby and just awesome :)

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and make new memories with your loved ones where ever you find yourself this year.

Gratitude

I received this as my daily devotional and thought it was well worth passing along.

After a long pregnancy that generated more questions than

congratulations; that nearly led to a marriage ending before it started; that included a painful and arduous journey; that culminated in her son being born in conditions fit for animals but not for humans, how did Mary respond? Luke tells us that she "treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart" (2:19).

In Bethlehem, among the animals, she found joy. She could have complained that God was doing nothing good for her, but instead she declared the "great things" God had done (Luke 1:49).

This is central to the Christmas story - and the joys and challenges of our modern holiday - remind us that gratitude changes everything. Whether there are gifts stacked to the ceiling with your name on them or your aren't sure anyone is going to give you anything, stop and give thanks to God, the Giver of all good and perfect gifts.

You'll receive a special blessing in your spirit and discover you have everything you need.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

My girls and Cooper this morning.

Simple, quiet Christmas

I'm really glad I read a post today. She shared how she has had difficult Christmas's and this year was another one. I have not really had a season like we are having right now and I really don't want to decorate for Christmas this year. I don't want to participate in the partying. We foreclosed on our house of 15 years and will have to be moving out. I am closing my photography business after 24 years and looking for a new job. My brother-in-law is dying of cancer and we just lost a friend of many years suddenly this past week. I do not have a bad attitude. I am grateful and hopeful but I just want to celebrate the fact that Christ was born and because of that I have hope. Gifts, decorating and parties just don't fit in this year. She helped me feel better that some years it is ok for it to be different, quiet.

I think we will just have a simple Christmas remembering what we are most grateful for which right now for me is the fact that our family has become stronger and closer through this and the 4 of us will be together. I am thankful my husband is still here after the scare we had last year,(Our friend was not so lucky, he leaves 3 children, 2 grown but his youngest is just a senior this year.) I am thankful that my girls are awesome young women I am so proud of and that we have a faith in a big God and that He has something good in store for us just around the corner!

Vacum a Christmas Tree?

This holiday season has been long and busy for me at work since I had to let my office manager go. I have not had time for decorating and wasn't much in the mood for it. My youngest daughter (the chief) wanted to have a Christmas/Birthday party for her friends. (Her birthday is Dec. 27Th) So as usual I waited till the last minute to finally get the decorations out.

I have a large Santa collection that I have not gotten out for the last 3 years so I decided I missed them so I started with them. I finished everything but getting the tree out. 2 days later my daughter and I go to the closet to pull out the box with the tree. The box had popped open sometime during the last year.

As we were carrying (dragging) the tree to the living room, I noticed some pink stuff on a branch.
Huh, wonder...is that insulation? ugh, mice? I pull it out and lay the tree on the floor. As we were preparing to put the bottom in the stand, Coooper had his coonhound nose buried in this one spot on the tree.

ewe.. LOTS of pink insulation! Then LOTS of baby mouse poo fell to the floor.
I should have called Mike Rowe, he loves poo!

Anyway, I got out the sweeper and began to suck out all the STUFF in that part of the tree. What a mess I had! Thank God the mouse family had moved on! All I could think of then was, I hope they didn't chew through the light cords.

I must tell you,I love live trees but this tree is special. It is the perfect size, is prelit and has microfiber lights also. I have never seen another one like it since I bought it. Up until 8ish years ago we always had a fresh, from North Carolina, Frasier fur. (My all time fave!) but when I saw this lovely tree I knew I had to have it for my nice living room decorated in girly pinks and white! We would continue to get the live tree for the family room.

Sorry I digress...anyway while holding my breath I plug in the lights and...


They were OK!!!!!!!!!!!






As you can see I have a lovely (clean) Christmas Tree this year! It did take me till the day of my daughters party to put the ornaments on though. I thought about just telling the kids I like my tree's natural. Then my daughter pointed out "It's a FAKE tree". That really hurt my tree's feelings. It is a Special tree not fake! Another friend suggested I hand each guest an ornament and let them decorate it. Uh, I don't think so. This is my tree with beautiful glass ornaments and it has to be done right. To controlling? Oh well, I guess that is why I put it off because once I started, it becomes like a work of art for me to place each ornament in just the right place. I really do enjoy doing this but like all creative endeavours I need to be in the mood.

I have a few favorite decorations I want to share with you also. A couple of my old Santa's and a newer snowman.
Have A Merry Christmas everyone!