Is it really over?

It seems like we just get into the excitement of the season, and the day comes and goes so fast.  Although Christmas day is gone for 2009, I still have family to visit with and the boys still have another week off from school, so it’s not over yet :-)  I thought I’d show some pics of the good times we have shared in the past few days.  First of all, the wonderful gifts from my hubs:

He got me a compound miter saw and a bench top sander!  They are set up in the basement and waiting for me to try them out!  Please excuse the walls…If you have ever been in the basement of a 100 year old farmhouse with stone foundation, then you would agree that these walls we have are not bad as far as most 100 year old stone foundations go.  Important thing for me is it’s warm, dry, and not as far away as the garage!  I’m excited that I’ve finally gotten a few pieces to build on my wood shop that I have wanted to have for awhile now.  We still have to build a workbench, and I’m looking forward to getting a table saw too, but I thought these were perfect Christmas gifts!

Some Christmas morning pics…

Matty was helping Brady unwrap the stuffed shin bone that Santa left for her…

Sadie helped with hers too! lol  She looks so mean here! ha ha

Calvin and Brady unwrapping things…notice…it’s STILL dark out!

 

Gannon in a pile of wrapping paper…

Here they are later at my in-laws

And later we went to my mom and dad’s house to see the rest of my family

Brady, Calvin, and my sisters boyfriend and his son

There is always a flurry of wrapping paper when my nieces and my boys open gifts at my family gathering!  lol

Gannon and my sister, Jackie-who was handing out the gifts from under the tree

Jackie, my mom, and my niece (who was knitting a scarf and asking Grandma for a little help!  lol)

Yesterday, my boys and I went back to Mom’s to see my other sisters who had gotten in since we had left on Christmas night.  So there was another flurry of wrapping paper!

My sister, Summer, who got in from Vegas yesterday, and my sister Julie who lives in Michigan

2 of my nieces lost in paper

My sister Valerie came up from Columbus on Christmas night and then there is Jackie again

That is Valerie and her boyfriend (/fiance?? soon?? lol), Loren.  He is Gannon’s favorite (you can see why! lol), and when he comes up for a visit with Aunt Val, Gannon is glued to his side :-)

Hmmm… I do not have pictures of my other sister.  We will probably be heading to my mom’s in a while, so I will have to take more pics and try to get her in some.  We don’t all get together very often, so I will have to be more diligent to get better pictures of when we are.

That’s all for now.  I sure wish I had some pictures of some stitching to show you, but on Monday, I had a run-in with the food processor blade (when it was out of the machine!) and put a gash all the way up my thumb with it!  It hurt.  Not quite ‘stitch-worthy’, but close.  What bothered me more was trying to keep it closed, covered, and not bending it so it would heal shut quicker.  I had to wear a rubber glove on it for most of the week- and that was no fun either!  So, no stitching done all week long.  Thursday was the first day that I could bend it without it coming back open.  Ugh.  Not fun.  BUT- an important lesson.  Never play ‘5 second rule’ with the food processor blade.

Merry Christmas!

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house

not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…

Santa has been here, and Quinn was sleeping and missed him!  We were missing a stocking, but Gannon didn’t care.  He pulled an old one out of the box and hung it :-)  He wasn’t going to let Santa get by without leaving him stocking stuffers!  lol 

Santa left his ‘magic footprints’ and ate his cookies…

Er…I couldn’t find any powder, so I used powdered sugar for them this year!  lol  I’ve done this for years, and the boys have always gotten a kick out of it.  The older ones know by now, but I only will have another year or two with Gannon fully believing, so I make sure to do it up right for him :-)

Just wanted to stop by and wish all of you a VERY Merry Christmas!  Be safe, and enjoy this blessed day with your family and loved ones!

Some ornaments and a blanket…

of snow!   This is what we awoke to this morning…

Finally!

Thought I would also show you the chickens choice of roost…

I know it’s a bit blurry, but this is where they sleep.  Don’t know why they prefer this to their chicken coop, but they spend their nights in the bush- must be the place they feel most safe.  Here is one on the way down…

I was watching the one that is still on the branch…she sat there forever trying to decide if she was going to come down into the snow.  I was sitting here with my camera ready and then another finally flew out so I snapped the pic.  She came down shortly after.

Oh- the ornaments!  Here are a few I stitched up using a Primitive Stitchin pattern…

Here is with the flash on so you can actually see them!  lol

Very cute and very quick stitches.  I made a few sets of these for gifts.  Have one set that I haven’t finished yet…I will put each of my boys names on them and the year- for their 2009 ornaments. 

I did get most of my shopping done yesterday- and will finish up the rest right here in town.  The traffic in our closest shopping district wasn’t bad when I first went up yesterday, but by the time I was heading to the last store, it was getting much worse.  I’m not one to have a lot of patience sitting through 3 and 4 lights at a time.  Still need a few things each for the boys, stocking stuffers, and something for my parents. 

Todays agenda…get some baking done, some more stitching, basketball game later on, and just enjoying the snow!

A little stressed…

I am like this every year when it gets this close to Christmas…I can’t believe it’s only a week away!  And also, every year, I say I am not going to wait so dang long to get my shopping done- but I’ve done it again! lol  I also say that I am not going to stress over things, and I’m going to enjoy the season….but it’s so darn short!  Tomorrow is the last day I have to do my shopping while the boys are in school.  I have gotten some things, but of course, I’m not finished.  I should be able to finish it up tomorrow….I hope!  I’ll have to take them shopping next week for each other, but that can be accomplished fairly easily.  I still have not made any cookies, but I am not going to stress over that- there are always plenty of cookies at my mom’s house and we will be spending a lot of time over there next weekend- all my sister’s will be home!  I love it when all 6 of us are able to spend time together.  It can get hectic with all of us and our families in one house, but it is certainly an enjoyable time :-)  So I just keep thinking ahead to that- and trying not to stress over not having the things done at this point that I thought I would!   And I did something yesterday that I have not done since I quit my overnight job.  I took a nap.  I know, not a big deal, but I have been stressing myself out, and I get up every day between 5 and 5:30 am to get the boys ready for school…. I just needed one.  lol  It felt good, and I felt a little refreshed an hour later when I woke up. 

I have not too many exciting pictures to share today.  I have some great things that I have made for a swap with a dear primitive friend, but until I know she gets her package, I can’t post those.  So I thought I would post a few random pics that are on my camera.  I made this stitchery (by Jenny Hoffman) recently:

I sold a few of them to some great online customers (Thanks girls!) and one of my best friends from school saw the picture and loved it.  Her husbands family has a Christmas tree farm, so naturally, she loves anything having to do with Christmas trees.  She asked me if I could make one for her.  Well, sure I could.  But I didn’t tell her that not only can I make one for her, but I can MAKE one for HER…

I changed it up a bit and personalized it!  It’s not quite finished- I have to finish that one tree by the cabin, but I really love how it turned out!  Not decided if I am going to put the year on it…I may do something else there.  The best thing I love about it is that it can be left out all year for her :-)

I forgot to take a before pic of this next item.  My mom gave me this lantern years ago.  It had one broken pane in it and I guess it got stuffed up in the top of the garage a long time ago.  She gave me 2 actually- this one with a cup to put a candle, and another that is round and is an oil lantern.  I dug them out, scrubbed them up and was going to get a new piece of glass cut to replace the broken one.  Then I got an idea.  I had been going through boxes in the basement and found this short electric candle.  I knew I had one somewhere, but had no idea where it had gotten to!  lol  Well, a little twisting on the candle cup to remove it, and a little double stick tape, and I now have this:

The fact that it is missing the back pane does not matter at all now-  I needed a place for the wire to come out!  It’s missing the hanging handle, but I don’t have anywhere to hang it right now, so it’s all good :-)

And lastly, I wanted to show you a picture that I took the other morning.  I looked out the window and saw 2 ducks on the pond!  We used to have a few, but they have all left.  Once in awhile, we see these 2 early morning visitors…and only early in the morning.  It was kind of cute…there was only that one hole in the ice for them to swim, and they hung out there for awhile:

Sorry, it’s blurry, but I’m sure you can see them.  That other spot above them is a football….ugh.  Hubs hates when there are things left on the pond like that.  The ice was thick enough last week for the boys to walk and slide on, but not now.  I’m sure it will be much thicker by next week.  Temps are staying low- only in the 20’s to 30’s for highs for the next week.  All I want is S N O W !!!

Sorry this post is a bit boring, but with everything else going on…it’s all I got!  lol  Oh…one more thing.  On suggestion from a few other bloggers, I ordered one of these advent boxes from The Artists Club online:

It, too, is unfinished.  I still need to stain it.  It had a huge tree shape on the top of it.  I tried and tried to do something different with it.  I so wanted a lollipop top on the box, but after drawing up several templates and tracing and erasing, and tracing another, I just could not be pleased with it.  I had 4 different tops cut out of cardboard, and traced each one on, but just ended up cutting it straight off.  Sigh…didn’t feel like stressing over it anymore.  I finished painting it yesterday and sanded it, but ran out of time to stain it.  Gannon keeps reminding me that I did not put the candy in it! lol  Hope you all have a good evening, and wish me luck with shopping tomorrow!

A few more Christmas pics…

I can’t believe that Christmas is only weeks away now!  I have hardly any shopping done at this point- which is not a rare thing for me :)  I have always found that I am one to buy right up until Christmas Eve…so shopping early is not something that is cost effective for me! lol  I always seem to ‘find’ more and spend more.  I have Gannon almost done- only 2 more things I wanted to really get him and then maybe a few clothing items to finish him off.  With the older 2, well, I’m finding that every year it gets harder.  They mostly get clothes and some of the ‘smelly stuff’- those sets go 50% off at drugstores a week or 2 before Christmas, so I have to wait on those and I’ll have to start checking.  I grew up with 5 sisters, and I remember the point when we were all hitting our teen years, and my mom would take us to the mall and we would just pick out what we wanted, and she would wrap it for us to open up on Christmas morning, along with a few other little things like jewelry and perfume.  I don’t blame her at all, b/c I am beginning to understand where she was coming from, but it kind of took the excitement out of Christmas morning.  I am trying really hard to not resort to that- yet.  Back then, they didn’t have the gift cards all over the place or I’m sure we would have gotten a few of those.  It is hard when my family asks what they should get them, and I really can’t give them very many ideas.  Sigh…

I do have a few more pics to share with you.  I should have thought to take them last night, because it was pretty bright in there this morning and my camera did NOT want to take clear pics for some reason.  I had a heck of a time, but here is the t.v. area in the living room.  The shelf above the tree is half empty…haven’t decided exactly what to put there yet.  And I think I need to make a long sign for above it- to bring it closer to the height level of the things on the other side.  What do you think?  I had stripped this corner a few weeks ago, and have been slowly adding back to it.  The things on the left side of the pic were hung on nails that were already there from the old stuff.  I just threw them up there at first, just to get an idea, then decided that it was actually ‘working for me’ :) I was finding this corner hard to work with, and tried several different arrangements.  I like this one- for now.

Oh please, do not look closely….I’m sure t.v. needs dusted and the floor should have been swept!  lol   The t.v. sits on a cedar chest that came from my mom’s house.  I remember it sat upstairs in the hallway and held fabric and some saved items from when we were babies.  My baby booties were in there and also this little bear that was a baby gift for me…

He has no eyes left, and has that very old/dusty/cedar smell.  That poor chest has scratches all over it!  I distinctly remember putting at least one on the top of it with my buckled mary jane type shoes.  I remember I was sitting on it and when I went to slide off, my buckle put a big scratch on the top of it!  I was so scared that I put something over top of it to hide it because I thought I would get in trouble.  Don’t remember my mom ever noticing, and it probably didn’t matter because many more scratches have appeared on it over the years.   It’s funny how you remember certain things from your childhood…

Back to the pictures….here are a few closer shots …

Large tote on the floor in front of the t.v….

This was by far the best pic I could get of this tree!  This was the one area that I just could NOT get a clear picture of.  I tried every setting my camera had!  I LOVE this tree with it’s simple orange slices and rag balls.  My mom made some of us girls these trees years ago and mine stays out all year as my all season tree.  Most people think it’s weird, but I’m sure all you primitive girls understand where I’m coming from :-)

 

Here is one closer shot of the oranges and rag ball ornaments…

This little wire basket with greens and wooden sheep pull toy (minus the string??? ….Gannon….) is in the crate that the tree sits on…

I have had this sheep since I was a teenager.  Now that I think of where it came from, it was actually one of the ‘extra’ gifts that my mom got me for Christmas one year!  That was back in the day when all the fluffy white sheep were ‘in’.  I’m so glad now, that it was not a fluffy white sheep, and that I still love it!  I’m really surprised that she has survived my boys pulling her around all these years…except for the string.  lol  My boys have always had a fascination with tying strings to things when they were younger.  Can’t tell you how many times I have found shoe laces missing- only to find them later tied from the banister to a bedroom doorknob or somewhere funny! lol  Apparently, Gannon is still in that stage :-)

Here is my chair where I have been stitching away- as you can see.  I REALLY need to force myself to sit down in front of the sewing machine and make these into tucks and whatnots!  I absolutely LOVE stitching them, but finishing them is not as fun for me!

I’m sure this is not even all of them.  I’m guessing I have about 20 done and waiting.  lol  And I have 3 different ones started including the one on the arm!  lol  Most will be gifts, so they need done soon!  I hope to be able to take a basket of them to my mom's on Christmas day to let my family members pick one if they would like to.  I’ll have to make it my weekend project- if I can stop myself from stitching new ones long enough to put them together.  I’ve completed 5 since last weekend.  I guess you could call me an addict! 

Here is the tree in my kitchen- it sits on the corner shelf.  As I said, I absolutely hate the way the wall color shows up in pictures.  I can’t seem to get a good pic without the flash in the evening, and it’s much brighter looking in the daytime.  I will be painting this room after the holidays b/c I need new curtains since I pulled most of them to put in the dining room.  I put this little tree in an old sifter and decorated it with my favorite cookie cutters and some seed lights…

Here is one of the mice I made for an ornament swap a few years ago.  I liked how he turned out and actually made a few extras for myself- for once. lol

I loved the little candies I made for them.  I had a bunch of wooden wheels from somewhere, and I painted them red, wrapped some white string around them for the stripes, and tied them up in some grungy cheesecloth.  I then got the idea to rip a hole in the top of the cheesecloth and gouge out some little teeth marks to look like he sampled it!  lol

Well, that’s about it for today.  I had a heck of a time getting even these pictures.  Besides suffering with a ‘case of the blurs’, my camera also needs some new batteries- which may have contributed to the blurs :-)   I had to play ‘musical batteries’ with 3 sets just to have enough power to get these shots.  Hope to get posted again before the weekend is over, and maybe show some of the FINISHED cs items I have done!  Wish me luck!

Front Porch…done

After putting around and not getting much done this morning, I loaded the kids up and ran to the store to get the last needed strand of icicle lights to do the front porch.  I got home, put a pot of chicken on to make soup from, and got to work while the chicken cooked.

I hauled the big ladder around, climbed it and put the lights up-without the help I was promised by my boys.  Granted, Calvin was baking cookies, but Brady was not the help I expected him to be.  Oh well…boys will be boys, and I am proud to say that I did it all by myself.  I cut some more greens, took some wire to them, strung some more lights, wrapped the cushions with some Christmas tree fabric, and came up with this…

I was picturing a bit more rounded top to it, but it took me a few hours to get this, so it’s good enough! lol  I’m satisfied :-D

Here are a few more close ups…

Gannon says,"Hi”.  lol  I love how the greens hang down.  Brady asked me if I was making the entrance to Narnia!  LOL

A snowman I painted a few years ago.  He has his shovel ready for snow! lol

I had the enamel pot full of greens right beside the door, but thought it might get in the way there, so I moved it out on the step.

Complete with another little snowman, a beaded star at the bottom, and a cardinal perched at the top.

Another wider shot after it was getting dark.  You can see the garage lights and the candy canes down the sidewalk.

It’s so funny….12 years ago when we moved here, we used to be able to put lights on the pines there in the front!  We decorated them all with lights….now they are almost as big as the house!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!   Thanks for looking and thanks so much to those who have left nice comments!  I appreciate them, but don’t always think to tell you so!  Let’s me know I’m not just posting to myself!  lol

More Decorating…

I’ve worked all day on getting some of my house decorated.  As I had explained before, once I start a project, it leads to several others :)   My house is still not done, but I wanted to show you what I did in the bathroom today- decorating-wise. lol

This is looking in from my t.v. / crafting room.  It’s pretty small, so it’s hard to get good pictures.  An arrangement on the back of the commode…

I hung this little shelf today.  I may take it back down and paint it black, but I was being impatient today and the last thing I needed to do was to start spraying things!  I wasn’t sure how it would look-if it would look too crowded b/c of the washboards, but I think it may stay.  I’ve had this little tree for several years…I think I got it at the Dollar Store.

What do you think?  Does it crowd that side?  I am still looking for a larger mirror…poor Gannon has to stand on the commode to see himself in this one!  lol  Ignore the ‘not there’ light fixture at the top…the other one started to not work right, so we took it down and I am looking for a nice primitive one (when funds will allow).  I had to pull the curtain aside and stand back in the shower to get this much in the shot!  Like I said…small :)

And here is the top of the tall cupboard in there.  I have had this old drawer for years, and it has found it’s way in here recently.  I filled it with some greens and white berries…

I finally went out and cut some greens today.  Luckily we have pines around the house because it didn’t take long until my fingers were frozen!  I think this may be the coldest day we have had so far this fall/winter.  Snow should be coming soon!

I also worked in the kitchen a bit…but then I made a mess!  It started with me bringing the storm windows down and pulling the screens.  The kitchen is the furthest room from the furnace, so it can get chilly in there- may be why I like to bake a lot in the winter!  It warms it up nicely.  So I have to be sure to put the storms in every year.  We heat with wood, and the heat tends to rise to our upstairs, so it’s not uncommon for us to have a window cracked a bit in the dead of winter b/c it can get HOT up there.  So I’m working on the kitchen windows, and remembered my thoughts on pulling the curtains from the kitchen and trying them in the dining room.  Hmmm….I wonder.  So I did.  I wasn’t crazy about them in my kitchen when I put them up because my wall color had turned out too bright, but they were pretty costly, so I’ve just kept them there for the past year.  BUT-  I LOVE them in the dining room!  Remember this picture where I asked advice on what to do with the windows in there?

I have HATED looking at those windows for the longest time!  We still have not replaced the big one that is broken, but will do it in the spring.  Now I LOVE how it looks in there! 

Maybe not the best picture, but this is our family ornament tree.  It’s pretty large and sticks way out from the window.  Some of the pictures are bright, some are kinda yellow…I was having a big problem with trying to get the window wall all in one shot….the lighting fixture kept getting in the way and taking it out of focus.  I’ll have to try again later.  Here are a few more of what I have gotten done in there…I still have a set of tiers that will fit the window behind Santa there…should I go ahead and put them up?  I’m undecided on that for now…

 

A little closer pic of the stand by the front door…

Here is the other side of the tree-by the kitchen doorway..

Here is a little closer of my cupboard…

You can click on the picture to see things a little better.  I put some pine here and there amongst the things.  I painted the little house and barn when my oldest son was a few months old-he’s 14 now!  My hubs really got into me painting them and even picked up a paintbrush and helped a little!  He was more into telling me what color to paint things though, lol! 

One more picture.  It’s been a few years since we’ve really put a lot of lights up outside.  I think working overnights kind of killed my desire to do it.  Hubs really wanted to do it this year, so we got some new ones and he has been putting them up.  We still need some for the front porch, but we got the garage and sidewalk done.  Here is a shot from out the big window by the tree…

When we get the rest of them up, I will have to go down the hill and try to get a good shot.  It looks really cool, and you can see them from miles away because of how high up we are on the hill.

Well, I didn’t get a whole lot done in the kitchen…the place where I started today!  My windows are almost all ‘nekked’, lol so I may not show much of that room for a bit until I get something else done.  I tried to get pics of my little tree in there, but I HATE the way the walls show up in them.  I will be painting in there….soon!

I will be back soon with some more pics.  I haven’t gotten my table done yet…I’m working on and idea in my head, so I will have to experiment with it ;-)  Till then, hope your weekend is wonderful- stay warm!