From my house to yours

Have a Merry and Blessed Christmas!

Hugs,

t

The downstairs

Okay - here is a quick tour of the downstairs

 In the master bedroom

 Two trees in the dining room 

 My little sweet tree in the breakfast area

Cabinet I refinished a couple of years ago - I love it!

 Glass snowmen hanging out in the snow for the holidays. (sorry about the glare)

Just to the right of the above cabinet is this little table - this can be seen from the front door.

Stockings hung in the entry since we don't have a fireplace. Our stockings were made by my grandmother and of course I don't have any more of that fabric to make one for Ashley. One of these days I will get around to making new ones for everyone.

and the big tree in the living room/den. 

Combined with the trees from the last post that should be eight trees.This is the tree that has all the ornaments my kids made in school, ornaments my grandmother made, gifts from friends, exchange ornaments and even a few I made myself going all the way back to when I first learned counted cross stitch. It is my favorite tree! I will try to get some pics of ornaments but I may not get around to posting again until after the kids leave.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Hugs,

t

More Christmas around the house

I'm running out of time if I'm going to get all the trees posted!

This little tree is in the other guest room on a bookcase that is between the twin beds. It stays up all year and I change the ornaments for the seasons (unless it is a season I don't have ornaments for yet - then it is just bare)

Bed on the right

Bed on the left

Fireman tree is at the top of the stairs, going into the game room. (it's really more of the hubby's man cave - he watches football up here when I want to watch something else)

A few of the Santa firemen - there are others perched here and there around the game room

Looking back from the game room the open door you see is the twin bed room, toward the right are my sewing room (which we won't be photographing anytime soon) and the guest room I showed you in the last post. The guest bath and stairs are to the left of the open door.

That's it for the upstairs. I will try to get the downstairs pictures posted over the weekend before the kids start arriving. Baby boy and his bride will be here Monday and the other two will join us on Tuesday. I'm so excited - it has been a long time (6 years) since we were all together for Christmas!

Holiday decorating

I've been busy the past couple of weeks getting ready for Christmas. I posted my trees on Facebook but I thought I would post them here too. 

We'll start with just one - this one is in one of the guests rooms.

Here is the rest of the room. This room always makes me smile because it is filled with so many special things.

I will share more next week - there are 7 more trees! 

Hope you all have a great weekend! 

Crafty fun

Last weekend our Sunday School class had a ladies craft/cookie exchange party.

We made cards and gift tags.

 I won the door prize! One can never have too many tote bags!

We were having so much fun with the crafting we forgot about the cookies so we had to scramble to get them packaged up! Of course, there are no cookies left in this house. 

Hope you are having a great week!

Ornament exchange

I participated in an ornament exchange with some ladies in an online stitching group and received my package yesterday.

A beautiful ornament!

And extra goodies! (the chocolate bar didn't make the picture) but it and the coffee are from VA (just like Robin!) Love the vintage box it was all packaged in.

Super cute snowman flag - need to step outside and replace the one that is already in the flower bed. This one is way cuter!

A close up of the cute necklace.

Thanks so much, Robin.
It is always a pleasure to participate in exchanges with these ladies.

Have a great weekend!

Ya gotta be quick

if you want before pictures when Timothy is doing a project.

I was not quick enough to get a before picture of my pantry but just picture a dark hole behind the pantry door. I put up some battery operated lights a few years ago - they gave out decent light but they kept getting left on and the batteries would run out. Each one took 6 batteries and I had two of them so that turned out to not be a good solution, but Timothy came to my rescue at Thanksgiving.

He added lighting to my pantry! I can't show you a picture with the light off because the 'switch' is the  door. Open the door and the lights come on, close the door and they go off! Is that kid not a handy fella to have around? Bonus that the pantry door doesn't get left partially open anymore!

I'm still fluffing. Best get back to it. 

ps - I answered the question about the ornament from the last post in the comment section of that post.

Am I alone here?

Am I the only one who gives away stitched pieces and then can't remember who you gave them too? I think I stitched the above ornament twice, one to give away and one to keep. I was going through my charts and came across some that I know I stitched but I have no idea who I gave them too. If I had good sense, I would have kept a list or even taken photos before I gave them away. Oh well. 

Are you all decorated for Christmas yet? Hubby and the kid got all the outside stuff done over the weekend (some of it in the rain!) I've got all the trees up and decorated but I still have all the other 'fluff' to do and instead of doing that I'm sitting here going through cross stitch charts. Told ya, I ain't got good sense.

Catching up

Just can't seem to get into a regular posting habit - maybe 2016 will be better. LOL

Projects have slowed down here so not a lot of updates there. The older two boys will be here this week for Thanksgiving then baby boy and his bride will be here in 28 days for Christmas! Yes, I'm counting the days - haven't seen them in over a year (and totally missed posting for his birthday last week - I didn't forget the day, we talked on the phone for nearly an hour, just missed getting a post up) 

I haven't done a lot of stitching lately but I do have these ornaments that I have been working on over the past year and they are finished and ready for the tree when it goes up.

I really like stitching these little ornaments

Cutting our all those small pieces, not so much. I will try to get some close up pics posted soon.

Kind of nippy here (for us anyway) and my hands have been cold all day - I even gave in and turned the heat on for a bit but still have cold hands!

Hope you are all having a great start to the week,

A sweet little gift

My sweet friend Terry gifted me this little stocking ornament. Isn't it just too cute? Not sure I would have the patience to make one so small - it is only 4 inches long! Looking forward to hanging it on my tree soon.

 Our weather is great today but it is supposed to take a turn to the nasty side tomorrow. 

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

A Little Fall Around the House

We finally have some fallish weather here in southeast Texas so I thought I would show you my limited fall decor.

 In the guest room - I leave this little feather tree out year round and change the decorations to suit the season 

 Couldn't get a good picture of my stuffed pumpkins - lights off and no flash was too dark, lights on with no flash was still too dark so I finally just used the flash which makes them look a bit washed out.

 I love this little corner of my breakfast room

 it kind of substitutes for a fireplace (mantle) since we don't have one. We have talked about getting a fake (electric) one but don't really have a good place for one.

Last, but not least - my little Tom Turkey, gifted from a dear friend.

Happy Birthday Ashley!

Wishing my beautiful daughter-in-law a happy birthday today.

Happy Halloween!

Wishing you a Happy Halloween with a pic from the past. No doubt I've shown this picture before but it is a favorite. 

This is baby boy and his bride back in high school (though they weren't married yet in this pic) Ashley's mother did a great job with their costumes that year!

Only 52 days until I get to hug these two!

Have a fun and safe weekend.

Hello there!

I'm still here, just been busy. Haven't read any blogs lately but I hope to soon. Just thought I would stop by and show you a couple of Halloween touches.

Both of these landed in the game room along with a few others that I failed to photograph. Maybe I will get to those before I put them away next week. 

(sorry for the glare on the pumpkin - it has glass on it which protects it from dust but makes it hard to photograph!)

Hope you are all having a great week!

A little stitching

How have you been?

 From the date of my last post, I would say I've been busy! Getting in those end of the year doctor appointments - I usually try to group them together so I don't have to make so many trips north (I still use most of the doctors I used before we moved) but this year I just couldn't manage to work it out, plus I had added appointments for the foot doctor. I had another shot last week - at the moment the foot is feeling better but I'm holding final judgement until after I hit the two week mark and after I've gone to  quilt festival. Can't do any more shots until January so cross your fingers this last shot works!

I did manage to finish one Christmas ornament and have a few more in various stages of completion - hopefully I will get those finished in time to use them for this year. 

Best news yet - baby boy and his bride will be home for Christmas! This will be the first time we have had them for Christmas since they moved to New York. Mom is happy!

Hope you have all been enjoying fall weather - we are still hitting 90+ here.

It may be fall on the calendar

but the weather here didn't get the message! 

I haven't started any fall decorating yet (maybe this weekend?) with the exception of this one little spot. You can't really tell it in this photo but the flower 'vase' is a pumpkin. Had it for years and always used it for candy in the fall. Last year the lid broke. (happens when glass hits tile floor) I didn't throw the bowl part away - just stuck it out in the garage until I could figure out something to use it for. Picked up a few fall flowers and a little  birdhouse and now I have a new fall arrangement! No, the mirror isn't dirty - it's old. The jewelry tree was a gift from a friend years ago but some of the pieces fell off at some point and I stuck it in the closet until I could get around to gluing it back together. Found it when looking for something else (of course) and fixed it so I could put it back out on display. (yes, it stays out year-round)

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Flowers that keep.

Finally, flowers that I won't kill because I get to lazy to water. :)

I might need to make some more!

Happy weekend!

Happy birthday!

Today is the hubby's birthday! 

Made him an Italian Cream Cake and we went to lunch together. He has gone on an errand at the moment so I thought I would see if I could get a post up.

In a round-about way I got this picture up, still working on others. I will figure it out one way or another so I guess I will keep trying.

I think I need a piece of cake. :)

Pictureless post

So, I made the mistake of downloading Windows 10 on this computer and now I can't find anything. I can't get it to download new pictures from my camera to the folder I was using, instead it downloaded ALL the pictures from my camera into another folder with no numbers. Have no idea how to get those in picmonkey to edit or how to move them to another folder much less figure out how to post them on here.
If things don't  quit changing (if it ain't broke, don't fix it) I am going to have to give up on blogging. Every time I get the new whatever figured out they change something else. I'm too old for this.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Looking out my back door

Back in the spring we had a storage shed built to house the lawn equipment and bicycles. It is not as close to the house as it looks - I actually took the picture from the edge of the patio since the patio is a mess and I didn't want to show it! Hubby is trying to make room in the garage for a juke box. At one time it was in the grocery store his parents owned then it was moved to their house. It has been in storage since his mother moved in with his sister but now it is time to move it here. It currently does not work but we are going to see about getting it fixed. Anyway, now instead of seeing an empty yard, we now have this cutie to see when we look outside. I still have to hang a few things on the front - I have the house numbers from our last house (we removed them and put up a plaque - have no idea why we saved the numbers but found them in a box) I'm going to paint them black and put them over the doors and I want to get some barn quilts to hang over each window. I will be waiting to get those at the International Quilt Festival in October so I won't have to pay shipping - just need to decide which ones I want.

This week is proving to be a busy one for me, hope you have a nice calm week ahead of you!

Repeat

Picmonkey is not playing nice today so I am repeating a picture from last fall - the last time our little family was all together. I hate myself in pictures but it is good of the rest of the family. :)

It happens so seldom, but they are always on my mind and heart.

Love you all.

Option A

This is what happens when you don't finish your work in a timely fashion.

You run out of thread. I'm not sure how long this has been kitted up, but as you can see it was a little too long. The thread I was using is discontinued.

After an extensive search, I thought I had something close enough. When you just hold it up to the already stitched part it looks like a pretty good match but when I actually stitched it, not so much. The difference is more noticeable in person than in these photos. So, option A is keep stitching with the not-quite-right thread or option B is taking it all out and starting over with something I can get now. 

In other news, it is just too hot to do much around here. My little weather text this morning says 'record breaking heat'. Ugh. Hope you are all indoors with the a/c cranked up!

Overdue thank-yous

I haven't made the time to sit down and post a thank-you for a couple of birthday gifts.

My sweet friend, Terry, sent me this little salt and pepper shaker set

Aren't they cute?

I thought they could keep my one birdie company from the set I already had. Sadly, his mate got broken. I'm happy he has a new friend! And I'm really grateful to have Terry as a friend!

My friend, Sarah, gave me this oversize pin cushion. It is 8 inches square and the numbers are big enough even I can see them! Should come in real handy next to Bertha. (my sewing machine)

I've been trying to wear contacts - I only started wearing glasses full-time a couple of years ago, but I've had bifocals for a long time. I could get by fine to read but needed them to stitch. When it got to the point I had to have them to see to cook I gave in and just started wearing them all the time. I never thought I could get contacts in and never tried them. For some unknown reason, last week I decided I was going to get contacts instead of glasses this year. Well, I've mastered the art of getting them in and out but we can't find the right combo to make them work for me. If my near vision is clear, everything else is fuzzy - don't try driving like that. If my far vision is clear, I need readers to read, in which case I might as well not be wearing them at all.The doctor said there was one more type we could try but she was out of them so I'll try those next week when they come in, If that doesn't work I will just have to get new glasses. I was looking forward to wearing cute sunglasses again. :( 

Hope you all have a lovely weekend. My plan is to stay indoors as much as possible - it's a bit warm for my taste. (100+ the last 3 days)