Merry Christmas

From my house to yours,

Merry Christmas!

Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday!

Here and There

 Little touches of Christmas around the house. Not all inclusive - still kind of picture overload and I deleted some photos.

 A little Santa and tree in the laundry room

 Another tree and another Santa. This is the little back entry (from the garage) we turned into an office space.

 Just a few small touches in the guest room

 I always hang these balls on the quilt hanger in the guest room. All of the dolls were made by my grandmother for my boys. (except  for Dapper Dan - I think that is his name) they stay out all year. Not sure if you can tell, but that is a little r/w/b Christmas tree propped up there. It was a gift from a friend and also stays out all year.

 Just a few touches in the master bedroom - on the list to be painted soon!

 Chest in the living room - usually completely covered with family photos.

 Little touches tucked in the shelving around the tv. 

 I think my bow needs a little more attention.

 I haven't bought much as far as decorations this year - I have plenty - but I couldn't resist this little upside down snowman.

 All the stockings waiting for Santa.

 The little angel tree topper belonged to my grandmother.

 How could I resist this little pink house - it lights up but I forgot to turn it on before I took the pic.

 I've fallen in love with bottle brush trees the past couple of years.

 Brittany left artwork on the chalk board when she was here at Thanksgiving. I think Santa approves.

 I made this little candy cane house a long time ago - it still sheds glitter every year. 

The Fireman Santas are at the top of the stairs. There are little dew drop lights that are kind of hard to see with the overhead lights on but if I turn them off you can't see the Santas.

Okay - that's it for this trip. I have one or two pictures of the outside lights. I don't know if I will get anymore or not - it is raining and I think it is supposed to be on and off all the way through Christmas.

I know, kind of picture heavy. If you made it this far, thanks for stopping by. Hope you are enjoying the holiday season so far.

A Forest of Trees

We have a few trees around the house. Every year I say I am going to go smaller and every year the guys bring the totes down and off I go.

 This is our main tree where all the family ornaments go. No theme, just a lot of memories. Each of my kids has a box of ornaments that was started for them with their first Christmas. The oldest took some of his ornaments this year (he actually put up a tree in his apartment for the first time this year) but as you can see, we aren't short any ornaments. 

 A shot from the other side. We have to turn the table around to make a space for the tree so our furniture placement looks a little off during the holidays. Looks like it is leaning a little in this picture and no, there aren't any gifts under the tree. I haven't wrapped any yet!

 I started this little sweet tree a few years ago.  Looks like that bow needs a little fluffing. Some of the ornaments I purchased and some were gifts. It sits on the bar in the kitchen. I have a string of  lights on it but you can't really see them in the picture) You can see another tree in the background - for some reason I didn't take a picture of that one but it will show up again when I show other pictures from around the house. It has a twin and I do have a picture of the twin in this post.

 This little feather tree is in my sewing room. It didn't get out last year because I couldn't find it. I still have boxes that haven't been unpacked - who knows what I will find when I finally get around to unpacking them.

 In the guest room I have another little small tree.

 In the master bedroom I have a little wire tree that I picked up about 10 years ago. 

 This is the fireman tree. Hubby was a firefighter for 21 years (longer if you count volunteer years before getting a full time paid position) and I collected ornaments for him (and still do if I find a cute one) Our main tree became a little overloaded (before we bought a bigger tree several years ago) so I pulled these and gave them their own tree. I had it in the game room at the last house but no game room here so it is in the main room, just inside the front door.

 This is the twin to the tree in the kitchen. In our last house we only had two windows (downstairs) on the front of the house and they were both in the dining room so I had twin trees in there. Here I have one in the kitchen and one in the living room. (yes, that makes 3 trees in the living/main room)

That's it for the decorated trees. I have pictures of some of the rest of the 'fluff' and I will try to get another post up before the boys start arriving next week. Right now my battery says it needs a charge and I need to get busy.

A Big Thank You!

A package arrived on my front porch yesterday.

 My sweet friend Terry (no blog) knows me well - these days I'm all about anything caramel - add chocolate and/or salt and it's even better!

 Look at this cute needle minder she made for me! Texas all the way!

And when I got to this I started dancing a little jig (something you really don't want to see!) I can't believe she sent me the new DMC - and in the tin! I had to just stare at it, I might have hugged it a little. I did finally open it but got so excited at the pretty colors I forgot to take a picture. (I did not take the floss out - so I will take a picture later)

From the bottom of my heart, thank you, Terry.

I'm working on getting a Christmas tour - I've finished all my 'fluff' just need to go through the pictures and decide which ones to post. The next few weeks are going to be pretty busy. While my 'fluff' is finished, my shopping is not and of what I have bought the only things that have been wrapped are what I needed to get in the mail.

I hope you are all ready for the holiday and have time to kick back and enjoy the season. I'm hoping I reach that point before the boys start arriving!

Happy Thanksgiving

Not a lot of Thanksgiving decor - just switched out a little Halloween for Thanksgiving pieces.

Middle kidlet arrived Tuesday night

  Oldest and his 'plus one' will arrive around noon.

Desserts are made and it's time to head to the kitchen to get the rest of the meal started.

Hope you all have a wonderful day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Girls weekend

A couple of weeks ago the girlfriends and I traveled to Houston for the quilt show. We have been going for years and it is always a fun weekend. If your have never been to the Houston Quilt Festival, it is something to see! 

 We drove down on Friday afternoon and made a stop at 3 Stitches. I picked up a few things but this is all I can show you since everything else will be gifts. (the needle minder says floss boss)

 Saturday we headed to the quilt show - looks like it was a doggie day! I also purchased the fabric kit for the quilt. I already have several of the weinerland charts - haven't stitched one yet.

This is the only other thing I bought for myself over the weekend. I haven't bought a new pair of scissors for myself in a long time but I couldn't resist this pair - now to make a new fob.

Just like the previous day, everything else I bought was for gifts.

Headed home on Sunday. Our next girls weekend will be in March. Already looking forward to it!

Birthdays and Qsnaps

 My baby boy is 31 today. How did that happen so fast? One day he was learning to walk and the next he is a grown man, married, and living in New York. A long way from his Texas roots. Time flies by so quickly. Wishing him the happiest of birthdays and looking forward to seeing him and his bride at Christmas. (we may even have a couple of days where the 'kids' will all be here at the same time - that seems to get harder every year but I love it when it works out!)

While baby boy has been celebrating his birthday, I've been working on a Qsnap puzzle. I've got matching side pieces and clips but I can't get them together to fit the clips. I'll work on that again tomorrow.  Maybe.

A little weekend painting

We did a little painting over the weekend

We painted the back (from the garage) entry and the stairway. We moved the 'office' out of my sewing room and into the back entry. It's not a huge area but it is big enough for the computer cabinet, a bookcase and the file cabinet.  I still have to get it organized.

I really like the green color we used here and I think I am going to use it in the living room too but that won't happen until after the holidays.

Then there is the sewing room. Yes, there is a sewing machine in there somewhere (a few of those piles need to go to the office space). Now I get to see if I can actually organize the room where I can find something when I need it. I've already found a few things I forgot I had. I haven't decided what color I want to paint this room but I'm not in a hurry to make a decision since it isn't top on the list.

I've done a little stitching but it is all gifts so no pictures yet.

Hope you are all finding time to stitch - or whatever it is that makes your heart sing!

The Birthday Girl

Tomorrow is this beautiful girl's birthday. I can't let the day pass without saying how proud I am of the woman she has become. 

The best part is how much she loves my baby boy.

We couldn't love you any more if you had been born into this family and we are grateful you joined us by choice.

Have a wonderful birthday!

Happy Halloween!

Hope you have a happy and safe Halloween!

A little stitching

I've managed a little stitching lately.

Terry and I did a little stitch-a-long on this cutie (ignore the wrinkles) I think she is going to frame hers. I will probably make mine into an ornament.

 I pulled this off the stand to roll it out for a look - I really need to spend more time stitching on it. I was going to get a yard stick out so you could see how big it is but I forgot to do it before I took the picture, but it is 22 3/4" square.

 This is a pretty good shot of what the colors actually look like (or it shows up on my screen that way)

Not much else going on. Picked paint colors for the bedroom but not sure when we will get the chance to paint.

I put my fall stuff out (I don't have much) but I haven't taken any pictures yet. Maybe I will get to those in the next post.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

A little of this, a little of that.

Yes, it's been awhile. 

Seems like I'm always busy, but I don't seem to have much to show for it. 

I had a bit of a hard time deciding on a color for the kitchen.

I sampled a few colors and ended up going with. . .

 Banana Cream, which just so happens to be the same color we painted the outside of the house. 

 After trying the samples we thought it just looked better if we primed first so the kitchen basically has three coats of paint on the walls. I'm still planning to paint the bar/island with a blue/gray. Might work on that this weekend.

 I forgot to take a before picture of the laundry room but just imagine this room being the same color as the before picture of the kitchen. (all but two of the rooms in the house are that same color) That door on the right goes into the living room.

 I wish I could come up with the name of this green but it isn't coming to me right now and my sample chips are in the other room. That door leads to the back entry - garage is to the left, the doorway you see is the powder room. You can see the sun coming in from the side door on the right and then the kitchen is also to the right.

Still have pictures to hang in both rooms but haven't decided what I'm going to out back up and where I'm going to put them.

Thought I had decided on a color for the living room but after I put a sample up on the wall near the ceiling I decided I didn't like the two colors together and I don't want to paint the ceiling so . . .

I have managed to get in a stitch here and there. Had to take out some and restitch so it's not as far along as it could be.

We had a visit from the middle kidlet a couple of weeks ago. Desktop computer crashed and he came in on a Saturday and fixed it for us. Cutest tech support around. He couldn't stay the night but we took him out for a steak dinner before he headed home.

Have a new project to start on Monday. Terry and I are going to do a little stitch-a-long. 

Other than that, just more of the same old stuff.

Happy stitching!