Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! 

I have seven new ornaments on my tree this year.

 Three store bought

 Three made by me

and one from Brian and Brittany.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!

This years forest

Here is my annual Christmas tree tour. 

They don't change much but here we go.

 In the master bedroom is my little wire tree.

 I have this little white feather tree in my sewing room - it has (new) shiny brite ornaments on it. One of these days it might get stitched ornaments. 

 This is the look-alike feather tree (it is very stiff - the white one is very soft)  in the guest room. Again, same ornaments as last year.

 The fireman tree is just inside the front door. I added the red and white beads this year. They had been in a storage tote for probably 20 years .

 I don't know why I didn't take a closer picture of this tree. This was taken standing at the front door. Just too the left is the fireman tree and white cabinet and just on the other side of the table is the big tree. (we have to turn the table around to make it fit there)

 This is the twin to the tree in the last photo. In the previous house they were both in the dining room but they are split up here and one is in the kitchen.

This is my little sweet tree. It sits on the counter in the kitchen. I've about maxed out the number of ornaments I can put on it and depending on what angle you look at it from it's a tad crooked. I might need to look for a replacement. 

And last, but not least, the monster tree. It's a bit large for this room. Last house had an open floor plan and it fit when we bought it - we have to squeeze it in here. I've been looking for a slimmer one (but not a pencil tree) but haven't found one I like and then I'm afraid I won't be able to get all the ornaments on a smaller one!

Kids are all here and we have been 'Christmasing' since yesterday. Brian and Brittany will depart this afternoon since he has to work tomorrow but we will have Jason and Timothy until later in the week.

Are you ready for Christmas?

A little stitching

I haven't worked on many (any?) big projects this year but I have done some small projects. I started this little monthly series from Lizzie Kate over the summer and I've kept up with it so far. 

I have had this frame for awhile and when I discovered this series would be a perfect fit I decided to get busy. (I also have the stamp series started but I failed to get December finished in time)

I took the glass out of the frame and covered a piece of tin with fabric then I put a magnet on the back of the finished piece so they are easy to change out every month. I wish I could take credit for the magnet idea but I'm not that smart. If you want awesome finishing ideas check out www.pricillas2000.blogspot.com. 

She has awesome finishing ideas and whips them out so fast - I don't know how she does it. Spend some time there and check out her holiday home tour - it's amazing!

I'm working on finishing up my Christmas decorating - almost done. Not much changes year to year (except when we move and hopefully that won't happen again anytime soon!) but I will share photos of the trees when I finish. (yes, I have more than one again this year)

Bedroom Update

Have you decked your halls yet? Mine still looks like a Christmas store exploded in here. We finally got our bedroom painted right before Thanksgiving. I didn't go back and look for a before picture but it was a really dark green. (It is also the only room I am completely finished holiday decorating - because there isn't much in there.)

We used Comfort Gray on the walls and Sea Salt on the ceiling. (both SW colors but purchased at Lowe's) I love it! It is so much lighter! Eventually we will paint the bathroom with the Sea Salt.

We are in the market for a new bed. Originally we were just looking for a new mattress and we were going to build the bed but I was wandering around the store and found a bed we both actually liked. The downside is that the headboard would come to just below that shelf. We would have to move the shelf up to where the pictures would be just below the crown molding and I'm not sure how that will look. We are also looking to move to a king size which is going to mean I won't have room on the sides for the quilt on the left or the ladder on the right.

The three pictures are our boys - all taken when they were 18 months old. The quilt was purchased many years ago - I think I ordered it out of Country Living magazine.

On the ladder - One of the first things I ever embroidered - pillowcases for my grandparents. Below those are two towels I bought at a antique store on top of pillowcases my great-grandmother made. I need to take a close-up of those. The crocheted flowers are 3D. Beautiful. I've tried to crochet - I can't keep the tension even - I prefer cross stitch! I'm pretty sure she also did the embroidery on the blue and white tablecloth below the pillowcases. I like having them on display and I'm not sure what I will do if we go ahead with the king size bed as I don't have anywhere else to put the ladder unless I just turn it and prop it on that side wall which would be kind of crammed in next the night stand.

I painted this chest several years ago - it's a different shade of gray and I'm not sure if I should change the color with it against the gray wall. (both actually look blue)

Love the master chest! We bought it a long time ago and I debated what color to get. A friend talked me into going for the red (I was leaning towards a safe white). I'm really glad I got the red! On top of the  chest is a small collection of quilts - some store bought but some handmade. The handmade ones are on the bottom and kind of hidden behind the sign right now but there are two from my great-grandmother's collection and one that was made for us when we got married by the mother of a lady that used to work for hubby's parents. I have no idea how old she was at the time but I would guess late 80s or 90s. It is tied with yarn and I have no idea what she used for batting but it is heavy! She made another one for our oldest that is also hand tied. The wicker rocker belonged to MIL. Above the wicker chair are photos of our boys from high school graduation

 Hubby built this shelf years ago. I'm the dingbat that measured where to put the glass doorknobs - should have had them farther apart. Anyway - The blue shirt was hubby's an the white one was mine. Photos on top - starting on the left, me, hubby, our boys, hubby and another one of the boys. Sometimes I miss the days when I could not only get a picture of all 3 of them when I wanted but I could also tell them what to wear. :) 

I bought this little wire tree several years ago in an antique store (though it isn't antique) The stained glass window also came from an antique store. When we painted I had to fill LOTS of holes left by the previous owner - I stopped counting at 85. We replaced the blinds since the others weren't in the best working order. All the windows in this house are extra long which means blinds are special order. I will make a decision on if I want to add curtains after I figure out the bed issue since a bigger bed would mean new bedding.

That's it from the master bedroom. I do have the smaller trees decorated but the monster is still waiting. I'll post more pictures later.

So, are you finished with your holiday decorating? Shopping? I need to get busy!

Hopefully I will get back with pictures of the other trees soon.

Post Number One-Thousand and a Birthday

 Wow - time flies. I noticed when I last posted that my next post (this one) would be number one-thousand. I had no idea I would make that number when I made that first post in July 2007. There have been many changes in my life over the last eleven years. We have moved - 4 times if you count the apartments in-between houses (not counting the moves in and out of storage buildings) If you had told me way back in 2007 we would spend 7 years living in the Houston area, I would have thought you were crazy. You just never know what life has in store for you.

I had plans to go through the blog and pick out some photos to share through the years - well, there are a lot of photos! That would not only take forever but it would be way too many photos for one post. I made it through the first two years and already had way too many photos! I decided to just share these two.

This was taken at Christmas 2007. 

And this was Christmas 2017.

My kiddos are scattered - Houston, Dallas area and NYC, and we are empty nesters. We only get these group photos at Christmas.

The oldest two will be here this week for Thanksgiving and baby boy will be here for a long visit over Christmas.

Speaking of baby boy, today is his birthday! Miss him every day but a little extra on his birthday. 

I'm so grateful for modern technology that make is easier to keep in touch with the boys anytime - not just on weekends when long distance rates were cheaper! 

I'm also grateful for the friends I've made through this blog. Some only online, some have passed on and some I've actually met in person. I've thought several times about giving up on this blog. I don't post nearly as often as I used to but when I start looking through older posts, I'm glad I have the memories saved - like I said, you never know where life will take you! Let's see what the next eleven years has in store!

Thank-you to those of you who read my infrequent post. To those of you who leave comments or send emails, thank you for not making it seem like I'm talking to myself here.

In case I don't get back here before Thursday,

Happy Thanksgiving!

Once Thanksgiving is over the Christmas craziness will begin and I'll definitely be back with photos!

Happy birthday Ashley!

Wishing our beautiful Ashley a happy birthday!

Hope you have an awesome day! 

We love you!

A Long Week!

Well, glad that week is over! 

I had a root canal on Monday and a (temporary) crown on Tuesday. I had a major infection and it took me all week to recover. I've had dental work done before but this was the worst experience I've ever had. (nothing to do with the dentists - they were great - just the infection and swelling) I'm finally back to eating real food and my face isn't still swollen but I do still tend to also chew my cheek if I'm not careful.

Before my decent into dental hell, I took my red rooster outside with a can of white spray paint.

Gave him a few sprays then treated him to a couple of love taps with some sand paper. I think he looks pretty good!

I did get some stitching done and finally finished my November Stamp. Now I just need to get it and the other November piece ironed, sew on the buttons and get them ready for their frames - should be able to get that done by Thursday.

Looking forward to getting back into the swing of things this week!

A Little Fallish

We finally have a little fallish weather moving in. It's cloudy and cool outside this morning - with storms predicted for later today and tomorrow.

Thought I would show a few more fall/Halloween pictures. I'm through with fall decorating except for changing out the Halloween specific pieces for Thanksgiving specific pieces after Halloween.

 Can't remember where I picked up these little fabric pumpkins but I put them under a cloche with some amber lights. (they are on but hard to see because of the lighting - I love these lights that have timers on them!)

 Mr. Too cute for pie is also too cute to put away and stays out all year with the exception of Christmas when I have this area covered in Christmas. The two little pumpkins I think were a dollar at Walmart several years ago - they were orange so I painted them with craft paint. Took several coats - if I did it again I would try spray paint.

 I think this was a Hobby Lobby find.

 Kind of hard to see but there is a string of leaf lights on top of the mantle - more of those battery operated on a timer things! If it gets cold enough to turn on the fireplace I will have to move my pumpkin patch.

Hard to tell, but those lights are little pumpkins.

This cabinet is one of my favorite places to decorate. Again, hard to tell but I have orange lights inside the glass door.

I've already shown all of the outdoor decor but I did add these pumpkins in front.

Oops!

Working on getting my November pieces ready - this ones just needs an iron and buttons. I will do that when I finish the other one - it's on the qsnap and in progress.

There are a few more pumpkins scattered about - I'll try to get those in with the Thanksgiving stitches.

Have a great week!

Happy October!

Thought I would share a few little Halloween stitches I have around the house.

I don't have a lot of  just Halloween

I tend to stick more to just fall so I can leave them out longer

Most of them I've had for awhile but this one is new this year

I've added a few orange lights

This one has been around awhile! Since 1997!

and the only other newbie for this year.

More fall pictures to come and I still haven't posted pictures of my living room after we finished painting and getting everything back on the walls.

Our weather isn't exactly 'fallish' yet, but it is getting there!