A few Santas

First - thanks for the compliments on my front porch - I waited a long time for it (20 years!) and I do love it. We bought this house in 1985 and from the very beginning planned on adding a porch. I could see it, but it took us 20 years to get to it - it turned out better than I had pictured it.

These pictures are some of my fireman Santas. I have them on display in the guest room where hubby's fireman memorabilia is also displayed. I have yet to come across a paramedic Santa. I did find an EMT one the other day but for one thing it was forty bucks (I'm cheap - show me an after Christmas half price sale and we will talk) and while I don't claim to know how it works in other states, in Texas at least, an EMT and paramedic are not the same thing. Call me nit picky.

One smart cookie

This is what it looks like after hubby and Timothy got through last weekend. It is really hard to get a good picture of night time lighting! Well, it is for me anyway. I think I need more practice with the camera. I don't have a lot of patience - I'm a point and shoot kinda girl. The really bright 'thing' on the left is a lamp post. Timothy has been doing the outside lighting since he was about 10. (he is 23) One of the first years he did it he was outside working when the garden club ws out judging the lighting contest and they stopped and asked why we didn't enter and could they enter us? I said sure as long as they entered Timothy's name, not ours - he got a prize! (well, only an certificate and his name in the paper but not bad for a kid!) Back then he would get out and decide exactly what he wanted, then send me to the store (and he would be specific - so many strands of C-9, multi color etc.) When we were working on the house he made sure we had a breaker just for the outside lighting, then when we built the porch in 2005 (we won't talk about the underpinning that is still not finished) he planned out exactly where the outlets should go (there is actually one w/o anything plugged into it - he tried to get me to buy something so he could use that one!) Yep - that middle child of ours is one smart cookie!

How many?

beads and sequins do you think are on this ornament? My grandmother made this for me years ago. She made us an ornament every year for several years, the others are the felted ones with beads and sequins (I will show some of those later) but this is the only one I have like this (wonder why?) I am amazed every year when I unwrap this one to put on the tree.

Much to do today - better get busy!

Happy Friday!

Chubby little Santa

Since this is supposed to be a stitching blog and there hasn't been any stitching to show up here lately, I thought I would show you this chubby little needlepoint Santa I stitched a few years ago. He was a class project at Eye of the Needle (closed, sad to say) I didn't do the finishing but sent him off to be made up into this cute little stand up.
What little bit of stitching that has been going on here lately has been for gifts so I have nothing new to show. I'll post some more ornaments and things but I've already posted the only new one I'm keeping for myself this year - unless I really get on the ball - it is possible I 'might' get one more xs one for myself and maybe a couple of redwork ones, but I've got to move faster than I have been lately!
Hope you have a great Wednesday!

Adding a little sparkle

I put this Norfolk Pine in my little garden house and added some sparkly ornaments around the front and sides for a little holiday spruce up.

Off the sauce!

My tree is standing all nice and straight now - you remember it looked like it was a little on the drunk side. Well, Mr. Fix-it who never misses anything came through and says ' the tree is leaning'. I'm already in 'Scarlett mode' for the night, I'll worry about that tomorrow, so I'm all wrapped up in my chair and mind you curling myself up in the chair is no easy feat - we have already discussed my rather large size so we won't go there - but I'm all curled up and it's a little chilly so I have an afghan over me and I'm reading a magazine or whatever so I just say 'I know' and don't really look up. Well, Mr. Fix-it will do one of two things when he sees something that needs to be fixed - either walk right past or think it needs to be done right then. So, I hear him say the thing isn't all the way down in the base (operator error, remember) but I put it down as far as it would go - then there must be something stuck in there blocking it from going all the way down because he can see where the screws were tightened before. All this time I haven't looked up to see that he is laying on the floor but I catch a glimpse of my tree SWAYING back and forth! As you can see it has more than a few ornaments on it and it was just like this when he was trying to take it out of the base to see what was in there! I'm trying to climb out from under the blanket, uncurl my legs and get across the room before the whole thing goes tumbling down! I finally got him to stop and got hubby and son # 1 to come downstairs and they lifted the tree out of the base while Mr. Fix-it dumped out the cap from the bottom of the tree that had gotten lodged in sideways. So - now my tree doesn't look drunk anymore!

It started raining before I could get out and get pictures yesterday - maybe sometime this week. I'll get some more pictures inside too - now that I've got that explosion cleaned up. All the boxes have finally gone back to the attic! As for stitching - well, there hasn't been a lot of that going on here lately and what little bit I've done has been for gifts. I'll show some soon - even if it is older stuff!

Will try to get some pics of Canton stuff too - nothing really exciting - Christmas decor and a crock for the kitchen.

Terry in Arlington - thanks for letting me know you are still around and reading my blog!

Lunch time is over - back to work for me!

Have a great day!

Men at work

Yesterday the guys worked on the outside decorations. Autumn wanted to come out and help, but she had to settle for watching from the door, poor girl, but the street is just too busy. I still need a couple of bows but I'll try to get some pics today if it doesn't rain before I get to it. The inside still looks like a Christmas store exploded in here. You would think I had way more than I really do! I better get busy.