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Sunday, November 29, 2009

Just a peek....


My goodness it's been a crazy week. I hope you all had a FABULOUS Thanksgiving celebration. I had fully intended on doing a great post on Thanksgiving , but the day just got away from me.
I've been decorating up a store this weekend. I thought I would give you a little glimpse of what I've been doing. I don't want to show to much before all the fabulous parties, but I couldn't resist giving you a peek.



I usually work on half the house the weekend before Thanksgiving and half the house the weekend after. Then of course there's all the little stuff during the week. I just love decorating for Christmas. My son is grown and out of the house, but my husband looks forward to it just like a little kid. I tried only decorating one tree a couple of years ago and he pouted for a week!!!!


I'll be taking photos of the whole house over the next week to get ready for all the home tour parties. You can find a list of some of them on the left sidebar. I can't wait to see all your lovely homes all decked out for Christmas!!!! I can tell just from the few pics I've seen so far it's gonna be better than any decorating magazine out there!


This is just part of my ever growing snowglobe collection. It's one of my favorite things to bring out every year and the hardest thing to put away. I'll show you more during Denise's party over at Bella Dreams. If you haven't signed up to join the party yet, please do!!! I'll see you all this weekend!



Sunday, November 15, 2009

7 hours!!! Good Grief.


Last weekend my sweetie and I were out Garage Sale-ing and found this old ottoman for $5.00. I have been wanting to add one under my desk in my studio for quite a while now and it was the perfect size. So I took it home, and today decided my project would be to try to make a slipcover. It's taken me 7 hours give or take. (I'm shaking my head in shame) One stupid mistake after another caused me to fix things a couple of times but I'm finally finished and very happy with the results....


It's not perfect, but it's close enough for me! I found these fabrics at a discount fabric store near me and fell in love. That's cotton duck on the bottom. I tried something new this time and bought plain cotton cording to make the piping myself so it would match the top. Much more time consuming but I think it gives it a little more professional look.


No more sewing slipcovers for me for a while. This was A LOT of work!!!! But I'm glad I did it.



Monday, November 9, 2009

It's a party!!!


I'm really excited that Denise over at Bella Dreams is throwing her fist blog party ever. If you've ever been over to her blog you know what a talented and creative gal she is, so she is the perfect hostess for this party. I like it because it's a little different from the Holiday house tours that I'll be participating in. Denise wants us to share our favorite holiday tradition, or special memories. Maybe you want to show off a favorite ornament or holiday craft? She really gives us a wide variety of things to share. Please head on over to her blog and sign up. You know, the more the merrier!!!!



Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Running with Scissors... or, I Miss the Old America!!

My friend, Julie Haymaker Thompson posted this wonderful email she received. I know it is a wonderful look back on our childhood memories, but it also ends very poignantly where it speaks about the government regulating so much of our lives. It happens so incrementally, so slowly over time that it's hardly noticed until one day we awake to a society that looks nothing like it's former self, and we wonder to ourselves, "How did this happen?" When we allow "the powers that be" to increasingly intrude on our lives for our own good, we lose bits of ourselves along the way, and with it our individual liberties.
I miss the old America!!!


TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE
1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!! who's parents smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing,
tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-base paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats,
no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.

Riding in the back of a pick-up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this. We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter and bacon..We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar.

And, we weren't overweight.

WHY?Because we were always outside playing...that's why!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day,
as long as we were back when the streetlights came on..

No one was able to reach us all day. And, we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps
and then ride them down the hill, only to find out
we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's and X-boxes.
There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable,
no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's,
no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet and no chat rooms.

WE HAD FRIENDS

and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth
and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays,
made up games with sticks and tennis balls and,
although we were told it would happen,
we did not put out very many eyes..

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and
knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just
walked in and talked to them.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team.
Those who didn't, had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law
was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best
risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever.
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility,
and we learned how to deal with it all.

If YOU are one of them...
CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others
who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.
While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know
how brave and lucky their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house
with scissors, doesn't it ?



Sunday, November 1, 2009

Autumn in my Garden

October and November are 2 of my favorite months in my garden. In October, although the days are still hot, the evening cool down and are fabulous for sitting outside and enjoying some music in the company of my sweetie. I light candles and we just hang out together with no distractions from the TV or telephone.


My garden loves this time of year too. No more 114 days. It hovers in the 80's now and will start to drop down to the 70's during the day over the next few weeks.


Mums add some wonderful fall color. I like to buy a few extra pumpkins to leave whole and embellish the garden until Thanksgiving. Sometimes I carve a turkey into one of the pumpkins for a great centerpiece. You have to think ahead though and get your pumpkin now or there won't be any come Thanksgiving!


Making pumpkin luminaries is easy with the right attachments on a power drill!!!


We have to overseed the lawn every year with annual rye grass. It has come in very nicely. It will be soft and bright green all the way through May.

I hope you all had a safe and happy Halloween. We didn't have very many Trick or Treaters this year. It seems to be fewer and fewer every year. I miss the old days when Halloween was a huge celebration. I'm sure it probably is where some of you live.

Thank you so much to everyone who left a comment about my shop. I really appreciate the support. It can be very scary to take that first step don't you think? I'll try to add more things before the holidays.

Have a wonderful Monday!!!


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