Blog Anniversary Giveaway

I didn't even realize but one of my blogs is one year old today. I haven't been blogging all that long but have enjoyed skimming around the blog-o-sphere and reading what is happening in your world, in your part of the country or the globe for that matter.

I think in honor of this blogs birthday I will post this picture of a simple give away that you can put aside for next year. I made a few of these this season. The tealight holder is made from black felt and the top edge is sprinkled with german glass glitter. I wrapped some tea stained cheese cloth around the hat and pinned a rusty jingle bell.



All you need to do for this giveaway is become a follower of my blog and leave a comment letting me know that you are following or if you are already a follower just tell me that. Sound good? I'll make it easy this time and a little more interesting the next. Good luck! I'll post the winner around January 17th.

And Happy New Year everyone

Let the Merry Making Begin

It's Christmas Eve and at our house that is when a lot of the celebration begins. We prepare the rest of the food which this year we bought too much so we will have to finish some of it tomorrow while eating left overs. Micah woke everyone up early to open stockings. I manage to put him off until about 10:30am so we could get a few things started.


On the menu this year is ribs (for later or tomorrow), chicken wings, cranberry chicken wings, lots of dips, hummis and few other things. I'm hoping to make tomorrow or the day after a gingerbread cake. So that will be a nice treat.







It looks like we will be snowed in from the storm that is going on outside today and tomorrow. They are predicting 15-20inches for us. I guess this will be a real "white Christmas". One of the girls is a little disappointed about getting snowed in - she was hoping to go to a movie on Christmas day like we did last year. We don't normally do that but with all our family too far away to travel to we decided to try that. I was actually very surprised at how crowded the theater was last year.

Merry Christmas to all of you. Enjoy your time with family and friends celebrating the birth of the Savior of the world.

Lil' Christmas Eve

Today our family celebrates "Lil' Christmas Eve". We adopted the tradition from our pastor back home in New England. His family has Norweigan background and my husband's side has Sweedish. So the day before Christmas, we start baking and doing those fun little things around the house as we get ready to celebrate the birth of Christ. We listen to carols while cooking and maybe a little bit of cleaning gets done. We finish up the wrapping and put the final touches on our decorations. We baked 3 different cookies today. We usually do much more but the time this year seemed to just get away from me and my little guy started to seem like he was getting a sick stomach. I'm praying not, since it will be no fun to have a sick child on Christmas, especially at his age. He's been waiting and waiting with very little patience, but then I don't blame him for that everyone loves presents.

Children's Christmas Program

Tonight was our church's Christmas program. We had a really good turn out for attendance and some family visitors coming to see the grandkids, neice or nephew of their relative. My daughter Natania had a two verse solo in one of the songs. I'm very proud of her. I think she is a little disappointed in how it went. She got kinda nervous on the 2nd verse, so I think she feels she could've done better. But I'm so glad she even tried. Bev, the lady who handles this each year kept asking for more volunteers and no one was willing to take on a solo verse or two. I know Natania can sing really, really well when no one is looking at her. So this is good practice for getting over those nerves. The hymn had about 10 verses, maybe more I lost track and it isn't the easiest song to sing even the congregation had trouble with their verses. We can't take photos during service so I'm posting a couple from the kids Christmas concert with our homeschool choir. The first is a picture of Natania with her friend Mackenzie. Natania is the blond on the right.

This one is from our concert. She really loves to sing so we are encouraging anything musical for her. She is part of the choir, takes voice lessons twice a month and piano.

Decking the Halls

I finally had a few moments to take some pictures of this years decorations. I'm not completely done. I'm still hoping to work on the kitchen a little bit more but that room is always full of school books or dirty dishes.

This year I did a little bit of outdoor decorating with the sled and the box of greenery under the window. I've wanted one of those sleds for a while now and found one at a reasonable price at the antique store down the street.




Onto the livingroom/dining room area.














After getting the tree up and decorated we lost some lights. I hate when that happens. A few years back we had the same problem just on a different tree and in a different house. We were living in Indiana then.




We have another tree in the dining room. It's a collection of victorian ornaments that we've bought over the years. We've come a long way since the first few years of marriage when we didn't have alot in the way of decorations.


Let's not forget among the fun of decorations and gift giving the real meaning of Christmas.


Isa 9:6 For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Luke 2: 7, 11, 14

And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you: he is Christ the Lord.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.

If you'd like to post photos of your home go here and join the fun.

You can also join another tour at the inspired room.

A cute little story

Yesterday my husband, my son and two older girls went to Sam's club while I took the younger two girls shopping for new Christmas dresses. They finished before us and tried to call my cell but it wasn't ringing. My husband decided to send Arianna and my 7 year old son into Kohl's to find us. They had a hard time finding us in the store and the funny part is Micah's conversation with Arianna which went like this

"Mommy is lost, that's why mommy shouldn't go out alone" Arianna told him I wasn't lost.

Micah continued with "If Mommy doesn't come home then she's grounded."

He says the cutest things.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Enjoy the day with family and friends. Some of us are still a little sick but it was requested we still try to cook a turkey with all the trimmings. so we will do that later today and then we usually start our Christmas decorating. Stay tuned for pictures in a few days.

What Ya Working on Wednesday-11/25/09

Here are some pics of the things I've been working on for a few weeks now. They were from some free patterns of various places, one item was from a pattern by Sweet Pea Primitives and another from Moonchild Prims. I've really enjoyed working on so many different things. My 7 year old son tells me that we have to keep some of them for ourselves. I'm thinking he might be right.

These candy canes were quick and fun. I baked them in the oven and scented them with coffee, vanilla and a little cinnamon.






These little guys look so great in my wooden bowl with some primitive greens.


These prim snowmen were fun but I'm not completely sure if I liked how they turned out. I didn't coffee stain the pure and natural batting, I only tea stained it. I think they should maybe be a little bit darker.






I made two of these one in green and one in red.

These were also baked in the oven. I left them a little crinkled. I didn't iron them I just smoothed out a little bit and then stuffed them. I think the crinkled look helps them look a little old. I love the graphic that is pinned with rusty pins.





I made 3 of the following little ornaments. I think they came out really nice. It was my first attempt at sculpted noses.


These little tea light holders were really fun to make. The brim is sprinkled with german glass glitter. I'm pretty pleased with these.


I made three of these also. I finished them up last night.
Now I'm finished for a few weeks and have boxed up my supplies. It's hard to find the space in a small house to keep the projects I'm working on out until they are completed. It's been awhile since I did so much crafting but these are for a good cause. Our church is doing a fundraiser on 12/5 a cookie and craft sale. I don't really think they will get what they are "worth" the way you would at a craft fair or a prim shop. I think whatever is left over I will try to sell here, on ebay or maybe even open an etsy shop of my own. When my oldest girls were little I had a very successful crafting business doing fairs and renting booth space in craft malls. That was a long time ago or at least it seems that way so it's been fun working on crafty things again.

I'm thinking too that I might do a Christmas giveaway. I've been enjoying reading other blogs and seeing what they have to offer this time of year. So check back around December 7th or so I might have it together by them. I certainly need more blogging friends/followers - it's lonely out here in a small town. I'm not a small town girl, somethings just won't change, no matter how much one tries.

Old Road Primitives

Kim is having a really wonderful Christmas give a way for a set our Christmas Mice from one of her very own original patterns. I just love her stuff. Go on over and check it out, who knows maybe you'll be the lucky winner.

Check out this cute snow angel

Head on over to Harvest Moon Primitives and enter her giveaway for this adorable ornie. Go take a look!

Wondering?

I'm going to be 42 on Sunday the 29th and boy am I starting to feel not so young anymore. But the only reason I mention that is because hubby a while back stopped at a local prim shop and must have bought something there for me. I went into the shop a few days later (not knowing he had already been) and the owner said Happy Birthday and was I surprised. She felt so bad when she realized it was my daughter's birthday in October and mine was a month away. So now I've been wondering what did he pick out on his own? Sometimes that's a scary thought -he has very little decorating taste. Time will tell and maybe I'll post a picture. You can tell me what ya think.

I've Decided

I sent the photo below to a couple of friends and they both said to use the picture above our fireplace which is in the TV room of our basement. I don't think much about decorating down there because there are no windows and the kids also use it as a play area. The mantle has been bare for most of the 3 years of living here except for Christmas when the kids put out our Christmas village pieces. So now I think I will re-think the decorating down there and maybe do an antique colonial style room or at least part of it like that since the other wall is floor to ceiling of hubby's books. It was also suggested that I darken the frame to prim it up a little so I will add that to the look. After Christmas I will scout out the TS and Goodwill for additional items that wall sconces and things. The pictures remind me very much of our old colonial home back in Winchendon, MA. I really miss that house. It was full of old features, 14 rooms with 7 fireplaces one that had a beehive oven built in. It was a 200 year old federal colonial home once on the town register for historic homes. Our whole family still misses living there. Oh, well maybe someday we will have a home very similar to that one or build one for our retirement. Then the grandchildren can come over and enjoy the space. But I'm a little too young for being a grandma just yet.

Primitive or Not???

Gotta question for any of you prim collectors or lover of antiques and anything of the olden days. I bought these yesterday at Goodwill. I really loved them when I saw them but now I'm wondering if they would really go with prim decor. I thought I'd put them above the piano and take down the raggedy ann picture type thing that is there. I'm kinda tired of that one. But now I'm not sure. So tell me what ya think?

What Ya Working on Wednesday-11/11/09

I've been working on a few items for our churches cookie and craft sale held in December. I thought I'd share a few of those photos.


I had so much fun working on these little guys. I made 8 of them but I'm going to keep 4 of them for myself. The pattern is from the Old Glory Company. It was the first time that I tried baking things in the oven. My hubby and kids would come in and ask what I was cooking. The smell of coffee, cinnamon and vanilla just waffled through the house. They were quite disappointed when they couldn't eat these little guys. But boy did the kitchen smell good.

Here's a whole pan of them. Don't they look great!



This snowman isn't really all that prim. He is lightly tea stained but I thought I should have a mixed variety because ya never know in such a small area as where we live right now how many are really into the prim decor.


I have some other items that I've been working on but they aren't finished yet. Mostly Christmas ornaments hopefully I will get those finished and can post them for next week. I figure if they don't sell very well at the church bazaar then I will either open an etsy store (never done that before) or sell them off my blog. Years ago I had a small craft business and did pretty well selling out of a booth and at fairs. Now with so many kids and the homeschooling I have really run out of the time needed to invest in something like that so that you have enough inventory to make the booth rent each month.

If you want to check out what others are working on head on over to Leslie's blog.

I Won, I Won!!

I won this cute, adorable santa guy from Cindy over at Our Primitive Heart.
Thanks so much!!



I know it's not Christmas yet, but he is going to be hanging around our house early this year. I think he's great!

Goodwill Hunting

The past few weeks I've been finding several great items at Goodwill and TS's but I haven't posted pics of those things because they are fairly generic -wooden bowls large and small things like that. But this week I wanted to post some of my great finds. Some our just fun things and some will be little re-do projects for a prim look. The first few pics are mostly just fun Christmasy things. Over the years I've found alot of mix and match type seasonal dishes. I think I'm just a "collector" type gal. Even as a child had collections of records, glass figurines, books, etc...I think it just sticks with you. Now with a family I like adding to our house and making it more homey (not that you can take it with you) but it's fun and the kids love it too!







I love this time around and shopping at the local Goodwill's and TS's - ya never know what your gonna find.

Now onto the more prim finds . . .




These are Williraye studio. There are flaws in them but I think I might be able to fix them, but they are also hardly noticeable. I got them for a steal.




I plan to remove the cork from these and do something prim with them just don't know what yet. Any ideas?

Not a great picture but it is a tin basket that says Merry Christmas and a woodend sled.




A cute little peg rack.


Lastly these are some trays that I'd like to redo into something else. With so many good finds it's hard to pick a favorite. Which one would be your favorite?