See that sweet little birdy there?

Wanna see more? This is an exciting day for me. For those you follow Amy Power's blog and online store InspireCo,you know what kind of really cute, really unique wares she specializes in. Guess what? This month I am her featured artist!

Months ago, when Amy invited me onboard, I was pleasantly surprised and honored. And immediately in panic-mode. Me? I knew the kind of artists Amy had signed on and I certainly didn't feel like I belonged in this group. I've watched every month as artists appeared with their creations and been amazed at what I saw. And I'm still pleasantly surprised and honored to be featured.

If you want to see more of my birds head on over to Amy's, and see what's up. Most of my stuff is made with re-purposed old linens that were otherwise unusable in their present condition. Most can also be used as a recepticle for a small gift giving you two gifts in one! Two for one is always good isn't?

Thanks Amy for asking me to create for you. I've learned a lot along the way and it has stretched me in really good ways. O.K. guys get yourselves over to InspireCo and get shopping!

Does anyone else feel like they

need to de-tox? Whew! I am more than stuffed. I feel like I could explode. I am so weary of all the holiday foods. If I see another sausage ball or Christmas cookiie I will turn green.

When my daughter was here she kept talking about doing a de-tox. I teased her about it, but I have to admit that it sounds pretty good right now.In a perfect world, I would go through a good herbal "cleansing" and arrive on the other side about 5 pounds lighter and committed to a nearly vegetarian diet. But it's not a perfect world and I don't see that happening. When I see my doctor in March I am supposed to be 15 pounds lighter. That's 5 lbs. a month! Yikes! I see a cancelation in my future... I once read a cartoon that said, "I like to make appointments so that when I want to feel in control of my life I can call and cancel." Yeah that's me with this 15 pound thing.

Christmas

was, as always, a happy, joy-filled, food-filled day. As always on Christmas Eve, someone read The Night Before Christmas. Being a new reader, Hilary was anxious to help read ,which was so sweet. Sophia was content to sit and listen.

Christmas morning was full of fun as we all opened our gifts. Hilary would open a gift and put it in her stash and go for the next one. Sophia was happy playng with the first gift opened for her and would have played happily with just the one. Maybe that is a lesson for the rest of us?

After a breakfast of baked french toast and candied bacon, we all sort of settled in for the day some electing for naps.

3 days after the Big Day and everyone here is sick of holiday food, and the decorations are just of a rude reminder of all the work to be done getting them all down. Oh well.

Immediately after the holidays, I get in this major cleaning mode and want to clean and re-paint everything in my sight. I have lots of cleaning projects on my list and some fun decorating ones too.

I have this idea to cover the barrel style lampshade on an antique floor lamp in my living room in cream colored feather boas. I think I cut them where they are joined together and then pin/glue them all arond the shade to cover it. I think it will look fantastic. I already love using different colors of boas on a favorite pair of candle sticks so a lampshde isn't such a far stretch I think. I'll take pictures.

Since we did not have internet service a great part of December due to a faulty sattelite (which is still not quite right), I didn't reach my goal of blogging everyday in December. I am going to try again in January!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

On the longest night of the year,

 

Hilary and I made Christmas candles together. The purple one is her favorite. It looks a little like a candle you might find in Dr. Seuss's Whoville I think. She loves this project everytime we do it, but doesn't want to give any of them away! She is spending the night with us tonight. We took her shopping for so she could choose gifts for her Mom and Pop. I am going to let her do the wrapping and everything. Tomorrow we will meet up with Mom and Pop at church. The weather is still crummy and nasty and I am still on the old dial-up, so I don't want to write an extensive post here just it case it bumps me off, so I'm keeping this short.

O.K., so I am NOT impressed

with Hughes Net. We only got it a few months ago (in the summer) because we were so tired of dial-up and it's painstakingly slow response time. It's looking pretty good right now. At least it works. Our skies aren't really that cloudy this week, but apparently enough to keep the satellite from receiving its signal. The MOTH finally got our old desktop to connect but who knows for how long? Till a cloud passes over I guess. All my pictures are trapped in my laptop which will not connect, so I can't post any of my Christmas pix. I feel like I am cut off from everything without my internet! Phooey. I know I could have worse problems but I just hate that we are paying mucho money and not getting anything in return about half the time.

a clear view of the southern sky

I have NOT had most of the week. Hense my disappaerance. We live in the boonies and the only way to get high speed internet is with satellite. When you see the Hughes Net commercial and they say all you need is a clear view of the southern sky to have access to high speed internet, believe it people. Most of the week our sky was a deep dark leaden gray that sent rain by the bucketsfull all day. I was offline so long, I was going nuts. Couldn't email, couldn't keep up with world events, couldn't shop. I wasn't starting to ascquire a nervous tick, and felt myself twitching convulsivly. Well, not really, but I sure didn't like it.

On the advice of my internest whiz son-in-law, I called IT support just to be sure it was only the weather and not something more serious. I had never done that before but desperate enough to try.







I bet you know where my IT support is. India. I knew I was in trouble when the voice on the opposite end said, "Hello my name is Deepak and I am here to help you." Oh, lordy all I wanted was a Kevin or a Susan, or anything remotely pronouncable by this southern girl.

I was concentrating very hard in an attempt to understand D. as he asked me questions about my computer. Finally D, says to me, "Ceendy (that's my name in Indian), type what I am going to say.

"O.K., I am ready." I say fingers poised over the keyboard.

Then D. says to me, "Deh Blue, Deh Blue, Deh Blue."

Total silence on my end, but my brain is in a panic as I frantically looked for a "Deh Blue" key. Then I started thinking it must be French and I don't speak French. What to do? I asked D. to repeat his instructions. Politely he did. I was still clueless and finally sai, "Could you spell 'Deh blue' for me?"

This time D. was silent. Finally he said in a slow, painstaking way, " Deh Blue, as in WHISKEY!"

Embarrassed, I said, "Oh dub-ya, dub-ya, dubya!" I said in my best southern accent.
Talk about being mortified! Thankfully, the rest of our conversation went a little bit better with the final diagnosis being no clear view of the southern sky. Puh.

a clear view of the southern sky

pretty!

 

 

I subscribed to Teresa McFayden's "Paper Bella" ezine, The Twelve Days of Christmas and am having so much fun with it. Just as it sounds, for 12 days in December, you get a fun holiday related project. This little star was day 2. I love, love, love bottle brush trees and since I have a huge supply of them knew I had to make this. It is hanging from a vintage cloth covered lampshade in my kitchen and looks so sweet there. I think I want to take large trees now and make a really big one, but first I think I will bleach the trees and then dye them pink. Wouldn't that be pretty?

looky here!

 

 

What a village of sugared up glittered up houses! I wish my pix weren't such poor quality and that I could have gotten a picture of the entire set-up but you get the idea. I just love the little house in the close-up. When my daughter and I visited my sweet friend Amy Powers of InspireCo she taught us how she makes her little houses for her line of houses she calls Sugarville. We had so much fun! Amy had snacks (love that St. Andre Triple Creme Brie-I ate most of it), and manner of crafty cutesy thing ready and waiting for us. We spent a couple of happy hours painting, glueing and glittering our little houses. If you look closely at my little house, you will see a cute little guy painted by Amy herself. I think he is wanting in that little house and I don't blame him.

Speaking of houses; oh buddy is Amy's cute! It's just like her. Warm, cute, welcoming, and happy. Every corner is a feast for the eyes. Ever so often my daughter or I would stop what we were doing and go and look at some other little corner that had just caught our eye. No doubt about it, Amy knows how to make a house a home.

After I returned home, I was inspired to make another house or two for my little glittery village to go with the few I already had. I think I will add to it every year. maybe Amy would be honorary mayor?

The hot light is on!

 

Isn't this just the cutest little ornament? My sil Pop got it for me. The little light just blinks away. Makes 'ya want a Krispy Kreme doesn't it? Come on, you know you want one...

It's just not Christmas around here

 

until this little guy is displayed somewhere safe in my house. On the underside he is dated "1962" with a black magic marker. His brilliant paint job mostly gone-rubbed away by little fingers hoping that just by holding him would make the great day come sooner.

Poised on a high shelf, the first time I look at him every year, I remember just like yesterday the day I first saw him. I was 4 years old and sitting under our silver aluminum Christmas tree looking at the bright red ornaments on the tree and all the equally bright packages under the tree. Even as a 4 year old, I was a tradionalist and longed for the popcorn garlanded, icicle laced, magnificent green firs I saw depicted in all my storybooks.

What was wrong with my family? All the story books showed happy families bundled up and packed in their station wagon with a GREEN Christmas tree tied down on top. Or better still they were tramping through the woods with a tree they had actually cut themselves. And us? Daddy would go to the attic and re-appear with a longish box that contained a bare skinny pole with holes all over it. Then, one by one, daddy would remove flashy aluminum sticks from their paper sleeves and stick them in the holes. In 30 minutes time we would have a "tree" that was a testment to the times: the space age and all that went with it. The crowning touch was not a beautiful angel or a shiny star for the top, but a color wheel that sat on the floor and revolved reflecting red, yellow, blue, and green onto our alme uminum fir.

I've oftetn wondered what went through my daddy's mind as he contructed this tree every year. My mother loved it. I don't know what he thought of it. But the day he brought home this little Santa and handed it to me, it was though he was saying to me that he understood and hoped this little traditional icon might take the edge off the aluminum tree for me.

The irony in all of this is that every year as I put out Santa I wish I had that old silver tree. I would gladly set it up and decorate it and probably display it right next to my gorgeous, real, live, green tree.

Just a few pictures tonight,

 

 

 

.
I'm pooped. Got lots and lots of fabric cut at the quilt shop today. A fun, productive day though.
I love the JOY ornament is my newest favorite. It started out life as a plain kinda ugly copper colored metal ornament from Wal-Mart. I added the vintage glass glitter and the pink ribbon. Love the why it looks hanging from the jar filled with antiquie ornaments.
Just one of 20 poinsettias I bought this year. Yep, 20, but hey they were only a buck a piece at Lowe's. I have them everyshere! wish I had thought about having to water all those flowers tho before I bought so many.
Hollie Hobby says Merry Christmas! That is vintage 1977. I had two and don't know what happened to the other one.
More on my Christmas decorations tomorrow!

the trouble with pink

 

is that it comes in so many lucious shades and I love them all. Yep, there is lots of pink on the needles these days. I just finished a pink scarf to go with my pink coat. I do love that color.

No more singing out loud while home alone

well, maybe.

As my family can attest, I LOVE to sing. I know a line or two from oodles of songs and can belt one out for just about any situation.

Yesterday, I had the Christmas music going and I was singing along at full volume in my best off-key warble. Actually, my off-key warble is the best I've got, but it doesn't stop me.

Anyway, I was giving it my all as I walked back and forth through the house tidying up. From front of the house to back I went, Jasper following me barking away. What we must have sounded like! i just thought that Jasper was joining in the fun, when suddenly, I heard someone knocking on my door. I was instantly silenced as the person knocked again. There is no way they couldn't have heard my music making. I was so mortified that I couldn't answer the door. I finally managed to peek out the window and saw a woman walking down my driveway back to her car, which had its hood up. I felt really bad about not helping her, but my embarrasment overcame any altruistic feelings I had.

It felt kinda strange around the house today as I went about my daily chores quite as a mouse. I'm not sure how much longer I can hold to my new vow of silence.

for once it's good to be a follower!

and not the leader. At least, that is what blogspot is telling me. I am trying to learn more about using blogspot as it relates to my blog and I saw this new gadget you could add. I am learning as I go and I hope this is a good thing to add. I guess if it is not, I can delete it. So if you read my blog, become a follower, just don't ask me how you do it!

I've been tagged by KellyMaria

at Belle Ame. I have to post 6 things about myself and tag 6 others.

Here goes.

1. I hate to have my picture taken. Really hate it.
2. I love to be all alone all day long in my house cooking, crafting, and decorating
3. I like to shop online
4. intense, high strung people drive me nuts. You know the kind? Everything and I mean everything is IMPORTANT, especially if it pertains to them.
5. I would spend my last dollar on a book or a craft supply
6. My favorite Christmas movie is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

sorry I've been MIA

No reason for it really. First I skipped a couple of days, then another, then I was out of town, then I was busy, busy with babysitting, and the longer I went without posting, the guiltier I felt and the guilt was so great that I didn't even want to look at my blog becasue I felt so badly about not posting.

My December challenge to myself is to post everyday this month. Even if it is only a sentence, I hope to get something written here.

We had a week with our granddaughter Sophia while her parents were in Hawaii. Whew! She kept us busy! Plus our other granddaughter Isabella was here too. We were in toddler mode for over a week. I went back into survival mode. quick! she's asleep, get something done! For a week I took very fast baths, cooked very little, stayed dressed in sweats, pretty much stayed at home, and cuddled and sang, and kissed little toes, and inhaled the sweet smell of baby.

Thanksgiving was good, although we only had one of the grands here. We still had a good time and ate too much. We were lucky to get to spend some time with old friends that were vistiing.

The decorations are up! I love decorating for Christmas but this year, I went for a leaner, more traditional look. Lots of red and gold. I will be posting pictures over the next few days.

Now for the shopping! I've done a little, mostly online. I love shopping online and scoping out the etsy shops to see what unique things I can find. am trying not to buy so much "junk" that only ends up unused and unloved just a few days after the big day.

I am also working on some cute stuff for Inspireco. I will be featured in January and I am trying to get my stuff finished and mailed to Amy in record time. I have some really cute little birdies that I can't wait for everyone to see. Maybe I'll give a little peak!

So, hello everyone! I'm home!