Lookin Back at ‘2013

Well my friends, we will soon be stepping into a new year.  How quickly time flies when you’re having fun!  lol!

I have had an incredible year and have made so many wonderful blog friends!  Thanks so much for your support and sharing all of your talents with me at ‘Share Your Cup’!  I hope you will come back on the 8th and share what you’ve been up to since Christmas!

I always find it interesting to take a look back and see which post had the most views each month here at Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson.  I was so wishing I lived in Texas when I titled this post.  Yup, “Looking Back Texas”  would have been just grand.  Somehow ‘Lookin Back Utah”  just didn’t cut it.

  I thought you might enjoy this stroll down memory lane. . .

January:  I shared my Valentines mantel and my love for French Pastries in My One Weakness

February: Laundry Room Whites

March:  I shared my obsession love for dishes in I Can Dish it Out!

April:  I reminded you to Think Beyond the Pot when planting containers for your garden.

May:  I shared 10 things that mean farmhouse style to me in Sneak Peek of My Farmhouse Style.

June:  I shared my Simple Farmhouse Mantle.

July:  My Farmhouse Kitchen Reveal.  This post got the most views for ‘2013’.

August:  I shared my love for Linens and Lace.

September:  I shared my Welcome Fall Mantle.

October:  I shared my love for Primitives, Pumpkins, and Junk.

November:  I shared my porch decorated in plaid in Plaid Tidings.

December:  I invited you in for a Christmas Home Tour.

I love sharing with all of you and hope you enjoy visiting!

I wish you the happiest of Happy New Year!

hugs,

Jann

I’d love it if you hopped over and liked me on my new Facebook Page!

I will be sharing with:

Unskinny Boppy for Year in Review

Common Ground for Be Inspired and top posts of 2013

Winter Frolic Mantle. . .

Don’t you just love that word Frolic?

Just saying it makes me want to run about and play!

My Winter Frolic garland was the inspiration for my transition mantle.

that’s what I call the time between Christmas and Valentines.  Because it’s a bit too early to put out my Valentines décor, but not really in the mood to go with the every day. I opted to celebrate the Winter season.

I layered it with a glitter snowflake garland.

I love my vintage white deer.  They were given to me by my cousin, Betty.  I can imagine them frolicking in the snow. I gave one of them some height by placing him on a book bundle.

Metal snowflakes attached to dowels are placed in blue bottles filled with rice.

Sprays of crystals and pom poms give a frosty feel.  I placed a small white pinecone ornament inside a nest.

I found the sweet glitzy ice skates a few years ago at Kohls.

I recently found the cute etched bird bottle at Wal-Mart.

I placed a few snowy white items in my little divided box.

I left my sled on the hearth and  joined it with one of my snowmen.

Yup, this will hold me for a few weeks.  Then lots of Love will be showing up around here.

How about you?  What do you do to get you through the transition period between holidays?

hugs,

Jann

Yahoo!  I’m stepping up in the world.  I now have a facebook page for Have a daily Cup.  I would love if you hopped over and Liked it!  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Have-a-Daily-Cup-of-Mrs-Olson-Blog/633985239993063

I will be joining these great parties:

The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sunday

Coastal Charm for Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

A Stroll thru Life for Inspire Me Tuesday

Holiday Hike. . .

Well now, Christmas is behind us and we are all looking towards a New Year.  Hope you had a joyous holiday and that the New Year will bring lots of happiness!

Usually my Christmas morning is spent preparing sweet and sour baked beans and cooking two hams to take to our family Christmas party at 4. In between we make the rounds to see what Santa brought to all of our grands.  needless to say, Christmas was a busy day!  This year our family party was cancelled because of a few circumstances that were going on with my extended family.

What’s a busy gal to do?  Because Kylee and Dustin are here, we never lack for ideas.  They are great at ‘keeping us healthy’. 

Let’s go for a holiday hike!

It was a glorious sunshiny day so up the canyon we went!  We are lucky to live 5 minutes away from American Fork Canyon.

We opted to just hike and not snowshoe.

We had a new camera we took along and tried a few different settings.  I am posting them just like we shot them.

It even has a self portrait mode.  Now it just needs a ‘make me look younger and skinnier mode’  Hee-hee!

I had never seen such beautiful crystallization on the trees and bushes.

I love how the sun looks like a shining star on top of this small pine tree!

Here I am traipsing through the water to get to that ‘perfect’ spot.  And no, my feet did not get one bit wet.  Awesome boots my hubby gave me for Christmas a few years ago!

That ‘perfect’ spot!

I saw a tree that I wanted to shimmy up for a photo.

Suddenly I had images of Miley Cyrus and the wrecking ball going through my mind.  It’s no wonder that effort came to a halt.  Wouldn’t be because I couldn’t quite reach that branch to pull me up. lol!

Among all of that frosty goodness I spied a little sign of Spring.  See it?  A tiny patch of green moss.



On the lake we found an abandoned tube.  Dustin pulled it free from the ice so of course we had to give it a try!

 

This morning when I woke up I was a little stiff.  At first I wondered why?  Ha, ha, short term memory for sure!

 

What a beautiful way to spend Christmas morning!

My gift to you for the New Year. . .

A snow angel to watch over you!

Glad my tush didn’t land on that big rock!

Wishing you all the best of fortune, luck, and happiness for ‘2014’!

hugs,
Jann

I will be sharing with these fun parties:

Common Ground for Be Inspired

Rooted in Thyme for Simple and Sweet Fridays

The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sunday

Lighting the Way. . .

An Alpine Tradition.

If you happen to venture into the little town of Alpine, Utah on Christmas Eve.  What a sight you will see!

It’s a tradition here to ‘light the way’.  The streets and many of the homes will be lined with luminaries. 

As you enter into our sweet rural town it really is quite breathtaking!

I did my part to add to this tradition!

 

Wishing you all a Very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

A Little More Sugar. . .

In case you haven’t had enough sugar yet this Christmas season I thought I’d give you a little more.

Maybe you’re like me and haven’t pulled the goodies out yet. The real ones that is.

Every year I get together with my girls and dil’s to make candy.  This year we had a hard time finding a time that everyone could come.  There ended up only being my middle daughter, Karrah and I for most of the day.  Later that afternoon our dil, Samantha came and helped.

I had to put the candy up until Christmas Eve when we all fill containers and everyone takes goodies home.  I knew that if I didn’t nibbling would be going on and there might not be anything left. lol!

I shared a lot of my candy decorations for the ‘Sugar and Spice’ Creating Christmas party.  Here’s some of what I haven’t shown.

I had planned on doing my ‘candy’ tree down in the basement this year.  Because Kylee and Dustin are staying with us for a while I let them decorate their tree instead.  I filled my large lantern with peppermint balls and gumdrops that would normally have been on the tree.

Little chalkboards tell what sweets are to be found.  The top of my rustic cabinet has more peppermints, gingerbread stars, and a cute little gingerbread boy.

I love mixing in some of my vintage Christmas items.  A red and white enamel pot on an old scale and a sifter are perfect for whipping up something sweet!

I draped a simple strip quilt on the cabinet door and the gingerbread girl I made years ago stands on my red stool.  I made four of those girls that year.  The other three were gifts.

The cabinet is overflowing with goodies and my gingerbread men.

Another sweet gingerbread man holding a candy cane.

On Dec. 1st Kylee had a ‘Christmas Kick-Off’ party with some of her friends.  They made gingerbread houses.  This is the one her and Dustin made.

Close ups of the shelves.

Isn’t this elf on the shelf candy jar too funny?  I found it at an estate sale last year.  I had to bring it home!

I decorated my French mug rack with some of my fun ornaments and pretty ribbons.

I kept the table decor simple so that they didn’t have to move things when they wanted to use the table.  I did add a newly found gingerbread man coming out of a cupcake.

I found these sweet little cherry suckers at T.J. Maxx.

My snowman drink dispenser is ready for a tasty bit of hot chocolate.

He’s close to the hot chocolate bar.  I’ve shown it before, but in case you forgot. Hee-hee!

 

Wishing you all a very ‘SWEET’ Christmas and a New Year full of ‘SPICE’!

hugs,

Jann