Santa & Mrs. Claus Are Fast Asleep.....

They sure earned their rest! All that hustle and bustle! And it's over already! Bring on 2014! I wish you all a happy New Year! .......this post ain't over yet.....

I was lucky enough to find a great thrift shop the week before Christmas. I picked up a few things for a very good price, and I'm so excited to share them with you :)

I just love little animal statues and I have a ton of them but yet it seems...never enough! I love this gentle bunny adding a scarf to his new  snowy friend!

A trio of of Carolers! How sweet! I think they are singing "Joy to the World!"

And last but not least (at a bargain price of $4!!!!!!!, this lovely prim cradle! Soon to be filled with teddy bears and bunnies galore!

Can't wait to fill it up! The lady in the shop said "Some little girl is going to love this for Christmas." and I said "Yes, she will! ME!" and she smiled. Thank goodness Caitlin was with me and backed me up when I told her I was a good sharer and play nicely with others :)  I really do.....

I picked up some sparkly goodies from our dollar store:

Sparkle stuff was big in the dollar stores this year it seemed, at least here. It was pretty nicely made too. And although my home is done mostly country/prim with added vintage, I like to add some sparkle for Christmas and also for Easter. Little touches of it cause my first love is prim.

He was solid blue but I added the black to bring out his facial features

And everyone can use some sparkle in their New Year! Be safe and have a great one!

Catching Up!

Happy Sunday!Like all of you, it has been a whirlwind of activity here; filled with gifts, food, visitors, and fun, fun, fun! On this rainy Sunday, Billy and I decided to head out early to the Agway to refill our chicken supplies and then hurry back for a day inside! I have settled us all in for an afternoon of relaxation! My husband has been working so hard and really needs a day on the couch to unwind. Caitlin is thrilled her best friend is home once again after her Christmas visit to Minnesota to visit her grandparents so they are playing with the Calico Critters toys, and Billy is where Dad --is watching a movie! They are all in the first floor family room so I snuck down to the basement family room! I'm hiding out so I can read all the blog posts from all of you and get caught up and do a post of my own! I have been reading everyone's blog posts and just loving all the photos of your holiday and all the great family time everyone is having! It's so lovely seeing everyone with their own families just loving this time of year!
I was super surprised to find a new camera under the tree for me! I was *thrilled* beyond thrilled!!!So some of the photos on this post are from my old camera and some from my new one.My camera is like another appendage to me --some people are addicted to their phones, I'm attached to my camera. We truly had a beautiful Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and since then it's been Christmas cookies, visits and pressies!  Here's a little recap of what's been happening!

Caitlin and I did a marathon round of baking! These are strawberry almond thumbprint cookies! SO good! We made four different kinds of cookies and gave them to various friends and family.

We made cookie bars too. These are called "magic bars."

On Christmas morning, Caitlin opened her new American Girl doll. Unfortunately my son would not let me photograph him :(    So most of my Christmas pictures just have Caitlin.

With my new camera I took pictures of our trees. They look so much brighter!

The foyer gingerbread/candy tree...

Our main tree in the family room...

And our tree in the basement family room.... This room is decorated lodge style.

In the basement family room is my fireplace that my husband made. He made the mantle as well out of a real tree. He cut the tree in half and left the bark on it. He then polyurethaned it all. It goes so nice with our lodge look.

I bought these NOEL bears from the Collections. Etc. catalog.

Here is an up-close look at my mantle--see the bark and the beauty of the tree? My Dad carved that eagle and that is his pipe I keep on top of the mantle!

The basement is freshly painted--we did that in October. The color is called peanut butter. I had some guests over on Thursday and we enjoyed tea and coffee by the fireplace.

More shots of the freshly painted basement:

This was the little hutch my son bought at a garage sale this Fall.
I still have to show you the new finds I got at a thrift shop recently....next post.

  My sister-in-laws sure know what I like! They always put tons of thought into their gifts. One of them gave me this adorable cuckoo clock. An elf comes out of the door instead of a cuckoo bird. It plays Christmas songs but what is so cool is that when the room is dark (at night when we go to bed) it is light sensitive and won't sing!
She also gives me something with a cardinal theme every year and a basket of fun stuff--last year I received a basket of all kinds of craft items and embellishments and ribbons, etc. They're the best! This year she gave me a big reindeer basket filled with perfume, toiletries, & candles.

 One of the gifts my friend Mary gave me were these vintage Amish salt & pepper shakers. Love them!

 More goodies for my gingerbread collection...

I also got some great Halloween items! Mary visited on Friday for a Christmas luncheon and she spoiled us! The kids got cool stuff !and for me, well, she put together an All Seasons Box! Filled with Thanksgiving, Halloween, Christmas items in addition to all the other fun stuff. What a great idea.

Well, I think I've taken up enough of your time! I think I'll bring some snacks to my son and husband to have while they enjoy their movie. Then, I'll be working on some little felt mittens that I am blanket stitching! Adding them to the kitchen window for next Christmas! Love you all!

Merry Christmas!

The day before Christmas Eve already! Wow that went fast. I feel like I just put up all the Halloween decorations! Needless to say, we are all busy preparing for the holiday, and busy, busy, busy. I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! 

To all the bloggers out there who have become such great friends, I find so much inspiration from you, cherish your ideas, value your craftsmanship and appreciate your good and cheerful hearts! I have learned from you, copied you, recommended you, envied you, laughed with you and cried with you and most of all realized that ordinary people like you are the most successful and lucky people in the world. God, Love & Family inspire us to do great things in the walls of our own cozy homes. You can't put a price tag on that!

I have so much more to post about Christmas decorations and projects and I even went to a great thrift shop the other day and got a few treasures to show you but they'll have to wait till after 25th! 

Merry Christmas and may all your days be merry and bright! 

Christmas Countdown!

Hurray! It's the last day of school before the Christmas break! The kids will be off for 16 days! They don't return until the Monday after New Year's! I'm so excited about that. I'm hoping to get some nice photos of the kids on the days they are off. At 14, my son really doesn't like his picture taken but he may make his Momma happy and let me take a few shots of him with family. :)  To the contrary, Caitlin (like most 8 year old girls) loves to have her picture taken!

Here's a little of what I've been doing--still decorating, wrapping and baking.... I remembered I had this little village I bought from CVS drug stores about five years back. The little buildings are sold individually. I have about a dozen different ones and I really couldn't find a place on the first floor to display them so I chose four, added some color lights inside them and some snow, and I put them all on a crystal pedestal cake plate! I had gotten "Vermont Mountain" ceramic backgrounds that I never used from ages ago and I just used one as a backdrop.  It adds some cheer to a corner of one of my kitchen counters.

We didn't set up our big Heritage Village in the basement this year. I packed away the handmade mountains and lights for that as we decided to set that up every few years as a treat. I do have out my other village. I call it the Honeymoon Village--Billy and I bought it on our honeymoon at Walt Disney World! It isn't Disney related with characters. It was just sold in the gift shop near Cinderella's Castle. 

Obviously, it is all in white and sparkly and glittery! My husband has a real sentimental attachment to this village! He personally wraps the base it sits on every year because he worries about it!

Our manger....I'm sentimental about this manger because I have three of them! I have combioned the sets choosing pieces from each one. My Mom bought three sets of the figures sold at Woolworths in 1949--one set for herself to save, one set for her Mom, and one set for her future mother-in-law. They are made of chalkware and are painted so nicely! They are very fragile and some have chipped but I still love them! 

 Some of them still have the prices on the bottoms. When my grandparents passed away, I asked for their set. It wouldn't be Christmas without them!

Happy Friday!

Baking and Remembering

Here's what Christmas 1971 looked like at our house! Very festive and happy. Our "umbrella style" style Christmas tree. The one we had before that was silver! When the umbrella tree was done for, we started driving near Stockbridge, Massachusetts to cut a fresh one down. Somewhere I have those photos too!

 Also in the living room was our fireplace, also decorated and lit up! We hung our stockings there. The living room smelled so good. My Dad would play the organ.

I always loved the styrofoam letters spelling NOEL we had on the mantle. Can you see them? Wish I still had them!

In 1971 I was six years old, and wanted a special doll named Velvet. She was a "growing hair" type of doll. You may remember her more famous older sister, Growing Hair Chrissy...

In the background below, you can see on Christmas morning I received her! And much more! I remember all those gifts!

I even got Velvet's hair dryer and beauty set.  The white ceramic bunny statue in the photo is now in Caitlin's room on her dresser. I see I got pink fuzzy slippers....

Yesterday I was baking. I've been working so hard to be a good cookie baker! I never really did cookies; I was better at other baked items but this year I decided to challenge myself, and I am enjoying cookies so much! Baking makes you think and think and think.....and it brought me back to Christmas past. How I love those days! They've shaped how I celebrate my holidays now as a Mom. Thanks for letting me be six years old again!

Visit with Santa

We visited Santa on Sunday!  Caitlin read him some items from her list and asked if he would please bring them. She'd like an American Girl doll and some Calico Critters items. She would also like more bands for her rainbow loom.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

She showed Santa the bracelets she makes out of those rubber bands and Santa seemed impressed!

We have actually visited this same Santa since Caitlin was born! She has never seen another!
Here are some photos from various years! How my baby has grown! Santa is such a jolly old elf!

Meanwhile we had some snow on Saturday that turned to rain on Saturday night and melted some away.

We are getting more tomorrow! That's fine with me; I love snow! And Red Cat and Robin will sleep through it anyway!

Happy Friday!

Hurray! The weekend is here! So much to do!

Did you write your letter to Santa yet? You had better get that in the mail fast! It's almost the big day!

Did you finish your decorating? or ARE WE EVER REALLY DONE? :)  I'm not....always something new to do and try! That's what keeps life interesting!

But always find time to relax and enjoy the beauty of the season and the special ones around you!

Candy Sleds & Cozy Mouses!

Brrrrrrr...That's all I can say about the weather here! 22 degrees and going down to 15 tonight! Bundle up! Bundle Up! We had about 2 inches of snow yesterday and now that has turned to ice :(   dangerous. It sure looks pretty though. I always think how, to me, the "whiteness" of a blanket of snow on the ground and coating on the trees gives such an incredible feeling of peace! "All is calm, All is white"....I love how the snow outside can be so bright that it actually casts a glow on a dark room.

Keeping cozy in my house are some little mouses! Not real ones--and you might think my grammar is bad calling them "mouses" instead of mice but since our cat Robin was a baby and he would play with his furry mice, we referred to them as "mouses." I have always loved mouse things! My dollhouse I had growing up was inhabited by little dressed up fancy ones! Do you remember those? I had a whole bunch. I had a "maid", a lady dressed in a fancy dressing gown that held a mirror, a little boy and girl , and a whole bunch. I never see them anymore. I even had a little Irish mouse that was dressed for St Patrick's Day! I wish I still had them... That's what I would like to live in my doll house that I picked up a few months ago but I never see them. Even on the internet...If anyone knows of any....calling Kim K...come in, Kim K......dressed up mice....any ideas where I can locate some at a reasonable price..... :)

Well, I have a few of my favorite mouse things to show you and I have to confess that in "my mind"  all real mouse and squirrels and raccoons and other little woodland creatures live like this...The inside of their hole in a tree, or their burrow in a hill looks like this.....It does, right? If my Dad was alive he would and I asked that, he's say "Yes Margaret, they do." Love my Daddy.

So here are a few little mouses in my house:

Knitting for her babies! Scarves, mittens..see the babies peeking out below her!

Look at these little cuties watching a Christmas show. The tv actually lights up and plays music.

 The look of excitement on their little faces! I love it! Why do I think they are watching "The Ed Sullivan Show?" One of his musical guests...a duo...

This little guy below sits on the shelf. He is my elf on the shelf!

Craft fair mousie getting cozy in his matchbox.

A group of friends!

This little guy ....."Not a creature was stirring..."

What a sweet little face! These aren't "rodents"! These are mousies!

Oh and one more mouse item! My Countdown Calendar! I have had this for years! Look closely! It's Christmas time at the Mouse House! 

 I hope you enjoyed our tour!

 I went to a craft fair this weekend and one of the things I bought was this adorable candy sled!  Look below!

Get yourself a bag of Hershey miniatures, a bag of kit kats, medium size candy canes, your glue gun and some holiday ribbon! It's pretty self explanatory. My Brownie troop will be making these at our holiday party next week and Caitlin is making them for my Christmas Day table for each place setting! We are going to add a place card in front of it. Have fun!

Speaking of Brownies, our troop visited the Friendship Center of Girl Scouts on Monday night for a drive through of holiday lights and it was amazing! After  that we viewed all the trees all the troops decorated for donation. Ours was themed " A Warm & Cozy Christmas".  We had gloves, hats, hot cocoa, cup 'o 'soup, and little gift bags of toys as our decorations. The girls made ornaments and snowflakes. All of these trees were created by Girl Scout troops and will be donated to needy families.

  There were rows and rows of them! The girls were just beaming with pride at the compliments yet excited to know someone who really needs it will have their home brightened by the tree they made this Christmas.

Have a cozy day!