Baby It's Cold Outside

16 deg. F. this a.m. here in our area. Too cold!

I have come down with a cold and have cancelled a shopping trip for today with my bestest friend. I hate, hate, hate colds....love, love, love my friend and am pouty over missing today with her. Being I'm home I'll work on a craft project; hopefully.

Our local majestic mountain pleasures us with fabulous sites many days. Check out yesterday's view:

The local newspaper (picture compliments of them) said this: Seattle Times: "Mount Rainier is anyone's quickest weather report. During this time of year, the summit, at 14,410 feet, sometimes is topped by a dollop of lenticular clouds, or "cap clouds," that often foreshadow a rainstorm."

Yesterday Hubby and I went to a social Potluck. The lady who graciously hosted us in her fabulously Victorian decorated home has an amazing array of small collections and antique furniture 'to die for'. She is very artistically talented and loves all things Victorian. I remembered my camera yesterday and here are just a few of her fabulous displays:

This Christmas wreath she made is in her entryway:



Mini compacts displayed in a decorative shadowbox:

She did the Crosstitch picture of two cute cherubs:



Beautiful collection of Lady's Hand Mirrors, artfully displayed in a large ornate picture frame:

She made this lamp shade (what talent!):

Bye for now; have a good day; do a good deed!

Tree Trimming

Last night we trimmed our Christmas Tree. Our children, daughter in-law, a cousin and her son came for dinner and then for the ‘event’. Trimming the Tree usually starts the process of decorating our home inside. I have some display cabinets to fill with some pretty Christmas decorations collected thru the years. I’ll get to those this week. Here are a few pictures to share.

I'm glad hubby caught this cute act on camera as I was out of the room. Baci is tiny....but not small enough to be an ornament.

The Pink Panther ornament at the top of the tree will be re-situated after I get the real tree topper out of storage.

My cousin's son baked this chocolate cake for us to eat. I can't eat chocolate but everyone else said "yummmm, yummmm, good!"


3 new Fenton Art Glass trees to decorate with.


Our Son in-law is serving our country in Afghanistan right now so didn't get to join our Tree Trimming Party this year. Daughter put a few of his childhood ornaments on our tree. He made this one when younger. God. keep this man safe.


This was my favorite childhood ornament. When my mom died 20 years ago she gave it to me. When I was young the strip of paint (under the flocked image) was a light blue. Every Christmas I got to hang it on the tree and I remember feeling magic when I did so. I still hang it now, just on our tree; and every year I get emotional over it. Thanks Mom.


What better way to use your children's first baby shoes....I use them as tree ornaments.


I made this Hardanger tree ornament about 13 years ago. Hardanger is a beautiful embroidery art.

I bought this glass ornament in 2004 when we visited the country of Austria. Austria creates beautiful lace fabric. This ornament is a painted lace design and I just had to have it.

Bye for now. Have a good day and make it count - do a kind deed!

Major Teresa

Yesterday we had the privilege to attend a promotion ceremony for our son in-law’s sister, Teresa. Teresa was promoted to a Major in the US Army. The Lieutenant Colonel she serves under spoke with high praise about Teresa leadership abilities, accomplishments and dedication.

She gave a very heartfelt speech, praising her staff, thanking her superiors and expressing how happy she was to have her family at this promotion ceremony. The Army has been a large part of her life for over 11 years now. She met her loving hubby while in Iraq four years ago. I say that is a good bonus.

Family is proud for and of Teresa for this fine accomplishment....way to go Major Mom!

We were at The Fisherman’s Restaurant on Pier 57 in Seattle with a most fabulous view. The pouring rain and fog lifted a little when we first got there so I got a few good ‘view’ pictures.

Downstairs from where we were is a beautiful carousel. I checked out the horses and my favorite is pictured below….might have something to do with the fact I love pink roses.





Framed proclomation of promotion.



...with hubby and her mom and dad.

Daughter and the Major

Just some of the food for early dinner.

...a ferry coming into Seattle.

This is the insignia for Major in the Army.

My horse without me on it.

Bye for now. Have a good day – do a kind deed! and don't get trampled in the shopping malls.

Christmas Card Photos or Photo Christmas Cards

RE: Title......yes they are different things. If the title has you confused...try typing that line; I found it challenging this a.m. ;-)

We've received a few Photo Christmas Cards already, and a Christmas card that family dropped in their children's school pictures taken in September. They are fun to receive and sometimes I'm amazed at how much one child can change in a year.

In January I decided to do a Scrapbook layout using all the photos we received Christmas '08. I wanted to limit it all to one layout (if possible) and it took some creative punching and cutting to create this mosaic layout:





I had in my scrapbook stash some alphabet clips and like the way I used them here to spell out "Pictures".


If you are not familiar with Wish In The Wind company; check them out:

http://www.wishinthewind.com/

Tami Potter's site is very fun and click into the Gallery to see readers submitted layouts:

http://www.tamipotter.com/

The Mosaic Moments papers are great and I like that their papers have a partial grid on them so placement of photos and journaling blocks is easy. I have created 5 mosaic layouts in the last two years. I like this layout from last Christmas so much I am going to do another mosaic with this years photos received. I'll share it in January 2010.

I hope you all have a great weekend; the holidays have been kick started. We have a dinner and 'decorate the tree' party here and a potluck to go to Sunday.

Make the day count - do a good deed!

Good Will Wednesday

Morning all....short post this a.m. I'm late getting ready for work.

Hubby found this cute ceramic Trinket box at GW last week.

It is fun to check out the Christmas decoration aisle at GW now. One can be surprised at what is available. I'll never buy another little clear glass 'plate' to hold candles again at a candle store. Our GW always has them for $.49.

We went to a Potluck party last night and people were asked to bring some of their favorite Christmas decorations or a story to share.

A friend of ours decorates 'in pink' and brought this cute cute house she bought just last year. I love pink also:

One man is a train enthusiast and brought some Hallmark ornament train engines he purchased in the 1980's. I love the colors and the fact that they actually roll/move. You don't see that now.

One lady collects vintage Santas. The tall one on the left is the oldest of this grouping and is actually a candy holder from Germany; circa 1940's.

This is my favorite Christmas Decoration. I bought the kit in December 1975 when our Son was born but didn't make it until 1978. It is a simple Back stitch needle worked pattern. I think the images are pretty and will always be the messge I believe in.

Bye for now; make the day count - do a kind deed!

Gypsy

I don't own one....wouldn't mind winning one....so here's my attempt:

This blog is giving one away today....hope I make it in time for drawing:

http://the-gypsyspot.blogspot.com/


I'll let you know if I win.

Snow

Hi everyone - Happy December 1st...... Hubby and I were out shopping together yesterday and at two different venues I heard people saying "I sure hope we don't have the snow this year like last December."...."I don't want snow ever again!"....."yeah, it's chilly today but at least it is not snowing."....

Last winter's snowfall is still 'fresh' in everyone's mind. (you like that pun?)

Cyber friends told me "that snow you had is nothing compared to what we had." They live in the flat lands of our country.... well we are a large area of hills, hills, and more hills. Did I mention lots of big hills? It's always a disaster around here when it snows.

We had lots more snow December 2008 and January 2009 than usual. I was outside (ok, inside sometimes-probably in my pink fuzzy bathrobe...) taking lots of pictures. I created two layouts in January about our snow and want to share them with you - bitter/sweet reminder for those of us in my area.

I got the idea for this big snowflake on the left layout from scrapbook.com. A very talented member there Pegasus did one on a layout I liked. (It's ok to scraplift if you give the artist credit.)

Left Side of two pager:

Right side of two-pager:

The two together in small view:

We've rarely had snow on Christmas Eve or Day. At that point we had 16". I love this shot out of our dining room into the back yard:

So again, Happy December 1st. Make the day count - do a kind deed. Oh, and pray for No Snow for Diana's region. Thanks.