Category Archives: Me stuff

A little sewing and finishing

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Even though I haven’t slept well for a few nights, I decided to get a little sewing out of the way for projects that are due for a lottery (see side bar) and for a Christmas ornament. I never learn my lesson about climbing up and down off my step ladder or squatting too much, so I suffer with a groin pull. I thought sewing would be a quiet activity, though my concentration and mood were a bit off. So I finished a drawstring bag for the Cross stitcher’s lottery that is due for the 31st. I didn’t have too much trouble until I got to the casing stitching and fitting the safety pin through that to find the end. Oy! Anyway, it’s cute and I am glad that’s out of the way.

Snowbunnies bag

Snowbunnies by Little Needleworks-Just Cross stitch 2007 ornament issue

And this is The Prairie Schooler cardinal duo I stitched a few months back. It’s on my feather tree.

Cardinals ornament

I have to turn the Amish children and apple tree into a square box top. I just need to find the box. I am sure I have one somewhere! And another piece is a gift I will turn into a flat fold. Hopefully I’ll make them within a few weeks.

My friend Zoey sent me a beautifully quilted piece that she made today. It’s a hot pad. I’ve admired her work for ages (as shown on her blog) and now I get to own something she made. Thanks so much for the lovely gift.

Off to church soon. I hope I don’t take a nap there. ; )

Santa Baby

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I’ve been an awfully good girl….
Ordered!
There’s one at Kohls…just to let you know… ; )

Update- Ordered the above (white gold-I don’t have any)! It will be a New Year’s gift. Needless to say-yippee! I don’t buy that much good stuff for myself-like once in a blue moon. I saw one similar to this in a tv ad and kept thinking about it. After the events of Nov. 28th (I can’t believe I made it through that day), I deserve a little representation of the universe-this is a galaxy ring. It wasn’t that expensive either. You know I like a bargain.

Sean is home safe and sound and loved the tree and decorations. I have my pre-Christmas jitters a bit today. I did as I said I would do, not do too much. That was the best thing philosophy I could adopt, but I felt like I should be doing something. 🙂

Winding down

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Ever have a busy day and you know you should be getting shut eye, but the adrenaline just keeps pumping? I am getting there, very tired and yawning. Wednesday I made 4 kinds of cookies-Butter flavored Crisco Chocolate Chips (the best recipe), 7 layer cookies (from a box mix-so skimpy, I’ll make more), Russian Tea cakes and last but not least, Rum Raisin Cheesecake squares. Two were in a pan, so not too hard to make. My CCs are a little brown, I swear the first batch gets that way. Today I’m trying new recipes…involving ice cream caramel sauce, macadamia nuts, peanuts and peanut butter cookie dough-not in one cookie recipe! I have a ton of Reese’s peanut butter cups I should sub for Hershey kisses in that blossom recipe.

I’ve been watching ‘Clash of the Choirs’ as I’ve been in so many. It would have been awesome to be in the Patti LaBelle one! I sing soprano, but I can sing lower if I wanted to. : )

Wish my friend Barbara well, she may be welcoming her little kiddle into the world today! Good luck!

Guess who?

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The early 1980s…
About 1982
My Princess Diana look!

Me at Longwood Gardens
Gee, to be that thin again! I was looking through some old albums and these caught my eye. I was at Longwood Gardens in the second shot. Who knew I’d live so close a few years later?
I managed to wrap almost all the gifts-it took me about 2.5 hours Monday night and then about 1/2 hour Tuesday. I am missing some big gifts that haven’t arrived yet-hurry up! LOL I don’t add bows and ribbons until the last minute as they fall off or get flattened. I’ll show you the pretty papers when they are nicely arranged under the tree.
I had to return a gift to TJ Maxx that was too small for my niece. I should stay away from that store. I got a new rug for under the computer desk, a new pillow and a few more ornaments. Naughty. I’m naughty for staying up so late as I have a baking schedule to adhere to. I am pretty zonked. I went through about 80 blogs in the Christmas tour of homes. I’m trying to catch up!

Update-Since I have that coupon printer installed, I did a search and found a few places where you can print out coupons! One is coupon.com. I like it because you don’t have to sign up, but if you add your zip code, you get more to choose from. Some coupons even come with recipe ideas! You can’t beat that!

Not sure if I’m fighting a sore throat, but it hurts in just one spot. I’m going to bake this afternoon and take it easy tonight.

Both our parents are causing us worry lately. My mom has been having some dizzy spells. She thinks from lack of eating, well that makes sense. She is also borderline diabetic. I suggested she have a small glass of orange juice in the morning when she first gets up. Brian’s dad fell down getting gas (at night) and felt like he had something stuck in his throat. He was eating on the bus coming home from Atlantic City and has no beverage. He’s had this happen before. I believe he gets panicky which makes his throat tighten up more. I think we’ve all done that.

Christmas Tour of Homes 2007

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Merry Christmas and welcome to my little corner of Pennsylvania! All the photos are ‘labeled’ so enjoy a peek around my home. My husband and I both took the photos here. I may add more! Thanks Boo Mama for hosting this again! Check out the post under this one for some free stuff!

Christmas Tour of Homes

A late add, but here’s a yummy bar cookie!
Rum Raisin Cheesecake squares
(I can’t find the book I used, so copied it from a group I’m in-from a post from last year!)
1/3 cup butter or margarine softened
1/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
3 Tablespoons rum (or extract)
1/2 cup raisins (I used golden raisins)
To make th crust-cream together the butter and brown sugar, stir in the flour, and add the nuts. Press into an 8-or 9-inch square pan., reserving some of the crumbs to use as a topping. Bake in 350 deg oven for 10-12 minutes. Cool.
With a mixer beat the cream cheese until fluffy. Add the sugar, egg and rum, beat well. Then stir in the raisins. Spread the mixture over the cooked crust, then sprinkle with the remaining crumbs. Bake in a 350 oven for 20-25 minutes.
Makes 9-12 servings.

Lights at night

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After doing some carpet deep cleaning (not finished) the family room yet), I almost fell asleep watching a paranormal show on A&E that Sean told us about. It’s called ‘Paranormal State‘ and the main guy and his team are from PSU where Sean attends. I’ll have to read up more about it. Then the repeat of the Longwood Gardens special came on and I had to see that. The local news people have a yearly show there now and I wanted to see the new children’s garden which looks so cute-jumping water, steam, etc. I have until the 27th to go for free and I wonder who will want to go this year?

I added both multi-colored lights and white lights to the hedges that run along the front of out house. The colors are like the icing on a white cake. Bri thinks my window box needs lights too-since he cut the greens for me he wants it fixed up better.

We hit the grocery store and I bought the rest of my cookie baking supplies. I also bought some pot roasts for Christmas dinner. Everyone loves my pot roast and it’s easy to make. I like spiral cut ham, but Sean doesn’t.

We ran in Big Lots to look around and I found a nice size gold wicker sleigh! My pal Zoey (Perennial Passion) has a green one with a Christmas tree in it and I liked the idea. I’ll get that together tomorrow. I can’t believe I’m still decorating (and cleaning). I hope the weather isn’t too bad tomorrow as we still have tons to do. I hope my doctor wouldn’t be mad that I am doing all this extra curricular activity as I’m still healing and I am of course, a left sided person (not just left handed).

Carole, I’ll try and do that meme soon, hope I can think of 12 things. : )

Have a great Sunday!

Photo Hunt-Small

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I just bought this adorable teenie tiny gingerbread boy at World Market on Tuesday. I think he’s about 2″ tall if that.

PSHunt
Grab the Scavenger Hunt code.Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.

Very small ornament

Long shot of the little guy

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I got down to my mom’s on Friday after over 3 weeks of not seeing her. She cringed at my boo-boo, but was anxious for me to assemble her Christmas tree-the kind with a million branches where you have to match up the letters on the tree pole to the one on the branches. We ended up with two that had different letters then the spaces left, so we shuffled a few around and that worked. Mom bought amber lights with white cording-opps-but we worked them in the middle well and they look okay. She has this pretty angel with fiber optics and really long ribbons that hang nicely down the tree. I was accordion pleating them and I think it’s going to be a gorgeous tree. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her dishwasher, but she may have dislodged or kinked a hose while forcing the dishwasher door shut when the bracket on the top that holds it to the underside of the counter was bent funny. I hear water gurgling though.

We went out for Chinese and then went to a few stores. I got a few more things for the guys, almost finished! Then we went to Home Goods and I saw a ‘must have’ peacock ornament-silver with Swarovski crystals on it’s body and a real peacock feather! I also bought a carved cookie press decoration modeled on an old one of an angel with laurel around it.

Needless to say, I am exhausted! I just wanted to get my photos up to share and rest and maybe trim my front hedges in the afternoon before the snow hits.

Still here!

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Yes I am! Just trying to get things tidied up and the way that looks best. I don’t know where to store some of my art supplies as I am using my living room, where the tree is, as my art studio! What would be ideal is a long, open up bench in front of my bay window to store all the goodies in. Maybe someday.

I did get my snowbabies in the above mentioned window and will photograph it for the 17th. I think I’ll be making a slide show for the Christmas house tour. : ) My family room isn’t finished yet though. I also want Bri to help me deep clean the berber in there as I can see soiled areas (this drives me batty).

My poor sinuses are bothering me from handling the dusty boxes and just stirring dust up in general. Yesterday morning I sat up in bed and had a coughing attack, not to pleasant. I used my BioAllers before bed last night (which made me have slight post nasal) and I am somewhat better today.

My poor mom is having all kinds of things start to break on her-the dishwasher won’t pump in water and two of her burners on the stove don’t work. I called my brother Ken last night to see if he could look at these and he asked why our mom didn’t call and I said she was afraid he’d get mad if she did! He’s the son for goodness sakes. I said Bri has his dad to worry about and doesn’t even get to his house that often, so it would be hard for him to help mom too. My brother lives minutes away from her house as it is. I know he gets frustrated when he goes in there as it’s so disorganized. But you’ve gotta do, what ya gotta do. I am crazy about Ken, my little brother. He can do anything, is funny and handsome all rolled into one package.

I was hoping to get to mom’s today, not sure if she is up to company, but I think today would be better than tomorrow.

By the way, Mark Wahlberg and Susan Sarandon were shooting scenes for their upcoming movie ‘The Lovely Bones’ in a Delaware County mall near where I worked in a daycare center. I thought that was pretty interesting and would love to be nosy to see, but they aren’t mingling with the public.
From My Big Fat, Friggin Head:

There is a major motion picture being filmed in my hometown of Glenolden this week. And the set that they are using is the Mac Dade Mall, which is the shopping mall that my mother managed for nearly 30 years. It is quite literally the mall that I grew up in.

Today, the mall is practically abandoned, the victim of much bigger area malls and the local Walmart which drove most of the remaining business away. But this made it perfect for a movie set. They remodeled the empty stores inside to look like a mall from the 70’s. It’s quite beautiful. I saw the inside last week. First time in my life I ever got to walk around a movie set as they were building it. I did not get pics of the inside, but others did and they are floating around on the web.

My local stitcher pal Mindy got to meet Michael Nutter the newly elected mayor of Philly a few days ago. Awesome!

Have a great weekend and make some ‘me’ time for yourself.

Internet shopping

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Today I decided to place orders at only two different places. I logged on about 11:30 and just got off (over 4 hours)! The first one had free shipping and I really looked around the site a while. Bri came home and I minimized my order so he could look online for a half hour or so. I would get up, do things and come back. The second place was Walmart. I had trouble with my order and had to call up. I waited close to 20 minutes and then the man on the other end said I should call back, but after 20 minutes of waiting already, I told him to give my order a try and it went through. I can’t say what I got, but they are two surprises. I am laid up a bit today as mother nature or hormones played a nasty trick on me with something what was suppose arrive a week later than today. Oy! I was glad to sit, but the waiting was ridiculous!

Now I haven’t seen my mom in over 3 weeks. I hope Friday will be a good day to go down. She is having car issues, so can’t come out here.

I am still decorating and making things in spurts. My calendar is laying on the dining room table to try to get finished tonight. I want to display it. I also glitter sprayed the poinsettias for my mom and uncle and they look pretty!
I was roaming around really lovely blogs last night, one of which was Artsy Mama in my blog roll. She was in an open house and showed  her own holiday creative touches in her sweet home. I think she is the one with the printer’s shelf that she is putting tiny Christmas things into it’s compartments. I have one and I should do the same thing. What a cute idea. I love my vintage stuff too.

Still need to do a little sewing before I start baking. I hope I won’t be burning the midnight oil too many times next week.

The Oprah show with her favorite things is one right now. I hope everyone has a strong heart they are carrying on so much-lucky them!

Lots of red and Cardinals

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I was looking through a catalog and saw a Cardinal tree wreath and decided to copy it the best I could. I’m sure there is grapevine that is shaped like a tree somewhere, but I bought artificial garland greens and shaped it myself. I just don’t know what to use for the base of the tree. I think mine is smaller, but for $10-12 instead of $40, I think it looks pretty. I even added ‘something else’ that I will show you on the 17th! Cardinal tree wreath

My inspiration:

My inspiration
Here’s the tree! I am saving the one that shows the lights better for the blogger tour of homes on the 17th. Mind you, I am still cleaning as I go. I think there are always books in any of my room shots lately. The golds beads in a few areas are antique.

Our tree 07
Here is a close up of a swirly ornament.
Swirly ornament
I went shopping by myself today and got Bri’s big gift. I had a 20% off coupon for Bed, Bath and Beyond. I also got something my mom asked for and got Sean one too. I then went to Michaels and bought the things for the wreath and some more items my mom needed for her decorating. They had gorgeous artificial poinsettias for only $5 (see above). I thought they had glitter on them, so called mom and she said to get them for her and my uncle. The only thing is, the glitter was from other greenery. I did buy a can of glitter to give them a spray before I give them to her.
My last stop was World Market for stocking goodies. I got some more Christmas crackers, but smaller ones like I gave my niece and nephew last year. They were fun to pull and hear pop-and you get a prize! So I had a busy afternoon. I cashed in coins to the tune of $64-so I got two gifts with that! Gotta love that spare change at this time of year!
I’m finding it a little difficult on my sore spot with the seatbelt across that area-it’s tender.
And Happy Birthday to my sister-in-law Mary Anne! I called to wish her a good one and she had her mom making dinner for her while they waited on my nephew and her niece.