Having fun with an old photo!
Dec15
Dec15
Mom and her kids Christmas 1968
My brother found yet another photo album in my mom’s basement. It happened to be one all about her that I put together several years ago. I thought this looked kinda of retro. I am 9 here, Don is 8 and Ken is almost 2. That is a cardboard fireplace behind us. Don had made a Christmas tree out of shell pasta (glued on oak tag which was also spray painted gold), which he was very proud of. I think our oldest brother Dave, age 14 probably took the photo.
Dec13
Amaryllis and Christmas lights
Here’s a lovely amaryllis that Brian gave me for my birthday a few weeks ago. It got so tall it is falling over! Looks like I’m getting plenty of blooms too.
Dec12
Photo Hunt-Undesirable
So I usually don’t post undesirable things, so what do I do for this one? I looked around my photos and came up with this. I’m sure the main gardener over at Longwood*Gardens would have fainted if he saw this ‘muncher’. He was a big yellow guy too! He was really hanging on too.
I could have posted about holiday commercialism at this time of year, but I stuck to bugs, thank you very much. And look it’s ‘festive’ too-red and green!
Dec12
Woodland Christmas tree 2009
Here’s our tree this year. There are mostly new ornaments on it that I got last year, even the pine cones at the bottom. It’s missing a few ornaments like icicles and maybe a few red balls or other things-yep, not really loaded done enough. I need to add something, probably an angel at the top. I just made the bow tonight-it has cardinals on it. I actually had to buy more clear lights for under the white pine cones. I guess my clears have gradually burnt out to just a few sets. I have almost every color light too! I hope I find some more cardinals too. That’s about our 5th year for this tree. It needed major ‘fluffing’ and is so easy to put up and load down. We are pretty happy with it.
We all watched ‘Up’ tonight, not a dry eye in the house. Very touching. If you haven’t rented it, you have to.
Dec11
More Decor
I decorated the mantel and front window. I only got around to taking a few photos of what is on the mantel. I’m not quite finished my sofa table. The tree in up but not decorated.
The manger scene was my grandfather’s and I haven’t put it up for a while. Thought I would as I’m more into vintage pieces and it’s safe up there on the mantel. I repaired and painted this before I was married, so it’s still holding up after I did that about 26 or so years later.
Dec10
Oh look at what I won!
My big box of goodies came from Christine Clemmensen yesterday I was one of the winners of her November contest! I won her and Elsebeth Gynther’s book ‘Scraps’, a lovely white shadowbox with a wonderful elephant themed piece of art, a bag of paper goodies-many vintage and some postcards. This is so up my alley and I was thrilled. It was like Christmas came early for me!
Dec9
A little decorating underway
Wow-I haven’t blogged since last Friday?!
Well I’ve busy! My brother moved on Saturday-in the rain and then snow. We were asked to finish cleaning out one bedroom. Bri and Sean moved an entertainment center, an end table and the top of a hutch (yep in a small bedroom) while I gathered up what was left. I wiped down the windowsills, helped mom clean the floors and moved what wasn’t too heavy. My brother wasn’t finally all moved in until Sunday night. He brought a Dalmation and a tuxedo kitty with him. Now there are 3 pets in the house. Mom’s been cooking a bit again too. The kitty went missing for a day and he was under a bed in a room next to my mom’s. They have a lot to go through and some appliances need fixing too.
Sean and I have been shopping too. I do most of my shopping online, but go to the nearby store to pick out clothes for my niece and nephew. I got some great prices! Also got myself two pairs of corduroys for $8.40 each and they fit perfectly!
We went to Delaware yesterday for the boring gifts-lol. Today the oven got fixed. We are questioning why they stuck $20 to the bill when they were getting like $144 for the labor. They guy was here 10 minutes. Same place that I had bank issues with as the tech ran my debit card through 3 times. Today I wrote a check! Hope we get that back.
I’m cleaning up the area for the tree that we will put up on Friday. The little feather tree is the same on I have put in our family room for a few years. Hope to make at least one ornament to add. I have one I started last year. I know stitchers who have enough ornaments for a big tree! I am decorating the fireplace mantel with my grandfather Alan’s manger set. I think it’s at least 60 years old. On the other side is my collection of nutcrackers. I just added a new small one to the collection. A few of the older ones needed a little gluing! Brian’s late mom gave most of them to us. I’ll be doing more decorating tomorrow-stay tuned!
And good luck to Sean on his interview tomorrow. It may be an internship, but let’s hope it pays.
Dec4
Photo Hunt-Curved
This was taken at the Brandywine River Museum back at the Andrew Wyeth tribute in January. Hard to believe it’s been almost a year ago! The museum has three main floors and the the middle area is a round stair area and some cut out areas. So this is my curved photo. : )
Dec3
Cookie Swap time
Thanks to Scrappy Jessi for hosting her 3rd annual cookie swap. My pal Jen over at Sweet Pea Stitches shared lots of cookie recipes with me last year and I tried a few. We really loved these, melt-in-the-mouth goodies. Jen said I could share, so here goes:
Sour Cream Drops
½ cup shortening (margarine)
1 ½ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
2 ¾ cup flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
Mix together shortening, sugar and eggs. Stir in sour cream and vanilla. Sift together and stir in flour, baking soda, powder and salt. Chill at least one hour. Drop onto greased cookies sheets 2 inches apart. Bake at 425 for 8-10 minutes Makes: 5 dozen
Burnt Butter Icing
Melt 4 tbsp butter until golden brown. Blend in 1 cup sifted powdered sugar and ½ tsp vanilla. Stir in 1-2 tbsp hot water until icing spreads smoothly. Icing for 30 cookies.
Collages & Creative Goodness 