Christmas Time

MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

May the Miracles of the Season be Yours!

Wherever you are Whatever you are doing I hope you have a wonderfully Merry Christmas!

Vickie

May the blessings of the season be yours always!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Wherever you are whatever you are doing I hope you have a wonderfully happy Christmas!

Vickie

ps...The ornament is handmade by my SS!!  Thank you again!

Getting back to normal!!!

 Here it is January 10 and we have just been having too much fun doing things we wanted to do during Christmas!  You know it takes so long to get ready and there are so many extra things to do and places to go that it seems you don't really get to do the fun things you want to do with those you live with!  So we have been watching our favorite movies, reading Christmas books, and eating the cookies and desserts that didn't get baked before Christmas! 

Today, though, we are going to be getting back to some kind of routine!  WooHoo!  YaY!

It is so hard to be in a routine with the holidays, don't ya think?!

It seems that my sewing room is just tooo cluttered to step foot in so that has to be cleaned up and organized!  The house in general needs cleaned up and we have got to get back to school!  Of course, the laundry has to be done, and I need to cook up some meals so I can put some in the freezer!  I love to have food ahead, don't you?!!!  Well that's my day for ya!  

Before I go, I want to show you a few gifts that I was able to get done for Christmas!  

  

 Here is Lilli with the Buttercup Bag from madebyrae!  Have you been there?  You should go if you haven't Rae has some really neat stuff!  Don't you love the circle fabric!  I just loved it! 

Now for those of you who read this blog you know how I hate to have my picture on here, but everybody thought that I had to post a picture of me with the doll I made my great niece because they thought the doll looked just like me!  How funny is that?  What do you think?!  Anyway, I had so much fun making her!  Now I want one!  She is in her nightgown and bloomers but she has a whole wardrobe that she can change into!!!  The pattern is by Dreamspinners but I'm not sure of the name and she is holding a teddy bear from

Sew Pretty Christmas Homestyle, a book by Tone Finnanger!  Do you have that book?  I just love it! 

This is my ever so sweet great niece with her dolly!  I'm told she sleeps with her!  I am so excited about that!

That's it for me today!!!

Wherever you are whatever you are doing I hope you have a wonderfully happy Monday!

Vickie

For the Love of Christmas and Chocolate!!!

It never seems like Christmas until we make cinnamon rolls!

Well, today I broke down and made some! Yummmmm!!! The house was so warm and cozy with cinnamon oozing through every nook and cranny!! It simply smelled like Christmas!

Then Lilli said lets try to make chocolate chip rolls! I said I tried them once years ago with white icing and they were okay! This time I changed the sugar to brown and the icing to chocolate as you can see!!!!

Sorry for such a blurry picture!!!

I think I'm in chocolate daze!!

Wherever you are whatever you are doing I hope you are having a wonderfully happy Sunday!!

Vickie

Today.....Our Christmas Season Begins!

Today was big decision making day!
Not only are we celebrating Thanksgiving this month, but John and I will be married 30 years on November 22, and then we have Christmas to get ready for!
So we decided to decorate for Christmas now, get the carpets cleaned then celebrate our anniversary and Thanksgiving! It was so hard to make these decisions because I have never put up Christmas before we celebrated Thanksgiving! I guess there is a first time for everything! I hope all goes well!
I should tell ya why I had to make all these decisions.....I have a torn meniscus. Can I just say I have never had anything hurt so bad in my life! I have been dealing with this situation since June. I finally had to break down and go to the doctor in September. I had all the usual tests and then went to the orthopedic surgeon and he said he didn't normally recommend therapy to very many but since I wasn't having the mechanical problems like my knee slipping or locking up then it was worth a shot! Then there is my home situation getting on the floor with Gayle, picking her up and carrying her so I was thrilled to start therapy! This past Tuesday my therapist couldn't believe how well I was doing and I might not have to go til December 1!!!
So I am hoping and praying that I don't have to have surgery but only time will tell!
This is my reason for our Christmas Season starting on November 12!!!

Wherever you are whatever you are doing I hope you are having a wonderfully happy Friday!!
Vickie

Yellow Shoes!!!!

Are these yellow or what?!! And it wasn't even Halloween!!!

This is my great niece with my niece's shoes on!

How fun is that?!!!

She's a hoot!!!

Before I go today I wanted to say if you haven't checked out the Christmas ezine from InspireCo, you should! It's great and it's free!

Wherever you are whatever you are doing I hope you are having a wonderfully happy Friday!!

Vickie

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR .........LATE!

Well, I'm gonna have to start the new year out without pictures because I can't find them! Ugh...
Anyway, I hope everyone had a great Christmas! We did!
I wish you a blessed New Year!
I am so far behind on my blog that I can't even believe it. I have made so many things and taken pictures but I simply don't know what they are under and not even sure they were put on my computer! If I ever find them, I will share, promise!
We had so much fun in December! Lilli and I decided to pick someone we thought needed a pick me up and we took her a gift everyday of Advent! I don't know who enjoyed it more us or her! We hope to pick someone else this Christmas and do the same!!!
We received the greatest gift of all on Christmas Eve! All of Gayle's tests came back clear!
There is no melanoma! We are so very thankful!
Lilli will post her Christmas pictures over at thebuttonboxgirls!
On Christmas Day, John's parents and brother came out and did my mother-in-law have a huge surprise for me! She gave John her engagement ring and her mother-in-law's wedding band to give to me! We all cried! I was very touched!
On Saturday after Christmas we went to my parents' home and had a great time!
John had to work on New Year's Eve so our excitement was limited to home but I couldn't have asked for a better time! We all had a great celebration!
Now I can't say enough about football!
I don't ever say much on here about it but I love it! Really I do! So I was for Penn State, they won! I was for Ohio State, they won! And I was for Florida State and they won! Wow! What more could a girl ask for?! This girl is gonna ask for one more win this weekend from the Colts! Who knows?! Especially since they didn't really play to win last week! I wonder how the other team will think back on the win....we beat the undefeated Colts without their starters!!! I know the Colts want their starters to be healthy but ....I'm just sayin' whoever heard of not playing to win...Duh!!! Whoever heard of putting in the backups for the first time all season thinking they possibly could win but probably not. I say play them some all year...oh but wait the Colts weren't really that far ahead in any game they have won and they had to win until they were sure they won their division! Okay, sorry for the rant! I will always be for the Colts since they are my home team but I have some other favorites out there just in case the Colts don't make it to the Super Bowl!!!! So for now Go Colts!!!

HAVE A HAPPY, HEALTHY, SAFE, AND BLESSED NEW YEAR!!!

Wherever you go whatever you do I hope you have a wonderfully happy day!
Vickie

The Day After Thanksgiving

Hi! I know it has been a long time! I'm sorry about that!
I'm afraid this is going to be a post without pictures, which I don't like to do.
It has been 16 days since my last post and I have to say I have missed posting a lot!
Anyway the time has went by so fast! John and I have celebrated our 29th anniversary! I teased him that we were celebrating our 290th because it seems like forever and ever! It does especially when you think about the fact that you have been married alot longer than you lived at home with your parents!!! I'm just sayin'!!!!
We have had a lot of doctors appointments and a big scare with Gayle! Luckily the news was so much better this best Tuesday than 2 weeks ago! So she is good! Just trying to get a grip on her seizures now!
We have celebrated Thanksgiving just yesterday! This year it seems we had more to be thankful for than we ever have! It was a big day! We even had snow! Our actual plans for this week were to go to Gatlinburg, Tennessee with family but we just couldn't with Gayle in the shape she was in. So with what family was left here in town we celebrated here at our house! We cooked and cooked and forgot to take pictures! We baked a new pie called Snicker Doodle Pie! It would have been so much better with the 1 cup of sugar I left out. Ughhh.....I will have try it again!
We baked a pumpkin pie, made a new banana dessert from Paula Dean! We baked Gayle's favorite sugar cookie! We always get a smoked turkey from our favorite meat market, Fisher's! It almost taste like ham! It is so good!
We had a new kind of ham called an old fashioned pit ham! It came from the same meat market!
Anyway, we had never had it before and didn't even know what it meant. So we listened when someone else asked and the butcher said it was a ham with the bones taken out. I was thinking yeah right, why isn't it long and round? I still don't know but it was round like a plate and almost 4 inches thick and the best ham anyone had ever had! So if you ever have a chance to try one, you should!!! To was a great day filled so much food and lots of full stomachs!!!
We have kicked in to the Christmas mood already! Making gifts and our little Christmas card surprises! We always make a snowman or snowflake to tuck inside each card! It really gets me the comments we get from people we send them to! Some even laminate them to keep! It feels good to know that we brighten someone's day!
I have had some goodies in the mail! My angel sent me the sweetest advent card and my swap partner from mixing bowl.com sent me some very nice towels! It was so fun to receive both!
I hope to be back soon with photos of some of the recipes we have been trying from all of our books!

Wherever you are and whatever you are doing I hope you are having a wonderfully happy day!

Vickie

Christmas late and more Snow, lots more!!!

We have more snow! WooHooooo!!! Just have to say that Lilli, the dog and I are very happy!!! John is not so happy! He is grumbling around with when is spring gonna get here?! We just laugh and say the calendar says March 20!!!
We have 12 inches and it is still snowing! It is the really heavy snow that makes for great packing! I am sure we will be making a snowman soon!!! We have already made Snow Ice Cream! Yummy!Before the really bad snow started, Lilli and I were able to go to town to meet our really good friends, Kacey and Deanna! They just bought a shop in town! I haven't said anything before now because I wanted to take pictures and post them! Silly me, I thought I forgot my camera, but when I got home, where do you think it was? In my purse! So I did have it but didn't know it!! We will go back and I will take pictures and then I can post them! Anyway, we have a thing about owls! Look what Lilli found in the shop! Isn't it so sweet and don't you love the colors?!!!
It was 50% off to make it the buy of the day!!! The name of shop is the Cashmere Cat and it is a very sweet consignment shop loaded with great things!

One reason we met Kacey and Deanna for lunch was to celebrate Christmas with them! I know it's January but we just couldn't find a good time, when we thought we could we couldn't so we did it yesterday!!! Did we ever bring home the goodies! Deanna always gets us tooo much but everything was great! I love Gooseberry Patch and snowmen! And look there is Carol Burnett! We love her and we love to laugh so that is a great choice for us! Do you see the box of chocolates? It says Believe on it and it's by Maxfield's! I read the box and Maxfield's has been making chocolates since 1947! Isn't it funny that something has been around for so long and you've never heard of them or tasted them?!! Well, the chocolates were great! Yep, I said were, we ate the whole box yesterday! Aren't we awful? If it helps it was a small box!!!
Thanks Deanna and Kacey for a great time! We really do have to do it more often!

Wherever you are whatever you are doing I hope you have a wonderfully happy day!

Vickie
PS...Just wanted to say we were on the very lucky side of this winter storm the people to the south of us got mostly. We are thinking of you. Be safe!

MERRY CHRISTMAS...............LATE!!!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!! I am so sorry I am posting so late! I hate that I just didn't find the time to get back over here! I hope everyone had a great day!!!
This is our tree in the dark! I like in the dark pictures best!!! We went with all blue lights this year, inside and out! We love the glow! At first it took a little getting used to, but with the snow on them, it was great!!! There are other pictures to post but blogger is very slow tonight!
I will be back tomorrow!!!

My thought for today!
The difference between
ordinary and extra ordinary,
is the little extra!
Anonymous

Is that ever true especially this time of year! With the pledge that I took, I found I had to give a little extra everyday!!!! However, everyone on my list got something handmade!!! I was so proud!!!
Have a wonderful cozy night!!!
Vickie

What to blog about today!

There is so much to talk about, but to keep everything going towards Christmas and the Handmade pledge that I just wanted to share this one blog and one site that is helping all of us bloggers make it a Handmade Christmas!!!
The site is cottonspice.com! Great site, but go to her blog and see the project she has listed for today! She is listing them from November 5-17! What fun!
Then there is sewmamasew.com/blog2!
This is great, too! She is posting from November1-November 30! Go check it out! It is great!
Sew go have fun! Create! Create! Create!
Have a Happy Day!
Vickie