Leftovers

With Thanksgiving behind us, there seem to be leftovers everywhere I look. I packed up any fall decorations this afternoon to make way for the Christmas season!

The pumpkins on the front porch went out with
the evening trash :(
And the flowers from our Thanksgiving table are fading fast.


Thankfully, the kids stayed for dinner before driving back to school- so tonight they ate the last of the left overs. Finally, the refrigerator can breathe! (Can you believe I actually posted this picture?) Scary!



I love Thanksgiving........ kids, cooking, laundry....I need to go back to work and get some rest!
(Really, I do LOVE thanksgiving and my family- I'm just a wee bit pooped!

Happy Thanksgiving

Last year, the day before Thanksgiving, I came up with the idea to make little books for each family member, where we would record what we had been thankful for in the past year. I couldn't find the little notebooks in time. So this year I saw them over the summer, bought them and waited until Thanksgiving eve, but I got them finished. I envision looking back through the years.....seeing God's blessings to our family.

It was such a fun day... having all the kids at home.

The Caccia family joined us for dessert!

Jack held up well without an afternoon nap. :)

Jill Kitty was anxious for the turkey! Yes.. that's a cat on the table!


Hope you and your family enjoyed God's blessings!

Lots of JOY!

I've had a great time making some more Christmas goodies to sell at The Cottage! I've been decoupaging holiday themed wooden blocks for several years. The blocks are so much fun... love the colors and combining the different patterns. To make it simple, I just kept making them all say JOY this time. Next week, if I have time, I'll probably make HOPE and PEACE.

And I'm still working on pillows too....


JOY and HOPE... it's really what Christmas is all about.

Fun Finds at the Big Flea!

Several weekends ago, I spent Saturday morning at the Big Flea. I was all alone....poking through booths and uncovering some great treasures. I got some beautiful linens, at great prices, a few plastic Christmas ornaments and a huge lot of vintage jewelry. I spent $3.00 for this cute little book. Being red and green, it caught my eye as I imagined it as part of a Christmas vignette. As I picked it up to examine it more closely, an envelope fell out! Now I was certainly going to buy it.....what was written inside the envelope?

I hope you'll take time to read it...written 87 years ago....I wonder what happened to her and Walter..... (click to enlarge)


So either this was a rough draft or more likely an unfinished letter, never to be read by Aunt Netta. It made me think.... 87 years from now, where will our scraps of communication be and who will be reading them? I'm thankful I was the recipient of this scrap.. it made me happy :)

Brag Monday at The Graphics Fairy

Last week I found this precious Thanksgiving postcard posted on The Graphics Fairy. Karen always finds and SHARES such wonderful images. I printed it and made some little decorative cards for several of my friends who love the brown and robin's egg blue. Finding those colors on a Thanksgiving postcard was such a surprise! After printing the card, I adhered it to a scrap of brown card stock, added some vintage seam binding and a little "bling"! It just makes me happy to see such a cute Thanksgiving greeting sitting on my kitchen windowsill.

The Graphics Fairy has a "Brag Monday" post edition where readers post what they have created with the images that Karen shares.. I'm not too sure that I have understood exactly how to participate... we'll see. Click the Brag Monday tag to see some fun projects.

Who's that in the cupboard?

Years ago, I went to Richmond to pick up some furniture left to me by a relative. In the dark corner of the basement, my friend noticed this cupboard and insisted that I not leave it for Salvation Army. So, so happy I followed her advice! We got it home, had it refinished and hung in the kitchen. It holds our everyday dishes.... a collection of blue and white.

This little plastic boy came my way from another relative. As a little girl, I would always see it in her kitchen and thought it was so scandalous. His hat comes off so he can be filled with water. Obviously, when his hat is squeezed, he relieves himself! I've never seen another one anything like him. So now, this little guys resides among our everyday dishes. Maybe that's a little odd!

Christmas- Cottage Style!

Today after school I rushed to The Cottage. Ann and Linda had really "decked the halls"- completely transforming the shop for their Christmas Open House. It was simply AMAZING! Every nook and cranny was beautiful. Some rooms were very chic.. gold and ironstone with soft muted shades. An there was an entire wall shelving greens and Christmas lambs and these sweet little Christmas wreaths scattered throughout. ( I went home with six!)

Upstairs was a little bed -rescued from my garage and transformed for Santa's little elves. And there was an old red fire engine that Santa had dropped off. Santa had apparently dropped off his britches too!


If the fire engine is there next time, I may need to sit Jack in it and take a Christmas photo of him!

Red and Green....so happy...

Folk art brought from Pennsylvania was charming- feed sack stockings and little paper ornaments stuffed with fresh greens.


Earlier in the week I had dropped off about 30 holiday pillows. It was fun seeing how Linda and Ann worked them into each room.


Cookies for Santa? He didn't show so we helped ourselves.

Ann and Linda~ thanks for your ever inspiring creativity and including me on your adventure.:) You two make cute little elves!

Jack's BIG DAY!

Jack started walking about two weeks ago and was cruising well this weekend- just in time for his big day! So many changes in one year.. it's just amazing!


What a weekend! So much went on in two days, it was hard to edit it all for this post. Believe me, I really did try! We began celebrating Jack's 1st birthday Friday night. Nine family members and 2 boyfriends went out to dinner.

By noon on Saturday. the house was filled with party guests. Holly's friend, Lexi, flew in from New Hampshire to surprise her. It had been several months since she had seen Jack.

Nathan held Jack as they opened presents together. A favorite-a rocking horse whose head actually moves, from Lexi and her dad.



And Jack had his own, personal cake. So cute.. he was cautious at first.


But quickly caught on!


One of the party highlights was when Jack and Ava were sitting together for a birthday photo when.....






Jack got his "first kiss"!

The day ended with with a little Trick or Treating and a very scary "pumpkin head" sitting on our front porch. We wondered why we had so much candy left this year!