A Tiny Update

Hello Everyone,

There has been much illness at our house. LMW began the round and lovingly shared it with the rest of us. Severe colds and sinus infections. That being the case, nothing much has been happening. I hope to be over it by New Year's Day. Hoping to get a little sewing time in. Right now, the head is just too swimmy. Writing this is a chore, but I just couldn't leave it for so long without a short post.

With all the holiday greetings, and the "Happy New Year" salutations, I thought I'd take a moment from the comfort of my sick bed to tell you all I hope your new year is bright and blessed.

Christmas Greetings

Surprise Arrival

I received an unexpected surprise yesterday. (Are surprises ever suspected?) Beth, from The Bee's Knees sent me this lovely ornament.

It's stuffed with Balsam Fir and it smells heavenly. I love the little old world Santa and the green color is awesome. It will really add to my tree! Thank you Beth! Y'all go check out her etsy shop.

Quiet

I didn't realize how long it had been since I posted on the blog. There are so many things to do, and none of them really post worthy. All the Christmas shopping and sewing, planning the meals and such, just nothing interesting.

LMW is going through a stage where he gets very angry and tries the temper tantrum thing. We just ignore him and it pretty much nips it right then. He has been doing the "falling limp" thing in our arms, and I have to wrangle him more than usual, making my neck and shoulders hurt. It's just a phase, and maybe even the terrible twos beginning. Normal stuff for a little boy.

He loves all the Christmas decorations and everything is "Ho Ho Ho" to him. I can't wait to see him open his gifts.

I've been burdened by the need to sponsor a needy child at Christmastime. It's too late to do it this year, and I don't have any money left in the budget to do it anyway, but I'm hoping and praying my family and I will be able to do it next Christmas. It's an exciting thought.

I'm going to begin on a new baby quilt today. Wish me luck!

Another Great Mail Day

This has been a great couple of weeks mail wise. So many lovely things arriving in my mail box. I recently won a giveaway on SewCalGal's blog and it arrived today. Woo Hoo! It was for her 2011 Christmas Quilt Show and I won a door prize. (I didn't enter a quilt)

 It's Be Merry by Martha Walker at Wagons West Designs, and it's full to bursting with awesome Christmas projects I can't wait to try. It gives me something to work on for Christmas all year long.   I'm so very pleased to have won this, and feel very blessed. Merry Christmas to Me!!

I'm going to duplicate this post on The Seam Rippers, because that's how I won. 

Last But Not Least

My final ornament came in the mail today.  This came all the way from Norway! Wow!

It's from Aimee and it's so delicate and sweet. I just love it!

Ok, I'm already considering what I'm going to do for next year. Can't wait!! Thank you to everyone who exchanged with me. You people Rock!

Sometimes, It's the Simple Things

He played with this simple toy off and on all day long. Thanks to Tonya, Seth, and Stephen for a fun filled day.
Oh, and Tonya...he never did pull the ball off. I was amazed.

Snow!

I awoke to a light dusting of snow this morning. I was shocked. I knew the weather man was calling for a little, but didn't think I'd see any.

Imagine my surprise when I looked out the front door! And I think it's so pretty on the bushes and branches in my back yard.

I guess you could say it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!

Another Surprise in the Mail

Oooh, I received another ornament exchange package today and couldn't wait to open it. It was from Tonya, Seth, and Stephen. Mercy!!!

Such a package of goodies!! Beautiful Christmas fabric opened to an original work by Stephen, a beautiful ornament filled with goodies from Tonya, and a packet of herbal tea from Seth. I can't wait to taste it!

What fun this has been! I think this had really made it a wonderful Christmas season for me and I look forward to doing it again next year.

Ornaments in the Mail

Hey there everyone!! I wanted to show you what I found in the mailbox the other day.... more ornaments! Yep, more of the ornament exchange goodies.

This little mitten came from Laura. I can tell how much work she put into it and it's lovely. Thank you Laura!

The next one came from Marissa who is Mrs. Cook's 6th grade class.

Isn't that just the cutest little snowman?! He even has snow inside his little belly. LMW loved both of the ornaments and I had to make sure he didn't damage them while he oohed and aahed over them.
This has been a real happy thing for me...to receive lovely little things in the mail. Thanks Tonya for hosting the exchange!!

Christmastime is Here

Happiness and Cheer....
I can hear that song going round in my head. Nothing like A Charlie Brown Christmas, is there?!

Here are a few little shots we took this weekend.  LMW is having the best time with all the festivities!

Ah haz my own reindeer!!

I tink he shud go heeah.

Juss hanging wiz CookieMan an his gurlfrien. 

Minze if I stealz a widdle kiss?

Man! Dat wuz some sweets sugarz!

Hads to show Mommy and Nanna dat one of da ornamentz wuz loose. 

Saves it! 

Da heerow of da day!

Three Word Wednesday

Big

Boy

Haircut

The Halls are Decked

I've pretty much finished the inside of the house. I dread the outside, but want to make it fun for the baby. Our next door neighbor has his yard packed full of the blow up decorations and LMW is in awe.

My inside decor....

I have no mantle, so this is the closest I can come to it. SR cut some blocks for me out of scrap boards, and I Modge Podged scrapbook paper to them, then painted the letters. The elves were made by me when my children were very small. They are named accordingly.

The top of my pantry cabinet.

 The carolers and Santa picture on the front entry table were my mother's.

This is one of the stuffed gingerbread folks my Mom had. I took some of her Christmas fabric and draped it over the lamp shade so it would blend in.

 I added some balls, candy canes and lights to the top of my living room window. LMW loves it.

I also added lights, garland and carolers to the buffet my tree is on. It makes it a bit more festive.

I'm pretty pleased at how this corner turned out. If you'll notice there are no pulls on the buffet doors. It's the only way to keep the baby out. LOL!

Tiny Post

I have a tiny tree so this is a tiny post. Since LMW is into everything, and likes to destroy, we had to use a very tiny tree and sit it out of reach.

I couldn't do much with it, since it's so small, and I wound up getting LED lights, which I'm not really happy with. But it will do well enough.

What I Did on Thanksgiving Vacation

Since our family gathering was last Saturday, I spent the morning in the process of decorating for Christmas. I'm not finished, and it usually takes me about a week to get it all like I want. Well, it never really gets there, but enough that I can relax and let it go.

I received a wonderful ornament from my friend Y. She actually gave it to me for my birthday in September, and I'm so glad she did! I L O V E it!!

Truer words were never spoken! Invariably, when I am trying to rush through something, the sewing machine starts doing weird things that slow me down. That ever happen to you??

I"m not going to show my entire tree yet, as I'm not finished with it yet. But, here are some odds and ends I did get around to this morning.

I got this idea from Pinterest. I didn't have different sizes of the same color, so I used what I had. It looks better in person.

I had this wreath last year, but when I unpacked, it looked a little sparse, so I added more to it.

I made this last week. I think it needs a little more peppermint.

My Mom loved Gingerbread folks, and had several little stuffed people in her decorations. I was blessed enough to get them. LMW likes them too, and they are something he can play with, and me not worry about him breaking them. When he gets finished, I just put them back where they were. I have a few more scattered around the living room.

Mom also had that little Christmas china set. I thought it would be a nice thing to remember her with, on this shelf in my bedroom.

I painted the "Comfort" and "Joy" plaques a couple of years ago.

Well, that's all I'm going to add for today. I took a "Morning" for Me instead of  Minutes for Me this time. I'm thankful I had the free time to do these things, and the freedom to do them. I'm also thankful for something else...

I'm thankful I didn't fall and break a limb. While climbing down from a step stool, I lost my balance when I put my foot on the floor. To catch myself from falling, I wound up sticking my foot in LMW's toy box. One of his blocks sheared the skin off the bottom of one of my toes. A bit of blood, wailing and gnashing of teeth, but otherwise I'm ok. Thanks be to God, because I was alone. I'd have been that famous woman who cries, "I've fallen and I can't get up!" if God hadn't protected me.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

 

I pray each of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. And I thank God for you all.

With Love,

Belinda

Trying to Be Gourmet

With all the new cupcake shows these days, I began to think I might just wanna try something new. I'm a decent baker. Nothing out of the ordinary, and I usually stick with my tried and true recipes. But, I have had a hankering to branch out and try some gourmet type cupcakes.

I looked online for recipes, but nothing really appealed to me. Or if it did, it called for all kinds of expensive ingredients I never buy. So, I improvised.  I bought a package of Hershey's peppermint kisses and some butter recipe cake mix and experimented a bit.

First, I chopped up some kisses into tiny tiny pieces.

Because my first experiment with regular vanilla chocolate chips ended with all the chips on the bottom of the cupcake, I thought to try just putting the little pieces on the top of the batter, thinking they would sink a bit.
(Aren't you supposed to coat the chips in flour to keep them from sinking?)

This is how they turned out.

No sinkage. So, I tried adding batter on top of the little pieces.

This is how they turned out.

Not very gourmet looking are they? But, I learned that I can mix them up in the batter and they won't sink to the bottom. That's helpful! I made the icing from cream cheese, real butter, and powdered sugar, then dusted the top with bits. They tasted really really good. So, I will definitely make them again.

So class...
Butter recipe cake mix + Hershey's peppermint kiss bits + cream cheese icing with peppermint kiss bits = Delicious!

Fun in the Mail

Woo Hoo! Lookie see what I received in the mail the other day...

My bloggy/quilty friend Sharon sent them to me with lovely little stories about them. How she does that tiny work is beyond me, but she seems to like doing the tiny things...don't you Sharon?!

I had to wade the lake and streams in our front yard to get to the mail box. Here is an idea of how it looked outside our front window.

Poor little tike kept saying, "Ssssiieeeed" pronounced, " Sigh-eeee-d. He wanted out so badly.

Thank you Sharon. You rock!

Family Gathering

Since some of the family have to work on Thanksgiving day, and others are committed to their in-laws' feast, we had our Thanksgiving family gathering last night. Ohh my at the food. There was deep fried turkey, dressing and gravy, mashed and sweet potatoes, corn, green beans, home made bread, rotisserie chicken, sausage stars, and cranberry salad. And for dessert, pecan and coconut pie, and Milky Way cake. We all made ourselves sick and were guilty of the sin of gluttony.

I used my china for the first time since the kids were little. And before you get to thinking I spent a lot of money on it, or got it all for wedding gifts, let me tell you I purchased it a piece at a time from Mad Butcher. Remember when they would offer china with your purchases, and give you points for them when you bought groceries? Yep, that's how I did it.

I didn't take a photo of all the food because as soon as we got it all ready, folks dug in. But I did take a few family photos. I always like to do that when we get together. My Mom never took pictures when we were growing up, but I like to have a record and the memory to see. I did manage to get a pic of K's Milky Way cake. Mercy...

K and J

MK and LeLe

LMW, who held court and entertained like a circus clown all evening.

He wanted DOWN

J and Me

The Mr. and me

The Father-in-law with his son and grandson

We had a great time together and the food was awesome. But, the next family gathering will be at noon. Eating that much before going to bed is not conducive to restful sleep.... szzzzzz....

I hope each of you have a blessed Thanksgiving week. Enjoy!