Happy End of 2023

 It has been a year. Glad to see it end in some ways though. 

I still have a few blooms.

To be fair, it has not been freezing here and those plants are close to the house, under the eves. 

The rest of the yard is pretty much toast. 

As it should be in December.  I am so happy though, to see a bloom or two. 

We had a nice Christmas,  but we have caught colds. 

Feeling better, but not great.  Hope you enjoy your last days of the year. 

Merry Christmas!!!

 I hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

Enjoy friends and family!

Walking In A Winter Wonderland

 With spiders?

Yikes!

There were hundreds of webs all over the field I was walking along.

Here are a couple of pictures of them.

Every morning I walk along the same field. Each day is different. 

This past week the spider webs were everywhere. With the cold and rain it made each web sparkle. It was really something to see. 

I hope you are enjoying your week and seeing wonderful things.

Re Do Christmas Garland

 

Last year when I went to get my snowman garland out it was no where to be found. I was upset about it missing, but thought I would find it by next Christmas. Then this year came and I still had not found it.

We all searched in every box, under the bed, in the closet etc. No where.  Also missing was a primitive snowman in an vintage icecream container, and a framed snowman stitchery.  All three cherished items.

I decided to quit looking and make a new garland.

Pretty close right?

I worked on this for a couple weeks. During this time I found out a dear friend was losing her battle with kidney failure. She passed before I finished making this.

So forever now I will think of her when I hang this garland each year.

Sad, but we sure had a lot of great memories during our young teenage years.

She will be missed by so many.

So , I am happy it is re done and hung and I am ready for Christmas!

I love snowmen!

I have a lot of snowmen I have made over the years and the other little snowman in the icecream cup was a bought item online.

This is what he looked like. Although, this is not him.

I guess I did not take a picture of him.

I wish I had.

Next year I will try to find another one online.

I don't have a picture of the stitchery.

Anyhow, school is winding down. We have three more days and then I will be off for two weeks.

I don't need to say how happy that makes me.

This year has been o.k. so far, but I do miss my time at home.

I hope you are ready for Christmas and enjoying the time preparing!

Snowflake Anne

I created three of these. 

I designed them.

They are made of paper clay.

A lot of sanding and molding.

I used real branches for the hands, legs and necks.

I re did them several times to get them to where I liked them.

I think I am ready for Christmas as far as crafting goes.

My fingers are sore.

Here they are. I hope you enjoy them too.

 

Tiz the season

Time once again has flown by and here we are in December already.

 Just seems like one day it is Monday and the next it is Sunday.

Lately I have been working on Christmas stuff.

Last weekend we went to a thrift store and I found this huge Christmas tree FOR 20.OO!

 It was covered in butterflies, birds and pastel light bulbs.

I ordered new bulbs for it and put them on today.

It was lit up for the first time tonight. 

Last couple of weeks have been difficult. I lost two friends and my daughter had to put her dog to sleep.  Then my grand daughter got sick with an ear infection and is just starting to feel better.

So I guess that is why the weeks seem to fly by.

I hope you are enjoying your week!

Pumpkin Carving

It was finally the day to carve pumpkins. My grandson did not want to stay and do them so we did his for him.

He picked out the design.

 The Princess carved her wolf pumpkin all by herself.

She is almost 10!

The years are flying by!

Just one more day and it will be Halloween!

I hope you have a great Halloween!

Fall Blooms

 Things are still blooming here. Fall leaves are starting to make an appearance too.

I hope you are enjoying your week.

Only a little over a week until Halloween! It sure is going fast!

I am now looking forward to Thanksgiving vacation! I am excited to have a week off!

When school started in August it seemed like forever until Thanksgiving. Not it is almost here.

Pirates on the Porch and Other Fascinating Things

Well it is that time of year again.

This year I changed my lady skeleton into a pirate.

I got her costume on Amazon.

Butt I wasn't loving her hair.  My husband thought it looked good, but I thought she should have a younger look.

So I looked on Amazon and found a black wig.

I like her much better.

(Note those very fancy gloves belonged to my Grandmother!)

Her Pirate man is handsome as always.

They both need to get out in the sun a little.

So pale. Eeeek!

Of course a pirate flag was needed for their private dinner destination.

When I was shopping at Home Goods a couple weeks ago, I found these cool halloween pencils for the grandkids.

I must say I kinda want to keep them for myself. 😆

Don't they look fun to write with?

Also a couple weeks ago I noticed something going on with my honeycomb.

It had something growing on it like mold and the honeycomb was deteriorating.

We gave it a closer look and decided it was infested with some type of bug.

So it had to go. I was very sad. I really liked it.

Lesson learned though. I should have put it in the freezer for a week first.

Maybe I will find another one someday.

And that my friend is my scary halloween story for the week.

Yup, it was pretty creepy wondering what would have happened if I had not seen that when I did.

What would have hatched out? Wasps? Or something worse?

It took a couple of weeks to get over that one.

I guess that is all I have to report today!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Baylee hopes your weekend is wonderful too!

Happy Fall

 I did some baking.

Pizza rolls.

And someone requested two loaves of sourdough so I made them.

I love baking for people.

We had a sprinkle of rain yesterday and that was refreshing.

I hope your week is off to a good start!

Full moon on Friday!

Walnut Head Pumpkin Dolls Done

I finished them finally! It took forever to decide on what to do.

I made three.

I will keep one and give two away.

Here is the one I am keeping.

I found the spice can on Walmart.com  It is a reproduction type tin. Full of spice, which I used on the dolls.

Yes, I wrote the poem on the apron.

I ordered the fabric for their dresses from Spoonflower.com

Each doll has a whipped cream hat!  They were made from air dry clay.

I sewed their bodies out of muslin fabric and painted it.

They have air dry clay arms that I made.

A little piece of coffee stained cheesecloth holds up the apron.

Each doll is stuffed into the tin.

It can be pulled out and repositioned, but they have no legs.

A face only a Mother could love right?😂

Of course you remember how they started out!

I still have more walnuts made up. I will use them for something else at some point.

Here is all three posing for a photo.

Here are some more outside photos.

That is it for these little beauties.

I hope you are enjoying your last day of summer! 

I can't believe tomorrow is the first day of fall!

 

Log Kitty

 

It's Gandalf

He blends in perfectly.

Nothing much happening here except hot days.

Oh and there was an earthquake about an hour away from here.

I've been working on my pumpkin head dolls. Hopefully will be able to share them soon.

You will not even recognize them. They really dried perfect!

I have reworked their design several times and I am happy with how they are turning out.

It has been a fun time creating them.

Anyhow, I guess that is it for me!

Hope you enjoyed your week!

Sourdough Bread Day

 

Yesterday I made bread. Today was another school day.

Still a lot blooming in the garden.

The hibiscus did really well this year. I am going to have to plant more of them.

Things bloom differently from year to year.

It is fun to see what will happen next.

I have a few things I want to change for next year already. Adding to the list as the summer comes to a close.

I hope you have a great week!

Pumpkin Walnuts

 They are really getting creepy looking. I think I am going to make little primitve dolls out of them.

I need to start working on them.  They will be for a Halloween garland.

I have to figure out when I am going to do this. 😂

I hope your weekend is going well.

I am enjoying mine.

Sunny Sunflowers

 

The sunflowers are about bloomed out for the year.

They are huge! 

10 to 12 feet tall!

Some are shorter.

They have been cheerful to look at all summer!

I am looking forward to the weekend!

I hope you enjoy yours too!

Back To School

Another school year is starting tomorrow. I am sad summer vacation is over.

But that is how it works.

I hope everyone enjoys their first week of school!

Tea For Two

My Mom had a tea cup and saucer and a sugar and creamer on a plate.  I decided to order another tea cup and saucer and plate so I could have enough for tea with the Princess.

My Mom also had a platter.

This set is Lord Nelson Pompadour made in England.

So of course I found all sorts of other items to go with this pattern.

I ordered a condiment lidded cup/saucer.

You never know when you might want toast and jelly with tea right?

Or maybe honey.

Anyhow, the Princess was over the other day and I got the tea set out and we had tea.

She starts 4th grade next week! She is such a joy.

💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗

I am so glad she enjoys tea parties still.

It is something my kids always enjoyed.

It was a daily event in the afternoon.

I think they just liked the sugar in the tea and the treat that went along with it.

Either way it was always a fun time.

So at least the tradition continues.

Have a great Thursday!