May you have...

a wonderful new year ahead of you...Happy 2011!!!

A great giveaway! HURRY! Ends December 5th!

Go now and sign up for these gorgeous candlesticks!!!!!   Here is the blog!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

May your holiday be a wonderful time of special times with family!

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

***I started this late last nite and wanted to post but needed more pics...then I've not felt well today and got tired of trying to rearrange the pics...the codes are a bit odd, so I just finally gave up!***

Well, my day was spent lugging boxes back and forth to the storage shed, cleaning up, and decorating. I really didn't get cranking until about 3:30 an by then I was already praying for more hours in the day. Bon enjoyed helping me decorate some (hence the cringe I felt as she was placing ornaments on the tree like all kids do - in one spot!); she did put out the Snow Village for me and did a pretty good job! It just needs some snow now! Chase hung the 3 ornaments that were his and then called it quits and hung out playing in his room...that may have been better in the end!

The tree is decorated and casts the most serene feeling in the den...it needs to be topped with the star and that will happen if I can talk my best friend into using his height to place it up there! The nutcrackers are all at their posts...the stockings hung underneath the mantle. Everything else is in its place and I must say I am already dreading when it will have to come down because everything looks so peaceful and the way it is supposed to be.

My study is complete with all the little vignettes - my Clemson tree, the village, my snowmen and red and bright green Santa and reindeer...ecletic, yes.

My kitchen does sport the gingerbread gathering, but I've yet to put up my everygreen branches and birds...I was trying to decide what to do in there...I am wanting to redecorate some...new curtains especially, so I was thinking of when I was going to do this...I have decided to wait until the first of the year...it'll give me something to look forward to after the holidays to hopefully forego those after-Christmas blues!

The bathroom is so sweet with the new hand towels and some new displays. The end of the hall is is home to my snowman and baskets and baskets of ornaments!

The hall though...HAS to be my favorite...it looks like a little gift shop in there! It is so pleasant and peaceful...the pics do NOT do it justice...the soft glow of white lights and little tea lights make it so warm and literally makes me stop everytime I walk by. The stockings add some more

color to my bench and hopefully the pillows will be updated with something wintery this week!!!

This is my newest gathering...a little bench I got at the antique place in Edgefield...an old bell from last Christmas...a lantern I've had for years...and two new treasures from the Ragpicker! The old quilt is soooo worn but the colors are beautiful. It is only a piece of an old quilt...which was probably best...I don't think I could have afforded a whole one! AND...the lute...the tag said old guitar, but it is indeed a lute. Very worn and cracked but that adds to the charm. I LOVE how it looks leaning up against the bench!

Christmas Project #5 out of #1,083 done!

Well...I DID get something accomplished tonite...not only did I manage to get the household sane and get some cleaning done, I was able to finish these two little hand towels. I'll put them in my bathroom for Christmas! I am tired...it has been a long nite and I am ready to hit the sack for my nightly games of Solitaire on the iPod...I am quite addicted to that I must say!

Can I just say again how much I LOVVVVVE this little bench? Seriously, it is one of my favorite things to look at in my house! It is so cozy when the little light is on.

Stitchin'...

Well the day has been a good one, could have been better, but it was good I am thankful for that. Cleaning and such, a wonderful visit from my best friend, and spent much of the evening with a needle and hoop in my hands! I was able to complete the framed snowman stitchery and then even stitched to small panels to make into hand towels for the bathroom for Christmas! Some light staining on the framed one...not the sort of thing to make you say it looks like it fell out of the back of the truck! HAHAHA! I know it needs a bit more pop of color from the frame to really stand out, but I do love the worn look of the frame..so for right now this is its home!

So I have also been cutting squares to make the rag quilt for the tree skirt for my little Alpine tree...this is a stack of about 64 squares...need about 24 more to make it a go...in ALLLL of this craft stuff, you'd think I'd have a rotary cuttery, but I don't, it would make the work so much faster! I hope to start sewing it in the next few nights...I would tonite, but the time change is starting to tell on me!!! Good grief...it is only an hour's difference, but you'd think it was 3 or 4! Weird how that works!

Well I am about to get ready for the work week...pretty much for me that is just adjusting my mind for it...not that I iron everything for the week or what have you...it just takes the mental preparing for it! LOL! I do think I will try to knock out one more project tonite...another blanket for my uncle...3 down and 6 more to go...I'll try to make it 4 down!

What a slacker?!?!?

Yes, I know...the ultimate slacker...spring and summer has come and gone and fall finally came in a few weeks ago...the cool air can't seem to decide if it really wants to stay or not...wish it would make itself at home!

My summer was filled with scrapbooking...MUCH needed I

might add...the piles of pictures are still plenty but I got a lot down and was pleased with the amount.

I did two shows this summer...being IN one and choreographing the other, so that along with work and life took much time, so it is a wonder I got ANYTHING creative done!

The past few week has been a productive one - housewise, that is. Last week's trip to the High Grove Antique show was SUPER inspiring! I ended up with the prettiest Christmas present I could have gotten - a prim bench made from a headboard. She looks so sweet sitting in my hallways now. I made the bench pillow with quilting squares that I got from the show as well - that will have to be redone as the fabric is sooooo old and is tattering...I need to reinforce it!

I've made a pillow or two (including one to sell!) and several other stitcheries.

I've also been busily working with the sander and the paint! Good grief....I am SOOO thrilled that my best friend trusts me with his sander...otherwise, I'd have some awful carpel tunnel with all the sanding I would have had to do! I SOMEWHAT enjoy that...a piece is fine....but I did 2 shelves, a box, 4 wooden bowls, and a small bench...I

gave out before I even began to work on the little chair and big shelf I have left! I think it is the final product that I love so much that makes me able to withstand it somewhat...I much more enjoy the journey I take with needles and thread, looms and yarn, or paper and photos...but...there ya go!

I finished the little bench for my bathroom and stained it with coffee...yes, you can use strong instant coffee...it is pretty and gave it a little "cedar" look to the edges...but I will probably use something else later - I was just impatient to put it in there! The paint I used for it turned out wonderfully!!! It is called Spanish Tile...when I painted it first I was SOOOO disappointed - it was magenta! UGH! I was about to make another run to Lowe's when I realized it was drying that lovely barn red I was wanting...I am not anywhere pleased with the decorations on the bench, but since I am planning on painting that bathroom in the next few weeks, I will let it go for right now.

Anyway...the process has been nice...I've said it so often...there is something very therapeutic when I work on some project!

Good grief!

Well...here I am, nearly a YEAR later and I am just making a new post. There have been so many projects that have come through this house over the past 3 seasons....your normal variety of holidays, the trappings of daily life of work and family, sadness and loss, and much, much happiness.

The biggest accomplishments as of late have been the redoing of my bedroom with paint, paint, and more paint and the use of many reclaimed "goodies" from the thrift shops. Amazing at the little things you can find that people just toss away. Of course, shifting through the junk isn't always a fun thing. That whole proverbial idea of having to kiss a lot of frogs...yeah it pertains to thrifting too!

I also recovered a chair that belonged to my grandmother - Ma, as she was known to everyone, my dad's mom. Anyway, the chair as I remembered it was a white leather...vinyl...leather...vyn...heck I don't know what it was, but it was white! AND SOOOOOO COMFORTABLE. We always fight over who could sit it in. Amazing the memories a chaise lounge chair can conjour! It was given to my dad when Ma passed away. For some reason, it was in storage and was ruined. Mildewed and stained beyond cleaning! So my dad had it recovered for my mom...and momma hated it...well daddy agreed...the recovering changed the whole feel of it and it wasn't the comfortable chair it once was. So it sat in the room with that awful Pepto pink/mauve color and became a catch-all cat bed. So back into storage it went, this time better storage, more air tight and weather-proof.

Fast forward to two weeks ago, when I asked them if I could have it. It was a no brainer, of course I could - they knew I could probably do something to it. I already bought the material before it came to my house! I found a sale for upholstery fabric (Holy Canoli!!! What is the deal with that???? That stuff can be up to $79 a yard?!?!? Mine was $23 a yard and a sale and a frequent customer coupon got it down to $8 a yard! Whew!)

And the project began. I researched on the internet (of course, I did!) about the best way to do it. I didn't simply want to cover it like a slipcover - would have been perfect in the new "cottage" style room, but I wanted a more finished look. SO I began ripping...that was fun. Seriously. I enjoyed that...UNTIL..until the discovery of the 81, 003 staples AND the abundance of dust mites. Yeah, I ripped the back off and WHAMMO...it hit. This huge nasty dust cloud of nasty little dust mites. (And that's all I say about that, onto the funner stuff! LOL!)

I finally returned to the project a few days later and began piecing it back together. I admit, I did not rip off the seat cover, I figured it would at least help me with the cushion formation. I worked and worked with the top and arms. So the covering goes in this sequence...arms, seat, back, and skirt. I had planned to do just the skirt, but then when I got it done, I liked the classiness of the blue toile enough to say maybe it didn't need a skirt. Then I thought that maybe it would be "softer", dare I say it...more feminine (sometimes that word scares me as I equate it to dainty and I am sure not dainty! LOL!). So, the skirt began. It was probably the most tedious work, as I had to hem and iron the hems and sides. However, the look was quite polished!

When the folks saw pictures, they were amazed. (ooh props for Trace!) They were very pleased with it and thought the skirt was some great feat....not, although it was tedious to iron and sew to get the hem straight, it stapled right on easily and the "pleats" were the easiest part of it.

So I guess mission accomplished. I am still a bit unsure about the arms....one tucks down like it should, and the other rather tucks to the back...it is getting easier to look at, but it is certainly something that I will make a point to work on should I tackle another chair. (which may be soon as my uncle has a chair he wants recovered...sigh)