A Thoughtful Gift...

My favorite Christmas story is "The Gift Of The Magi." I mentioned this last year in a blog post. It is a favorite story for my dear friend Cindy Adkins too. Several weeks ago I received a package from Cindy and written on the package were the instructions, "Open on December 25th."  On Christmas morning I opened my package to find a truly thoughtful gift. I made a visit to Cindy's blog Whimsical Musings to find that Cindy had also posted a Christmas story about her gift to me. I love my journal and the thoughtfulness of the gift. Look at all the details Cindy used to tell the story. If you do not know the story here is a link to a U-Tube reading of the story that I thought was nicely done.

I'm linking this to:
Shades of The Season
Knick Of Time Tuesday
White Wednesday
Show andTell Friday
Pink Saturday

...A Midnight Clear...

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the Angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men in whom His favor rests." Luke 2:13,14 (NIV)

"Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you; You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Luke 2:10, 11,12 (NIV)

Wishing  you and yours Christmas blessings of 
Peace, Love, Joy, and Hope.

Linking to:

Pink Saturday

" 'O Christmas Tree, 'O Christmas Tree...

Linking this to:

Shades of the Season

White Wednesday

Some Of My New Favorite Things...

Bottle brush trees and wreaths are for train yards. Well that is what I use to think when ever I would see them. Then I met Terri at Artful Affirmations. Terri does these wonderful FREE video tutorials on her blog. I watched the one she did for bleaching bottle brush trees and wreaths. I liked the idea so much I had to get some and try the technique. I bleached one tree and one wreath to a shade of light green and one of each to an off white color. I then dyed one set with food coloring to a shade of pink. I added glue and glitter. They remind me of gum drops and I love the way they look. For now they are just mixed in with other table decorations. Next year I'll use them to make some ornaments. 

I'm linking this to:
Deck The Halls Sunday

Christmas Gifts Made With Love

Blogland is my main resource for inspiration and ideas. Magazines are another. The December/January issue of Country Living magazine featured one gift project idea that I liked immediately. The project was created by contributing editor Cathe Holden. She had collected vintage images from our good friend Karen at The Graphic Fairy. Then Cathe assembled the graphics into 4 game boards. She then created PDF files to print out. She gives great directions to make this awesome game in the article.

Concentration, a memory game

Cathe's game pieces were displayed in an antique toy truck. I loved that idea but I couldn't find a proper toy. I did find a French cookie tin at a flee market that was the perfect size.  I really like how it looks. I made a digital collage of sorts  with the name of the game, credits, and a message to my gift recipient and added it to the inside lid. I hope she likes it.

I'm linking this to the following Blog Parties:
Shades of The Season
White Wednesday
Show and Tell Friday
Pink Saturday

Tea Cup Tuesday ~ My First Time

I'm excited to be invited to the tea party. Below is my antique mall find. No saucer, hope you don't mind. I'm new to the party and new to collecting tea cups. I hope you'll let me know if I did well on my selection.

I thought it was a pretty cup and someday I might find a saucer.

The tea cup party is being held at Artful Affirmations. Hop over to say hello to our hostess Terri. Make yourself a cup of tea and  visit some of the other participants. Click here.

Deck The Halls Sunday ~ "Goodwill" Ornaments and Gifts

Here are some Christmas ornaments and gifts I've been working on.

The baby's 1st Christmas shoe ornaments are for the new members of our family. Scroll down to the post below this one to read more about this project and the inspiration for them..

 The wall sconce below (purchased at a thrift shop) is one of my up-cycling projects, or as I like to call them, rescued and revived treasures. I wanted to try my hand at making something in the Primative Style. I hope they like it!

Linking this up to Terri's Artful Affirmations' blog party.

Hop over to visit Deck The Halls Sunday

I'm also linking this to Knick Of Time Tuesday click here to visit and see some fantastic vintage style pieces.

Inspire ~ Encourage ~ Stimulate ~ Excite

A few weeks ago my friend Cindy Adkins from Whimsical Musings showcased a vintage baby shoe she had transformed into an adorable work of art. She is selling the shoe in her Etsy shop. She made a suggestion in her post about how the shoe would make a wonderful gift for baby's 1st Christmas. I really loved the shoe and the idea and I had a good reason to make two. We had two births in our family this year. A new grandson was born in March and a great granddaughter was born in May.

I began the quest to find the shoes. Unfortunately I could not find vintage shoes. I did find a more modern pair of white baby shoes at the Goodwill and decided they would be a perfect weight for a tree ornament. While my shoes look nothing like Cindy's shoe, her shoe was the source of inspiration. Thank you Cindy.


I love the way they turned out. I hope the babies will enjoy hanging them on their Christmas trees for years to come.

If you could use more inspiration you might want to read Cindy's new book Mixed Media Art: Living Your Passion and I know you would enjoy taking her free seminar "Launch Your Creativity." To find out more click on the link above or click on the links on my sidebar.

I'm linking this to more inspirational sites:

White Wednesday

Show and Tell Friday

Pink Saturday

Deck The Halls ~ Pink Saturday December 3, 2011

The tree is up and decorated with our favorite ornaments. Here are just a few, the  glass ball above, is Baby's first Christmas from 1975. The wooden figures below, Popeye The Sailor Man and Little Red Riding Hood from long ago (they are from my DH's childhood). And my pink glass humming birds.

Wishing you a Happy Pink Saturday! I'm linking this to Pink Saturday with Beverly at How Sweet The Sound. Please stop by to visit her, click here.

Food, Favors and Decorations ~ Thanksgiving ~ Pink Saturday 11/26/11

Thanksgiving Day!

Over the river and through the woods to my brother's house we go...

Our family traditionally has pot-luck style holiday celebrations. Everyone brings a dish. My brother and his wife hosted Thanksgiving dinner again this year for 12 family members.  We took an apple pie, a pumpkin pie, potato filling, napkin rings, and cornucopia favors. Here are some photos of the pies, napkin rings and the cornucopias.

I used scrapbook designer papers to make the cornucopias. A few faux autumn leaves and a pheasant feather are hot glued to the top of each cone. I punched holes in the sides and added a jute cord hanger. They are filled with gold wrapped chocolates and pistachio nuts.

The napkin rings were made with craft paper. I inked the back of a real leaf and rubbed it onto the craft paper. I applied a coat of Mod Podge to the print. I cut out the shape, punched two holes in the center area of the leaf and added a ribbon to hold the napkin.

We spent the day feasting on delicious food, watching the parades on TV, having family fun, and thanking God for the abundance in our life.

I'm also tthankful for Beverly our Pink Saturday Hostess. Please click here to visit her and some other PS participants.

Now the preparations for Christmas begin!

Thankful For Friends continued... and Deck The Halls Sunday

My Pink Saturday post was going to be much longer but due to either our poor internet connection or my old computer I wasn't able to complete the entire post. Hopefully I will not have any problems today. I'm going to link this new post up with Terri's "Deck The Halls Sunday" blog party at Artful Affirmations. Click here to visit Terri.

My PS post is about a dear friend who lives close by and how she helped us recently. I also wanted to share in that post why I am thankful for several sweet friends who live far away as well. I am thankful for the following ladies because they cheer me on and inspire me with their awesome creativity. Below is the result of their latest inspiration.

Cindy Adkins from Whimsical Musings, one very special dear friend, recently shared one of her tutorials (here) on how to make a Victorian Christmas ornament book. She used images for her book from one of June's collections at Dezinaworld for the pages. June is another one of those sweet far away friends. Visit June here.

I borrowed Cindy's idea for the book and then added my own idea of including pages of Christmas Carols. I used the collection set from Dezinaworld called "Christmas Joy" for the image pages. I created the carol pages using a sheet called "Musical 1" from Dezinaworld for the background of the song lyrics. I selected the carols based on what I felt the images were portraying.

I am also thankful for Terri from Art Affirmations. She is a sweet lady who shares so many wonderful video tutorials on projects and techniques. Click on the link at the top of this post to visit Terri.

Thankful For Friends Near And Afar ~ Pink Saturday November 19, 2011

I'm very thankful for my good friend, Dolores, and her family. During our recent 5 day power outage (no elelctric or heat) they invited us to stay in their home. When Dolores invited us she also included an invitation to bring my love bird, Peaches. They already had a bird and 3 cats. Here are photos of River enjoying the company of Peaches. I think Peaches was so happy about being warm she didn't mind him nosing up to her cage at all.

Thank you Veterans ~ 11/11/11 and Happy Pink Saturday ~ 11/12/11

Friday, November 11, 2011 is Veterans Day.

I want to thank all of the men and women who served in our armed forces I am truly grateful to you for my freedom. God bless you all.

For my recent birthday I requested a Lucky Treasure Bag from Dezinaworld. My lovely daughter granted my wish. It was so fun to open. All the little packages were wrapped in reusable papers and ribbons. Each one held treasures of lace, fabric scraps, buttons, beads, a lovely pink feather, a lavender sachet, ephemera and more. If you would like to know more about these lucky treasure bags click here to visit June at Dezinaworld.

If you haven't already please stop by How Sweet The Sound to say hello to Beverly our lovely Pink Saturday hostess

So Happy Autumn Is Back! ~ Pink Saturday November 5, 2011

My Pink Saturday fun ended at 11:00 am last Saturday morning when Mother Nature decided to participate in Halloween. She gave us an October snowstorm, a definite trick and not at all a treat! The heavy wet snow brought down a lot of trees and electric lines. By Sunday afternoon we decided it was too cold and we wanted a warm cup of tea or hot chocolate and needed to leave. But before we could do that we had to shovel a pathway to the cars and remove the snow from the cars. Then we needed someone to cut up and move the trees that had fallen in our driveway and we needed someone to remove the snow as well. (We live on a wooded lot with a 100 ft. long stone/gravel driveway.) Luckily by the time our driveway was clear enough to get the car down the roads had been plowed and the tree debris was pushed to the sides of the roads. We stayed in a hotel for a few nights then we stayed with friends.

Wednesday afternoon the electric was restored to our home and we were so glad to come home. There is much to catch up on and there is a lot of cleaning up to do outside. I am so grateful we were safe and that the trees did not fall on our cars or our house. I am also so grateful and thankful for wonderful friends.

Thanks to all who visited me last week and left comments. I did try to get back to everyone but if I missed you please forgive me.

Stop by How Sweet The Sound to say hello to Beverly and visit some of the other P.S. participants.

One good thing about last weekend was this lovely birthday collage my friend Cindy made for me. Click here to visit Cindy at the Shabby Chic Gilrs Club. Thank you again sweet Cindy Lou!

Enjoy Autumn!

Happy Pink Halloween Saturday ~ October 29, 2011

Happy Pink Saturday and Happy Halloween!

Hope you enjoy our haunted house display and two of our favorite little witches with cute pink cheeks.

For more Halloween and Pink Saturday treats please hop over to How Sweet The Sound to visit our hostess Beverly. Click here!