Bye Bye Baby

Yesterday sucked.
This sweet kitty came to live with us in late July. He was a skinny little thing that Larry rescued while he was at our storage unit that we have for our business. He had been orphaned, and was in desperate need of food and medical attention. To be honest, we didn't even name him for the first few weeks we had him, because we weren't sure he would live. We (Larry) took him to the vet and got some worm medicine and I nursed him back to health. We named him Baby because his "Meow" sounded like a baby crying.
He was spunky! Our routine was he would come to the back door and cry until I would let him in. He would go directly to the tote that I kept his food in, and then climb in as soon as I opened it. He would start munching while I would fix his bowl. He didn't show up yesterday. And Larry found him on his way to work.
And I can't talk about it anymore.


RIP sweet Baby

Tuesday Treats: Treasured Memories

When my Grandma passed away (several years ago) I was very blessed to receive a collection of her cook books and recipe cards. Grandma loved to cook! She would plan for months what she was going to make for our family Christmas dinner, or the Church potluck, even coffee with her girlfriends. She collected recipes everywhere she went. You can see in the picture below that she made some notes on the cover of one of these cook books. If she really like a recipe, she made notes "try", "dough a little too soft, add more flour", "too much". It has been fun reading through these old books, and remembering occasions when we were all together. Eating was always a big part of our gatherings!

Here is one of my favorite cookie recipes. You'll need a cookie press, we always used the star design. We found it much easier to get cookies all the same size if we teamed up! One person would work the cookie press, and the other cut the dough and formed the "wreath"! The recipe calls for butter or margarine, but don't you dare use margarine! Butter is really the ONLY option here.

Spritz Cookies

Cream one cup of butter or margarine, 2/3 cup sugar together. Add yolks of three eggs and 1 teaspoon almond flavoring. Add 2 cups of sifted flour. (add 1/2 cup more flour if butter is used)

Bake at 350 degrees until lightly browned

LAZY Weekend...

What a lazy weekend we had! Saturday was cold and wet. My Prince built a fire and we just hung around the house playing with our Christmas loot! He got a new video game, and spent hours fighting battles and blowing stuff up. Whatever!
I spent hours sorting shapes and building pretty pictures! I love puzzles!! And I put three of them together this weekend. And no, I didn't do anything else!
Happy Monday!

The Meaning of the Candy Cane

My Mom and I went to a Christmas "Mugs and Muffins" at church and they had this as a party favor for everyone. I have not seen this message before, so I wanted to share it with you!

The Meaning of the Candy Cane

Hard Candy

Reminds us that Jesus is like a "rock", strong and dependable

Read Psalm 31:3

Peppermint Flavor

Is like the gift of spices from the wisemen.

Read Matthew 2:11

White Candy

Stands for Jesus as the holy, sinless Son of God.

Read John 1:7

Cane

Is like a staff used by shepherds caring for sheep. Jesus is our "Good Shepherd"

Read John 10:1-18, 27-30

The Letter "J"

Is for the name of Jesus, our Savior.

Read Matthew 1:21

The Color Red

Is for God's love that sent Jesus, and Jesus' love in giving His life for us on the cross.

Read John 3:16 and Revelation 1:5

The Stripes

Remind us of Jesus' suffering-His crown of thorns, the wounds in His hands and feet, and the cross on which he died.

Read John 19:1-30

I hope you get a Blessing out of this! Merry Christmas!!

A little more Christmas Tour

I left out a few rooms in my last post, and I thought I may as well share them with you now! Besides, I don't know what else to type about!! I've just been busy wrapping gifts and buying groceries - you know, the boring stuff that has to be done to make the Holiday magically "happen"!

This is our Laundry Room/Fish bathroom. It is decorated with pictures from cruises we've been on. For Christmas it is decked out with some fun snowmen and Teddy Bears. After Christmas a big change is coming to this room! SHH! Larry doesn't know yet...

Here's the bay window in the kitchen. Not a huge change from my BountiFall window, just added some more blue, silver and white - because I love those colors together!

A little closer view...

On to my Dining Room. I put this centerpiece together by using a pretty platter and left over scraps from old arrangements I took apart! Added a few votive candles, and wa lah! a centerpiece.

I love these "winter" dishes! My parents gave them to me for Christmas a few years ago. I have a "thing" with pretty dishes! I liked this pattern because I felt like I could use them all winter, instead of just at Christmas. (I'm totally trying to justify my obsession here, work with me!) My brother and Sister-in-law got me the beautiful silver chargers and the drinking glasses - aren't they cute?! I like to set the table so I can admire all my pretty things.

This is the guest bath all dressed up for winter. It's normally white, with blue and yellow.

More snowmen! I use my Sandi Gore Evans collection in here. They are so fun!

Merry Christmas from our little family to yours!

Christmas Tour

My intention was to join in the fun over at BooMama's Christmas Tour of Homes yesterday, but that didn't happen! And now, with over 700 people participating in the fun, I decided I might just as well, because people will be touring homes for DAYS! Go! Check it out! AFTER you look at all my pretties!

Welcome to our home! This is what you will see as you come in the front door. I love Nativity scenes. It is the Reason for the Season!
The Holy Family

Turn to your right, let's go to the Living room. Another Nativity, a little "fancier" version.

A close up of some of the ornaments on our tree. There are two Turtle Doves we found in Branson last week. My favorite color is Blue, and this is the third year that I have done this theme. I Love it! The ornaments are clear, blue, silver and a few touches of gold. Snowmen are a favorite of ours, and you will see several cute ones on our tree.

Isn't this cross pretty? There are lot's of one-of-a-kind finds on our tree too!

It's not a great big tree, but I think it is beautiful!

Let me take you out to the Family Room. This is our Toyland. Here is our Rudolph Collection we started a few years ago. We started with the little Enesco figurines, and we can't find them anymore. Last year while we were doing our anniversary shopping extravaganza, we spotted the Jim Shore figurines and nearly flipped out right there in the store. I love that the carvings are quilt patterns, Larry loves that they are Rudolph! I have them in our TV cabinet for now, most of the time they are in my curio cabinet for safe-keeping.

The rest of the story...

I have really struggled with this garland. I saw this post on NestingPlace and was totally inspired! I was going to create the most beautiful garland. EVER. And I did. And then this happened. We put bigger hooks up and it appeared all was well. It crashed again. My friend loaned me these awesome brick clips, but the mantle was created by laying a row of bricks straight across, and the bricks are just a little taller than the clips she had. Long story to say I scrapped the whole deer-antler garland because they are just too heavy and bought fake berries and stuck in instead. It's okay. I'll be fine. Really.

My collection of Santas greet you when you enter the Family room.

Let's look in our bedroom! Remember when I showed you how to make this? For Christmas we found these cool glittery leaves and "berries" in gold and bronze. Larry actually spotted them first, and we both thought they would look very cool with the copper. I like how it turned out.

I found this guy at The Nester's Etsy shop. LOVED him! Ignore the phone please! He looks really nice hanging from the switch on this lamp beside the bed.

LOVED him so much I got him too! I didn't want to leave Larry out! This guy is HUGE! He's as tall as the lamp. Don't those Tums look nice...
Our tour is almost over for now. This is the other corner of our room.

I hope you enjoyed the tour! Hopefully I will get organized enough to join in on BooMama's fun ON TIME next year!

Merry Christmas!

Anniversary Extravaganza!

WARNING!! LONG POST!!
Okay, let me start by apologizing again for the lack of posting. I've been a little busy and I have had to put some things on the back burner. (namely, The Blog!) December is always a crazy month for us! With Thanksgiving coming so late this year, it kind of through a wrench in my decorating schedule. I just can't seem to find enough hours in the day anymore.

Last week my Handsome Prince and I went to Branson, Missouri to celebrate our Silver Wedding Anniversary. We had a fabulous time! This little trip has sort of become a tradition for us, because it a short drive from home, and with our anniversary being so close to Christmas we usually finish up any shopping we have. This time we wanted to stay someplace a little more special, so we decided on a condo at Thousand Hills. We were VERY pleased with the accommodations! A nice, clean little house with a kitchenette (okay a fridge, coffee pot and a microwave, but everything we needed!) a King size bed and there was even a Jacuzzi tub. I was really impressed that they even had it all decorated with TWO Christmas trees, garland and candle rings. We had a tree in the bedroom, and in the living area!

Sunday night we went to the old part of downtown Branson and watched their Adoration parade. What fun! It was really cold, but we got there early enough that we were able to get a seat on some bleachers they provided, fairly close to the start of the parade route. It has been so long since I've seen a parade, and we both really enjoyed it. They had 16 bands, and too many floats to count. We saw one float that was just dogs with Santa hats - CUTE! And there were longhorns from the Dixie Stampede!

When the parade was over, we went to The Shepherd of the Hills and drove through their Trail of Lights. If you ever have the opportunity to do this - GO! It took us over an hour to drive through this and it was AWESOME! I got a few pictures, but all were taken from inside the truck since you aren't allowed to get out (Safety reasons, didn't want to get ran over!) They have hundreds of these little "windows" with really cute themes.
Larry and I were trying to figure out how many MILLIONS of lights they had strung, and how many man hours it would have taken. Words just can't even describe how pretty it was! Can you tell we like Christmas lights? There were MANY ooh's and aah's! One of the trails...
I leaned out the truck window for this one of the mill...

We could see this church as we were coming up the hill toward the Inspiration Tower, but I thought I would have a better photo op when we were closer. The only problem is when we got closer, we were heading down a hill around a curve. You can still tell it was pretty!

When we finished at the Shepherd of the Hills, we went to another light display that is just off of the Shepherd of the Hills Expressway. I think it is called the Trail of Lights too. It is not as big of a display as the Shepherd of the Hills, but it was bigger this year, and they are adding more lights next year too. One of the highlights of this display for me is the Twelve days of Christmas. I wasn't able to get a picture, because it's too big! I love watching the Ten Lords a'Leaping! Here are a few of the pictures I did get...

I tried really hard to get the whole word, but the car behind us was impatient. I don't get that?! Why would you go to look at lights, PAY to drive through, and then PASS US because we were LOOKING!?

I just LOVE Christmas lights!

Monday and Tuesday we spent shopping during the day. Monday night we went to see the Christmas show at the Dixie Stampede. LOVE this show! Their live Nativity gives me goosebumps EVERY time. Tuesday night we went to the Andy Williams show. It was good, but I can't say it was the best show we've ever seen. He still has a very good voice, there just was a lot of "fill in" chatter that wasn't all that funny. And he seemed to really need his teleprompter.

Wednesday, December 10th was our official 25th Anniversary. We woke up to snowy/icy mix on the roads in Branson, so we decided to head home. We went, we saw, we shopped. We broke!

Merry Christmas from in front of the fountain and tree at Branson Landing!

Your Suggestions, Please!

I woke up this morning and wandered out to the family room in need of my caffeine fix to see this. Evidently, the Command strips don't like the book case either. Anyone have any suggestions for something to use on this skinny excuse of a mantel that could hold a pretty hefty garland? It can't be permanent, since this is the "Man Room" and garland will only be tolerated until the day after Christmas. Even if this is well on it's way to being one of the COOLEST Garlands. EVER.

I told ya'll he had a collection of antlers. Yesterday morning I awoke at 3 AM with this brainstorm of how I could use them! I just used the "branch" to wrap around the antler and it stayed in place - for 24 hours, more or less.

So, I am in need of your help! This is way too cool of an idea to have to scrap because of a tiny detail in execution! Bring on the ideas!

Conversations with Randy

It's official ya'll - I'm a GROUPIE!!! Tonight my Handsome Prince and I headed to Walmart* after work to stand in line with a BUNCH of other, ahem, old folks.

Randy Owen, the lead singer of Alabama, has released a new solo album and a new book. He was at Walmart* to sign copies of them, and since we have had many a good time listening to his music, we were THERE! Here is my Handsome Prince being a good sport about having his picture taken IN WALMART. He's been told a time or two that he kind of looks like Randy! See all those people in line behind us? We were very excited that we got there when we did. I went right to the books and got one, and then to the CD's while Larry got in line and held our place. People were lined up the full length of the aisle, all the way back to the shoe department and winding back towards the fabric department.

Here he comes! You can barely see his head above the "Unbeatable" sign. Look right below the sign that says "picture" beside the SmartStyle sign. We were only that far back in line.

It was finally our turn! I actually went ahead of Larry, so I could get his picture with Randy. I can call him by his first name now, because we became BFF's tonight. Here's how the conversation went:

Me: Hi Randy! It's great to see you again!

Randy Owen: It's great to see you to! (He remembers me!!)

Me: I really want to Thank You for providing my Husband and I with some great entertainment over the years.

RO: Really? When did you get married?

Me: On the 10th of this month it will be 25 years.

RO: Wow! Isn't that the Silver Anniversary?

Me: Yes it is

RO: What are you going to do? Anything special?

Me: We are going to Branson, where we watched you perform many times over the years.

RO: That isn't very far, is it?

Me: No, a couple of hours.

RO: How far away is Mountain Home?

Me: A couple of hours.

RO: I have a friend there. Used to be a turkey farmer.

He's done signing my CD now, and the big burly body guards are kind of looking at me like I should move on. I'm wanting to be sure he is done talking about his friend the turkey farmer from Mountain Home. When I decided he was...

Me: Thank You! You have a Merry Christmas Randy!

RO: Thank You, you do the same.

Larry got to wish him a Happy Birthday. (It's the 13th of December, for all you Non-Groupies out there)

I took this one when we were able to wade through the sea of people that decided NOT to wait in line, but just stand there in the way so that all of us that WAITED OUR TURN couldn't get a good photo.

Here's our loot!

Born Country book - $17.96

One on One CD - $9.00

Standing in line for over an hour for a conversation with Randy - PRICELESS

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I got a good start on the decorating this weekend, but still have a LONG way to go. I wanted to show you a few things I have done, and some of my favorite decorations. Mr. and Mrs Claus are salt and pepper shakers that my Mom passed down to me. They sit on the cutest little green wooden bench. Rudolph is as old, if not older than me.

This is the Santa that I told about in my last post. His sleigh folds flat to store. All those little gifts are old perfume and jewelry boxes. I have to update the paper every few years because it tends to fade.

I'm still working on the garland. I was inspired by Nester's post and after much consideration about how to get it to stay up, we stuck some of those removable Command hooks to the bookcase because they do not want to work on the brick. I want to get some battery operated lights for it, because there is no where to plug it in.

Mr. Snowman is chillin' in his chair...

The coffee table in our Family Room. The antlers are just a few of Larry's souvenirs. He can tell you a story about each of them. I like how they look with the pine cone wreath and the leather.

That's it for the little tour, for now! I'm watching some football (GO VIKES!) and enjoying the Christmas music I chose for my playlist. I hope you have a great Monday!

Let the Decorating begin!

I can't believe I am showing ya'll this, but it is TIME TO DECORATE!!! Yes, it is finally time for me to dig in to this MASSIVE amount of Christmas decorations. Have I mentioned that I LOVE CHRISTMAS? This closet is obviously overflowing, but in my defense, some of these totes are there to put the fall/everyday decorations away. The turkey has been cooked and enjoyed, the family has been here and hugged and the dishes have been washed and for the most part, put away. So IT IS TIME! I get to unpack all the treasures that I look forward to every year. There's the Santa that I can remember sitting on top of our TV for as far back as I can remember (I think I was 4, maybe 5 years old - a LONG time ago!). His boot has a little chip in the front now, acquired somewhere over the years. There are snowmen. People, there are SNOWMEN! Larry and I have many collections, and EVERY room will be decked out. A few years ago we started collecting Rudolph figurines. This summer when we were in Branson, we found these three prizes. We really are just kids in an adult size package!

I'm off to tackle that mountain, be back with pictures soon!