Be safe on New Year's Eve

Have a safe - and fun - evening!

Hand-crafted gift

My daughter's friend, Tiffany, came by our house on Christmas Day and had waffles with us.  It was so nice to see her - seems like forever.  Kimberly and Tiffany have known each other since junior high, maybe?  I think that's when they met.  Anyway, Tiffany brought me a beautiful, unique gift...

She took two serving spoons and wrapped beads around the handles - so unique and beautiful.  I love that Tiffany took the time to make these.  They are really a special gift.  She gets her talent honestly - from her mother.

Here's a closer look.  I am excited to use them.  I am sure they will make great conversation pieces.
Thanks, Tiff!

Christmas breakfast...

I have been wanting to make - for a very long time - waffles with Dutch Honey Syrup.  I finally did it on Christmas morning.  It is a carmal-ly kind of syrup that my mother used to make all the time.  The waffles don't look that impressive, but they tasted great.  Hey - no one turned me down.

Mmmmmmm!  It was good.

Merry Christmas from me to all of you!

Happy 2012!

Spirit of Christmas AND helping a stuck Santa!

At Kate's school, there is a corporation - and I'm sorry, but I don't know the name - that sponsors the school at Christmas time.  I think what they do is buy a gift for each child at the school.  Each child gets the same gift and it changes from year to year.  This year the gift was a bicycle.  This photo is so amazing to me and definitely shows the spirit of Christmas:

They are lined up in the gym just waiting for the kids to take them home.  Love it!
Yestereday I told you I would let you know what to do if Santa got stuck in your chimney?  Well, here are the answers you might be looking for:

 Call Ms. Bradsher for help - yep, she might be able to come up with a solution.

 Hmmmm.  Not sure what this one is, but I'm sure it is a good plan.

 Tickle him - yes, that might work.

Finally, Francisco would push him down [the chimney]. 

Happy Christmas Eve! 

Hope tomorrow is a wonderful day for you and your families.

Application to be Santa's Elf

You all probably know that one of my daughters is a first-grade teacher. I just love going to her class and interacting with the little people.  They are so darn cute.  Kate always incorporates art activities into her class projects.  One she did this year was having her students apply to be one of Santa's elves...

Maria would make a good elf because she helps her mom - a great attitude to have. 

 

 Emanuel believes he would be a good elf because he could get the reindeer.

And Abel would make a good elf because he wants to live at the North pole. 

I love the pictures they drew of themselves.

The kids also learned about graphs while eating gingerbread cookies...

Evidently the majority of people eat the head of a gingerbread first!

The reason I went to Kate's class this week was to share the cookies from our cookie exchange.

My contribution were Magic Bars - they turned out so good this year. 

 The assortment of cookies

And Kate's class holding up their cookies before they took a bite. 

Check tomorrow's blog for what to do if Santa gets stuck in your chimney!

I miss when my girls were little and -

I could entertain them by driving around looking at Christmas lights.  They are not so easily entertained today.  However, the other day Kimmy helped me take a load of stuff to the "new" townhouse and I was telling her how  I missed looking at Christmas lights - so we did it!  I took some pictures with my phone, and of course, they are not great, but here they are anyway:

I just love holiday lights -

and sharing them with someone!

All weekend and yesterday...

I was MOVING!  I am now in my new place - and loving it!  Sadly, I am not unpacked, of course.  My kitchen is almost done, and the living room looks pretty good, but I have a long way to go.
I am wondering, would you say it is hopeless?

Here they are moving the scrap box - it doesn't look that big in this photo, but it is the size of a big refrigerator.  I had the same company (and I requested Jerry and Jacob) move me.  They didn't think the scrap box looked as big this time.  Pretty funny.

The first photo is the new craft room - and stuff is just crammed in there!  My landlord came over to look at the disposal, and I told him not to be scared of that room when he sees it.  I can't imagine what he thought.

This is the second bedroom - full of more stuff.  Next step is to weed some [a lot] of that stuff out.

And the living room - dark picture because I am literally standing in the dark taking the photo.
Some of you are probably saying "didn't she just move?"  Yes, I did - 7 months ago.  But you probably also know the story of the scorpions?  Well, I decided not to fight them and instead made the decision to leave them behind.  As beautiful as that house was, I just would never be comfortable there.
I just wanted to share a little bit of my world with you.  My goal today?  Make it through the cookie exchange and keep on moving more stuff.

My Home Town - Columbus, Indiana

I was on Facebook, going through photos, and one of my friends had multiple photos of my hometown.  Columbus, Indiana is a small town (about 35,000 to 40,000) in southern Indiana.  I have such great memories of growing up and of that town.  It was a great place to raise a family.  Sometimes, I am sad that no one in my family lives there anymore.  I really would like to go back and visit - it's been way too long.  Anyway, these photos are of Columbus generally during the '50s, and maybe later.

This is the downtown area about 1958 - I was just a baby, but I can definitely remember this street because it looked like this for years.

My oldest sister, Susan, worked at the A&W Rootbeer stand.  We LOVED going there and getting a rootbeer in a baby mug.  I bet my parents gave her a big tip.  :)

This was the only theater in town (until my high school years).  The old Crump theater.  I saw many great movies at this theater.

Before McDonalds, there was The Red Barn.  Best place to get a burger and you could walk there during our lunch period.

A great walk down memory lane - thanks for letting me share.

Candy Cane Ornaments

These are the cutest Candy Cane Sleeves (ornaments).

They really are so cute - these were given as a gift to two ladies I work with.  I put them together and hung them from my name plate for the photo... and they are still there.  :)

Man, that was fast!

It seems like I was making the cards for November's card exchange just last week.  Well, our exchange is this Sunday and I just finished my cards tonight.  The theme this month was "masculine" or as I like to say "manly."  I have a lot on my plate right now, so I went with a very simple design...

I used a combination of Kaisercraft paper and American Crafts.  The orange prints and brown overtones almost give me a tropical/African feel... and I'm lovin' it.

Whew Hew!  All done!

You guessed it - It's Friendsday Wednesday

I love Pinterest!  I hope that when things settle down, I can do more than pin photos, recipes, etc.  I want to try some of the recipes I found.  I want to make some of the crafts I have seen.  Until then, I will keep pinning.  I found a blog:  A Whisk and a Prayer.  Mmmm.  The photos make your mouth water.  I especially love mac 'n cheese.  This photo caught my eye...

... and my stomach.  Totally looks like comfort food.  Check out her blog.  I think you will be amazed.

Sunday was class day

My last card class at Paper Vineyard was Sunday at 1:00.  It was a quiet group, but I got them talking and we had a good time, as usual --

Kits are being cut...

 The tables are set...

 Debbie

 and her friend, Syd.  Linda (in yellow)...

 Colleen

 and Valerie.

Wait - we had a visitor - Miss Lois.

sporting her very cool hat (LOVE that flower!)

It was a fun day.  One more class to go.

Spirit of Christmas

I decided this holiday season I would try to snap photos - sometimes you gotta be fast about it - of things or happenings that represent the Spirit of Christmas.
My first photo op was while I was driving home one day this week. I was pulling into traffic when I saw a beautifully refurbished VW van with lights across the grill and snowflake lights hanging around the sides and back.  It went right past me.  I tried to get in front of it, but couldn't do it.  So here's my first photo of this series...

You may need to click on the photo to make it bigger so that you can see the snowflakes better.  I'd say this driver has the Spirit of Christmas.

I absolutely love [most] everything weird and unusual...

I also have an account on pinterest and while viewing photos one evening, I came across these:

It is a treehouse built in Brooklyn.  It is so shabby chic and I absolutely love it - I want one, too!  What a beautiful retreat.  You can see more pics and read the story behind this treehouse at The Nautical Wheeler blog.  The link to her entry about the treehouse is:
photoshttp://thenauticalwheeler.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/a-tree-house-in-brooklyn/

Enjoy!

Jean For Hire

I have done a few books for co-workers and the latest one I did was for a Mud Run.  Here are photos of a few of the pages...

I painted the edges of a cardboard tag book, rather than distress them with ink.  Gave it that messy, mud look.

 I used a lot of flaps in this book, so there were multiple pictures.

Embellishments were kept light in order not to take away from the paper.  I used an old line by Cosmo Cricket and it worked out beautifully.

 More flaps and hidden pictures.

It was a lot of fun doing this book.  I loved how it all came together.

What's Your Image of Christmas?

Christmas has so many faces to it, don't you think?  I mean, there's the Nativity, Baby Jesus, Santa, trees, boots... the list goes on and on - and it is different for each of us.  Yes, there are common things we think of...

Ornaments of any kind - these happen to be like the ones my parents have.

Winter scenes - there's always snow at Christmas - except in Phoenix.  

And we can't forget good ole' St. Nicholas.

Oranges and nuts - Santa always left those in my stocking - quite different from today.  My girls would not know what to do with an orange and a handful of nuts.

The traditional Christmas dinner - what's your family's traditional dinner?

And the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

 Christmas candles are everywhere - in every room.

But the real reason for the season is the birth of Jesus Christ.
All of this makes me reflect back on my Christmases as a child, what traditions I chose to carry on, how all of this shaped me, and what Christmas means to me today, as compared to 5, 10, 20 years ago.    I guess I was just doing some heavy-duty thinking as we start into this holiday season.