My December Table

 I previously posted my deer and tree that I had planned to use on my December table centerpiece. Now that Thanksgiving is just a memory I put together my centerpiece.

I love these pictures as the sun was coming in on a beautiful winter afternoon. I am still so pleased with the white and glitter job I did on the deer and tree. Isn't it fun when you are just tickled about something?! Simple pleasures I guess.

Though I love decorating the table I am not so much on the cooking. I was thinking today how much I dislike the whole process...the grocery shopping, the cooking, and the cleaning it up. If I had my way we would spend December eating take out at this table leaving me time to create Christmas gifts!

Oh well...in my dreams...

A Pet Parade!

My blogging friend, Bunny Jean, is having a pet parade for the whole month of December! 

I am really excited about it because we are big animal lovers here..and my daughter especially spoils her little ones to no end (they have their own bedroom!) and I would love for her and I to meet other pet lovers.

You can show your pets dressed up for the holidays or just any adorable pictures you have of them. I think stories of funny things they have done and stuff would be fun too. There is a link on the upper right hand side of my blog..just click on the picture to join in at Bunny Jean's blog.

Lacie, Bunny FuFu, and Bella are ready to party!

I am glad Bunny Jean is doing it all month..it will take me me awhile to try and take some pictures half as cute as what Janae takes of hers! I am beginning to believe she should be a pet photographer. 

Please let any of your pet loving bloggers know about this. I have been having a hard time finding parties like this!

Grandma's Santa Painting

Several years ago we had a flood in the basement of our old house (due to a water heater malfunction) and thank goodness I was able to rescue this painting my Grandma did of Santa. The board he was painted on all swelled up and one corner broke off but I did my best to try to "fix" him.

I glued the piece back on and with a little white paint and glitter tried to make it look like a icy break. Then since I string beads over practically the whole house, I strung some beads on Santa's portrait too. He is a little warped--but I am so happy that I still am able to display him. It is my favorite picture of Santa, and even better that my Grandma painted it!

Everyone who visits my blog knows I am not big on traditional holiday colors. But I did make this little bookcase area to house the Santa and my musical Christmas dolls. I used to have a large doll collection and before moving I sold them all..except a select few. I had to keep these two because the kids love them and they bring back memories of Christmas' past.

In closing I will show you our tree...

 

 Isn't she a beauty?!

I picked this up from 3 men (tree farmers I'm guessing-but maybe wise men?) that had a nice fire going and it was so peaceful to stop by their Christmas tree display. The kids are past the age of wanting to go out and cut one so this is the route I went. Maybe next year things will be less hectic and we'll have time to go cut the tree ourselves..but who am I kidding? Probably not.:) The guys wanted $40 (and my budget was $30)..so after saying I would go over budget to $35 he said he would take $30. Nice guy. My Mom thought that was so expensive but I have been looking at all the stands and I know that's the best price I could get on a 8 ft Noble at this time of year. Coming from the background of owning a business for over 20 years I have to stay within my small budget but I also always want to be fair to the person trying to make a living! I strongly believe that corporations aren't the only ones greedy in this society. I love a good deal..but also believe in being fair.

Just wondering..what does a fresh cut tree cost in your area?

Well this is the last time you'll see this tree naked...stay tuned for our fully dressed Christmas tree coming soon!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, Jerry is in bed. The boys are in front of the TV, Wyatt's playing a video game and Gage is watching. The girls are at Walmart at the Black Friday sale. I am sitting here at the computer reflecting on how long it will take me to do all the dishes. All is how it should be. It has been a Happy Thanksgiving!

 These pictures were taken before it all began. We were having a small thanksgiving this year--just my best friend Eileen and her son, and her fiancee who happens to be my brother in law, and our own family of course.  I was able to scoot a small table up to the larger table so the kids didn't have to be separated from "the big kids" because face it we are all kids at heart.  Eileen laughed at me with notes in the bowls for what goes where--but she's younger than me, she doesn't know what it is like to be older and forgetful. I would forget to make the stuffing or something if I didn't have a list to remind myself!

I rarely let a picture of myself be taken (because I feel younger than I look and I always think, who is that old woman?!) but Mom took this picture of my sister Wendy, myself and Eileen, when we brought my fattening mashed potatoes to my parents house for their dinner. It has become a tradition that I bring them mashed potatoes every year.

At one point I had to count--if there were more people or more dogs at our thankful celebration. Do you think we are dog lovers?!  Pictured here are Brooklynn, Dafney, Duke, Lacie, Daisy and Bella.  There did end up being more people--6 dogs and 9 people. These are a bunch of spoiled puppy dogs that is for sure! They were all perfect angels (I was kind of surprised!).

Then we began to fill the table with food.

Eileen made this Martha Stewart Mac and Cheese. I wanted to eat the whole thing! She let me keep the leftovers--it may be my favorite food ever.

Eileen even wrote down what this is called for me but I can't find where I put it! It is a sweet potato dish a little bit spicy with bacon on top. Delicious! Edited: Eileen told me where she wrote it--its called Smoky Chipotie Sweet potato Souffle--doesn't it even sound delicious?!

Janae made delicious deviled eggs!

Jerry smoked the turkey on the Traeger.  So good!

These are what our family calls "Aunt Eva's Rolls " They are a recipe from my Great Aunt Eva--who I never met, but they are a family tradition--we have them every holiday!  I think I'll go have another one right now...

 As you can see, my brother in law, Scott is a big Dallas Cowboys fan.

Bella wanted me to set a place setting for her!

After going through the ads the girls took off for Walmart just a couple blocks away. It is a huge Walmart with a even larger parking lot. Janae called me minutes after leaving and said she was coming home and wanted me to drive them back there and come pick them up later because there was no parking spot left. Sure enough--I dropped them off and it took me awhile just to get out of the parking lot. It has been a couple hours and they haven't called me to pick them up yet. Shopping insanity!
Edited to add this picture Janae sent me from her cell phone...

Tomorrow we go have a another thanksgiving meal at my Mother in laws house..more eating, but this time no work for me! Thanks for visiting my Thanksgiving post and hopefully everyone's Thanksgiving day was as satisfying as ours!

Entryway Sitting Area

I recently found a chair at Goodwill that I really like. I got it for 9.99 and I always need extra chairs so I was happy. I decided to use it in the entryway as a place for people to sit and take off their shoes. (yes, I am one of THOSE people who has light colored carpet and asks everyone to take off their shoes) I like this chair because of the cane back and the highness of the back.

This is what it looked like after I was done. I decided to paint it with a handmade blue chalk paint. Took me forever to get the color right but I am happy with it. The velvet on the seat is a antique french damask. (it is a reproduction I'm sure)

This is what it looked like when I got it. It is from Broyhill furniture and has a date of 1929. It had several layers of covers on it--which I left because it just makes it more interesting to the next person who re-does it! Of course who would ever want to change what I did? LOL

Nate is always saying to frame fabric as a piece of art. I like this but since it has convex glass I want to add like an antique brooch, and maybe some old lace. I am so happy with how this little area turned out!

I am taking a break from making Thanksgiving dinner to do this post..so better get back to it. Happy Thanksgiving to all..I am so thankful for the fun that my blog has created for me and the awesome people I have met!

Fire at Prime Time

I was so sad to hear at 4:00 am this morning that my favorite place to eat out was on fire. For many years this is my favorite place to have breakfast (the most wonderful California omelets in the world, in my world anyway!) This place is very near our new house. Before buying her house Janae lived in the apartments directly behind it. I was thinking  this summer it would be so fun for a special treat to walk there and have a Cobb salad and a cold beer. They make the best Long Island iced teas too!

You can see the apartments where Janae used to live in these pictures. Chantel thought I shouldn't blog about this because it is so sad. But I want to remember everything. This is a huge deal to our town. The owners are such nice people and hard workers and I hope they had really good insurance and will be able to rebuild soon. I feel so sorry for the people that work there--many of whom I know. Many nights you can't even find a parking spot at this place..and that is really saying something in this economy. I hope the employees are able to get a decent amount of unemployment until the place can be rebuilt. I haven't heard yet if it will be rebuilt..but I sure hope so!

I hope in the near future I can blog about the new Prime Time. I bet it will be awesome!

Edited to say: The evening news showed the owner, his voice cracked as he said he was "devastated" and that the holiday season is a big time of year for them and now it is a time they have to just spend starting over. The head chef was also interviewed..he said 52 people work there and depend on it to support their families. You could tell he was really devastated too. They have set up an account at a local bank to help the employees. So sad!

Transformation to White

I got this gold tree at Goodwill, my daughter had gotten the same tree a couple weeks before and I insisted she take it because I knew it would look so good in her "mantle top forest".(even though I think I liked it better than she did ) But secretly I really wanted it myself. So imagine my delight when I found it once again at my favorite store, Goodwill. Then later I found a beautiful deer to go with it at Thrift City for 90 cents!  When I got them they looked like this...

 As you can probably tell the deer is gold leafed. I almost left it as is because it was actually quite beautiful. But then I thought again and realized I only paid 90 cents for it so I didn't need to feel any guilt for "ruining" the pretty gold leafing.  So the transformation began and I couldn't be more happy--

I painted them white and then spray them with spray glue and sprinkled glitter all over them. I think they are so lovely! I was just thrilled when the paint cracked--it looks so beautiful.

I made a little riser for the tree to help with the scale between the two. I don't know why I love that tree so much--it is charming I think. I always wonder why some things really appeal to some people. These 2 are going to be part of my table centerpiece for December.

So I am starting to get a little stressed about everything I need to do for thanksgiving. I don't want to be that way so I am going to sit down, have a hot chocolate and make a list of what needs to be done--because that should help me not stress and just get it done. I had a nice telephone conversation with my Dad today and I hadn't talked to him for awhile so that was nice. That is the kind of thing that is important. Thanksgiving dinner being perfect is not that important. Sometimes I need to have a talk with my perfectionist side and remind myself of that.

How are your Christmas planning going? Anybody have their shopping/crafting done?

All I have to say is I think Santa Clause is coming to town way to soon...I'm not ready!

Gotta love Target!

I live minutes away from Walmart and so I haven't been to Target in quite awhile..because it is all the way to the next town (lol). So tonight Janae offered to drive us all to Target so we hopped in her car and went.

I have a huge heavy camera and so I borrowed Janae's phone and took these pictures of some of my favorite things I saw there.

I love Mercury glass--and I thought these were beautiful! They were $4 and $5 a piece. When you consider these are so timeless and could be passed down thru the generations I don't think that's too bad.

Chantel thought she would model this tinsel wreath on sale on $5.

Wyatt is the only one who actually had money to spend (besides Janae) but he's broke now! He spent his birthday money on this Lego Mariocart race track thing..$71.99! (that was on sale at 10% off) I made him think about it for about an hour before we checked out to make sure he wanted it. Seems like so much money to me. But it's only money..and it was his birthday gift money..and to see that smile on his face brought joy to my heart. I haven't seen Wyatt so tickled in a long time!

Sorry, I'm not good at focusing with Janae's phone, but these are so beautiful for .99 cents! I had to get myself  3 of these. They were just too pretty (and cheap!) to pass up on.

Again--Chantel models a hat that would match her room!

If this sweater was in my size I would  so want it. But of course it was Chantel's size and she is just way too cool to wear something like this.:)

Well, I always enjoy it when other people share their shopping trips so I hope you enjoyed our trip to Target. Now everyone can run out and buy those mercury glass tealight cups!