Merry Christmas to all

Merry Christmas to all my blog friends

"L" is for Lovely Lillian

It's been soooooo long since I participated in Alphabe-Thursday hosted by the wonderful Jenny Matlock. I finally decided to do something with the letter "L" because my granddaughter's name is Lillian. Of course all my photos will be of lovely baby Lillian.

This photo was taken on Lillian's first birthday in October.

She has such a lovely face and darling curls.

Needless to say she thoroughly enjoyed her cake!

Lillian's Christmas photo

This photo is of Lillian right after she "helped" decorate the tree!

Lillian is being coy and shy.

When I first saw this next photo, I thought that my daughter put a wig on Lillian!

However, this photo shows Lillian's hair after my daughter took it out of pigtails

(piggies)

Baby Lillian asleep in her daddy's arms.

Visit Jenny Matlock's blog to enjoy more wonderful blogs participating in Alphabe-Thursday.

Christmas things, quilts and trees...oh, my!

I'm finally (almost) finished with my Christmas decorating and its only taken me a week to put up everything. I still have to finish my dining room table and the kitchen table which is currently serving as my gift-wrapping area.

I've seen so many wonderful blogs with darling villages displayed that I thought I would try to put one together this year. Soooo I shopped after Christmas last year and I bought some houses at Joann's (pink church and white building). I also found some pieces at yard sales and estate sales. I was also lucky enough to find a whole bag of bottle brush trees for a $1.00 so I could include them in my village display. The following photos are the beginnings of a village that I hope will include "people" and other Christmas things next year.
I like the little bridge with the horse and buggy on it. The horse and buggy came from a movable display that I've had for a few years.

There is a horse and buggy in the following photo along with another one that can't be seen because it is moving behind the house in the background.


Here is the very beginning of my tablescape for Christmas. Everything in the photo was bought from a Craig's List ad or at a yard sale. The dishes are Paula Deen and I think they are so festive.
The vintage ornaments and the container they are in were bought at different yard sales. The entire box of vintage ornaments was a dollar as was the tinted glass container. The "golden" apples and pearpurchased at yard sales.s are sitting on a charger and they were all

My dining room hutch is adorned with festive garland that lights up along with two big Santas. The garland was found at an estate sale and the Santas were purchased from Dillard's after Christmas many years ago.My dolls consist of Apple Cheek dolls from Pic & Save (many, many years ago), Daisy Kingdom dolls, ballerinas from Dillard's (after Christmas), thrift store ballerinas, and some from Collections Inc., a mail-order catalog.

This pink tree is one of about 20 that I have in my house. Some trees are a few inches tall and the tree in our great room is 9 feet tall!!!!

Here is the 9 ft. tree with red and gold ornaments.

Here is a better view of the tree along with other Christmas delights.

Here are some of my Jim Shore Christmas items. Most everything was purchased at yard sales. The sleigh, the big Santa and the snowman were bought from a couple whose store was going out of business. The pieces were 75% off so I couldn't pass that up.

My entry table adorned with angels that I've had for years along with the candy-cane trees that I purchased after Christmas last year in Tucson.

Another photo of my new entry way table that was a Craig's List purchase.

This is a photo of a tree that still needs ornaments. It is in the guest bathroom.

Two little gold trees in the half bath or powder room as some people call it! Ignore the smudges on the mirror....I certainly have!

Of course the half bath toilet needed a tree too! Some of you might want to offer therapy right about now!

My mother passed away in August just 20 days shy of her 96th birthday so I'm more sentimental this year than ever before. These two trees are in her room decorated with all of her vintage ornaments and other things that she saved. Some of this stuff is older than I am so I already told my daughter to take extra care with everything when she gets the pieces.

My husband calls this tree the "Charlie Brown Christmas tree" because it resembles the poor spindly tree from the comic strip and television show. I recently bought it at Walmart because I still had an extra box of ornaments with some dating back to 1980 when my daughter was born. I have Hallmark ornaments and miscellaneous things on this tree. I taught school for a long time so I also have some darling ornaments from former students. My daughter bought me an ornament from Bloomingdale's one year...the one just to the left of the middle holding two bags that read "Born to shop". She knows me well.

Jim Shore angels sit on top of a curio cabinet in the hallway. The angel (cookie jar) on the left was part of the Craig's List purchase and the other two angels were gifts from my daughter. The purple tree and ornaments were from a yard sale.

This red and green wedding ring quilt was purchased at a yard sale along with another quilt. They were new in their original plastic cases so I bought both of them for $5.oo total!!!! The lady was moving and didn't want to keep anything that she absolutely didn't need. The dolls in the photo were made by my mother many years ago, and I put them out every Christmas.

This is the other quilt that I purchased. I think that this one has a bear paw or bear claw design. This one will go with us to our house in Tucson.

Needless to say, this next quilt is quite different from the previous quilts in this post. My father-in-law bought this while he was in Iowa a few months ago. I think that there was a huge Amish community near where he was visiting so he bought this wedding ring quilt made by hand by the Amish women. It is beautiful and it is on our bed.

The Amish quilt in all its glory!!!

Wishing you all the best for a Merry Christmas.

WOW! What a weekend!

My daughter and her family came to visit us from Tucson this Friday which turned out to be the beginning of a wonderful weekend. After all the hugs and kisses, we all settled in to watch my grandson play with his trains (I keep two sets at my house) and watch my granddaughter walk around nonstop going from one interesting item (toilet paper) to another (pots, pans, spatulas). The family was here to have their Christmas picture taken at a studio in Chandler, and to play a game of indoor simulated golf (that was for my daughter and son-in-law).

My husband and I accompanied everyone to the photo studio and we had a ball laughing and trying to pose the two kids for a decent picture. My grandson (almost 4) and my granddaughter (13 months) were troopers except that Lily was too curious about everything to sit still longer than a nano-second!

~~~This is just one photo of the two of them together~~~

I like the way Brandt is watching over his sister

Lily, of course, had to be entertained by all sorts of craziness going on off camera. This is just one of many pretty photos of baby Lily as she laughs at all of us.

Brandt is growing up so fast! He is such a delight who never misses a beat in communicating with adults. His humor and understanding of his environment are astounding for someone who isn't quite 4 years old yet.
After the photo shoot, we all went to dinner at Rigatony's in Tempe. The salad and warm seasoned bread are to die for. Of course the main entrees are delicious, too. The two kids were really tired by this time, but they still managed to hold it together for the most part.



The next morning my grandson was up at 5 AM and came into our bedroom saying, "It's so dark in here!" I mentioned something about turning the light on which was a mistake because he woke up the two dogs and my husband and that pretty much started our day. I got up and started getting ready to go to my garage sales (my Saturday morning ritual) while my son-in-law and husband drank coffee and decided on a breakfast menu. When I returned from my excursions, (another train in tow!) my kitchen was clean (compliments of my son-in-law) and the rest my house was in disarray (compliments of my grandchildren). My grandson was so thrilled to see the train that all he could say over and over again was ...."this is so cool!" After my daughter and son-in-law left for the golf game, we watched the kids. Brandt played with his train for hours and we hardly knew he was here, while Lily took every ounce of energy we had because she was here, there and everywhere. My house is not baby-proof so we feel like we have to be extra diligent in watching the kids. When we babysit at my daughter's house, we feel more at ease because they don't have a pool and their house has toddler precautions everywhere. I admire my daughter and son-in-law for keeping up with the children and I also realize the purpose of menopause....it's God's way of keeping women from having children that could easily make each day feel like a marathon run!
All in all, we had a wonderful time and we look forward to our visit in Tucson for Thanksgiving.

After-Halloween Treasures

I can't believe my good fortune in finding this framed Halloween treasure at Home Goods!!!!!!!!! Two days before Halloween I was shopping at Home Goods with my daughter and we saw 4 of these cute framed art Halloween goodies. The price for each was $19.99 which I thought was too high. I was sure that the price would be at least 50% off after Halloween so I waited to buy one then. I woke up early on Nov. 1, so I could be at Home Goods when the doors opened. I was the first person in line and I peered through the window to see that all the Halloween inventory was marked down 50% as I previously thought. When I walked over to the display of Halloween treasures, I found that each framed art piece was marked down to $5.00 each!!!!! I was shocked so I picked up the last 4 to save for next year. I gave one to my daughter and I'll display the others in various nooks and crannies for next year's Halloween festivities. I can't believe that I bought 4 of these for the price of one!!!! Each one measures 12 x 17 so I'm pleased with the size as well.This treasure was originally $7.99 but I paid $2.00...again another post Halloween find at Home Goods.
Stuff like this never happens to me so I feel fortunate that my diligence paid off.

BUSTED!!!!!

My granddaughter gets into everything as evidenced by this photo!!!!!

Bitchy Witchy

It all started with an invitation for the "Ghouls" to attend a "Bitchy Witchy" party on Friday, October 15, at Robin's house. Just beyond this red door, the ghouls gathered to eat, drink, laugh, and chat about anything and everything. Let's take a look at some exterior decorations.........Plants, pumpkins, spiders, ghosts, and a witch greeted us in a friendly way

I can't believe that I didn't rotate this photo!!!!!! You still get the general idea...

A happy witch and her black cat wait for the party to begin....

I think that Robin made this wreath but I'm not 100% sure....

My witch's hat waits to adorn my head!!!!!

My blingy gloves await with my special jewelry....

My sparkly shawl and pretty purple glasses can't wait to be worn....

Some delicious witchy desserts and snacks....

Robin always has just the right decor for every occasion...

Our hostess, Robin F, with Toni showing off their witchy stockings.....

Toni and Sarah sample some food and drink in the kitchen....

There were plenty of libations to put us ghouls in just the right bitchy mood....

From left to right: Robin W., Toni, Suzanne, me, Tracy, along with Sarah and Robin sitting in front. Joanne, Marti, and Jennifer hadn't arrived yet!

Robin's gorgeous, 21 year-old daughter, Tiffany graced us with her presence. How she put up with us "older" ghouls is beyond me!!!!!

Our hostess in her witchy finery!

Here I am decked out in all my bling!!!!!

Here I am with Robin showing off my warts and all!!!!!!

We had so much fun. We ate and drank outside with candles, pumpkins, and candy on the tables. One conversation centered on Jennifer's ex-husband, "Lucifer" and his new wife, "Lucifina"!!!! Needless to say, that was interesting! Thanks again, Robin, for a wonderful "ghouls" night out.