Loving Red & White Lights!

Yep, that would be me above ...wrapping a couple gifts. I'm trying to keep on top of things because I can get all caught up in the little details of Christmas and then have anxiety when I haven't done everything I needed to do. Not this year! Believe it or not, although I didn't do the black Friday thing I have a good amount of gifts already. I'm trying to wrap them as I go along. And even better, I am just about done with the Christmas decorating! I can't completely finish until we get our live tree and we decorate it! One for the family room and one for the front porch. But as for the other decorating in the house, I am just about finished! With Halloween and fall, I am decorating all month. It never ends.I love it so I am constantly adding, tweaking, changing...I'm decorating to the very last day but no more. Oh no! I'm gonna be done and enjoy it!

This year I added red and white lights to some indoor areas like over my kitchen sink and I am so crazy about it! I wish you could see the photo better but it's cheery and warm at the same time. I just want to put red and white lights everywhere!

The kids decorated our gingerbread tree in the foyer and I did a peppermint tree in the kitchen with all ornaments that are white and red. I have to photograph it all. Woo I was so tired from celebrating Thanksgiving and I haven't taken enough pictures yet. What a busy week. When I last left you I was baking cookies for Thanksgiving and some for the neighbors too. 

They came out yummy!

 On Monday night, my Girl Scout troop (well some of them) went to Camp Edey to decorate our donation tree. We did a theme of "baby" hoping that the items on the tree for babies would then be added to the donations for the needy.

Our tree was filled with booties, baby hats, little blankets, teethers, bibs, etc. Lots of good stuff! Trying to show the girls that community service or just the act of "service" is so important.Caitlin is in the blue jacket giggling....

Hope all is well for all of you! Sending hugs and blessings!

Pre Thanksgiving Fun Stuff

Tuesday morning bright and early! Almost turkey time! I'm going to be as productive as I can be today preparing for the big day. First on my list is cookies. I'm making three kinds--chocolate chip, chocolate, chocolate chip and peanut butter and I want to do them early, then it's on to my sweet potato casserole! 

In my last post I mentioned that Caitlin and her friend Ashley would be making Christmas ornaments and bowl fillers. Several of you mentioned or emailed me about the recipes I use so here you are:

Cinnamon Scented Salt Dough:  1 cup of flour, 1/2 cup salt, 1/2 cup cinnamon, 3/4 cup very warm water. Roll out and make shapes! You do not have to bake this; you can let it air dry overnight but if you want to be able to paint them or decorate them you can bake at 200 degrees for a little bit.
I use the cinnamon scented one as bowl fillers. I do barn stars and mini mittens. They make the house smell wonderful! I use mini cookie cutters for these.

Ashley and Caitlin did both ornaments and bowl fillers. I use a small straw to poke a hole for the string. they made quite a few cause I doubled the recipe but mostly had fun just playing with the dough! Here is the recipe for regular white salt dough:  2 cups flour,1 cup salt, 1 cup water. This little project can keep kids (and us adults!) busy for hours! I had other little things for them to do like paint some plaster ornaments and I had a Christmas movie with puppies...NOPE! They loved just making shapes and creating!

I've been going through some Christmas boxes as I plan to set upsome this weekend...except for my live tree of course. A little sad to see the leaves and pumpkins go in boxes but so much fun to the elves and snowflakes and other  Christmas decorations.
 My son and husband did the last of the leaves in our yard over the weekend...That's the rear of my house and my shed. 63 bags of leaves! And it was the second time they had tackled them. Now it's nice and clean and neat and ready for the snow! We are supposed to get some on Wednesday.

Carol the rooster was walking around supervising to make sure they did a good job. He's such a task master!

Here is my son taking a break. So hard to get a picture of him as he always says no! I got two :) I'm fast!

I let the bunnies out of the coop as well to run around. Even though the coop is large and they have loads of space it's still fun for them to run around outside around the outside of the coop. They like to dig holes and run in the grass. I took one out at a time but the funny thing was as each one had his turn, the others were upset that the other was out and would go crazy trying to see their brother! (They actually are all brothers)--Chestnut, Bandit and Lucky. Below is Bandit (the white one) and Chestnut.  They share the coop with Carol and Frankie and Carol was supervising them as well.

 Carol and Frankie were content just walking around pecking the dirt and watching Dad and Billy! But Carol would chase the bunnies like a shepherd if he thought they were getting a little too frisky!

We received this great box of candy as a gift yesterday for Thanksgiving. Did you ever see such a big box of Whitmans? Caitlin thought it was the greatest thing!

Before I go, just a reminder before the holiday season begins to enjoy it because it goes by so quickly!

But most of all don't lose sight of  the real reason to celebrate and be thankful....

Have a wonderful day!

To Do Lists

Making some lists and checking them twice...nothing to do with naughty or nice...just making lists cause I get forgetful, silly  :)   and I want to make sure I have everything I need for Thanksgiving preparations and a few other things going on. A little sad to see my pumpkins go away for a year but looking forward to Christmas and all the fun that brings. I am thinking it's gonna be a brutal Winter. I send my thoughts and prayers to Buffalo, oh gosh...all that snow. I love snow but that's just too much. Lets hope everyone gets some relief soon.

I photographed some of the things I bought in Lancaster. Here are a few:

Linda, Barbara and I each bought one of these snowman lanterns. We all had the pumpkin /jack o' lantern one so now we got the snowman! I bought the "Dancing Crow" slate for the outside of my  house for the Spring and Summer. I also have a plate in my foyer with the same "Dancing Crow Inn" saying. My husband and I always wanted to own a bed and breakfast so now I can pretend :)

 Linda found this Winter slate outside a bakery we go to in Bird in Hand. She and I each bought one. I loved the tree, the deer, the snowman and the little happy cardinal :)

For our bedroom, Billy and I have collected various sayings that refer to love cause he is and always will be my honey. I have one that says "Always Kiss Me Goodnight" and another that says "Forever and Always and No Matter What" ---you get the idea...now I found this one below. How sweet is that?  and I couldn't pass up this little snowman!

 Two packages of metal snowflakes!                                           More mittens for the collection!

I still do my mitten theme in the kitchen for Christmas! Now I have more to add and this little plaque too. It says Warm Winter Greetings. I keep the mittens and snowmen up all Winter.

Caitlin and I picked up a few more gingerbread ornaments for the gingerbread tree in the foyer....

I bought tons more candles and melts and potpourri...my addictions. I have to have the house smelling good! My house smells like a gift shop in PA! Seriously. I don't care for flower scents I love fruit scents like blueberry, cranberry, pumpkin, apple pie, sugar cookie, etc.....

I  was only able to photograph these things for now but you get the idea! We had fun!

Caitlin and I started making some clothes pin people. She has been having a ball making them with odds and ends of fabric and trim and cupcake liners. We plan to make some angels too. I love doing simple crafts that she and I can do together.

 Today after school, she and her buddy Ashley are going to make cinnamon bowl fillers and ornaments. I have the dough all ready for them. I need a fresh batch of cinnamon barn star bowl fillers! They can use the cookie cutters to make their shapes and later when they harden, the ornaments can be painted.  That's what my afternoon is looking like today! It's cold and windy out but it's warm inside! Have a great weekend!

Can You Guess Where I Was?

Lancaster County, PA! Saturday, bright and early, my sister-in-laws and I took a trip to Pennsylvania for some shopping and fun. We packed a whole lot into one day but we did it! We left bright early! No traffic too! Linda, Barbara, me and Caitlin--a girls' day in Amish Country. We shopped till we dropped! Caitlin and I did some Christmas shopping and some "us" shopping. :) The farm below was taken on Rte 772, one of my favorite roads. I was standing across the way at the big "Kings" store.

We had lunch at Kitchen Kettle Village then stocked up at the Smokehouse with some cheeses and sausages. My sister-in-law Barbara bought several pounds of bacon too! We're all bacon crazy lately...

We packed the car with great stuff. Linda bought several pictures for her home and Christmas decorations. Barbara bought lots of candles and I know she got a new flag. I'm not sure what else they got cause we go into a store and away we go! See you outside when you're done! Bags and bags and bags. We had such a good time. I loved the gourds that they had at Peaceful Valley Furniture & Gifts!

Aren't they adorable? I didn't get a snowman gourd but I did buy a ceramic snowman lantern that I love. I'll have to take a picture of it! Linda and Barbara each bought one too. Next post I'll show photos of what I bought. I can tell you I stocked up on more candles, wax melts, and I'm such a sucker for any battery operated candle thingy or light up something...I got a couple of signs for my bedroom, and some Christmas stuff...snacks...there's always snacks!

I loved this cute sign! So that's what snowflakes are!!!!!

Going to Amish Country just makes me feel so crafty. I photographed lots of things that I think I can make at home too such as the ladles below:

And these wood sconces. Get the saw ready Billy! You can cut these out one, two, three!

We shopped and ate and took in some lovely scenery and still made it home at a decent hour! Not much traffic at all. But when I got home, someone was quite annoyed that I was gone all day.

Miss Molly Moo was none too pleased that I had vacated the premises for all those hours. She gave me such a "look" as if to say, "and where were you all day, young lady???" All was forgiven after I opened the can of food, I assure you!

Here's What I've Been I've Working On!

So with Halloween packed away except for a few things I keep out cause I love them so much, I've been getting the house back in order. I've also been working on my craft room but I'm not quite done. Is it ever done? I don't think so. Here's where it stands right now:

Still organizing and then it'll be time to decorate. Don't mind the windows with the curtains/wood thingy holding the curtains back...haven't gotten to that part yet. I have to add the "gingerbread" to the room and make it my homey space. Below is just a shelf where I have some things I love and just jars, containers, etc of things still needed to be organized. No rush. It's gonna be a long Winter and besides that it hasn't stopped me from creating!

I made two wreaths this week...one Spider wreath for Halloween next year and a Thanksgiving one that is not quite finished yet. Here's the spider. Hard to see, sadly...but there are gem covered spiders in green, purple and black, some peeking eyes, and the dangling web with clear glass beads.

I made a pilgrim couple with felt heads I had from AC Moore last year and just made them some clothes. I decided to add them as the centerpiece of my Thanksgiving wreath:

I forgot how messy it can be to work with straw wreaths....but still lots of fun. More Thanksgiving decorating too but now I am done. Little Jinxie loves to spy on me in the kitchen crouching on a stool in front of the breakfast bar. He's such a cutie pie. His one eye is bright; the other is blind so his photos always come out looking like that. Makes him look mysterious.  Very playful and mischevious! His favorite room is Caitlin's bedroom where he ventures in to steal various hair ties and ribbons, doll house accessories and anything else he can find and hide.

This particular spying mission was because he smelled cooking. I had made stuffed peppers and a chicken pot pie for dinner that night and he was not leaving the kitchen!

Here's some Thanksgiving! I love to find new Thanksgiving items cause I really do love that holiday!

Last night I went with some friends to Panera Bread and I'm still dreaming of what I had for dinner...squash soup and chicken panini...that soup was AMAZING! I have to find a good recipe for it on the internet only I don't know if my family would like it. They aren't squash lovers whereas I love it. I think I might just ask my husband to go by Panera today just to get me another bowl to go :) If you have a good recipe, please email it to me!

Before I go, here's another shot of Carol and Frankie enjoying the yard. Carol is the gray silkie rooster

and here is my Frankie....Miss Temperamental...when she's moody we call her little Frankie Frankenstein....

It's cold here on Long Island today....out comes the Winter coat!