Our Week Ahead

Today is Christmas Eve, but you already know that!

We will be going to our church's Christmas Eve

service this evening, getting things ready

for our family Christmas tomorrow.

We will be having a wonderful lunch here at

our home with family, and are quite excited about it.

Then later in the day, my husband and I will

get in the car and head south to New Orleans!

Yes. We. Are. Yeah Baby!!!

To say that I am excited would be an

understatement....a HUGE one!

I have been there before during the week between

Christmas and New Years and the sights

are quite amazing....I intend to have camera

in hand and fill the new wireless card that I got for my birthday on Saturday with all the glorious

pictures one could lay their eyes on!!

I will share all with you while we are there and

after we get back, which will be wayyyyy

too quickly, in my humble opinion.

Window Love!

Here is a link for the diy!

 

Thank you Cottage4C!!!

 

http://cottage4c.com/mason-jar-window-treatment/

I Have Been So Blessed

With the best children and in-law children ever.

Oh, have I said that before? Sorry...(not really)

because it is worth repeating!

And yesterday our son and his wife celebrated

their 7th anniversary!!

I love bragging about my children.

I love showing off my children.

I am not embarrassed to be "one of those" parents!

 

So, of course I have pictures!!!

 

Engagement picture.

 

 

Wedding picture.

 

 

New Orleans picture. (everyone has one of those, right!)

I Find It

Completely impossible to blog the joys

of this Christmas season while the

events in Connecticut are screaming in my head.

I will not ignore what I am called to do

in this situation.

That is to pray to my heavenly Father to

pour out His love and comfort to all the families

involved (as He always does)

and for those families to choose to cling

to the comfort and love being show to them

by our heavenly Father.

None of this makes sense in our humanness

and will not on this side of heaven and

Christ dying for the man who did this

despicable act does not make sense either,

yet He did just that.

Know that God loves us all.

So please, while you are praying for the

families who were a part of the school system

that were killed or injured,

remember to lift up the family of the man

who did this, for their comfort and safety

as they deal with this horror from a very

different position. Not only have they

lost a son, nephew, etc, they are also

dealing with trying to understand why

he would do such a thing.

Alive....kinda.

UGH!!!

 

Whatever strain of flu this is, is brutal!

Type A is what they said, not sure if they

simply have not named it yet, or if that

is the proper name.

Type Awful is what I call it!

I am day 4 on meds and did go into

work for couple of hours to wrap up the week

but other than that, I am just dragging...

but much better than yesterday!

And tomorrow will be better, and by mid week

of next week, I should be able to finish my

Christmas shopping. Yikes! (as long as I am no longer on the codine cough med!)

 

Have an amazing weekend all!

This Is How......

I put my mirror together.

First I decided to do it as inexpensively as possible 

so I found a nasty scrap of "backer board"

I measured to get the center of the board.

The mirrors I bought at The Dollar Store

and I chose 12. I had to take the little "feet"

off the back of the mirrors before gluing!

Next, I used glue to adhere the mirrors

Taped them in place to make sure they did not move

when I weighted them.

 and weighted it overnight to allow it to dry.

Next I painted around the boards that would be my

frame and the glued mirrors just in case

there could be a gap or two.

 

I then cut the boards to length and glued them also

to the board surrounding the mirrors.

Again, I weighted them to make sure they dried

without warping, about 3 days.

After drying, I (well, my hubby did since he was down there with me)

put screws through the back and put hangers on it.

Then touched up the paint and it now

hangs on my wall, and I will have to find another place

for it soon, as we are planning on putting

built in cabinets and shelving around the

fireplace and there will not

be room for my mirror on the wall it now

decorates....hmmmmm, more design

decisions to be made, SWEEETT!

This.....That

I love this mirror from Pottery Barn

But at a cost of $699 I cannot spend

that amount of money.

So, I made this, at a cost of $20

I painted the frame dark grey and believe

it now to be a mistake, so I will be taking it down

to repaint in a color that I will love.

 

I will put up the photos and how to's in

a longer post Monday.

Have a great weekend!

A Beautiful Sight.....

I adore the Willow Tree Nativity set.

I love the precious, loving way that Mary

is adoring her Savior, Jesus.

Her earthly son and heavenly Father.

It truly brings me to tears at the tenderness

of a loving Mother unable to take

her eyes off of her beautiful baby boy.

 

Our children's Pastor, Myles K., made the "stable"

for me, by simply looking at a picture of the stable

that you can purchase from Willow Tree.

He made it for me as a gift.

I love it.

I am overwhelmed to have people in my life

that just simply want to bless me and my family!

Thank you Myles for your amazing gift!

 



It's Beginning To Look Alot...

Like Christmas at our home!

Trees are up, mantle is decorated,

table is dressed, (most) gifts are bought

and life is in full swing at our house.

This is an extremely busy week for me, so my

posts will probably be short and to the point

with the exception of a DIY mirror that I made

and will have all info for you this week.

But for now, a peek at our tree!
 

 

 



Small Photo Shoot

Of our youngest and her handsome hubby.

 

 How cute are they!!!!!

 

 

And one of just her, pondering!

Back

Working on a few things...

but catching you up with a couple of

Thanksgiving pictures.

The centerpiece was a very old rugged board

found in dark depths of our basement work room,

topped with gourds, leaves and candles.

 The dessert table was filled with yummy treats

and hung above it were several tissue paper

pom-poms I made just to add to the festiveness

of the day! 

And of course, my lovely turquoise chairs made

their party debut!

 

My Blog

Will be back up and running next week!

 

Cannot wait to show you all that I have

been up too!!

 

Have a superb weekend!

Prayer Request...

There is a lovely little family living in

Nags Head (OBX) North Carolina.

Tricia, wife and mother of their daughter Gweneth,  needs a double lung transplant.

Nathan, husband and father, is a Pastor at Nags Head Baptist Church.

Here is a link to his blog.

http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/2012/11/prayfortricia.html

#PrayForTricia 

Issues....

I am currently having a couple of issues with my blog.

Storage issues, etc.

I will update tomorrow and I will have it all

(hopefully) figured out and will be good to go!

In the mean time.....

a picture of our Thanksgiving dessert table!

Wait, nooooo, that is one of my problems...

no pictures will upload!

S-I-G-H!!



Thankful

I am thankful for this season!

I am thankful for my family,

I am thankful for my friends,

I am thankful for my neighbors,

I am thankful for my church family,

but most of all I am thankful for my salvation.

 I am a blessed woman

with a wonderful husband

amazing children and in-law children

the most beautiful grandchildren ever created

and all because God wanted to bless me.

I am so un-worthy and yet so thankful.

 

Have a superb Thanksgiving.

Getting Ready!!!!!

One of the ways I am getting ready for our

big Thanksgiving Feast is to have enough

chairs for all to sit!

My In-Laws gave us 4 old wooden chairs,

all needed to be re-glued and structurally

re-worked. One chair actually had a string

tied on it, I cut the string and the entire

spindle on the back fell on the floor!

I guess string is ONE way to fix it!

I glued and clamped and left them sit for a couple of days in our basement work shop.

 

Next, I sanded and began the painting process.

After all were painted, my sweet husband took

them to the garage (heated of course) and

sprayed 2 coats of poly on them.

I love the color and am thrilled to have 4 more

chairs that will definatly "stand out" at our

Thanksgiving table!!

And Again...Bragging Day....Simply Joy!!!

There is this wonderful agency named
Operation Christmas Child

The goal is to fill shoe boxes (or rather stuff) to

be sent into third world countries and then

distributed to children, ages 2-14 for Christmas Gifts.

Now, they reach children who have nothing but the rags

on their backs. Many are orphans, many cannot go

to school unless they have school supplies

which they have no money to purchase.

Our church takes on this challenge each year

and many, many of our people joyfully fill

shoe boxes to over-flowing.

This year we filled a trailer from front to back,

bottom to top with shoe box gifts.

 

 

Also 3 seats of a van and much of the van floor

 

with 711 shoe boxes!!!

Simply Amazing!

Bragging Day...A Simple Joy!

Each year in our Awana Program at our church,

we have a night called "line em' up".

It is a night in which all of the children who come

to this program bring non-perishable foods to

be donated to a local homeless shelter.

Last night, the clubbers brought in over 300 items!

How sweet is that!!!!

 

 

 

I know it shocks you that I brought my camera and snapped a couple of shots of the bounty, but as a co-commander, I could not be more proud of the children and their parents for their giving hearts!

 



A Sweet Find!!

Last week while spending some time with my Mom

we found this special little jewel at an antique store.

I love it when you find something special

at a superb price.

Ten Bucks.....yes, that is right ten dollars!

LOVE IT!!!

 

Guess what will be used on our Thanksgiving Table!!

It's the little things that make me happy!!!

Pet Photos

My Aunt has a dog named Buster.

Earth shaking news? NO??

 I thought not. However, there is a cool story

behind her getting Buster Brown

(real name, not makin that one up!)

 

Remember a few years back, there was this crazy storm

named Katrina? Still makes my heart hurt every time

I am in New Orleans to see the "left overs" of that awful event.

Well, there were animals rescued from that tragedy

and a little dog was rescued and brought up north.

That dog was excepting puppies,

you guessed it! Buster is one of those puppies...

now a northerner and loved by his owner, my Aunt!

 

I took my camera with me last weekend as my youngest daughter and I treated

my Mommy and Auntie to a day out and lunch.

I snapped a couple of pics of Buster.....

I am not an animal photographer....they just won't

pose! Crazy! Sigh.

 

Well, I got about 4 pictures of him actually being still.

I will share them with you.

 

 

 



I Am Teaching...

My youngest daughter to make ricotta cheese

tonight! I am excited that she will have this

easy recipe to fall back on for get togethers.

 

Here is a link to the blog article I posted when I made ricotta the first time.

 

http://inpayne-paula.blogspot.com/2011/12/you-too-can-be-hit-of-new-years-party.html

 

 

 

And a recipe for the finished cheese that my family LOVES!

 

 

Baked Ricotta Spread…..
2 Cups Freshly Made Ricotta
2 cloves garlic, that you will shave on a zester
2 Tble Heavy Cream
¼ Cup fresh herbs….I use Basil, or Thyme or Parsley, or a combo or any.
1 ½ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Put the olive oil in the bottom of an oven proof ceramic dish suitable for a 2 cup volume. In a separate bowl, mix all the remaining ingredients, making sure to chop the fresh herbs finely….place in the baking dish. Bake at 325* for a20minutes. [I then transferred to a fondue dish to enable keeping it really warm throughout the meal] and serve with a crusty bread, or whole wheat crackers….it will be a huge hit!!!!!!!



Mercury Glass Maniac

I LOVE mercury glass.

I mean, I really, really, really LOVE mercury glass.

 

Glorious silvery LOVE.

 

Shiney silver LOVE.

 

Pottery Barn has a new catalog.

It has lots to LOVE.

 

Feast your eyes upon a few of my favorites.

 

 Thank you so much Potter Barn for being a stumbling block in my life

and causing me the sin or lust in my heart.

Ok, Ok....I know, but did I mention how much I LOVE mercury glass????