new vintage thingie!

Last year, Very Mary sent me a totally unexpected, out of the blue kind of surprise that made me squeal with delight.

You see, she knows I love elves and knows I adore vintage Christmas decorations. She found this amazing vintage thingie and generously mailed it to me, just because:



Look how cute these elves are climbing their ladder and peeking out the front window!



There are a total of 5 wee elves climbing this ladder that lights up. I really really really love it!

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for my family and friends being either with me or just a phone call away...





Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Wordless Wednesday

Thanksgiving walk about....

Each year after Halloween, I keep a few decorations out to decorate a little for Thanksgiving. Last year, I overheard some ladies talking about how they hate that no one really decorates for Thanksgiving. I realized I didn't either and decided to do a little more this year.



I always put out Mr. Turkey...this year I used a teeny pumpkin though and he looks totally underfed!



Mr. Scarecrow keeping the birds at bay...

scarecrows replaced those cute Halloween ghost pops...

Some cute decorations and platter Kaela made years ago decorate a shelf in the entryway...


On this table, I put our Halloween scarecrow out but striped all the spiders off of him....new he is dressed for Thanksgiving.
Matt made me the little platter years ago (same time as Kaela did) and we use it for Thanksgiving dinner.
The sweet white pumpkin was a swap goodie from Lori.

On Thanksgiving day, the leaves will be covered with desserts...yum!


For this month's YOE, we had to create something for our holiday table.

See the teeny acorn in front of the pumpkins?
Those are what I made for the challenge. I stumbled across THIS post and knew they would be perfect for the table.

Cute, huh!?



Here is a better view of the basket and acorns...


In the family room, I hung the rag swag I made for the YOE challenge for October. It looks great on the mantel, especially at night....



a close up of the pumpkins in the vase...

Next year, I plan to add a few more decorations...

Thankful Thursday

Today I am so very thankful for good news!

Our sweet Ginger has been having a terrible time of late.

Without going into all the details, she has been in pain off and on for quite a while and we've not been able to figure it out. With her having arthritis, it was hard to pin point.

She has a partially healed torn cruciate ligament injury. Thank you Lord!

So why I am so thankful? This isn't really great news....but to us, it is wonderful news!

Ginger had a cancerous tumor removed in the same leg last March and we feared it had returned.
Now we can breathe a sigh of relief and love on her while she rests and heals. We hope it will heal without surgery but only time will tell.

As for now, she needs her rest...


shhhh...

hello and goodbye!

With the recent cold snap, all my oxalis (shamrock) plants are happy again.
Most people only keep them as house plants but I've put all mine out into the yard since the cats want to eat them....

See how pretty?




This one is a true cold weather lover. It doesn't bloom at all in the heat of summer but looks lovely this time of year...





the purple....so yummy and much more sun tolerant than the green varieties.
I planted these in an area that the dogs run through and lay down in. They've toughed it out this year and will slowly take over the area within a few years....




these are in front of our garden snail in another area the dogs tend to cut through (which is why I have the snail there to discourage them.)

What!!!! Is that nasty grass doing trying to worm its way in....?!



this particular type of oxalis is considered a weed here.....but not to me.



The Happy Gnome my sister gave me. Love him!



Happy little grouping




our Morning Glories and Moon flowers are still hanging on too...but the leaves are showing signs of stress

I found this little plague in a store and snagged it. It says

"Garden Fairies Gather Here"

I love how the morning glories have taken it over...

little thief

Mojo is just so sweet. He really LOVES to carry around a little lovie.

He won't tear it up but he will ask you to throw it for him.
Ginger destroys any toy I make or buy for them so they've been without any toys for awhile. So, now he is stealing the cat's toys again.

See? And see that black yarn chain?




It leads to the cat platform.
Kaela ties them to the platform so he won't carry them off. If he carries them off, Ginger guts them and I come home in time to clean up catnip!


So Mojo just contents himself snuggled up under a table, with his stolen lovie.

Just look at that sweet face *sigh*

Little Deer ornaments!

I have always loved the vintage ornaments that resemble teeny dioramas....but don't have any. So I tried my hand at creating one:


I liked it so much, I decided to share how I did it. Some steps weren't photographed cause I added things AFTER it was finished. (okay, so I'm not Martha. I don't have one made and another one going through the process....)
First, gather your supplies:

*a wee little box (mine is 1.5" by 2.5")
white spray paint
glue
scissors
tiny bit of polyfil or cotton ball fluff
miniature deer (miniatures at Hobby Lobby)
miniature trees (craft section at Hobby Lobby)
star sequins and 1 start shaped bead
variety of glitters
thick sparkly glitter glue
small amount of white sparkly felt

you will also need if hanging it:
yarn
tapestry needle
skewer

First, spray paint the little box white.




To make the 'sky' use a bit of glue and sparkly blue glitter...just a little. Put it on the back, top and both sides. Glue a few little sequin stars on the back at this point too.
For the snow, glue down a wee bit of poly-fil and tamp it down good. Let it dry and then pull the majority off. What you have left will be the snow. (see? no snow, no stars....I love hindsight!)




Take a little tree and cut the stump off.
You can leave it on if you need the height. My little box was so tiny, I opted to clip it.



Then, cut the stumps off the remaining trees you will use. I used one big tree and two little ones.



For the back tree that will be against the box, cut the back off straight so you can glue it onto the back and it will lie flat. See?




Then arrange the other trees around it and glue them down. Then glue down your deer.

Once dried, take your thick glitter glue and go around the trees and deer. Put a dot onto the top of each tree and drag it down with your fingertip. Do it lightly so you don't rub it completely off.

After everything is dried (again!) take a piece of the felt and cut a strip that will go around the little box.

Glue it down with the seam on the bottom.




If you want to hang it like I did you can use a skewer and put a hole in the top and in the felt. Be careful not to crush your little box. Again, this was something I should have thought of BEFORE I finished most of the ornament!!!! Oh well...that's what happens when you are crafting with wine!
Thread your yarn through both pieces and glue it together, this holds the hanger in place really well once dried.
Clip the knot as close as you can.



Once the felt is dried to the box, slather glue on it and roll it in MORE GLITTER!!!! Remember, glitter is GOOD!

Then, add a thick band of glitter glue around the front to hide the demarcation between the box and felt if you can still see it.

Now for that pesky little knot...

This is where you need a star shaped bead. Simply glue it on top of the knot facing forward. This part is tricky because the space is so teeny.
If you use white glue, you'll need to let it dry on its back so the bead doesn't fall off.
Here is a photo of the finished ornament again:



And here is what it looks like hung on my Year of Enchantment tree.

I love this angle, it looks so natural. I'll probably put it on my big tree though....and add glitter....maybe some more glitter........?

cat brat

How do you know when the cat you adopted has crossed the line from darling to diva?

When she refuses to drink water unless you turn on the faucet in the tub.....at a thin trickle.

And no, you can't use the stopper to 'save' some for her. She wants it FRESH.

Each.
And.
Every.
Time.
You.
Pass.
The.
Bathroom.




And Now? Now, she's got Leo doing it too!

What they say about cats having wait staff. Yep....its true.

Silliness

A couple weeks ago, we went with Dean to work. His station was shooting a college football game. He had worked 21 days straight and not seen much of us, so he asked us to tag along.
Having done this in the past, we knew it would be fun. You go up into the suite, you get great food, you get to see the game from the comfort of the box and still 'go' to the game.....total luxury!

Kaela brought her friend since Matt wasn't going. He was at a 'party.'

When we got there, we all quickly realized it wasn't going to work because the press box was already over crowded. See?


So instead, we sat and we talked and we sat and we ate and we sat and we watched people.

After awhile though, we started getting silly (the girls started it.)

First, they started posing....



then they starting snorting, laughing loudly and making faces...no one cared, all the other bored kids of employees were doing the same thing.


then the girls decided they wanted to sit on my lap...


and take photos...


but it is hard to take a photograph of 3 faces when you are holding the camera...


So while Dean was in the press box schmoozing it up and making sure everything ran smoothly, we acted silly...It was JUST what we needed and we ended up having a terrific time.

Poe revisited and a goodie for me

Laura was in my Poe altered art swap but didn't receive a package because it got lost in the mail.
We kept waiting for it to show up but it never did so I made up a package for her myself. The story she picked was The Black Cat...a really creepy tale!

Here is the outside of the box

and the inside...see Pluto's missing eye in the corner? Grisly!

I also made her a few things that relate to the story....a black cat book thong, a recipe that was popular with E.A. Poe, an eyeball ornament, a Black Cat chocolate bar, and some bath salts that surely would have helped de-stress the situation better than booze...
I made her a little Pluto, along with a noose! If you want to make your own black cat, I got the pattern from Gin's blog.

and look what I got in the mail!

Melinda knows I have a Halloween tree and made me this awesome tag ornament for it. Sorry for the glare but you can still tell how gorgeous it is!

Thank you Melinda!