Happy New Year's Eve…Almost That Is!

We had a wonderful Christmas in Ohio visiting our brothers and their families.  

We had snow so it was a white Christmas.   

We stayed a week so we were happy to return home and celebrate our Christmas. 

What do you think of my new Teddy Bear Santa Nut Cracker.  

It is a Christmas gift and I had to share it's cuteness with you.

I noticed that my Blogger Search Engine Widget wasn't working lately.  

Just in case any of you are having the same problem I surfed the Internet and found this easy fix (here).

  

So glad to be able to word search my blog again.

It's at the top of my left blog sidebar.    

That's a handy feature I have used many times.  

Of course one can search by "labels" as listed on my left sidebar too.  

I made a pumpkin pie today for New Year's Eve.  

Tomorrow I'll make Pap's Pizza Bread and Dip...favorite family recipes.   

We'll watch new DVDs…Man of Steel, Planes and Monster University and toast with eggnog to welcome the New Year at midnight (that is if I make it to midnight!). 

Laugh of the day:

Merry Christmas 2013 !

We're off for Christmas breakfast with one of my Hubby's twin brother's family this Christmas morning. 

And then on to Hubby's other twin brother's home for Christmas dinner. 

Looking forward to a fun filled day with our loved ones.  

❤️ Merry Christmas and Happy New Year ❤️

 

Merry Christmas Eve

We're off to spend Christmas Eve with my brother and his family. 

It's snowing here so we have a lovely WHITE Christmas!

Merry Christmas my dear blogging friends!

Peace ❤️ Love ❤️ Joy ❤️

Where's the Snow?

We're in Ohio over Christmas visiting with our brothers and their families.  

You would never know yesterday was the first day of winter.  

Because it poured RAIN all day and night.  

And it's raining this morning but is suppose to finally stop around noon.  

Santa faces and beards done.

The temperature has also been unseasonably warm too.  

Apparently that will end soon with colder temps on the way. 

Getting better at making the Chinese Ball Buttons for Santa's eyes and mouth.

I finished crocheting the Santa Badges and started giving them away to family.  

One Santa, in the middle, has a pink beard (due to crocheting at night in low light!). 

We stay at a hotel centerized to our brothers' homes.  

We get a suite with a separate bedroom, two bathrooms, living room and kitchette.  

It's comfortable and sure came in handy two Christmases ago when I came down sick Christmas Eve and Day.  

I bought the crocheted Christmas doily.

And sewed the pillow cover several years ago.

We love seeing our families but we are always ready to be home to celebrate our Christmas. 

Our living room Christmas tree.

I love blogging at Christmas and joining in on all the Christmas Home Tours!  

Our Christmas trees are up and decorated in our living room and family room.  

Family room Christmas tree with ribbon topper.

Our two Christmas trees are skinny ones... not too tall either.  

Only $50 each at Target.

We gave away our large Christmas trees and downsized.

I can put as many ornaments on the skinny ones as I did on the large ones and the trees don't take up as much room.

Since we don't spend Christmas at home we have to had the fake trees as a safety measure.  

The trees are so pretty with our white and red berry lights and all our decorations.   

I added two more ribbons to our ribbon tree topper in our family room to fill it out this year. 

Sorry low light again.

I used fake garland on our fireplace mantel this year.  

I may add some fresh holly and pine branches from our yard when we return home.  

I added Santas to the mantel along with a vintage red lantern and a wooded Santa painted many years ago by a dear co-worker. 

The forest scene is a fabric panel I machine quilted, painted and added embellishments to back in the early 1990s.  

It's stapled to a wooden frame. 

Red mesh ribbon is weaved in and out of the green garland.

May the joy and love of the Christmas Season be with you!

My Santas

I have to crochet one more Pincushion - pattern click (here) - to take home for Christmas.  

Then I will have enough for all the gals in my family.

I'm enjoying crocheting the Santa Badges - pattern click (here).  

I have five made so far.   

I even went back to the first one and added another row of white fringe to Santa's beard.

  

Today I'll start packing clothes for our trip to Ohio for Christmas.   

Get my hair done.   

Decorating is finished...well as much as I want to do. 

Yesterday we booked another tour across the pond with our college friends.  

This one is for northern Italy 2014.  

We loved our tour to England/Wales/Scotland this year and are thrilled to be going to Italy next spring.

Happy Wednesday!

Chalkboard Christmas Art & Crocheted Ornaments

Remember my cheap and easy chalkboard that I posted about (here)?

It's my second highest viewed blog post.

I decorated it for Christmas!

See my three vintage Santas on the teacup shelf?

That was fun!

I should make a larger chalkboard.

I love Santas!

Click (here) for my Santa Badge project.

I found this cute, free tutorial (here) by Sharlene McKay to crochet this adorable Santa Badge. 

And the Christmas wreath is made with pipe cleaners, believe it or not.   

I crouched the wreaths in two sizes and put them together and added a ribbon.

For your Bendy Scalloped Ornaments patterns, like the Christmas Wreath, by Jennifer Dickerson click (here).

Jennifer's Christmas Wreath tutorial is great and the wreath is so easy to crochet. 

Did you see my mistake yet?

The one on the left is correct.  

I added the third fringe row in white above the face on my first one on the right and it should be below.  

The tricky part is making the Chinese Ball Buttons for the eyes and nose.  

Here's a video (here) that helped me.  

Still practicing them though.  

LOL!  

Christmas Tree Embroidery

Our Christmas Trees are decorated!!!

And I finished sewing the fabric border to my Christmas Tree Embroidery. 

It's framed and up in our floyer. 

My father in law made the wooden Santa's sleigh and reindeer.  

The cabinet has an vintage stamped Christmas table cloth draped on it.

I put an embroidery table scarf on top of the table cloth.

I added a Ty Beanie Baby to our front door red mesh ribbon wreath. 

Sorry for the sort of fuzzy photos.  It's another dark day here.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Hope our snow lasts through Christmas.

Christmas Bunco !

I embroidered a little Snowman ornament to decorate my Christmas exchange gift for our neighborhood Christmas Bunco party tonight.  

I had some blue gingham fabric on hand and I cut a strip of it to use as ribbon on my gift.  

It looks so cute with the blue snowman wrapping paper.  

Remember all the pin cushions I crocheted this past summer?   

I'm giving them as gifts to everyone tonight.  

We don't play Bunco (an easy dice game) at our annual Christmas celebration.  

The hostess supplies the drinks and everyone else brings an appetizer or a dessert.  

We always have fun with our Pollyanna gift exchange (aka "Secret Santa").

When I saw this recipe, Mini Cherry-Pecans Pies, in my Home & Garden magazine I thought it would be an excellent dessert to bring for Christmas Bunco.  

Little bite-sized cherry pies!

   

The only change I made to the recipe was to use walnuts instead of pecans. 

I'm still decorating...I'm slowing down and it seems to take me longer and longer to get all my Christmas decorations out and up.  

Our two skinny trees are up with their lights but I haven't put the ornaments on yet.  

Anyways, I did managed to get our wreath up on our front door today.  

I tried something new this year.  

I enhanced our fake green wreath with mesh ribbon this year. 

I sort of followed Kristen's, of "Kristens Creations On Line," tutorial (here). 

Kristen is one fantastic designer!

And she loves RED! 

I like how the red mesh ribbon has made the wreath seem larger and more festive.

Sorry for the fuzzy photos - the light is low even though the sun is shining today.

Thanks for visiting!! 

Laugh for the day:

Smiling Snowman Mug Mat

This little appliqué embroidered Patrick Lose design is so cute!

It's almost too pretty to use.

I tried to machine stitch the binding…but it looked terrible so I picked it out and hand stitched it instead.

It looks cute on my crocheted hexagon throw, "Sparkle". 

Smiling Snowman Mug Mat

This is a gift for my hair stylist.  

I'll have to make one for myself too.   

I only have one more fat quarter of the pretty blue fabric. 

 I love it because it looks like snow falling.

 

The Home of Mr. & Mrs. Magano "Marlboro Manor" Circa 1842

Yesterday we went on the 38th Chadds Ford Candlelight Christmas historic house tour.    

We visited 15 gorgeous homes here in SE PA.

This is an event we look forward to every Christmas.

  

"Marlboro Manor"

We weren't allow to take interior photos {{{darn!}}} but I took a few exterior ones to share with you.

"Marlboro Manor"

"Marlboro Manor" (circa 1842) had their porch decorated in Christmas-y reds and greens. 

The Joseph Barnard House circa 1790

A subdivision was built around this historic home, The Joseph Barnard House (circa 1790), …but only on the condition the home was restored.
  

The Joseph Bardnard House 

These homes were filled with beautiful antiques - I can't believe how gracious the homeowners are for opening their homes up for viewing to the public. 

Rosewood, circa 1861

"Rosewood" (circa 1861) sits on 36 acres of beautiful landscaped grounds. 

The Yellow House

And this one sits on top of a hill and is named "The Yellow House of Willowdale" (19th century stucco over stone home) and is used for weddings.

It's snowing!

Today we are having our first snowfall since we returned from Florida!  

Well, I better get back to my indoor Christmas decorating…that is after I sit watching the fire and listening to Christmas music while I drink my morning coffee.  

This is our fireplace mantel... so far. 

Have a lovely  December weekend.

Let It Snow!