Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas!
The bread is baking in the oven. The Christmas tree is lit. The kids are outside raking leaves. What's up with that!!

My parents are visiting and decided to embark on clearing the front yard of leaves. So I kicked the kids out and told them to help their grandparents in this endeavor. There are a LOT of leaves out there. Mostly from the neighbors' trees!

We sack the leaves in brown paper bags that are for organic recycling. Our city has once-a-week pick up for organic materials.

Earlier this morning, I went through the package that Barbara from Ooodle and oodles had mailed me. I thought my parents would enjoy seeing the fun things that she shared. The shiny brites are items they are happy to remember from their childhood.



The book came in yesterday! All so awesome! Many, many thanks to Barbara for such a fun giveaway! I absolutely am thrilled.

I had scooted the red Macy's bag to the back of the pic for a red backdrop and to hide the patio furniture you can see thru the window. My husband, who had slept in, came to the kitchen and yelled "oh man!", grabbed the bag and went to hide it. Apparently it has one of my gifts inside, unwrapped. That's funny!

I'm not nosy at Christmas. I can wait. What is the fun in peeking?

I remember, once, as a child, my brother and I went peeking in the parents' closet and we saw the Star Wars toy that was there: An X-wing fighter.

Growing up, we only got one toy at Christmas so on Christmas morning, that one toy gift was opened, and that was that. Absolutely no fun! I never went peeking again!

So do you peek? Or do you wait?

December Bloom

It's December 15 and I have this bloom--not totally unharmed by the recent hard freeze, but still looking very lovely.



Austin, Golden Celebration. And there's two more buds behind this bloom. Maybe they'll come out before Christmas. If the weather turns colder, then those two buds might need to come indoors. It's very pretty to see at the front of the house.

Today I also won a lovely prize over at Oodles and oodles. I won a book that looks like an warm and interesting read and a goodie bag. Barbara has many lovely things in her shop and I enjoy perusing it at leisure. She has many lovely vintage items and she writes about her home and shopping adventures on her blog. Thank you, Barbara!

What Would You Drive?

...if you could "drive" your favorite fabric? Fab picture from The
Dallas Morning News.

Thank You Thelma!

Thelma sent a bright and beautiful mug rug to participants that completed the Eventide quilt top.

It's so pretty! And went well with some Easter goodies.



I love post-it notes. And these are really pretty.



Are you planning to watch the royal wedding? We have friends gathering, to eat (of course!) and watch the wedding on DVR. And it's an opportunity to wear a hat.

I have a couple of smaller, vintage options, but I'm wanting a fuller hat. I'm totally inspired by Louise Green and love to look at the hats available on her website. But I really don't want to shell out the $300+ for a hat. But a girl can dream.

So maybe with what I have on hand--I can create something passable.






The hat is from Marshall's. The ribbon was $5 at Canton Trade days. And the bottles are from here, there, and yonder.

I'd better get busy!

Wishing You a Blessed Easter

"I'm coming to tell you this, that the heavens of heavens can't contain Him, let alone some man explain Him. You can't get Him out of your mind. You can't get Him off of your hands. You can't outlive Him and you can't live without Him. The Pharisees couldn't stand Him, but they found out they couldn't stop Him. Pilate couldn't find any fault in Him. The witnesses couldn't get their testimonies to agree about Him. Herod couldn't kill Him. Death couldn't handle Him and the grave couldn't hold Him. That's my King. "

Dr. S. M. Lockeridge, 1976

Crazy Weather

We were up late last night, listening to a hail storm pound everything outside. The roar in the house was unbelieveable. The hail hitting the roof was so loud--and just when we thought the hail might have passed, it would come down harder.

I waited 15 minutes after it was done to go outside to check the damage.

There were piles of ice on the patio.



And some larger pieces that were still lying around.



I'll need to check the roof today (strictly a ground viewing) and see what other damage there might be (that I can see in the daylight).

Some of the flowers took a beating. Some were close enough to the house that they escaped unscathed.

Trying to Show True Colors

Here are some more pics of Eastertide. It's interesting how much lighter the colors look in photos.






These colors are fun but in photos, these pastel colors look, well...pastey.





I took these indoors with the windows wide-open and all the lights on.

I should have crawled around the floor and straightened the quilt top a bit more. But I wasn't really motivated to crawl any more than what I did! I'm tired today!

The quilt was ironed and pressed at one time but it's so big there's no place to really hang it to keep it straight.

So here it is, wrinkles and all. But are the colors truer? I think the blues show up better but the other colors don't look true. I still like it though!