How I decked my halls

Well, 

it took me awhile,

but I finally got the decorating done.

 I love how the Christmas decor turns the house into a totally different place.

I have kept it very simple this year.

 Enjoying every minute of it.

That is after I dug it all out of the shed and brought it in and then piled

everything in the middle of the living room and stared at it

for three days waiting to be inspired.

And after sending Dale to the mountains to get some little 

Douglas Fir trees to decorate with.

Yes, I know it is against the law in Idaho to just go dig trees in the forest, 

but not if you have friends who own the land they are on.

The little Nativity that my daughter made me in the third grade.

My cheesy little garland of plastic bells hang in the gothic church

window frame. Sometimes I just love cheesy.

The next three pictures are of the mantle above the wood stove.

 I used all of the vintage books in the house that had red covers and 

my little wire trees and silver balls and garland. 

Little feather wreath in the mudroom.

Some of the vignettes around the house.

The iron angel brought in from the garden to reside in the house until next Spring

wearing his annual Christmas necklace.

 My paperwhite bulbs planted too late to bloom by Christmas, but pretty none the less.

 Now for my favorite thing.

And that would be the Christmas baking!

Thankful to be...

I have been away for too long from this place I love to be.

The problem being...

 I have too many places I love to be.

this blog

the garden

my home

my studio 

etc.

I have been in the studio for two weeks making gifts for family and friends

and getting ready for a little craft bazaar at my daughter's workplace.

I also made some things to sell at a store in Boise that I have written about

here on my blog called 

Warehouse Beautiful

Most of what I have been making are sachets that I fill with the lavender 

grown here in the garden.

The photos show a few of the ones I have left after the bazaar and 

sending some to Warehouse Beautiful in Boise.

These will be gifts for family and friends.

Isn't it funny how it's hard to stop once you start?

It is always a joy to sit at the sewing machine or stand at the table

and create things that weren't here before.

The graphics I used on most of the sachets I got from the Graphics Fairy 

and Dawn at The Feathered Nest.

I have got to get busy doing some serious Christmas decorating here in the house.

Now that the turkey is nothing but a skeleton (poor little bird) and the pies 

have gone to my hips...it is time to get the halls decked!

I haven't even been to any of your beautiful blogs to see how your 

decorating is coming along.

After I get back from doing some shopping today,

I plan on remedying that.

I'm going to sit my 'pie' hips down and catch up with all of you. 

I know many of you are more on the ball than I am, 

so I can't wait to see and be inspired.

 

The last of the children and the grands left for home about noon yesterday, 

and Dale and I were left to clean up the last of the left-overs.

How thankful I am for a full table this time of year.

Thankful for the blessing of family.

I remember looking around the table Thursday and thinking to myself,

''how did I get so lucky to have these people be a part of my life?''

There's always a lot of laughter and a lot of chatter, 

and NO one remembers to get the camera out to take pictures of it all!

Thankfully there's always Christmas!

I received a special delivery from Italy!

A few weeks ago I won a giveaway offered by Monica of The White Bench.

I feel so lucky to have have won two 8x12 prints of Monica's amazing photography.

I was able to choose my favorites, and then she generously tucked in special gifts for me.

I imagine many of you know of Monica and her beautiful artwork that is published in 

many of the Stampington publications. 

I love it when I pick up a Somerset Life or Home, etc

and see many of her creations within their pages.

She has an incredible talent for painting and you can see many of her 

paintings on her blog. I know you will recognize them as soon as you see them.

She has a generous heart and shares many tutorials on her blog.

I have learned how to do many things from following her instructions.  

Monica has been a great blogging friend from almost the time I started my blog 

and was always so encouraging.

 I thank her for that.

At this time of Thanksgiving I would love to let all who read this blog know 

how grateful I am for each and every one of you. 

This blog is a joy to me and I am thankful to be---here!

Their old is my new

Don't you love giving a piece of trash a new home?

I love it and would prefer to do that than buy new any day.

Every thing in this post had years of wear and had already lived a lifetime before 

I acquired them.

Many people would never give them a chance to grace their

homes.

Maybe many reading this post would even wonder what I could possibly see in them. 

Like this old scratched up mirror propped up here inside this old frame. 

 This Summer while shopping a flea market with my daughters, I saw this 

dilapidated old pink dresser.

I fell hard...not for the dresser itself, but for the awesome aging mirror it had.

You can't tell in these photos, but the mirror has beautiful veining and crackling. 

I didn't bring it home because I needed another chest of drawers, 

because I DON"T.

I brought it home strictly for the mirror.

Then there's this light fixture in my bath.

I finally got it hung after years of tripping over it no matter where I stored it.

I love that someone painted it pink

 I love that it is scrolly

 I love that it is hopelessly old-fashioned

and I love that it came with a friend!

 This one escaped the pink paint and has it's original finish.

 It is smaller in scale and hangs over the bathroom sink.

I fell in love with this style of light when I first saw some hanging in Robin's (Magnolia Pearl)

kitchen years ago in a magazine. 

About a year after seeing the magazine feature of her beautiful home, I found these in a 

cardboard box at a yard sale and there they sat until recently when I finally 

had them re-wired and hung.

So,

 for all those who have ever looked into this scratched up, chippy little mirror...  

  thank you for passing it on so I could add it to my own collection of 'new to me's'.

A time to rest.

I drove by a neighboring farmer's home the other day and noticed all of his eight
tractors parked in a row. His combines and hay swathers, balers and plows
are all parked neatly in his equipment yard.
This can only mean one thing...
harvest time is over.
  

My own little harvest is finished here as well.

My mower and yard carts, pruners and clippers

and shovels and hoes are back in the garden shed for another season.

I brought the new turquoise bench in for the Winter and it will stay in the reading room

until next Summer.

Well, maybe not just this room. I have been known to move things around a lot.

Last week Dale's best friend had to come and help move our bedroom back to it's 

post Summer arrangement. He asked "didn't I just come the Spring and help move it here?"

You see, in the Summer, I always move the bed in front of the windows so we can enjoy

having the windows open for the breeze and then move it back before Winter.

I cut all the hydrangeas I wanted to cut before the hard frost came a few nights ago.

I'm so glad I did because it got so cold that all we have now are are crispy,

brown and black hydrangeas.

I have been watching the weather forecasts for over a week now so I could cut the last 

of the flowers

to have in the house for one last hurrah. 

I put bouquets in almost every room in the house.

When I went to IKEA in Draper, Utah, I got these 

woven hanging baskets for the bathroom.

I love them because they hold wash cloths and my makeup and keeps the clutter 

off the counter.

They make pretty cool bouquet holders too!

Roses on a shelf above the tub.

So before the hard frost I thought I would go out and pick one of everything still blooming.

This is the little pail of flowers.

Everything that I knew wasn't going to make it through the 20 degree low we had.

 Those are Landon's toys in the background you see on the floor in the above photo. 

I could have picked them up and shut the doors on the armoire,

 but it looks like this all the time.

If you came to my house and into this room you would be dodging

legos and all kinds of plastic toys on the floor.

This room and the kitchen is where we do most of our hanging out. 

So it is never really picked up.

Landon's preferred toy is a magazine to rip to shreds and so you can 

imagine what the room looks like half the time.  

This is a good day. 

The sweet peas are no more and the roses are now ragged in the garden.

So these blooms are the last of the Summer.

I will be buying my fresh flowers at the market from now on.

They made a lovely centerpiece for the coffee table in the living room.

I can't walk passed them without smiling.

As you can tell, I don't really do any seasonal decorating at my house.

I used to when all the children were home, but now the only only season I decorate for

is Christmas and a little bit for Easter.

I have more than a little bit of 'lazy' in me.

One awesome thing Dale and I did this Fall was go to a Autumn

barn dance that a local rancher holds in his barn every year.

He hires our daughter Kim's band, which plays a lot of country rock and 

opens the barn to anyone and everyone who wants to 

come out and have a great time. 

It is the best time for everyone in town to come together and socialize 

and dance the night away. It usually draws over 200 people.

Dale and I love to dance and I think we danced every dance the first hour of it.

The next day I could hardly walk!

Kim had my daughter Haylee and me come up to sing some songs with her.

We had so much fun!

I can hardly wait for the next one.

But my feet can!