GOODBYE…

 

As you can probably tell, I’ve been slacking in the blogging department again. 

 

I wasn’t sure whether to post about this or not, but since I do have a few regular readers, I wanted to share what has been keeping me from blogging lately.

 

This past summer, I have had bouts of pleurisy followed by pneumonia, followed by a constant, very sharp, and very breathtaking pain in the ribcage area under my left arm.  In October, the xray that showed that I had pneumonia also showed a “spot”.  My follow up xray in November showed the pneumonia was going away, but the spot remained.  Fast forward to after all ct scans, pet scans, biopsy…I was diagnosed with stage 3b lung cancer.

When I was told that, my heart stopped.  My world had just been flipped upside down.  I was told that my options were full lung removal followed by chemo and radiation, or approx. 6 months left to live if I chose no treatments.  I went in for the full lung removal surgery, but it was unsuccessful.  It has spread to my heart and esophagus.  I am currently undergoing chemo and radiation.   

As much as I would love to continue this blog, I feel that my time is better spent with my family.  I will leave this blog up in the hopes that someone will find something useful here.  If you have any questions about anything on this blog, you can still email me and I’ll be happy to help you out.

I appreciate everyone that has stopped by to visit my little place on the web.  I will truly miss all of you!

Awww…Aren’t they cute!!

 

Today, I’ve done something that I’ve never done before.  I’ve been playing in paint!  Well, I’ve used paint before but not to paint a picture…lol…

Wanna see what I did?

Sure you do.  Here ya go:

For this one, I used a pattern from Deco-art.  I enlarged the image size to fit the oval plaque that I had.  I didn’t have the colors called for on their project page, so I just used what I had.  Look at those cute lil’ noses:

Not as pretty as the one on the Decoart’s website, but I love it…and so does the hubby.

 

After finishing the plaque above, I just had to try something else.  So I looked around the house for something else to paint on and I found a plastic silver charger plate that I had picked up from the thrift store several months back.  I looked on Deco-art’s project pages, but nothing else caught my eye.  So I sat down and started doodling around.  And here is what I finally came up with: 

 

Isn’t she cute!  I think I’ll call this one “Spreading the Luv”

 

So now I have more snowman decor to love!

 

And I also have two more charger plates…lol…

 

So, what do ya think?  Not too shabby for a beginner huh?

 

Linking this post up to :

Somewhat Simple’s Strut Your Stuff Thursday

Hookin up with House Of Hepworth's

Christmas In The Country…Part 2

Welcome back to our home.  The mail and craft supplies have been put away.  All jackets, purse, and bookbags have been hung up.  Now we can continue our Christmas tour. 

Back to the dining room.  Other than the tree and snowman display, I really didn’t do too much in here.  A centerpiece for the table, a few snowflakes in the curio cabinet, a lantern on my craft supply stand.  Here’s a peek:

When I moved my craft supplies downstairs for the winter, I had to remove the picture from the right side of the window.  For now, it’s temporarily leaning up against the wall under the other one. 

 

 

 

Poor little peace lily plant in the background has been watered & moved to a different location.  I think it’s getting too warm in this room for it to survive. 

 

It has been replaced with this cute little lantern that I found at Goodwill several months ago:

 

Now…that’s better.

 

Well, I guess that wraps up the tour of our home for Christmas.  Of course there “is” still a little more time before Christmas to do some more decorating…hmmm!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you enjoyed your visit.

Christmas In The Country

Come on in!  Grab yourself a cup of coffee or hot chocolate and I’ll show you around! 

First up we have the kitchen.  The kitchen is still in the remodel stage.   But that didn’t stop me from decorating for Christmas.  As soon as you walk in our back door, this is what you’ll see straight ahead:

I made it myself.  Isn’t it pretty?  This is the first wreath I’ve ever decorated that I am truly happy with.  I wanted soo badly to hang it on the door, but we live in an old fixer-upper and the doors and/or frames swell up and it’s hard enough to get them shut ‘without’ anything hanging from them.  So… I hung it at the end of my kitchen cabinets.  Maybe by next Christmas, we’ll have the kitchen completely finished and I can hang it from the door.

Now if you’ll look to your left, you’ll see my pretty “snowflake swag curtains”.   Just because our windows haven’t been framed out yet doesn’t mean I can’t have some curtains, right?:
 
Just look at that morning sun shining in:




Now, let’s walk around and look at the kitchen countertops.  This is on the left hand side of the stove:
  
(OOH!  A Christmas cookies cookbook.  Chock full of delicious goodies.  My son and I are making some tonight.  You’re more than welcome to stay and have some.)  Sorry,…I have ADD…let’s get back to the left hand side of the stove:

And this is the right hand side:

My mom gave me the little salt/pepper/sugar/creamer set.  The creamer (on the right) is missing it’s head I think but I think this is the cutest little set.  And who couldn’t love a snowman…even if he is headless. 


Ok, let’s grab that cup of hot chocolate and head on into the dining room:
 
I love how my little tree turned out.  I’m also lovin’ those cute little fuzzy snowflakes from the Dollar Tree. 




more snowmen…it must be the kid in me:



This little fella has sure been working hard decorating our trees:

with the help of his beautiful assistant of course:

And who can trim a tree without some beautiful Christmas music:


The table is full of mail, book bags, craft projects etc.  So I won’t embarrass myself by showing you that.

But you’re more than welcome to join me in the living room (aka “The man cave”).

This is our “family tree”.  The majority of the ornaments on this tree is either handmade or has special meaning to us.  This tree as hubby puts it : “has to sit in front of hubby’s recliner for his viewing pleasure”…lol:

He likes “LOTS” of color…I like browns, golds, creams, and white.  We just combined them all:





We found these beautiful mother of pearl deer ornaments at the Goodwill for $2 for the set back in the summer.  They originally came from Home Goods and were priced at $7.99.  We are using these as “our ornament for 2010”.  

(the little bear couple swinging on the crescent moon in the right hand corner was “our ornament” from 2005.)


Well, that’s the end for now.   I hope you enjoyed the tour.  Thanks for stopping by!

Go here for Part 2: The rest of the dining room

Linking this post up to:
The Nester's Christmas Tour Of Homes 2010  Head on over there for hundred’s of beautiful Christmas Home tours!
Coastal Charm's Open House

Good Morning Sunshine!

 

I’m so glad to see you!  And thank you for the beautiful performance you put on for me today!  There’s nothing any better than sharing my morning coffee with you.

 

How can something as simple as putting cheap snowflakes in the window be so breathtaking?

 

This morning’s “show” was beautiful!  I had snowflake shadows on my cabinets and walls.  I had sparkly snowflakes in the windows.  White sparkles…red sparkles…copper sparkles…. oh, it was so pretty. 

I tried to capture just how beautiful they were so I could share it with you, but my photography skills suck.  This is as good as I could get, so please enjoy:

(oh…pardon the dust on the light fixture, the maid quit…lol)

Do you see that big white glob outside the right window?   I think my car is under there.

 

Here’s a shot of my “snowflake curtains”:

 

 

Catch ya later! 

Oh… I almost forgot… for those of you requesting a tutorial for the wire angels, I’m working on it  : )

More Angel Ornaments

 

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I was going to make some of my coworkers some of those wire angel ornaments.  Well, that’s what has been keeping me busy lately.  Here are 8 more angels ready for a new home:

 

Each one different:

 

 

 

 

I love this one:

 

But I would have to say that this next one is my favorite.  The Swarvorski crystals just sparkle:

 

 

Which one do you like the best?

 

Linking this post to:

Made By You Mondays at Skip to my Lou

Make It for Mondays at Cottage Instincts

DIY Project Parade at The DIY Show Off

Motivate Me Monday at Keeping it Simple

Get Your Craft On @ Today’s Creative Blog

Boardwalk Bragfest @ Bobbypin’s Boardwalk

Jingle Bell Swag and a Little Angel Ornament

 

Finally finished another Pottery Barn Jingle Bell Swag knockoff.  In case you haven’t seen them yet, here’s the one from Pottery Barn:

 

I love these!  If you’d like to make one, HERE'S THE TUTORIAL that I did last year.  And I’m still trying to figure out how to make a stupid bow!  This bow looks “a little” better than the one from last year, but I’m still not happy with it.  I’ve tried one million different tutorials, but if there’s anyone out there with a step by step “bow tutorial for dummies” that’s easy to follow, please give me a holler!  

 

 

And here’s a little wire angel ornament that I’ve been making for the last few years:

 

  

 

I will be making a bunch of these this year for Christmas gifts for my co-workers and neighbors. 

Here’s the one I posted about last year:

 

 

These are so simple to make.  If you’d like a tutorial for these, just let me know.  I’d be more than happy to provide one.    Well, guess that’s it for now.  Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned because I’m sure I’ll be making something else…lol…