Christmas Goodies

Merry Christmas Y'all! So I don't know if you know this or not, but I am not a baker. Alas, the baking of sweets for the neighbors isn't really an option. I don't enjoy it. I have a theory about baking. If you are a rule follower, you like to bake. If you are fly by the seat of your pants kinda person, you like to cook. In baking you have to follow the rules; there is no improvising, skipping or tossing the recipe out the window. With cooking, you can pretty much do whatever the heck you want. Now, this post really doesn't have a dang thing to do with cooking other than it is a gift that doesn't involve it. So, here's a handmade gift I made for my neighbors. It's a Christmas Survival Kit.  All of the goodies were found objects here in my house! So it cost me nada! Unlike baking, which cost an arm and a leg!

 Here's what we started with, recycled jars, smarties, tea bags, gum, candle, staples, paperclips, note cards, confetti, candy cane, travel toothpaste, and a bible verse.

Here is just one of many bible verses you can use:

Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Also a scrap of fabric to cover the lid and some twine. I hot glued the fabric to the lid so that it wouldn't fall off when the lid was removed. You can see in the above pics that I also used a punch and a stamp to make a label topper.

 Add one each of the above list into the jar. Print out a Christmas Survival Kit List. Sorry Y'all, I don't know how attach a printable. But feel free copy this one and use it. I printed mine on heavy card stock.

 Christmas Survival Kit
Notepad: for last minute gift ideas
Smarties: to remind you to spend wisely
Paper clips: to help you hold  it together waiting in line
Candle: to remind you there is a light at the end  of the tunnel
Stick of Gum: to remind you to stick to your list
Green Tea: to help keep your immune system strong
Candy Cane: to settle your stomach after over indulging
Staples: to keep your family together
Toothpaste: To freshen your breath before your New Years kiss
Confetti: to remind you to have fun
Bible Verse: To remember the reason for the season

So there you have a super quick, easy and cheap little gift for your neighbors. Although mine said it should include a mini bottle to help get them through it. But then again, most of my neighbors have a pretty well stocked liquor cabinet so I'm pretty confident they will survive!

Hope you have been enjoying your holidays.

ginger

Linking up to:

At Home With K, Terrific Under $10 Tuesday 

Home for the Holidays

Hey Y'all. Come on in. Grab a drink and stay awhile.

Here in my foyer, I decorated a wreath with with some vintage children skis. Picked 'em up  for about $2, including the poles. They are all wood and super cool. I grabbed this wooden candlestick lamp and from the charity booth at Queen of Hearts. All proceeds go to a charity and are objects that other vendors no longer want. I gave it a burlap shade trimmed with red pompom fringe. The picture is a vinyl cut out with drop cloth put behind the glass. And the mittens, from the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

This is a hand painted Santa by an old friend that was painted for my Dad before he passed away. She gave it us as a memento and he comes out every Christmas. He's chillin' on a shelf with an old block and tackle and a wrought iron lantern.

Here's a little corner of our mantel with a homemade cone tree, a compass rose and chalkboard sign.

Our whole mantle with a little visitor, Patchy our elf.

All ready for the guests that have graced us this season. More on that in another post, but we have had a ton of family in for Christmas (like 20, all at once). But this room is ready with a little Christmas cheer. This bed was passed down on Big Daddy's side all the way from his Great Grandparents. And it will be handed down to Miss Priss one day too!

And this here fan, was bought by Big Daddy's grandfather, for his wife when she had her first son, which is Big Daddy's Daddy. Y'all follow that? When he passed it on to me, it had been living in the garage and was filled with nests from mud dwelling creatures. I loving took it apart and restored it to working condition. It has a nice little hum to it when it gets going that will remind you of sleeping with the windows open on a summer's evening.

This is our short banister heading down the back side of our house into the family room and kitchen.

And here's looking into our kitchen. You can see the previous post of on the basket I made if you want more details on it. I love to decorate the island (or continent if you ask our cousin) but I'm 5"2' so when I'm behind it, I can't see a dang thing happening on the other side if I go crazy with the decorations.

Well there is a whole lot more happening in our home but that's enough for now. Sure hope your Christmas was blessed, full of happy memories and a lot of time with your loved ones.

Happy New Year!

ginger

Santa Claus is Coming To Town

The Man in the Big Red Suit has come to town. Last year when we had breakfast with Santa, Miss Priss informed me that it wasn't the REAL Santa, it was one of his helpers. So I asked her to let me know if this one was the real one or another helper. Happy to report that this one is REAL! How do we know, "because I can see where his hair grows right into his face" and "he has the magic key" says Miss Priss.

Our Social Committee organizes this every year for our neighborhood. Santa comes to one of the homes in the neighborhood and reads to the kids. Then each of us has the opportunity to visit with him and take pictures. So much nicer than the mall race. They even serve lots of sweet treats as well. It's really a nice event.

And I even got a quick pic with the two of us!  And that rascal elf of ours snuck in as well! Love, the magic of Christmas.

Enjoy,

ginger

May beautiful moments and happy memories surround you with joy this Christmas

Peace on Earth

This year Big Daddy, myself and Miss Priss tried a new Christmas tree farm, one that was local and much closer. Now, let me explain something here. If it was up to me, I'd have us all in matching Christmas sweaters, singing carols and drinking hot cocoa while we chopped down the perfect tree. And Big Daddy, well he'd drop into the closest and cheapest place around and grab the first tree he saw. This has been a point of contention for the past 11 years of marriage. But somethings are worth fighting for and dang it, a great tree is one of them. Well in an effort to keep the peace, I voted that we try and local tree farm that we hadn't ever gone to before. Well, we ended up buying a precut tree there as the ones growing were in Big Daddy's words, "There ain't no way that tree is gonna hold all your ornaments!" So even though the perfect tree wasn't cut down there, we did get a dang fine tree and we came across these jewels! These handmade baskets.

The baskets are made by an elderly couple out of Ashville, NC. They go into the forest and harvest smoke vine and sycamore. Now I've never seen anything like this and frankly never even heard of smoke vine but I was diggin' the baskets. Picked up one for MIL and myself. Now they had them premade and $$$ but whats the fun in that. I'll take an empty one please and thank you. Well here's what I came up with.

Floral foam in a recycled plastic bowl, filled with florist foam. Wrapped a ribbon around it to cover the writing.

Began filling with harvested Frasier fur Christmas tree trimmings, free from the farm.



Purchased these from Hobby Lobby with 50% sale. I disassembled the large bundle in the back to get more mileage out of it.

Added this ornament as to the top, also a HL 50% deal.

Filled in both sides so that it could be enjoyed from either angle.

Well, total cost for mine was $37, $20 of that being the basket. All being reusable other than the tree trimmings. And that's about $70 less than what they were asking at the tree farm.

Here is a picture of another version that I did as well.

I hope this finds all of you enjoying the advent season.

Enjoy,

ginger

Luke 2:13-14And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, (14) “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”



The Grundy County Auction Incident

So you know that saying, "If you don't have anything nice to say then come sit next to me." Well that's always been a bit dear to my heart. Not that I'm hateful or cruel, but I've been known to snicker to a girlfriend about an ill conceived outfit. As I like to say, "I've never been in a house without mirrors, so I'm just not sure what happened with that ensemble". Well, those days are over. And it's all because of these guys!
Here's how the story went, Me to my girlfriend Diana, "I'm gonna go to an auction tonight. Wanna go?" Her, "Yup, can I bring my mom?" Me, "Yup, let her know I'll be in Big Daddy's truck so she might want to bring some disinfectant". I mean I gotta be prepared to haul my wares, right?!
 Well, off we went. And all is going well at the auction. Well other than this was their first auction and they didn't have a dang clue what the flop the auctioneer was jabbering about. Well we are a couple pieces of furniture into the game, some champagne flutes and a sled; we are more than warmed up.
Now let me tell you, this was not some Sotheby's auction, we were in a glorified barn and the only snacks available were some hot dogs in a crock pot (what? who cooks hot dogs in a crock pot?) and some microwave popcorn and some cokes.
Well like I said, we are warmed up, wired on coke and empty stomachs and in walks this lady who quite possibly hasn't washed her hair in a good two weeks. No lie. IT WAS NOT PRETTY! And it was BIG! And she had super tan, like too much tan for it to be November and wait for it, a track suit. Now, y'all hold that thought, cause it's gonna be important here in a minute.
Now back to that first picture, the one of the carolers. Picture this, we are jacked up on coke in a fancy barn with hot dogs cooking in a crock pot and these carolers come up on the auction block! Color me excited. Here we go folks!

Time to get my bidding on. I'm all about it. I mean come on the bid started at $5. Why not! Well I'm in the game til somewhere around $30. I bail out. I mean really, who needs these things that bad. Well, about that time I was distracted by a greasy shiny object (recall description of lady with no mirrors in her house and dirty hair) and lean over to discreetly whisper something to Diana.
Well being the good southern lady that I am, I covered my mouth with my auction card so I didn't hurt the woman's feelings. I mean bless her heart, she can't help it. Well son of gun, if the dang jabberin' auctioneer didn't take that as the bid and dang it if I didn't win it! "SOLD!" squeals the auctioneer, "TO THE LADY IN THE BACK!" I look up and look around to see who won these beauties! Well to quote Diana, "The look on your face when you realized you won them was priceless!" Well good gravy, how much did I pay for these dang things?
Well unfortunately I just won them at $50! Holy crap! How am I gonna explain this one to Big Daddy? Well the auction gods must have been smiling down on me and amused b/c upon check out, there was some discount. Phew!
Miss Priss and Big Daddy were asleep by the time we were home from the auction, so they awoke the next morning with these guys standing at the front door like they were selling girl scout cookies. All I hear as Big Daddy is going down the stairs is, "Ah, come on. You didn't!" I just handed him a cup of coffee and said, "well there's a kinda funny story that goes with it" and kissed him good morning.

Here's another little goody I got from the auction, thought it was perfect for the front porch after I spruced it up with some greenery, red fleece scarf and a burlap bow.

And I always love my green front door but I really am diggin' with some Christmas goodies! Well apparently the carolers are here to stay as Miss Priss loves them. And well, dang it, now they even have a story to go with them! And well....I'm not so sure about what I said in the beginning, I'm still kinda fond of that quote. And hey, I did end up with some dang fine carolers.

merry christmas,

ginger

Now I love, love, love my green front door. And I'm totally diggin' it all decked for Christmas. Can't see the lights but they are the pearl shapped red, white and green lights.

Wonderful Christmas Time

So I love looking at the pictures of every one's Christmas decor. Love the ethereal white, monochromatic, burlap and natural scape's. I think they are beautiful but......I just can't do it. I want COLOR! I want red and pretty and lights, real lights, not those dang LED things!  I wanna use my china and my grandmothers crystal, that's the red salad plates you see. I wanna pretty, pretty only use at Christmas kind of stuff.

I LOVE our china. I mean, I love it. It has our initials on it at the top. On the back, it has our wedding date. And if you will indulge me, during the wedding planning days, 11 years ago, the sales clerk repeatedly asked me if I was sure that I wanted to get it because "what if we got divorced". Well you know that isn't my plan lady but thanks for being so concerned. Anyways...I really love it. But you know the thing about china, it's not exactly everyday friendly. So dang it, it's coming out at Christmas!

I also love the classic red out at Christmas. And the mix of metals, glass, fabric, and some greenery thrown in. I not sure that I'm completely done futzing on the table. Thinking about adding some tags on each setting. We will see.

So, some extra large ornaments under a collection of cloches on a mixture of silver platters and pie plates. And we have a table folks. Hope you enjoy it and are enjoying your Christmas season.

Enjoy,

ginger

Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace

Linking up to:

A Lettered Cottage: Table scapes

I Don't Need Your Rocking Chair

So this little rocking chair has been in our family since the time of the dinosaurs. Ok, well maybe not that long but it came to me by way of my Aunt Jan and Uncle Gene. And it was lovingly shuffled from room to room until it finally managed to go reside in the basement. Unfortunately it just wasn't all that pretty and didn't match a dag-gum thing. Well, it's day has come and new life has been given to it with a little Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Duck Egg Blue with clear and heavy dark wax. And the covering, well it's just some painters drop cloth that was bleached and is super cheap soft! Now, of course my patience got the best of me and I didn't take during pics but really, do you need to see me painting. I will add this though, if you decide to paint and reupholster a piece, do the painting first, before you remove the old fabric. If not, you spend an inordinate amount of time picking chair guts from your paint brush. Now if you're the sadistic type, well disregard the warning and carry on.

So, now here's another little story. I'm over at my girlfriend Paula's house and as I'm leaving, we are walking out through her garage, cause we're that kind of friends that don't need to use the front door and don't care if each other sees our garage crap. As we are walking out I spy this little ottoman. Me, "What's the story on this?" Well, I won't go into details but let's just say it belonged to an ex boyfriend and she couldn't put it in my car fast enough. Now, make sure you scroll down and see what it looked like before I got my hands on it. Now, for the sake of picture taking, they are together, the rocker and the ottoman but in real life, they wont be hanging out together.

YIKES!

Wowzers! And you now know why it was lovingly moved to the basement.  

Well I hope you enjoyed this little Monday morning makeover. Hope y'all had a great weekend and a fantastic Thanksgiving!

Enjoy,

ginger

Linking up to:

At Home With K, Terrific Under $10

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia