DAY AFTER DOWN TIME

 Hello! I hope you've recupperated from all the merriment yesterday. We had a lovely day, though we were really missing Don. It hit me hard when I onlly set out 3 places for dinner. 

We woke to some fog this morning. I was a little late getting a picture so it's pretty light. But I love the look of fog in our woods. 

My daughter gave her brother the new Jaws Lego kit for Christmas. He spent all day putting it together. He said it was the best time he's ever had on Christmas day! 

The house is a wreck. Hopefully I'll get it back to good today. I'm really looking forward to the new year. Not much good came our of 2025. 

Do you have big plans for New Years Eve? Any parties to attend? I hope this week brings you rest and peace. Thanks for stopping by.

 

That's me at the blackboard. Merry Christmas!

CHRISTMAS EVE GREETINGS

 Christmas Eve greetings. Our morning broke with beautiful blue skies and brilliant sunshine. Our temperatures will be near 70 today. I wish we had colder temps, I want to have a fire and hot chocolate. The cold will be returning next week. At least the kiddos can get outside with their new bikes, or skateboards or other outdoor toys. 

I set up our Christmas Eve table last night. I still need to tweak a few things, but I think it's looking nice. We always have spaghetti, it's the one meal everyone likes, lol. I have picky children. Heck, I'm picky. 

I have a cute story to tell you. Years ago my sweet, favorite aunt called my dad all excited and upset. She had been watching the news and alerted dad that an unidentified flying object had been sighted over Atlanta. She was freaking out, asking what she should do. Dad said, "Nell, that's Santa" to which she sheepishly replied, "Oh!". I love that story. She was such a dear but her fears got the best of her.

I hope you have a lovely Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. I'm just enjoying a nice quiet day. 

GENIUS

 

This is my favorite sculpture. It's called The Veiled Virgin by Giovanni Strazza. He was an Italian sculpture in the 1800's.  I am just amazed how he made this piece of rock look like a veil. Some people are geniuses. I like sculpture in general, but this one really touches my heart.

We're in the big count down now. Not much time left to get those last minute presents and treats. I'm going tomorrow morning to try and finish up. I'm not looking forward to it! I've done all my shopping online this year. But I need stocking stuffers and candy. 

I'm so glad you stopped by. I hope you have a great week!

YOU'D BETTER WATCH OUT YOU BETTER NOT CRY

 Yep, Santa Claus is coming to town. I know we all remember the excitement of thinking about Santa being on his way to our homes. Looking out the window, hoping to see 8 tiny reindeer. It's hard to believe we ever fell asleep. 

Now that I'm older I still get excited over Christmas and Santa Claus. It's such fun to see the excitement in my grandchildren. The last week of school before Christmas break was always lots of fun, too. I think teachers pretty much give up trying to cover anything important this week. 

I've got to get out there and finish up my shopping. I've not got much to do and should be able to complete my shopping in one trip. 

Our temperatures are nice and mild now. Reaching almost 70 degrees this weekend. I like the cold weather, though. I enjoy having those fires. I don't think we'll have any cold weather until after Christmas. 

I'm finishing up today with a photo of the drive up my street. I think it's such a pretty street.

It's super pretty in the snow. Here is a photo from last year. A rare event around here.

I hope you're enjoying your Christmas season. Thanks for stopping by.

MOVIN AND GROOVIN

 I did it! I got out of my chair and into my car for a trip to Hobby Lobby to buy a crochet hook and some yarn. The yarn I bought is a beautiful, soft cream colored yarn. It's  really lovely and feels so good. It was a slow start learning to do the bauble, but I finally got the hang of it and before I knew it, I had quite a bit done. I draped it across the tree just to get a feeling for how it will look next year and I think it will be very pretty. I still have a bunch to do, but it does go quickly. 

I/ll have to drape it prettier next year. I just kind of threw it on today. 

 Tomorrow I have to go to the Social Security office  and take a copy of my marriage certificate. There is just so much to do when a spouse dies. I think I'm doing ok in that area. I've been dealing with SS for some time now and this is the first time they asked for the marriage certificate. I'm beginning to wonder if the right hand knows what the left hand is doing. 

I still have a bit of shopping to do. I probably will not get to it until next week. I really don't want to shop on the weekend. 

I hope you're having a great week. Thanks for stopping by. 

AND AWAY WE GO

 Time is flying by, I hope you are satisfied with where you are in your Christmas preparations. I still have a little shopping to do, nothing too stressful. I should get it done this week, maybe even today. 

This morning I got a steam burn when I tried to remove the coffee filter. The coffee pot had been left on all night and when I stuck my hand in to get the filter, it let out a huge stream oif steam. Ouch! It still hurts and is all red. 

I want to share a picture from Ms. Mustard Seed's blog.

Do you see the crochet bauble garland? It's the one that is draping low. I think it is so cute. It is made using only chain stitch! I think even I can do it. If interested, you can find a tutorial here. I was excited to get started making one but I couldn't find the one crochet hook I have. I'll have to go to Hobby Lobby to pick up one and some nice yarn. That's on my to-do list for today. 

I finally got my wrapping done. So happy about that. I'm still waiting on a few packages to arrive. Hopefully they will get here before Christmas. 

I've been enjoying our fires as I peruse some of my favorite blogs. It's been brutally cold. Low's in the 20's with a stiff breeze. But we will warm up quickly, getting in to the 60's this week. 

I hope you are enjoying your holiday season. Thanks for stopping by!

CHRISTMAS BRUNCH

Hello Friends, I hope your weekend is full of Christmas cheer.  I was invited to a Christmas Brunch today and daughter and I both attended. It was so much fun seeing all the decorated tables and the fabulous ideas the ladies came up with.

This table had a delightful balloon structure. It's centerpiece was a delicious homemade cake.

Here we have a centerpiece of nutcrackers. How adorable!

This is my friends table, which I failed to get a good picture of. But you can see the pretty Holly and Ivy plates and my coffee cup looking all perfect. 

It was such a fun outing and I'm so glad I got to go. 

I hope  you are having a great weekend. Thanks for stopping by.

YULETIDE GREETINGS

Yuletide Greetings! I hope your holiday is moving smoothly along. I feel pretty good about where I am . Just need a few stocking stuffers, but I really need to start wrapping some presents. They are starting to stack up and the tree looks so lonely! 

This is a picture of our little dog Dizzy. He is a cutie pie. He likes to stand in my lap. He is called a "Bug,". He's part Pug and part Boston Terrier. He's like a Mack truck. If he doesn't want to move, he doesn't. No amount of my pushing or pulling moves him. 

What do you have left to do this holiday season? Are you going to any parties? Having family over?  Whatever your plans I hope things go well for you.

MERRILY WE GO ALONG

 Hello! I hope your Christmas plans are going well. We're roiling along. I still have some shopping I need to do, just need to get out there and do it. I hate procrastinating stuff, but that's what I do. My daughter and I ate out last night and we were pleasantly surprised the restaurant was all decked out for Christmas. So not only did we get a nice meal, we were incased in holiday finery. 

It's a cold, blustery day today.  I'm sitting in my living room watching the trees out back sway in the heavy wind. I'm glad I don't have to walk the dogs. I can handle the cold, but not with wind. 

I'm really enjoying my Christmas tree this year (every year)/ Here are a few of my favorite Christmas ornaments. 

I know a lot of you are getting snow and really cold temperatures. Keep warm my friends. 

Dreamy Days

 Hello Friends, how have your days been? Mine have been quite lovely. A little rain this week, which I love. Mostly just misty and cold. Cold by my standards may seem silly to some. Our highs have been in the 40's. but with the dampness it feels really cold. On my way to church this morning it was very foggy. That really made me happy!

We had quite a lovely sunset yesterday. All peachy and yellow. Very pretty.

Hope your day has some lovely sherbert colored skies. Thanks for dropping by.

Christmastime

 It's been a lovely couple of days.  Friends over for chili and cards and granddaughter over to spend the night. We have given her Don's old room and she is so excited. She''s been working on it all day and it really looks cute.

 I woke up this morning at 8:30 and thought it was Sunday and I had to be at church in 30 minutes. The fear I felt was real, lol. Luckily, today is Saturday! I cannot keep up with the days of the week. I just hope my alarm works tomorrow morning when I do have to be at church. 

I love the livingroom when it's all dressed up in it's Christmas finery. So festive and pretty.

Arie likes to lay by the fire, soaking in the warmth. She is such a funny dog. Everything scares her. The fireplace smoked a little when we were first starting the fire and she freaked out and tried to hide. I feel sorry for her because I know she doesn't understand. But once the smoking stops she takes her place in front of the fire. 

I hope you're having some Christmastime fun. Thanks for stopping by.

WINTERISH FALL WEATHER

Gray days and cold temperatures have been delighting us here in Georgia. The trees have finally lost their leaves, it takes them so long. But bare branches and gray skies make such a pretty picture. 

Haven't gotten much more done on the Christmas decorations for the house, but we did manage to do the mantle. It's a pretty scene with the red quilts and the stockings. This picture was taken before I got out the other red and white quilt.

How has your day been? Any snow yet? Hope you're having a great day. Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Holidays

 

Hello friends.  It's been a while. I've been taking care of my husband who passed away November 9. Makes the holidays seem somewhat empty. Luckily I have my children around me. It's crazy how him being gone feels like he's just away for a while and he'll be back soon. It just doesn't feel like he's really gone. He loved the holidays so much, so we thought a lot about him as we decorated our Christmas tree and the house a little.  

We had a lovely Thanksgiving. I hope you did too.

An Obsession

 I have an obsession. I am a non stop player of the game Animal Crossing, New Horizons. This game came out during the pandemic and my daughter talked me into getting the game so we could play together. To play the game, you get a totally deserted island that you invite animals to come and live on.  You have the ability to build/destroy cliffs and rivers. You can build furniture, or buy furniture. You get to buy clothes or design clothes. What's not to love? I particularly love decorating the empty spaces. 

What about you? What is your guilty pleasure?

Sorry for the bad photos. I had to take the pictures on the Switch.

I hope you're having a great day. It's time for weekend fun,  Thanks for stopping by.

STRANGE SIGHTINGS

Hello Friends! How is everyone on this fine Thursday?  I'm recuperating from no sleep last night. Yesterday I took my friend for his surgery wound care. Afterwards we  stopped for breakfast at my favorite place and saw the most amusing sight. Didn't see anyone in particular that looked as if this bike was theirs. Was kind of expecting a short, circus looking person  to be chowing down. Anyway, I thought it kind of cute.

Surely this is a homemade bike. I love the helmet (hanging off the side). Gotta have spikes to ride this!

Hope you're having a great day. Going to lunch with my sister, looking forward to that. Thanks for stopping by!

PRETTY

 The Azaleas have been so pretty this year. I can't remember a year when they bloomed so beautifully. Did you watch any of the Master's? The azaleas were spectacular. Prettier than I've ever seen them.

I still have a large pink one to bloom. I'm looking forward to it's big pink blooms. 

I hope you have a great week. We are a bit warm here. Our temperatures reaching into the mid 80's already. 

Thanks for stopping by!

THERE'S A FUNGUS AMONG US!!

 

While walking the dogs this morning, my daughter spotted this fantastic, bright yellow fungus on a rotting log. It is such a pretty yellow. I'm so glad she came to get me so I could photograph it. I've never seen one like it, have you? It's called Fuligo Septica also  known as Scrambled Egg Slime. In Scandinavian folklore it is the droppings of a Troll Cat which is a familiar of a witch. How interesting!

How has everyone been? I hope Spring has sprung all over by now. I'll be doing my rounds in a bit, can't wait to see your posts. 

Hope your Thursday is fantastic. Thanks so much for stopping by.

A TRAIN TRIP

 Hellooooooo! I've been away for a bit. So happy to be back. Cant wait to see what everyone has been up to. Don and I celebrated our 40th anniversary by taking a train to New Orleans. A lovely 12 hour trip.  Train travel is really the only way to go! I just love the rocking and vibration of the train. 12 hours may seem like a long time, but I'm so enchanted with the train I don't mind. I had a game to play and plenty of snacks. They feed you 3 meals, which is included for those in a roomette, which we were. This was our third trip by train. Before covid, the meals were really good, prepared right there. I had a delicious steak on our first trip. Now they serve preprepared meals which leave a lot to be desired. 

This is before our train arrived at the station. A huge freight train came barreling through.

Along the way I spotted some beautiful cloud formations. I'm going to include this on Skywatch. 

The view from our room was of the Warehouse District. Not very pretty. The Mississippi is to the left.

 

The other side of the hotel was Harrah's Casino. It had a much better view. We visited the Casino and it was so huge, with many floors, we got lost. Took us 30 minutes to find our way back out. We broke even in our play. I'm not one for wasting my money in card play or slot machines. It was a wonderful 40th anniversary celebration (our actual anniversary is June 1). Don has promised me a steak dinner since I refused to pay $71.00 for a steak. Just a hamburger was $18.00!

It's good to be back home. The doggies were ecstatic to see us. Such a warm welcome. 

I hope you have a great week. Thanks for stopping by!

IT'S SPRING TIME!!!

 Happy Spring! It's finally actually here. No more saying, "Spring-like"! We've been in the high 70's lately, but today we reached our high of 60 early this morning. Now the temperature is dropping into the 50's. No big deal, but kind of funny - the first day of spring we have the coolest temperatures in a few weeks! 

I love daffodils. I don't have that many planted, but I hope to change that this fall. They are one of the first signs of spring around here. As I drive around town I see them still blooming and am slightly disappointed I don't have some still blooming.

This picture is too bright. I was taking it during the sunniest part of the day. I'll be planting these in the yard soon. I hope they do well and bloom next spring.

We're still waiting on the insurance company to come assess the damage to the house. We still have the tree leaning on it. We'll have to hire someone to come take care of it. I hope it doesn't cost too much.

I hope you're having a lovely week. Thanks for dropping by.

STORMY SATURDAY/SUNDAY

 How did everyone fair Saturday night with the storms? It wasn't the storms that got us, it was the wind. It blew a tree down onto our house. Not a giant tree, but big enough to cause damage. It didn't come through the ceiling, thank goodness.  The actual storm hadn't even arrived yet. As you can see, we still have our Christmas lights up! May have to get them down for repairs to be done. 

Spring has definitely sprung around here. Bradford Pear trees are leafing out, their pretty white blooms being crowded out. The trees have a nice green haze around them as their leaves start to emerge. We've had a busy week and I'm looking forward to a week with nothing to do. I hope your upcoming week will be a great one. Thanks for stopping by.

RAINY DAY

 This is a post about reversing some things I've said...like I like rain. Oh sure, I like rain just fine unless I'm walking through the parking lot at church without an umbrella and as far away from the building as you can get. It was a cold rain, too. Reversal number 2...the daffodils around here are in full bloom, not through as I reported last post. Apparently, it's only mine that are done. I guess picking your daffodils makes them die faster and I picked all of mine. This fall I am going to plant a lot more so I'll have plenty to pick and plenty still blooming in the yard. 

The best thing about the rain today is a rainbow was created. They are always so exciting to see. This is actually an older picture because the one I took today didn't turn out, the rainbow was just to light.

I think the rain will be done soon and the rest of the week will be lovely.  I hope you have a great day. Thanks for dropping by.

STORMY WEATHER

 Big storms were predicted night before last, and some people did get them. Luckily, we just had some rain. But yesterday, after the rain had left, there were huge winds. We've lost our Spring-like temperatures, so with the blustery wind and colder temps, it felt brutal to me. I can handle the cold, but not with the wind. 

Even though the rain had moved out, storm clouds remained. I love storm clouds. They are so much more interesting than blue sky to me. We tend to get a lot of storm clouds, but no rain. That's always a disappointment.

A  little bit of blue sky peeking through. There was a good bit of blue sky, but then it all turned back to dark clouds. 

I was so worried about the storms and high winds that I moved a lot of my plants into a protective area. I was afraid the high winds would break the tulips. All's back to good though. My daffodils are all done blooming. That's always sad.

I hope you're having a wonderful week. Looking forward to the weekend. I'll be doing childcare at church. I still haven't made it to the Home Depot nursery. Maybe I can do that tomorrow.

TODAY'S MUSINGS

 Not much happening this weekend. We drove to Home Depot, but realized it was Saturday afternoon and decided it was going to be too crowded, so we turned around and headed back home. We'll go Monday instead.  I really don't like crowds. Don grilled us some salmon for dinner and it was delish. He is the grill master, but he's passing the torch to our son, who loves cooking. What a lucky mother I am. 

This is our dog Arie. She is laying on her favorite piece of furniture, but she's too big for it so she lays with her head hanging off. If I laid like that my eyeballs would be popping out, but apparently her big ol head can take all that extra blood. 

Our temperatures have cooled off. This morning the low is in the 30's. Our high is expected to be in the 50's. A far cry from our highs in the 70's. Still, I kind of like this on again/off again weather. I think we might get some rain late in the week. That always makes me happy!

This little setting is on my dear mother's singer sewing machine base. I gave it to her for one of her birthdays - found it at an antique flea market. It has a nice slab of marble on top. 

I'll be heading out to church soon. I teach a 1st grade class then go to hear the message. I love my church and find the messages interesting, but I have the hardest time sitting for an hour and ten minutes. It's pure torture for me to be still that long. What's a girl to do? 

I hope you have a great week. Thanks for stopping by

HELO MARCH

Hello March! I know you're going to have cold days and blustery days, and rainy days, but I am so glad to see you. This winter was fabulous, it still has about 3 weeks to go, but I know there are going to be many Spring-like days with nice temperatures. Maybe we'll squeeze in a fire or two, enjoying the last of the winter-time cold days. I promise I won't be upset, I'll roll with it. 

Nothing much happening for me this weekend. Last Saturday was my child care day at church, so this Saturday I can play. I see a trip to the Home Depot nursery in my future! I'm looking for purple violas and pansies.

I thank you for dropping by my blog. Comments are appreciated. I love to see who has visited. Have a lovely day.