Sweet Gifts!

I want to share some of the sweet Christmas gifts that I received this year. The Bath and Body Works goodies, bottle of wine and ornament are from 2 of my clogging friends. The wine bottle bag and ornament were made by my friend Martha. She is super-talented and has opened an Etsy shop.

She also  made this little "apron" for the wine bottle.

My sweety gave me these "King Ranch" shot glasses.

My teaching partner at school gave me this sweet fern.(along with an ivory poinsettia.)

One of my students brought these beautiul Meyer Lemons to me! I am hoping to plant my own tree this spring.

My sweety also gave me the "Conga Roo's" as I call them. They fit perfectly on a window ledge. 

This pretty Christmas Cactus was one of several gifts from my parents.
I had a very Merry Christmas!
Y'all come back,
Lorilee

Theodore

This box arrived on my front porch on St. Valentine's Day.

Theodore arrived from my husband. My Mum's childhood rocking chair is a perfect fit.

It says "Born in Vermont" in his eyes!

What a sweet face! Thank you, sweety!

Y'all come back,

Lorilee

 We celebrated Christmas starting on December 18 with my Dad, Stepmom and brothers and sisters. My SIL and I hosted our 8th Annual Cookie Exchange Party. We went to my 91-year-old grandmother's house for Christmas Eve along with the extended family. We had our Christmas with our 2 sons on Christmas Day. We traveled to my husband's sisters home to celebrate with his side of the family on the 27th. Now we are ready to think about the New Year! (FYI) The photo of "Rascal" was taken while we were taking our family Christmas photo. He was running wildly around the yard climbing on everything!

 In between all the visiting and partying, I cooked, baked, sewed and crafted! Above are this years mini apron ornaments.

 A shot of the buffet my SIL and I prepared for the Cookie Exchange.

The Cookie Exchange Group for 2011 along with some of the banners I've made this year.
This year is ending with me crazy about burlap and black. I am still finding new things to paint black. Currently, the curtains behind us in the photo are down being cleaned and the curtain rod (not visible) is being given a coat of black paint. It was previously unfinished wood! I was anxious about 12 years ago to hang my just completed curtains and never "finished" the rod! I guess it is time to finish the job 12 years later!
Blessings,
Lorilee

Before November ends!

 I did finish painting my kitchen stools black. The paint stayed a bit tacky for awhile, but they are finally completely cured.

 It seems like yesterday that I put out my fall decorations. Now I will be replacing them with Christmas decorations.

 We decided to try our hand at frying our turkey this year instead of baking. We ended up frying 3 turkeys. They were wonderful. We prefer fried over baked!

Luckily, we had nice weather for it! Of course, we had plenty of food. The menu included: the fried turkey, Giblet gravy, Cornbread dressings, jellied cranberry, Broccoli Rice, Green Beans, Sweet Potato Casserole, Cherry Coke Salad, Stuffed Celery, Rolls, Fruit Salad, Creamy Pumpkin Pie, Kentucky Pecan Pie, German Potatoes, Sourdough bread, Buttermilk Pie, and Traditional Pumpkin Pie.
Now on to the Christmas preparations!
Y'all come back,
Lorilee

 We had a low-key Independence Day celebration with our immediate family and a few of the boys' friends. Of course, hot dogs were the main menu item along with potato salad, coleslaw, chips, beans and cake. Lucky for us, our town's fireworks display has been moved closer to our house, behind our mall. All we have to do is sit in our front yard and look down the street for a spectacular view! I love it! No traffic to contend with and a bathroom nice and handy.

After seeing Anne Marie's old party barn banners made from bandanas, I decided that my patio needed some in red, white and blue for the 4th of July!

To make my banners, I cut each bandana into 4ths to give me 4 triangles. I straight-stitched along the raw edges so that they could unravel just a bit. Then I folded the top edge over my string and straight-stitched again. I did stitch up over the string on each end of each triangle to keep it from slipping along the string.

I hope everyone had a blessed Independence Day. I will end with a few borrowed words.

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases. If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it, and if it stops moving, subsidize it"-Ronald Reagan 1986

"The inherent vice of capitalism is an unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is an equal sharing of the misery."-Winston Churchill

Y'all come back,

Lorilee

P.S.

I changed my post editor to the "Updated Edition"  under settings. This seems to have solved the issues I was having with links, text color and size. Yippee!

Cats and Independence

The kitty has really grown since we got him. He is also VERY active. Taking good photos of him has become quite challenging. He moves too much for the low-lighting in my kitchen. I can even keep up with him using a flash!He likes to run in circles around the island with the dogs following.

He and the dogs have become wonderful playmates! The down side is that the kitty then has the odor of doggie breath about him!I just finished a set of napkins. I found the idea in Martha Stewart's Living magazine. You can also find the idea online. I googled "Martha Stewart's seersucker napkins" to find it. (Even using "compatibility mode" after updating my browser, I still can't change my font color or size or use the link button. Suggestions would be appreciated.) I couldn't find striped seersucker, but I also liked this design. I have been getting ready for Independence Day by putting out my Patriotic Pretties! I wish I could say that I made him, but I won him at Bunco!My feather tree is decked out in red, white and blue. They are glass and many have been broken through the years. I need to watch for Hobby Lobby to have the Patriotic stuff on sale!

I like this candle that was a gift.

I just finished this banner. I have more "pretties", but I haven't taken pictures of everything yet. I've been busy making salsa, mustang grape jelly, and re-arranging. We took my teenager's futon out of his room and moved the twin bed from my craft room into his room. Now I have tubs that WERE under the bed but no where to put them!

Y'all come back,

Lorilee

Farewell 2010, Hello 2011!

So long, farewell,good-bye 2010!

We hope everyone has a wonderful 2011!
Y'all come back!

Lorilee

New Banner, New recipes, New year!

I hope everyone has a blessed 2011.

I am new to papercrafting, and I can't resist trying new projects when I see so many cute ideas on others' blogs. I used a set of "tracing letters and numbers" that I used in high school. I was in the drill team, and we had "locker boys"-football players whose lockers we decorated. I used lots of glitter back then, but none was as nice as Martha's! I don't have a mantle so I use our Stickley mirror!

I spent New Year's Eve afternoon in the kitchen!

I was inspired to try making french macarones after reading about them on Parisienne Farmgirl's blog. I used Martha Stewart's recipe and tips I found at Giver's log. I planned to make them raspberry flavored with seedless raspberry preserves for filling, but I didn't have raspberry extract. I used strawberry instead. I am pleased for a first try, although I would like to keep my batter a bit thicker so they don't spread as easily as they are piped.

I also made my 2nd batch of Pizzelles. One of the Christmas Cookie Exchange guests brought them to the party. My SIL and I loved them. I decided I wanted a Pizzelle press for Christmas. She made them with lots of anise, which my SIL and I love. The rest of my family doesn't care for that flavor much. Awwww, more for my SIL and me!

I am still thrilled when I gather eggs, so I couldn't resist one last photo for 2010!

Y'all Come Back,

Lorilee

7th Christmas Cookie Exchange!

My SIL and I hosted our 7th annual Christmas cookie exchange party this year. We happened to have matching skirts and joked that we wore different blouses so that others could tell us apart!

The cookies filled my dining table!

My crystal rooster presided over the cookie table surrounded by Christmas light bulbs that belonged to my husband's grandmother.

Another table held the cookie recipe booklets, apron ornaments and more cookies.

I was told that the ornament aprons also fit Barbie dolls!

These are the cookies I made this year. I originally wanted to try decorated sugar cookies. After quadrupling the eggs while doubling the recipe for the first batch and then setting the oven to 250 degrees instead of 350 degrees and having part of a batch slide off the cookie sheet while I was removing them from my bottom oven, I decided to switch to a less time consuming recipe.

We served appetizers, punch and coffee.

Everyone was given a bell necklace to wear. If caught saying the word "cookie", the necklace had to be given to the person who caught you.

We gave prizes for getting the most bell necklaces, the best cookie presentation, and the most spirited outfit. (We voted to decide the winners.)

Every year my husband asks me if it is worth all the work in preparation. I say "definitely"!

Blessings,

Lorilee