beauty every day.
I’ve been to Greenville, SC and back and Louisville and back….
I’ve helped pack and then unpack.
I’ve seen a dear friend for lunch – thank you Leah for a much need you hour.
I’ve rearranged furniture.
I’ve baked, iced, and packaged 120+ cookies
I’ve hosted a Cookie Swap and given out those cookies.
I’ve been enjoying a lot of Christmas music.
I’ve been thinking about our Christmas card.
I’ve been anticipating Christmas Break!
Happy Friday – 2 weeks ’til Christmas!
Reproduction of a circa 1825 Southern Huntboard…by Palmetto Custom Works (my Dad and brother’s business).
Below is a toy box that will be finished and donated to an auction for a children’s charity event in Greenville. Look at the sweet bunnies!
I’m so proud of you Dad and Todd! Your craftsmanship is amazing. I know God will bless this venture because you continue to keep in at the center of it.
So, Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday, and I enjoy time with family, giving thanks, and the wonderful food that comes along with Thanksgiving. I try to give thanks daily for things that are big and things that are small. Garner and I say a prayer every day on the way to school thanking God for things like sunshine and rain, blue skys, goldfish, fleece jackets, friends, teachers, momma, daddy and the list goes on and on…she’s ends our prayers with AMEN! and a cheer.
As much as I enjoy Thanksgiving, it’s not Thanksgiving that gets me excited during this time of year, it’s that Christmas is right around the corner. This morning at 7 am, a local radio station started playing Christmas music! I almost squealed with delight. Why do I love Christmas music so much? It’s happy…it’s positive…and I really don’t have to worry about what little ears in the back seat are hearing. It’s amazing how you start to filter your life in that way once you have one of those sponges…
I also started getting the decorations out of the attic and put up. I usually don’t like to do that until after Thanksgiving, but next week will be a crazy week and I just needed and wanted to start early this year. It’s been an interesting year and having something warm and holiday to come home to, even if it’s just decorations means more this year.
I love holiday crafts too and hope to accomplish something this season. The following projects can be seen on Ali Edwards blog.
1. Advent Box project.
2. Framed Christmas Card Collage. What a great way to use old Christmas cards…if you keep them like I do.
3. Twas the Night Before Christmas spinner – also using old Christmas cards, tags, wrapping paper, etc.
4. And how about an easy Christmas ornament project you can print out yourself!
Handmade gifts and Christmas decorations are so good. Better than bought items most of the time. Enjoy creating something this season - I hope I can too!
Garner’s class is called the Green Frogs. She can say green frogs…and so many other things. Mom made this fun embroidered green frog shirt and I MADE THE PANTS! HHAHAH!
Since I don’t write in a journal anymore, this blog serves that purpose. Because I want to remember these things and hope to turn this blog into a book one day, I thought I’d write some things I want to remember…Garner says: Purkle – purple, Toh toh – Stroller, Pa Pa – poptarts, poppie and pottie – it’s all about the context, Ishes – Goldfish, Joo – Juice, My side – outside, baby and too many more to write at this moment.
The Needle n Thread is coming along. The site should be up and running within a couple of weeks. All products, codes, fabrics and descsriptions have been done. We’re pricing items right now and detmerming inventory. It will be a nice shop! Mom is getting orders for various items. She’s enjoying creating.
I might have shown these already but wanted to show a finished NT product ready to ship to a friend:
Packaged and ready for the package label to be put on the back. (Yes mom, you now have stickers!)
I promise I’ll post a link as soon as the store is functional. In the meantime, please let me know if you’d like to see the beta version product page.
Other things on the to do list…decorate my house for Christmas! YES!
Saw this on designmom.com…too sweet.
Awwww. Drew loves Lynette. Too sweet.
Disclaimer: I NEVER and I mean NEVER participate in these kinds of posts. However, I’m in love with that Madsen bike. I even have a link on my sidebar. Don’t know Madsen? Oh…you’ll fall in love too.
So here we go….
Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme (from TodaysMama)
TodaysMama and Provo Craft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.
1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?
I honestly don’t know! As I sit here thinking about things I want – there aren’t too many. Maybe a new purse, or my office and reading nook painted, or possibly a Starbucks gift card. I know that’s not 5 and if I think of a few more I’ll edit this post.
2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?
When I was single my mom made my bedroom duvet, shams, and window treatments – it was a fabric we’d seen in You’ve Got Mail – Waverly Norfolk Rose. I still use it on my guest bed.
3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?
hand knitted anything
4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?
Might have been my 10 speed bike or my Barbie Dream House – at least those were the two I dreamed about and wished for.
5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?
Garner’s too young to ask for anything.
6. What is your favorite holiday food?
Oh my – just about anything! I love sweet potato pie and cornbread dressing (but not together.)
7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?
In some part, I will craft my Christmas card. I also have a lot of “hope to’s” including a spinner project with old Christmas cards I’ve received, a gingerbread house, and cookies for a Sunday School Cookie Swap!
8. What is your favorite holiday movie?
A Christmas Story, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Polar Express…I could go on and on!
9. Favorite holiday song?
I love Mariah Carey’s Christmas album – almost every song!
10. Favorite holiday pastime?
With a 20 month old we are making our own traditions. One we hope to do is decorate cookies!
1977 or 1978
Madison, Connecticut
Winter in Connecticut was beautiful. We had a few acres of land and behind us back into the woods was a pond that we would ice skate on. Yes, I learned to ice skate on a real pond. My brother would walk with me down to the pond and we’d meet other kids and ice skate around. It was magical. Almost everything about CT was magical to my childhood eyes.
One afternoon Todd and I went to the pond to ice skate and as I bent over to put my skates down so I could sit and put them on, I leaned into a stick that was frozen in the water. My mother took me to see the local ophthalmologist who happened to be head of that department at Yale. He lived in our small town and had a beautiful office that was in his home. His dogs were part of the experience and made a traumatic event not so bad.
I can truly say, “it’s better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.” Heh.
Fast forward 32 years and I’ve never been able to see well out of that eye and most doctors I’ve seen told me that without a cornea transplant I would never really be able to see better than either 20/250 or 350 (can’t remember exactly except that it’s bad). The thing is, my bad eye is basically like lazy eye, except the muscle still works well.
Yesterday JD and I went to see Dr. Rachel Wyatt, OD. She is so wonderful! Through a series of tests she told me that with contact she could correct my vision to 20/40 and by next year hopefully 20/30. You have no idea what that means to me!
So today I’m wearing my new contacts and I feel a little off because the scripts are different. But thrilled that my vision will be better. Now I’ll only need to wear reader glasses for close up work, which means I can get the cute cheap ones in the Pharmacy section of most stores! HA! 
Love it!
We’re all a BUZZ in the bee costume this year. Garner loves it and has gotten the opportunity to wear it three times now.
Thank you to Highland for Trunk or Treat last Sunday, to Senatobia CC for Trunk or Treat with Mamaw and to Open Arms for the Halloween Costume parade! Those are all a bit hit with Garner and us! She figured out very quickly what to do with her “Got Corn” her Gigi (Gammy) made her last year. She filled it to the brim going from car to car. All she’s really interested in is the action, well, with the exception of the DumDum lollipops.
And we had a big event at the Meredith house last night. Garner used her potty for the first time. She totally knows what it’s for and has been sitting on it every night for the past week or so. Last night she tried to take off the diaper herself and went straight to the potty seat. She proudly told Daddy over the phone that she Tee Tee in Pa Pa. HA! I know – this is only cute to those of you with children. Adorable to me.
Working on the SerifSans Christmas line…here’s a sneak peak…
Go to serifsans.etsy.com for more designs. The collection will be growing over the next week or two so check back!
Happy Fall!
On the way home from Trunk or Treat (photos to come) from the back seat we start to hear humming. Garner was singing “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and making the hand motions that go along with it.
When I picked her up from school on Friday she was sing the ABC song. And she knows how to sing E I E I OOOO at precisely the right time and in the right key. Amazing. Just amazing.
I thought I’d better add this to the blog before I forget. For all practical purposes, this is Garner’s baby book. And I’m perfectly fine with that.
This:
does NOT equal, or even come close to this:
Last night JD and I had the privilege of having our second date night in 2 weeks. While Mamaw played with Garner, we went to see Where the Wild Things Are. I struggled with even wanting to see the movie because it’s one of, if not my favorite children’s book -as an adult that is.
I worked at Borders in college in the children’s department. I was the Saturday story time lady. I orchestrated elaborate story time events, including princess dress up tea parties, Winnie’s b’day party, and the Stinky Cheese Man. I was hired on as an original staff person. So, I was there before the books were. Yes, I, along with 25 or so other people stocked every book in that place. Palette after palette of books arrived via 18-wheeler, were unloaded into the stock room, and then the stocking circus would begin. I was a well-organized event.
My job was the kids dept. If you’ve ever been in Borders, you’ll know it’s not a small dept. Before time to go home each evening we would read a story. And during that first week of setting up the store, it was my turn….and I picked Where the Wild Things Are. It’s a great memory.
When the movie came out I wrestled with the idea of seeing it. I didn’t want my grown-up children’s book ruined. I wanted it to stay in tact. I’ve seen several movies that have been adapted into film. Some are ok. Most are so-so.
So with an evening to ourselves we had to take advantage of seeing a movie. We flipped a coin – Amelia or Where the Wild Things Are. And you know what won.
I don’t read may movie reviews so I’m not even sure what the critics said, but it was kind of sad. I expected more animated make believe. I expected a more innocent story. I expected something lighter and more fun. I will do my best to not remember the movie every time I read the book that sits on Garner’s shelf. I will do my best to make my mind’s idea of the story win out over someone’s film idea of the story.
I won’t ruin it for those who read this that want to see it. If you’ve read the book, you know the story. I guess we just get to know the characters in a way I never wanted to.
So still, I’m uncertain as to whether or not I even liked it. I did, however, love an evening with my husband, and the trip to Muddy’s aftewards made our evening perfect.
