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Welcome to a new year and the beginning of a new century! I'm full of hope that 2011 will bring many wonderful blessings to you and your families.
Christopher is still home from college. He leaves on the 9th to go back to Ohio. It's been wonderful having him home for such a long period of time. It's also time for me to return back to work after having almost two weeks off myself! I've so enjoyed not having to get up early every morning and I was just getting used to sleeping in late (7:00 is late for me!). We enjoyed a beautiful Christmas together with family and friends and we even had a blanket of snow on the ground giving us a beautiful, white Christmas. The tree is down, decorations safely packed away for yet another year and now I need to focus on losing a few extra pounds from all the savory treats and hearty cooking we've enjoyed over the holidays.
I thought I'd share a couple of things we did this Christmas, under our tight budget. Gift giving doesn't have to be costly with a little bit of imagination coupled with a little bit of craftiness.
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I was wanting to give two of our youngest nephews something that they could build themselves with a little bit of help from their dads. Many of us in our families enjoy feeding and watching the birds so I thougt a bird feeder might be just the thing! I looked online and found bird feeder kits that could be built with kids in mind, but they were all very small and kind of pricey once I included in the shipping cost. My hubby took a couple of hours and cut out two, very easy and sizable bird feeders that our nephews could build. We went to the store and found some paints and a screw driver and of course we included some bird seed in with the home-made kits.
This is the completed bird house. My hubby pre-drilled holes so they could be screwed together and then we took them apart again and labeled each piece so they'd line up properly.
I hope the boys will have fun building and painting their bird feeders and enjoy watching the birds for years to come!
One thing I always do at Christmas time is make candy treats for everyone. I made peanutbutter balls, fudge and toffee as well as little mini loaves of sweet bread. We also gave homemade zucchini relish and pickles. I forgot to take pictures of the relish and pickles all "dressed up" for giving but here's a couple of pictures of the treat bags and breads I made.
The tags were made using stamps from PaperTrey Ink. I can see myself using this stamp set a lot as I love to give homemade goodies for any occasion.
I also made my mom a couple of penny rugs for her side tables in her living room and for my sisters and MIL I made some homemade lotion, soap and lip balm. I put together two soap making kits for one of my nieces and nephews so they can try their hand at making their own soaps shaped like sea shells and flowers. I don't know about you, but I love giving and receiving home made gifts best of all!
I also wanted to share a major change that took place in our living room. After I took the tree down I always think the living room looks bare. The furniture in the room has remained the same for a few years and I've been wanting to try something different in the line of furniture arrangement. Amanda and I spent one afternoon moving and placing and moving stuff again. I'm still trying to decide if I like it but it's staying this way for now.
Here's a couple of before pictures:
Our living room is very long so I thought I'd try to cozy it up by making two seating areas.
I moved the love seat to the left of this little sitting area rather than having it in front of the window like in the first picture above.
The mission rocker came out of the corner to in front of the window with the other chair. The table in the middle is the one I found at a yard sale and refinished this summer.
I moved the sofa table behind the love seat to break up the room and moved the blanket chest that was in front of the other sofa to the space where the table was.
These picnic baskets are in the corner where the mission rocker used to be.
Some things didn't change at all, like the commode under the blanket shelf. That's my grandmother with some of her letters she received while in college. She's been on the sofa table for a while. Maybe It's time to change some of those things too next time I have the time, energy and inspiration. We'll be getting into our busy season at work so I most likely won't be able to post as often as I have been [not that I've posted that often].
Well, I guess that's all for now. Thanks to those of you who stop by and read my blog and take the time to comment. You add sunshine to my day just by dropping by! Hugs to you~ Birgit
Hello friends~ Just thought I'd jump on here for a few minutes and share some pictures of our Christmas Memory Tree this year. I created our first Memory Tree last year as I was trying to come up with something new and different for our little tree. Since last year I was decorating very vintage-y, I printed off some black and white photo's of family members who are no longer with us as well as old photo's of my mom & dad when they were young. Everyone in my family loved looking at the old photo's and many of the photo's sparked memories and stories shared by my parents and uncle. Now, I'm thinking this is going to be tradition as I enjoy having the old pictures out to enjoy all the time. They make me smile as I think of warm memories of my grandparents, my Oma from Germany and other family members that I'd never even met but wished I could have like my Opa, who was killed in the war when my mom was a child. This year, I'll be adding Hunter to our Memory Tree as he was just as much a part of our family.
This is Oma, my grandmother from Germany. I remember her always smiling and laughing. She was the most jolly person I think I've ever known. She was just a tiny thing, not even five feet tall. She couldn't speak any English at all but we communicated just fine. When she lauged, her whole body shook and tears always came out her eyes. She could make me laugh just by listening to her giggle. Oma came to visit us from her home in Germany only a few times, but when she came she stayed for what seemed like months at a time. The time always went by too quickly.
When I was a little girl, I remember Oma watching Sesame Street with me and even though she couldn't understand what was being said, she'd giggle and laugh through the entire show. Her favorite character was Oscar the Grouch and that year for Christmas my mom gave her an Oscar the Grouch puppet, complete with trash can. Oh how she laughed and laughed when she opened that gift. We all enjoyed so much laughter when she was with us. She would say funny things trying to say them in English and make silly rhymes with made up words. She enjoyed playing cards with us and she would put down a heart and say, "heartz, shmeartz doo-deartz". Crazy, but so memorable. That's my Oma!
This is my Oma and my mother when she was a little girl.
The picture on the left is of me hugging my grandpa when I was a teenager. This was taken on Christmas eve. Little did we all know that this would be our last Christmas with our Grandpa. The pretty young girl on the right is my mom when she was a girl. That was taken at her confirmation.
In the picture to the left, is my aunt, uncle and my dad when they were all young. My dad is the one of the right. In the picture on the bottom left is my great grandmother (my grandpa's mother). My grandmother is in the bottom picture on the right.
Daryl's grandmother is in the picture on the left and another picture of my mom as a young woman. 
Here's our Memory Tree. Filled with love, laughter, smiles and many, many memories.
I just wanted to add that I would love for anyone to use this idea and make a Memory Tree of their own. It's a wonderful way to share our heritage and memories with family and friends. I'd love to see your Memory Tree, so leave me a post if you make one too.
Here's a couple pictures of our front porch. Just thought I'd include them on this post too.
I also wanted to let you all know how much I enjoy and appreciate reading your comments. They bring sunshine into my days and always make me smile when I think about the kindness of people whom I've never even met before. You make my day brighter by your thoughtfulness and I just wanted to say thanks and send you a big Christmas cyber (((HUG)))! Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope your Christmas is filled with many blessings and many happy new memories made. Hugs~ Birgit
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.... everywhere you go.
Well, here in our little home it's beginning to look like Christmas as well. What a wonderful weekend we've had too!
Amanda and I went to two Christmas shows this weekend. Saturday evening we went to our churches Christmas Spectacular show and it truly was SPECTACULAR! Singing songs that bring praise to our God and the birth of our Savior. Lest we should ever forget that (without sounding cleche), Jesus is the reason for the season. Then, this afternoon after church we went to see the play of "A Christmas Carol" put on by our local Community Little Theater. Oh boy, another spectacular event. Back to work I go tomorrow. I have another busy week ahead of me with work, Bible study, Christmas shopping and another show on Friday with my mom and dad.
Since it's going to be a busy week, I thought I'd post pictures this evening of some of our Christmas decorating. My decorating is never the same twice so I have to think outside of my norm every year to come up with something different. I've always decorated with lots of snowmen and Santa's and vintage toys but this year I simplified, using mostly greens and lights and little touches here and there. Also because I've been putting in so many hours at work, it's hard for me to find the time when I'm home because I've always got laundry, vacuuming and house cleaning to do.
Sit back with a little cup o' somethin' warm and enjoy your visit. I'm glad you're here!
We'll start in the living room with our mantel.
It's my biggest challenge every year. I don't know why I have such a hard time, but I do. I'm in awe of the gift that so many bloggers have for decorating. I just don't have that gift, nor do I have the wonderful collections of prims to decorate with so I do my best with what I have.
Simple... very simple, almost too much so. I feel like it's missing something, but I don't know what. I'm still searching my boxes to see what I can add to it to make it better.
This is a little pouting chair that my sweetie made. The iron candle holder is one that I got at an auction several years ago.
The old trunk was one that we rescued from the side of the road on trash pick up day. Can you believe someone was just throwing this little beauty out? OOPS! I see I forgot to clean off the little side table. Oh well, our house is lived in. That's what it normally looks like. :)
Notice the little bowl of fixins around the candle? Colleen, from Baby Makes Five gave me two bags of them when she came to our open house.
As most of you probably already know, Colleen makes the BEST salt dough ornies I've ever seen. She has perfected her painting technique and everything about them is just stunning! So stunning that you have seen her wonderful tutorials in the new A Primitive Place magazine.
Aren't they wonderful? Thank you again Colleen! I think of you with a smile and warm heart everytime I look at them.
I'm needing to get me some more Christmas greens and berries to add to this stoneware pitcher. You get the idea though....
See the little rocking chair off to the right? That was mine when I was a little girl.
The photo is of Daryl's grandparents in their younger years. I love it because it was taken in front of an old Walgreens shop. Grampa was wearing his military uniform and grammy was dressed in her sunday best. The candle is one that I grunged up and I made the bark covered vase with greens and berries a few weeks ago with some of my crafting friends.
In this picture you see my grandmothers college photo and some of her old letters in their original envelopes with postage laying on the table in front of it. I found the two pictures above the table at different times but they both compliment each other with their sepia toned coloring. I also like that they are both of shepherds. Jesus, the shepherd boy and a shepherd leading his flock of sheep. If any of you know the names of these or any iformation, I would love to hear about them.
The picnic basket on the bottom of the stack belonged to my grandparents as well. It has their names written inside the cover.
The old mission rocking chair belonged to my great grandfather. It's one of my most cherished pieces.
Now we'll go into our entry way. It's such a hard room to photograph because it's so narrow, but I'll do my best. 
See the old wooden skis in the corner? My hubby found those in the basement of a building they were gutting out. They were going to the dumpster!
The two stitched pillows were made by my dear, sweet friend Heather, in Utah. She's a wonderful stitcher!
Here's a little bit of our dining room. I'm still in the process of decorating in here, but I'll show you what I've gotten done so far.
My hubby made the wall box, fashioned after some we'd seen at a cash and carry show. The wool mitten has a little crow tucked inside.
I've got some greens to add to the top of the big red stepback cupboard. I made the NOEL banner a few years ago.
I'm still trying to find the right Christmas centerpiece for the table.
The settle my sweetie made got a little homespun stocking and snowlady.
Now let's go into the kitchen.
Some vintage linen towels I picked up at a garage sale. 
The gingerbread men are some that I made a few years ago.
More ginger's in an old salt box with old blue paint.
I'm also on the lookout for some greens to add to the cupboard above our stove.
The little gingerbread man here was made by my mom quite some time ago. She's always surprised to see all the things I've kept over the years.
Guess that's all I have for now. Next time I'll post some outdoor pictures of our porch. I finally got all the pumpkins and corn stalks taken down and put up some Chrismas greens and such.
Before I go, I wanted to say thank you to all of you who left such sweet and comforting thoughts on the loss of our furbaby, Hunter. Reading your words of kindness is always a comfort and joy to me. Blogging friends are wonderful! Thanks for visiting and hugs and blessings to you~ Birgit
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