A Retrospective

This past year has been both a challenge and a blessing.  My mother had two heart surgeries and then a heart attack.  We sold our lovely brick home with a pool  :(  and moved to a foreclosed property so we would be beside of my mother and father and be able to take care of them.  My mother was diagnosed with cancer twice.  Melanoma and rectal cancer. After her heart attack I was lucky enough to be able to bring my Mom home from the hospital and take care of her while she recuperated.  

This past year my daughter Jess became engaged!  She is getting married this coming May to a sweet young man that we love. She just graduated from college and got a good job before she even got out of college.  My daughter Jenn got a job this past year too after graduating last December.  I am blessed to have two wonderful daughters that I am proud of.

Blessings for me this past year include having a lots of great friends, a roof over my head and food on my table.  And we were lucky enough to have a white Christmas this year.

I have only been blogging for a few months now and I love reading your blogs and get to know some of you through e-mail.  I hope this next year I can show you more of the remodel of the place we are living and share some projects.    And get to make more blogging friends!  

Ideas from Ikea

I had my first trip to Ikea yesterday and I loved it!   I came out with so many ideas.  I have been trying to decide where to put some of my coffee cups and saw this.  I had shelves in all of my windows in the house I had before this one so I have tons of shelves in storage.  The shelves I have are all stained brown so a little white paint could spruce them right up.  

So I am thinking a trip to the storage unit is in my near future to retrieve some shelves.

I really like the cluster of white lights.  So light and airy.  I am thinking of doing something like this in my guest room this summer.

This is so pretty.  I want to keep this idea for my cabin.  

Can you tell I have a love of light fixtures?

I can't wait to go back.  It is about an hour and a half trip from where I live so it is not in a town that I get to go to often.

I also found a down comforter that Mr. Fix-It offered to buy us.  My daughter and her fiancée will be going that way on Friday and I am sending her by to pick it up for me.  I can't wait to snuggle under it on some of the cold Southern nights we have been having here lately.

Christmas Snows are Magical!

We had a magical Christmas.  We were lucky enough to have a pretty good snow for our area.  We got about 8 inches on Christmas day and I loved it!!

The snow stuck to every little twig, leaf and limb.  

My deer in the front yard.

My driveway...if you have ever looked at my blog you know I love my driveway.  I like the way it is hidden in the woods.  If you were coming to my house you would never know it is there.

This is the garden are looking out toward the road.  

I just like the way the tractor looked all covered with a blanket of snow.

And last but not least my Maggie Girl loves the snow too.

The sun going down on a magical day.

I did make a little arrangement for the kitchen the night before Christmas.  You know me...I will use what I can find to make what I want.  

I hope all of you had a magical Christmas day!

Wishing each of you a blessed holiday season!

Christmas Time's A Coming!!

Yesterday and today has been such a wonderful couple of days.  I have finally started getting the final details of my Christmas decorations finished up.  Trying to get it all ready for the big day.  I love Christmas...I really do but can I just say that I am ready to have my house back to normal.  I think this year the decorations and tree will go out of the house at a lot quicker pace than they came in.  I am just ready to have my house back to the somewhat normal way I had it before the festivities started.  

The weatherman is calling for snow here on Christmas day!  That I am really excited about!!  I would love nothing better than to be able to get out and walk with my mother on Christmas day in a beautiful Christmas snow.  That would be a special gift!  

I am working on getting my table together.  My table is done in teal blue and red.  It is a festive combination and it is the first year I have tried it.  I really like it but I don't have a lot of teal to use for decorations.  Just means I need to hit those after Christmas sales!!  I did finally find some square silver chargers after much searching.  I found them at a World Market store.  I am still looking for some square plates with silver snowflakes.  I am sure sooner or later I will find what I am looking for now that I have a plan.  But here is my simple little table design for this Christmas. :)  I know it needs some work and I only put out 1 wine glass and 1 coffee cup for the picture.

I have to start cooking for a small party that we will be having here on Saturday lunch and then for cocktails here on Saturday night  with my best friends (since high school).  One of my favorite things to fix during the holidays are roasted pecans.  

If I had to pick one thing in the world that I had to eat for the rest of my life it would be nuts.  I have never met a nut I didn't like.  

(that is why I have such great friends!!)

Around here I am known for my homemade fresh coconut cakes.  I  have to get one made asap.  It needs to sit for at least a day before cutting it.  It gives the sugar time to melt in the icing.  If you eat it too soon, the icing is a little gritty with the sugar.

Oh, that reminds me...I need to get the coffee station set up too.

I better get off of here and get to work.

Joining the Party at Between Naps On the Porch

You better watch out, You better not cry, Better not pout...

You better watch out, You better not cry, You better not pout, I'm telling you why, Cause Santa Claus is coming to town.

Oh Miss Maggie Mae is so mad at me right now.  She will not even look at me when I call her name. 

"Maggie, look at Momma so she can take your picture."

She is definitely p--o--u--t--i--n--g!!

I shaved her this evening and gave her a good bath to get her ready for the holidays. 

(I had to learn how to shave her to save money a few years ago when my husband lost his job.)

I guess I will let her go to work with me tomorrow to make it up to her.  LOL!!  

Nah, she is not spoiled at all. 

:)

You better watch out, You better not cry, You better not pout, I'm telling you why, Cause Santa Claus is coming to town.

Fabulous Weekend And GRADUATION!!!!!!

So happy!   I have had a fabulous weekend and today was even better!!  Friday at work I dressed up as an elf and had so much fun!  I made my shirt and it was fun to do a little sewing.  After work I went out for drinks with a few people from work.  I went straight from work and wore the elf outfit!  I received all sorts of compliments and fun comments.  I was even stopped several times through the day by people who wanted to take my picture.  It was funny.

This is not a good picture...it was taken on someones cell phone.

On Saturday I had been invited by one of my best and dearest friends to her home for brunch.  Her home is amazingly beautiful and I have asked her to be a guest on my blog here in the near future.  She is one of those people that we all know who is great at everything. She is a fabulous hostess and served us a delicious brunch. The menu consisted of a delicious sausage quiche, company eggs which were boiled eggs with the yolk taken out and mixed with fresh herbs and sausage then covered with a yummy cream sauce, lemon scones warm out of the oven, cheese grits that were some of the best I have ever tasted, and decadent chocolate covered strawberries.  She had fresh orange juice, coffee with several kinds of creams and sugars to go with it, and my favorite Mimosas made with Korbel Champagne and she had frozen pomegranate seeds and floated them in the Mimosas.  They were frozen in the stems of the glasses and as you drank the seed floated to the top. So you had the pretty orangey-yellow of the mimosa with the dark red pomegranate seeds floating in it.  So pretty and festive.

Korbel.com

After brunch I met Mr. Fix it and we went and had a fabulous day Christmas shopping in the beautiful snow covered Blowing Rock.

I saw this adorable Christmas tree.  I loved the different look of it.  It made me smile and I love the happy look it has.  I thought how pretty this would be in someones kitchen.

We had the best time strolling from shop to shop drinking steaming hot coffee.  It is such a romantic little town.

We left shopping for a while and went for a late dinner at the same restaurant that we had our first date at so many many years ago.  I love eating there.  They have the best carrot cake.  We sat, drank a Baileys and coffee a just talked for a long time.

We shopped quite a bit but one fun store we went in was called Savory Thymes.  For those of you that love china like I do, you would have loved this store.  They had some of the most fun plates and dinnerware.

We rode on the section of the Parkway that was still open.  It was so beautiful.

The sun was beginning to set on a beautiful day.

Yesterday was fun too.  We spent the day in Hickory.  We went to have brunch again but this time we met a dear friend who is moving to California.  We helped her pack and just hung out for a while.  I will miss her.  Mr. Fix-It and I had another special day together.  We managed a little Christmas shopping after packing up my friends apartment and finished the day up at Starbucks with a little Chai Tea and gingerbread.  Yummy.

But today was the best day so far.  I got to watch my daughter graduate!!  And my parents were both there and able to attend.  It was a great day.  Now I can heave a sigh of relief.  Both of my daughters have a good college education and are strong women.  No matter what life throws their way they will be able to be self-supportive and take care of themselves.  I am proud of them both.

We finished up the day with a late late lunch at Sagebrush.  First time I have taken my parents out to eat in years.  It was so much fun!

My vacation has started and I am so excited!  No work from now till January 3rd!  Yeah me!!

Stressed but Fun!

I have not had much time for anything it seems here in the past few days.  Trying to close out school before Christmas, deal with Mom's doctors...the doctor's want to do surgery as soon as possible.  Her surgeon wanted to do it before Christmas.  After talking to her oncologist he said we could wait till after Christmas.  All I keep thinking is that this is in all probability her last Christmas with us.  So I am trying to get things lined up for her.  Mom's hair has thinned out a lot from the radiation and she has asked for a perm.  I made her an appointment for tomorrow and now the weathermen are calling for more snow, sleet and rain tonight.  My sweet Mr. Fix-It has said he will take her no matter what.   I will do whatever I can to give her whatever she asks for.

I have been working on an elf costume to wear to work Friday.  A few friends and I are dressing as elves.  Ar my school every Christmas we have our annual talent show.  I am NEVER in it ..none of my talents are audible.   Mine are either art or creating something.  So my friends and I decided to dress up and are going to visit our handicapped kids.   Both of my daughters work at elementary schools so I thought I would visit them too.  I have been cutting felt, sewing on pompoms, fur, and jingle bells.  My Mom taught me to sew and I had how much I enjoyed it.  This is the first thing I have sewn in a long time.

So I have no big decorating project other than myself right now.  

No fabulous table decorations.  No presents bought and wrapped.  

No fabulous Christmas dinner preparations.  

Hopefully all that will come in due time.  

As long as I spend this Christmas with my Mom (and Dad)  this year...

 that is all that matters.  

Just going to try and be the best me I can be for the next couple of days.

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Brrrr.....Baby It's cold outside.

I was laying in bed....trying to go to sleep and heard a faint knock on the door.  

I go to answer it and see 3 penguins.  

Shivering...

It is so cold outside

 they wanted to come in, sit by the fire and snuggle to get warm.

So I let them in.

Now I am a little nervous about the middle one.

I am not sure I like the way he is looking at me...

Baby, It's cold outside.

My Flaky Fiends!

Welcome to my house. I am a...

I invited a few of my flaky friends to show you around.  They visit me every year about this time.  I have a fun collection of friends.

I didn't want to have anything too fussy on my windows.  I don't want the view out to the woods blocked.

You can't have snowmen without some snowflakes!

 Time for Santa!

 Lumps of coal painted with little happy snowmen are his friends.

Even my dogs are decorated for Christmas!

This is just the beginning. Check back for more pictures of the bedrooms and outside in a few days.