Dishcloths and Rambling

Good Morning everyone! We are still having warmer than normal temperatures here in SW Virginia, but by Sunday we should start cooling down to temps in the 40's.

While blog surfing, I have noticed many bloggers who live "up north" are already getting snow! Now I would love to have a white Christmas, and I think snow is beautiful, however; I really don't like snow! I have to go to work and I live out in the country where usually we are the last to have our roads scraped. Fortunately, I have a 4-wheel drive SUV and don't usually have to much trouble getting in to work.

One of my blogging friends "Mammy" http://morthanenough.blogspot.com/ asked to see the dish cloths that I had made for Christmas presents, so here they are. They are very simple to make with one row single crochet and the next double. Then I did a shell stitch around the perimeter. Really quick and easy!

I am giving these dish cloths along with an embroidered tea towel to my sister, grandmother and neice this year. The tea towel below is my favorite, it is going to my grandmother.

We are still decorating and getting ready for our Open House. It's next week and I am so excited! I love having all my friends and family to visit with during the holidays. Ygwie has been getting into the decorating act as well. He decorated his guitar amps and drum set with Christmas lights! I think it looks pretty cool!

This photo is the top of the bookshelf in my kitchen with all my vintage Santas, elves, etc. See that really "messy" looking, small Santa in the middle on the cake plate in front of the angel? I made that in the first grade out of an egg carton. I can't believe it has lasted for 40 years! (oops, told my age, didn't I!)

The "lady in red" on the right was the last doll that "Santa" ever brought to me when I was 18 years old.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Blessings,

Linda

My Goodness!

Boy, have I been neglecting my blog! With the holidays well under way, I have been so busy.

We had a great Thanksgiving! I had my mother-in-law and my Dad, sister and two of her children for dinner. As always, we ate way too much and then just kind of crashed on the couch after the meal.

Yesterday I found these Christmas plates at TJ Max! They are perfect for my blue and white kitchen.

I thought I would show you some of my favorite Christmas decorations. Now, these are not going to win any awards for being beautiful, but they are very special to me.

This nativity set originally belonged to my great grandmother. There used to be a cardboard stable, but it fell apart many years ago. The Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, tree, and the angel in the right are all part of the original set. It looks like that sometime in their life someone tried to repaint the faces, and didn't do a very good job! The angel on the left belonged to my mother when she was little. Unfortunately she can't fly as she is missing a wing! The little lamb I won for rememembering Bible verses in Sunday school when I was about 6 or 7 years old. My husband made the "new" stable about 20 years ago.

I have also been doing some sewing and crafting! I crocheted some dish cloths for my sister, neice, and grandmother and I am now in the process of making some dish towels to go with then. I bought some bar towels at the store and I am embroidering them in colors to match the dish cloths. This one is for my sister, who loves cats.

I hope everyone has a blessed week!

Linda

Getting ready for the Holidays!

This past weekend, we started getting the Christmas decorations down from the attic. We are having an open house the first week of December so I started my decorating.
Usually this hutch in my kitchen holds cookbooks, depression glass, jadeite, etc.. various kitchen stuff. This year I decided to make a Christmas display inside. I removed most of the glass ware, leaving some to the green depression glass, because green is a "Christmasy" color. I took some more detailed photos that I will share a little later. I have gotten 3 trees up, and have two more to go. Isn't that ridiculous? But I love Christmas trees!

What should I put on the doors of the hutch? For some reason they seem bare, or unfinished. Do you think a holiday dishtowel, or maybe cover the glass with stencils?


Have you seen these? They are so cute. Little ornament shaped bottles of coke. I picked up three last night at Wa!mart and we drank them with our supper. They would be so cute for a childs Christmas party.


Hope everyone has a blessed day!

Linda

I love mail!

Look what came for me this week, all the way from Germany! Thank you so much Anita! I love the pinks in this beautiful stocking. Can you see all the exquesite stitching with the beadwork! It is absolutely gorgeous and I am so proud that it is mine! Right now I have it on my Christmas tree in my Victorian living room. But I plan for this stocking to stay out all year!

This past weekend a bunch of Yngwies friends gave him a surprise Birthday party at a local restaurant. Here is a photo of the cake that his grandmother made him for the party. The image on the cake is Yngwie when he was just 1 month old with his first guitar! Little did we know that guitars would play such a huge role in his life. He is a very accomplished musician not only with guitars, but also with drums and a little bit of mandolin too!

I am getting so excited about Thanksgiving! The newspaper ads are full of sales on turkeys, sweet potatoes, cranberries, all the fixins' for a Thanksgiving meal! Yngwie and I have dental appointments this eveing and after we are hitting the grocery stores to buy our supplies while they are on sale!

Hope everyone has a blessed day!

Linda

Planning Thanksgiving!

Kelli is hosting Giving Thanks. It can be a story, recipe, Craft idea, etc...Anything to do with Thanksgiving.

We are having Thanksgiving at our house this year. I can't hardly wait! I have already started buying the non-persishables. Our menu is pretty typical except for one thing. My son always wants "Coca-Cola Salad". I found this recipe in an old recipe book by Betty Feezor (http://www.bettyfeezorscholarship.com/AboutBetty.htm) My son was probably about three the first time I made it and he loved it! I have made a few changes to the original recipe. This has become a tradition for our family at Thanksgiving. For whatever reason, this is the only time of year I make this. I guess that's why it's special!

Coca-Cola Salad

1 (16 oz) can pitted cherries

1 small can crushed pineapple

2 small boxes cherry jello

12 ozs. Cola

1 (3 oz.) cream cheese

1 cup powdered sugar

Drain the juice from the cherries and pineapple into a bowl, and add enough water to make 1 1/2 cups of liquid. Pour into medium saucepan. Bring to boil and pour over jello. Stir until dissolved then add drained fruit and cola. Chill until set. With electric mixer, mix cream cheese and confectioners sugar until it is a spreadable consistency. You may need to add a little bit of milk, but just a dab. Spread over jello salad. If you like nuts, you could add them when you add the fruit, or you can put them on top of the salad. We prefer ours without.

Blessings

Linda

Friday Show and Tell

This week for show and tell, I would like to tell you about a 25 year quest for two vases. When my husband and I got married, we were very young and very poor! We would go to the flea market on weekends to find things to decorate with.

One of the things we began to collect is called "Black Amethyst". It is a glassware that looks like it is black but in fact it is such a dark purple that it just looks black.

Anyway, We bought a black amethyst "loving cup" for a couple of dollars. Then one day we saw two more of the loving cups, but one was in cobalt blue and one was milkglass. I wanted them so bad, but they were $25 for the pair and we just didn't have that much money to spend on something we really didn't need. So I decided I would save a couple dollars each week out of my check and go get them then. Imagine my disappointment when they were gone!

So for the next 26 years I began a search for the blue and white loving cup vases. I looked at every antique store, every flea market, everywhere from Pennsylvania to Georgia. I never ever saw them. Every day I checked Ebay, but no luck.Then as fate would have it, this past spring, my husband checked ebay, not even looking for the blue or white vase and he found the blue one! I was estatic! I placed a huge bid on it but ended up only paying $19.00 for it with shipping! Now I only needed to find the white one.

During our vacation, which we didn't go anywhere except local attractions, we were walking past an antique store downtown, not really planning to go in, then my husband says "I don't believe it". Sitting right on top of a chest in plain view was the white loving cup! Finally, after 26 years of searching, I have all three! I love the shape and color of these vases. I guess so much that I actually have 3 of the blacks ones!

Now, Iwill continue my search for a Rose O'Neil childs tea set that I saw at an auction but sold for more than I could afford. I will find one!

Head on over to http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/ for more show and tell!

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

Blessings

Linda

Jeez Louise!

I started a post Monday about my son's birthday, when I hit submit only the title went! I haven't been able to get back on until today!

So, Yes! Our dear sweet son Yngwie turned sweet 16 on Monday at 7:10 p.m. Ever since his very first birthday, I have taken a picture of him every

year at 7:10 p.m. And here he is enjoying a birthday meal at Olive Garden.

Yesterday was election day and there was no school so I took the day off to chauffer Yngwie and his girlfriend around town. We went to the mall, the Science Museum, the downtown market area and had some hot chocolate than met up with the rest of his band "The Deposit" and made pictures for their upcoming CD.

I have been so busy! Trying to get ready for the upcoming holidays, I will be having Thanksgiving for our family at our house and we have decided to host an Open House the first weekend in December. So this weekend we will actually be putting up our Christmas trees. I know!! It's way to early, but I usually put up 3-4 Christmas trees and I want to get all the decorating out of the way so I can focus on food, fun and fellowship for the open house.

I have been doing some sewing and have made a couple of cell phone holders. I hope to get some pictures of those tomorrow. They will be part of the Christmas gift for the girls I work with.

Hope everyone has a blessed day!

Linda

My Baby's Sweet Sixteen!