Good Excuses!

I do have plenty of good excuses for not posting for a few days. In one word - Thanksgiving!! But it was so good. I spent it with all my girls and hubby and other family members I love so much. It was a lot of hard work, cleaning and cooking for hours and hours but it was worth it all. I have so much to be thankful for. There was a vacancy with my mother not being with us this year so I made sure I placed some things out here and there to remind me of her. And I attempted her famous caramel cake. It wasn't just like hers but it did taste good and was all eaten pretty quickly. I think she would have liked it, too.

Now it's December and thoughts are on Christmas. We already have most of our decorations out. I am almost through with shopping and have already done what few Christmas cards I am sending. For the month, I would love to enjoy Christmas sewing and I love to bake and decorate cookies. Maybe I will have time to do that, too. Simplifying things is the best way to go!

Lazy Daze

My days have seemed lazy lately. I've been doing a lot of reading, working with photos and files on the computer, photographing things outside, a little bit of sewing, and organizing things. I've cooked with my husband (which we used to do a long time ago when we first were married).

I've been waking up very early lately, too. Day before yesterday, I woke up at 3 am and yesterday I woke at around 5:30 so I headed outside with my camera when I saw this fog (as in the photo above). It was beautiful and I got a lot of soft photos. The one above is one of my favorites. It has the warm, fall colors in it with the hay bale and the mist.

I've been feeling a little low lately, probably because the holidays are approaching and this will be the first Thanksgiving and Christmas without my mother here. I want to draw close to my family but they're all so busy. At least we can keep in touch through all this technology. I love them all.

Decorations Came Down Today

I have never in my life put up decorations for any holiday one day and take them down the next! But that's what I did for Halloween this year. It all went up amazingly fast and taking it down was fast, too. I think my husband and I enjoyed it more than anyone! Had a great Halloween with only one trick or treater but she was a special one. :)

Happy Halloween!

Our pumpkin this year was a gift from Paige and her mommy. Paw Paw and Paige carved it together. We decided at the last minute this afternoon to decorate a lot for Halloween. It was so much fun and a perfect night. It was chilly, foggy, full moon and while we were decorating, we could hear coyotes howling. Spooky!!! Here is the jack o' lantern in all his glory!

Cinderella was our only trick-or-treater. Here SHE is in all HER glory! She's making a scary face for me in the mirror. I took about 20 photos of her tonight and only about three of them were in focus! Just too much excitement, I guess. But we enjoyed her visit so much and haven't laughed so much in a long, long time.

We had a wonderful Halloween.

A Visit From Cinderella :)

Had a visit from Cinderella today. She and Paw Paw wanted to carve a pumpkin together. Here they have removed the top and I don't think they're enjoying the "aroma" of a pumpkin! ha!

I think I took over 40 shots of Cinderella but she was so excited and had so many treats today that only a few were not blurred. Her school Halloween party was today. I think her mother got better photos than I did. She also had pictures of Tinkerbell and Snow White along with a cowboy and an astronaut. Cute, cute, cute!

Easter Day

Here are our two little egg hunters taking a break to sit in the swing. They really play well together and had such a good time together. They are 3rd cousins. And Easter Bunny came to see both of them!

The Easter Bunny cake made by my youngest daughter. It was very good - coconut!

A thank you gift for my youngest daughter for caring for our pets and keeping a watch on everything at our house while we were at the beach. I bought the pot at the beach, was given the fern by my friend at the beach and bought the daisy and planted it. It turned out cute. She's going to put it in her sun room. It will look gorgeous there!

Just a cute little bunny kitchen towel I found. No, I did not make it but I liked it enough to buy it because it looked handmade.

This little Easter tree is one I've had many years and the ornaments have been collected over the years. Paige decorated it. Some of the ornaments her mommy painted when she was a little girl.

Had to include a photo of these jelly bellies because I asked my husband to get some jelly beans. He went into the grocery store and got some at one of those machines and couldn't stop the flow of jelly beans! He ended up with way too many but couldn't put them back! Guess we'll have jelly beans for a while.

And our table. Paige helped me do this, too. I think it looks pretty and just very simple.

We had a wonderful Easter with about twenty people here. Hope you enjoyed my Easter "tour". I really do enjoy holidays. I just wish my oldest daughter and her husband could have been here:( We missed you.

More of Easter

Boy, oh Boy, is this commitment! I am definitely too tired to post on a blog but I'm doing it because I committed myself to doing it every day of this year! whew!

These are a few more decorations Paige and I put out for Easter today. At first I didn't like the photo. It's dark and a little blurred and it's straight out of the camera. I tried working with it a little on the computer and I just like it the way it is because the mirrored shelf is old, the bunnies are very old and it just has an antique look. The eggs are very special. A very dear lady in our church who is in her 80s paints ceramics and has been for many, many years. Every year she has painted these Easter eggs for my children and nieces and nephews for me to give as gifts as they grew up. Now that they're grown, she has been giving me one every year even though I didn't place an order for them. She is so sweet to do it and they are so special to me. She also has been painting a Christmas ornament every year for me.
Tomorrow when I have better light, I want to photograph each egg separately so you can see the detail. They are exquisite.

But, for now, goodnite all and hope you have a blessed Easter tomorrow.

Getting Ready for Easter!

I love to decorate for holidays - all holidays. I remember a restaurant in the little town my mother lives that I visited once in which the owner had a bare tree in some sort of pot close to the front door. I think the bare branches were painted white but I'm not sure of that. But she hung decorations on that tree for every occasion or holiday including Valentine's Day. I just loved that. I think she kept little white lights on it, too.

Today I went into the attic to get out my Easter/Spring decorations that I've had for years and years and I still love them. This wreath I've had for many years. It was the only decoration that made it to its place! But there's tomorrow. . .

We are having our families here on Easter so I want to decorate and clean the house. I started with the cleaning, too, but will have to finish tomorrow because I needed and wanted to sew tonight:) Easter sewing, of course!

Happy Easter and Spring to all of you!

On Our Way to Nashville, January 2, 2009

These were taken in the Tahoe on the way to Nashville on Friday.

Paige-ee-Pooh is watching and listening to Dora the Explorer to pass the time.

I love all three of these shots. Again, I used natural light and turned off the flash and let the camera choose the settings. I like the blurred background to show movement and love the expressions I caught from her. I was very happy with these.