I don’t. . .F E E L. . .older. . .

. . .but the calendar
AND my mom say so,

so what are you going to do?

Uh– pour a glass of wine!
HaPPy BirTHdaY to me!

Catherine

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Let me play catch up~

And I’ve missed all of you!

It’s been MORE than a little tough on this end.
In fact, as I half type–half peck this out with a broken finger…
in a splint…I’ll have more to share.  But later on that one!

I’m settling into my new role as a care giver,
I’ve actually gotten to work on a few projects,
I finally took down *everything* Christmas—except the tree.
It’s sooooooooo pretty I can’t do it!

Picture this~ 900 white lights, some twinkling.
300 blue lights, some twinkling.
Varying shades of white,
tarnished silvers & golds.
Crystal & rhinestone crosses, glittered pine cones,
crystallized branches & feathery doves.
Garlands of white Poinsettia and snowflakes.
A punctuation of cobalt blue vintage balls,
and a large vintage mercury glass tree topper!
Oh!  And a sheer, fluffy, delicately ruffled skirt!

Could YOU take it down yet?

W e l l—I’m not ready.

It’s the only thing left!

Catherine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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BOO!

Did we SCARE you?

 

This was Sunday during an
EARLY Halloween celebration!
Our plan was to make the ATV our Panda Express, but my big brother messed us up by putting the chains on the tires already for winter—stupid brother.

But Saturday-

I took my au pair from South Africa
to visit a Pumpkin Patch-
the corn maze was closed, awwww.
I think we actually had more fun goofing around taking pictures!

 

Some aMAZing selections!

 

 

See what I mean~fun!

But, dang-

I sure wish I’d bought this pumpkin.

Catherine

 

Happy Halloween

everybody!

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HaPPy EaSTer to all!

–

Wishing you all a

wonderful day

with family

and friends!

Catherine

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Happy Women’s Day!

Girl Power!

Catherine

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jingle bells, jingle bells

Yesterday was our annual

family sleigh ride!

Now, I am NO winter-girl, but I do PRAY for snow twice a year-  for Christmas & our annual Sleigh Ride.

After that–summer can’t come fast enough.

Or STAY LONG ENOUGH!

The horses that pulled our large sleigh and BIG load are french Percheron draft horses.  They are LARGE- no joke.  Larger than Clydesdales.  And SO beaUtiful!  

These ladies were named DeeDee and Dot.  And they were pretty amusing.

1. My younger nieces EAGERLY jumped in the front seat with our driver, but when you see in the video above my niece turn around making a face—one of the horses tooted.  Let’s just say that the smell matched their size.  A couple of toots later had them moving backward in the sleigh!
2. Roughly a mile out the Ladies spied 8 deer and were transfixed.  Well~WE kinda’ were too!  The ride halted until all 8 passed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was really cold out, but somehow, you just don’t mind as much on a sleigh!  And blankets helped!  ~Passing one of the barns we saw a cutter sleigh getting worked on.  Apparently it’s been VERY active of late with marriage proposals ♥♥♥.  I LUV the fur-lined blanket!

The driver jumped out to check on the horses and snap some pics for us.  Somehow Rachel took over the reins and became the new driver— “uh, Roger?  You know she doesn’t have a driver’s license, right?”

We rounded the corner just as the sun was setting, and spent the rest of the evening in the warming house with hot chocolate, dinner, and games!

This is such a great family tradition,

and very much looked forward to each year!

I wish you all this pleasure at least once in your life– ♥

Catherine

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…is there such a thing?

…as a Christmas

 hangover? 

My body, my energy, my motivation has called a big ole time out on me.  I spent the 2 days after Christmas doing…absolutely…NOTHING.  Nada.  Zilch.

It was  W O N D E R f u l !

W e l l~ I did finally do the Christmas day dishes early Wednesday morning.

I sorted and organized everything Christmas night and then decided—

I just didn’t FEEL like doing the rest.

After 2 glorious days of slackin’ off, I’m getting back in gear (uhgh!).

This year’s decorating seemed to stick close to just Reds and Whites…including decorating all the lighting!

Decorating stayed very simple–and mostly just little touches of Reds & Whites.

 

 

–

And then there were

the TREES!

But~

If you’ve followed my blog long enough, you know I do something FuN & crazy every year for the kiddo’s Christmas tree!

I revisited the long-time-idea of going UPside down!

When I stumbled onto a stuffed lower half of Santa…well, it was meant to be!

Starting with a TREE…

Couldn’t be fake—the “hinged” arms would just fall down.

Okay, REAL.  Would have to be smaller to emphasize being off the floor.  Would have to have firm branches to stay straight out.  Would need to cut the trunk LOW to the bottom branches to lay flat on the ceiling.

I screwed an eye bolt into the bottom of the trunk, and a molly bolt & strong cup hook into the ceiling~& hung it up!

The Santa came with a hook to catch the trunk, and I happened to already have a stuffed Santa Hat to poke through the other side of the tree—HoHoHo!

Santa’s legs were wired so I manipulated them to look like he was climbing in the tree.  Wait a minute~is that really Mr GRINCH stealing our tree?

I strung the lights, I added “snow,” and decorated with lots of CANDY!  (Including licorice tinsel)  The kiddos like to “EAT” the tree here!

This is After Christmas with much of its candy eaten!  But it still looks fun!  The kids LUV’d it—and so did the adults!  I noticed several walking over to take another look at it all!

I found some amAzing lights to put on the kiddo’s tree this year—below are the color options it gives!  You can pick a color or some combo of—that’s not a filter!  There’s also a CANDY-color option of white-pink-purple-orange-red.  Then you can select solid-flashing-chasing-twinkling-fade!

With just the white lights to see (what’s left) the “decorations!”

This year we TRULY took pics UNDER the tree!

(wink–wink)

I used a softer light-scheme!

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HaPPy GALentine’s DaY!

Hope all of you have a

wonderful day!

Catherine

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a lazy birthday

My last thoughts before closing my eyes Monday night~

“I can’t believe I’ll be another year older tomorrow~WoW!”

There’s such a disconnect between the calendar and how I ACTUALLY FEEL.

You too?  Weird, huh?

Yesterday, my birthday, as I changed to painting clothes—I stopped halfway. . .

“I don’t  FEEL  like it—painting today.”   Y’know?

So I put back on my jammies and just “crashed” all day.  Movies, chocolate, wine, a really good book!

A very relaxing birthday present to myself!

Catherine

Now— go finish that  -4 day-  painting project!

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“upholstering” a box

I’m still

DEChristmasing

the house.

With 3 floors—there’s a lot to do and I’m still tryin’ to find my MOJO!

All those Christmas cards need to come down off the framed vintage crib springs too.

Now -to me- except for the photo cards, the rest would be tossed.  But my mother keeps them all.  ALL.   -???-

So~shortly after Christmas, while I was out running errands, I happened on these holiday boxes being clearanced for $4.  I thought the IDEA was interesting and her cards could be stored in it.  The EXECUTION however—Uuuuhg!

But it could be improved on!

I taped off the book page edges and “erased” their decorative finish with Kilz.

I gave it a couple of days to dry thoroughly, and this morning, brought it down to the LL dining table to cut and apply some linen.

I collect old linen from any source I can find it.  I even collect the hideous-ugly embroidered dresser scarves-table runners-table cloths -BECAUSE- there’s usually still a good amount of plain material left to be used in lots of projects!  And OLD linen is often such a better quality!

I wash it in hot water and over dry it in the dryer so it’s shrunken, has a tighter weave, and the fibers end up “fluffier!”  Same with matte lasse!  I LUV using these fabrics for projects!

I used wall paper paste to apply the fabric.  I love spray adhesives and Mod Podge, but they don’t let you manipulate & adjust things while you’re working.  A really good wall paper paste will.  And even if it “bleeds through” your fabric, it will [usually] dry without leaving any marks.

Once the linen was applied and dry, I switched to Mod Podge to get a really good bond turning and gluing those edges.  I also used the antiquing matte finish so the edges would have a little darker edging.

~Have you tried this one yet?  It gives your work an aged look!

I pulled some slight blue ribbon to trim out the edges of the lid—just for a cleaner finish. (mom favors blues and I had no green left)

The cards can be put away discretely with her other books AND be available when she needs them next Nov.

I’m toying with some gold or silver leafed lettering down the spline just like any book would have. . . ehhhhh.

tbc. . .

Catherine

—now put those cards away.

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