Home For The Holidays

Oh, there's no place like home for the holidays . . .

This morning, I headed down south to pick up my brother, Dan, for Christmas. This was the perfect opportunity to try out my newest "contraption"---a holder for my iPhone while it is charging. I used oilcloth to make it and was inspired by vlijtig's tutorial, although I made up my own pattern to suit my needs a bit better. My car has no place for the phone to sit when it is connected to the cable, and so far this worked really well. It also works well along with the speaker-phone setting for hands-free talking, since my car isn't equipped with blue-tooth.

The morning was pretty chilly, and as I started down I-49, I was struck by how beautiful the sky was.

Dan's group home was once again decorated for the holidays. Like Dan said, he is lucky---he has two homes. I'm so glad that he is feeling like my house is his home now. I hoped he would, but knew that it would be hard after Daddy's death for him to feel at home somewhere else.

Shortly after we got home, my sister-in-law Kathryn and niece, Laura came over. It's been a long time since I'd seen Kathryn and it was good to get to visit for a little while.

Emmi fell in love with Laura and vice versa, it seems!



After church this evening, Dan and I came home, had dinner and settled in for the night. Time to relax and enjoy being together!
Missing Jana and Rob, but glad that they're with family!!! :-)

Winter Walk

Yesterday was the first day of Winter---it was 80 degrees here. Today, while cooler, is still very pleasant outside. After finishing my sewing projects, Emmi and I went for a walk. I took my camera along and as we walked around the neighborhood and then down to the duck pond, I took a few shots.

It seems that rather than a "silent night", this manger might be experiencing some sort of storm---"Hang on to that baby, Mary!".

A few other signs winter and the holidays:



It was so relaxing to walk and take our time, enjoying the beautiful weather and the time off from work. For the most part, the ducks all fled as we got close (I should have told them that Emmi would be much more scared of them than they were of her).

And then there were these geese---they weren't at all afraid of either of us. So we walked away before it became necessary to run.

I think we definitely need to make this more of a habit!

Christmas Making

Despite the lack of blog posts recently, I have been busy with a variety of Christmas projects. Some of my favorites I can't post yet because I wouldn't want to spoil any surprise gifts. But, here is the latest project that I can share with you. Last year, Dan "helped me" make fleece throws for the other residents at his group home. They were simple, with fringed edges, and Dan helped me cut the fringe on several of them. The guys really seemed to enjoy them and I often see them wrapped up watching TV when I visit.

Since each of the men shares a bedroom with another, and storage is at a premium, I wanted something that would not take up much room, be personal and kind of fun. This year, I came up with the idea of pillowcases.

Each is a different color and has the owner's name inside. Dan helped me pick a "theme" for each one and then I looked for fabric. I found that a bit harder than I'd first imagined, so I had to order some and then get kind of creative on others. Naturally, the Saints were a favorite for a couple of the guys, but there was also a Nascar fan, a Sponge Bob fan and several others. Dan is currently an "Elvis" fan, but I wasn't able to find any fabric for that and settled on the money motif instead (which also fits him quite well, since he LOVES to spend it!!). By the way, Emmi oversaw the entire process.

Using this basic pattern, the pillowcases were finished this morning and they turned out really great! Merry Christmas Rapides Group Home---hope the guys like them!

Round Robin - Symbols

When I first read the challenge for the this round of Round Robin, I had a hard time thinking of something to photograph. Ruth, the Scrabblequeen, suggested the topic back in August and her guidance was:
Ruth's guidance on the topic is as follows: (something iconic, like a menorah or the St Louis Arch, or whatever). You can see how the other photographers interpreted the challenge by clicking on this linking list.

While we are constantly surrounded by symbols like stop signs, peace symbols and emergency icons, I decided to capture something that was a bit more personal.

The word "JOY" has come to mean a lot to me. For me, it symbolizes the spirit in which my mother lived her life (her favorite scripture--and mine--expresses this in Psalm 30:5). Each time I see the word, I am reminded of her and also the fact that bad times will pass and there is joy coming!



This is the latest addition to my collection of joy---a beautiful hand stamped pewter heart from Lisa Leonard's wonderful collection.
****** I don't know what's going on with the fonts up there---can't seem to fix them to be all the same.******

Christmas Kitchen

You may or may not remember last year's episode of baking Christmas goodies---Callie and I had a series of misfortunes. We recently got together to cook up some yummy treats to share with friends and family. We mixed up the cookie dough (this is a great recipe that was given to me by Sally when she and my brother were dating many years ago)


and put it in the refrigerator to chill while we licked the beaters---(that's the best part of making cookies)!

Our next project was a pan full of English toffee. It only took one try this year, and the texture was perfect! Unfortunately, when we tasted it, it seemed to have a slight burnt taste---something that we can tolerate personally, but we definitely can't give it away.

Finally, we tackled the "Creamy Pralines". The picture on the recipe card looked so yummy and it sounded fairly simple.

Hmmmm, not sure what I can say about these, except that I totally wasted $6 worth of pecans!!!! We overcooked them, and while they were very smooth, they became so hard that they would break your teeth---and they stuck to the waxed paper. Complete disaster!!!

Last night she came over again to roll out, cut and bake the shortbread cookies. Callie took them with her so that her Wednesday afternoon group of kids (RAM connection) can decorate them after school.

Not expecting many visitors this year, I don't really need many sweets laying around the house. But I was sure looking forward to a few nibbles here and there. Guess I'll have to settle for almost burned toffee!

Craft Projects In The Break

Of course, no family get-together at our house would be complete without a craft project or two. Prior to the break, I had seen this Pottery Barn knock-off over on Paisley Pink Polka Dots, courtesy of Remodelaholic's blog. With Jana's love of numbers and fonts, I knew she would love this project and she immediately knew of the perfect place for it in her house. Here's the Pottery Barn Version:

Pottery Barn

After Thanksgiving, we made a trip to Hobby Lobby for the necessary supplies and then we set to work. Callie was there to help us as well. We crumpled up pages of a phone book and Mod-Podged them to the canvas to add texture (I still don't really know why we needed to use them vs. newspaper, but that's what Jennifer did and hers turned out great, so . . . ). At this point, Rob walked by and asked where I was going to hang it. He was trying to be supportive of one of my hair-brain ideas, so he wasn't quite sure what to say when I told him it was for their home! :-)

Jana and Callie painted on coats of cream and white.

Jana had figured out the fonts she liked and the sizes she liked best and we used them as a pattern that we traced onto contact paper. .

Jana spray painted the whole canvas navy blue and when it was dry, we carefully peeled off the letters. Jana sanded down the edges to age it a bit and, Voila'---the finished product.



Now, Jana, I want to see a picture of it hanging in your house!!

Round Robin - Before and After

This Challenge was suggested by Vicki of Maraca. The topic is: Before and After
Simple, right? Vicki explains, sensibly---Anything "before" and, well, "after." You pick what.
You can see how the other Robins interpreted the challenge by using the linking list over here.
I chose a recent craft project for this set of before/after pictures. I picked up the candle holders at Hobby Lobby and the plates on the bargain table at my favorite antique store, Caboose Antiques. Before:


And just a short time later, here's my "after".

One of my childhood memories of travel through Louisiana includes seeing sugar cane stalks littering the sides of the roads in the fall, during harvest time. This "before" was taken last weekend near Cheneyville. The sugar cane is ready to be harvested in this picture.

The "after" is of the field right next to it, just after being harvested.