Ringing in 2010 !

What are your plans for ringing in the New Year?

Going to a party?

Hosting at your house?

Need a nifty, quick hostess gift?

There is still time with this idea from Stacie

at Park Avenue

A Holiday Potpourri recipe that is sure to make the house

smell delicious!

And if you need an easy snack for tonight

or tomorrow while watching football...try her

Easy Cheese Straws

Staying in with the kids?

How about a fun Countdown idea?

You could put together these Countdown Goodie Bags

with items from the house or a quick stop by

the Dollar Store today.

Thanks to Hoosier Homemade for sharing this!

Even my teen drama queen would LOVE these.

Since I seem to have a case of the crud, complete with a nasty cough

I suspect I will be ringing in the New Year cuddled up on the sofa.

That is NOT a bad thing.

Was hoping to see a bit of this...

Instead we are having more rain.

Working up a post, by request, for some Menu Planning ideas.

Trying to enjoy the last few days of my vacation, before work

kicks into high gear on the 4th.

And really REALLY (did I say really?) looking forward to this New Year!

Happy New Year to you and yours!

See you in 2010.

The Best Gift of All.....

Christmas has come and gone.

I took time away from my blog to enjoy every moment.

And my every moment has been filled with the best gift of all...

Love.

My children are my greatest joy.

For the first year since he was born, my son was not home on Christmas.

We celebrated early on Christmas Eve Eve.

He is a police officer and had to work both days.

It was different for me.

Downtown at night.

I admit, I shed a few tears Christmas by the light of my tree

in the quiet stillness of the morning.

However, I am so very proud of both of these 'kids'.

My life is full of love, joy and laughter from these two.

Leah and I spent Christmas Day at my sisters.

This photo was made Thanksgiving 2009.

We had a house full.

Good food.

Laughter.

Love.

I hope you enjoyed all of life's blessings with your family

celebrating this Christmas
and that the spirit of Love will last throughout
the New Year.

FREE Photo Editing

I had the opportunity to take a basic photography class through my job last week.

I work at a University and the class was taught by one of our IT techies.

A short spill on cameras, lighting and the rule of thirds.

Then a cold stroll around campus for assignments.

Here are a few of my photos:

This is my favorite of the day.  Made with my little point and shoot.

The building in the background is where my office is located.

The highlight of the class for me was the Instructor shared about photo editing.

Did you know there is a FREE version of PhotoShop online???

I didn't!

You have to register, pretty simple.

Photo Shop Online

Here is editing on the above photo in the online version:

So if you need a 'better' photo editing and like a bargain like me; try out photoshop online!

Christmas Home Decor Tour

Merry Christmas Ya'll...come on in!

This is my fake front porch.

With my beautiful new bench.

The bench was made by a friend from a photo of benches found on blogs.

A basket I had, dressed up with fabric scraps, fake greenery and huge pine cones.

Just inside the door, some of my Santa collection.
See the child's rocking chair?  That was my mom's when she was a little girl.

My yard sale find tray filled with pine cones, fake greenery and

some Dollar Tree ornaments on the coffee table.

Along with my jute tree, I made.

Yes, I added to the basket...after this photo was taken.

I tend to do that.

Here again, my $20 Tree....

The fireplace.

Dressed up some inexpensive candles.

The pine cone tree I made, along with a Goodwill repainted frame and a Santa from my collection.

Another of my Santa's ...I've had this one for over 20 years!

I love the tree at night.

In the kitchen, more pine cones.

Found the cute red birds, meant as ornaments at Dollar General.

My jars all filled for the holidays.

Simple.

And of course, my table from the Girls Night Party.

I failed to get a close up of my sewing machine cabinet side table.

In the background, it holds more of my Santa collection.

I actually scattered them throughout the house this year instead of one huge display.

Hope you enjoyed my little tour.

Check out all the delightful Christmas decorations on

Southern Hospitality's Home for the Holidays

and Nester's Christmas Tour of Homes.
Dare to Deck the Halls at NewlyWoodwards

And the winner is....

Cindy of Chippewa Creek!

Selected when I asked my daughter to pick a number between

1 and 36.

My 'baby' that turned 18 Monday said....

10 !

Girls Night for Christmas

Tonight I hosted a tiny get together for the ladies in my office.

Let me just say I work with the sweetest group of gals!

Sincerely.

It makes going to work a pleasure.

And get this...they KNOW me and still came! ;-)

They all wanted to see the $20 Tree I've been talking about for weeks.

They even skipped reading my blog to see the decorations in person.

Lots of candles, a bit of food, Christmas music in the background.

Smiles, hugs and warm fellowship on a cold rainy night.

The table was covered with my one and only Christmas cloth,

purchased a few years ago on clearance.

Topped with a runner from Ross.

All the dishes and plate stand were Goodwill finds.

The serving pieces were long ago gifts,

rediscovered in the high cabinets of my kitchen.

We ate chicken salad with crackers and bread.

Chips and dip, banana bread and brownies.

Sipped coffee and wassail.

Simple.

The 'party' gifts were the lotion I made,

(For this easy recipe click HERE)

And tiny stockings with a peppermint cane.

It was truly a blessing to me to share just a bit of the season

with people that have to listen to all my talk about

blogs, crafts, cooking, makeovers and the joy of spray painting!

I will be linking in at

Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps on the Porch

Finer Things Friday at The Finer Things in Life

Coming up a Christmas Open House Tour of my home

for the holidays!

Got Gifts? Idea #5

This one's for the Girls!

WARNING:  Co-workers and Gal pals may want to skip this one!

You will spoil your 'surprise'.  ;-)

This is a super secret 'recipe' for a lotion

that gets RAVE reviews per Coloradolady

In fact, I picked the idea up from THIS POST on her blog!

I knew right away that I wanted to try this for the gals on my list.

Phoned a friend.

"Please save baby food jars for me!"

Then gathered up the other supplies.

A quick trip to the Dollar General is all you need!

3 ingredients.

A large store brand Baby lotion (baby or shea and cocoa butter)

The large (7.5 oz) store Petroleum Jelly

and an 8 oz Vitamin E skin cream.

Ms. Coloradolady says

First put in the Vitamin E

then the petroleum jelly

last is the baby lotion.

Make sure you scrape ALL of it out!

Then whip it up!

Yep, that is my hand mixer!

You want it to be really smooth, like icing. Keep whipping!

This one mixture made 9 baby food jars of lotion.

I had already spray painted the lids.

Glued old lace from my stash on the jars.

Added a touch of raffia.

Then used a few of my old scrapbook goodies to embellish the lids.

The only thing I purchased were the 3 items from Dollar General.

This little treat ended up at a cost per jar of LESS THAN

50 CENTS!

These would make cute any time gifts.

I will be linking this into some blog parties, cause this idea is just TOO good to miss!

Did you miss the previous ideas?

Gift idea #1 (click here for tutorial)

Recycled dip/sauce jar candles

Gift idea #2 ~ Tile Coasters

Gift idea #3 ~ Nature lover twig frame

Gift idea #4 ~ Candy treats (using recycled coffee drink jars)

I will be linking into some great blog parties...
 
Frugal Friday GIFT IDEA at Life as Mom