D is for Desks

It is time to link up with the weekly Alphabe-Thursday party and I have been adding a post each week of a project in process or finished by myself or hubs.  This week I am going to show you these great desks that the dear man built for our grand daughters.  I have been painting their playroom, at their house, in some pretty colors and have just finished the last wall.  I now have to find someone to haul these wonderful desks down to lean against a pretty aqua blue wall.  They are currently in an unused area of our basement.

These desks lean against the wall like a ladder.  I still need to make some cushions for the seats.  Hubs did the painting himself.  He has claimed he will not be painting anything pink in quite a long time.

I do not know if you can see them in the picture but hubs has painted an emblem on each piece so the girls can tell the desks apart.  They knew right away which was who's because the emblem signifies the nicknames that grandpa calls them.  I also just finished a desk project myself that I posted about here.  You can visit Jenny Matlock's  and check out the other D posts or play along if you want.


This is day 30 of the NoBloPoMo posting everyday in November.  I have done it!!!  There were a few days that I was busy and got home late in the evening and just did not want to sit down and write a post.  But I managed to do it before midnight each day.  I will say right now, I will not be posting everyday but I will try to post often.  Have a great evening!  Blessings from our home in the woods.

New Mystery Series for Me

I recently picked up book one of the Seaside Knitters Mystery Series by Sally Goldenbaum.

I am about 3/4 of the way through the book and am really enjoying it.  Have not figured out who done it yet,  that is something that bugs my hubs because I usually do have it figured out not to far into the book.  So I would say that Sally Goldenbaum is good at concealing the bad guy and will be reading the rest of the books available one right after another.  Here is the authors site if you are interested.  http://www.sallygoldenbaum.com/home
 Now, am I suppose to say something like I am not getting paid or have I been asked to write this post?  Next I would say No, who would pay me to do that.  I am not a writer.  Just thought I would share and I needed to post something because just one more day I will have posted everyday for a month.  Hope I have not bored you much with my daily postings while following through with the national blog posting everyday month of postings.    Have a great evening and read a good book!  Blessings!

Making Progress

I spent some time in the work room yesterday and pieced the last four blocks for the wall hanging I have been working on.

The following is all of the blocks arranged in the order they will be put together.  The top right block is waiting for some applique and the third block down on the right will be getting some embroidery in the center.

There will be a border around the the completed hanging and it will hang in my work room.  Really not sure what to call my area downstairs, it encompasses all the things I like to do, sewing, scrap booking, decorative painting, stamping and general crafts.  What do you suggest?  Hope you had a great evening there is not much left of it.  Blessings!

Sunday Praise

Switching it up to Christmas, hope you enjoy!



Blessings!

Christmas Boxes

I have been bringing up the Christmas decorations for the last two days.  There are just a few more things that need to be hung up or put in place.  No black Friday shopping here, but I do hope that everyone that did go had a safe and productive shopping trip.

Remember the reason friends.  Blessings from our home in the woods!

Finished Project

A few weeks ago I bought a small desk at a local antique store for $30.00 that I thought would work perfectly on a wall in the family room.  I had not been able to find the right piece of furniture for this wall since we moved here.  

I shop at this shop often and did not remove all the merchandise from the top before telling them to load it in my car, did not see the paint on the top.

 Did not really care for the brass hardware and also did not see that there was a break on the bottom shelf along the side.  Hubs also pointed out that the legs had been cut off at least three inches and not very evenly.  But being a good sport he did the repair on the bottom shelf and re-glued some joinery.   He also told me for the money it was a good buy because it was a solid oak piece.

I did like the worn black paint on the desk so I just sanded off the white paint and also some other areas to give it a more evenly worn look.

After sanding.

Ready to be finished.

 Decided to add some tinted wax for the finish.  This is something I had not used before but had some instruction from hubs and I like the finished piece.

New hardware.

Recently acquired wire basket at a barn sale.

 

 

Worked well with some framed prints and shelf I already had on the wall.  

 Yes you are seeing correctly, no woodwork on the wall behind the desk.  I pulled it off when I painted and hubs has not replaced it.  I usually get ahead of the game, we have a bit to replace throughout the house.
Linking up to Common Grounds Vintage Inspiration Friday.  Want some inspiration?  Jump on over and check out what everyone else has to share.


 Blessings!

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving day.  May you be blessed and surrounded by family and friends.

Blessings from our home in the woods!

Thankful For Daughter Number One

Today when I got home from work my oldest daughter pulled into the drive behind me.  She made the drive up today to help with the baking and prep work for tomorrows dinner.  I am truly thankful.

 

We baked a Cherry Crumble Pie from the Farm Chicks in the Kitchen cookbook, the Skillet Caramel Apple Pie from Pots and Pins blog, cream cheese frosted pumpkin cupcakes from Elizardbreath Speaks, my best friends banana bread recipe and there was a pumpkin pie in the oven when I took the next picture.

We also made some dips and chopped up the ingredients for the dressing.   It was wonderful to have the extra set of hands.  Hubs ordered us pizza and we tasted the cupcakes, so yummy, while watching a movie.  Up early to get the bird in the oven.  Blessings!

Winter Planting

Amaryllis Bulb

Paper White bulbs on my kitchen window ledge.

Just potted these bulbs up today.  Probably will not bloom for Christmas but we can look forward to some blooms shortly after.  It will be a bright spot after the snow falls.  Blessings!

Race For the Finish

Our number three grandsons birthday is December 14th.  This is the last afghan I need to finish this year. 

This is one quarter of the way done.  Every morning and every evening I work on this.  I love to make hand made Christmas gifts but I may have to put them on hold to get this present done on time.  So hard to prioritize.  Have a good evening friends, I am going back to the project.  Blessings!

Sunday Praise

How he must love us so!  Blessings from our home in the woods!

Enough

I have finally collected enough of the 30's reproduction fat quarters to start the quilt along over at Moose on the Porch Quilts, here.

I think I better heat up the iron.

It is hard to believe the weekend is half over already.  I went to town to get the food and other items I need for the Thanksgiving dinner and did just a couple of things around the house and Saturday is gone.  Hope you had a great day.  Blessings!

Bugs Birthday

I am a bad furry baby mother.  That is right Ladybug Nairn of Braemar, Bug for short, turned 3 on the 16th and I forgot.  Today she got a wash and haircut so I thought I would take some updated pictures to share with you.  Ladybug does not like her picture taken.  I get a lot of this.

I would call that the cold shoulder.  And if I do get a decent picture it ends up with shiny blue eyes.  The red eye reduction does not seem to work on my dog. 

That is the best I have for you folks.  Happy belated birthday dear Bugs, we love you so.

Blessings!

Camera Bags

I finished sewing up these camera bags a couple of weeks ago.  One for me and one for my best friend.  It was a thank you gift for inviting me to tag along on her vacation this fall.  I meant to give it to her for the trip but I did not finish them on time and then my sewing machine had to go into the shop for a few days.  I finally got it sent out to her so now I can post the end project.  I got the instructions out of the Summer 2011 Quilts and More magazine.  The designer is Nichol Magouirk.  It is a little large for my point and shoot camera but it works great to store both the camera and the charging cord in.

Yellow and gray for my friend and the other is mine, it matches my camera.

I picked these colors because my friend was carrying a bag with similar colors at the time.

 It was a fun little project.  I thought I might make more of them for gifts but the button hole maker on my machine is little to be desired, maybe in the future when that dream machine becomes real.
It is the letter C week over at Jenny Matlock's Alphabe Thursday.  Join in if you can.


Blessings!

It Starts

It is official, my holiday decorating has started.  It started this evening when I came home with some new snow for my winter village.  Last year I put it on top of my kitchen cabinets minus the snow.   Decided to add the snow back into the scene this year.

I was hanging over the step ladder to take these pictures, they are a little wonky.

 Not sure how the felt hanging over the edge will work when I want to get into these cabinets.  I taped it up under the snow so I can just pull it off if it becomes too much of a bother.  It is about a week earlier then I normally start pulling things out but I just was wanting a little twinkle in the dark.  It started getting colder today and it feels like it might snow soon.  I think that is what put me in the mood to start the holiday decorating. 
Good night and blessings from our home in the woods.

Why I Do and Do Not Blog.

Here I am, day 15, trying to blog each day of November because it is National Blog Posting Month.  I have only done this one other month and it was last November.  What have I done today that is blog worthy?  I have cleaned a bathroom and am making chili for my husband that just came in from opening day, here in Michigan, of gun season.  Watch out Bambie. Not so interesting.  I have went over to BlogHer the new home of NaBloPoMo so I could see what the writing prompt for the day was.  You can find the button for the month on my sidebar.  The prompt was, describe your favorite place.  My favorite place is the beach, has been since I first stepped on it after moving to Michigan 30 some years ago.  But I am not a writer.  I do not know how to tell you anymore than what I just did that would really hold your interest.  I just know that is where I like to go to get away and if hubs or my best friends go with me even better. 

So I blog and I am not a writer, so why?  Because I fell upon it by accident.  One day I googled something and ended up on someones blog.  And you all know how when we stumble on someones blog for a particular reason there are even more reasons on the sidebar to continue checking out other blogs.  The next thing I knew, I needed a blog so I could keep track of all the wonderful blogs out there I enjoyed.  I would say I started blogging because you all inspired me to.  Why do I have just over 100 followers.  I am not sure.  I think maybe one day I actually posted something that was of interest to someone and one of these wonderful blog followers thought aha, maybe it will be worth following.  Does that mean I had 100 good days? And then what, do you check in often?  Or are you bored after that one good day? 

I will admit I am wavering on blogging every day for the rest of the month.  The month is getting busy.  I have quite a few things on my calendar coming up along with the fact that I host the family Thanksgiving dinner.  But I do not like not finishing what I start.  Granted I have a lot of projects started and not finished.  But I know I will finish them.  This is like a hand made Christmas present, there is a diffident date that it needs to be done.  There is no "I'll work on it tomorrow" when you commit to something like this.  And what if the commitment is just to yourself.  Somehow it seems to me if I cannot keep a commitment to myself how can I keep it for someone else? 

Now friends I will admit this is about as deep as I get so do not come back if you liked this type of post because chances are it will not happen again very soon.  But I do thank you from the bottom of my heart for stopping in and listening to my droning.  Have a wonderful evening.

Blessing from our home in the woods!

P.S.  I do not think I have ever before had a post without pictures.  But if you want to look at every post from the past you can tell me if I am right or wrong.  Giggling a little here.

Three More Blocks

I have been working on the wall hanging I started last week.  This evening I finished three more blocks.  I am not sure the pink was a good choice or not.  I will finish the rest of the blocks and if it still does not look like it works, I might start that block over.
Blessings!

Sunday Praise

Have a blessed Sunday!

First Snow

It was nothing to write home about and it was gone by the end of the day.

 But the dusting of snow made for a pretty picture to share.

Thirties Fabric

I love any kind of fabric that looks vintage.  I believe these fat quarters are considered the Thirties look. I have been collecting these for a couple of years and want to use them in a QAL over at Moose on the Porch.  I need to find 6 more fat quarters in these similar colors, hopefully over the next two weeks.  I am behind four blocks and I thought if I could start in the next week I would do two blocks a week and catch up.  I bought the background fabric a couple of weeks ago.  Washed and ready.  If you would like to join in late to the same QAL you can go here to catch up.
http://moosequilts.blogspot.com/2011/08/fat-quarter-stars-quilt-along.html

Have a great evening!  Blessings!

B is for Block

I recently bought a pattern to use for a wall hanging in my craft/sewing area.  I pulled the fabrics out a couple of days ago and got started.

Mary Englebreit Fabric

The pattern on the left is the one I am using for this project.

 Quilt blocks finished so far:

 

The smaller block will have the embroidery in the center.  The larger block is the first star  I have put together.  There are a couple spots I would like to have done better but I am going to accept it and move on.  I forgot to square it up before I took the picture.  The light background fabric is not part of Mary Englebreit's fabric line.  Thank you for stopping in for the Aphabe-Thursday party over at Jenny Matlocks.


Have a wonderful evening.   Blessings to you!

15 Years

Today my hubs and I are celebrating our anniversary.  Fifteen years ago today we were married with my three daughters standing up beside me.  He has been and is the best.

Last Valentine Day church dinner.

 Being the dear that hubs is, this is what I came home from work to. 

A new  Keurig and a new mug.  Made me smile.  I now have a cup of afternoon coffee.  When I make coffee in the afternoon I usually end up having two cups this will lower my caffeine intake through the day.  And it is the perfect gift for the two of us.  I bought hubs the newest book from his favorite author, Terry Brooks.  It has become a tradition because he seems to always have a new book out around this time each year. Although hubs has a Nook he always wants the new hardback in this series.   Have a wonderful day friends.  Blessings!

Out of the Box

This storage container is mostly filled with Mary Engelbreit fabric.  I have been pulling together a project from it this week. 

 I also have been wishing I had bought more of it.  I am loving how it is coming together. 
Have a wonderful evening!  Blessings.

Today

Here I am day 7 of National Blog Posting Month and I was already at odds about what to post.  I see quite a few bloggers post about their day so here it goes.  I get up Monday through Friday at six A.M.  I would love to say I work out but I do not.  I shower, make some coffee and watch the morning news.  I leave for work at eight thirty A.M., I am a slow starter.  I have a part time job and usually work a four hour shift which infrequently turns into five to six hours.  I expect this sounds quite like a lot of your days. 
Today I paid bills, my least enjoyable chore, I know, yours too. Also did some of those normal house hold chores, dishes and some laundry. 
Of coarse there was some friendly blog visiting, I really spend way too much time at that.  I just cannot help myself.  And:

Organizing some projects in their very own containers.

 Forgot to crop the above picture.  You can see that there is more that needs picked up and put away.
And:

A little sewing.  Some Christmas presents started.

 That is it friends.  A day in my life minus some nutrition and phone calls from daughters and of course a couple conversations with the hubs thrown in here and there.  Nothing earth shattering, just my normal day.
Wishing you many blessings!

Sunday Praise

Have a blessed Sunday!

Not a Chicken

A couple of days ago I was looking out the front window and saw a bird that looked quite like a chicken.  It was about half the size of my hens and  was a color that I did not have, so I thought we had a rogue chicken in our yard.  Decided to go get the binoculars, because even with my glasses on I cannot see any distance, and found it was not a chicken at all.

 The description starts "A brown chicken-like bird".  This is the first Ruffed Grouse we have seen on our property even though they live in deep woods and we are surrounded by woods.  We have a Birds of Michigan Field Guide that we write down where and the date we see a bird on our land.  There is a spot in the back to place a check by the name but hubs and I wanted something more to remember where and when we saw it. 

It is really surprising that some birds that are listed as popular in our area we have only spotted once.  Our oldest grandson is visiting this weekend.  He is working on a list of chores to earn money for a parrot  that he wants to buy.  He needs to save quite a bit and has blisters on his hands from raking neighbors lawns in his neighborhood.  What a trooper. 

Wishing you a wonderful weekend and many blessings from our home in the woods.

A Very Pretty Gift

A couple of weeks ago my Mom-in-Love gave me a piece of furniture that she really could not find a spot for.  She finds wonderful pieces of furniture at consignment and antique shops and had too many pieces in her home.  So she asked me if I would want this piece.  Oh yeah!

This piece has pretty fall coloring to it.  I am hoping for some input on how I should dress this piece.  Do I leave it as is?  I have my favorite print above it right now.

Another problem I have is that the print is hanging to high over the table.  I had a taller table sitting under it before and I do not have any of this paint nor do I know what color the paint is because it was on the walls when we moved in.  I plan on painting this room in the next few months but I am helping a daughter paint some rooms in her house right now so I am not ready to paint quite yet.  Do I just move the print down and ignore any marks that might be left behind or do I put something tall on the table?  Or does the print not work with the chest?  I have to admit I have never been so stumped on how to use a piece of furniture.

What would you sit on a chest with a painted top like this?   I normally would fill something like this with framed pictures and a candle or some sort of decorative piece.  I would love a little advice if anyone would be willing to give it.  Have a wonderful weekend.

 

Blessing to all from our home in the woods.