Sunday Praise

Psalm 146:1 & 2

1 Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord, O my soul.

2  I will praise the Lord all my life;

I will sing praise to my God as long

as I live.

Our Home

I have only posted twice since Thanksgiving, although I have been taking pictures and thinking of things to share I have not sat down here long enough to pick out the pictures, save them and put a post together.  I started decorating our home for Christmas later than usual this year.  We decided to finally bite the bullet and get some new furniture for our living room.  I had not painted or really done anything in that room since we moved here five years ago and when the bug finally hit me the end of  November I decided I needed to get the room painted before the furniture was delivered.  Here are some pictures that I took after getting the Christmas decor up.  The rest of the post will be mostly picture heavy.

First the new furniture.

His and Hers

The color is Terracotta. 

Yes, that is it, two chairs and a couch.  There is a large ottoman, but it has not came yet.  Not sure if you can see the color of the walls very well.

Hubs built this wall unit to close off the very large gaping opening between the dining area and the living room.

I love to add bells around the house at Christmas.

We had the family all together around this tree last Sunday.

I have put this tinsel tree up in the guest bedroom for the past couple of years.  I collect the little clip on birds to attach to it along with some vintage and vintage look ornaments. It is sitting in an old granite wash pan.

Hubs has a small chunky tree that he puts up in his den that he decorates with woodland animals and red lights.  The grands like to see how many animals they can find on it.

And the last item but the  first that comes out of the Christmas boxes every year is the manger that hubs built for me the first year we were married.  I am afraid it is not a very good picture this year.

I hope you all had a blessed Christmas and I wish you all a wonderful New Year from our home in the woods!

It is All About the Grands

It is all about the grandchildren for my husband and I through the holiday season.  I have had plenty I could be sharing with everyone right now but I have been busy keeping up with the family and getting our home ready for the upcoming Christmas gathering we hold here.

Today we drove to the city to do a little Christmas shopping and see our oldest granddaughter in a Christmas play at the church my daughter's family attends.  It was called "The Christmas that Saved the Grinch".  It was quite a production and we enjoyed every minute of it.

Our Granddaughter was one of the younger "Whos".  Doesn't she have the prettiest smile.  My sister commented earlier that she looks just like her mother, my youngest daughter when she was this age.

She is in the middle in pink playing a pink horn.

The following pictures are of some of the other actors in the play.

And if it works, here is a video that I took.

We had a fabulous day!  Blessings from our home in the woods!

The Red Sofa

 Thanksgiving has came and went.  I have been busy with family, holiday preparations and new work hours that I have not quite worked out with blogging.  The title of my post "The Red Sofa" came from a picture opportunity, or so I thought, of having all our grandchildren sit on the "Red Sofa" for pictures that I might use in Christmas cards this year.  Mind that this took place after our Thanksgiving meal and the kids had already been running and chasing each other through the house for a while already.  The cousins have a ball when they get together.  Well here are the results.

 Waiting for number 7 grand to join the group.

Grandson number three on the end, not really wanting to do this thing.

Notice Granddaughter on opposite end has the same sweet smile all the way through, as does her sister in the middle squished between cousins.

Our youngest Grandson is teething and a little cranky.

Grandson number two doing a great job along with Granddaughter number one.  They are two weeks apart in age, must be the month and year they were born in. 

Oh my, that was it, the longest this young man was going to sit still and Grandson number one was having a time with the youngest squirming. But still hanging in there is our little blond next to the not so happy Grandson.

All Done!

Should they go in the card?

That is it for now, maybe I'll post some more of our gathering in a couple of days.  Hope to visit a few of your blogs today and catch up.  Blessings from our home in the woods!

Sunday Praise

Psalm 108:3

I will praise you, O Lord, among the 

nations;

I will sing of you among the peoples.

Catching Up

I will just give you a short version of what I have been doing the last 2-3 weeks.  I went to Indiana, which is the state I grew up in, about three weeks ago to visit my family.  I stayed with my sister who turned 50 while I was visiting and we did our normal junk store shopping and spent a lot of time with coffee cups at the kitchen table and long talks.  Pictures were taken the night of her birthday by my niece but I am afraid none have become available for me to share yet.  I also visited with my Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister in Law and a Nephew and his family.  There was an evening spent with my favorite Aunt and my favorite Cousin at which time some birthday celebrating was being had.  I was able to catch up with a grade school friend that I have kept in touch with all these years after moving from that school district when in sixth grade.  We both have the same first name and she is the reason I have always wanted red hair.  Again no pictures.  I get so engrossed with the visits I forget to get the camera out.  But on the way to the area my family lives in I made a pit stop to meet a fellow blogger and a great person, Cindy Bee, of  The Bee Lady from Hilltop Farm.  We packed a lot into 2-3 hours.  Cindy gave me a tour of the home they are building and of the bee hives.  She and her husband have a wonderful piece of property and are doing a fantastic job building their dream home on it.  She gifted me with the best honey I have ever tasted.

We went to lunch and visited two of her favorite shops.

A Picture!

I think Cindy Bee could have kept me going until late that night but I had places to go and had to run off when I think she was just getting started.  I will have to visit again.  She also sent these creations home with me.

For these pretty faces.

There has been a sixth birthday.

The big boy has spent a recent weekend.

And a trip to the movies with two of the four brothers.

It was this little ones first trip to the movies.  He came with a blanket and if you look close enough you will see the blanket is holding candy and popcorn. 

And this, our youngest grand, is now able to sit on his own.  He is the girls little brother.

I have also joined Weight Watchers.  This is a first for me and there is not much to report yet.  Hardly a pound.  But I am going to do this thing.  So not such a short story but shorter than I could have made it.  

Hope you are all having a great week and tell me what you have been doing in your lives.  Blessings from our home in the woods!

Sunday Praise

Psalm 101

I Will Sing of your love and justice;

to you, O Lord, I will sing praise.

Last Book of 2012 Reading Challenge

This is my last book report for the Beth Fish Reads "What's In the Name" reading Challenge.

The last book I needed to read had to have "something on a calendar".  My friend Allie of allie-opps sweet happy life suggested this book to me and I really enjoyed it.  I read it a few weeks ago but forgot to report on it.  My last book is Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom.

This book is a true story and you can find You Tube videos of interviews with Morrie Schwartz by Ted Koppel of which I watched before and during reading the book.  And because I did, I could picture this man as I read the book.  It is about a dying man and how he embraced it.   It is sad but well worth the read.

This is the first reading challenge I have participated in,  I had great fun finding the books I needed and having friends help along the way.  I hope to join another reading challenge this next year.

I hope you are all having a great weekend.  Blessings to you from our home in the woods.

WIP Wednesday

I am back to blogging after almost a two week break.  I do not usually take such a long time away from posting but I think I just needed to have some time off and start fresh.  I have a lot to share over the next few days.  Today I am going to share some projects in the process and a finished one.

I cut out two more Great Granny Square quilt blocks.  These will be blocks 3 and 4.  At the rate I am working on this project, there is no telling how long it will take me to put together 54 of these blocks.

 I have backed the fall table topper and have the layers safety pin basted together ready to quilt.  Excited to get this project finished this week so I can put it to use.

Do not know if you will remember the train case I showed you a few weeks ago that I have been carrying my hand sewing around in.  I finally got around to tearing the old paper out of it.

 I relined the sides and top of the case with some vintage fabric I have had laying around for quite a few years.   I mounted the stitchery that I shared a few weeks ago and put it in the place a mirror use to be, but no longer was when I bought the case.

 In case you would like to stitch up this cute little girl you can get the free pattern at Imagine Gnats here.
I could not center the stitchery on the inside of the top because I had already punched holes and ran ribbon through it for a pair of scissors.  Since I did not think ahead I found that I could not get the scissors out if I attached it centered.  Sometimes I forget to do the math.  Here are the four sides of the inside of the case.

 

 I cut a vintage hankie to make a pocket.

The other half of the hankie.

Favorite hoop.

Decided I needed some more pink so I made a pin cushion and attached with Velcro.

I liked the original blue covering on the outside of the case so I used some antique colored furniture wax to shine it up a little and stain the edges where the paper had worn through.  Now I am ready to fill this case with threads and projects.  Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy the rest of your week and blessings from our house in the woods!