a long debriefing (and a giveaway) . . .

So it's that time of year when you *blink* and two (or more) days weeks have passed.  LOL!  Can I get an amen on that?!  I always struggle, when I finally make my way back to the ol' blog (which I always do), with what to post. Do I go back and fill in the blanks?  Or just pick up at 'today' and pretend nothing happened?

Because I use my blog primarily for me ... as a means to remember events, projects, and life, over the course of the year ... my tendency is to go ahead and fill in the blanks.  Case in point:  I just stopped blogging after my May 13 post this year.  Until October (when I got the itch).  And then I went back and BACK DATED at least twenty posts. <insert sheepish grin here>  That, my friends, is how I roll.  Which I guess answers my original question.  Buckle up . . . there are a LOT of photos!  ;)

We celebrated Thanksgiving at my folk's house this year.  It was Joc's year to celebrate on the day with her in-laws, so we chose to celebrate together on Friday. Since it's more about the giving thanks than the date, it wasn't a problem for us! One of my sisters was even able to fly in with her youngest, and celebrate with us.  

The more the merrier, right? Plus it was great-grandpa's first time to meet/hold Ezra!

Four generations . . . oldest and youngest of our family (for the time-being, anyway)! Ezra wanted to spend time with his Pawpaw, though . . .

He really wanted to get a fistful of that beard! Maybe he thought he was being held in Santa's lap??!

We missed our California crew, but they checked in from a Thanksgiving morning walk! ♥

That Sunday evening a group of us traveled out to see the light show at the Toyota Field Stadium.  It was a first for me and it was lots of fun!

We would have had a bigger crew, but Everley had stepped on a pencil earlier in the day, and broke 1/2" off in her poor little foot! She's fine ... after a trip to the pediatric ER.  Whew!

So the transition from Fall to Christmas kicked off with the lights. Next was the RV decor . . .

I love decorating our little space for the holidays!

I also love this darling little chub-a-lub!

On December 2, we had our Christmas Open House at work. Not only am I on staff, but Todd is volunteer staff, so it's a family affair. 

We didn't do it last year (covid), so we were excited to be able to advertise it this year -- but there were still some concerns for keeping it safe.  We decided to pre-bag everything we weren't serving pre-packaged. 

We did a good job (if I say so myself) and a number of guests commented how much they appreciated our efforts in that regard.  My favorite was the pretty little fruit cups . . .

I had the vision for these.  Kind of like the jar-cuterie, only done with just fruit. They were very festive looking and a big hit, plus we found we had a lot less (of everything) leftover this year!

Friday we had a most unseasonally beautiful day.  In the 70s with no winds, sunshine with just a tad of cloud cover ... we had planned to hit the lake (in DECEMBER!) but Todd was not feeling well, so we decided to stay home and I headed to the Nook.

I had stitched up a couple of the simple snowman stitchery I'd created for Ellie, and while I'd made a wall-hanging with one, the other was just sitting in the hoop.  Rather than leave him there, I decided to use him to make the center of a pillow cover for the completely-out-of-place brown pillow (see RV holiday picture above).

It looks really cute (again, if I do say so myself)!  Ellie has decided this is how she's going to finish her project, too!

I feel like we jumped into the season with both feet! Two days later we had our Stitcher's Etc. Christmas party. (This group is different from our guild group; this is a smaller subset.) We had a great group of women gathered—twenty-four in total—which is the biggest gathering we've had in a while!

There was stitching, lunch, an ornament exchange, desserts, show 'n tell and more stitching!  Grand time.  

And both my "affirmation sisters" were there, too, which was the cherry on top!

These two are precious to me.  :)

Then came late Saturday afternoon ... time for the SEC Conference Championship game.  

I won't say I wasn't a tad bit anxious going into this game (I mean -- we were the underdog!), but I sure was super-excited about the outcome!

Sunday morning was the second Sunday of Advent. My old Advent wreath was looking a little shabby and covered in candle wax, so I decided to do something a little different this year . . .

The Nativity candle will, appropriately, be my Christ candle. I think it looks pretty and fun and outside the box, which I believe Jesus was (at least as far as the Pharisees were concerned), so totally appropriate!  

If you've hung in all the way through this post ... way to go, you! To reward you, leave a comment (make sure if you're a no-reply blogger that you leave some way for me to contact you) and I'll choose one lucky winner to be the recipient of one of the sweet ornaments the girls have made this year:

This is Ellie and Evey's 6th annual ornament fundraiser! The girls made yarn angel ornaments and sold them for $5. I bought four! All proceeds go to Food for the Hungry, to purchase things like seeds, animals, tools, medication, water purification, shoes, Bibles, and more!  The girls select the items and then [Jocelyn makes] Ellie call the order in herself.  This sweet little handcrafted angel represents the fulfillment of a basic need. ♥ So I'll make a pick and announce it on Monday!

Whew ... this was long. I need to do a better job of staying on top of this thing!!

:)

halloween hoppin day three . . .

It's the last day *and* my day, YAY! 

When I first read the criteria of this hop — I’m going to make this really simple this year, I’d love to see a project with “Purple” in it, but seriously I’ll be happy also if it doesn’t …What’s Halloween tho without a bit of purple? You are free to make something new, or show a past project you’ve created — I knew this was a hop for ME!  Anyone that knows me, knows I love purple! All you have to do is look at a few of my past Halloween blog hop projects . . .

Wicked Blog Hop

Witchy Stitchy Blog Hop

Pick a Pumpkin Blog Hop

And select pieces of my current Halloween/Autumn decor . . . 

. . . to understand I'm all about including purple in the festivities!  Because, after all, Marian, of Seams to be Sew (our lovely blog hop hostess) is absolutely right.  What's Halloween without a little bit of purple?! ♥

Of course, the possibilities were endless, so I was all over the board with my thoughts. But then a late afternoon/early evening out on the lake gave me my *light bulb* moment.

Where we fish on Lake Guntersville, out near the dam, there also happens to sit a protected brown bat cave, right on the water.

At dusk, the bats fly out of the cave by the hundreds, and boaters come from everywhere to see the spectacle. I caught a bit of the excitement on video as we were hustling back to the marina . . .

Isn't that so cool?!  It's amazing to sit amongst them on the water. And see the waning light of the sky and how it makes every thing look a soft purple?  BINGO! Then I remembered I had a really cute pattern from Quilt Doodle Designs (that I've had for ages) that would be perfect.  

Isn't he (she?!) handsome?  Soft and sparkly . . . that's how I like my bats.  And PURPLE!  

Of course, I couldn't do just one thing. (I mean, right?!)  I'm also a huge fan of candy corn.  Did you know you can actually buy purple candy corn?

Yep.  Never have had it, but I'm curious how it tastes!  Instead, I stitched up a few candy corn bean bags in Civil War prints and backed them with, well . . . purple.

Because I can! And the CW print I used on the back ... I just love it!  It reminds me of fangs.  And candy corns.  Perfect, non? I filled them with crushed walnut shells ... and didn't realize it until midway through the process that there was also lavender in the mix.  Rather appropriate for the look, I'd say. *wink*

So there you have it!  I think my coffee table is getting a little full.  I may need to give away a few things . . . maybe a candy corn or two, some wool acorns and a few other fall goodies?  If that sounds fun to you, leave a comment by midnight on Friday, make sure there's a way for me to contact you, and I'll do a random draw and try and get the goodies in the mail so you have them before the month ends!

Thanks, Marian for such a fun hop!  Be sure to visit today's other participants, too!

Wednesday, October 21

Words & Stitches

Kathy's kwilts and more

me! >>>   Count it *all* JOY   <<< me!

Quilted Diary

Flying Parrot Quilts

Seams To Be Sew

Happy Halloween Hoppin!

:)

i ♥ pearl's pegs . . .

I've been meaning to do this for a while now and today is as good a time as any, so here goes. And yes, it's a long post, lots of pictures, but I'll reward you for sticking with it to the end with a GIFTAWAY!

I wanted to share the amazing talents of my beautiful daughter.  She is a peg doll painter . . . 

Aren't these just the cutest of things? She's painted every Disney princess character there is!

Actually, she can paint pretty much anything. I adore this nursery rhyme set! And check out this set of Charlie Brown figures . . .

And the action figure heroes . . . 

I have a thing for Marvel! She's also done Star Wars and sports pegs, too.  Look at this fun set of college football pegs and see if you can guess the team!

Did you guess? Hint ... it's *not* my favorite college football team. LOL! I've gifted football pegs to both my bosses and they loved them!  But these are really the perfect toys for precious little hands . . .

Edith loves to play with the Nativity!

This is an absolutely beautiful set. I especially adore the cubby sheep and the camels that match the wise men! She also does a smaller unit of just the Holy Family. :)

The pegs are all hand-painted and non-toxic, so you don't have to worry about them going into mouths.  They're great for dollhouses or just imaginative play!  Joc created a set specifically for sensory bin use:

Perfect for toddlers who need busy play and enjoy the tactile activities.  Also perfect for learning colors! Edie will play for an hour with a bin like this, which is perfect for Joc as she's preparing a meal!

There's also a "Paint Your Own Pegs" kits she's put together, for artistic kiddos that like to do for themselves . . . 

Everything they need to paint their own peg family!  Pretty clever stuff!

Ellie certainly thought so ... she's pretty talented in her own right!  ♥

These make wonderful memory markers, too.  Joc does a LOT of custom painted peg dolls, especially of families (based off of photos/digital images) . . .

Isn't this a sweet little family of four?  Every time I see it, I want the mom's dress!  And what about this group of pretty ballerinas . . .

She does a lot of custom pegs of ballerinas to commemorate a recital!  Isn't that fun? My favorite is the little mousie from The Nutcracker!

She added ornaments to her repertoire this year, too.

I adore these! Of course, I also have a thing for snowmen!

If there are children or grandchildren (or great-grandchildren!) in your life that might enjoy some peg play--and I'll just go ahead and say it, who *wouldn't* enjoy some peg play?!--you can order from her Pearl's Pegs page on facebook or from her Pearl's Pegs account on Instagram.  It's fun to scroll through her IG and see all the fantastic photos!

I do have to caution that her Christmas orders are closed (so she can enjoy the season with her own family).  So NO new orders now, but she'll be taking new orders after January 10th!  

In the meantime, how about a giftaway?!

Jocelyn gifted me with two snowmen ornaments . . . one for me and one for YOU!   You have two chances to win.  The first chance is simple:  just leave me a comment on this post (you must leave me a way to contact you).  The second is to follow the link to Pearl's Peg on facebook or Instagram, and follow her on one of those two accounts.  Then leave me a comment telling me which one you followed, and under what name!  Easy-peasy! I'll leave this open until December 17th, then pick a winner and ship it quick, so you have it in time to put on your tree ... or in someone special's stocking!!

Ho ho ho!

:)