All is Calm, All is Bright!

So my blogger friends...

How are your Christmas preparations coming along?

With just a little more than 2 weeks left until Christmas, 

I can honestly say that around here...

ALL IS CALM 

and

ALL IS BRIGHT.

  

I  don't know about you,

but I like calm.

As Martha would say.....It's a good thing!  

At our house

It's also bright....

and white!

In previous years....

I have decorated with both colored lights...

and white lights.  

internet pic

Truth be known~

I think I prefer the white lights.

But I know some folks, especially those with little ones, seem to prefer the colored lights...

and maybe you like lights that twinkle, blink, or race.  

Mine don't.

Not that I have anything against twinkling, blinking and racing lights:)

The other day,

I had a discussion with a friend of mine about what kind of wrapping paper she prefers to use. 

She likes all her packages to be wrapped in

COLORFUL

non- matchy matchy paper...

And I know some folks who just don't give it a second thought,

they just use what they have.

But obsessed people like myself...

well we like everything to be

 coordinated!

and 

~MATCHY MATCHY~

And this year ...

my paper just happens to be

White
and 

BRIGHT

and somewhat

Silvery......

with a pinch of Chartreuse of course.

As you may recall from my last post I love Chartreuse!

 Besides the obvious Babe in a Manger.....

One of the beauties of the Christmas season is that there are as many ways to decorate and celebrate

as there are decorators and celebrators.

 And I can appreciate ALL of them!

So what's your style?

White and bright?

Colorful?

Coordinated paper?
Mismatched

or Colorful paper? 

I would love to hear what puts the
jingle in your bells
 this holiday season!

Whatever your style

Have a very Merry (and bright) Christmas!

Oh,
and remember to

Linked to 

http://homesteadrevival.blogspot.com/

http://fresh-eggs-daily.blogspot.com/

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/

The Aftermath

I've been struggling to recoup from the holidays. There's so much to do and so little time. In trying to restore order after the barrage of gifts and food, I found myself getting sidetracked by working on projects that have been shoved to the wayside the last month or so.  While I managed to get the Christmas tree down, the rest of the decorations are still up (except for the fresh pine that was removed the day after). 


My wonderful hubby bought me one of those gadgets to record your old VHS videos onto DVD.  I spent several afternoons and evenings playing with it.  And though I have a long way to go, I got a great start.  It is a project that takes you down memory lane.  Some days I wasn't sure whether to laugh, or to cry.  Here's just a snippet from the good ol' days of having little ones in the house.  This is my little girl (who is now 24 and a mommy of 1) getting down and dirty in the kitchen.  We began the training young around here!

Because I had to set up this new recording device in our office/craft room, I had to do some cleaning and reorganizing first.  And my work/craft table was first on the hit list.


And then I got this brilliant idea as I was sorting through my photos for scrapping, crafts, fabric and sewing projects (that I may never get to). Immediately I had to  stop cleaning and begin sewing.  

click to enlarge

  I'm a trash to treasure girl.  So I was thrilled with the results of my efforts. After several hours, I had 4 of these clever(recycled)grocery bags made from chicken feed bags.  I have one more to make.  Its a beautiful bird food bag with vibrant colors and of course, birds!  Each year at Christmas, I make up a little homemade gift for the sisters-in-law.  There's a good chance they'll get a recycled bag filled with some kind of homemade goodie;)



AND SPEAKING OF THE SISTERS-IN-LAW...Pulling off a nice gift of the homemade variety often takes some planning ahead.  This year I worked all summer to pull off this year's gift.  It turned out to be a really nice gift.  Check it out.

I cut and dried herbs all summer long.  Put the dried herbs in little packages purchased at Michaels. Made vanilla (several months before) using the tips on making homemade vanilla at Tammy's Recipes.  It's wonderful BTW.  Included an herb guide on what each herb is used for.  And wrapped it all up nicely with a Christmas towel purchased at a discount store.  Each SIL also received a tampon angel for a little humor!  

Thats all for now.  Still a lot of projects and organizing to do. Until we meet again............