Happy Winter Solstice!



 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy your day ♥♥♥

Last Minute Gift Card/Cash Containers

 

As I stated in my last post I am way behind

this year regarding Christmas.

 

No time for shopping or creating gifts

I gave in to gift cards/cash and trinkets.

Hey, I can only do so much!

 

I didn't want to just stick them in a card, envelope, or gift wrapped box, I wanted the container to be pretty and unique, so that perhaps they could reuse them.

I had been saving tins, such as Altoids, Band Aids, etc. to someday do something with them.

 

That day had come!

They proved to be the right size for what I needed.

Sorry no before or during photos - no time!

 

Choosing a different theme for each one,

Jingle Bell Snowman,

Snowman,

Christmas Candy Cane,

and

Believe, 

I layered complimenting

papers, images, trinkets, trims, etc.

covering the tins completely.

 

Tinsel pipe cleaners added a touch of vintage charm and covered narrow areas around the lids.

So if you need a quick gift card or small gift container, these proved a quick breeze with your glue gun to make!

 





Where Has the Time Gone??!! and and Update

Can you believe next Tuesday is Christmas Eve already!!???

I need at least another week! Now granted I haven't been home much all month - Dr. office after Dr. office, hospitals, tests, procedures, you name it some one in this house has done it. That's why I need another week of NO APPOINTMENTS to get caught up. So behind getting the decorations up this year.

Except for my little Conservatory...... Oh, OK...so it never got put away last year...the way things have been going I was scared it was going to be the only Christmasy thing up this year!

It has never taken us so long to get the tree up....ever! AND it's only a little 4 foot tree! We finally finished it last night.

LOL It seemed it got a few decorations on it a day for about a week. LOL

We went with pink and white this year. I had found these amazing pink and white bulbs at a fund raiser for the local Animal Shelter and got them for a song. I intended to sell them...but you know how that goes. I fell for them and decided to keep them. I think they look great with my vintage pink tinsel garland.

 

 Love my Dad's old pocket watch turned ornament and

set a few magical minutes

 before Christmas Morning.

These opaque white ones with the pink accents are adorable!

Unfortunately there weren't too many of them.

 Love the tear drop shape of some of them.

 And, of course, couldn't forget my white birdies ♥

The wreath I won from ImagiMeris last year has made it up.

Probably because all I had to do was hang it ;)

So bright and cheerful.



Ah yes, my fav sign that never comes down

 adds to the Christmas Cheer.

Made by Daizy Donna Designs

We have 3 days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, to get everything ready for the Holidays.

Monday is another Dr. appointment.

I haven't even started baking yet!

Don't think the outside lights are going to make it up this year...too many injured workers here! LOL

Seems to be one thing after another around here.

T and C were able to replace C's ceiling fan that died. T walked into his room the next day and turned his fan light on and it sparked and blew out. The whole thing quit working, so we need to replace another ceiling fan.

I brought in a table lamp for him to use until he can buy a new one and it started smoking when he plugged it in. Yep, one thing after another....and these are just minor old things that need to be replaced.

C had surgery on his wrist Nov 15th for a ganglion cyst. It was twice as big as the surgeon thought it was. She had to make two incisions in his joint because it had two "roots" instead of one. He has also been diagnosed with Cubital Tunnel Syndrome , similar to Carpel Tunnel but it, but it involves the ulnar nerve.  He has physical therapy 3 times a week for his wrist and Cubital Tunnel. He has been having chest pains so a stress test and an echo cardiogram were ordered. They came back abnormal. The lower part of his heart is slow and sluggish. He will have more testing/procedures done in Jan. 

M has been having really bad back pain. Lab work confirmed she has Ankylosing Spondylitis (the same thing B has). Hers is in the early stages and she hasn't lost much range of motion yet. B's wasn't caught for a few years which is why he has lost so much range of motion in his shoulders and hips.

On M's last visit the Dr. heard a heart murmur. She will be going in for and echo cardiogram soon to see what's going on with her.

T has been having a lot of hip pain, so x-rays have been ordered.

Then throw Obama Care/Covered Ca in the mix and what a mess medical insurance has become.

On the first of Jan. M will start on Medicare and T will start on Blue Shield. Her private Insurance will no longer exist, hence the Medicare, and T turns 26 on Dec 30th and loses his through the military, so he is signed up for Silver 94. 

Just hoping both of their ID cards show up in time.

No Dr. appointments today so I guess I better get to cleaning house. A Gingerbread House, Chocolate Chip cookies and Mount Laundry are on the agenda today.

Hoping everyone else is on time and ready for Christmas!

Gnome Management in the Garden

Cleaning Fruit



We all have the frustrating experience day after day on how quick the fruits perish after purchased and taken home! For this reason, you and your family will treasure this simple but important piece of information.

This will also wash away our fears and doubts about the pesticides and chemical covers on the various fruits.

 

 

I will follow him. (now this is a hymn!!!)

 

    Thought we could all use some uplifting music in our lives today. Enjoy!
The last part is Rousing..........     

 

A picture is worth a thousand words

Here you go!



 

The problems we face today exist
because the people who work for a living

 are outnumbered by those who vote for a living !!!!!!

Pruning, Cleaning, Pruning

 

 My home, inside and out is going through a transformation. It's a slow process that sometimes gets bogged down by real life (ie. my depression, the kids health issues, etc). Sometimes it provides a distraction, or just a good way to exhaust negative feelings.

It is a process; mentally, physically and emotionally.

We are "eating our Elephant one bite at a time", a saying our old therapist used to tell us (we MISS you Connie!!).

OK onto the real guts of this post.

One side of our home has been used for storage for quite some time. Not organized storage but a throw it there and worry about it later storage. Once upon a time we had rabbits.

The built in cages have been empty for years.

Vines have been left to cover and hide the forgotten.

The whole side was an eyesore which the Raccoons loved.

Hence the start of the clean up process.

At the entrance there was an archway covered in Honeysuckle which the Humming Birds loved. But it had died back and was very not a happy camper.

You can see it partially in this photo.

Which by the way had already been partially cleaned up and some debris removed.

Under those Honeysuckle vines are rabbit cages...somewhere.

A pile of prunings that will hopefully someday turn into compost...;)

 Pile of raked leaves and more prunings....good mulch

Cleared of vines you can see the rabbit cages!

Commence destruction of cages!

Sorry no photos, we worked slowly and carefully.

None of us are 100% so bit by bit they came down.

As did all the wood and other items that had been stored over there

Rabbit cages in trash bags ready to be added to toter as able.

It took about a month to get rid of all those bags

but they are finally gone! 



 

All cages, old saved wood that was starting to rot, some garden tools, and just plain crap.

Storage locker moved down toward lean to,

where garden items are now neatly organized.

Milk crates hold wood for my signs.

Trash can holds recycles which were on the other side of the house in trash bags blocking the walkway to the gate.

Plan on getting a couple more cans so sorting will be easier. 

Easier wheel barrow access.

Stakes for plants need to be gone through to decide what needs keeping and what doesn't.

All the bricks you see around my home were salvaged from my parents farm. I grabbed each and every one they had and used them throughout my gardens for paths, flooring, edging, etc.

Dad was a carpenter so whatever was discarded on the job he brought home, but most of these bricks are from their garden boxes  Dad had made for Mom when they first bought their home. Living on a Frontage Road had some disadvantages. When I was in 6th grade the County decided to widen Hwy 580. It was going to go right through our living room.

As the saying goes " You can't fight City Hall" which my parents did and of course lost. They had the choice of selling and moving, not accepting the Counties offer (if you could call it that) for that section of property, but if they didn't accept it the County would declare it ''eminent domain'' and take it anyway. So they decided to accept the offer and move the house back. Luckily there was enough room to follow the ordinance to be X amount of feet away from the back fence. We lived in a trailer that year while the house was being moved back, then repaired.

Dad has the whole thing on home movies.

Anyway what I was getting to, was all the brick boxes Dad had built were bulldozed, but he saved all the bricks. When he rebuilt the new ones he used new brick. Those old bricks and brick pieces had been sitting there for, oh 25 years just waiting for me to find a new lease on life for them :) 



The Sunflowers are ending there season,

the birds will miss them.



As soon as the petals fall they are

picked clean of their seeds.

I managed to pick the last wonderful bouquet

of the season as I cut them down a couple weeks ago

The weather has been crazy here.

Just last week we were in the 70's

This week we are down to freezing at night

and highs in the 40's during the day.

The first frost means it's time to prune the Roses

and collect the hips.

My last Rose bouquet for the season.

Yes, it's tiny, but very sweet ♥

You can also see the extent of my Christmas decorating so far.....

Pretty pink Roses to end the season.