WINTER LACE

Christmas is a memory and the decorations are drooping a little. We usually wait until Jan. 1 to take our tree down, but this year I'm ready to do it early. We did have a great celebration with our family on Christmas Day. A few folks were missing--mainly my brother-in-law and nephew, both of whom are serving in Iraq now. My sister is without her husband and one of her sons. Although I'll say this about her, she handles it very well and keeps a good attitude. She did get to talk to them on Christmas Day tho' with the miracle of long distance electronics.
I received money and gift cards and they're really burning a hole in my purse. LOL Gotta get out there and get it spent.

I realize that a large section of the country is covered in snow and is expecting more. Here in middle Tennessee, we do have cold weather and even a wintry mix in the forecast, but these pictures show pretty much what winter looks like here. I always have thought the dark, bare limbs of trees look like lace against the winter sky. Hubby and I are shopping for a new camera with some of our Christmas money and then I'll have more dramatic pictures to show you all.

This is a maple tree and a Bradford pear tree next to it. Look at that beautiful blue clear sky. Makes for cold nights though.

Hope everybody is settling down for their long, winter's nap-stay warm!! Nerm

HAPPY BIRTHDAY & MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I'm completely recovered now from my unfortunate bout with food poisoning. Alas, I am hopelessly behind now, so I have scaled down my plans and expectations. Actually, I'll admit that the older I get, the more relaxed I am about holidays and entertaining in general.
Today was Morgan's 4th birthday. She's such a cutie. Can't believe it's been four years. I remember being in the birthing room with Wendy right after I had foot surgery. I had my cast propped up on a chair and was cheering from the sidelines! We'll celebrate the weekend after Christmas at Chuckie Cheese. Oh, boy!
Welcome to our home. Glad you stopped by. I copied this wreath from one at Horchow's for $96.00. I even bought some of the flowers at Dollar Tree. It's very rewarding to replicate something expensive with cheap-o things.

I've been wanting to share this St Nicholas/Father Christmas with you for a while. My mother made him for me several years ago. The face is soft sculpture with a wool robe and fur trim. She collected little odds and ends for a while including the lantern.

I especially love the toy sack filled with all kinds of little goodies. My mom has always been very creative and passed some of those genes on to me. It's sad now to see her diminished capabilities. I try to remember the way she was while I was growing up. I am glad she is living here with us and I can spend time with her and make sure she is taken care of.

Here's another Santa. Gail, my sister, found this on sale at Home Depot (of all places) and bought him for me. I have a large Santa collection which I haven't put out this year, but this guy will be a great addition. Maybe next year, I'll be more organized and I'll show you all my santas. I have several that are antiques and many that are more modern. I'm always on the look-out for ones which are unusual and different.

I think this will be my last post before Christmas. Have a wonderful and blessed holiday. Hope all your prayers and dreams come true. I'll be back on the 26th. Lots of love, Nerm

AAURRRGH!

It all started, as many things do, while we were going about our business and doing our Christmas duty. Hubby and I had been out Christmas shopping and enjoyed a nice Mexican dinner out. I had the crab enchiladas. Are the bells and alarms going off yet? Within five (5) --count 'em) hours, your truly was in the bathroom. I will spare you the gory details, but just let me say, this is the worst food poisoning I have ever had. Violent, I say! So now I am a limp noodle moaning and groaning on the couch and being waited on. (hee, hee)

Anyway, please give me a day or two to get my strength back and I'll be talking to you again.
Merry Christmas, ho, ho, ho! Nerm

CHRISTMAS BABY!

Hi everyone-how are your Christmas preparations going? Mine are slow as usual..must be a character flaw. Every year it's the same ole story for me, so I might as well relax and enjoy it! It always comes together in the end, so what's the problem, right? hee hee

Hubby has been sick for the last couple of days with a stomach flu. Now let me say this is MUCH worse than a 'man-cold'. This requires lots of moaning and complaining and pitiful looks. I know he has felt bad, so I am trying hard to be the patient, loving wife. But, gee whiz, doesn't he realize this is the Christmas season? I hope you all know I'm kidding-he's a great husband and I'll take care of him no matter what. When I had my foot surgery a couple of years ago, he waited on me hand and foot (no pun intended), so how could I not be sweet to him.

Now here's the good news. My new little great-nephew Slade. Weighing in at 8'3", he's a healthy big boy. Look at those beautiful eyes. Can't wait to get my hands on him. After hours of unproductive labor, his mom had a caesarean. Everyone is find now, especially my sister-in-law who is in hog's heaven.
Aren't babies wonderful, esp. at Christmastime? We'll talk again soon. Nerm

DREARY AND WET

We have had the gloomiest, grayest, rainyest (?) weather lately. The skies are leaden and if it were colder, I just know we'd have snow. You know how we here in Tennessee pray for snow and haven't really had a good one in several years. Seriously tho', all this rain is causing area flooding with some people being evacuated from their homes.
This is what the view from my back door looks like-this was mid afternoon and it looks almost like nightfall. My poor little dogs don't want to go outside to do their business and who can blame them?

On a happy note, my niece Callie is in the hospital as I type this having her baby. Hopefully, we'll have a picture to share tomorrow.
Stay dry and warm wherever you are. Nerm

ST NICHOLAS DAY

Happy St. Nicholas Day! This is also the second Sunday in Advent. Boy, December is whizzing by at an alarming rate.

When my girls were young and still at home, we would celebrate St Nicholas day by reading the story of his life and exchanging small gifts of remembrance. I always felt it was important for them to know there was a REAL Christian person behind the secular Santa Claus. He was a bishop in the 4th century in what is now Turkey. It's a very interesting life story if you want to read further about him here.





I hope all your Christmas preparations are coming along nicely. Hopefully I'll have some decorations to show tomorrow. Take a deep breath! Nerm

UNDER THE WEATHER

Sorry I haven't been around this week-I've been under the weather. Finally caught the nasty cold my whole extended family has had for a month. And I thought I was the lucky one! But today I feel ever so much better, so I wanted to say hi. Can you believe that Christmas Day is a mere three weeks away? This is no time to be out of commission. heavy sigh.

Even tho' I've been on the couch all week, I have had plenty of time to crochet and knit some goodies for Christmas. Here are some little ornaments. These were all done in Lily cotton yarn. Love that stuff. The ornament shaped ones came from here.


I made up the tree shape and the little dress. Isn't it cute? It'll be for one of my granddaughters.

Next you can see I've been making dishcloths. These are so wonderful to wash dishes with or even used as washcloths to bathe with. The red/cream one is crochet; the green is knitted. I like the pine tree design. I'm working on a yellow one with a star in the center. Fun, fun.

I hope you are all staying well and proceeding toward your Christmas plans with no obstacles.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get some decorations up. Nerm

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

Hi everybody--hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful and you are full and happy. Ours was very low key this year with only nine family members. But the turkey and fixings were all there and I think there are still a few lingering in the fridge.

If you'll remember a few posts back, I mentioned my niece was having a baby and I made the sailboat baby blanket for her. I decided to add a little hat to match. It's always hard to remember how tiny newborns really are. Can't wait to hold this one. Picked up these tiny socks at the Target $1.00 aisle. How cute are they?
On Friday daughter Wendy had to work, so I kept Morgan all day. We had lots of fun. Joined up with middle daughter Amy and her girls and went shopping. Something I said I wouldn't do. But she got to see her cousins and I got some time to visit with Amy. We had a big day and Morgan slept all the way home.

Hubby and I are having a quiet Sunday afternoon watching football-our Tenn. Titans are playing Arizona and it's a close game. So I'll get back to it and we'll talk later. Tomorrow I've got to hit the ground running. Christmas is hurtling toward me with lightning speed. Nerm

I PROMISED YOU A PILGRIM!

Tomorrow's the big day and I am prepared! The dining room table is set and decorated just awaiting our hungry crew to arrive. I'll get up and make the pumpkin pie and a few side items and be ready. Sweet hubby is smoking the turkey all nite & I'm sure it will be yummy.

Here's my pilgrim dishcloth compliments of Lily Yarns. Don't you love that cotton yarn they make? I have many different colors and can't wait to do something for Christmas.
Here's the link if you're interested: http://www.sugarncream.com/pattern.php
By the way I took the photo outside so it would look more realistic -Hey, the original folks ate outside, right?

Many Thanksgiving blessings to you and yours. Nerm

MORE DOGS

I know Thanksgiving is day after tomorrow, so why am I talking about my dog collection? Well, if you'll look back to my previous post about cleaning my dining room, you'll understand. I spent my whole day in there putting all my sewing and quilting stuff away so we could eat in there on Thursday. I am SO tired. Hence, the dogs. I had these photos ready for another post that never came, so I thought today was a good time.
I love little china dogs, most of which are from Japan and made around the 40's and 50's. The one below here was an ashtray and is very unique. I love this guy. Looks like he's saying "who me?"

This one (kinda blurry) looks kind of like my shih tzu. He's sweet too.

Here they all are assembled on a shelf in my new green family room. There's even a vintage dog print below the shelf that once was my Grandmother's.
Thanks for indulging me. I promise to show some pilgrim decor soon. HA HA Nerm

ONE WEEK TO GO

Thanksgiving is one week from today and you wouldn't believe my dining room. I've been busy sewing in there for weeks and have several projects spread from one end to another. Yikes. I'd better get going this weekend. I envy all those good bloggers whose homes are decorated for the autumn/Thanksgiving celebration. I do have my front door done, so I'm good from the outside. Ha, ha. (slightly hysterical laughter)

I will show you something I HAVE done: continuing in my bird & nature theme in the bonus room, I have made a little arrangement which is on a shelf over the TV. I found an old 1 x 4 in the garage (thank goodness, hubby is a builder) and attached these letters to it. Painted it all with my favorite antique white. Then out to the yard for misc. grass,weeds, and sticks to make the nest. No, I didn't use a real one. Glued my birdie in and voila, there it is! I'm pretty proud if I say so myself.

Thought I'd share one of sewing projects with you: I love making pillows. So many choices and possibilities. Also so fast and easy! This one has red and white ticking on the back, making it more cottagey feeling. It was for a friend's birthday.

Guess that's all for today, friends. It was a glorious day here--cool but sunny. Perfect fall day. I am going to be sad to see them go. Nerm

A TALE OF TWO DOGS

From the outset let me say, please forgive the quality of these photos. I'm having issues with my camera and I seem to be turning out fuzzy pics.
As I mentioned before in my last post, Gail (sister) and I spent most of Saturday at Christmas Village, a fundraiser with hundreds of booths and goodies for sale. Also hundreds of people to push thru...nevertheless, it's always alot of fun and we get some good sister time.
One of the favorite things I purchased was this angel. It's wood which has been antiqued to look old. I really love angels and have several. This one's arms move up and down. Wish it was a better picture.

Here's where the dog part of the title comes from: my favorite dog of all time--Snoopy!! Gail took this photo of me giving the pooch a big hug. They were promoting Peanuts on Ice and I had to push lots of little kids aside to get this photo taken. (just kidding). I told Snoopy that I loved him and embarrassed my sis to death! LOL

Now on to the 2nd dog: Please meet Niko, an Olde English Bulldog. Can you see the tongue hanging out through the blurred photo? Kitty is dogsitting this animal while his owner is serving his time in Iraq. Meanwhile Kitty is out of town for her job for a few days, so hubby and Nerm get the honor of keeping him. We have two Shih Tzus who are small and quiet. This dog is very earthy (do ya get what I'm sayin' here?) and nervous b/c he doesn't understand why he's here. All I can say is I'll be very glad for Kitty to come home and reclaim him. Hubby and I are getting several laughs at his quirky personality tho'.

Have a great week-Nerm

FRIDAY THE 13TH!

Actually Friday the 13th doesn't do much for me or to me, if ya know what I mean. My faith is not in superstitious malarky! It's in Heaven above. Today turned out to be a good day for me. The weather was great-sunny and 60's. I ran some errands and enjoyed a little alone time which is such a rare thing for me.

Since nothing outstandingly exciting is happening around here right now, I thought I'd share some of my projects recently completed. My neice is having a baby next month and our whole family is going down to Alabama for a baby shower in her honor the Saturday after Thanksgiving. She knows she's having a boy, so I made a blue baby afghan with sailboats on it. I know this photo isn't the best, but you get the idea. It is so-o-o soft - wish that could come across the blog.

Those of you who have read my blog before know I attend a church knitting/craft group regularly. We make baby blankets, hats, etc. for indigent mothers at the local city hospital. This was a twist on the regular granny-style afghan. Instead of squares it was circles of different colors. This was so much fun to make...I love all the bright colors. This poor baby will probably be hyper from overstimulation. LOL I may make myself one of these some day-I love it that much.

Tomorrow is a busy day. My sis & I are going on our yearly outing to the annual Christmas Village show. It's held at the fairgrounds and covers several different buildings which are full of all sorts of Christmasy goodies: food, clothing, crafts, gift and a million other ways to spend money. We have done this literally for years. Afterward we look at our spoils and say, "what is this and why did I buy it?" ha, ha. But it's one of the few times we really spend all day together without interruption, so we treasure it.

I'll report back on the results tomorrow! Nerm

NERM'S SALON DE BEAUTE

Did you all know that I was a closet hair stylist? Keep threatening to go to hair school-LOL.
This sweet head belongs to Morgan, granddaughter #3. Age three. Never had a haircut in her life!! I got the honor of the first snip. Very traumatic for her mom, but not Morgan. Please note the cousins and aunt looking on.
Maddie lends support as the trim proceeds.

DA-TUM! The princess with her new 'do!! Look at those eyes.

The happy twosome pose for the photo ops and autographs. Another successful cut!

Now that's a very happy ending! Nerm

HAPPY AUTUMN!

Hi everybody! It's so good to be blogging again. I really missed y'all! I know I've been absent for a while. Where has the time gone? It just seems that life gets in the way. I've missed talking with all my blogland friends. I've been checking in on you tho'-now I'll leave a comment or two.



Is it really November? Is next month December? Does that mean this year is almost gone? I am in BIG trouble here. Oh, those New Year's resolutions! All those good intentions! Boy, am I behind! I just finished this fall quilt. Now I bought this pattern last year , but true to form, didn't get around to making it until this year. Also it called for a jack o'lantern face, but I left that off so it could last thru the whole autumn season. I love the colors--it's very cheerful.



Now here's part of what's kept me busy lately. We have a big bonus room and it was way out of date. Money being tight right now, I decided to do all the work myself. This was fun, but took a little (ha) longer. The new color is a pretty green-very fresh and calming. Love it with the white woodwork.


In progress...

I took an old gold frame and covered it in small twigs attached by glue gun and added a little nest with eggs for a whole new look for an old print. Forgive the glare from the flash.

We had several old shutters stuck up on the attic. I painted this one with flat antique white paint and stuck some old postcards and vintage holy cards in it. Finished it off by gluegunning shells and a starfish. Love the look.

Got this idea from Pottery Barn kids catalog. They had a branch like this in one of the settings. I thought way not? Out to the yard again for more branches. A little scrapbook paper and glue gunning later and voila! looks just as good as PB.

When this chore was completed, our extended family (daughters & their families) had a huge yard sale. This was a tremendous undertaking. It helped to have several people to trade off cashier duty, etc. Granddaughter Mekenzie sold brownies and lemonade. Check it out:

This is what was left. Thank goodness for the Salvation Army and their pick up service. Believe it or not, we sold tons of stuff, but still had lots to donate. These things are exhausting. That's why it will be a long time before we have another one.

Well, that's gonna do it for tonight. I will be back again soon. I'd forgotten how much this was!

Thanks for visiting. Nerm

I

BACK AGAIN

Hello out there-first off, I must apologize for the long interim since my last post. We have had a lot going on around here and I kept thinking I would leave a quick word about being off the blog for a while. Then something would happen and I would forget. Thanks for the emails to check on me. I'm doing well.
If you are one of the poor folks getting foot after foot of snow or ice, I hope the weather breaks for you soon. We have had some really cold this year, though not much in the way of snow. Everyone around here would love a good 4" of snow, but I guess it's not to be. Today the temperature was 62! Felt like spring. Below is a photo of a neighbor's tree. We call it the condo tree because of all the nests in it. Lots of birds and squirrels call it home. Pretty neat, huh?
I've been a little crafty lately. Trying to recycle in some creative ways. What do you do with candles when they've burned down to bottom, but there's still wax? I hate to throw it away, so I tried an experiment and it worked! Here's the candle just waiting to be reborn:

I place the glass container in some hot (not boiling water) until the wax loosens from the jar. Then I put the soft wax in an old coffee can which I have placed in a pan of simmering water. It doesn't take long to liquefy--maybe 10-15 minutes depending on the amount.

Meanwhile I cleaned out the jars by filling them with hot water and wiping the leftover wax out. I had already purchased wicks at Michael's. I dipped the bottom in the melted wax so it would adhere to the bottom of the jar and twisted the top of the wick around a pencil (shown below). I poured the melted wax into the container and -voila- I had a new candle. I mixed similiar fragrances together so the smell would still be pleasant. I ended up with three new candles!

Another family birthday: Granddaughter Mekenzie turned 11 yrs. last week! My baby is growing up fast. She didn't want a cake, she wanted a chocolate fountain which you see below. Her requested birthday dinner included homemade chicken tenders and macaroni and cheese . A meal every kid would love, right?

Here's Mekenzie (left) with her best friend, Sellars, in their matching birthday outfits. Cute.

Last, but certainly not least is a picture of my precious pups. All cuddled up for a long winter's nap. They sure know how to relax! Take care. Nerm

KNITTING & FOOTBALL

How's it going out there, fellow blogmates? We are now officially a week into the new year and all the celebrations are past. I'm slogging (is that a word?) thru all my post-holiday clutter busting. I'm really itching to sew, but won't let myself until all is fairly tidy again. I'll tackle my bedroom tomorrow. I have actually accomplished quite a bit this week. The dining room is shining which sure lifts my spirits. Many times it seems what should be a reasonable chore turns into more than I can finish in one day. Drat the ole arthritis! But my favorite saying is, "chip, chip, chip".

I am trying to knit this tea cozy for a friend who requested it. She a good friend and her mother passed away a couple of years ago. Her Mum was from Britain and always used a tea cozy like this. The one Lyn has now is worn and ravelling, so I told her I'd make her one. After all, I've been knitting since high school and have made lots of items.
But, this one may break me yet. The ripples or tucks are so difficult to handle-it's knitting two rows folded together and stitched. I need more fingers. Here's what I've come up with so far.

Has anyone out there ever made something similiar to this pattern? I will gladly take any helpful hints or pointers.

On a happier note, our Tennessee Titans football team is in the Playoffs. Tomorrow they play the Baltimore Ravens here in Nashville.

It's great they have the home field advantage. The Ravens are a big rival and a lot is at stake. We are ranked #1 in the southeast conference, but have not received much respect from sportswriters and broadcasters. We'll see what they say when we go to the Super Bowl! Hubby and I will certainly be glued to TV tomorrow watching this game. It's supposed to be cold and rainy-ugh. Go Titans!

Have a great weekend, friends, and we'll chat later. Nerm