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

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

HAPPY BELATED B'DAY, AMY!

Well, I finally finished Part A of Amy's gift. Maybe Part B will be completed by Christmas! ha
My camera didn't take a very good picture of this pillow's detail. It's appliqued and outline stitched. The interesting part of this pillow is the back (below) Here is the back of pillow: It's made from part of an antique quilt. I bought this at one of my yard sales. The lady selling it didn't know what she had. I bought it $3.00! She told me that her mother had bought it years ago at an antique store and was told it was 100 years old! It sure smelled like it too. At any rate it was in shambles. Full of holes and tears. So I gently washed it and put it out on my deck to dry. I knew I wanted to salvage as much of it as I could. I mended a few ripped seams and cut out enough for the backing. I think it looks great.

I love you, baby girl! Nerm

HUMP DAY

Good evening, friends. Hope the week's progressing well for you all. It's been a busy week for me with nothing much interesting to report. More babysitting for Tanner who started half-day kindergarten this week. I've been keeping him in afternoons--mainly because I'm available and the school IS just right across the street from my subdivision! Let me take this opportunity to say that I'm not a very good boy grandmother. I had three girls who had more girls and this one boy. Boys are so different...active, busy, not cuddly. They don't want to talk, read, sew, etc.
But I am trying... ha, ha.l
This isn't my lawn, but nevertheless, it gives you a picture of a dying lawn. Mine is much browner. We have not had measureable rain in August. Maybe an afternoon quickie shower, but nothing substantial. We have managed to keep our bushes, et al, watered, but we are in a water conservation area, so we have to watch it. Now we're hoping some of Hurricane Fay's rain comes this far over. Tomorrow I am hoping to sew, sew, sew. I am trying to finish daughter Amy's birthday gift. Yes, her birthday WAS in July! If you don't know by now, please know that I am notorious to being late, behind and otherwise time challenged. My intentions are always good, but you know about the road to h--- being paved with good intentions. I'm hoping to give it to her on Saturday (we're going shopping together) so I can't show it yet. Here's a hint: Barbara Bradeburg. But, no, no, no, it's not a quilt! Yikes, I don't have that much free time! I'll take a picture of it to show and tell later.
Have a good night's sleep, my dears. Nerm

ODDS AND ENDS

Hello out there in blogland-hope your August is going well. We've been actually having rather nice weather her in middle Tennessee-high 80's with lower humidity. Last year at this time, we were over 90 degrees for over a month with killer humidity. Still I've already got the fall fever!

When I was at my aunt's house earlier this summer, I found this old 1986 copy of Woman's Day magazine. I loved the afghan on the cover and have started making it. I like to crochet because it's easier on the arthritis in my hands than knitting. I LOVE granny squares too. Lets you use up all those scraps of yarn. And you should know by now, I love COLOR. So there you are...
We had the family birthday get-together for me last weekend. Here's my cake. See, even my family calls me Nerm. Isn't it pretty. Very good too. Thanks for all your sweet birthday wishes-that means alot to me.

More flowers (from Wendy)--I sure could get used to receiving flowers twice in one week!

I hesitated to put this photo in because I detest having my picture taken, but as they say, it is what it is. L-R: Me, Amy, Mother and my sister Gail.

I've been helping take care of Tanner this week since school doesn't start til next week and his preschool is out for the summer. So Kitty and I have been trading off. Here he is all outfitted for his scooter riding. We worked in the yard today too. Put all that energy to good use! He starts kindergarten next week and is so excited. I am too -can't wait to see what all he learns.

That wraps it up tonight. I'll be back soon. Lots of luv, Nerm

HOME FOR MY BIRTHDAY

Back home and so happy to be here. It was great to go visiting, but this is where I belong. Yesterday was my birthday (I can't remember which one) but we'll have the requisite party this weekend so everyone can come. Of course, I'd rather skip it and I'm not just saying that. Let's face it, I'm beyond the point of being excited about birthdays. But it's important to the rest of the family and I know it's good for the kids to have that continuity. So I'll be gracious and eat my fair share of cake and ice cream. My favorite cake is white with white icing. Just in case any of you decide to overnite a cake this way.

Beautiful hydrangeas from my precious daughter Amy. My favorite flower. While at my aunt's house, she cleaned out some cabinets of old dishes and lucky me, got to bring some home. There's a piece of carnival glass, a hobnail bowl and even a vintage little glass refrigerator dish (before tupperware). The red banded platter is from my grandmother's everyday dishes I remember from my childhood. What great memories!

Here's pretty much what the countryside looked like for much of the trip up and back. Acres and acres of flat prairie land with fields of corn and sometimes, soy beans. Being from Tennessee where it is very hilly, these flat fields were just incredible. I could see where a lot of the corn for ethanol is coming from. They also have lots of oil wells just drilling away in the fields up there.

Here is the welcome sign to the little town my aunt lives in. This is a very, very small town.

But I've been coming up here all my life, so it seems familiar to me and I don't think much about the size. While here with my mother, daughter Amy and two girls, Madison and Mekenzie, we took my aunt shopping and visiting friends and relatives. Had fun catching up with everyone and helping the little girls connect with relatives they didn't know they had.

Here's a picture of my aunt Maxine and my mother Joy. Maxine is 90 yrs old and my mom is 86 yrs. old. They look pretty good, don't they? It was a good visit, but let's just say my aunt who lives alone was just not used to children no matter how well they behave. But to be 90 yrs old, she is fantastic. I can only hope I have inherited her genes.

That's it for now, folks, I'm still doing laundry and catching up on emails. Luv, Nerm

My Birthday Dinner

Sorry it has taken so long to post these pictures from my birthday party. It has been pretty busy here the past week. We had my whole family over at my parents house and it was a blast! My mom made this special Marie Antoinette cake just for me. It was strawberry cake with fresh strawberries on the inside. I loved it.


Tom (husband) as you may or may not know is Italian, so for my birthday dinner I asked him to make me a huge spread of good and authentic Italian food. I was able to snap some pictures while it was being prepared. In addition to these pictures he also prepared two different sauces or "gravy" as they call it. One sauce was a bolognese with homemade meatballs and the other was a cream based tomato vodka sauce. Both were to die for. He also steamed some fresh mussels just for me since I love these. I actually think that Tom and I are the only ones that enjoy these but we love all seafood.

To top off the pasta is my favorite ingredients all together....Roasted red peppers, eggplant, pine nuts, and sun dried tomatoes...
Add a homemade fresh Caesar salad and what more could this girl have asked for???

These are the fried mozzarella balls that we had as our appetizer. They are made of fresh ricotta and smoked mozzarella. This is actually Giada's recipe from "Everyday Italian". They were by far the hit of the party and I would recommend for all of you to try them. They are divine!

More pictures to come of my gifts.... Also, thanks so much Jamie for sending me a special birthday post on your blog. -Kitty

Happy Birthday, Madison

Here is my precious little granddaughter, Madison, who celebrated her 6th birthday with the family on Saturday. Our familiy has a big get-together for every occasion and this was no exception. Grampie & I had taken her out to lunch, then just she and I went shopping! You gotta train 'em early. However, there was no problem here. This girl LOVES clothes. Between me and her mom, Maddie got 3 pairs of shoes all pink! It was a Hello Kitty affair-should have taken the top off the cake, but you get the idea.











Here is Madison with her little cousin, Morgan, who incidentally, is wearing a sweater that moi made her. She's a cutie too.

And one more little cousin, Tanner, age 4, enjoying the fun.

All that's missing is Maddie's sister, Mekenzie,, who wasn't in any of the closeups. Next time, Kenzie! That's all for now, folks. Enjoy this great spring weather. Nerm