Taking A Few Days Off

I haven't posted in a few days - I'm finally getting to the point of relaxation during Christmas. For those of us who work AND are keepers of our homes, taking a few days off requires a fair amount of preparation! In just 8 days my husband and I will celebrate our 3rd anniversary and since we had the excitement of getting married on New Year's Eve, I always get a few days off on our anniversary as well. It almost works out like having an extra vacation every year.

During my time off I hope to work on my jewelry beading some more. I've received some new beads for Christmas from one of my church/blogging buddies and I'm going to do some blog hunting for other jewelry makers. If you know of any good ones, I'd love to get the links! I'm also inspired by my friend at Diddle Daddle Designs to try out crocheting. My mom has always told me how easy it is and when I see T's ideas, it makes me want to give it a go! I'm also hoping to catch up on my Parelli Natural Horsemanship studies. I have several DVD's to catch up on from the Parelli's savvy club. Maybe I'll get some new pictures of my horse and I playing at Parelli that I can post for all to see. If any of you know any good Parelli bloggers, send me those links too! I'm just getting to know everyone.

Enjoy your Christmas holiday, enjoy your time off, enjoy your family, enjoy catching up, and enjoy JESUS!

Shouldn't We All Be As Smart As Linus?

Thanks!

Thanks everyone for the kind words about our home. The most pleasing thing of all is when your husband tells you, "Boy hunny, the house sure looks beautiful." NOTHING can top that! I can look around and see all kinds of little things that I think need to be fixed, but it all disappears when you have the approval of the one nearest and dearest to you. Thanks again for coming to see our home, you're welcome back anytime!

One more thing, check out John 12:43. Especially this time of year we tend to hunt for man's praise and admiration for our new party dress, our mantle garland (teehee), our special baked goody that we spent HOURS and MONEY on trying to get just perfect, or the special gift that we drove half way across town to buy with our last few pennies and wrapped with some of our blogging friends best tips. BUT REMEMBER GIRLS, it's all about pleasing Him. And, isn't there something about Christ in the word Christmas anyway?!? Let's seek out the pleasure of Him Who gave everything for us and as we please Him first, all those around us will be affected by the light of His presence in our lives. Blessings to you today and see you tomorrow!

One More Christmas Tour

Hey everyone,

Here's one more Christmas tour website to check out...

Check out Kimba's holiday open house TODAY and sign up for a prize!

Christmas Open House

BY THE WAY, be sure and check out all the other beautiful homes on the Christmas Tour being hosted by BooMama at www.boomama.net

Be sure to stop by my sister-in-law's site too and see her house - it's GORGEOUS!
http://www.heaveninthehome.com./
You'll find a perfect Christmas gift at her site as well - she's on etsy.com with her wonderful, whimsical, original water-colors.

Christmas in the Kitchen and Dining Room

Here's some more pictures. The one of the front the house came out really blurry. Oh well. Here's another nativity we got for a wedding gift. It's so beautiful and fits in beautifully with all the rustic decoration in the house.


Here's a view of our dining room. My gold candles were hand painted by a friend of mine with acrylic paint. She learned the Donna Dewberry one stroke paint method.


Here's another one of the nativity scene and of my kitchen window. I have raffia and berries on a a spring-tension rod and my ornaments are hanging from a little hook. I use a willow basket to keep our napkins in and the pinecones in the other basket are dipped in green, red, and white wax. I think they're actually for a fireplace? I'm not sure but I love them and put them out every year.

Welcome To Our Christmas Home

Here are some pictures of our home, all decorated for Jesus' Birdthay! The first wreath is on our front door - it's artificial but it's really beautiful. I picked up the little leather sleigh bell harness at Old Time Pottery for just $6!!!



This wreath hangs to the side of the front door. This is not a very good picture to see how cute it is. The wreath itself is a barbed wire coil. I have natural colored raffia, rustic Christmas ornaments, some sphagnum moss, and little electric candles all over. Right under the raffia bow is a little tin sign I got at Old Time Pottery that says, "Faith".






Here's our mantle and fireplace. This nativity scene was given to me this year for Christmas and is my favorite decoration in the whole house.


I made this arrangement with a super-sized vase. Inside the vase I put colored lights and pinecones. In the vase I have gold and snow painted pinecones glues on long metal picks along with the trimmings from the bottom of our fresh Frasier Fir Christmas tree. Also some little gold curly branches.







Here's another view of our mantle - LOTS of candles, snow fabric, more electric candles, my wreath hanger with a snowy swag, a pinecone graland and of course, our stockings.




Here's our tree!














Along with my rustic ornaments and pinecone ribbon, I added fresh limbs from our nandina bushes. They have the most glorious red berries this time of year and the foliage on them if so light and ferny, it really softens the tree.








Well, that's it! Hope you enjoy the pictures and maybe got a little inspired. If you have a log home, I'd love to hear about how you decorate for Christmas. What a blessing to have such an easy canvas to decorate! I'll add some more of our kitchen and dining room.

Here I Am

Here I am, blogging for the first time. I've never done this before and I can't honestly say how long it will last but my sweet sister-in-law has been having so much fun with it and then I got hooked reading her blog and some friends from church too, so I thought I should give it a try. Tonight I'm sitting here next to my husband watching Monday night football and just enjoying a quiet evening. Our Christmas tree lights are on and the when I look across the couch at my husband, I smile to myself at the warm, "Christmasy" feeling I have inside. You know, that feeling of total warmth and contentment that seems so prevalent (or in some cases, totally absent) this time of year. Maybe it's because for those of us who live to worship Christ Jesus, His reality is more evident and closer than ever. I made up my mind that I'm going to get up early this Christmas morning and have a little birthday celebration, just Jesus and me, before the day gets started. I'm going to sit in my loft with my keyboard and sing songs, and read my Bible, and give Jesus the best gift I can give Him - my undivided attention and love. The rest of the day will be filled with laughter, and love, and family but that first quiet moment in the morning will be His alone. I can't wait.