“9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”
Luke 2:9-12
Merry Christmas!
Well, my house isn’t so Christmas-y, but I’ve made my office very sparkly.
When the sun shines in at just the right time and angle, it’s like a disco party.
And the disco trees aren’t the only sparkly and jolly decorations going on.
My cube has also been jolly-fyed.
Not exactly magazine worthy, but it’s made the office seem a bit more holiday-rific.
What says Christmas more than a gingerbread man on a pretty plate, a glass turtle, one random Glade candle, and a dough bowl full of pumpkins and onions??
Not much I’d say. So far, this is my Christmas table. A little sad and so not very jolly, but at least there’s the lone gingerbread man. I named him Sam right before he met his fate with a glass of milk and my mouth. No, I didn’t bake him, I don’t have the kind of patience for gingerbread. I am still on the look out for a super easy and edible recipe. If you know of one, please share!
But back to the cookie and the plate, mainly the plate. I love this plate, when I’m grabbing a snack I always grab for my pink ruffled plate. It kind of dresses up a not so fancy meal. Plus, it makes me happy. Bubba picked the plate up at a nearby thrift store for less than a dollar, apparently it’s from Hazel Atlas and the pattern is called Pink Crinoline. This is the only piece I have from the collection, but if I ever come across more of the set, it’s certainly coming home with me.
And this turtle? My Bubba found him at the local Humane Society thrift store. He’s Anchor Hocking, and either from the late ’50’s or the late 70’s I couldn’t really tell from the patent I found online.
I think he’s meant to be a candy dish or similar, but I think he’d look cute as a trinket holder.
If I don’t get busy jolly-fying the house, I’ll be up chocolate creek without a popsicle stick! (Name that famous gingerbread man!)
With Christmas less than a week away, I am FINALLY in the mood to think about all things holiday. Which is odd for me, usually the tree is trimmed and most of my Christmas shopping is done the week after Thanksgiving. Not this year, I don’t have one present picked out and the tree has only been trimmed a couple of days. In fact, I’ve been tripping over a ridiculous number of those ugly red and green bins the past week in the hopes that having to walk around and over those things would force me to open them up and pull out all the sparkly goodness. The plan didn’t work, just a few minutes ago I pulled out the “special” items and finally put the bins away. I guess the rest will have to wait for another year.
All that to say, I shot a Christmas themed table setting for you. It was a warm day outside, and I wasn’t up to moving the ugly red and green bins in the kitchen to make things a bit more presentable. So, how about a holiday meal in my backyard? Also, I realize it’s Wednesday, but Tablesetting Wednesday doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.
The evergreen sprigs came from my Pinon tree out front, everything else I already had on hand. The vases I found at various thrift stores around town, the mercury glass candle holders came from a Joann’s that was shutting down, they were a quarter each. Now that’s something this sparkle loving cheapskate couldn’t resist.
The red and green plaid table cloth came from swanky Wal-Mart a few years ago after Christmas.
Again, all dinnerware is pretty old, and came from several sources. I can’t really remember where it all came from. But I do remember the flatware and plates were Christmas gifts from my sweet Momma. Thanks Mom!
And another shot of my sparkle, also do you see someone photo bombing in the reflection? (How YOU doin’?)
So, how you fairing this holiday season? Is the tree up, have the stockings been hung with care?
Before I delve into the all important world of thrifting, life with dogs, and other varying frivolous forms of everyday life, I need to take a moment to mention the 4 heroic teachers and 20 little souls who moved from this world to the next in a small elementary school in Newtown Connecticut. It is my prayer that their families will somehow find peace during this indescribably painful time. Hopefully, somehow and someway something good can from from this tragedy.
If you would like to offer some type of support to the hurting families and the community in which they share, Roo author of a blog titled NiceGirlNotes has listed several opportunities to do so, here.
There is so much fear in this world, so much loss of earthly lives, it’s easy to be afraid of what might be lurking in the shadows. But there is peace, that peace is waiting for you, with His hand outstretched waiting to take your hand in His.
Oy vey, that’s all I can say after nearly two weeks of not posting. Let’s see what have I been up to, we took a week long vacation (don’t worry, you’ll be sick of seeing my vacation shots when I finally get them edited), then the holidays I think that’s enough said about that, and then of course, the week of catch up work that comes with taking a week off of work. But it was all totally worth it, the only thing I regret is not keeping up with the ol’ blog. I had planned on posting while I was out of town, but I only got one of the pre-prepared posts published, then it was all down hill from there.
But I’m not here to complain about my non-bloggyness, I’m here to talk about all things thrifted as today is Thrifting Thursday!! Aren’t you excited?! If you’re new around here, every Thursday (and sometimes on Friday when I’m too late for a Thursday post) I talk about items I’ve either thrift-ED or have deemed interesting enough to photograph and share with you here on the ol’ blog. The thrifting doesn’t necessarily happen on a Thursday, I just thought that TH-rifting went well with TH-ursday, besides is there a better way to celebrate Friday eve than enjoying all the thrifted goodness out there in the world?
So on this Thrifting Thursday I’ll be sharing some interesting items I found while sniffing around some shops on my vacation. Because, ya know, I can’t go a week without thrifting! And really, you can find some pretty awesome and unique souvenirs on the cheap at these places.
I know this isn’t that original as I’ve seen similar frames at Target, but this one was too funny not to photograph.
Then there was this little puppet family. I really don’t know what to say about these guys, but doesn’t the father look like Gomez Adams? Maybe it’s just me.
I couldn’t resist not documenting this rooster omelet pan. I didn’t buy him, but isn’t he cheery?
Isn’t this little bee/honey comb cute? Yeah, I thought so too, that’s why I gleefully packed him away in my carry on luggage. After paying for him of course.
And finally, with all the Christmas busy-ness around us, here’s one thing to remember.
Happy Friday everyone!!!
Lately I’ve been trying to be a little craftier, apparently idle hands are the devils playground. At least that’s what my grandmother used to tell me. So, I’ve taken up crocheting in the evenings while I watch re-runs of Friends and impatiently wait for Season 7 of Doctor Who to arrive on Netflix. Because ya know, I can’t spend the $14 to buy 6 episodes of my most recent television obsession, that would be too easy. Anyways, during my TV time the past couple of months I’ve been making this:
A baby blanket, a WHOLE baby blanket. That’s like 20 scarves all put together! I’m a beginner when it comes to crocheting or crochet?? What would be the proper terminology here? See? I’m that new I don’t even know the proper verb or pronoun whatever the correct terminology one would use in this situation. But I digress, I’m new to this craft and have only really mastered the single crochet, so that’s how this blanket was woven together (and love, woven with lots of love, you can’t have a handmade item NOT contain love!). Nothing but single crochet stitches and the chunkiest and softest yarn I could find, Bernat Baby Blanket, in Baby Pink. I found the cheapest selection at Wal-Mart, it was $2.97 for a 3.5 oz skein. Certain colors can be purchased in a huge 10.5 oz skein, which is what I did with another blanket I’m currently working on, but that’s another story.
I LOVED working with this yarn, it’s the perfect material for a beginner like me who tends to be a bit fumbly with the crochet needle. By the way, I used an N needle with this super chunky yarn, so the project was super easy and super fast. If I had worked on it for more than an hour or two at a sitting and if I were more nimble in the fiber arts I bet this could have been churned out in a lot less than a month and a 1/2.
But the one caveat I have about using this yarn is that it tends to be a little knotty, and I don’t mean it stole grapes from the grocery store for “tasting”. There were random knots within the skein, like they had knotted two different skeins together. Maybe it was just that I purchased my yarn from Wal-Mart, which sometimes doesn’t have the best quality of merchandise or maybe it’s just the nature of the product. By the way, I’m not slamming Wal-mart. They do tend to have the best deals on certain products. And yes, I realize there are lots of people out there who are very anti-WalMart, I can be one of those people at times, but I also like a good deal. Either way, the knots kind of annoyed me because it made the final product look a little messy. Or maybe it was just me making it messy with my beginner crochet-er ways.
But all in all I am happy with the final product, and have happily wrapped and shipped this handmade gift to a friend of mine who is happily awaiting the arrival of her new baby girl in just a few short weeks.
Have you started up a new hobby? Or have you mastered an old hobby? Any crochet tips from the pros out there??
Semi-Seasonal 