Holiday Festivities

Hi! I hope you had a great weekend and enjoyed some holiday activities. I took the weekend off from crafting and blogging to do some shopping, have a little girl time and run through our first snow! Like a kid I stood there with my tounge out, catching snowflakes. Yummy! They were wet ones!

Here in North Carolina, we get an average of eight inches of snow a year which means that some seasons we don't get any and when we do get some snow, it almost always falls in January and February. This weekend, however, we were surprised with our first snow on December 4th! My girlfriend and I made a little trip to Hillsborough, North Carolina, a quaint little town with some antique shops like The Cottage photographed above.

Here's a photo of the downtown area with the city Christmas tree in view. It really feels like Christmas when snow is falling all around you! When I look at this photo I think of the holiday song, City Sidewalks!

During the past week, while visiting some of your blogs, I've enjoyed seeing your Christmas decorations. I love that blogging and technology allows us to 'visit' one anothers' homes and share our holiday traditions and decor with each other. So today I thought I would share some photos of our Christmas home with you.

Our lovely tree is an eclectic mix of old and new, Hallmark and a few finer hand blown pieces with a Lenox and Waterford or two mixed in. I have one ornament on the tree from my childhood. In 1984, I bought my first Hallmark ornament. Since then every year we've collected ornaments as gifts, we purchased some and I've made many. It's a history of all our Christmases combined.

This year we have an antique sled under the tree. This photo was taken weeks ago before the tree was up, but it shows the sled at a better angle. I can't wait to fill it with some pretty packages. This weekend I found an adorable old metal xylophone to place under the tree too. Isn't it precious? Having old toys under the tree that my husband and I would have played with when we were children evokes magical Christmas memories!

Here are some antique mercury glass ornaments I've been picking up here and there. Some of these are so old they feel like fragile tiny bird eggs!

I thought a photo of them would look appropriate in an old silver tray that needs polishing!

On the top shelf of this built-in bookcase, we have all nine of Christopher's photos with Santa. I love to see how he's grown each year and how he reacted to Santa each year. The middle shelf on the left hand side houses the five plaster buildings I hand painted in the early 1990s.

Here's a close up of the train station. I put many hours of painting into each of these wee buildings. Such fond memories!

I hope you enjoyed visiting with me today as I enjoy having you stop by. I'll be browsing your blogs this week to see your projects, decorations, recipes and activities. Enjoy every minute! :) Kathy

Recipe Cards, December Daily, Recipe & Winner

Hi! I'm happy you're here because I have a few shares for you today! But before I launch into that, how has the first couple of December days been? Busy? I hope you are finding time to relax and enjoy! Are any of you making a December Daily album? If you are I would really love to see yours!  Leave a comment about your December Daily project and I'll come take a peek!

For my first share, I'd like to show you a hybrid project I created yesterday using a new digital kit from Two Peas in a Bucket. The kit name is 'Yummers'designed by Lauren Reid.

I love this kit with all it's baking and cooking themed patterned papers and elements that are perfect for the holidays as well as for scrapbook pages about cooking and baking. I think this bundle of six recipe cards would make a sweet gift, don't you? You could add some home baked goodies or a couple kitchen gadgets and hand towels.

My favorite part of the Yummers kit is the food drawings. LOVE the poultry leg, carrot and fruits. Well, I think they are all too fun! :)

My next share is the second page of our December Daily album.

I decided on our Christmas card for this year and started writing them out. I used a hand drawn doodle of a Santa hat and turned it into a digital image to print again and again. Then I just added glitter to the red part of the hat. Easy and still handmade!

I opted for a monochromatic theme for the second entry. I love how it looks! I'm wondering though if I should add a little sparkle to my snowflakes? Maybe a little rhinestone to the centers? I always look at my finished project and think of something else I might do with it! Ha!

Now for my last share...I tried another new recipe last night. This one is perfect for those who love quick, fresh, healthy and low calorie meals. We can all use that this time of year with the over indulging of baked goodies, and Starbucks' holiday coffees! ;)

This recipe is called Debra's Grilled Chicken. It's a dish you cook on the grill, but I used our indoor George Foreman grill and it worked perfectly. Instead of wrapping your grilled chicken in tin foil and throwing it back on the grill for a few minutes, I stuck our tin foil wrapped chicken in the toaster oven to finish cooking. For my son who doesn't like tomatoes, I left that part off and simply melted a little Parmesan cheese on his.

I almost forgot to announce the winner of the snowflake embellishments! Oops! :) The winner of those lovely glittered snowflakes is Jeni Alen from My Stampin' Spot. Congratulations Jen! :)

So, this concludes my shares for the day. I hope you enjoyed them. And I wish you a wonderful day filled with holiday goodness! :) Kathy

First December Daily

Hi! I'm so excited to share with you today my first December Daily page! I've been wanting to do one of these mini albums for the past few years but I never get it together on time. This year it looks like I'm going to see my dream come true!

Here's my first page! I'm using an adorable book binder cover that I purchased on Etsy a couple years ago. One of these days , I'll have to take a picture of it. The gal who made it used the hard cover of an old book, took out the pages and added a binder ring mechanism.

I'm using October Afternoon's 'Very Mery'collection of patterned papers.

The first entry is about our Advent calendar that Christopher opens every day throughout December. This little wooden cabinet is filled with 24 little drawers that we put ornaments, candy, money or activities in.

For the date and journaling, I added a couple tags to the top binder ring. The details of the page include snowflake embossing, Spellbinders scalloped circle die cut, a hand zigzag stitched boarder and baker's twinefrom Martha Stewart.

I have another holiday crafty share, a card I created with a new digital kit from Two Peas in a Bucket.

Jen Martakis designed this 'Snowy Day'kit and I had to have this little bird! He's just to darn cute with his winter hat that I added glitter to.

Thank you so much for your visit today! Tomorrow I plan to announce the winner of the snowflake accent giveaway and hopefully I'll keep up with the December Daily and have another page to share. Have a great day! :) Kathy

December First & Free Download

Oh what a wonderful time of year! Time to start the advent calendar and send out Christmas cards. Time to sip hot chocolate by the tree with the ones you love. Time to for crafting and baking. I'm looking forward to every single moment!

Today I'd like to share a Christmas card with you. I used this vintage post card I bought this summer at an antique store in Selma, North Carolina. The post mark on the back is dated 1909.

Isn't the bird lovely? I like how he's perched on a branch of holly! I kept this card simple, no stitching, if you can believe that! The embossing folder is my latest purchase from Quickutz and the plain twill I used is available in my Etsy shop.

I didn't do a lot of accenting, just a decorative pin in my twill tie. I'd like to pass along this post card image to you. Please enjoy making something with it. And feel free to share your project with me! I'd love to see what you create!

 

 

I have another share for you today...another recipe. If you've been following my blog, I've been on a mission to find some new recipes my family likes. Dinners were getting a little too routine and boring so I've been trying to spice things up a bit.

This recipe is for Creamy Garlic Penne. If you have a few picky, I mean selective, eaters in your house, this is a great dish to try. No onions, mushrooms or 'weird' stuff to stick one's nose up at! In fact, I think it's the perfect base dish to add chicken or your family's favorite vegetable.

Here's how my Creamy Garlic Penne turned out last night. I served it with fresh steamed broccoli. My boys enjoyed every bite and my husband had seconds! Did I mention this is extremely quick and easy? You can find the recipe here.

I hope you enjoyed my shares for today. Thanks for stopping by! Let me know if you try the penne. Have yourself a wonderful first day of December! :) I'll be back tomorrow to show you my first December Daily entry. :) Kathy