Christmas decorations

I love Christmas, I love celebrating Christ, I love the atmosphere it brings to my home, the chilly air, the decorations, the winter crafts we do, and the Christmas movies and hot chocolate with my children.
We go through a lot of hot chocolate this time of year...lol


I probably went a little over board with the garland and lights this year, well, I think I do it every year. At least Anthony thinks I perhaps did in the living room anyway. I just love the warm homey feeling it gives me.

I see where a few decorations need a little adjusting....





I have garland and lights around every door way and window in the living room, that is three doorways that lead to another room, one that leads to the back porch and three windows…..and the one by the tree, not to mention the tree…
I didn’t seem to get them all pictured, but you get the idea… talk about a night light! LOL…




I have garland on the front door, no lights, just my seashell ornaments I made, garland over a doorway in the hallway and even garland and lights on the railing leading up the stairs…. and candy canes lining the hallway downstairs....THE KIDS LOVE IT, as do I. We even decorated our downstairs screened in porch since we really don't have a yard, looks nice... and festive...

My village once again with the hustle and bustle of people enjoying the holiday season.

Our angel on top of our tree who watches over us, and baby Jesus, our savior....

To much time on my hands?

ok, perhaps I have to much time on my hands when the kids are in school. But I have the creative bug going right now. Check out my latest project...lol They are seashell ornaments, I have made them and sold them before on ebay... thought I would get creative and try again, since I have sooooo many seashells that I have collected off of the beach. www.sweetcountrycottagetoo.blogspot.com

On another note, the kids brought home grade cards today, Anthony is doing well, he is struggling a little, so he thinks, but his grades are quite well, a couple of C's everything else A's B's. Elizabeth made the A B honor roll this nine weeks! YEA Elizabeth... and Lexie is coming along really well with her first year in school! GREAT JOB GUYS!

Happy Halloween!

ok, I tried to make costumes this year, well at least Lexie, I changed my mind about making Elizabeth's when I started to make Lexie's..... I guess at a distance it didn't turn out so bad. LOL...... I made the mistake of using satin to make her costume...SHOULD not have done that... that stuff is soooooo slippery. I even attempted to make the wings... using and old pair of wings that had been made of tulle that we bought with other costumes, I took the design it had and tore off the tulle and used regular fabric and copied the design on to it and used glitter paint to trace and Viola! wings! maybe not perfect, but cute and lasts longer then the tulle would.

She wanted to be Silvermist from Tinkerbell.

her waist was a separate piece that I made to velcro in the back.. but it appears to ride up on her waist.... o'well... I tried.

Elizabeth decided this year that she wanted to be a witch, which is totally opposite of past Halloween's.

Busy Bee

I have been definitely keeping myself busy during the day while the kids are in school and I don't have any housework to do, which does not seem to happen often, or I don't have any doctor's appointments that I frequently have had for various reasons. Anyway, I THINK.... I am getting a bit better at making placemats and napkins that I wanted to start making for my family.... and a few to sell on ebay if possible... I did sell some fall and Halloween reversible napkins last week... ya me. LOL.. but I still have lots of sewing practice to go...... I thought I would post them to show the ones that I most recently finished.

I like doing the reversible ones the most, because you can flip over and have a fall place setting and then flip them over for Thanksgiving and VIOLA, you have a place setting for Thanksgiving! I can't wait to make more, if they don't sell on ebay... then o'well I have a nice set for our table!!!! LOL

There are more closer up pictures under my Sweet Country Cottage blog there on the right, and then under placemats and napkins.

I think one of the things I really like doing the most is taking pictures of nature. I love taking pictures of my kids, but there is just something about catching nature at it's finest. Though I am working on getting a new camera, because I think I could capture it better, with a better camera....
but anyway, I saw the sky the other morning when I woke up and it looked so nice, that I had to take a picture...

I love my view that I have, so many years spend looking at other houses or other building across from me, now, for awhile anyway, I get to look out onto a beautiful field and see God's work in progress...
For other news and things going on.... I went to see my doctor last week, new doctor, about getting a referral for my eye doctor for a Glaucoma exam. She thinks she seen some thinning behind my left eye, but with a military insurance I have to have a referral from a doctor to have it done. While I was there I did discuss with her palpitations that I have been feeling in my chest, and having other systems like dizziness, and shortness of breath. My blood pressure was 130/80 that day, while not bad, she said normal, it is higher then what I have been learning recently that it should be. But aside from that she went ahead and ordered an Eco Cardio Graham done… I think Graham or Gram…. Anyway, which will be this Friday and is having a heart monitor sent to me that I will wear for three weeks. She pulled out the big guns, I think I may have FINALLY found a doctor that I can take my concerns to that will actually take action and find out what is wrong. So many times before I have gone to doctors and have been basically brushed off, running a couple of blood tests and say well everything looks normal and that basically would be the end of it. After I get this taken care of, and we see what is going on I will talk to her about my hip issues, and my fatigue that I have been fighting for a couple of years now.

I think I am going to like her….(smile)

Lexie's rain jacket, bought it a couple of years ago on Ebay because it was just so darn cute, now she finally is big enough to wear it, this was right before school a couple of weeks ago. The weather has been rainy off and on. The temp dropped dramatically here this weekend, but by the middle of this week should be back in the 70's...could be why Lexie is home sick again..... ugh....Calling a doctor today and see if there is anything I can get for her....

Did I mention I like to decorate for each season and holiday?

In a bigger house this year they don't look like much, which just means I need more...lol.... but we were still able to make our decorations into something the kids think are cool.
A few weeks ago I decorated the house with fall leaves, and garland and a fall boquet of flowers.. this last weekend we decorated with the halloween decorations. I do most of the decorating inside our house then I do outside. I have a few knick knacks in our living room, window clings on most of our windows, and decorations on the walls throughout the house.

A little behind on posting.....

Ok, so I have been a little bit behind on posting. Never seem to find the time to sit download pictures, work on them a little, and then get them posted. But here they are.
I think, a couple of weeks ago it has been now, the girl's school had a back to school dance. A soon as we walked in the door Lexie was out on the dance floor... that girl loves to dance, if you saw her at my dad's wedding or seen pictures of it, you would see, she was out there most of the evening, even dragging people she didn't know out to dance with her that night!

Lexie doing the Hokey Pokey....

Here she is doing the Chicken Dance, I think it was.

Elizabeth just wanted to run around with her friends, and would take off any time I tried to take a picture, so the ones I took were fuzzy since she was quick and I was not.

I finally have the girls taking ballet once again. Elizabeth showed a natural talent for it and I wanted to get her back in before she forgot everything, and it's good for Lexie, hopefully she will find her own grace in it.
I haven't had a chance to take pictures of Elizabeth in her ballet outfit, hopefully this week I can and post them.




I love playing with pictures!







I guess that pretty much catches me up, other then coughing, running noses, and sore throats, by one more kids at a time..... I have managed, NOT to get sick......so far......