family, movies and snowmen!

HI girls!

hope everyone had a wonderful turkey day. we did. All of my kids were home. Little tony wasnt going to come home because he had to work the day after, but he came here and then went back to Itaca, only to come back again last night to stay for the weekend. Its about a 2 & 1/2 hour drive! but I was so glad he came home. I hated the thought of him being by himself on a holiday! We of course had way too much food.. but it was so good. I dont even think I had a bit of everything. couldnt fit it all on my plate! lets see, there was turkey, stuffing, mashed potatos, gravy, sweet potatos, squash, brocoli salad, shrimp cocktail, rolls, pickles, olives ,cranberry sauce and rolls. And of course, two pumpkin pies, apple pie and a mincemeat pie. Sooo much work! And now there are soo many left overs! I will be eating this stuff all weekend! Tried to get a picture of my Sweet adorable children, but there was not alot of cooperation! in fact one might think there is something wrong with the youngest one (in blue... I think you can tell which one I'm talking about... ) he and his brother kept making faces and throwing the finger and sticking their fingers in their noses!!! How old are they?? dont ask! but they are alot of fun!

(get that finger out of your nose young man!!!)

Yesterday for black friday.. where do you think I was?? out shopping of course?? My daughter and my sons girlfriend and I left at 7:00 am and didnt get home until 10:00 last night! We had a great day though. I was able to get a lot of the gifts I needed to get, Jennifer bought a lot of decorations and things she needed for her apartment. We did get pretty tired out I have to admit. We shopped until about 2:00 then we had a delicious lunch at Red Robbin, then we shopped some more! then we caught the 5:45 showing of AUSTRALIA at tinsel town.

Oh my gosh! what a movie! it was soo good! I want to see it again. Hugh Jackman is so freaken hot! eiy yie yie!! yie yie!! I was surprised by the length of the movie.. just under 3 hours. and a little concerned in the beginning.. as it starts out a bit oddly.. but it picks up and you follow along and get sucked right in. I do have to say I cried a few times. but in the end.. well, I wont tell you.. but I will say, I have no doubt that this movie will win oscars.. the little boy... omg! go see it for yourself! (dont drink anything so you wont have to miss a minute to go to the freaken bathroom!! ha!!)

OK what else? the snowman swap! How is everyone doing?? are you ready to mail? its that time! but dont forget to send me pictures of your snowman creations! I have pictures of 3 and there are 24 of us! so email those pics chicks!! (ha! i just kill me sometimes!) I really cant wait to see what youve all been making! mine will go into tomorrows mail!

OH! I have a craft room now! I moved in. but its not anywheres near what I want it to be.. so it will be a work in progress.. and someday... maybe I'll show you pics ! Well, thats where I'm off too soon.. first I need to make a cup of tea and go over my christmas list and finances and decide where to go shopping later today... I think today will be tractor supply! hubby needs some barny boots!

I'll be back! huggs!

THANKSGIVING

Happy thanksgiving to all my blogger friends! I thought I'd post a list of things that I'm thankful for. Its good for all of us to think about the blessings in our lives and so easy for us to take them for granted. I do try to remember to be thankful fairly often as I'm reminded pretty much on a daily basis, that I do have a wonderful life !

I am thankful for:

my husband and my kids!

my home and the sweet community we live in

my pets and all the wonderful awesome animals that God created!

I'm thankful for heat and water and food!

sugar! tea! cinnamon! and bread!

music! all kinds of music.. Christmas music!

musicals!

I'm thankful for art.. and creativity and talent.. that is all around us.

I'm thankful for the 4 seasons.. I'm thankful that snow is pretty.. and that the cold makes me appreciate my cozy little house!

I'm thankful for my car! and my job!! and the people I work with.. even those I'm not so fond of.. because they make the people I am fond of that much more special!! Im thankful for my friends.. a huge blessing because I have so many wonderful and close friends!

I'm thankful that we were able to raise our children in this area...and never worried about their safety in school! I'm thankful that my kids are all healthy and well. and beautiful! and that they are close and they like to spend time with each other.

I'm thankful for america and freedom...

I'm thankful for god and his son!

I'm thankful for ice cream

I'm thankful for craft and fabric stores.

for Old things.. for odd things.. for colors.. all colors..

For sunshine and beaches!

for teddy bears and dolls!

for holidays! halloween. easter. valentines day. thanksgiving, the 4th of july and christmas.

for birthdays!

and birthday presents to give and recieve!

for computers!!!! and the internet! amazing !

for technology.. for smart people!

for medical advances and researchers...

for health insurance!!

for the moon and stars.. for scientists .

for soldiers..

for my health.. for the ability to get up and go to work everyday and to be able to do the things I want to do.

I'm thankful for this artful blogging community!

and for so much more that I'm forgetting about right now.

♪♪Praise God from whom all blessings flow♪♪

what are you thankful for?

(brenda of brendas magic garden..Congratulations!! you are this weeks winner! Please email me your address and I'll get your giftie out in the mail!)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND GOD BLESS YOU ALL!!!

12 days of christmas..

You've got to watch this.. the whole thing. Its soo funny! warning! go fast! scroll down and click the sound off on my play list before you start this video!



heehee.. cute huh?

isnt it friday yet???? please hurry!

oh my.. I'm soo pooped out! I'm so glad tomorrows friday. I have so many things I want to do and need to work on. I'm planning on staying home all weekend in my jammies!! (well probably not really in my jammies all weekend. but a lot of it!) I actually am planning on going out for a bit on sunday. but other then that, I shall be parked at my kitchen table working on STUFF! thats my plan and I'm sticking to it!
I need to work on all these snowmen above.. and these two miniature bears below.. and also a large red christmas bear that a girl at work ordered. I want to get all of this stuff done before next wednesday. On wednesday I want to clean my house and make my pies, stuffing and squash. So after thanks giving I can start the next big bear order. My goal is to finish that order over thanksgiving weekend!
What do you all do for thanks giving? I cook for my family and then we go to our friends house for dessert. we have two families that we are very close to and we do holidays together.

look at what I found at walmart tonight.. Baileys irish cream candy! and they are very good. The mudslides are for thanksgiving night. but the candies.. are for now! unfortunetely there is no alcohol in them. DARN!! (there is alcohol in the mudslides though! truthfully, Im really not much of a drinker.. two drinks is usually my limit, as soon as I feel the alcohol I get nervous and stop drinking! silly me.. I should just have the next drink and keep on partying!!! yeah, but I dont. I do keep on partying, just with out the alcohol!sorry, i'm a bit boring tonight. I worked all day, then went to walmart until it was time for quilt guild meeting.. came home at 8:30, put on my jammies, fed the cats and here i am on the computer! I do have to say, my couch and cat are calling me.. and Im considering a bowl of ice cream as well.. though God knows I dont need it!

sees yas later girls! night night!

"let them eat cake and read blogs" (sweet b)

My sweet friend Sweet B gave me this sweet award today. Its the "blogs to lose your head over" award. so I must pass it on.. this is a very difficult task as there are really sooo many awesome blogs out there. but let me consider a few here.. first.. I give it back to her!! Then as I try to think of some cheerful and upbeat blogs, Scrappy Jessi comes right to my mind!

scrappy jessi's blog is ALWAYS fun and upbeat. she has an extrordinary amount of energy!

Then theres Kai . Kai is truely one of the sweetest loveliest girls out here in blogland.

Debra of hophopjingleboo.. if youve never checked out the absolute yumminess of her blog.. be sure to do so..

Natalea of Kandeland. You may not know it, but she is one of the funniest and "talkingest " people in the world I'm sure! I've had the extreme pleasure of spending some time with her in person over the past few months, and she is a total riot!

Sandy of sandyscreations, is an amazing artist and her blog is full of fun things.

Terisa who you may know as sabiiwabii.. Her blog is also full of lots of wonderful artwork.

I have to say, I dont really like choosing 7 blogs. Because I could go through my bloglist and choose everyone of them. Each blog I have listed is there because I find their blogs inspiring in some form or another. Some inspire creativity, some home decorating, some family time, some cooking and some spirituality and christianity. with in these blogs Ive found women who are kind, friendly, loving and generous. They take the time to update their blogs and share their lives with each other, their ideas, their opinions, the things they love and the things they create. They share pictures from their daily lives, their cute children and grandchildren, their gardens, their dogs and cats, something they just baked and the recipe! their artwork and their homes. Sometimes they share beautiful pictures of Gods artwork.. in nature. I dont know about you, but Im always excieted to see who was the last to post and to run right over to see what they've been up too! I try to leave comments, but sometimes I just get a quick peek and I have to move on!

anyways.. Heres to all you girls!! Heres to blogland friendships and inspirations! I loose my head on a daily basis here! much love to you all!

AND THE WINNER IS...
KAI!

email me your address kai...

and the rest of you keep leaving those messages this week.. I'll have another giveaway on sunday!

I'll do a post update tonight!

have a sweet day!

all done!

Yay! this bear order is finished!

They're finished. well, except that they need tags still. I m out of shrinky dink plastic, thats what I usually make them out of. will get some tomorrow then off they go! I hope she likes them.


I dont know what happen to him, but the girl that ordered these bears lost her father last year. I think this is the first christmas with out him. the bears are going to grandchildren. She wanted to order some quilts to. but I dont do quilting!


So YAY!!! its FRIDAY!! I'm so glad. It seems like it was a long week. it really wasnt, I had tuesday off! Tomorrow I'm going to do a little bit of Christmas shopping. I need to get busy, most years I've already got it half done by now! I dont even know what to get for the boys. probably tools, but they will have to tell me exactly what they want! Bethany wants a GPS tom tom. Jennifer wants to be surprised. My husband needs slushy barn boots.. Ive decided that for my husbands sisters and their families, I'm going to bive then movie tickets. we dont exchange anything big. I was thinking about telling them other then the kids that I didnt want to exchange anymore. His sisters are easy enough to find things for. But their husbands.. I dont have a clue.. and they have money and buy what they want! so a thought a night out at the movies would be good!


I keep thinking about our friends that have traveled to Omaho Nebraska for Silver Bella! I know they are having the greatest time tonight!!!! I wish i was there with them. maybe next year. I cant wait to see everyones pictures and to read their stories when they get back!


a little work in progress here:


Has everyone touched base with their partners for the snowman swap? I havent heard any complaints, so thats good! I hope everyone is happy with their partners and is ready to whip up their snowguys! I'm excieted about mine. Ive started on one.. but I have a lot of work to do!

Did you notice the all the ♪ christmas music ♪ I loaded on my playlist tonight? I have more I want to add, maybe over the weekend!

well girls.. not much to tell ya about of show ya tonight.. im tired and I think Im going to bed! so Night night!

It my baby's birthday today! he's 20~ I survived!! Robert's always kept me on my toes, as he was always into something! Still does actually. He just moved out and into his first apartment a couple weeks ago with his girlfriend! I miss him! They came yesterday for his birthday dinner. We cooked steaks on the grill and had mushrooms and brocoli, cheesy potato casserole, rolls and shrimp.. then of course cake and icecream, which really no one was hungry for, and in fact Robert had none of. he took some home though. Anyways.. 20 years ago today at about 5:00pm I gave birth to the last of my 4 monsters! he was soooo cute! and always, from the time he could walk a handful! happy birthday robby! If you look at the picture above, you can see Jasper when he was a baby too! Arent they adorable??


Ive been thinking about all the very generous girls out here in bloggerville and flickr land and about the wonderful girls I've made friends with. I find so much inspiration out here and encouragement to try new things and wonderful feedback on what ever I've posted. I also cant get over the generousity of gifts that I've recieved "just because". It seems I'm always getting something special in the mail as a gift or because I've ordered something sweet from one of you! or in swaps!

In any case, Ive decided to try to give back.. and because we are entering the season of giving.. I'm going to do a couple of giveaways between now and Christmas! So be sure to leave a comment during the week and I will throw your names in a hat on Sunday and chose a winner.

I was recently in a Christmas Music Swap and I made a couple of extra CDs, so my first gifties will be a copy of that CD and one of the snowman ornaments that I made last year!

I'm so thankful that I have tomorrow off for veterans day because I have to finish this bear order. I have 4 of them together and 4 of them stuffed and ready to put together. Then I have to do their noses , bows and tags. I should be done by tomorrow night! I hope the girl that ordered them likes them. They are made out of her fathers clothing. his work shirts, bathrobe and velour sweats! I like the velour ones the best so far. I cant wait to give them to her! When they are done then I can concentrate on a couple swaps that I have to work on!

OK.. lastly, I just want to show you the little travel suit case that I covered ! I needed something to keep needlefelting supplies in and I picked up this old case up at a junk shop. I think it turned out kind of cute!

And Jasper likes it too!

Thats all for tonight girls! I really need to go work on those bears!

so on with the swapping and other stuff...

First the this stuff.. then the swapping stuff....

I spent hours last night and this morning going through these beautiful new magazines.. you need to get copies.. SOOO much inspiration! I'm getting ready to make my daughters room into my craft room and I have so many ideas! I dont know how many I will be able to pull off, but at least I have some ideas!

and whats this, you say?

Meet peter peter pumpkin eater.. I just had to share this! I thought it was pretty funny. I didnt know cows ate pumpkins.. I thought it was kind of a unique picture, but my husband says cows eat pumpkins and so do pigs.. so that must be what they do with all those left over pumpkins that no one buys! I imagine that goats probably eat them too.. I wonder if horses do? do they Julie?? I drove by this one yesterday on my way to work and had to turn around in the amish driveway to go back and take a picture!

OK.. now on to the snowman swap!
These are some pictures of snowman I've made in the last year or so. The little guy in red.. well, I think hes a little "swishy" if you know what I mean.. but eh.. who cares.. hes a cheery little fellow!

this little princess below is one of my favorites.. shes just sweet!

This little army below was made last year for the 12 days of christmas swap..They were fun to make. In fact there were probably about 20 of them all together. I used 12 in the swap, gave some as little gifts, and tied some on packages.. I still have two left. PRobably will give them away this year!

This is one of my favorites! Hes so fat and cute! He was actually made for valentines day a couple of years ago.

This little bear and the next two are snowfriends I made last year for the first snowman swap. The bunny went to my partner last year.. Debra Schoch .


So I just thought a share a few snow friends with you to get you in the mood for this years snowman ornament swap. This last picture of snowfriends is from after christmas, when all the christmasy stuff gets put away and then the snowmen get to really take over the house! You can see the little snowfriend right in the front that I recieved from Debra in last years swap! cute huh??

Swap partners are as follows.. I will also be emailing you ..hopefully today..
Kai and Debb
Jillian and Barb
Courtney and Alison
Marcel and Sandy
Peggy and Sarah
Carla and Vivlyn
(I cant find viv's blog address.. I'll post it soon!)
Cindy and Kathy
Fran and Amelia
Debra and Annie
(annie has a new blog.. gotta get her blog address!)
Melissa and Michele
Maria and Leslie
Cassandra and me
jolene and me
(jolene doesnt have a blog)
(and.. if Jenny joins, I will have her as a partner also)
Please make sure to make and keep in contact with your partner.. this is a great opportunity to meet another creative and new person! When you finish your snowfellow (and if you want to send extra stuff thats up to you) please take pictures to email to me so I can post them all together after everyone recieves them.. which brings me to this.... PLEASE make sure you finish and mail your packages by December 1st, so that everyone will recieve theirs and be able to enjoy it for the holidays! If you have any problems please contact me.
OK let the blizzard begin!!

still time to sign up here!

HEllo all! this is just a quickie post..

Theres still time to join the snowman ornament swap! There are 17 of us right now.. I'd love to get to 20. but if not, I love the girls I have signed up so far! (gosh.. my feet are freezing!!) This was a fun swap last year and this year will be even better! I'll post or email partners this weekend so stay tuned!

I put all my halloweenies away a couple nights ago.. ITs always so sad to say goodbye to them all!! I have 5 big bins of halloween stuff! thats a bit rediculous isnt it? I have a small house! oh well.. I was good this year and didnt buy a ton of more stuff.. just a little bit! I dont have a lot of thanksgiving stuff at all.. but heres some pics of what I have out now. I am working on another little area or two, but they are not quite ready for picture posting!

Its been a gorgeous week here.. weather up around 70 since monday! tomorrow is the last day though and then back to our normal temps for this time of year.. 45ish and lower.. its been a nice treat though. a sweet little november blessing! (geez.. did I tell you my feet are freezing!! gosh I need to do something about that!)

I've been working on that teddy bear order, and will finish it this weekend. The bears are made out of someones fathers clothing. there are 8 of them. I'll be sure to take pictures to post.

well.. I've got to go work on a project and warm up my feet!!see yas later!

SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT & NEW SWAP

GOODMORNING all you glories! Thats what my dad used to say to me.. "goodmorning glory!" or "rise and shine little sleepy head!" and the best... He'd get up early and go get fresh donuts, then when I woke up he'd say "I brought you something to sweeten your disposition!" Ok.. now I can blame him for my being fat.. I've been trying to sweeten my disposition for over 40 years now! oh my, I've regressed already, before Ive even started here!!
SO anyways.... again I say.. GOODMORNING all you GLORIES!!

I've got lots to show you and talk about.. so get comfy.. I've been planning on spending a good chunk of time on the computer this morning, updating my blog and visiting yours.. and also I really need to hop over to livejournal to visit some sweet girls over there that i've so neglected!

I guess I'll first finish up with halloween! Fran asked me to tell what I did last night for halloween... I hate to disappoint anyone.. but I didnt do anything halloweenie at all! I met my daughter JEn after work, and we went to the furniture store and bought more furniture for her new apartment.. then we went to target and I bought a bath mat! PINK of course... for dinner we each ate not one but two halloween cupcakes that I made at 5:00 am yesterday morning! I got home about 8:30 and never even saw a trick or treater............. how sad is that!? well, except, I did see the sweetest little ninja and black cat at target.. I must have said "how cute" loud enough for the ninja boy to hear me because he turned around.. OMG so cute, and said.. "you like my costume???" then he kept talking to us and when his mom was getting ahead of him and calling him to her, he turned around and said "goodbye"! I dont know why I'm telling you this.. its just that he was soo stinking cute and of course he reminded me of my little tony when he was that age, probablay 5 ish! so that is what I did on halloween. I never even carved a pumpkin this year because I want all my pumpkins to last til thanksgiving! I do have a few halloween pictures to share with you of a girl at work. I didnt get her permission to share them, so I so hope she doesnt mind.. her costume was sooo awesome!

OK.. I think I've told you that I'm a magazine addict.. I've been known to drive all the way to the city in pursuit of a particular one, more then once.. (this drives my friend Jeannine nuts..) anyways, this time of year there are sooo many that I have to buy! I picked up 4 the other day, romantic homes, victoria, teddybear and friends and mary englebriets home companion.. (Im waiting for the winter addition of artful blogger, and where woman create.. and I'm sure to buy another half dozen or more with in the next week or so as the christmas additions show up!) ANYways.. I was sitting, looking through the romantic homes issue and I hadnt read anything.. just looking at the pictures, thinking that some of this gorgeous home that they featured looked familiar.. and then I notice a picture of an ornament that I had made for a swap! I was like, OMG.. how'd I get in there?? Well, you need to run right out and get a copy.. the home featured belongs to our very own Cathy Scalise of treaured heirlooms and she mentioned the PINK ornament swap we did last christmas and then in the back of the magazine our blogs are listed! yup. that was a nice surprise! Cathy your house is really AMAZING!!! I wish I could hang out there through the holidays!

these are pictures I took last year when I made them!

NEXT ..... now that halloween is over, it feel I can talk about christmas! I have a few things to share with you that I made this week. I started my christmas creating.. got lots of things living in my head.. "visions of sugarplums dance in my head" not kidding! so much to create and sooo little time to do it all.. If only I didnt have to work!! So here are this weeks goodies.. The red bear is for Terisa of running with scissors for an art auction that she is involved in.

And, finally , is anyone still with me here?? its time for .....the second annual snowman ornament swap! so.. the details are.. I had toyed with doing it groups of three or four and having everyone make for each person in their group, but because this gets to be such a busy time of year, I'm keeping it as a one to one swap! so my darlings, spread the word. please post the swap button on your blogs send folks this way!

So the snowmen are to be handmade of any medium and should be "ornament size" like, under 7 inches. The number one criteria, like last year is that they must make people smile!

Sign ups start now and will go through November 7th. On the 8th I'll post or email partners. MAIL OUT date will be December 1st! I really want to keep to this date for mailing out girlies.. and of course as usual, you will need to email me a picture of your creation so that I can post a little "snowstorm" of all your creations here!

You can leave messages here to sign up, but also please email me at vivianneroni@yahoo.com with your mailing address and blog address.

Well, I think Im done posting for now.. now on to visiting out in blogville and then its grocery shopping and working on that big bear order, which I finally have all 8 cut out and ready to sew!

HAVE A SWEET AND CREATIVE WEEKEND ♥