ringing in the new year!

so much to say as we ring in a new year..... (heehee.. is it bring in or ring in the new year?  I like ring in.... but I do think its bring in!)

but so little time this morning.... 

I shall return !

happy day everybody!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Edit, I missed some elves!

  

Ive been waiting to show you a few of the gifts I made for Christmas this year, but couldnt post til now!  My dad had this dog named Baretta for many years.  Hes been gone for quite a few years now, but I've always wanted to try needlefelting a little dog that resembles him.. finally this year I got to it!  I havent talked to my dad yet, but I'm sure he loved his little baretta dog!   I also made my step mother a cute bear, but I must not have saved the pictures I took of it.  I know I took them.. but cant find them.  she was a cute bear made out of a chenille bedspread... oh well... cant show you!

I also made a couple other smaller bears, this one below for my friend Beckie, but in the end the bear didnt look exactly like this.  she ended up with buttons and holding a snowflake.. similar to the one below that..

This one went to another friend.  in fact I made two of these and I have one boxed up and waiting and waiting to go into the mail for my friend Kelly!  Im horrible about getting to the post office.. of course my car was in the shop for over a week.. so that didnt help!

this little set below I sent to my mom.  Im not usually a big fan of plastic canvas, but I thought this little gingerbread house was cute and my tiny bear would look cute in it.  I should probably call all my parents today seeing as I havent talked to any of them in a while.

I had been avoided swaps for Christmas, but a friend asked me to participate in an ornie swap and I couldnt pass it up!  these are the little suzie snowflake ornaments that I made.  I also received some really fantastic ornies in return, but I am so not on my A game in getting the pictures taken and posted!

Anyways.. there were a few more little things, but I guess I didnt get pictures of everything... OH well!

So as promised, the elves!  Of the 13 or so that were interested in joining in, I only have back about 7 pictures plus mine to post.  I know its a busy time of year I didnt even meet my own deadline! LOL!   I think my challenge end date was 12/6...  and I just finished mine this weekend!  lol!  Its hard to fit in everything we want to do sometimes.  isnt it?  So with out further ado..  here they are!
YIKES!!  a little edit here.. my apologies to Shirley, Holly and Pam as I totally had missed their elves the first time around. I hope Ive not forgotten anyone else!  I have not drawn a winner yet, so your names will be added to the hat!

Shirley Hatfield ( Zettas aprons)

 Dorothy (hensrule)

Holly's elf  (cutie pie cottage)

Pams elf (virginia retro)

 Kareena (Lets go fly a kite)

 Kim Kenward (Kims Musings)

chris little (a little creation)

 Helen Hoelck ( dollz and thingz)

 marlene Haveron  

Erica Bryan (Golden egg vintage)

 and mine..

I actually just started two more elves this morning because I realized that the first two reminded me of some people and I have to send them out as a surprise to them!

OK.. It seems to have taken me forever to post this this morning and Ive got to move away from this computer!  have a lovely day my friends!  I shall return later!

OOHHH!! wait!  I have to do a give away.. I promised to send out an elfie out to one of the elf challenge participants.  I will work on that.. and get back to the winner later!   

toodles for now!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxooxox

Im backkkkkk!! did you miss me?

Here I am!!  Did you miss me??  I missed all of you.  I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas.  we did.  but leading up to it was crazy.  last weekend we had an ice storm. Sunday morning a huge branch broke off our tree and took out our power, internet, phone and cable!  We were with out power from 5:00 am sunday morning til about 10:00 pm monday night.   what an ordeal.  That left me two days behind in the christmas department! I ended up spending the night at Tony and Nessas on Sunday night as it was just too cold in the house.  but I get to spend time with this little sweetie pie..

 I ended up not going to work on monday, (I already had taken tues and thurs off). Thank god I had tuesday off.. all day christmas eve, I busted my butt to get ready for our christmas eve party.  Cleaning, cooking.. and other last minute things..

but I pulled it off. and managed to have everything done and ready for our guests by the time they arrived!  And as usual, we had a good time, eating, playing games, exchanging gifts and laughing!

After everyone left, I stayed up til 2:00 am filling stockings and putting the gifts out.  tony is pretty much the grinch and he fell asleep!  lol!

I was back up at 7:00 making breakfast casserole and cinnamon rolls and waiting for all the kids to arrive Everyone showed up around 10:30 and the then the craziness began!  We had a good time.   Christmas morning is a pretty big deal here.. (and pretty much everywhere else too.. lol!)

Those baby pies, make every thing brighter and more fun!  and louder.. and messier!

Marla princess pie

torry wont hold still pie

 and totally precious violet pie!

we had a great day and everyone got lots of great presents.  our living room was pretty much wall to wall gifts everywhere.

I had thursday off too and Jennifer brought Ella and Carson over to get their gifts as they were with their mom on christmas day.  I gave Carson a bag of christmas dough!  50 one dollar bills all rolled up and packaged!  thank you pinterest!  

Ellas is a girl after my own heart so her and I played dolly adventures and had fun taking pics of our dolls doing silly things around the house.

here is a few of our adventure pics!

I finally finished my elves this morning for the elf challange.  so sorry for those of you that have been waiting. I will post all of the pics tomorrow. 

Just got our cable, internet and phone back with in the last hour!  I was having serious withdrawal symptons!  Ive missed all my bloggy places!  so I will be catching up now!

Im on call this week.. keep your fingers crossed that its QUIET!!   I just want to stay home and relax!

I hope everyone got nice things for christmas.  I was very seriously spoiled by my kids.  they did way too much for me.  In fact I got a nook.. and I'm dying to play with it now that I have the internet again...

so off I go!  toodles friends! 

have a lovely weekend!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxox

snowflakes on friday!

In a hurry!!  but I see so many fun christmasy posts I just want to hang out and drink tea and blog hop!!

However... duty calls and I have to go to work.. 

But its Friday!!!  and the weekend before christmas!  wedding tomorrow.. yikes.. who the heck gets married the weekend before christmas?  I have so much stuff to do!  and sunday is the neroni chelini christmas party.. really not sure if I'm going.... 

Been working on lots of projects.. must of which I cant show you yet... but soon I will...

For now, you can see these!  Simple simple simple!  only minutes to make and they turned out so cute!

Happy Friday  girls!  I will get back here later and do some super duper major blog hopping! 

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

gingerbread house party

My oh so creative children held their second annual gingerbread house contest on saturday.  Everyone was here including my baby pies!  The kids ordered pizza and wings and Vanessa made a delicious jello poke cake.

The kids all made awesome little houses.  tony and vanessa made this really awesome two story pretzel log home..  the only problem was, there was no gingerbread in it! LOL!  so the others wanted to disqualify them!    I love how they all used something different for their snowy bases.. 

Ness and Tony used coconut for snow.

Bethany and Torry used mini marshmellows for their snow and even made a little pond out of melted jolly ranchers! 

Theirs was also a log cabin, but they used little pretzel sticks on top of their gingerbread base.  

love the little pretzel fence!

Tiffany who said she didnt enjoy making her house, used frosting for snow.  I love her little gingerbread cottage with its perfect green and pink colors and the little heart on the door!

I think I could live in it, especially if I were a little gingerbread girl and the cottage was at the lake!!

And, check out her white choc covered pretzel fence!  Love it!!

Jennifers house was pretty elaborate!  She used white cotton candy for her snow and lined her sidewalk with tiny choc non perils!  and she used gum sticks for window shutters.

  

The other very unique thing that jen had was a drive way with a garage!  And guess what her garage was made out of???

TOAST! 

lol!

all my kiddos and their partners are soooo creative and talented!  I LOVE that about them all. 

And of course.. then theres these most precious little people in my life..   omg.. I love them all so much,

sometimes I think my heart could just burst!

They are so very awesome!

In other news..   my car is very broken.......  and is at the car doctor...   probably gonna cost a lot of money that I just dont have to fix it... well, thats if it can be fixed... who knows.. we dont know whats wrong with it yet...   send up a prayer for me about it if you think of it! 

OK.. gotta go pluck my beard.. 

LOL..

wish I was kidding!

toodles girls!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxooxxoxoxoxo