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

friday

Happy Friday!!   

so much to do this weekend, 

it will surely fly by so fast.   

So much shopping to do...gifts to buy, gifts to make.. 

cookies to bake and deocorate!  

gingerbread house contests and dinner here sunday!

hoping for good driving weather..  

this is what it looked like outside yesterday morning, with crappy roads... today at least the roads are clear.

but it is soo cold outside.

Today we have our kids christmas party at work for the little kids of the families we work with.  (not my boys, there day is next week)  So I will spend the afternoon painting reindeer faces and other christmasy designs on little faces!  the kids love it, santa comes and hands out lots of gifts, a clown will be there making ballooon treats for anyone who wants one, face painting, coloring contests, music, and lots of pizza and cookies!  lots of fun for our poor families.  its nice to see the smiles on those sweet little faces.

So, I suppose I should get figgy off my lap.. (just took this picture, he was cold and tucked inside my bathrobe!)  and go get ready for work.   

Happy Friday!!

xoxoxoxoxooxo

christmas skellys, cupcakes, trees and baby pies!

Happy Wednesday!  I had a few girls over last night to make faux cupcakes.  we had a good time.  My friend Linda decided to go talk to Santa and his reindeer out on my front porch.  I think the reindeer, (aka.. bonita) thought Linda was pretty funny!  she really seems to be laughing at her!  Santa (aka boney neroni) just looks like hes listening!  

anyway, we had a good time.  I didnt make any for myself, but theirs all turned out really cute!

I already have enough! lol!   I finished decorating my tree over the weekend.  It is such a pretty little tree.  I do admit that I miss having a real tree and a much bigger tree, but with the parrots cage in the living room, we cant fit anything else.  But I do love this tree, so its all good!

Its over the hump day!  I will be very busy this weekend trying to finish up the bulk of my shopping.  there are some things that I will wait til the following weekend.. (paycheck..) to get, like gift cards and some of the stocking stuffers.   I finished Violets christmas stocking.  its got pink snowmen on it.. so cute!

I'm hoping to start my baking this weekend too.  I  make the same 5 kinds every year, sugar cookie cutouts, gingerbread men, jam thumbprints, peanutbutter kisses and dog turds!  LOL!  I think they are called date balls, but we call them dog turds!

wanna see the cutest little reindeer?????

isnt she stinking adorable????  

I know.. thank you.

ok.. girlie pies.. Ive got to run..  out into the freezing cold.  we didnt get much snow here at all, but south of us they are getting dumped on.  my poor bethany could barely get home from work last night.  I felt so bad for her, she ended up pulling into someones drive way and sitting she got so scared because she couldnt see anything.   my poor gertie.. but she made it home eventually.  Thank God.  I was praying for her.

toodles for now!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Happy MOnday!

A new week!  and it will surely be better then the last!  my house is all decorated now.  I think Im finished..

heres a few pics from my kitchen, 

theres more.. but saving for another day...

I havent done anything outside, I did do the porch.. but I have garlands and lights that go out front.   maybe I'll get to them, maybe I wont...  the pumpkins are still out there!  probably frozen!  its pretty cold out.

I got the tree decorated friday night.  it makes such a difference and makes the house so much more christmasy and cozy.   I love to decorate.  I love lots of cute stuff!  the more the merrier! 

(ha! like you didnt already know that!)  

Im afraid that someday I'm going to have to hire someone to do it for me!  hopefully not for  a very very long time.  

I've taken to looking at pictures from previous years so I can remember where to put things..    I just posted on face book this morning.. "so much stuff.. so little memory!"  LOL!

I have a confession to make.... I have not made my elves for my elf challenge yet.  well, I made their heads, feet and hands.. but nothing else.. so I'm extending the challenge until I finish them.. so anyone who wanted too and hasnt.. theres still time.  I'm shooting for this saturday now..  

Oh my gosh.. I love christmas, but its coming so fast now!  I need to get with it!  I am so not on top of it this year... what happen to me?  maybe old age setting in!   after christmas, Im going on a major take care of myself kick..   Im a mess! lol! 

ok, lovies.. I took a ton of pics, but not gonna post them all today.. theres still plenty of blogging days before christmas.

have a great monday!  

OH!!!  and thank you all for the kind sweet comments you left me on my last whiney post... we all gotta have those days now and then (or weeks!)   so nice to have such sweet pals to encourage me on!

big hugs and love to you all!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

wah wah wah...

whew!  its been a long difficult week this past week.  In fact it really sucked.  I was so grateful to receive this package from my dear friend Natalea (kandeland) last night when I got home from work.   It so lifted my spirits.

I know Ive talked about my friend Marilyn who had ALS before.  she has been one of my best friends for about 20 years, and she passed away on sunday morning.  I didnt find out til monday night and I was pretty devastated.  but she was starting to suffer and now shes not... I just cant believe shes gone.  Marilyn was truly one of the most generous, kind hearted people Ive ever known.  She ALWAYS put others before herself.  I will miss her so much.  I hate that she got this horrible disease and had to leave us.  But she is in a better place now and reunited with her husband that died 18 years ago and also with her Dad.   I know she must be happy. 

On top of marilyns death, it was a crappy week at work too.  Remember I work with very naughty teenage boys.  First of all let me say that most of them come from neglectful parents who havent instilled anything in them except anger and resentment.   and so then when their anger and resentment and depressions cause them to act out and not go to school, and smoke pot and break the law, they end up in foster care... when its already too late to do much with them.   I know where they are coming from and why they are the way they are.. but sometimes thats all just excuses.. and these boys are freaken naughty.  Lets just say, with out going into details, that some times I just have to throw my hands up in the air and say, what the F*#$!!  We never manage to fix any of them.. its just heart breaking.  and the boys are BAD!   I was very glad when Fridays work day came to a close.  

I had a hard time focusing and dealing with daily life just by losing my friend.. but then add in work.. and trying to get my tutorials up, (dont get me wrong.. I loved doing them.. but I did struggle a bit with making time to get them done)  and I also had to finish up an order of memory bears and santa stars for a girl who lost her father not too long ago.

But I did get everything done that I needed to.. pretty much anyways.. then add it, that yesterdays calling hours for marilyn and that it was Bethanys birthday and I didnt do anything special for her yet.. and tomorrow is torry pies birthday (which we've already celebrated) and this morning is my girlfriends funeral....  

and are you ready for this???  we woke up to a broken furnance........ no heat....   and guess what?  its freaken cold out  and getting that way inside!   and not for nothing.. there is no extra money hanging around.. so its going to come out of my christmas money...   the icing on the cake.  

soooooo, with all that said, you can see that its been a long crappy week.  

Thankfully I got most of my christmas decorating done last weekend.  my tree has been up all week, but I've been unable to find the time to decorate it.  I will get it done today though..

Im thinking that I need to plan a little gathering for tomorrow to celebrate beth and torry pies birthdays.  at least have them all over for cake and ice cream.. keeping it simple!

love yas all.. thanks for letting me rant a little..  

Life is still good..   a little cold and a little sad and about to be alittle broker.. but life is good.  

and thanks to Natalea, I have some really sweet tiny treasures to play with...

(when my hands warm up! LOL!)

have a happy day girlies and stay warm!!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxxoxooxoxoxoxoxo
oh.. and crap!  I just realized that I have a group of women coming to make faux cupcakes on tuesday night... 
blaaahhhhh!
but it'll be fun. 
yes. it will be..