Only in Maine

Only in Maine.  The last week has proven to be a meteorologists delight with the weather changing minute by minute.  We started out with a snow day which the kiddoes loved, nothing like a day off from school to frolic in the snow.  Then we had rain, rain and more rain which took all that beautiful snow away and left in it's wake flooding!  I had to go a different route to get to my appointments as numerous roads were flooded here in town.  Next we had 50* temperature which was warmer then where my Snow Birds are in Florida!  Last night things changed again and we have snow again with more coming down all the time! Yay!

The squirrels were tunneling through the snow to get the peanuts that I throw out for them.  I was taking these pictures through the glass so they aren’t really crisp but the squirrels had the cutest snowy faces.

 

The turkeys were around too, scratching away like a bunch of chickens in a barnyard.  I need to make a run to the feed store today to stock up on their grain.  I counted 37 this morning.  The flock is growing!  Daily.  Hourly.

I had a fun surprise the other day when a package arrived in the mail from my buddy Needled Mom.  It's a Mug Rug and isn't it the cutest thing?!  Great for your hot chocolate, tea or coffee with a place to put your gingerbread cookie on the side!  Thank you NM,  I love it!!!!  :o)   These little rugs seem to be so popular right now and some even have a little pocket to put the new tea bag in.  You can make them any color or for any season, there are lots of patterns on the Internet.

I have hit an all time low.  I say this quite regularly these days.  I was so excited to be going to a Christmas party at Gillette Stadium last night and had my camera battery charging in hopes of getting some wonderful photos to post.  My camera was beside my purse which was on the kitchen counter by the door so that I could grab it on my way out, which I did.

We arrived at the party and were greeted by some of the little cheerleaders (and I mean little!) so I told the Hubs to stand there with them so that I could get a picture.  He didn't argue.

I pulled my camera out of my purse and tried to turn it on and it wouldn't budge!  I tried again.  No luck.  You guessed it, the battery was in the charger at home…………Waaaaaaaaaa!

All was not lost as there was a photographer there so she took some pictures for us which will arrive in a few days but I would have taken a lot more……

Had fun meeting some of the players.  I like Vince Wilfork and he was there so I got a picture signed.  You see these big men on the field being very intense so it's fun to see them in real life, smiling and being so nice.  This guy is a great big teddy bear!

I got some other pictures signed, no not Tom Brady, he wasn't there. Sigh……..

I'm still working on decorating the house.  I love to decorate so it isn't a chore.  Taking everything down, now that's a chore.

Saturday and Sunday nights we had our Christmas program at church.  We put up close to 20 trees on Friday!  I didn't take any pictures during the program but here are some shots as we put the trees up.  The sound board or maybe it's called the light board could change the colors on the trees, make them dim, blink, off and on from the sound room.  It was just beautiful and the real meaning of Christmas rang true all evening!  The church was packed both nights.  :o)

Guess that's it for today.  The sewing machine is calling my name as I have a couple projects to finish up.  Hope you are all enjoying this holiday season!  :o)

Christmas decorating

With the addition of 8 inches of snow it has really put me in the decorating mood.  It is so pretty outside, it mesmerizes me to sit in the sun room and watch the big flakes come drifting down.  It wasn’t a huge storm but enough for school to be canceled much to the delight of the children.  My grand kids were out at 7:30 AM on their sleds and then came to my house about 9 and spent the day playing in the snow.  I had to throw the snowsuits in the dryer a few times and then they were off and running again.
I have been working on getting my Dept. 56 villages put up which is no small task but I enjoy it.  These are on the mantle in the living room.




These are over the kitchen cupboards.



Over the kitchen sink.



This year I put some garland over the door going out into the sun room.


This is a Nativity scene that I did years and years ago when I could still see well enough to do cross stitch!


The tree in the sun room.


The tree in the living room.

A few snowmen in the den and a mitten quilt that I did a number of years ago.


My Christmas cookie jars.



My glass Nativity is going to go where the two little snowmen are now.

That’s as far as I have gotten thus far and probably won’t do much more other then to put the gifts under the trees which add more color.

While reading my nieces blog Musings of a Housewife she gave a link to a wonderful post written by Renee Swope called Unwrapping His Christmas Presence.  No that’s not a typo.  Sometimes in all of our hustle and bustle we forget to focus on the real meaning of Christmas and Renee’s post will bring us right back to where we should be.  Thank you Jo-Lynne for sharing it with us, I loved it.  :o)  Click on this and it will take you to a page that says Error but you can see the name of the post in the column and just click on that.

My grandson drew this picture yesterday and asked me if I would send it to Santa for him.  Does that make you puddle up or what?

Goodbye fall, hello Christmas season!

It’s been one busy week this week!  My intentions of getting more posts out just seem to fall to the wayside with everything going on.

I’m on the decorating committee at church and we have been scurrying around like so many church mice getting things ready for Advent and putting up the Christmas decorations.  I didn’t have my camera with me on Tuesday but will take it Monday and try to get some pictures for you.  They don’t always come out great as it’s a big room and they tend to come out dark but I will give it a try.

Here on the home front I have been taking down everything fall to make room for the Christmas things.  The kitchen counters were covered, the kitchen table and things were on the floor waiting to be carried down into the basement and put away on the shelves for another year.

I went to a craft fair at John Baptist High School this morning and it was a mob scene!  I once again forgot my camera, (this seems to be a habit of mine doesn’t it?) but take my word for it there were so many wonderful things to look at, taste, touch and smell that I just enjoyed perusing the whole place.  I found some things for myself Christmas gifts which I will show you.

This handmade pillow was to die for!  The lady that made it did such beautiful work with all her stitches so evenly spaced.  I love appliqué so it caught my eye the very first thing so now it is on the sofa in my foyer!  :o)

I bought this table topper at my DIL’s booth for my sister.  She is decorating her kitchen with gingerbread men this year so it will look nice on her table.  I got one for myself too, for my kitchen table.  I love these for all the different seasons and holidays.

Found two wreaths that I liked.  All of mine are older then dirt so I thought it was time to replace a few of them.  This little one is hanging in my kitchen now.

This one is on the door that goes into Mom and Dad’s apartment. Isn’t he cute?

I needed mittens and found some at a ladies booth that had all kinds of knit things.  These will go into Miss T’s and Mr. D’s stockings.  I can knit mittens but it takes me all winter to even get one pair done so I have given up and now buy them.

Got two hooded towels for the kids to have at the lake as theirs were lost in the flood.  I guess I should have taken them out of the bags so you could see them better but they are wonderful for kids as the hood keeps them on and the towel wraps right around them keeping them warm after they get out of the water. Mimi makes these.

I figured I had blown my budget for the month so headed over to TJ Maxx next.  Found this cute runner with snowflakes on it.

My feet gave out so decided I’d head for home.  I had a nice surprise waiting for me from my cousin BJ out in Seattle!  She is a master quilter and seamstress and I guess she has added designing to her repertoire!  Isn’t this the cutest little bag to carry all your hand sewing things in?

See how when you close the top it all lines up and matches?

She also sent me the pattern which I will be trying out soon!  Thanks BJ!!!!

I scanned this description from the back of the pattern as it describes things better.  I love taking classes and I love taking some handwork with me when we are driving a long distance so this is going to come in real handy for me. Thanks again BJ!!!

The turkeys have come back this fall by the dozen.  I counted about 30 yesterday and it seems there are more every day.

They like to roost on the fence but heard me open the window and all of them hopped down except one.

Noodles likes to hop up in his cat condo and watch them out the window.

I guess we must head down to the lake as I got a call from the alarm company that the power was off a couple days ago. They call us when it goes off but not when it comes on again so we don’t want to take any chances that it’s still off.  We don’t want any more floods down there!!!!

Hope you all are having a great weekend!