S O S

S O S yes I am sending out a plea for help. I changed my picture on the top of my blog....well you can't see the title now because of the color..........so I went to the change out site and changed the font color of the title.............but it won't change!!!! Help!!!!!

Now the second help request.........when you go to the change out page, I can't get the whole page to show.........it is only is a partial layout.........like the top of the page and maybe 4 of the sidebars........any idea of how to fix that?

The third sweet mystery of life..........I want to take the Christmas music off of my player.........well, I can't log in..........no matter what I do..........it says that I don't have the correct password.........sigh.......it's the only password that I use!!!! I have sent an email for 5 days and to this day I still have not received an answer from the site.............sigh...........

I am frustrated........any and all help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks everyone.

I found another love

I have lots of loves...........ice cream, quilts, making jewelry, movies, stitcheries, computer/Internet, angels......................notice these are all "things". I will not even go into my love for my family..........that is just a given and I don't have enough adjectives to describe it Now things on the other hand.........well I am a complete and total collector of things..........drives my kids crazy.

While my daughter was in Iraq, I decided to send her a card a day...........and I did. Since I am on a limited budget, I decided that the cards would have to be hand/home/ made. Man, if I sad down and figured out how much I spent on paper, glitter, ribbon, stamps, ink pads.........well you are getting the picture......bet it would have been cheaper to buy......except I would have been terribly limited in my choices..............thus my introduction into the world of paper/scrap booking.

Since she has arrived home safe and sound, my card making has dwindled ..........BUT...........while roaming in the world of the Internet, I found the most wonderful world of altered paper dolls.......I even joined a group on Yahoo. I loved playing paper dolls as a little girl...........My best friend next door and I, well we had complete families of paper dolls. We had movie stars, farm sets, family sets, character sets.........we made our own paper dolls and clothes for them and the other manufactured paper dolls too..........we made holders for them, the best being shoe boxes of course.

The following pictures all came off of Flicker.........such artistic talents shared there...........hope you like some of them............I have no idea when I am going to be able to make any, as we are truly starting into the "cleansing and thinning down" stage of preparing to move...........man I do not like this stage..........I am a saver with a capital S.

I wandered again, huh...........here are the pictures I found

These two have playing cards for their bodies..........isn't that cool?

T

I noticed that lots of these wonderful creations use the old Victorian type faces........what really amazes me is the total difference in all of the styles........such imagination and creativity........wow.

I found one that had actually used little shoe charms and attached them to the doll........it was soooo unique. It was in gif form tho' and I haven't figured out how to convert those over to jpg.....there's a way, isn't there to do that?

I wish I could get started right now...........BUT.........we are having a young pal here for a sleep over tonight.......then we are going to start taking down the Christmas things and cleaning those out ( can you thin down Christmas decoration? I don't think so........). I need to refresh my jewelry items too, as I would like to have an open house sometime in January or February......

I hope everyone is having a pleasant day.........going to eat lunch and then venture out..........will share a smile with someone in my travels...........

A Year in Review

Cindy, over at http://romantichome.blogspot.com/ (oh man, I did that right!!!!!!!) is sponsoring a "year in review"..........my review isn't quite like all of the others, as I don't have my 'own' home and truly didn't share lots of house or room pictures............but man did I share lots of other things

I shared my vacation with you..........houses that I have drooled over, dream bedrooms, my love of ice cream, quilts, my type of music, both traditional and a little dream like, oh my love of flowers and plants, Santas, ribbons, my first give-away, a small snap of the San An-tone river walk, the whimsical world of make-believe that I sometimes wander into, and of course this whole blog, which helps my desires to write............it has been quite a year..........didn't post each day.........but almost..........I learned to do many things via the help of many other bloggers. All in all it has been a wonderful learning experience and I hope to continue into 2009 with the same enthusiasm and dreams that I held in 2008.

Have a good day........smile, laugh or at least give a wee smirk.............

Wonderful and new experiences........

We had such a nice Christmas...........church on Christmas Eve, a relaxed opening of gifts, a fantastic Christmas meal and over all just a nice day.

I have NEVER EVER done the "get up in the dark-thirty" shopping thing.........NEVER EVER. Well yesterday I did......it was fun. We hit JC Pennys first.........5:30a.m and we arrived at 5:10, and no one else was in the parking lot.........we were a little worried, but then, and I kid you not, it was like a caravan of crazed and glazed looking women........it was rather scary to be truthful. My daughter came out with lots of goodies for the family.........sadly for me, well the big mama section just didn't have anything that made me swoon, one sweater and one pair of pj bottoms.......we paid ( I checked out first) and while Jenn was paying for her bazillion treasures, I wandered........I promised to stay right there in the jewelry section.........and I did.........and thank goodness I did too. Look what I found..........

It's a jewelry box that hangs on the wall.........I can't seem to get the picture of it to copy of it open to share , but when open it has spots for necklaces, rings, bracelets,etc. I use to have this stand up jewelry case (you know the actual piece of furniture case), but I gave it to my daughter......so now my pieces are jammed and crammed and now I have this wonderful treasure......it won't take up any room on my already messy bureau and I can put different pictures in the front........not sure how I will use the front........as I have special frames for the grandchildren........

We went to Kohls next, and again not much for the big mama.......what I am looking for are turtle necks and light long johns..........did I share that our next assignment is going to be Alaska!!!!!!!!

Did find some sheets that I wanted........as I am going to break down and buy a twin bed, as base housing delivers small bedrooms and as we all know, my bedroom is my retreat and storage area.........so today I am going to go bed hunting. Ended up at Target where I purchased two movies for New Years Eve....for the adults........oh man, now I forgot the names of them. That was a huge splurge for me.

Now I am leaving some of the fun out........my daughter and I went au natural.......combed hair, but not "done", NO make-up, and we didn't shower............now we weren't the only ones and that made us more comfortable.............BUT some shoppers HAD to come dressed to the 9's, make-up, jewelry and we just had to shun them.........tee hee. There were no fights that I saw......... the sales lady shared a couple stories with us from last year.........ladies almost duking it out..........can you imagine. We came home and another first for me.........I slipped into my bed and slept for 3 hours..........can you imagine?

Last night we had another special and fun time..........we went down to the river walk and ate at

I have never been there and oh it was fun.........I think I enjoyed it as much if not more than the boys.........I loved the stools.........
Of course it helped that certain people were sitting on them..........tee hee..........
Wonderful and enchanted creatures everywhere.....

This charming croc kept the boys and a whole passle of children occupied for a good long time.......and thank goodness, as the wait is long..........me, I can just watch people and enjoy myself.......oooo and sometimes I make up stories in my mind.........

Here is the famous volcano dessert....when it is served you can hear the ooooga oooooga oooooga sound of the natives in the back round.......it is a hoot. Isn't the waitress just the cutest thing.....she just seemed so happy and peppy..........sadly our waiter was rather ho-hum, but the food was really good.

I am glad that our table wasn't located by any of the moving and noise making creatures.........soooooo many rude grandparents going around and snapping pictures of their grandchildren while you were eating.........oh my, I fit right into that category, don't I? Jenn said that Daniel (the oldest) looks possessed in this photo........oh my, I'll watch for more signs during the week.

Well I have to shower and dress..I know I am just going to pot.......relaxing like some type of royalty (except from what I read, royalty doesn't have it this easy.) Off to see beds and bedding........have something in mind and truly do want to stay within a certain budget.......so wish me luck.........

Hope your day is a good one.......I am off to test me patience and smile..........

Merry Christmas

A blessed and joyous Christmas to you and your family and friends. I hope that this year finds you the wisdom of the old and the wonder of the young...........

Here's Santa

Well it is official, today is my last day of sharing Christmas decorations with you. Oh man, I can hear the sigh of relief...........ok, I won't do this again next year, but this year I did want to share........so here is my main man.........

When you walk up the stairway, we have a small landing and above it, is this cool ledge......the first year we were in this house this is where my daughter thought they would look good, so this is where they land each year..........it's ok, it's just that they are all crammed together and they lose some of their personalities. I tried taking snapshot of this in different sections, let's see if it works.

See the Santa star? He is a tree topper that I made. I did Santas and stars........both sold good too. He sits on a mattress spring........ouch!!!!!!

He is round and so cuddly looking.........I love his little nubb'n of a nose.
One Christmas, each person came to the table and found one of these Santas at their place setting.........sometimes working on these smaller projects are/were more time consuming than the big projects.
My knitting gal pal made Santa and his reindeer......the small 'joy' came from another Internet friend along with these handsome gents Created this jolly soul on canvas.........I always liked him, but none of my children were that thrilled with him........oh well.

Well there are more, but I almost feel like I have you captive in my living room with last year's vacation slides..........tee hee.

Hope you enjoy the day tomorrow........for those of you that have to work, thank you..........I truly appreciate all law enforcements, fire fighters, medical personnel, the military and if I am forgetting anyone else, please excuse my oversight. Merry Christmas........take care of each other and smile and giggle, make memories if you can.

What shall I share today?

Good morning.......I just realized that I would run out of days before Christmas before I ran out of Santa clip art........or are they graphics.......nawwww, they are just wonderful Santas. Don't you fear tho', I do have lots of snowmen pictures, so maybe January will be snowmen..........

Today is still the same menu.........sharing our decorations in the house..........you know before I do, I have to share something with you. My children..........all grown ups and proud parents, well they have this club, the membership is simple......I had to give birth to you or marry someone that I birthed. They think that my blogging is a huge and silly waste of time.........total nonsense.........and those members that I live with........well they share this verbally sometimes. Oh they do it in a "kidding" manner, but sometimes I can feel a little sharpness to the words.......sigh..........oh well, life goes on.

I made my first snowballs this year. I know they have been around forever, but it was my first attempt and it was fun. I didn't have any German glass or mica flakes, so I used glitter and fake snow..........think if I do them again, I will tint the plaster a wee bit......remember I am the cottage/shabby chic person..............this household was happy with the 'snow' white creations. In front is one of my daughter's nutcrackers........she has started to collect them. Here are her other ones. Wally World had the cutest female nutcrackers this year............if I was brave and could find my courage pills, I would venture out and get her one..........we'll see.


This cute gent joined us this year.........he was rather up there in price, but at 50% off and then Jenn and I split the price, it was totally reasonable........
Tee Hee, guess you can't tell that this is quite large, sits on the floor, from the picture it looks like it could sit on a shelf.........I just found how to crop and do some simple things to photos, so I went crop happy yesterday........took out the desk that this sits beside. Here is a photo of his face.....so sweet.-
I have been a crafter for years........I look at some of my offerings now and get a giggle going.........they weren't quite what I thought they were, but at the time I thought they were the cats meow..........tee hee.

I painted for years..........cut my own wood........well I HATE to throw away anything, ask my kids, so what to do with the odd pieces of wood............make Santas of course. I came up with some interesting gents. I didn't take a close up of that little block......he has a button for his pom pom and for his moustache crochet string.....and the itty bitties little dots for eyes...........
Hope your day is a good one..........are you baking? shopping? wrapping presents? finishing cards (and it is perfectly acceptable to send after Christmas day - I know I like to get them any time of the year.) Singing carols? We have had some interesting interpertations of carols this year.........a four year old hears things differently that what is written on paper........tee hee.

You guessed it........more Christmas

You only have to put up with me and my holiday spirit for a few more days..........

I wanted to share "our" house and some of our decorations..........so today and tomorrow there will be lots of pictures.......and sadly I am sure I will have lots of memory type comments......bear with me...........please.

The fireplace........the high heel boot was made for me a long long long time ago..........not my original stocking.......the Santa stocking I made for daughter when I was carrying her (did one for each of my children), Steven never had a stocking, so whipped one up for him when they married, and yes, all 5 grand children have the knitted stockings........oooo, not by me, but a dear friend is a knitter of the master degree...........none of the parents were thrilled when I did this..........tee hee. Since I have moved in with the kids, I have had shopping opportunities that before I only could dream of........and inexpensive shopping opportunities..........it's been a mini heaven for me.........so I have started adding a tree here and there..........bought this one two years ago......it's on the mantel......look at the picture above.
This I think was either Wally World or maybe TJ Maxx, just fun..........the snowman was something that I made a bunch of and gave to family.........
Found this one at a bazaar two years ago also........I didn't go to one single bazaar this year.......did you?
Shared this one already, but had to add it........it's this years addition. Hobby Lobby, love Hobby Lobby.......plus this is a new little Santa too.........

It's a tree, it's a wall quilt.......it was made for me by a very special lady. We moved one year right at Christmas time, trust me the circumstances weren't happy......not at all.....rather tense to be truthful.........wasn't going to be any tree, no decorations - as a true friend she knew what I was going through.......the emotions were off the roof and she wrapped this up in a lovely box, wha-la instant Christmas...........thank you Sharon.

Another Christmas gift from another quilting friend........she had done one for herself and her family and I just drooled and drooled over it...........you should see all of the little squares and half squares........I am talking some long hours..........Christmas morning I opened this up and ran to the phone to thank her over and over again.

This Santa was found in Albuquerque........half Santa, half snowman...........best of both worlds.
These fine gents are always in my bedroom......a wonderful California Internet friend blessed me with these (along with quite a few others.......the year I opened that box I cried and cried........so many Santas, so many different Santas........it was like a dream come true).
Residing right next to the chalk ware Santas is this music box........again I received this when I was a little girl.........plays Silent Night. It has seen better days, that is for sure, but I can't give it up.
Isn't this Santa wonderful? I received it last May from a very special young woman......she had it from the previous Christmas; sadly when I was in Why-oh-ming for the holidays she forget to give it to me...........so I have him also in my bedroom all year round...........

Hope you day is happy and that you are almost, if not, done for the holidays..........smile........smile.