Happy Birthday, Claire

Ten years ago I received a wonderful early Christmas present named Claire and she has brought much joy to my heart and life. If I could describe my grandaughter, Claire, in one word it would be VIBRANT!

I've already told you here what a good little Mommy she is to Pamela but there is so much more to tell.

This picture speaks volumes about Claire. She can be very feminine and stylish but at the same time she can climb trees with the best of the boys: (Click on picture to enlarge)





She is very artistic and sometimes looks as though she is lost in her own thoughts:





She likes to dance on mountaintops...





and sometimes in the rain. This time it was at Granny's suggestion because we were having a drought and after a little shower I told her she should do a rain dance so we would get more rain that we so desperately needed. I also love her because she plays my silly games! :)





Then at other times she can be very mischievious, like when she's trying to drown her brother in the pool :))





She enjoys clowning around with friends:





She has the cutest little feet:





She loves fudgcicles!







And just trust me when I tell you that she was the most beautiful Magical Winter Wind you would ever want to see:







HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY BEAUTIFUL GIRL. GRANNY LOVES YOU DEARLY!!

A few more good men..snowmen that is

I have a few more snowmen to show you today. This little fellow:

A primitive stocking that Dave found recently while junkin'

I have several snowman throws some of which you can see on my house pics. These are just a couple of my many, many snowman throw pillows:

Dave's personal favorite is these little snowbells that adorn our tree every year for many years now:

Last but certainly not least, this treasure was made for me years ago by my niece, Kaycie. She wanted to make me something so she just used what she had available. She also knew I loved snowmen! The cute part is that she wanted to write the words in red but didn't have red paint. The next best thing was nail polish!! Cute way to improvise, huh?

I know, I know, enough with the snowmen until next year! Unless of course I find another one this year that just has to come home with me......

Snowmen, snowmen everywhere!

I was visiting my friend Lib's house today and saw the great goodies she received in Peggy's stocking swap. We talked about how we love snowmen. I started looking around my house and realized how many I've accumulated through the years. I want to share some of them with you, starting with my front porch:


My hobo snowman wreath on the front door:


One of my mantles..the trio of snowmen was handmade for me by my niece, Patsy, which makes it extra special to me.


A favorite of mine:


My latest addition:


Just a few of them for now. To be continued tomorrow......

Pamela

I would like to introduce you to my Great Granddaughter, Pamela (wink, wink)
Pamela has been in the family for about 7 years now but in a recent conversation with Uncle Dave, Claire (granddaughter) said that Pamela is actually 5 months old because she wants to keep her little. There have been times when I've felt the same way about my babies and grandbabies.
Recently Claire, Jenny (my daughter), and I went to an open house event of all the little antique stores in town. At one store Claire saw a double-decker baby bed that she liked. It was too pricey for Granny :) but at the last store we visited she discovered a vintage cradle in excellent condition except the bottom was missing. I knew it could be easily repaired and it was a bargain so we bought it.
Uncle Dave came to the rescue and replaced its dowels and added the new bottom. We will be adding some bedding and cute little handmade quilt that I have. Ta dah:

But that's not all...our neighbor, Wayne, saw the cradle and remembered that he had the perfect thing to go along with it. He came back carrying this highchair in all its precious vintage pinkness:

I hope Pamela will love vintage things as much as I do. Shhhh...lets keep it secret until Christmas Eve. I'm not sure if she reads my blog!! :)

update:

We gave Pamela her new bed and high chair and she just loved it!!



See, she is so comfortable in this bed:

Latest found treasure

Dave comes home almost daily with a new found treasure. Every day is like Christmas! This one I think he brought to me just to keep his own sanity. I have had many, many paper towel holders that I just haven't been pleased with. Nothing irritates me more than trying to pull off one paper towel and the whole roll comes flying at you, so I keep looking for the perfect one! So when Dave brought this beauty in I was so excited...and it was red too!! Perfect for my kitchen! Also a bonus..the upper slot held wax paper! We had a partial roll of towels and immediately put them in the holder and tried them out. ONE towel rolled out perfectly and ONE towel tore off. PERFECT!! I was so happy! Then the partial roll was gone and I brought out a replacement. To my dismay the big roll would not fit in the slot.

Do they even make the smaller rolls anymore, I wondered? How old was this little red gem? As far back as the 30's, 40's? Did they even have paper towels back then? So I did a little research and found that this invention came about accidentally. You can read about it here if you are interested. Bottom line, paper towels were officially introduced to the public in 1931 but did not

gain acceptance until later. So I'm guessing red probably didn't come into play until late 30's at least. The question still remains..will I be able to find smaller rolls? Will this turn into an educational blog where readers can come and find much trivial tidbits to ponder on? Tune in and see..

Simplify

According to the dictionary, the word simplify means "to make simple or simpler: streamline". I visited Lib's blog this morning and saw her little simplify pillow. So cute. I was reminded of a conversation my daughter and I had when she saw my Simplify sign. She laughed when she saw it in my home. Imagine!! To her it means streamline...less stuff and clutter. To me it means getting back to the basics of life, to a much simpler time without all the hassles and stress that comes with living in this modern day time.

Maybe it's my way of justifying all the clutter I have?? :)

What do you think of when you see the Simplify signs?

Time to relax

Last night was the annual Christmas Parade in our small town. We had a wonderful time with family and friends with lots of good food and fun afterward. I hope to post lots of pictures later.

Today is just going to be a laid-back kind of day. Dave and I are relaxing and watching Christmas movies on tv and of course, eating some left overs from the party last night. Maybe a little nap would feel good too! Hummmm.....

Another Christmas corner

The big tree by the stairway is up. Unfortunately our stairway never got finished like we had planned so the whole thing looks...well...unfinished to me. :o We removed old carpet from the stairs, then the old glue which held the carpet. What a mess! Painting them will have to wait until after Christmas I guess. Oh well, the important thing is the looks in the grandchildren's eyes when they see it and the oohs and aahs I hear from them. That's all that matters...