::A NEW YEAR...A FRESH START:::

Happy New Year!

I know it's belated, but just the same I hope you and yours have a wonderful 2013!

Our holiday with family was wonderful.  For the first time in many years, we went back "home"...where we grew up to be with family for the holidays.  We have lived so very far away from family for many years.  Traveling back for a family of four by plane was always too expensive.  We decided to drive this year.  Man, was it a long drive, but worth it.  We got to see my husbands family and my family and some old friends.

As the children head back to college I find myself taking down the all the holiday decorations.  Everything is bare again.  We have had so much rain here of late as well.  So everything is all gray.  I am dreaming  up ideas of what to do with our mantel now that Christmas is over.  I am craving pops of bright, summery colors.

Now that we are midway through the new year, I have come up with a "word' for the year.  I want to not only have this word applied to my decorating life, but my personal life as well.  My word for the new year is

SIMPLICITY

I have already been applying it.  I have cleaned out our pantry and am in the process of redoing the guest room/sewing room.  I have been throwing things out and have done a couple of trips to the local thrift store to make donations of "stuff."  It's a good feeling. 

As I am getting older, I find beauty in the simple things. I am content with things we have and feel blessed to have them.  Don't get me wrong, I love to decorate and shop, but so many people don't have that luxury.  Much less a roof over their head or clothes or shoes for their feet.  So, looking at the year ahead, I will be intentional about simplicity in my life.  This will apply to the blog as well.  Look for a face lift on the header and the blog as well.  I will be streamlining it to give it a simple, clean look and I also we be only blogging two three days a week.  I have recently got a job and will share more about that later on.

Thank you for stopping by.

Have a blessed day in your little corner of the world.

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:::CHRISTMAS HOME TOUR:::

Welcome to our home..

Christmas is my favorite time of year.  Our family finds great joy in giving at this time of year.  So, it's not uncommon for us to totally spoil someone or some family with things they "need" and they never know where it came from. 

I love the homes with all the glitter glamour and sparkle.  Everything looks so pretty and shiny.  For our family though, I like to keep things simple.  I like to decorate with things that are meaningful to us as a family as well as the reason for the season.  We have lived many places and it wasn't until about a little over ten years ago that we had a fireplace that I could actually decorate.  Front and center always is our nativity scene.  I bought this  nativity 23 years ago before my husband and I got married.  I love bringing it out every Christmas.  It reminds me of our very first Christmas together when we only had about fifteen ornaments on the tree and our little nativity.

About five years ago I started collecting snowmen.  I just love them.  They make me smile.  This year I thought it would be fun to have them all together in one area.  I chose the kitchen.  Welcome to Frosty's Snowflake cafe!  Grab a cuppa hot chocolate or cider and a cookie and stay a while.

One tradition that we have is buying a CD or two each year to add to our Christmas music collection.  As you can see here we tend to like the oldies, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole and Brenda Lee.

OOh, see those recipes to the left there?? Another one of our favorite traditions is baking cookies and fudge.  Mexican Wedding cookies, which look like little snowballs are my absolute favorite and a must each Christmas.  This year we will also be making some fudge.  My mother-in-law makes the best fudge. It really is truly delicious.  Shhhh, don't tell, but I am going to share the recipe with you.....

Grandmas Christmas Fudge

2 pkgs. semi sweet bakers chocolate

1 can (14oz.) sweetened condensed milk

2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2C. chopped walnuts

Microwave chocolate and milk in large microwaveable bowl on high 2 to 3 minutes or until chocolate is almost melted.  Be sure to stir  half way through heating time.  Stir until chocolate is completely melted.  Then, stir in vanilla and walnuts.  Spread in a foil lined 8 in. square pan.  Refrigerate for two hours or until firm.

That's it, it's that easy and oh so yummy!

Moving on to our dining room .  We gave our dining room table and chairs away last year.  We bought this table over the summer, but have yet to purchase chairs.

From all of us

to all of you

we wish you a blessed Christmas and a joyous New Year! 

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:::HANDMADE CHRISTMAS AND A HOLIDAY HOME TOUR:::

I have been busy "elfing" as I like to call it.  I am making some handmade things for my family this year that is requiring a lot of time at the sewing machine.  Here is a little sneaky peak  of a quilt I am making.

I was ready to bind this one yesterday when I realized I ran out of thread.  I still have another one to quilt and bind and yet another to piece, quilt and bind.  Wish me luck.  I will be cutting it close trying to get them all done before the holidays.

I am also participating in Jen's 12 days of Christmas.  It starts tomorrow, November 30th.  You don't want to miss it because Jen, myself and several other sweet ladies  will be sharing how we decorate for the holidays, our traditions, some projects and of course some recipes.

Well, I am off to "elfing" again.  Lots to do, lots to do!

Have a great day!
CherylPin It Now!

:::FALL MANTEL AND ENTRYWAY:::

I hope you had a good weekend.  We did.  Beautiful weather and football!  ROLL TIDE!!!  go RAVENS!
Yeah, I know, it's all so wrong.  We live in Louisiana and I don't root for the home team, but hey, I didn't go to LSU so no love loss there.  Heck, I didn't go to Alabama either, but I love their team.  ; )   Now we are from Maryland, so I have to root for the Ravens whenever they play.

Moving on to the fall mantel.  I was finally able to finish my fall canvas.  I am really pleased with how it came out and I love the pop of color the mantel brings to our family  room.

I bought the orange foliage,  pip berries , white pumpkins , wheat  and the moss balls from Hobby Lobby when all their fall stuff was on sale.  The wood tray that the pumpkins are sitting in I already had.  I bought it at a yard sale for a $1.00 years ago.  I already had the blue mason jars and the white pitcher.  I absolutely fell head over heals for the white pumpkins this year.   I love the neutral fall look, but wanted a pop of color. So I set out to make this quote canvas.  It took a while to finish up because I did it all old school.  I actually picked all the fonts and then traced them right from my computer to paper and then used carbon paper to trace the words onto the canvas.  Once that was all done I outlined all the words in white paint and then filled them in.

Next I added a touch of fall to our entryway.  I purchased three bags of acorns from Hobby Lobby when they were on sale and filled up some glass jars I already had..  Placed some candles on top and called it done.

Our orange trees are finally ready to pick.  Can't wait to eat them. I have shared before that we have  a Satsuma orange tree and a Meyer lemon tree.  I will share the harvest tomorrow.

Have a great day in your little corner of the world.

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::SEWING FOR BABY::

A few months ago a friend in our Sunday school class found out her son and daughter-in-law would not be able to have children.  Her son and his wife have been married for seven years and had had their ups and downs with trying to get pregnant to no avail.

Not too long after hearing this news they decided to go the adoption route.  They knew it might be a while before they would actually be able to adopt.  To their surprise, things moved faster than they thought and by the end of the summer they were new parents to a bouncing baby boy that they adopted.

I wasn't able to attend the shower that was given for them, but I was able to make a gift for them that I hope would mean a lot to them.

I am a big fan of  Dee over  at  http://www.redletterwords.com/    While I didn't have the cash to purchase a canvas for this sweet new family; I did have a blank canvas, some paint and paint brushes.  I decided to make my own with scripture on it.  I also made a receiving blanket with a crochet edge.  Giving homemade gives me great joy.
                                Here is the canvas that I painted with 1 Samuel 1:20 scripture on it.

 I really lucked out finding this fabric at JoAnn's.   Love the faith, hope and love circles in different colors on the fabric and the crocheted edge just completes the whole blanket with a little pop of color.

What have you made lately?

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::FALL DECOR SNEAKY PEAK::

Here is a sneaky peek of my fall decor.  I am almost done fluffing up the nest for fall.  I wanted to have the fall decor up for a while so that we can enjoy it because I am already thinking about Christmas.  What can I say, Christmas is my favorite time of year to celebrate.  

Here is a  sneaky peak of the buffet in the entry

and a couple of  sneaky peaks of the buffet in the kitchen dining nook.

I have one piece that I am working on for the mantel and then I will give you full pictures of each area. 

I love all the colors of fall.  They oranges and the reds and even some yellows just get me to feeling all cozy.  It makes me want to  to curl up in a blanket with some hot chocolate.  Which by the way,  I have already done.  What is your favorite thing about fall?


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::HAPPY FALL and where I have been::

Hey all!

I know , it's been a month since I have posted.  I had been  busy filling in for a gal at work that was on maternity leave.  Long days made for a tired me during the week and on the weekends I usually spent half the morning cleaning and too tired to do projects to post.  On top of that, I got bronchitis and have been having a hard time getting rid of it with allergies to boot.  So, just trying to rest and get back to 100%.

Since I last posted fall has finally arrived.   While the trees don't change colors here in Louisiana until late December I have enjoyed the fall like weather we have been having.  So much so that it inspired me to fluff the nest with some "fall touches."  I finally changed up my  mantle that still had 4th of July stuff on it!  Yeah, I know, that is so sad that I still had July stuff up.  Cool thing is  that when I decided to fluff the nest for fall Hobby Lobby was having a 40% off  sale going on .  I ended up lucking out on getting a few things at a pretty good price.

I will be back later today with a sneak peak post of the "fall fluffing" around the house and a recipe that we have come to enjoy on a weekly basis that is perfect for a fall weeknight dinner.  It's a fast meal and tasty to boot!

Enjoy your day in your little part of the world!

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:::SIMPLE SUMMER FARE, THE DESSERT EDITION:::

Yeah, it's no secret I love dessert and if its mini, I love it even more.  I like to think that means I can eat just a little bit more of it.  (smile)

My birthday was back in July.  I have found the older I get the less I want an actual cake for my birthday.  You know how it is, a week later there is still half eaten stale cake sitting around in the fridge.  No thank you. Hubby was out of town and my son had to work.  It was just little ole me on my birthday.  So, I whipped out my Ina Garten recipe and commenced to baking chocolate ganache  mini cupcakes.  Surprisingly, they are so very easy to make.  I saw the word "ganache" and thought I would have to slave over these cupcakes to get them to be tasty, but that wasn't the case at all.  Want to see some of my birthday sweetness??? Yeah, I thought you would.  Because really who doesn't like dessert when it involves chocolate and it's mini to boot??

I am linking the recipe here as it is not my own,but Ina Garten's.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/chocolate-ganache-cupcakes-recipe2/index.html

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:: SIMPLE SUMMER FARE...THE BREAKFAST EDITION::

Hey all!
Hope everyone is doing well in their little corner of the world.

Life has been full around here.  I went back to work before the end of Augsut and am working full time.  This old gal is getting old. Working eight hour days were kicking my butt, but  now I am in the swing of things.

So, I can still call it summer right?  It's still summer until September 21st, right?  Good.  : )
I wanted to share a simple, healthy breakfast that I have been eating over this summer.  A little bit of sweet and a little bit of crunch and a lot of color make this mouthwatering bowl the breakfast of champions.  Chopped golden delicious apple with mandarin oranges, craisins and walnuts for crunch.  Believe it or not this little bowl of fruit with a yogurt cup filled me up.

Tomorrow I will share simple summer dessert fare and it is YUMMY! So stop by to check it out and I will also share the recipe.

Have a blessed day!Pin It Now!

::WE SURVIVED ISAAC::

I am happy to say we have survived  Isaac.  We were on the western side of the hurricane/storm and got mostly lots of rain and wind.  We had a few brownouts but never lost power.

Ufortunately, others weren't as fortunate.  Many lost their homes to flooding and still many are without power. 

Continue to keep those that are still in shelters, still without power and those that lost their homes in prayer.  While the hurricane/storm has passed they will be dealing with the after effects for quite some time.Pin It Now!