Happy Halloween and Fall !

Been away a lot time ... computer crashed and still haven't been able to recover the data and once my DH deployed, I've been busy cleaning and purging.   Made a LOT of progress!   

Today I spent 6 hours in the attic, boxing up loose items, labeling all the boxes, setting other things aside to donate or discard and organizing the boxes so you can just look and see what is in each box without having to move boxes around --- everything is in neat rows, easy to access and you can stand in the cleared center and can easily see what is in each and every box.  Should have taken a photo of the cluster before I started... oh well.  

But- all the purging has kept me busy and occupied while the days have gotten cold, gray and cloudy.  Have to admit, Autumn and Spring are my two favorite seasons due to the colors...  check out the leaves I can see most every day!

 Since it's colorful outside ... added some color to the inside of my home.  Found these soup cans in a local store last year - 

Think using them to display dried pods on our table works well.  

Do you do anything special to celebrate the change of seasons?

Hoping to hear from you -
Holly

Fantabulous! Check out the T-shirt quilt I had made!!

 

Quite a few years ago ~ while purging our excess out ~

I got rid of a bunch of T-shirts we had acquired from various

duty stations, explorations

(we love to explore the areas we are assigned)

and Scouting activities.

 

Of course, not long after the T's went away ~

a friend mentioned making a T-shirt quilt with her son's T's.

 

Slap the forehead and moan why didn't I know about this??

Would have been a great way to use all those T's I hadn't wanted

to get rid of .... but they had just been taking up space in our home.

 

Well, Life goes on ~~ 

now when we are out and about, I pick up T's for a quilt .... someday.

 

Last fall, I decide there are enough T's to have one made ~

(I know me, if I do it~ it will sit incomplete and never get done)

.... so I start searching the Web.

Looked at lots of websites over the next few months ...

 

and FINALLY found a quilt I adored on Pinterest !!!

 

Back-tracked the quilt to the company who made it ~

"Too Cool Quilts" in Michigan.

They were a bit more pricey than  other companies I looked at,

but the website was so detailed on the entire process

(something  others skimped on) ~

that I bit the bullet and ordered a quilt for my son.

 

 

Sent the T-'s in and waited ....

It came back and was absolutely FANTABULOUS!!

Sent all the rest of the T's in

~~~ yup!  With all my picking up

one here, one there

as we wandered the world ...

I had enough T's to make SIX quilts

 

~~though one was a "Hard Rock Café" theme

and I had to supplement with T's from Ebay.

 

DS LOVED it!! 

 

"Too Cool Quilts" outlines many of the T-shirt designs with the stitching which holds the quilt together ~

so you can enjoy the both sides of the quilt!

 

Love my Grinch (from the story "How the Grinch Stole Christmas") with all of the toys bagged and piled into his sleigh as he prepares to leave Whoville.

 

The quilts turned out fantastic! 

Am on the hunt for more T's to have more made ... someday.

Holly

 

 

 

 

 

Check out my German Easter Tree!

Germans decorate trees, bushes, branches ...

indoors and out with eggs for Easter.

Lots and lots of eggs!

Yesterday, I saw a huge, green pine garland wrapped with egg loops ..

 

DH and I have been visiting Easter Markets

the last few weekends ~

these markets focus on decorated eggs

 (beaded, drilled, painted, embossed and more)

 and other spring yard and home décor items.

 

I have two trees ~ here's one with the eggs bought over the last two years ~
 

 

Do you do anything special

to welcome Spring

into your home and life?

 

Would love to hear what you do ~

Please share.

 

Holly

 

Owl placements I made

The local shops have been featuring oilcloth quite a bit recently.

Saw this owl patterned one and it struck my fancy (and sense of humor!).

 

Bought enough to make a table covering for our lava table

(it's an odd size due to the lava slab size it was created from).

 

Cut out some placemats from the leftover piece.

Kinda fun and kicky !

Hummm... need to have the neighbors over for dinner soon and use these.

Holly 



Christmas letter 2012

This is one of the two versions of the Christmas letter DH and I sent out with our cards this year ... the family one had a few more personal items listed on it and the "Merry Christmas" and "into 2013" block were both smaller so I could add personal notes.

Not quite what I had originally envisioned , but I like how it came out.

"Cookie Dough" I sent my son for Christmas

A friend of mine sent me a photograph of a variation of this ...
 that one used a deep picture frame to hold the "cookie dough". 

I found this plate (started looking around for one with writing in Italian .. no joy.. oh well, so life goes sometimes) in a euro-store
 and decided I would rather use it to hold the gift.
Modified the wording of the original tag ... not totally satisfied with the wording ... will play with it some more to see what I can come up with.

I think it turned out pretty cute.


Late note:  At some point, it may be a good idea to let the recipant know the money is real ... my son didn't realize that until we talked on the phone some days later.   He thought it was a joke gift until we talked.

gifts for the single mechs

At Christmas DH and I give "care packages" to the single mechanics who work with us ...

some soups or chili to keep in the freezer until a day comes when it's too late or much effort to cook  (at least one eats out just about every meal) that they can just pull out and heat up,

some cookies and sweet bread,

a few pieces of fresh fruit from the market

... and this year, we found chocolate "tools"

the pefect sweet ending for a mechanic.

Putting away the holiday ....

Tomorrow is Three Kings Day ... and I started to put away most of Christmas today.   We didn't put a lot up ... mostly on the sideboard n the living room.

Only put one tree up this year ... a small two-foot one DH got for me in a local store.
Since it is small ... I used many of the keychains and other items acquired during our military years that normally go on our travel tree.

Here are the new items we got this year...
-a suede angel and devil keychain was found in Rome when we were up there one weekend
- the bear is from Berlin, Germany
- a doll from St Petersburg, Russia (has a similar doll on the other side in red) and
- a "happy bird" refrigerator magnet also from Russia (each feather is carved separate from the others)

Christmas ornaments can be pricey or hard to find in many places (seasonal at best) and often are of the mass-produced, made in "---" variety, with nothing unique about them to show where they were found ...
keychains on the other hand are just about everywhere and the touristy ones can be reflective of the area.


Bye bye key chains until next year .....

Farewell Fall!

It's the beginning of December and time to put away my autumn table linens. 
Now that school is over for this term ... time to catch up on other things ... been way too long.


Close up of the embroidery of the coverpiece ... I found this one at a wonderful little shop in Bertchesgaden, Germany ten or fifteen years ago while on holiday. 

Baby blankets

Three of the baby blankets I have crocheted over the last two months ...

one of the volunteer activities I do with the

Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society.

When DH and I car-pool or go on road-trips, I generally crochet

most of the way.  Nice de-stressing activity and I can still hold a conversation or check out the scenery.

Santa Workshop gifts

One of the groups I volunteer with runs a Santa's Workshop for kids to get gifts for parents and siblings.
We collect items all year round from the local community and pull other items from our thrift shop (in new or excellent condition).  Prices range from 25-cents to a dollar or two.

We often have a lack of male oriented gifts ...had these jars in the cupboard (originally planned to make "smelly jellies" for holiday open house gifts ... but haven't taken the time). 

A bit of wrapping paper to cover the lid, stamp a tag and when December rolls around will fill the jars with peppermint candies or candy canes.

Display board

Gathering up the stickers we've picked up over the years ...
used one of my sales boards from being a real estate sales agent for the base...got some plastic at the hardware store for the background.


We have more stickers somewhere...
and I have room to add more in the future.

CUTE CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT

http://raisingolives.com/2009/12/domino-christmas-ornament-tutorial/

Found this link on FrugalUpstate.com  ...have been wandering Raising Olives for the last few hours looking at the various posts.

If I can find some white dominos, I may make some to donate for next year's Santa Workshop.