An Easter Story

 Shoo, shoo,chickies, go and hide! The postman is on his way with our Easter Greetings! 

Oh, you naughty chickie! You shouldn't be untying the pretty bow!

Here comes Peter Postman, hopping down the bunny trail!

And Sir swallow is swooping by with more Easter mail. He thinks he's faster than the postman bunny, who has to remain on the ground and merely hop along!

 Although this chick in his motorized egg cart might give them both a run for their money!

Now it's time to think about fixing eggs for the Easter egg hunt. But this chef seems more interested in

 cooking some up for breakfast! There won't be enough for the hunt if he isn't cautious!

Thankfully the bunnies managed to save some eggs for decorating!

 It just wouldn't be Easter without beautiful decorated eggs. Wow! Either these are tiny bunnies or that's one    Extra Large egg they're working on!

The bunny artists have the eggs all decorated  and scattered around the yard, ready for the hunt. BUT WAIT! What does this guy think he's doing with that golf club?  OH, NO!  There's always one trouble maker in the crowd!
                                                                  THE END!

I hope your Easter is fantastic, without any troublesome bunnies interfering in your fun!

Top 'O The Morning To Everyone!!

I hope everyone made it through the Ides of March unscathed and has a wonderful and lucky St. Patrick's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day!  I know I've been MIA lately. I contracted some kind of plague (commonly called flu) and having a hard time kicking it. Hopefully I'll be able to get back in action soon.

I did manage to add a new item to my Etsy shop yesterday, if anyone would like to take a look. It's a little different from my usual and was fun to create. Even tho I discovered as I was sitting back pondering about whether I was done or not..........I had put the design on upside down! UGH!  After considering the possibility of using it for firewood, I finally decided to bite the bullet and switch the hardware around!  So, after filling holes and repainting a few spots, I don't think it can be detected. Thank heaven, this is the last of these pieces I have because I actually think I did the same thing the last time I painted one!! LOL!

Happy Love day to everyone!

The Christmas Tour

Well, I seem to have skipped from Halloween directly to Christmas without a stop for Thanksgiving! But believe me---Thanksgiving did take place! I cleaned and cooked and cooked and cleaned in preparation. Nothing like the threat of company to get my cleaning act in gear! LOL!

I've been busy painting things for my Etsy shop if you'd like to take a look. And I took part in a holiday bazaar in November. Don't remember if I mentioned that in my last post or not. 

So, with Thanksgiving and November slipping past, it became time to decorate for Christmas. I have a "few" Christmas decorations!  More like a few HUNDRED!!  Believe it or not, by looking at the following pictures, I didn't get a lot of it out this year! My husband has a huge collection of mechanical Santas---old and new, that usually make their appearance. But so far, he's saying he isn't into it this year!  So only the really old and sentimental ones made the cut.

 There was a time a few (quite a few!) years ago that I was into carving. All the santas, well, except for the egg shaped one and the one on the reindeer, are hand carved. I love doing it, but it's been so long I don't even know for sure where my carving tools are. That was something I wanted to do when I retired and "had more time"! HA!  Haven't noticed there being more time to be had!

 The basket is an old one that some little old lady made from Christmas cards, crocheting them together. I love it. I've got old Christmas tree ball ornaments in it.

 And here are some more old ornaments on a "tree" stand.

 And on the right side of this photo you can see more on another metal "tree".  Also here on the buffet are the few old Santas that made the cut. The one in back on the right belonged to my husband's Grandmother. The others have been rescued from various thrift shops or yard sales or antique shops! The Santa "sack" on the buffet shelf is a ceramic one I did during my "ceramic period"! LOL!

 Coming up below are pictures of my cardboard "putz" houses. I have a few!  This collection started with three that belonged to my parents. It's all their fault!

 Sometimes I spend a lot of time stringing lights to put in each one and carefully hiding the wires under batting "snow". This time the electricity is out in this village!  The electric company is on strike!

 My husband is a bit of a train freak, so you'll see there's a little train in the village. So far that's the only one he's brought out, but I have no doubt there'll be another one or two before it's over!

 I should have gotten a close up, because he's also a motorcycle freak. There are several mini motorcycles parked in front of various houses. Maybe if you click on some pictures to enlarge, you'll spot a few.

 I decided last year to try bleaching some bottle brush trees, like I was reading about all over blog land. So, the trees you see in various shades of white are a result of that project.

 And here we see another of my obsessions---pinecone elves and various little vintage santas, elves & angels. One year my daughter commissioned a co-worker of hers to build the house for them to live in.  So, the house is full now---no room at the inn! Do you suppose that will cause me to quit collecting them? Not a chance! LOL!  But I only get them when I find a "deal", which is getting to be more and more rare!

 This unopened package was an eBay find. But I think that's the only time I've gotten any on-line.

 This little girl below, peering in disdain, is the result of a tutorial my daughter and I did a couple of years ago. She's made with a plastic doll face and lots of do-dads! She seems to be thinking "OMG, what are all these little creatures doing in my space?"!

 The Harley Santa below is one of my daughter Tania's creations that she gave to her dad for Christmas a few years ago. He stands next to the Jack-in-the-Box tree. The ornaments on it are antenna balls from - - - you guessed it- - - -Jack-in-the-Box restaurants!

 Another tree because you can never have too many trees in the house!

 It has vintage metal star shaped light reflectors and a few other misc. ornaments.

 Love this house that is an Avon product. I got this for my mom one year and after she passed away, I took possession. It has little lights on the house and tree that change colors and blink, etc. It's fascinating to watch!
The house is protected by guard sheep!

 Here by the front door is my red heel sock reindeer. I made him eons ago and I still love him!  Around the corner, in the nook, is the Xmas arrangement. I change it out for the seasons.

 The light makes it look kind of washed out in the photo, but it's much mellower looking in real life!

 And here is my husband's favorite collection of all time. These guys are nutcrackers. I think he has every one in captivity, cuz we haven't found any for a long time!  They live here all year round but at Christmas he puts Santa hats on all of them! He's obsessed. We couldn't find the hats for a while this year and I thought he was going to go into a deep depression over it! LOL!  But we finally found the box they'd been stored in.

That really isn't everything, but it's enough. I'm sure by now you're convinced that we're obsessed, so we'll let it go. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas or holiday season!

Halloween Decor

This morning at o'dark thirty I decided to take some pictures of my Halloween decorations. I love Halloween! I don't have nearly as many decorations for it as I do for Christmas and that's a good thing. Cuz I don't know where I'd find room to store any more!

 I've had lots of these things, like this melted plastic pumpkin for EVER. He's pretty hokey looking but I still love him! He's just propped on a window sill. There'a a string of lighted "eyeballs" below him, but they only show up from outside.

 I don't have a mantle, so my buffet is the next best thing. I've got my little tree that I spray painted black displayed there, along with a few Halloween ornaments on it. There are a few ghosties that I've painted scattered around. The wooden ones on the shelf  link together. The sculpted ones I did a few years ago. I decided they were waaaay too much work, just to sell, so I've kept them.

 The fabric ones I made using fabric stiffener and formed them over egg shaped styrofoam fastened into liquor jiggers covered with saran wrap, so they wouldn't stick to the form. After they dried, I painted spooky little faces on them. I sold a gazillion of them, and only kept a few for myself

(My husband's nickname is Hedders. This is his headstone. Mine's over on the little side table!)

This is the nook near the front door. I love to change out the display for the seasons. It actually looks a little sparse in this photo. Maybe I need to pick up a couple more long flowers to fill it in a little!

This photo is with the flash. The actual wall color is someplace in between the extreme gold and this pale whitish look. It's gold, but not nearly as intense as some of these photos make it look.

See that cute little spider votive holder! The picture below's kinda blurry--sorry! Tania brought me that a   .

couple of weeks ago.

Here we are with the flash again! Really washes it out!

  And this is waaaaay too intense. There doesn't seem to be a happy medium!

 There's the little spider again!

 And the paper mache pumpkin and little birdie (something else Tania got for me!)

 All the doilies you see in these photos, my mother crocheted. I have a bunch in shades of orange and I have a huge assortment in Christmas colors, when it's time for them. Not to mention oodles of beige, cream and ecru. I treasure all of my doilies because my mom isn't here any longer to make more.

A little vignette on a side table.

 And a crow perched on a mirror above the table.

 A little collection on top of the bookcase. Looks like I need more!  Maybe I'll find something to fill that in on clearance after Halloween. I'm done for this year! LOL!

 The Boo pumpkins are actually a garden flag. I just hung it over the top of the skinny shelves and placed another of my painted pumpkins there to hold it in place. Along with a few more fall colored flowers and a cat face votive holder that used to scare my granddaughter every year at Halloween!

 Over on the little antique game table by the sliding doors I've got a cornucopia filled with flowers and a vase of flowers to add a little height. See that vintage box of shoe heels with the black cat? I picked up a bunch of those vintage boxes of heels at a yard sale a couple of years ago. Not all had the black cat, but they were all pretty cool!

 

 This is on top of the TV. Again- - -I must mention that my walls are NOT pumpkin orange! But it's looks good for a Halloween photo shoot, huh?! LOL!

 A little bowl full of skulls. Some people put candy in their bowls---Hmmm!

This is right at the front door. Misc things I've painted. The punkin' head stakes are listed in my Etsy shop along with quite a few other Halloween goodies. I'm afraid it's about too late for them to sell this year! So be sure to visit and see what I have for Christmas!

 That's Marilyn on the wall, watching over things!

 I hope everyone is enjoying the fall and won't be caught in the path of storms!