Christmas 2011

This year I decided to decorate for Christmas in line with how I decorate my house.  There were so many neat ideas running around in my creative brain, some from pictures I had seen in Country Living, some from blogs and other magazines...and some that just popped into my imagination.

Didn't have as much time as I needed, but I think the results still looked pretty good...take a look for yourself. 

We got a permit and picked up 3 trees from the bush.  Here is one I decorated with industrial tags from a scrapbooking store.  I made black and white photos of family members and then made them look vintage with blotting ink.  A rusty star heralds in Christmas.  The gifts were wrapped with brown shipping paper and old sewing patterns.  I used old boards from a fence as a backdrop for the tree...

I made this door basket with leftover bows and wild clippings and fixed a burlap bow to finish.



The landing upstairs only needed a few pine bows and a little Teddy Bear to encourage Christmas Spirit.



I love greenery and so I made use of some of the topiaries that I already had...see if you can find the little snowman....I also purchased these little bushes and used burlap and twine to make them look cozy.

Cal & I picked up this vintage shoe store advertisement and it is the first thing you see when you enter the townhouse.  It's kinda like announcing we are "The Schuett's"  (SHOE-ETTS..get it?)  I stamped "The Schuett's" on a tag and used berries and small pieces of evergreen tied with raffia to make things look festive and old lace and burlap keep it rustic.

Another tree finds itself greeting guests on the front porch.  I rested it in an old crock and then stuck evergreen and berry branches in the base to serve as natural decorations.  A rusty star garland ties it all in together as the twig star Cal made rests against an old step stool.

I tried to make the guest room very cozy and so I used very little in the way of Christmas decorations...just a simple wreath with a rusty bow heads up the bed.  A few family pictures finish it off.

The kitchen table has a light tan linen cloth on it and so the bundt cake pan and candles really stand out.  I love how simple this looks, and how the little bushes make it seem festive.



I absolutely love the hutch and green shutters!!  The only holiday decorating going on there are the evergreen branches that are carefully laid out on the shelves.

Note the 3rd Christmas tree in the corner.  I made little burlap stars and sewed a button in the middle of them...soaked them in coffee overnight.  After they dried I used raffia to be the little "hooks" and placed them on the tree.  Since the trunk is really small we had to be creative in finding a holder for this tree.  We filled a water cooler bottle with water, put the trunk down in, wrapped it in burlap and set it into an old tin big enough to disguise it all.  I think it turned out pretty nicely!

This old cedar board is a perfect back drop for this pair of sweet snowmen.

These skates that rest on an old farm chair await a day on the ice....

Maybe next year?



Good Times

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!

This year we flew my daughter, her husband and thier two children up from Houston to spend time with us.  Those of you who follow my blog, or know me personally know that my daughter is expecting her first baby and is due in March 2012.  I have been more than overjoyed about the idea of having a little grandbaby joining our family tree.  The hard part is that we are so far away...and I have not been able to share very much in the experience with her.  

 I have been able to feel him move and kick and its been wonderful...I've talked to him and told him I love him in hopes he will remember my voice.  Its amazing to see her and be able to be near her during this time.

It's been really great to have the kids and Daniel here too.  Sammy & Elise are so funny and really sweet.  They've taken to Calvin, I mean who wouldn't huh?

 This Christmas Season I really wanted to focus more on memories and family.  Everyone always talks about how Christmas has gotten too commercial, but I don't really notice anyone doing anything to change that.  So, I made sure we made the point to put our money where our mouths were, and made sure family was first.  It's been just wonderful.

I wish you a Happy New Year in 2012.

Air Head and feeling the pressure...

I took some time off of work so I could get my home organized, cleaned up and find my Christmas decorations, not to mention I just wanted a break!!!

I made a mental list of all the things I wanted to get done and on what day I should do them.  Wednesday, clean basement, Thursday, clean bedroom, Friday, clean kitchen and living room, Saturday go back down into the basement; organize and dig out the Christmas decorations.

Sigh....

All that is very well and good if not for the fact that I woke up Wednesday with some sort of strange pressure headache that not only hurt, but also made me nauseated.  Working down in the basement was out of the question.

Instead I focused on my bedroom, bathroom and the laundry "room".  I would work a little and then take a break, and then work a little and take another break...by the end of the day I got quite a bit done; but I know I could have done so much more if I were feeling better.

So, now I have Thursday, Friday and Saturday to readjust my plans....so I thought.

I woke up today and feel the same way as yesterday, super light headed and lacking in energy.

I am determined though to press on get some serious work done!

So, I am thinking, OK, Thursday, clean the kitchen and the living room.  Then Friday & Saturday I can clean the basement, organize and find the Christmas boxes.  

Right????

Wrong...

We get a call from a relative saying he is coming into town and plans to stop by on Friday afternoon and leave sometime on Saturday.....

Oh well, I will just do the best I can...and maybe a cute little house cleaning fairy will stop by, wave her magic wand and .....

Yeah.... I don't think so.....

Figuring things out....

For some time I've been tossed back and forth with how I want to decorate my house.

Pottery Barn Style

 

European Style

 

Vintage Mix

Then there is the choice of which colors I want to use.

Black, Grey, Reds, Browns....White, Cream, Sage...

I drive myself crazy trying to figure it out...and I have been having the worst time ever making up my mind.

I've been wondering why I can't get motivated to just go for it and make this house a home...actually it was somewhat the same in the other house we lived in too....just a shell with people living in it, half decorated.  I start with one style, then change it, and then change it again.. never sticking to one long enough to make an impact.

Then BAM! it hit me.

I think it's because investing in making a House into a HOME scares me.
See, the last time I put my whole self and ideas and styles into a home, it was torn down and left in ruin.

I spent many years just kinda surviving and trying to find myself again...and then I met the most wonderful man in the world and have never been so happy as I am now.

Realizing that I am vulnerable was not easy to acknowledge, but necessary.
God has allowed me to heal slowly one step at a time and has given me the most understanding and amazing friend in my husband.  He is my safe place to land...he is my HOME.

SO, room by room, and moment by moment I plan to press on and make this house we are in our HOME.

The Happy Camper Van

A while back I said I would do a post on"The Happy Camper Van". 

Cal & I love to go camping.  Our favorite place to go is Glacier National Park in Montanna.   We like the freedom the van provides for us when it comes to where we can camp.  There are many campgrounds around GNP, but we prefer to pull the van into a quiet place and set up "camp" whenever and where-ever we want.  Most of the time we head to Montanna after work on Friday evening and by the time we pass through the border and make our way to St. Mary it can be very late...or we might not make it to the border before it closes, so having the van as our camper really comes in handy.  Many times we have pulled into a secluded area with only the trees and stars to witness our arrival.

The sleeping arrangements are very cozy.  We have a piece of plywood as the base and on top of that is a self inflating mattress, and then on top of that is a really good quality foam mattress. I take a full size fitted sheet and make sure to keep both mattresses held together by the sheet, that helps keep the two mattresses from sliding around and seperating.  Nights can get cold up in the mountains, so I always put the goose down comforter in my Rose Duvet that I purchased from IKEA in Houston years ago.  A thin quilt lays at the foot of the "bed" just in case it is extra cold, or it is used as a replacement for covers if the comforter or weather is too hot.  Cal rigged up a curtain rod for me and I use these pretty curtains that were given to me by my Aunt Angie.  Pillow cases were gifted to me by Annette.  I think despite the fact that it's just the back of a van, it looks cozy and welcoming.

 Cal had already installed these shelves in the van for his tools when he had his carpentry business.  We have ideas for improving on them in the future, but for now they work just fine.

I put everything we need in baskets or bags and stuff the shelves to keep things out of the way of the bed.

This is our kitchen.  I bring regular dishes, glasses, and silverware.  The cooler is just big enough for us and keeps the food cold for the weekend as long as you keep the ice replenished on a regular basis/  Cal uses a Coleman cookstove for making all our meals.  I like how when we camp he becomes the cook!!

Cal has had this perculator for quite a while and with Starbucks coffee grounds in the filter camp coffee never tasted better!!

Now, these are the two items I would be lost without on a camping trip!  I use these bowls for many things, and washing dishes is just one of those things.  One to wash the dishes, one to rinse.

When you are camping the way Cal & I do, (not using a campground; or staying in a primitive campground that does not offer showers,)  keeping clean can seem problematic.  After a few times out I finally figured out how to solve that problem.

See the big bowl again?  It works great for washing your hair too, and as a "wash basin".

Two big bed sheets draped over the open side doors of the van offer privacy!  Or if we want to take an afternoon nap and still feel "tucked" in this allows for cool mountain air to flow through the van.

So, now you see how we manage as we go camping on our get away trips to GNP. 

I absolutely LOVE our times up in the mountains and we plan to go as much as we can every summer and hope to make many happy memories in the years to come.

Happy Camping!!!



Curly Girl

I am a serious library nerd.  On a recent trip I found a book called Curly Girl, The handbook.

I didn't really think much about it as I added it to my stack of books to check out.  But as I was flipping through the pages and I began to read the testimonials about having curly hair,it really caught my interest so I started at page one and read the book cover to cover.

If you have naturally curly hair you will find yourself reading this book and nodding your head.  You might even say  "That's right" out loud in agreement to what it talks about.

If you have straight hair, you will probably not even bother to get past the introduction; but if you do you may learn some hair care information that will help you too.  Or at the very least you'll understand curly haired people better than you did before.

It talks about how when a curly girl goes to a salon for a haircut, she never knows what she is gonna get.  Always, and I mean always, the hair stylist washes your hair and cuts it WET. Well, do you wear your hair wet?  A curly girl needs it cut dry because as her hair drys the curls shrink up, and the results of a bad haricut can be awful.  I've had "just an inch" look alot shorter when the hair dried and shrank up about 3". Now it comes time for them to "style" it and they usually want to blow it dry straight....you know, just to see how it will look.  You leave the salon, and feel pretty good about the haircut....until you get home and style it yourself the next day.  Most of the time you wear your hair curly, since that is the way it is naturally and it's easier and quicker to do that way....but when you blow it dry the way your normally do, you see that your curls won't really curl, they might even look kinda like cotton candy....sigh.  I've had more bad hair cuts than good ones to be sure.  I always hear the stylist say "Oh, don't worry, I know how to cut curly hair."  They thin it, razor it, texture it, layer it, oh my, I even had one take my hair in small amounts, twist it it as tight as she could get it, lifted it straight up and then cut into the twists.  It looked cool while she was doing it, but the results were NOT so cool.  My hair was messed up big time.  sigh, sigh, sigh.

I learned alot while reading this book.  I will blog what I read, and share what the author recommends and what I am putting into practice, and how things are going.

I can tell you this, she recommends, no blow dryers, no curling irons, and no straighteners, no combs or brushes. 

 All these items damage curly hair and the curl will not look healthy, and actually causes frizz

I've been following that part now for 4 days, and I can tell you, it's been interesting.....my hair right now looks like a bad perm from the 1970's.  LOL   

After washing my hair, (more details on how to do that in another post) I dry it with a t-shirt by carefully scrunching the ends into the T-shirt in an upward motion.  Then you carefully shake your head, then apply gel all over your hair, gently squish it or scrunch it, and let it air dry.  I think it's just gonna take some time to get the hang of how to style it...

Part of me wants to give up, but it's only been a few days now.

Here is how my curls look today.

BUT...I am curious to see how long it will take till they look like the author promises they will:  Healthy and Beautiful ....I'll check back with you soon on this.

Frank's Slide - Part 1

Hello, 

What did you do over the long weekend?

We went camping  near Frank's Slide. 

Here are some pictures for you to take a look at.

Hope you enjoy them.

We invited Ben's friend Dominic to come with us.  The guys had a great time climbing around the huge rocks that overwhelm the landscape near the small town of Frank.

Ben and I just hanging around, and the 3 of us goofing around.

The weather during the day was really nice; but at night...not so much.  The first night was freezing!  I slept in my clothing, a jacket with the hood over my head and a pair of gloves.  The next morning we woke up with frost all over everything...no wonder we were so cold that night!!!

These oversized cocoons are really two teenage boys wrapped up in down comforters trying to keep warm.

One of the locals told us about a "BIG ROCK" that people dive off in the river.  So....being absolutely crazy, er, I mean adventurous, we decided to check it out.  The jump is about 20 feet into an extremely and I mean extremely cold river.  How do I know it was that cold?  I did the jump myself.  There will be more about that in Post #2.

The picture on the left is of the river that runs under Turtle Mountain, you can see the BIG ROCK way in the back ground.  Picture on the right is of Dominic on top of a huge chunk of rock that tumbled down the mountain.

Some of the gorgeous scenary in the area.

Below are a couple videos of the guys jumping into the river from the BIG ROCK.

The first one is Dominic....

This one is Ben.....

 

Stay tuned for Part 2 soon.