Thank you to Joanne, Marly & Linda AND the Winner!

I know that this is the season to give rather than to receive, but I have to tell you I've been doing a lot of receiving lately!  

Marly from Samplers and Santas had a giveaway last week - I won! Marly gave me a choice of 2 different band boxes - I chose this one with a house and trees.

Inside the box were goodies!  I knew she was enclosing the clove studded pear but she surprised me with 2 Yankee Candle wax melts, a mini tin cookie cutter and 4 pieces of faux fruit.  

I have a collection of mini tin cookie cutters that I usually put on my kitchen tree - I didn't get to it this year, so next year this tree cookie cutter will be a new addition.  For now I'm tucking it into some greenery on a shelf.

The pear has found the nest of my resident partridge.  (I think it's a peahen, but we'll pretend partridge)

Marly,  Thank you so much for all the wonderful goodies, I will treasure them.

Joanne from Snippets and Scraps of my Mind recently had a giveaway -  I won!

Joanne was giving away several items, I was so lucky to receive one of her feather tree kits.  If you follow Joanne, you will know that she is always teaching this feather tree as a class.

I would love to take a class from Joanne - and meet her too - but we live about 8 hours apart.  Joanne included everything I needed in the kit - including the glue! Her instructions were wonderful and after a couple of hours I now have a wool feather tree.  

I should really thank Joanne's new kitten, Quentin for picking my name - Thank you Quentin! Anytime your older brothers are being mean to you, come on over.  But you know that you'd have 2 older brothers here too!  Thank you too Joanne for a wonderful kit!

My next Thank you goes out to that sneaky Linda from Parker's Paradise.  Linda sent me a package that included this cute little pillow that she stitched and a pot holder/hot pad.

Linda is obviously Santa's helper and knows that my pot holders are in terrible condition!  I need new ones desperately, but I can never find ones that I really like.  I'm baring all in showing these horrible looking pot holders to you all! 

These are going in the garbage.  Thank you Linda for sprucing up my kitchen!

Finally, on to the winner of my Pass it Along Giveaway - 

Pam, From Antique or Not you are the winner!  The random number generator picked your number.  Look for an email from me!

Thank you all again for my wonderful winnings. 

~Ann

Pass It on....

Last week, I won a giveaway from Diane at Lavender Dreams Too blog.  Diane gave me 2 stocking ornaments that she made and included inside an Organic Lip Balm in Peppermint from www.econaturalsoap.com.  Her intent with her giveaway was that the winner pass along the second stocking.  I am more than happy to pass it along!

I've tried to come up with some absolutely ingenious way to pass this along and I'm not coming up with anything great, so.....I'm adding to the giveaway!  I purchased this adorable little wax tart snowman face from Brandy at  The Lil' Prim Cabin on Etsy. His eyes and mouth are coffee beans!  You will receive the stocking with lip balm and the snowman wax tart. 

In order to win, 

1. you need to live in the USA(not sure about shipping the beans outside the country)

2.  be a Follower of my blog

This is going to be a quick giveaway - I'll draw a winner on Tuesday night - make sure I can contact you!

~Ann

The Naughty List

I finally got our main tree up over the weekend.  Between having 2 of our 3 kids sick, 5th grade basketball games/practices, 7 & 8th grade basketball games/practices, attending the high school games and a TON of basket orders I'm WAY behind.  

I found these great beeswax cones on etsy from Bethany of Natures Flame.  I purchased the empty cones and Bethany surprised me by filling one of them with sweet annie and rose hips.  LOVE how it looks on our tree.

The idea for these cinnamon stick stars came from Pinterest.  I used hemp cord and wrapped the 3 sticks tightly together.  Behind this ornament to the left you can see some handmade tin icicles that I bought from my tinsmith friend at Sauder Village.  

The only other ornaments are dried orange slices, muslin stars and a paper chain.  

Are you wondering yet why I titled this post "The Naughty List"?  Would you believe that this adorable little ball of fluff is a holy terror?  

He's knocked over the tree in my last post twice, he's unplugged the tree in this post twice and he's taken baby Jesus hostage from under the tree, I'm still looking for baby Jesus. (This manger scene is fabric and Baby Jesus is a flat stuffed oval).  When our kids were younger, I never added the baby Jesus to the manager scene until Christmas day to reinforce to them the meaning of the day.  Maybe Shadow knows that Baby Jesus shouldn't be in the manger yet.  

~Ann

One Down - How many more to go?

One tree is up and decorated.  I'm really cutting back this year as far as the decorations go.  I want a simple primitive look to all my trees.  

Only three different things on this tree - small grapevine wreaths, red berries and ripped flannel homespun ties.  I did add the Gone Sledding cross stitch piece for a little interest.(pattern by The Sampler Girl - link directly to the pattern - http://www.thesamplergirl.com/catalog.php?item=259)  I put the tree in a wire egg basket and wrapped the base with burlap. 

Have you been in to Dollar Tree?  They have some great wrapping paper.  Both of these are brown craft paper - one is a burgundy gingham check and the other is a gold star.  Love them - $1.00 each and they are made in the USA!  I bought them in Wisconsin in a Dollar Tree, my Dollar Tree here in Ohio doesn't have any.  If they did, I am sure my friend Melissa (Farm Field Primitives) and her mom bought all the rolls!  

Did you go out Black Friday Shopping?  We did - we're crazy I know - but we were home by 1:30.  We got what we needed and headed home.  My sister and our boys were playing rock paper scissors to pass the time.  My husband and our daughter were looking on.   

Later on Black Friday we had to celebrate a birthday.  Our daughter turned 17.  Wow - how did she get to be this old? My nieces loved helping with the candles....

My Mom and her youngest 6 grandkids.  Mine are the 3 oldest ones in this photo.  Mamie (as she is known to these 6) is going to use this as her Christmas Card.  Wish the other 2 grandkids could have been with us so all 8 were in the photo.  

I am offering a Cyber Monday discount in my etsy store.  Use the code Cybermonday for 15% off baskets that are currently in my store.  You can get to me by clicking the link on the right side bar.

~Ann

Pinterest - I think I'm addicted

Have you been on Pinterest and used a Pin yet?  If you haven't, let me tell you, there's a whole world out there just waiting for you!  If you are limited on time - DO NOT get involved with this!LOL. And if you do, don't come blaming me - I warned you!

One of the first things I found was a Pin for a wool throw.  Having lots of felted wool (wool skirts that I felted just a bit too much for rug hooking) I needed a project to use up some of this wool.  

I actually used 2 different projects from www.purlbee.com to create my own version.  I cut my pieces to 6" x 7", as specified in http://www.purlbee.com/felted-wool-patchwork-throw/  and stitched them together by hand using the directions found here:http://www.purlbee.com/trip-around-the-wool-blanket/ 

The edges butt against each other - there is no overlap.  I can't believe how quickly this has gone together.  I have 10 rows with 7 rectangles in each row.  All told my cost is right around $30.00, all wool from the thrift store and the DMC #5, ecru embroidery floss I used was from the thrift store too.  

A great $$ saver tip I stumbled across was this one.....

Do you have candles like this - wax left in the bottom, but the wick will not burn anymore?  

Does anyone use ice cube trays anymore?  I had 3 in my kitchen storage area in the basement and have not used them.  ( I don't like the "taste" of homemade icecubes, we buy bagged ice in this house) I would not suggest using these for making ice any longer, not after this project!

Place each candle on a candle warmer until the wax is melted completely 

carefully pour into the ice cube tray.

Pop them out when cool and you now have wax tarts to use in your tart warmer.  

Not only does this save $, but it also helped me clean out my cupboard! 

Have fun on Pinterest and Have a Happy Thanksgiving. 

~Ann 

And the Winner is........

Thank you to all of you who entered my Birthday giveaway and Welcome to all my new followers - I'm glad you are here.  

The giveaway....one of my handwoven baskets and a snowman I made....

 

I was planning on using a random number generator to determine the winner, but I had several email entries, so I wrote everyone's name on a slip of paper and put in them in the giveaway basket. 

I had to interrupt a heated game of Lord of the Rings Monopoly,  Matthew mixed up all the entries and Daniel drew out......

Jessica at Blessings in the Country, Congratulations Jessica!  Please look for an email from me.

~Ann

My Swap with Linda - You all know Linda!

Like many of you, Linda of Parker's Paradise and I are blogging buddies.  Linda suggested a swap with me a while back, let me share with you what she sent me.....

A box full of goodies

I  mentioned that I love the "let it snow" small framed stitchery on the far right.  She send me four framed pieces and a terrific pillow.  The pillow's quote really hit home for me when I opened the box - love it!  

"Our family is a circle of Strength and Love"  

Linda,  I really hope your package has arrived, last time I checked the delivery confirmation # it was still showing as sitting in our town post office - so much for Priority Mail!  

For my birthday my family surprised me with tickets to see Trans Siberian Orchestra last night.  All I can say is WOW!  What a fantastic show and great music. 

All three of our kids are in orchestra at our school.  (Yes we are very lucky to have a wonderful orchestra program in our school system - and we are a little town!)  We have 2 violins and 1 bass in the house.  All three were enthralled with the performances.  

If you are a fan of TSO and have never been - GO! You will never regret it.  I'm ready to drive to Dayton Ohio to see them again tonight!

Don't forget to leave me a comment on the previous blog post for your chance to win one of my baskets and a snowman I made.

~Ann

My Birthday Giveaway

Today's my birthday and you get the gift!  For my birthday giveaway: an antique clothespin basket and a snowman that I made.

Entry is simple - just leave a comment on this post.  I will draw a name on Sunday and contact you.  Please make sure to leave your email address if you don't have a blog.

There's just a couple of rules - 

1. you must live in the US to enter due to the postage on this. 

2.  you must be a follower of this blog. 

Want another chance to win one of my baskets?  

This basket is in the PAFA giveaway going on now through the end of November.  If you'd like a chance to win this and other great items, check out our PAFA blog, HERE. 

Winter Wonderland Giveaway

 The Etsy group that I belong to is having a Winter Wonderland Giveaway.

My donation to the giveaway is this basket...

For information on how to enter this giveaway click HERE which will take you to our PAFA Blog.

Like the basket but don't want to wait and see if you win?  I have a twin to it listed in my Etsy shop now, HERE

Good Luck! ~Ann

Halloween's a Lucky Day!

This morning before leaving for school, I mixed up a batch of roll out cookies so they could chill all day in the fridge.  

After school, I quickly got to work and rolled out pumpkins.  We have a High School Cross Country Awards Banquet tonight and it's always "Bring a dessert".  

2 C sugar

1 C white Crisco

2 eggs

1 C Milk & 1T white vinegar or 1 C buttermilk

2 t baking soda

2 t baking powder

5-6 C flour

1 t salt

4 t almond extract

Beat sugar and Crisco, add eggs and soured milk.  Mix well then add baking soda, baking powder, salt and extract.  Add 1 cup of flour at a time, mixing well.  Chill for 1-2 hours.  Roll out to 1/4" thick, cut with favorite cookie cutter.  Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.  Do not let the edges brown, you want them to be soft to the touch.

Frosting - 1/2 stick butter melted, 4 cups powdered sugar, 1/8 t almond extract and drizzle of milk until desired consistency.

We are celebrating "your lucky day" at our house today.  5 years ago today we adopted a little orange kitty who has turned into one fat, lazy orange baby.  

Happy Lucky Day, Frito!

Hope you are all having a good week.  ~Ann

Finished Rugs

Over a month ago, I shared my latest rug hooking project with you.  I actually finished the hooking shortly thereafter, but didn't get the binding done until this last weekend.  Why do I always do that?  Finish a project - or almost finish a project and then leave it sit for several weeks.  ARGH!  

I am happy with how my saltbox house rug turned out.  Now to find a place to display it....

Over  a year ago, I found this lid from a basket or crate in a primitive store in Upstate NY.  I was drawn to the patina and the crack in the middle stave.  What to do with this?  I wasn't sure, but knew that eventually a project would come up that I could use it in. 

I simply drew my lettering on the backing and started hooking.  The brown is from a pair of pants that I found at GW.  I love the texture of this wool - it has a very subtle variation in it - no need to overdye.  Unfortunately, I have used all this wool now :(

The lid now forms the perfect mat for my hooking.  I still need to attach the hooking to the wood - I'm stumped if you have any ideas you can share with me......

Can you believe next week is November?  Where is our fall going?

Hope you are having a good week. 

~Ann

Me A to Z and They Scare Me!

A - age - 44 for a few more days

B - bed size - Queen

C - Chore you hate - putting away clean clothes, I really don't mind the actual laundry!

D - Dog - NO!  Your dog is fine but I do not want a dog.

E - essential to start your day - coffee in my favorite mug

F - Favorite color - hmm....that's hard, Cranberry & Navy

G - gold or silver - gold wedding rings, don't wear much other jewelry, I wash my hands too many times during the day at school. 

H -  height - 5'4"

I - instruments I play,  since elementary school I've played in a church bell choir, several years of piano and French Horn in High school

J - job  Mom, wife, basketweaver, crafter and aide for multiple handicapped children

K - kids - 17 year old daughter

14 & 11 year old boys

2 crazy cats

L - I Live in Ohio

M - make of car -  Chevy Uplander Van

N - nickname - don't have any. I'm really not into nicknames. My boys are Matthew and Daniel - not Matt & Dan - and everyone knows their names. 

O - overnight in hospital - yes 3 times for kids and in jr. high I was in for several days for severe dehydration

P - pet peeves - hypocritical people.

Q - favorite movie quote "If you had behaved in a more gentlemen like manner"  Elizabeth Bennett to Mr. Darcy/Pride and Prejudice

R - Right or Left handed - 100% Right

S - siblings - 2 older brothers, 1 younger sister I could not live without

T- favorite TV shows:

NCIS

White Collar

Brisco County (early 1990's)

early X-Files

U - underwear  - Yep -everyday!  The only thongs in this house are worn on feet.

V- Veggies I hate:

Brussel sprouts

radishes

beets
lima beans
asparagus
turnips
squash
I'm sure there are others!

W - what makes you late - nothing!  I can't stand lateness.

X - x-rays, once a year at the dentist & the dreaded mammogram

Y - yummy food you make:

hot ham & salami sandwiches

homemade pizza

mashed potatoes

Z - zoo animal - giraffe


Something that scares me - spiders.  I hate them.  When we lived in our first house, it was built on a slab.  The spiders would come in the house at night when my husband was at work and our kids were little.(no one available to kill them!)  He would come home to find over turned glasses or bowls in the living room trapping a spider that he needed to kill.  I also used to lift the edges and spray Windex on them!  

Did you learn anything about me?
~Ann