Let summer be a nice memory and give a welcome to this brand new autumn.
My 2016 summer was all that summer stands for weather-wise. Not sorry to see it give way to cooler temps, orange and red leaves on trees, falling into big wet piles on the ground.
Oh, the squirrels are very busy this week. I think they were trying to cool off somewhere waiting for the lower temps to ride in on the winds of the latest storms.
The front door wreath is wrapped in green lace binding and autumn colored vintage ribbon. The muted colored flower blossoms of celery green and light coral do not want to give up their summer dreams.
Take care to enjoy our autumn, soon enough the days will be darker earlier. Mugs of hot chocolate and ginger spice cookies will be a sweet treat. Happy Autumn!
That Grinch song is playing on the radio and it's so darn catchy. I know a few people who are real grinches, and not just at Christmastime but all the year long. They have no interest in celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, or any significant milestone or achievement. They live for themselves. They are miserly with their time; they are stingy with their words; they are selfish and satisfy only their own needs and wants.
Do you know any grinches?
I wanted to put wreaths on the windows, but with packing and decluttering and trying not to spend on more stuff- I set out to see how cheaply I could make 6 cheery wreaths.
At a dollar store I bought one package of wired garland, which was 15 feet for $1.00. Plus I bought some curling ribbon $1.00 for each roll and 2 packages of red glittered bows with loops for $1.00 each (6 bows in total.)
I cut the garland to size and just connected the cut ends by wrapping one end to the other. I put the bow loop over one of the cut ends before wrapping it closed. Then I just put the ribbon around the circle, over and under- simple. It still was a little skimpy so I put curling ribbon on three places on the big wreath and on the bottom on the smaller wreaths. I took a card someone had sent, cut it down with patterned scissors and hung it from the bow.
"PEACE ON EARTH"
That's my wish for you and to the Grinches in this world. I hope the holidays don't overwhelm you. Don't let the hub-bub, the crowds, traffic, and all that there is to do- take your joy.
Not counting my eyes, which are now doing very well (yay) and hopefully will be in good shape into the future, December sped by with a few bumps in the normal rhythms. Golden Hours.
Go to the bottom of the post to click on the video-lovely music- and then come back up here to continue reading.
While I was living on tenderhooks thinking about surgery and possible outcomes the furnace broke- it was repaired the same day, but boy is it cold to wake up to a house with no heat in the middle of a cold December. One thin wire, about 14 inches in length was the culprit.
Lucy needed extra care and attention for a painful ear infection- her ear is all better now, unfortunately I found out she has cataracts in both eyes. They're small, but it wasn't news I wanted to hear. Anyone know if there are any foods or lifestyle choices to help Lucy's cataracts grow very slowly? She just had her 11th birthday on December 15th.
Yarn Wreath was Coca Cola showered and broke into three pieces. A little soda goes a long way when it's airborne. You can picture that, soda all over the walls and floor, what a mess. Thank goodness I was out of the direct hit on that one. lol Scrubbed 3x- stains still there. Wall painting next week for someone...
I didn't see this one coming: with the new healthcare bill, our prescriptions are going up in price by 300%, that's right, a whopping 3 times more than 2012. Then, to add insult to injury, the cable company sends its annual, "your rate is going up" letter, this time they blamed it on Congress. What?!
But the mother of all breakdowns was the refrigerator on Christmas night. With a freezer full of uncooked food, bags of veg and assorted other foods- well you can imagine. I spent most of the 26th cooking and baking what had thawed. One recipe I came up with was a chicken and hot sausage stew/gumbo with spinach, carrots, and potatoes. That was nice and hot after shovelling snow.
The bright side is that it has been so frigid and snowy that we haven't lost any food. It's out on the deck and we have to go back and forth in the cold, but that's better than the alternative; it could've been summer and we'd have bags of ice to buy and pour off the melt; plus me worrying about the insects, chipmunks, and squirrels coming through the doggie door and finding the food. This is as close to camping as I ever want to be!
The repairman made it here on the 27th, we had a snowstorm on the 26th so no one was going to come that day. He said the compressor would cost more to replace than to buy a new fridge which should be delivered on the 2nd.
(It was delivered and we are now back to normal fridge wise.)
If that's the worse to handle for a while, I'm very grateful, either way, I'm thankful. I hope that the beginning of January and the new year will bring hope, comfort, and relief to everyone dealing with hardships, especially Sandy Hook families, Superstorm Sandy survivors, and people needing encouragement and help.
I'll leave you with the poem, "The Flower" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Once in a golden hour
Mr. Dickens delivered the sentiment and priorities, but I have only this collage.
Not a goose or a turkey in sight, yet lots of happy wishes from me to you.
♥ Keep Christmas in your heart all the year round. ♥
The chocolate dipped pretzels are in the "Recipes" link, along with Chocolate Jumble, Chocolate Peppermint Bark, and a few more recipes such as rolls, stews and cakes. The other images are from around my home and yard in years past. My wreath on the door is in this post and in this post.
Would you please read this post if you haven't already, and send a positive thought my way? I want you to have the best eyesight possible, so there is also a little helpful info in there to pass along to you.
Finally, allow me to interrupt the Christmas Greeting to preach a tiny bit, with good intention,
Make a wonderful holiday with those you love and care about.
Put a gentle heart at ease, including the awkward, the lost, and frightened furry ones.
Offer peace and make forgiveness a priority, it enriches your life and takes away stress.
In the midst of the loud and busy preparations, consider your blessings a gift, perhaps to share.
Give a thought to the goals you are hoping to achieve and how you might extend a hand to help someone else achieve their dreams.
You can love on a budget. Christmas gift debt is a New Year burden.
Some people aren't celebrating with joy, they are grieving losses of all kinds- jobs, relationships, health, ... and the Christmas season may be extra difficult for them.
With heavy hearts in Newtown, CT, we feel their shock and pain and mourn with and for them.
Our troops are celebrating far from home, we honor their commitment, want their safe return.
Survivors of Superstorm Sandy are a long way from having their homes, businesses, schools, etc. back to normal and they need everything we all probably take for granted in our normal routines.
There is more to add, but it would go on too long, so I step down from the soapbox to say to you,
Take one Styrofoam wreath form, start wrapping yarn around it until you are dizzy, or your hands give out, whichever comes first. Then you keep unwinding and rewinding it to get it all nice and lined up perfectly, but realize you look like a hunched down Rumpelstiltskin working endlessly at the spinning wheel and decide to take a break.
You turn on the tv and start watching the spectacle called, "The Real Housewives of New York City Reunion" and that's where the yarn winding starts to go really astray. There's something about yelling and threats of bodily harm that is so uncomfortable to watch. No, wait, that's RHONJ, Theresa and company. Anyway, you put your wreath down and walk away, but you don't change the channel because you hope they will make nice with each other and have some sense, hope springs eternal, doesn't it?
So you just tie the various colors of yarn together and make big lengths and wind, wind, wind around the wreath form. That little part where it went haywire is where Ramonja and Aviva were going at it. Can you feel sorry for any of them? Back to winding the yarn and since this is a NYC production, the colorful and the avant garde creep in to the color choices.
In the end, I used these colors because that's what I had on hand. Down in the basement, in a big box of craft supplies where I have embroidery hoops, projects started and some waiting to commence or be framed, there is a stash of balls of yarn and crochet hooks. I found a neck warmer/scarf in two shades of blue that I'd crocheted long ago. I was mildly impressed, it was nice, neat, and pretty. If I made that scarf back then, I can learn to do it again, or as I said, "hope springs eternal."
To finish off the wreath, I cut some petal shapes from burlap, painted the edges with gold metallic paint and a little glow in the dark to see if it would actually glow at night, stacked them and placed a button in the center with a florist pin through the button holes to secure them. The other accent is several fabric leaves, a little burlap, then a button in the center which is held in place by opening up a paper clip, cutting it in half, and pushing it through the button holes.
There was no glue used on the wreath or loop, nor would I; watching RHONYC and a hot glue gun- bad combination. Then I made a burlap loop and tied a ribbon to hang it on the door.
Do you ever watch any tv train wrecks to distract you from the normal day to day? When I need a distraction I've usually got a cd on, and sing which makes Lucy a little on edge. I wouldn't call my voice a train wreck, but...
When I murdered the angel, see here, I had every intention of using bits of her to spruce up the wreath for getting another use out of it. I like that eucalyptus fragrance, in small doses, and this wreath has sentimental value to me.
So, here is the old wreath with the wings of an angel.
I don't know why I put wings on the wreath, it really must have been due to all the meds I've been taking for the ear problems and vertigo. Well, it's a little artsy, same as me.
The bow and bells are separate, they just seem to be attached in the image. The "Merry Christmas" was from another decoration I took apart and added to the wreath.
I think I want to fly away, and these wings make it possible.
Oh, I hope I'm not guilty of true angelcide. I don't think that's possible. After all, the angels are superior beings. Okay, after hearing Christmas music on the radio since before Thanksgiving and seeing umpteen Christmas sales commercials a week before that, the frustrations of what Christmas is NOT ABOUT but is thrown in our faces everywhere in a chaotic swell of frenzy, well it just got to me. That, plus my backlog of things undone; especially that backlog.
So...I did it. I ripped the head off the angel. Angelcide.
Confession: I've never liked this angel. Do you feel guilty for buying something that you don't really like? I do. It was a spur of the moment purchase a few years ago when I needed a little something, it was cheap and I used it until I could not look at it anymore. That's how my thoughts stood at the kitchen counter with the sentimental old wreath needing a little something to make it last another holiday. Sacrifice one decoration for the life of another.
The Act:Donc j'ai tue' l'ange. So I killed the angel. I removed her wings, tore apart her edging and STILL she remained sweetly composed and took my abuse! Cleaning up the counter I threw her head without a body onto my desk. I tried to cover her up and ignore the pain, but she drilled her saintly silent witness in my vertigo laden neck until the sick puppy in me, said, Ca suffit! Enough!
Days later she was picked up and tossed in the trash can. I can still revive her, but I refuse. Je refuse de vous sauver mon ange. I refuse to save you, my angel. Christmas is for the living. Ceci est vraiment la fin pour l'ange. This is really the end for the angel. Repos dans paix. R.I.P.
The Verdict: Coupable de le meurtre avec l'intention de refaire les papier peints et le cycle ascendant. Guilty of murder with intent to redecorate and upcycle. My scissors are safely put away and only two decorations were mutilated in that short span of time. The sentence was considerate in that this was a lapse, a crime made in stressful times.
Punishment:Condamne' pour observer de vieux films, mangez le chocolat et le the' de boisson, confiez-vous a' Lucy et d'autres choses conformement a' la foi de Noel dans mon couer. Sentenced to watch old movies, eat chocolate and drink tea, confide in Lucy, and other things in keeping with Christmas faith in my heart.
(For some reason this overly dramatic post required a few French phrases. Je parle un tout petit peu de francais. I've forgotten most of the correct tenses and spelling since learning French years ago. If you want to share the corrections, please do! My keyboard doesn't have the punctuation marks for French.)
