Happy New Year to Everyone!

 I am so far behind on blogging and reading my blog list. This has been a really busy week. We kept the grands for 2 days, and they kept us VERY busy! We had a blast!
 I will be back soon to post some pics of our fun.
 I wish all of you a Blessed New Year! 

Shirley

Christmas Pictures - NOT!

 I am just sick. I lost all of the pictures I took Christmas Day from my camera card.

 My daughter sent me this one of Shelby. I know she will send me more when she loads them. We were both taking pictures, but I had some that she didn't have. I also took some of the table all ready with the food, and a few things I wanted to share with my blogging friends. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now.

 We had a wonderful day with our kids and grandkids. It was very cold, but Cayden and Shelby bundled up and went outside to ride on their new riding toys as long as they could stand it. In some pics, Cayden even had a quilt over him driving his car.

  We had hot apple cider and many good treats along with shrimp gumbo, shrimp au gratin, shrimp salad - uh, did I say my family loves shrimp? LOL

  I hope everyone had a great Christmas celebration. I've been trying to look at all of the updates from your blogs. I think we will be undecorating tomorrow so we won't have to face that over the weekend.

Hugs to all!

Wordless Wednesday - The Cracker Nut

My daughter said Cayden wanted to dress like a Nutcracker. He loves to dress up like all kinds of characters, but this is a little different as they are usually superheroes. Shelby told her Mommy that the "cracker nut" scared her.  LOL I just had to share!

Our decorating....

 I have been intending to get some pics posted, but time has just slipped away from me. I've been admiring many of the pics of my blogger friends who posted their Christmas trees and other decorations.

 It's always hard to get good pics of the tree. I hope you can tell that it is a flocked tree decorated with red decorations, and a few other old time favorites thrown in. I love decorating my tree every year. It's just hard since I can't raise my left arm up very high so I usually get my hubby to help out.

I also decorate the kitchen and sun room. There's nothing really special in the sun room. Just a few things we've collected over the years. The linen cloth on my coffee table is real Irish linen from Ireland.

I love these 3 wise men. They are stained glass, and you light tea lights behind them. I will try to get better pics one night when everything is lit.

 I love my kitchen at Christmas because it's already red! My DIL made my centerpiece, or rather, she remade it because it had almost bit the dust! The dishes are from Hallmark, and they were all hand painted. You can tell because they aren't exactly alike.

In one corner, I put out my collection of Christmas tins. Some of these I've had a long time. I love the old Oreo tins, but they are hard to find anymore. I still keep my eyes out whenever I go to a flea market.

The opposite corner has a very small baker's rack with our Snowman cider dispenser, and other litle things that are dear to me. I have a collection of salt and pepper shakers so I change them out at Christmas to my Christmas collection. Except for the 2 talls ones on the top center shelf. They always stay there. Those were my mom's, and they are very old.

The last pics I'm posting today are of my own kids' Christmas stockings. We still put them out every year, and sometimes we put a little surprise in them. They were handmade at a church bazaar.

I do have a few more pics, but I will save them for another day. I also know I wrote most of this in first person,  but believe me, my husband enjoys all of this stuff as much as I do, and he always helps with the decorating.
 Thanks for looking, and I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas!

How Cute is this Tree!!

 This was in a restaurant where we went to eat the other night, and I just happened to have my camera. It's a real tree, and just notice the ornaments. The owner said it was a cheap way to decorate for sure, and of course, since it was in a restaurant, the theme was perfect. For any of you locals, it was Cafe 171 in Mansfield, LA. They had a seafood buffet, and it was delicious! Plus homemade desserts!
(You can click on the pics to make them larger.)

 I also loved this old stove too!

I hope you enjoyed the pics. If I had all of the stuff, I swear I'd put up a smaller version of this in my kitchen. I just love it!

A Few Christmas Projects...

I am doing this post so I can link up to two different linky parties.
  One is at SewNSo's Sewing Journal,





and the other is at Me Making Do.







 I believe there are a lot of people feeling the Christmas Crunch just like me. I had so many plans for things I wanted to make, but as always "Life Happens", and I didn't get as much accomplished. I don't know where the time goes until I look back over my calendar and see how busy I've been, and a lot of my time was spent with my grandkids so that matters more than anything. They love the things I make them, but right now I'm more into making memories than anything else.
  I have embroidered them a couple of shirts (remember how long I spent on the Christmas pajamas?)  I had also promised a few people that I would make them the Santa placemats for this Christmas. I finished those last week.
 The designs on the placemats came from http://www.smartneedle.com/.

 The cute Reindeer and Snowman Alphabets came from http://www.planetapplique.com/.

 Now I am minus one shirt, and that is Shelby's. I plan on doing it tomorrow, but that's only if I don't have to go and keep Cayden. He was feeling puny today. If I do, that's ok, as the snowman shirts can be worn after Christmas.




When I was working full time, I always wished I could be off the whole month of December. Now I'm retired, and I can't for the life of me figure out where my time goes, but at least I don't have the stress of working and juggling the time I get to spend with my grandkids!
  I hope all of you enjoy the days before Christmas because in my opinion there is just no other feeling like the spirit of Christmas. Let's not forget the Reason for the Season!
 "For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:11

Spirit of Christmas Past....

 I am linking up to Laurie's Linky Party over at SewNSo's Sewing Journal. You can do it too! She is asking that you show handmade items of past Christmases. I just wish I had some from many years ago, but I have all of my pictures packed away somewhere.
  Here is her button if you want to link up and enjoy the fun.
a href=”http://sewnso.blogspot.com">img src=”http://www.southern-stitches.com/Blog/cmaslinky.jpg”>
 So I will just used some past Christmas outfits I made for my grandchildren.

 Let me start with Cayden. He was born in 2005. This is his first picture with Santa. I made the jon-jon. Here is a better pic of the outfit.

 In 2006, he was nearly two as his birthday is in January. I decided to make a jon-jon that he could use for Thanksgiving and Christmas with a button on patch.

I had to include the Santa pic. He wasn't wearing the outfit, but notice it is the same Santa.

He outgrew the jon-jon look so I started embroidering tee shirts for him. Shelby came along in 2007. I made her a reversible outfit with the same Santa I put on Cayden's shirt. Notice the same Santa.

One side was green gingham, and the red side was red stripes.

Shelby has not always been the most predictable when it comes to moods. Emily got this picture of her the year I did the Grinch appliques. Let's just say "it was perfect!"

Again I have to include the Santa pic. Notice the same Santa even thought they are wearing RTW. Ummm...we must talk about this!

In 2009, Shelby could still wear the Grinch outfit, and Cayden could still wear his shirt. I was glad, but I still made them a few new things.

 Yes, she looks much happier this year!

 I embroidered this shirt for Cayden in '09. I think this is the cutest train ever!
 Now for the Santa pic of 2009. So sorry to say that there was a different Santa. We don't know why, and sure missed him in the routine Santa pictures.

I also made Shelby a CC Callie with a simple monogram on the front. This was one of my favorite little outfits. She wore it through February.

 Now this year all I've gotten done so far is those pajamas that nearly drove me nuts, but they did turn out really cute. I plan on doing a few more things.

 I enjoyed my trip into the Christmas Past. I love Christmas and being with my kids and grands.

 Merry Christmas to all! This was the Polar Express Santa!

Shelby Modeling the Lacey Claire skirt by Sara Norris

 A few months ago, my daughter won a blog giveaway from Sara Norris (click on her name). She won the Lacey Claire skirt pattern, and the fabric to make the skirt.
 We never got any good pictures of Shelby wearing the skirt until yesterday. I think she looks so adorable in it. It has strips of puffing which Sara explains how to make in the pattern. This is not hard to do. She gives you the exact measurements to use. It may be a little time consuming, but it is so worth the results.
 I love the way the skirt band is made because I think it gives a better fit. Little girls love twirly skirts, and I know this Mimi will be making many more skirts in the future.

Yes, it was warm enough here yesterday to wear flip-flops. Shelby is not ready to give these up for the winter.

I think the girl is DONE! LOL

 I made the extra little top out of the scraps left over from the skirt fabric. She can also wear it into the spring/summer.
 Go and check out Sara's website and blog. She makes some amazing outfits.