New Year!

I know that I am EARLY in wishing you all a Happy New Year but I am sitting here thinking while the guys are still asleep about everything I'd love for the New Year to hold.

1. Less Clutter - getting rid of things that are just taking up space and not full filling any need.

2. Getting more organized - less clutter will make keeping the house clean so much easier.

3. Buying less "stuff" - focus on items with minimal packaging so when the product is gone all that is left is something that will recycle or bio-degrade easily.

4. Focus all my creative energy in using items I all ready have on hand - crafting purchases limited to complete consumable supplies (see #3).

5. Change our diet to a healthier Diabetic diet - reduce cook books to those that follow that plan - THIS ONE WILL BE EXTREMELY HARD FOR ME!

6. Reduce BILLS! - Change phone Companies - reduce heating and cooling costs by wearing more clothes in the winter and utilizing fans in the Summer more.

7. Work my way through one tub of fabric a month until I've created a wardrobe that fits my crazy body - lots of easy breezy dresses and short sets!

8. Work on quilt squares as I am making clothes to use every bit of thread - At the end of every seam sew a portion of a quilt block and before I know it I will have a stack of blocks to be put together for gift giving next Christmas.

9. Plan and follow through on having an awesome vegetable garden!

10. This one is for fun - see a live performance at least 4 to 6 times this coming year.

What are your plans for the coming year? I'm going to print this post off and hang it on our refrigerator and see if I can get the guys to do a list of ten things as well.

Here is a link for anyone interested in de-cluttering, I found it helpful to get my thoughts headed in the direction I want to go...clean-and-clutter-free

Tragedy in my Family

On Christmas day my youngest cousin Cindy and her 6 kids lost their home and everything in it to a house fire. A fund has been set up to raise money to help them and I am sharing the link on here in the hopes some may donate to the cause. Cindy Carr Family Fire

Thanks to all that help... includes Prayers given for them as well.

Craft Group Meetup!

Well it was sort of a group Meetup... Laurel and I had fun creating polar bears and reindeer. I had seen a Pin on Pinterest and decided I wanted to try making some and when I discovered Jo-Ann's carried white/off-white ceramic bulbs we had a go. I bought the bulbs and pom poms and googlie eyes and here are the two I came up with; now residing on our tree...

They really turned out super adorable and went together SUPER fast!

Laurel furnished the supplies to make this cute little candy holder; you squeeze his cheeks and his mouth opens...

Christmas Work Load

I am so ready for Christmas to get here all ready. I LOVE Christmas NOT the crazy work hours and load of Retail. Every year I start thinking about changing to something else work wise... and then another crazy season arrives and I do it all again.

We went up to my folks last Saturday and got to spend some time with them and  these little munchkins...

We had a nice time but were sore the next day from getting down on the floor to play with the kids. Stupid bodies!

And I have been crocheting; I started making a hat for a little girl in North Dakota that is not going to have much of a Christmas as the families funds have gone to a funeral for her Great- Grandma, I need to pick up some different yarn and make 3 hats to add to the small gifts that I have purchased for her and her 2 siblings. Here is the hat I made that turned out too small...

When I posted a picture to Facebook of this little hat it creating a couple orders for hats by a friend. She wanted two hats for her twin nieces in pink camo with their initials on  them ad this is what I came up with...

She is thrilled with the hats! And I do believe they turned out REALLY nice.

Yesterday I made a bow for the wreath I am going to make for our front door. I just need to pick up some floral wire today. I am looking forward to having a wreath on the front of the house as we have not had one since moving here.  Thats all I have to share at the moment.

I hope all are doing well~!

A New Member!

To my Santa Collection that is....

Day 4 and 5 of Christmas

I'm pulling things together to make a wreath for our front door and I got some gifts wrapped for our son. I'm making a list of things to complete projects and am planning my New Year's goals of using things up around here. Purchasing less "NEW" stuff and only buying things that COMPLETE projects.

Gifts are appearing under our tree.

I just need some picks of fruits and/or berries and to locate the wire to attach the evergreen bits to the wreath. OH and some wide ribbon for a bow.

Scott and I are also planning to work on purging a LOT of stuff we never use to decrease the amount of STUFF in our home and to make it easier to find things and to keep the house tidy. 2015 is going to be a Simplifying year for us... getting down to the things that are truly useful to us or hold special memories. A year of completing more projects and getting our house in order. After all this Holiday rush is over we will work at getting our new shed completed so that we can re-organize the garage/shop so that Scott can get more wood working projects completed and so that Greg can get more organized and more done on his old car so that it will be on the road once more. A year of completions is ahead. Time to get back to truly LIVING our lives around here.

Day 3 - It's beginning to look like Christmas!

Day 2 of Christmas

Christmas Cat Socks to make the day Merry!

Day 1 of Christmas

OH I had such GRAND plans for today... laundry, deep clean the four rooms that need to be decorated for Christmas.... yeah... well that did not happen. I came home from work, ate some lunch and then went to bed until nearly 4 PM. I guess I was just flat out exhausted from the night shifts, flip back to mornings and catching the cold Greg brought home from a friend. So today was a deep rest day for me and I will get the decorating done throughout the week.

How we handle Christmas has changed so much this past few years. Giving fewer gifts to extended family and trying to spend more time with those that we cherish. I do want to send out Christmas cards this week and get the trees up and decorated. So perhaps  will have some pictures to share later in the week.

I'm still surprisingly tired so will say good night here. It is so much harder to bounce back form weird scheduling these days. Take care.