MERRY CHRISTMAS

My Mom crocheted this angel for me years ago

Merry Christmas to one and all. I sincerely hope everyone that reads this is having a wonderful day with family and friends. This is Scott and my 35th Christmas together... the time has just flown by! I now truly know what my Grandma meant when she said, "Time flies" and "Don't wish your life away".

Scott tried his hand at baking a spice cake... it took two tries but he was finally successful. We determined that he missed the vanilla in the cake and perhaps it was baked a little long but it was still quite tasty.  When we get back up to the cottage I will post the recipe over on our food blog... link is in the right column.

Greg had to work last night so we are letting him sleep until nearly dinner time (1PM) at Scott's Moms'. I am hoping he wakes in time to open his gifts before dinner but if not we will do it after we finish over there. Scott and I want to get back up to the cottage later today as we forgot to turn the heat down yesterday and don't want to go through our fuel oil when we are not there. If Scott is up to it we will come back down to do some work on the house over the weekend. Just trying to  keep him from doing too much until he can get that Stress test they told him to get before he was released from the hospital this past Thursday. Yes we made a trip to the ER because he was having a heaviness across his chest and sweating profusely. His blood work, EKG and chest x-ray all looked fine but we want to be sure everything is ok.

Saturday we took a walk along the Doodle Trail in Easley, SC and managed a full 4 miles. It was chilly when we were in the shade but not cold enough to keep us from walking. This is not the greatest picture in the world but we were all smiles so I am adding it here.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Scott and I

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Hello dear readers! I want to wish you all a fabulous Christmas. Remember to have fun... be safe... and take care of YOU and your family.

This weekend (December 8th and 9th) we had our very first winter storm that contained more sleet than snow. Some folks in the neighborhood lost some branches on their trees as well as some trees snapping off entirely. It was so cold!

 Sunday Scott and I stayed indoors and off the roads. Monday we went out to get some lunch and most places were not able to serve as they were either short staffed or didn't have computer systems up and running. We saw a lot of cherry picker trucks and crews with chainsaws so attempts were being made to get the power back up and running but it was going to take some time.



While we were stuck indoors I worked along with a You Tube friend and created this angel from "trash"... a lunch bag, used coffee filter, old button, trims. I love how she turned out and have plans to put her in a shadow box frame.

Crafting is a wonderful way to occupy oneself during a winter storm.

Christmas is 2 weeks from today. I'm really not "feeling" it much this year. I put up a few decorations down at our house but have no real desire to put any up here at the cottage. I put the decorations up where my kid lives... Christmas isn't the same without children. 

Family separations are so hard... especially when you come from a big family and hear from none of them. I hope everyone  will take a moment to think of those family members you don't see often and send a card or call them up for a few minutes. Let them know you do think of them occasionally. Hug  the ones you do see and tell them how much you care about them daily.

Greetings....

So the Christmas Season has arrived. The only decorating that I have done is down at the house as there is just no room for any decorations here at the cottage. I am so hoping this will be the year we finally get out of one house and into another permanently so I will have space to decorate and access to all of my belongings. Until then we will try to do more "Christmassy things". This weekend is the Travelers Rest Christmas parade and I am hoping to talk Scott into going to watch. So be watching for some talk of that this weekend.

I completed my round on two Round Robins that I have been working on through my quilting group on Facebook... Our Quilters Family Home and have mailed them off to Barb in Canada. Here they are:

Karen's before I added anything

Karen's after... Barb will add her round and then mail it home to Karen.

Barb's... sent on home to her.

Both were so much fun to work on and I hope that both ladies will love them. I do so enjoy participating in Round Robins like this. 

Coal kitty has settled right into the family and he and Piper get along so much better than  they did when he first went to live with her and Greg. He has grown into such a beautiful fluff ball.

Coal

2019 Just around the corner

Can you believe it? 2019 is just a little over a month away. Time truly does speed up as you get older. We are still staying in Adele's little house here in Greenville as the repairs and updates to our house is taking considerably longer than we ever thought it would. We have our 10 acres for sale in  the hopes of getting it sold so we can hire some things out like repairing some plumbing issues and getting a new roof put on the house. I am nearly to the point of just wanting to move back there once Scott retires as it has everything we need and want in a house and we own it already. I am not finding anything close to it up here in  the same price range. My only concern is the 3 cats we adopted since living up here... not sure how they would like living down  there and I would want to install some kind of fencing to keep them from wandering the neighborhood as there are so many stray cats down there. But alas none of it is up to me so I will continue just sitting in the passenger seat.

I set up a Christmas tree down at the house and a few other decorations to make the house feel more "Christmassy". I rearranged the furniture and cleared out all the remodeling materials from the front room to give Greg a more settled environment for the Holiday Season so he would not feel like he was living so much in a remodeling environment... at least in the front two rooms. I wish we were all going to be together for Christmas in the house but Scott and I have committed to going down to Adele's in Atlanta for Christmas day. We will have Christmas with Greg the weekend after Christmas. I hate how the families have all grown apart so much but I understand why... everyone's' path takes them in a different direction.


 Greg wanted Mr Meeseeks as his tree topper this year since all the toppers we have are to heavy for the top of this skinny tree.  If only he could fix the divisions in both families.

I bought some yarn at the thrift store day before yesterday and made Scott a new hat as he has misplaced the two I had made for him before. It was a great deal... I have enough yarn to make 8 hats and then some and it cost me less the $4. I have started on another hat so there will be a back up in case he looses the one I just made. His head gets so cold with no hair atop it without a nice hat.

I have given ZERO thought to any gift giving this year except for Scott and Greg. It's so hard when a family has grown as large as ours and so far apart that the love is missing. As we have no grand- children and the nieces and nephews are getting a little older and think we're weird we don't really have any little ones in our lives to create excitement like there once was. But we will do the best we can to spend time with the family that still wants us around.

OK... enough of Becky Downer. I truly wish you all a wonderful Christmas Season!

Fall Back Weekend

Here it is time to "fall back" once again and the "Holiday Season" has started in the stores. I am thankful I am experiencing the retail hell from this side of the doorway and not in a store. It makes the Holidays so much more enjoyable for me. I have time to create handmade gifts and my goal is to make gifts using only from my stash and/or thrifting. I am almost certain I can come up with some really nice gifts by Christmas. Our gift giving will be focused on the children under 18, our parents and our son, Greg. The families have just gotten too large to gift everyone and everyone feels the same way.

Scott and I are continuing to make the trip down here to the house to work on it and get it ready to sell. We are so hoping this Spring we will be able to get it on the market so we can move on with our life in the Greenville area. So many projects to do and with only getting down here twice a month things are going slowly. We can only do what we can do and hope things come together by March. 

WAIT WHAT?

It's May... what on Earth happened to April? OOPS! So much for me posting at least weekly on this blog. Life gets crazy sometimes and this Summer is not going to be any different as we try our hardest to get our house ready to be sold so we can be in a new home before Christmas.

So lets see what we can say about April... I reached over 2000 subscribers on my You Tube channel. For some reasons over 2000 people enjoy watching me craft, make art and following Scott and I on some of our life's adventures.

A very large moon at the beginning of April had me pulling my camera out to try to capture it. I love taking photos of the moon through tree branches... makes my heart happy.

I've been doing a bit of sewing/quilting again and I so love it!

For April I came up with the idea of designing house blocks in a 12x14 rectangle for a swap.  I started with this idea but after making this first block I decide to reduce the number of pieces to simplify the process so I could get 7 blocks made before the end of April. I am looking forward to putting my neighborhood together.

I finally finished staining the inside of the upper cabinets at our house so that task could be crossed off our huge list of things to get accomplished before we list it to sell. We are slowly pecking away at the what seems like a never ending list of things to do to the house down in Cayce.

 The blooms at the cottage were amazing this year and I am wanting to start a bunch of cuttings from the azaleas here to take with me to our new home.

 Early spring mornings looking up through the trees below the cottage leads to a lot of reflection. I remember as a teen taking this type of photo and my Grandma would tell me I was "wasting film"; I think she would have LOVED digital photography.

This fungus seems to be all in the cedar tree by  the driveway at the cottage.I just find it so intriguing. Too bad it is detrimental to fruit trees causing deformities in the fruits.

Bargains were found for my arting. I'm going to use the big placemat as a stencil.

 Last weekend Scott and I drove up to Hendersonville NC to attend the Mother Earth News Fair. We had an enjoyable day and learned a few things while we were there. First stop was learning about building with Cob. The children were really "getting into it"; by the end of the talk some were covered from head to toe with the mud.

 Scott walked up and perused the table of literature about cob. We did not buy any books on it but may later.

Cheese making

Natures bouquet that was growing where we sat to eat our meal of crepes from one of the food trucks.

Of course when in the mountains where you can see more mountains you HAVE to take a photo of the mountains. It truly was a glorious sunny day.

Primitive painting! Earthen paints can be made at home and are safer to have on your walls than commercially made paints.

 And on  the way back to our car I saw this bumper sticker and had to snap a shot of it to share. Read all you can... even the banned books!

 I am doing a BOHO tag swap with some of the folks that follow me on You Tube. I created this one on Monday during a live show. I like it ok and learned a lot from making it. I learned some things I will not do on the next one. I will need to make 6 total and I know they will all be different but all in a BOHO style. I will keep one and mail out 5 and then I will get 5 back from the 5 people I mailed mine to and I am planning to put them all together on a ring as a book. I'm thinking several tag books in a basket would look lovely in my next Hobby room. So more tag swaps will be in my future I am sure.

So that was April... HELLO MAY! 

Our 33rd wedding anniversary is May 11th. It's hard to believe that much time has passed already. May your May be full of joy and happiness!

Hello Again!

 After the week of long hours Scott had last week we decided to walk along the river while down at our house on Saturday. The break from repairs and upkeep on the house and away from the thoughts of work of any kind was just what the Doctor ordered. We SO MISS the Cayce Riverwalk as we knew we would. So getting to revisit it was such a joy.

The River was up a bit so the fishing must have been pretty good. We saw several people fishing along the bank and one group of fellas just below the locke's damn in a boat. The section that had been closed since the horrible flood of October 2015 has finally been re-opened as repairs have been completed. We could see where so many trees were lost from flood waters pulling them down as well as killing them and  they had to be cut down for safety. It really opened things up along that stretch of the riverwalk.

White Egrets

Cormorants

Trumpet Vine

Fungi Amoungi ... ha ha

One of the old trees that was taken down for safety.

On our return to the cottage the cats were so happy to see us and cat piles in front of space heaters were the mission. Callie and Tippy were in their happy place to be sure.

It is feeling like Spring is REALLY going to make an appearance in the next couple weeks and I will be so glad. I'm ready to be warm again.

March

Hello my friends! Here it is March and the weather has been so crazy. There is currently a stiff cold breeze blowing against the cottage and I have a couple space heaters going to take the chill off inside. I am planning to turn the oven on to bake some sweet potatoes in a little while to help warm the place a little more. The furnace ran out of fuel oil and Scott went and bought 10 gallons of diesel to get us through until "Spring" but he couldn't get the furnace to start back up and we didn't have the money to call the repair man out to get it going again and that is why we are using the space heaters. I am really hoping we are out of this little house before next Winter... fingers and toes crossed.

 Howie and Tippy have been doing their best to keep us warm when the temperature dropped this month and of course handed out lots of kitty love as well.

 Amelia (above) and Bernadette (below) got their yearly checkups and shots early in the month. They're doing pretty good for a couple old gals.

 Piper (above) has a new playmate, Coal (below). Coal showed up out on  the back porch one day and decided to stay but our 3 cats didn't like him one bit so we asked Greg if he would like to have him . So Coal met Piper... didn't go too well and the first week he was there she growled and hissed constantly but now he has sort of grown on her and they play together. Both Piper and Coal had check-ups and Coal has been neutered.

 These two photos of Coal were taken when he had just returned home from having "the surgery". He is tiny and only weighed 4.4 pounds at his check-up and the Vet says he won't get much bigger.

 This is a "Zine" made out of one sheet of 8 1/2x11" cardstock. They are alot of fun to make and swap with other crafters.

 This showed up on the cedar tree by the driveway here at the cottage and it turns out it is bad for apple and pear trees as it cast spores that cause deformities in the fruits. It caught my eye as it looked so creepy cool. Now I am hoping no one near by has fruit trees that will be damaged by this fungi. Here is a link to the article on it - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnosporangium

Today is the first day of Spring - HAPPY SPRING YOU ALL!!!!