bringing in Christmas color with plants

forcing paperwhites, originally uploaded by *nichole*.

Christmas cactus, originally uploaded by *nichole*.

poinsettia, originally uploaded by *nichole*.

These plants really brighten my day, especially when most days are a bit rainy and chilly. Hope you are finding ways to brighten your winter days as well.
Have a great weekend!

this moment

~inspired by soulemama~

have a great weekend!

Three years of celebrating Advent

We have been officially celebrating Advent for three years now, in which I have actually put together a calendar for the family. Now today as I meet December 1st, I'm totally unprepared. Ideas have been floating in my head, but nothing is sticking. I think I may use the same calendar from last year, with a couple adjustments (gotta look in some more boxes). The holiday season finds me at this moment in not such a festive mood, but I've got Christmas music in my car, on my i-pod so hopefully the cheer of the season will get to me soon!
In the mean time I thought I would share with you our Advent calendars/crafts from the three past years~

2007

Advent Calendar, originally uploaded by *nichole*.

I think I purchased most of the materials of this calendar from Hobby Lobby. I glued those wooden stars on that felt material (glue gun, love) and wrote the dates on the wooden stars with a marker-very homey!

2008

Advent calendar 2008, originally uploaded by *nichole*.

What I like most about this calendar are the girls drawings and the wooden clothespins that we generously dipped in glitter.

2009

Advent Calendar 2009, originally uploaded by *nichole*.

The story behind this calendar is here.

Crafts we've enjoyed doing....

for the tree (eventually), originally uploaded by *nichole*.

Button wreath, originally uploaded by *nichole*.

popsicle sticks, construction paper, glue, beads, buttons, random pieces of fabric makes for great Christmas crafting.

Tell me what are you crafting, making, cooking up for this holiday season?
Happy first day of Advent!

this evening

Our Monday night consisted of the usual-homework, dinner (squash soup with turkey salad sandwiches-yes still eating turkey), showers and chores.
I did however find a couple of moments to sit on the couch to look at a Josh Groban dvd (checked out from the library), knit a few rows-really just a few, and browse thru a couple of magazines~


~aren't these slippers so festive, maybe I could knit two pair, for the girls knitted gifts




~look at those cute animals and owls!


Josh on stage singing (I'm kinda silly to take a picture of my tv :)



~ribbed hat in progress, can you see my copy of MSL magazine peeking in there? I somehow just can't resist her Christmas/Holiday issues


~sweater, coming along slowly

so from now until Christmas, I'll get in one stitch at a time (hopefully more) whenever I can, wherever I can-because realistically I'm no jack rabbit when it comes to knitting, I'm more of a "tortoise" speed (perhaps tortoise and speed shouldn't be in the same sentence, huh?)
Have a wonderful evening!

giving thanks

~making biscuits



~pear bundt cake,recipe in this book


I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving day. Although we didn't make it out to visit our extended family (on the East Coast and in the South), we had a nice time with new friends. Really I have so much to be thankful for, and I want to embrace this thankfulness not only on Thanksgiving, but daily.

I'm not looking to do any major shopping today (I may go to Jo-Ann's and Borders, and we need two bedside table lamps (maybe shop online for the lamps) but that's about it. After viewing this it really puts in perspective about how we engage in the consumerism cycle (and I find it amazing that Thanksgiving is now so closely associated with Black Friday). Lots of times I think all of these "new gadgets" keep us conveniently distracted-distracted from others and mostly from ourselves. Now don't get me wrong I think technology can be a good thing-in small doses. Just the other day we were all home- I was sitting on the couch looking at television with my youngest daughter, my oldest daughter was upstairs on the computer, and my husband was downstairs on his computer. We were all home, together-but really were we together? Something for me to think about.

On to other things, I have an ambitious plan of knitting something for my husband and my girls for Christmas. Right now I'm working on a ribbed hat for my husband, I haven't decided exactly what I'm going to knit for the girls yet. These knits are not going to be long and involved-just things that are short and sweet.
So hopefully today I'll get some knitting in and then tonight we are going to our towns Christmas Parade.

Have a delightful weekend, and enjoy the leftovers!

finding

Unpacking is long work. I just dropped off more boxes today at the recycling center that have been in our garage. Really since we are renting I don't want to completely unpack everything. It's crazy though, last week I needed batteries for my camera, so I bought some from WinCo. Okay so now today, just looking in a basket at the top of my closet I realized that I had purchased a whole pack of batteries before we moved. This can be a little tricky, a lot of my craft stuff is still in boxes too, so I have to talk to myself-really and say "Now, do I need another of yard of fabric? (apparently I did, I purchased some from Jo-Ann's last week), or another skein of yarn? I did unpack the sewing machine yesterday-no need for a new one, at least not yet. I'm currently using this, and it's really an awesome little machine. It's my oldest daughter's machine, a gift from Nana, but my daughter graciously lets me use it. I also have an old Singer machine that my husband got me from the Goodwill couple of years ago. That machine is heavy duty, but when I use it I just can't get the thread tension right, so for now I'm sticking with Hello Kitty.
Anyway I found an old photo memory stick (circa 2008) in my closet too, and I just wanted to share a few photos from it~

~thrifted afghan, on the bed


~watercolors


~breakfast


~apple haul


~ my youngest scooping up snow (oh,how I'm going to miss those Midwest winters, seriously)


It's kinda weird but looking at some of these old photos totally reminds me of myself. See, sometimes I feel like perhaps a little part of me got lost in the move, but looking back helps me to look forward, which helps me to find my new footing, on this new ground.
Have a great Tuesday evening!

for the love of knitting

knitting can be found on~

my arm, an i-cord bracelet


on my phone

my cup of coffee (a decaf mocha), both the cell phone case and coffee sleeve were given as gifts to me, thanks Tara!

my neck, keeping me warm

Hopefully this upcoming winter, with the rain coming down and winds whipping, I'll be found on my couch-blanket covering my legs, a warm cup of tea at my side with some yarn and needles in my hand, making more knitted things to love.