PLUM STREET SAMPLERS

It's that Time Again!

Lately I've started turning into my sister, who has been so excited about Christmas she can hardly sleep at night. (I believe she started listening to Bing Crosby and going gift shopping in July?) For some reason, I have been bitten by the Christmas bug, which is a little early for me.. one of my very favorite holidays is Thanksgiving, so I tend to wait until the last of the leftovers has been eaten before I start digging out my Christmas cd's (hiding Elvis's "Blue Christmas" for fear that my husband's alter-ego, Karaoke Mike, will suddenly break out in song).

Here is my newest Christmas cd acquisition:

 

I love this cd! Harry Connick, Jr. has always been one of my very favorite artists (was he not hilarious in New in Town? I loved the part where he was threatening his daughter's date!), and I was thrilled to see another holiday cd by him. (I think this one came out last year, though.)

And whilst listening to Harry, I was making this:

 

Pretzel Bark! 

It's super easy... 

Simply melt 8 squares of Baker's chocolate (I used semi-sweet, but milk chocolate is also available) in the microwave, and then add a cup of broken-up pretzels and 1/3 cup of whichever nuts you like (I used a mixture of walnuts and roasted peanuts). After you've got them stirred in, just spread the mixture onto wax paper or a metal cooking sheet and put them in the fridge for about an hour, or until they're set. (They don't have to stay in the fridge though.. once they're set, you're fine to leave them out.)

Delicious!

Btw, Breanna came home for the weekend and took about half of the bark back to school with her. :)

Here's something else I acquired lately, in my excitement for the holidays:

 

I figure this is more Thanksgiving than Christmas, but since I'm excited about both, I also purchased an oil refill for my Yankee Electric Home Fragrance Unit in the "Merry Christmas" variety pack,  which includes the Christmas Cookie and Balsam & Cedar refills. If you've never tried one of their plug-in units, I highly recommend them (Bath and Body Works also makes a fantastic one)!

And while at Honeybaked Ham yesterday, placing my mother-in-law's annual order, I picked up this:

 

(Tanya, are you on your way to pick up your jar yet??) Here was the exciting conversation I had with Sabrina when I got home yesterday:

Me: "Sabrina! Guess what!"

Sabrina: "What?"

Me: "I got us a jar of Mango-Lime Salsa from Honeybaked Ham!"

Sabrina: "AWESOME!!! Do we have any chips??!!?"

Me: "No. But the jar is pretty, don't you think?"

She looked at me blankly and again thought about how I just don't get her.

The next thing I want to do is get busy on Mom's Christmas sampler that was supposed to be done ages ago. I'll do my best to get it finished in time for our exchange! It shouldn't take long though, since it's done with jute on 6 ct. ;)

Enjoy the season! 

Flowers? For Me??

A couple of days ago I was unloading groceries from my car when the UPS guy pulled up and brought over a large florist's blox from FTD. I had assumed they were for Frieda, but when I opened them up and looked at the tag, they were to ME!!!!! Paulette!!!!! Paulette Stewart, me, me, ME!!! 

A very dear friend had sent them to me, just to put a smile on my face. The gorgeous bouquet worked its charm and I'm still smiling! Thank you soooo much, "dear friend."  :)

 

 

 

 

 

I love it when God lets us play with His paints. :)

Usurped

There's only one thing worse than having one's identity stolen...

 

...and that's having one's stitching spot stolen. The would-be princess has even pulled down an extra pillow to lay on.

 

I now have a twitch that won't go away.

And equally to my horror, it has come to my attention that I've made a mistake in the "bok bok" freebie I posted yesterday. There is a symbol mix-up and a color is missing (you'll also need DMC 712, which is cream). I've uploaded the correct file to yesterday's post, so if you already printed it out, you have my apologies! Thank you, Bonnie, for letting me know. :)

I am now off to search for the Royal Squirt Bottle. I've got a title to reclaim. 

I'm Thankful...

...for friends like you! I hope you enjoy this free pattern - and don't go into shock that I've actually got something ready to go before the holiday arrives!

(Be sure to click on the link and not the actual image or your pattern won't download properly!)

Download Bok bok complimentary chart (corrected on Nov. 8)

Let's Make Like a Leaf and Fall

Heeerrrrrrrre.....

 

...weeeeeeeeeeee....

 

...GOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

 

Oh gosh, her face makes me laugh. She's got that "I-know-this-will-be-fun-but-what-if-there's-a-rock-under-there?" look on her face. Or maybe that's just what I'm seeing because that's what I would be thinking if it were me jumping. Always the realist, I am.

Mike and Sophie raked up the leaves a few days ago so that Sophie and her "little sister" in the neighborhood could have a little fun before the snow arrives (again).

 

 

Friday is always so easy about the girls laying on him. What a sweet boy he is.

 

 

Before I start the day, I'd like to thank each of you for writing and commenting, offering words of encouragement through this crazy, challenging time for us around here. You all are so kind to do so, and I'm sincerely grateful. It's friends like you who keep us going, one foot in front of the other! Thank you.

P.S. My DH took all these photos! :) Thank you, Mikey-poo!!!

Lately

I am finally getting caught up a little bit around here, but I'm sure it will fall backwards with one wrong move. What a blur the past few weeks have been! In the lighter moments, however, here's a few things that went on around here...

Miss Sabrina-belle got her license! But of course, she is ever stubborn about smiling for me. 

 

Notice how the license is facing away from us? She refuses to let anyone see the photo bc she says she looks like a serial killer in it. It probably didn't help matters that when she showed it to me, I didn't ease her deflation bc I was too busy laughing maniacally at it and pointing. She obviously would have liked to have been warned that her photo was being taken so she could pose just like the above photo.

As you may have noticed in Sophie's blog, she and I made some caramel apples last week...

 

 

 

 

 

 

That was a lot of fun.. but oh man were those apples tart! We missed getting to go to the pumpkin patch this year to eat them bc of all the rain we had in October. It's a good thing we at least got to go for at least a little while earlier in October. I knew we should have gotten our caramel apples back then! 

Guess what IIIIIIII got in the mail yesterday!! Guess! Guess! Okay, give up. Paula from Kelmscott Designs sent me a feel-happy present, and trust me - I was feelin' happy!

 

By the time my family figures out where I've hidden them, the black currant ones (the most fought-over and always the least populous in the box) will be all gone. heehee. THANK YOU, PAULA!!! :)

And lastly in our extremely exciting Photo Tour of the Lighter Moments Lately, the poopies went to the groomer...

Samurai Tasha came out looking quite fluffed.

 

 

And Missy the Barkinator was looking almost peace-loving in her new 'do.

 

Sophie is a very happy girl, now that there is a canine in the house that she can actually hold. (Friday would certainly try to let her hold him, but that usually ended up in her screaming for someone to come pull him off of her lap.)

 

As I said earlier, I'm getting things a little bit under control around here (which basically means the laundry is down to 18 loads and most of the toilets have been flushed), but I still have lots of learning to do when the home health nurses resume their visits. Unfortunately, my poor mother-in-law has been readmitted to the hospital bc of an infection stemming from one of the surgeries she's had lately. (Among other things, she's had 6 feet of her intestines removed, and is having a heck of a time recovering.)

So I'm off to the hospital this morning to get her some breakfast ordered and visit a bit while my husband finally stays home and gets some much-needed rest. When I return, I may be able to get some orders printed off and sent. And designing? Goodness, I don't even know if I remember how to do that! First though, we've got to get Frieda feeling better.

If I'm lucky, maybe this day will bring a few more lighter moments. :) Enjoy yours!

Move Over, Elizabeth Swann.

Although last night was quite different than our normal Halloween night - home health care nurses visiting, little dogs nipping at everyone's ankles, medical supplies on every surface, turkey chili boiling over on the stovetop while caramel apples melted on the counter, and trick-or-treaters being left to wait too long on the porch bc I couldn't get to the door - Sophie was a very good sport through it all, and her daddy - despite the enormous weight of task after task after task being mounted on his shoulders as of late - made sure she had one heckuva time going door-to-door last night, collecting candy with the rest of the neighborhood ghouls.

I do believe that's the longest sentence in the history of blogging. I would count all the words, but there are still trick-or-treaters on my porch this morning, waiting for me to answer the door.

Here is Sophie, dressed in what was Breanna's Halloween costume about 10 years ago...

 

 

This is her "supermodel pose," as she puts it...

 

One of her favorite expressions, however, is the "Katrina" look. Breanna and her friend Elizabeth invented this facial expression, and named it the "Katrina." The only photo I could find of either of them demonstrating it was from this past May. 

Take it away, Elizabeth!

 

Here is Sophie's version (used without the express written consent of the inventors. I suppose this means it is a pirated copy? teehee.):

 

With Grandma...

 

Ahoy!

 

 

And she's off with the purple pillowcase, ready to gitterdone. Trick-or-Treeeeat!!

 

Back with the booty! (I have nightmares of people saying this when I walk into a room. Somehow I don't think they're talking about a bag full of candy.)

 

 

 

I hope you had a very Happy Halloween! Next year, I think Sophie should go as a Honeybaked Ham.

Breanna, you're grounded.

Remember way back in August, when I decided to get started on redecorating Brea's room bc she was getting ready to leave for college? I thought I'd make it nice and pretty for her for when she visited home, and I was very excited at all the possibilities - especially since she'd given me carte blanche for the task.

Here it is after we had painted some sunny yellow swatches on the walls...

 

I was a little disheartened when I realized she had used purple fingernail polish to stick various objects to the walls.. and when I tried removing said objects, the paint came off with them, revealing the drywall beneath.

 

I was also a little bummed when I realized that it was going to take more than a little elbow grease to remove the border.

 

That was back in August. 

When I decided just a few days ago to resume the task of redecorating, I'd recovered from the shock of all the nail polish adhesive and 6,000 tack holes and 27 makeup base spills on the carpeting. I was ready to get on with the painting. 

But painting was not in the forecast. Instead, I would be spending the next 4 hours removing about 18.5 million staples from the walls. All the way toward the ceiling.

 

Then I had to fill all tack holes with spackling, which I'd forgotten all about having to do.

 

See that nice long strip of exposed drywall? Sticking a bumper sticker there seemed like a good idea at the time, I'm sure. 

After filling the holes, I sanded the walls and wiped off the dust and washed the leftover border remover off and then rinsed the walls again and then wiped them down and then taped the baseboards and then opened the paint, only to find that the special plastic pour-lid I'd put over the top of the can wasn't on all the way, so the entire can of paint was dumped into the paint tray. 

Breanna, I know you're in college, but I can still ground you. So I ground you. Forever. 

I have, in fact, finished Brea's room, with lots of help from Sabrina and Sophie. And it's a bittersweet thing, bc my Breanna won't be able to use her new room after all. Since my father-in-law's death a little over a week ago, my mother-in-law has finally been released from her two-month stay in the hospital, and she'll be living with us now.  My husband has promised Brea her own room to be added in the basement though, so maybe she won't be so sad about losing her old room. After all, that space has seen everything from Barney bedspreads  to sunflower drapes, and my sweet girl spent lots of time with her blankie in there, hiding from her crazy family. ;)

Once again, here is the room before:

 

 

And here it is now...

 

 

The artwork over the bookshelf is by Sophie. :)

 

Don't you just love that little bird on the shelf? 

 

We left Brea's desk in there that she got when she turned 10, and I put a couple pictures of Frieda's little pooches on top.

 

Here are the curtains up close. I can never get enough of toile, and since Frieda's favorite color is blue, I thought it was a good combination. 

 

I bought a slipcover from Target and put it on one of our old dining room chairs... and there's the plate I bought at the Good Will with my friends Kim and Kimm!

 

I'd like to thank my painter-ladies Sabrina and Sophie for getting the details done for me, and my mother for making the final selection on the paint color. Sabrina suggested a warm brown, and Mom went with Au Lait Ole. I think I should brew some Starbucks to celebrate such a lovely choice.

I'm very happy with the way it all turned out - and so is Sabrina, who didn't want to get up off the bed, but promised to smooth out the wrinkles when she did finally remove herself. (Btw, she also put the finishing touch on the wall: a photo of young Frieda with her family in Augsburg, Germany, back in the 1930's.)

 

My back aches, I'm exhausted, and I need to invest in a new staple-remover. But eventually I'd like to get some red samplers stitched and hung in there. (Feel free to stitch them up and send them along, okay?)

 

I love you, Brea. You'll get your room...after you're ungrounded.

Pup and Circumstance

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times: I will not have more than one dog in our home at a time. I realize that pooches love to have playmates, but in our pet-inhabited, high-traffic house, two persistent canines vying for attention with three peevish girls results in one pernicious mother. 

I am now the proud owner of three dogs. And three daughters. And one rambunctious teenaged son, if you count my husband.

Okay, let me clarify: I don't actually own the little doggies, but my in-laws' furry children have come to live with us, and will be joined by their much-missed mommy later this week. 

Meet Tasha: fearless warrior; Japanese Chin.

 

She believes herself to be the most regal of all canines, but all it takes is one "Hi Tasha" from a human and she's a puddle of furry love. She can't help herself. 

Here she is in all her warrior glory, charging at Friday:

 

And here is Friday's reaction:

 

Ummm... okay.

 

Meet Missy: guardian of anything that moves; Yorkshire Terrier.

 

Don't be fooled by her charming, innocent looks. Behind those chocolate eyes is an attitude that would make Genghis Kahn proud.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday-boy, what are we to do?

Loving Husband, Father, Grandpa

These are the words that are on my father-in-law's headstone now, in Kansas Veteran's Cemetery. I never thought I'd ever be reading them.

Mike's dad, Jimmy, passed away one week ago from yesterday, and everything has changed. A new phase of life has begun for Mike - one in which he assumes the responsibility of two households now.. one that has brought out qualities in my husband that have amazed me. Mike has been all things to all people this past week, and I don't think he ever realized what a good son he is. Despite my husband's intense grief, his mother - and the girls and I - are in very capable, very strong, and very loving hands.

The funeral was held with full military honors, as Jimmy had served over twenty years in the US Army, and fought in Vietnam three times. After retiring from the military, he worked as a Civil Service employee at Irwin Army Hospital on Fort Riley. 

When Mike went to the hospital to pick up his dad's personal belongings, Lt. Col. Descareaux escorted him to Jimmy's office. He again expressed his deepest sympathy for Mike's great loss, and many co-workers sadly shared theirs as well, as Jimmy was extremely well-liked where he worked. Mike's dad kept many things in his office that people had given him over the years - as well as many, many photos of Breanna, Sabrina, and Sophie. At the visitation a couple of nights before, everyone felt as if they already knew them, and the girls heard it said over and over again how proud their Grandpa was of them.

While standing in Jimmy's office, Mike looked around at all of the little things that made up tiny parts of his dad's life, and told the Colonel that he would rather not pick up Jimmy's belongings just then, but would instead like to invite each of Jimmy's co-workers to come in to the office in the next few days and keep something for themselves to remember Jimmy by; after all, they suffered a loss too. The Colonel was extremely grateful for this and quietly, but profusely, thanked Mike for everyone there. 

There is nothing more beautiful and poignant than a military funeral. The way our country's flag is draped over the casket that the Honor Guard gravely and respectfully carries... the sharp uniforms of the soldiers present... the 21-gun salute... the trumpeteer's Taps... and the slow salute to a brother who served, as the perfectly-folded flag is presented to his wife. It is the most honored gift a military wife can receive, but the very last one she would ever want to get. We love you so much, Frieda.

I'd like to thank each one of you who expressed your condolances to our family through the lovely comments, emails, and cards sent. We were overwhelmed by your loving words, and cannot thank you enough. If I could but impose on you to continue to pray for Mike's strength through the coming weeks, I would be ever so thankful. You all have been so caring and kind.

I leave this post with a couple of pictures from the visitation, after all friends and relatives had gone back home. Jimmy, we love you so much. You were truly a loving husband, a caring father, and a doting, proud grandpa. You will be missed every day, and we look forward to seeing you again.