The best bargain EVER!

good morning!

How was your Christmas? I hope yours was good. Ours was really nice, the family was here, we had too much good food as always and we had some fun, isn't that what the holidays are supposed to be! We did for the first time ever a white elephant exchange, it was really fun and some neat things were brought, we can't wait to see what comes back next year!

These were some cupcakes I made for dessert....mmmm they were good, chocolate cupcakes are the best!



I am sure you are wondering about the best bargain EVER! Well let me tell you, I was running errands with Dear Hubby yesterday and we stumbled across a Thrift Shop....more like I YELLED HEY THERE IS A THRIFT SHOP ...STOP THIS CAR!!
He immediately pulled in and in we went. It was a Salvation Army store that really needed some updateing, but you never know what you will find.. My first find was a Just Married Picture frame for his neice that is getting married in July, I thought it would be cute on top of the real present! For just $1... a great deal....but not the best deal EVER....

As I was looking thru the sweaters I saw this great grey sweater.... this is the original tag on it




Can you see the price $139.98....

I paid $3.49 for this hand knit wool sweater that was BRAND NEW!!

It will look great with a red turtleneck and black pants! What is the best deal ever you got a thrift shop?

This is the week for cleaning the Creation Station....I have lots of to put away in there, but the rest of the house is spotless, so nice. Well I have to get going this morning and get the cleaning done so I can get working on the New Years Eve Mystery Quilt.

Happy Stitches

Dorothy

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!


This photo is from 1996 when my mom and mother in law would go to Target on Senior day and have coffee with Santa. The girls had so much spirit and loved the holidays so. I truly think they really did keep Christmas in their hearts all year.

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and you make lots of memories this year and reflect back on some memories from past years, and smile just a little at those memories.

Merry Christmas!
Dorothy

Merry Christmas Eve!

Good Morning!

I am up early today, lots to do, vacuuming, dusting and getting ready for the family coming tomorrow. We did get a ton done yesterday, dear hubby worries about such crazy things, he put in a new door bell ....like we wouldn't know the family was here, heck they walk in aways! Then we put a new light in the dining room, thank goodness I hated the old one. Then we touched up paint the hallway. He just gets really too crazy about things I think people won't even notice.
But that is the way he is and you just have to deal with it. I got lots done and even got the guest room cleaned up -- just in case it snows and someone stays over. I had a ton of fabric in there from the Creation Station, so all that stuff went right back to the Creation Station and now that needs to be cleaned. Thank God for 2 story homes, they don't need to be up there.

How is your holiday cleaning going?

When we got up yesterday there such a thick fog and as the fog left this is what our back yard looked like. I just loved the frosty winter look, so perfect for Christmas time.

Remember last week when we had to vacate the house becuase of the wood floor being refinished. Well of course we went to some quilt shops and here are some neat chairs that this one shop had in their classroom, I won't tell you where I was - because I was not sure if I could take some photos, I just did it.....bad me?!?!

Aren't they neat? They had many chairs with different quilt blocks painted on them. I had purchased some old chairs at garage sales this year that I was going to make into planter chairs, but I think these are fun too. So after the first of the year I am going to try my hand at some of these chairs.

Well I better get back to work, the quicker I start the faster I will be done. And we also have a few errands to run today. How are you doing on your Christmas errands? Are you all done yet? Seems like my mind keeps going on more things I can do.....crazy but fun time of the year!

I hope you have a Merry Christmas!

Happy Stitches

Dorothy

2 More days Til Christmas!

Hello

Are you ready for the big day?? I am almost ready we have about 20 coming here so it will be pretty wild. I thought I would show you some of my decorations and what I have been up too.

When I was taking pictures of trees, I forgot to take a picture of our main tree, it is the traditional 6 foot tree with a collection of ornaments for our entire lives - and then we have the 3 foot Cubs trees, with all Cubs oraments.

This is my Quilting Theme Tree, it is in the Creation Station and I just love looking at it. I have white lights and it is really bright. I leave this one up the longest, just because I like to look at the ornaments a bit longer.



This is my newest tree - I have been collecting cute Gingerbread Ornaments for the past few years, always threatening to have an entire tree of gingerbread, well this summer I was lucky to find this nice tree for $5 at a garage sale and I thought PERFECT for my gingerbreads! This is in the dining room. I need to make a tree skirt for it. Maybe today. I only have 6 or 7 things that need to be done today. So I am hoping I can get it accomplished.



My Niece needed a little bib for her daughters 1st Christmas and she is going to wear a penguin outfit, so here is the bib. I hope she likes it.

And of course I have been baking cookies, here is the first round, and these were all mailed out. So today I am making 3 batches of cookies for some of my friends in town and for the family party.

Here is another tray. I just love to frost and decorate them.

I hope your holiday plans are going smoothly. And that you have a happy holiday!

Happy Stitches!
Dorothy

Antique Block Pattern

Hello

How have you been? Are you ready for Christmas?

Well hubby had to go to the DR today- and this is a specialist about an hour away and they have many quaint shops in the town. So after hubby had a good check up, we headed to an antique store that takes up about 2 blocks, it is HUGE! We looked for quite awhile and I ended up purchasing this Carolina Lily Block for $1.40 it was marked $2 but it was on sale! My lucky day!

I might make a pillow out of it. Not sure or maybe frame it.

We are off to go up to WI for a few days we decided since everything was looking so nice we would get our hardwood floors refinished before Christmas. I know you must be thinking we are nuts, yes I know this is nuts. But we have most everything done, and we will be back on Saturday. So Sunday I will bake and get the out of town presesnts ready to ship and ship them out on Monday.

We will be going to a Top Ten shop this trip I am looking forward to that and to a German town.
Take care and talk to you in a few days!
Happy Stitches
Dorothy

Christmas is getting Closer!

Good Morning!

Well we survived the Kitchen and Dining room painting. It is all "green grapes" and we like it. Yesterday was the final day of working on this project, I washed the drapes in the dining room and put them back up. We cleaned everything in both rooms and I manage to put some things in a box for goodwill, it looks a lot nicer and cleaner and I organized a few cabinets to get some stuff off our counter tops and just like Martha Stewart some items like the bread machine and meat slicer that we only use on occasion has found a nice home on the shelf in the basement. It will be good excercise to go down there and get the larger items we just don't have the room to store in the kitchen.

Friday night we decided to look at Christmas lights and and had heart about a new display at Mooseheart. It was only about 40 minutes away so we decided to take a drive and check it out. I had no idea where or what we were going to. Mooseheart is a 1000 acre place, where 225 children live, they have 30 homes that house the children, they have a school system there, they have a gift shop, and I believe they have a farm there also. It is founded by the Moose Clubs, I had no idea this is what they do. It really is an awesome place. The brochure says these children have lost their parents or were taken from them do to poor living conditions. Really an awesome place. That I had no idea about.
They have 1.8 miles of a road you follow and these were some of the decoration we saw, you might need to click on them to enlarge them. This was the first year they did this, they charged $10 a car, a little pricey but the money goes for a good cause and they gave you 3D glasses, wich when you put them on, you saw Snowmen EVERYWHERE, everywhere there was a light you saw a snowman on it, really cool.
Enjoy the pictures... this is entering the facility there is a HUGE Moose statue and words in lights that say Merry Christmas...

This one is a neat Gingerbread house...

Here is Cinderellas Pumpkin Carriage

And here is a HUGE Castle...

Well that is all for now, Oh I did stop buy JoAnn fabrics and got some wild fabric for a valance on my kitchen window....hopefully I can get that sewed up today and you can see it tomorrow.

Hope you are safe and warm ...we are under a winter storm warning...

Happy Stitches

Dorothy

It's Green

Good Morning

Well remember yesterday when I said, hubby wanted a cranberry kitchen and I was leaning towards butterscotch......well we both liked Green Grapes, so that is it. Our kitchen is now Green Grapes!



It is bright, and I think hubby thinks it is a bit too bright,but he thought that the last time with the bright goldy yellow it was. It will tone down some when I put my roosters back up and stuff like that. Kitchen is done and I am taking a break and then on the dining room. The quicker I can get this done, the quicker I can get back to sewing!

Thanks for stopping back to painting for me!
Happy Stitches or Happy Painting!
Dorothy

Mug Rugs and More

Good Morning .....

Such a hectic week last week - hubby ended up in the hospital with celulitis for 4 days and was able to come home on Sunday, he is feeling so much better. Great to have him back home and happy.

I was in the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap 2 on Flickr and this is the great mug rug I rec'd from Kathy along with some nice teas, but those have already been enjoyed. Isn't this the cutest the mug rug ? I just love it. I use it every day.




Here is the mug rug I made, I just love this snowman applique - I got it out of a Christmas book and have used it for several items.


And here is the mug rug and the goodies I sent to my partner, I was a little late on getting this mailed due to hubby in the hospital. I hate being late on swaps. I hope my partner understands.

Well yesterday I cleaned everything out of the kitchen today hubby is going to use Kilz on the grease stains on the walls near the stove and then Thursday we are going to paint it, what color you ask, depends who you ask, I am looking towards butterscotch and hubby is looking towards cranberrry......mmmmm how do you think stripes would look!! We are going today to get the paint.

Have a fantastic day!

Happy Stitches

Dorothy