Red & pink or Blue & white?!?!?!?!

Those of you who know me, know that I decorate different areas of our house for each seasons. I'm a stickler on issues like this--certain decor items stay up for a certain amount of time and then they come down as the season is over. Christmas doesn't stay up until the middle of January and spring doesn't go up until the middle of March. That's just the way it is!

However, Valentine's Day is a little bit different. It comes at a time when I already have a houseful of snowmen and snowy items up which need to stay up from January until March. February 14th is right smack in the middle of that seasonal arrangement!!

So the question always becomes.....do I take down the snow scenes and put up red and pink hearts for a couple of weeks and then put back up the snow scenes? Or do I put away the snow stuff and leave up the red and pink decor until I put up spring? But that's leaving up all that Valentine's Day stuff for a month after the celebration day has passed!!!

Some years I break out the all the red and pink colored hearts and some years it remains boxed up. It's a dilemma I face every year. Yeah, I know what you're thinking--what's the big deal?! True, it's not a life or death situation, but still......

This year? A compromise. All the snowy teddy bears and trees stayed up, but just got moved around slightly to accommodate the red roses and Valentine hearts. And next week? Things will just shift slightly to remove the red and pink and go back to the blue and white. That will work!! :)

Christmas Exhibit!

I have to admit....I'm not quite ready for Christmas. I'm still into fall and Thanksgiving and those decorations. I'm not even the slightest bit ready to move into the holiday season yet. But when I was asked to showcase an exhibit at the Stauth Memorial Museum for their Traditions of Southwest Kansas, I said sure! I've always enjoyed showcase different booths there!

So I dug out my nativity scenes (I've only just realized how many I have of those!), gingerbread collection and various snowmen, greenery and trees. Added some batting with clear lights underneath to create a "snow" effect and tada--Sights & Smells of Christmas!

The look & smell of Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas,
Everywhere you go...

....and so on and so forth as the song continues. Yep, it's looking more like Christmas here at home as well. Last week I put up all our Christmas decorations and started baking some Christmas candy.

turtles!

chocolate haystacks & peanut clusters!

chex party mix!

Luke 2:11
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

The official start of fall was last week...

...and now my Sunday School classroom looks a bit more in the fallish festive spirit!

Ahhh...September!

September has to be one of my favorite months! (Although I'm sure it wasn't when I was in school!) Part of the reason I love this month is because it's my favorite season for decorating. Some of the fall decorations I put up are my favorites all year long!

I love the reds, browns and golds that blend together into luscious, rich colors. The leaves, the pumpkins, the hay-bales and all that goes with it. In addition to that, do you know how many beautiful fabrics are created in those colors tones?! Yep, I have a collection of them. I probably have more fall themed sewn somethings than I do Christmas.

But not only do I enjoy the fallish color theme that starts in September, but this month also holds so many, many memories.

Like corn harvest at "the farm". My sisters and I would get to spend a couple of days at our cousin's house while Dad helped Uncle Ron with corn harvest. Waving to Dad as he drove trucks in and out of the driveway while we jumped on the trampoline. Trying to find a way to surprise Mom for her birthday. Fun times!

And then there are the tougher ones that will never be forgotten. Like Mom slowly deteriorating more and more. Her brain tumor biopsy surgery. The darkest days spent in the hospital watching her condition worsen without any hope of recovery. The agonizing decisions we were required to make. Sad, but unforgettable times.

And what will September hold in the years to come? Don't have a clue! And I'm not sure I would want to know either!

What happened this week?

Good question! Lots! August turned into September which has brought some cooler days than we've had in quite a while. Dad had the doors and windows open for a couple hours in the morning several days this week. The cooler weather has been nice after those hot summer days.

Plus Jena, Krissa and I have had several conference calls and skype meetings (still working on the skype thing - web cams have issues at times!) with each other and that's been a blast! The trying to get it all figured out has been just about as fun (there have been some not-so-fun-moments) as actually talking to one another. :)

Monday - the 31st. I spent the day getting last minute details uploading for my online classes. I started a second Latte Quilt class with over 100 students enrolled. I'm thrilled beyond thrilled! I can't believe all the interest in this quilt! Keeping up with two large classes in addition to everything else will be a challenge, but exciting!

Tuesday - The dentist. If there's one thing I hate doing, it's having dental work done and my mouth being numb. It makes my stomach turn just thinking about it. I went in with the thought of having only part of my mouth without feeling and ended up getting out of there with both my right and left sides of my face numb, even up to my nose and ear! My mouth still isn't quite back to normal almost a week later.

Wednesday - Sorting and organizing orders and inventory. With the start of a new class always brings an increase in orders, email and inventory. Which all has to be sorted, filed, packed and shipped. Some things I've just managed to get in and it ends up going right back out the door. Email can always be a challenge to stay on top of each day, but so far all has gone really smoothly!

Thursday - Planning future classes. My local quilt guild had their meeting that night and I had paperwork to plan, prepare and get ready for a couple local classes I am teaching there. It's been a while since I've taught a local demo class, so I'm looking forward to doing that in November and March.

Friday - Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. Friday is my normal day for doing laundry and my weekly house cleaning chores, but for some reason I was on a cleaning spree. Much to my delight I got lots of it accomplished! More than I planned on getting done.

Saturday - Fall decorations! I took down all my patriotic stuff last week and had gotten a small start on fall. And then finished it today! Ahhh...my favorite season of the year! In between putting up leaves, wagons and pumpkins, I was also trying to help Jena recover her phone that died. But the decorations are up and at least now Jena has her old phone working so she's not totally without one.

What's up for today?

This week it seems I've had very little computer time available. Monday and Tuesday seem like ages ago and I'm not quite sure exactly what I did those days, but I know I was busy. Wednesday was our Kid's Club Christmas party and I spent part of the day getting my lesson material ready for Thursday.

Thursday I taught an extension meeting with Janice Unruh on Wearable Art & Embellishment. It went really well and we had a variety of different garments and wearables to show ways for embellishment. Half of the day I was in Dodge and then the other half I spent at Grandma's.

Friday I had planned to get some things done in the kitchen and finish up with some Christmas decorations in the family room, but instead I spent my time doing computer work, catching up from being offline Wednesday and Thursday, and moved my other stuff to today.

First I made a coconut cream pie for someone at church. Thank goodness for neighbors who had some coconut as I disocvered we were out, right when I was in the middle of baking the filling!

I thought it turned out very well!

We haven't had meatloaf for a while, and since I had thawed several pounds of hamburger to cook, I took some of that and made a loaf for this week and then a couple smaller loaves to put in the freezer for future use.

I tried a new recipe for the meatloaf so we'll see how it turns out. I was never a fan of the way Mom made it, so I hope this is an improvement.

meatloaf

Then I cooked several pounds of hamburger to keep in the freezer. I used the last of my cooked hamb. before Thanksgiving, but haven't had a chance to cook some more until now. Coming up with some quick recipes without hamb. the last couple of weeks have been a challenge! :) But I did manage to use up quite a few things I had in the freezer.

cooked hamb. ready for the freezer

With some of the hamburger I was going to make lasanga to put in the oven during church tomorrow, but Dad decided that he wanted to eat out after church so I didn't do that. But I was trying to find the lasanga recipe I used last time. I was sure I found it on allrecipes.com, but I hunted my recipe box there and didn't find it. I scoured all my cookbooks and Mom's books looking for it and finally found it!

It's a good thing I didn't plan on making it today as by the time I finished looking for the recipe, it was time to move onto something else. And the reason for that was that I got a little distracted while looking online. Never fails. If I ever need to kill time, just get online.

The day I have time to kill will never come, but I sure know how to do it if I would ever need to in the future! :)

searching...searching...searching

I put up most of our Christmas decorations last week, but needed a little something extra to fill in the bookcase shelves. I found a few extra things and combined those with some odds and ins we had and came up with this.

The snowmen on the top and third shelves we've had for quite a while and some of them are my favorites! But I added the little gingerbread collection. Those figures of sugary confection and just so cute and yummy looking! I just love them! Then the candy cane striped candles just added the right touch! Hobby Lobby had such cute things and their weekly half price deals make them even better!

glowing snowing shelves!

Just look at those!

And I love the pom-pom legs!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I think this is the latest date we have ever put up Christmas decorations. Almost every year, we start putting up everything the day after Thanksgiving. Mom always made us wait until after Thanksgiving. But it seems the last few years with Krissa gone, and Jena and I busier than ever, it usually is later than it used to be.

Since Jena's social and working calendar is full just about til Christmas, the task was left to me. I decided yesterday would be the day! So here's a peek at our collection of Nativity scenes above the fireplace and there's more on my online photo album!

In the light, you can see the scenes...

...and at night it just glows!

Fall is official now at our house!

Last weekend I put up our fall decorations. The fall decorations we have are some of my favorites to put up around the house. I love the blend of red, orange and brown together; it just seems so warm and inviting.

As I was bringing the boxes of fall stuff up from downstairs, I started planning where to put everything. It usually changes from year to year, partly because we like variety and partly because we usually can't recall exactly where we put everything.

I knew for sure that I had to move the little wagon and harvest vegetables from last year's spot because of Skittles. Not only did she knock everything down, but she carried those pumpkins, pears and squash everywhere. Over this past year, I have found numerous little vegetables all over the house.

I thought I had the Skittles-dragging-fall-decorations-everything problem taken care of. Wrong! Every single morning since I put up things on Saturday, she has brought leaves, acorns and pumpkins down to my room and onto my bed.

I started locking her downstairs for the night, but I know the exact moment Dad gets up in the morning. At 5:30 the other morning, she jumped onto the bed, into my face with a strand of leaves. This year leaf carrying must be popular!

Dad says as soon as he opens the door she makes a beeline for the corner of the fireplace with the leaves and fall decorations. And then comes right downstairs with it! Silly cat!

The little wagon and pumpkins are on a high bookcase shelf.

I love this wagon and scarecrow!

This is where Skittles picks out all the leaves and
pumpkins she drags all over the place.

Who knows what she's up to there????

Sunday School Christmas

Last Sunday the kids in my Sunday School class presented the Christmas program we have been working on the last couple of months. They sang several Christmas songs and had such a joyous time preparing for it.

some of the kiddos in my class

Christmas program on Sunday morning

You can listen to the soundtrack here:

Here are also some of my Christmas decorations in my classroom at church. The large nativity scene I ordered from Oriental Trading and just love it! It is so cute and very large!

The road to Bethleham on the door was fun to create also. It shows the wise men and shepherds all making their way to see the newborn King. I was struggling to find just the right kind of Bible characters when I recalled that I have an embroidery collection of the Nativity.

Instead of stitching the designs, I converted them into graphics and printed them out. I cut out around them and pasted them on the classroom door. It was perfect!!

Up goes the Fall decorations

Last Friday I was able to get our Fall decorations put up in our house. It was just in time also, because yesterday and today are just downright chilly. It's rainy, cloudy, cool and most certainly feeling like Fall.

the front door

the hallway right inside the door

the dresser in the hall

above the fireplace (one of the best places to decorate!)

the coffee table in the family room

Autumn classroom

What happened with all those leaves, letters and acorns scattered all over the floor? Take a look:

classroom door - each of the acorns have Bible verses
written on them

Sunday School bulletin board