Merry Christmas - Baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Angels, Wisemen Images

Safe travels to everyone!!! The road conditions are quite bad here, with first snow, then freezing rain here in Wisconsin. I made it the 15 mile drive in to work regardless. I wish everyone a wonderful Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

I'm impressed ~ Santa has his gifts all wrapped and ready for the big night. Mike did nearly ALL the wrapping!! Thanks hon. Well I did all the shopping, so fair is fair, right?! I baked cookies and candy while he was busy wrapping the gifts on Sunday. I do have a couple gifts to put together and wrap tonight and need to pick up a few things for dishes to make and take to each of our parents for each family's get together, but I'm feeling pretty good that we're pretty much ready for Christmas. Merry Christmas everyone! :)

Wanna See What the Prize Was?

Finally, I think enough time has passed that I can post my black Friday giveaway prizes. I sent out two prizes, each the same with the exception of the sign color - one was burgandy, the other the blue color as shown here. So here is what the winners each received from me: a handpainted stenciled "Sleigh Rides" sign, some prim Christmas hang tags, 4 li'l prim candles, 2 pear shaped tarts, a large prim candy cane, and 2 small wax dipped chenille candy canes tied together with a pine sprig. :)

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Last night the kids and I baked cutout Christmas cookies. We didn't finish with decorating them as it got to be too late, but that will be the fun project for tonight or tomorrow night (Abbie may spend the night with her dad tonight, and if so, we'll wait for her to share in the fun tomorrow night). She was doing better last week as far as her emotions go, but then spent the weekend with her dad and is back to being sad again . . ugh. It seems that now, after over 5 years of being apart, she wants her mommy and daddy together and told me last night that if I wanted her to be happy, that I would get back with her dad. I had to explain to her (again) that I'm sorry Abbie, that's not going to happen, you have to make the best of what you do have and be happy that you have both of us in your life. Crying is not going to help at all. I just don't know what has really triggered this after everything was fine being that we haven't been together since she was 3 years old and she never had these emotional problems about it before. I pray she can find a way to be happy and not let this continue to eat at her. I'm doing my best!

Snowmen!

Well, we had a nice blizzard the night before last through yesterday and now have close to 15" of snow that fell during that time covering the ground. The snow we have doesn't pack the best right now, but hopefully we are able to build a snowman sometime soon ~ if only temps. would rise too being we now have subzero windchill with the actual temp. at 6 above. Just a bit cold I'd say. I'm going straight home after work tonight and relaxing in my recliner bundled in my cozy blanket (of course after making supper, helping kids with homework, baths, tuck in time, etc.).

Winter Children Images

I've been quite busy as of late, as I'm sure most everyone is, afterall, tis the season. :)

One of the issues we've been dealing with is a depressed little girl. I pray she somehow snaps out of this and her mood improves soon, as this has been an issue since at least the start of this school year and is now evidently serious depression as it's increased daily to the point of her crying nearly all day and night, not wanting to go to school (daily), believing she is sick every day - headache, muscle/joint pains, upset stomach, crying to the point of throwing up phlym every morning, etc. I took her to the doctor a couple weeks ago and there is nothing medically wrong and they discourage medication for such in children, so counseling is the route we are trying. I have her talking with a school counselor/psychologist and she also speaks with the school principal whenever she feels the need, and I'm doing everything I know of to try to help her, but it's so difficult - hard for the entire family. I'll be talking with a child psychologist this upcoming week to see if there is something different I could do to try to alleviate her problem and start to feel better. If only it were as easy as flipping a switch. I do know however, that putting up the tree and letting her do most of the decorating last night helped her mood at least temporarily. She's also excited that she gets to help me tomorrow - just her and I - at the next craft show I have. Hopefully she has a good day with me and we make lots of good sales, as whatever I make from these upcoming shows is going towards the kids Christmas presents.

During the past two days we have started getting some snow flurries, so it's beginning to look and feel a bit more like Christmas. I hope we have at least a few inches of snow to cover the ground by Christmas, as right now it's a slight scattering that's actually stuck to the ground. Jacob is at the age this year that he is taking in all the holiday and seasonal sights and loves it! He wants to eat the snow, loves all the Christmas lights and was intrigued when I brought the fresh cut tree into the house the other night. Such a fun age - I know he's going to have fun Christmas morning this year! :) Hopefully Santa can find that train that he knows will make him oh soo happy! (Santa's got to get shopping, and hopefully will be doing so next weekend).

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Black Friday Winners!!

Because there were more than 25 signed up for my Black Friday giveaway, there were two winners in my surprise giveaway drawing. Congratulations to NeeNee of KKL Primitives and Dorreen, Aunt 'Reen ~ you both "caught" a prize!! As soon as I receive your addys, your surprises will be in the mail :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Christmas is right around the corner and I have barely done any shopping yet! Hopefully I can get to that in a couple weeks after a couple of craft shows I have this weekend and the middle of next week.

Have a great day everyone! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you and your families a most wonderful Thanksgiving!

Black Friday Surprise Giveaway!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I've decided it's time I hold another giveaway! :) I will draw one name from those who comment to this post on "Black Friday" - Friday, November 27th. The prize package will be a variety of Christmas/winter related goodies that anyone is sure to love. If there are over 25 comments, I will draw two names, 50 comments then there will be three winners! Simply comment and you're entered. If you wish to post about the giveaway on your blog I'll toss your name in an additional 2 times for doing so - let me know.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone . . . hope you all have nice family plans in place for a nice comfy feast with family and/or friends.

My First Craft Show of the Season

This weekend was my first craft show of the season. It went well. :) Here are a few pics of my booth setup. I was between a couple other booths, so all the blue sheets are from the booth next to mine.

I lowered the price on this arrangement to $20 - lots of lookers - I had 4 of them made - but no one bought . . maybe they'll sell at the next show. Who knows.

Hello :)

I threw this together real quick today . . just wanted something to post and say hi, and wish everyone in blogland a wonderful day :) I'm busy at work and haven't had time to take photos of new things to post . . . hopefully I can do so soon.

Chris Daughtry Concert!!

I found out at the last minute that Chris Daughtry was playing in Madison this past weekend, but it wasn't too late that I was able to get my hands on THE BEST tickets at a DEAL of a price (via eBay no less, can you believe it?!)!! Whoo Hoo!! I haven't been to a concert since my early 20's, but to see Chris live . . I couldn't pass it up - he's my fav! So three friends and I enjoyed the night front and center next to the stage seeing Daughtry Saturday night. I was concerned about getting smashed, but the standing area we were in was limited in number of people so that was not a problem whatsoever - Yay!! I only hope now having gone didn't affect my baby's sense of hearing!

Picture Time

My little girl ~ Abigaile, age 8, and little boy ~ Jacob, age 2. I got the kids outside last night and took a few pictures of them with the fall colors in the background. It seems my lens needs to be cleaned or maybe I need a new camera, as the pics have a fuzzy appearance to them.

Yes, I made my picture smaller on purpose! LOL . . I'm huge enough as it is, so there is no need to emphasize the fact. So anyways, thought I'd share a photo of pregnant me as a few people have wanted to see how big I am - LOL. Abbie took this one for me.

Vintage Halloween Postcard Images

Enjoy!

Taylor's First (Freshman) Homecoming!

She was pretty excited, but called us to come and pick her up early from the dance because it was "boring". Yah, it usually is when you're a freshman, but just wait a few years . . I bet then she'll wish it lasted longer. I made the corsage for her. :)

Altered Vintage Halloween Images

I was playing on my computer a bit, as I often like to do with vintage photos, and came up with these altered images embellished with Halloween clipart. Enjoy!

Shutters Brought to Life

I still want to prim these up a bit by sanding, but thought I'd share a picture of the shutters I decorated over the weekend. I found a set of unfinished shutters at a garage sale for $1 this past summer. So finally I got around to painting (they're actually a dark burgandy rather than black as they appear in the pic) and decorated with the pine cone/pipberry sprig. I might add a li'l something more to them yet.

Halloween ATC

Here's the "Spooky" ATC I put together this past weekend. It's a cool, rainy day . . . sure would have been nice to have been able to sleep in this morning, but alas, work calls my name Monday through Friday (and Jacob calls my name bright and early every Saturday and Sunday, so there's no "sleeping in" for this mamma). Have a great day everyone :)

Altered Bingo Card

I was busy yesterday and got quite a bit accomplished. Today I'll share with you the altered vintage bingo card I made. I have this listed for sale in my selling blog too: http://prim-primitives.blogspot.com/ in case anyone is interested. :)

Tonight is THE big game! Yes, being a "Wisconsinite" I'm a Packer fan . . though even with all the hoopla in Brett Favre's retirement/non-retirement and going to first the Jets and now the Vikings, I'm still (secretly - shhhh . . I didn't say this . . lol) a Favre fan too. I have a feeling that the Vikings may win, but I have to root for my Pack! I'm going to either make homemade pizza tonight or may pick up a couple of pizza's from Pizza Hut on my way home from work. Have a wonderful day everyone :)

Prim Candy Canes

I've been getting things made for an upcoming winter craft fair. Here are some of the prim candy canes I've been working on, though I really don't feel the photo shows them off very well. I'm off to make more right now, then onto a few other craft items :) Hope everyone's enjoying the weekend!

I Adore Marsha's Creations ~ Tumble Fish Studio!

I was a lucky blog winner!! I won a drawing Marsha of http://tumblefishstudio.blogspot.com/ held recently for her blogoversary! Marsha is sooooo very talented ~ I truly adore her work beyond words. I received a limited edition print of her "Pandora's Keeper" piece, shown in the upper right. The other three pieces she sent were postcard prints of some of her wonderful works! I love it all!!!

Canning Homemade Tomato Soup

It's canning season. I've been busy and have canned lots of tomato soup, stewed tomatos, and applesauce. So, I thought since many people ask for my canned homemade tomato soup recipe, I'd share it with you all here. :)

8 quarts of tomatos - leave peeling on, core stem out, cut into quarters

6 small onions - dice

1 stalk celery - dice

Cook in a kettle on stovetop together until soft - then put through colandar.

Take about 3 cups or so of the juice and add 1 cup of flour to the tomato juice, beating with a mixer, then add to the rest of the tomato juice. Doing so this way prevents it from getting clumpy.

Add to the tomato juice:

1/4 Cup canning salt

1 Cup white sugar

1 stick of butter

Bring to a boil, then add to your sterilized canning jars.

It is sooooooooo good! Everyone who's tried this soup raves about how good it tastes.

Happy Birthday Abbie!!

My little girl turned 8 this week! Time sure flies.

~* Autumn Decor & Hustlerfest Fun *~

So I've begun my fall/halloween decorating. I should have moved my truck so it wasn't in the background before taking this photo - oh well . . . notice two of our kittens are peeking in through the window ~ hee hee.

Mike is always complaining that my decor is just too "cluttered" . . but ya know what? I don't care. I like how it comes together. Until I get a larger house, I want to have my favorite things on display, and since we don't have a lot of room to display my things right now, they'll have to be together as they are. If we had more space, I either would have things more spread out or . . just maybe . . who knows . . . I just might be compelled to buy more to fill up the space. LOL I love my prim goodies and I feel the more the merrier, the more homey the feel.

A couple of weeks ago was our local fest. Abbie was in the pie eating contest for the second year in a row, this year coming in third. She's in red in these photos. Next to her in the green top is her cousin, my niece, Kate. Good thing the pie is pumpkin; otherwise, Abbie would not have been in it, as that's the ONLY kind of pie she will eat.

And she also competed in the kids pedal pull. Last year she won her age group. This year, she couldn't really pedal the small tractor as she was too big for it. Imagine an adult trying to pedal a baby tricycle - it's pretty hard to do when it's simply too small for you. Sure enough, for the next age group they brought out a larger tractor that would have worked much better for her. I told her she'll have to try again next year and will probably have better luck.