September Acres

Glory to God in highest heaven, Who unto man His Son hath given; While angels sing with tender mirth, A glad New Year to all the earth . ~Martin Luther

This is the view from out front yard this morning. Yes, that is snow in the mountains. Quite the excitement around these parts. Lovely view but none of the hazards of driving in the stuff. And it should be melted by late afternoon. We had lots of rain last night and they said we would see snow at about 2000 feet and we did. This happens every couple of years. This picture was taken about 8:30 this morning. A slightly different view from our drivewary at about 10:45. It is cold and windy today (but sunny). I will likely need to turn the heat on when my husband gets home. It's 65 in the house now and will probably get colder when the sun goes down and he won't like sitting in a cold house. I just bundle up during the day but I am sure I'll enjoy the heat tonight. A cozy fire in the fireplace will be nice, too. LM is outside playing right now. We took Smokey for a walk a little while ago and that's when the wind started kicking up. I love how none of the cold and wind bo...

As this week slowly slips away into 2011 I have been thinking about New Year's Resolutions. Yep, it's that time of year again. I have a love/hate relationship with resolutions as I am sure many other people do. I love the idea of a fresh start but kind of dislike making resolutions because I know that many of them won't be kept. Like the 'I'll lose 30 pounds this year' one. Insert any number in there - it's just hard. Or the 'have more patience' one. Lovely idea for sure but hard to keep up as you go through life and deal with multitudes of people. Or 'I'll exercise more' . That's always a fun one. Because we all love to get up at 4:30 in January, in the pitch dark and freezing cold to run a few miles (add in the coyotes that come down from the mountains each night here in AZ and it is downright scary). How about 'I'll get organized this year' - famous last words, right? If you're like me you have a room that looks ...

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!

Our tree is up and decorated. We have a pre -lit artificial one. We had a real one for the first couple of years we lived in Arizona but they dried out quickly and I always worried about fire safety. Artificial is just easier and we can keep it up longer. And I LOVE the pre -lit aspect, as I was always the one to put the lights on the tree and didn't really enjoy it. We have a mix of ornaments - no one particular style. Just things we have collected over the years. LM made the ones below. The brown ones are an applesauce spice ornament which smells wonderful. The white ones are made from homemade play- doh (she made them in the kids area of our local grocery store). My great aunt gave LM this ornament on her first Christmas. My grandma gave me a bunch of these fluffy teddy bear ornaments when I moved out on my own and had my first tree. The candy cane is a memento from our Polar Express trip last year. I love sitting in the living room at night with just the lights fr...

I finished my mantle and am happy with the way it turned out. Our TV hangs over the mantle so I will spare you those photos. I'll share the 'pretty' part. I put some candy canes in a canning jar here. Simple but pretty. I think I'll be replacing the candy canes soon as my husband has already eaten one ('take it from the back', he said, 'no one will notice.') My mom gave me the pot with twigs for a Halloween tree a few years ago. This year it has been given a new life. LM added the silver balls to the twigs. Last year the balls were used here. My Dillards cake stand (I love the touch of blue) with the silver balls again and the monogram balls from Michaels ($1). Same silver ribbon I used last year. I did spring for the pretty red votives this year - $4.99 @ Kirklands . I made this little advent tree at my scrapbook retreat in September. I am so happy it's finally time to use it. Red vase lifted from my sister's house (also has silv...

Every year I like to have a theme for Christmas. Sometimes it's a 'thing' - reindeer, snowmen, bears. Sometimes it colors - gold and burgundy, red and white, silver and gold. This year I started off with a red, pink and light blue theme. It slowly morphed into a red, white and light blue/candy cane theme. Our tree is usually the same - all of our ornaments collected over the years. The 'theme' usually ends up on the mantels and small vignettes throughout the house. The second year we were married we had moved into a new house and I was so excited about Christmas. We had a beautiful sun porch with windows on three sides over looking the water (it was fabulous). We were on a corner lot so as you drove by our house you could see the lights from the tree through the windows. My sister-in-law and her husband were visiting for the first time and I worked really hard to make everything look nice. I took special care with our Christmas gifts - all wrapped in my go...