Had fun Shopping

We took a little get-away for ourselves before all the holiday preparations start here. We went up north to my brother/sil’s house for 3 days and had a good ole time driving all over going to some wonderful Prim shops and eating at some out of the way places – a fun adventure.
Unfortunately my camera battery died and the other one wasn’t charged.

We headed out to ‘Market Place’ in Tomah, WI to this wonderful Prim shop in a ‘house’ and both floors are packed with goodies. She has reproductions but also buys from local crafters and that’s what we mostly go there for.

I bought a few treasures there and as you can see they all have the same theme going on – I like snowmen and the designer did a great job on them – it’s very dark green grunged wool (might be army blankets).
Not sure where it’s all going until I do my Christmas decorating.

I know these mitten are rather sad looking but I liked them!

And this dress is a grunged muslin or oxford cloth of some kind

We went to a couple other shops in the area but they just don’t compare to Market Place – all reproductions and not as homey and cozy looking merchandise. It was stuff you see everywhere.
Then it was off to have a light dinner and head for home – as you know my hips/legs are killing me right now so I sure didn’t argue to call it a day!

The next day it was up early and off to Ripon, WI to  ‘A Simpler Time’ and as usual we weren’t disappointed. Her shop is packed with lots of beautiful holiday treasures.

I didn’t buy anything large there like the last time I was there but did find some Mercury Glass ornaments and Garland for my new 4 ft. Tahoe tree.

Three Mercury Glass Ornaments

3 Garland sets

And after I checked out my SIL found this cute little basket filled with a Belsnickle Santa mold and beads so I had to go back and buy it too.

At the Tomah Cranberry Mall I only found this cute Snowman head pick which was 25% off.
I’m going to put him in  a crock filled with greens/berries.

We also went to a couple Antique shops and I found some more Melon shaped pudding molds. I got a large and a small.

And a couple weeks ago I received one from Lori (http://loritheblackcrow.blogspot.com/) in my Christmas swap package (the one on the far right)  and lots of other goodies as well.  THANK YOU LORI.
 

And at one of the other antique shops I found this cute screen. It might go outside on the house by the back entry.

So that was my shopping for two days!
We were heading back home on Saturday morning and woke up to this – SNOW …my brother lives on 5 acres of woods and beauty!
I took this picture through the bedroom window at 6:00 a.m. and I’m thinking the windows are tinted because it’s coming up blue, but it was still a wee dark out.  Peaceful isn’t it?

       

Yesterday I ordered a chandelier for our den – the light we have now isn’t very stylish to the house – we need something more in line with our decorations. I ordered it from Carriage House Lighting and Tin Ware.  http://carriagehouselightingandtinware.com/

And a reflector table lamp for ‘I don’t know where’.
 
I think Carriage House has the best and most authentic lighting anywhere.

       

And….yesterday in the mail came my floorcloths from Anne of http://www.humbleheartsandhomes.com/
They still need to lay flat for awhile to let the roll marks smooth out. She got the colors just perfect – it’s just a bit more brick red than it’s showing here – it matches colors in the floor beautifully as well as the wallpaper brick red.

 
Close-up

The entry floorcloth is a 3 x 2-1/2 – a bit more square for the area otherwise it does no good – one step in the door and you are off the rug so this size works beautifully.

Close-up

       

I’m finishing up all orders today and after that it’s free time. (oh, I still have a gift for a friend to do yet…It’s coming Grace…lol)
I set my goal to have them all in the mail by Wednesday and i know I’m reaching it and tonight we’re going with our son and daughter in-law shopping for Alexandra – she made a Christmas list that is very specific – stores, which mall – the list goes on!  (I think she’s an organizer like her Grandma!) but I think I blame it on being 17-1/2 – they know just what they want.

       

Tomorrow my house cleaning lady is coming for the first time…I’m anxious to see how it goes – but even if she doesn’t clean like I would I just can’t do it right now if I don’t want to make things worse.

I know this is a broken record but I’m still hurting – worse than ever in my legs so in on the 17th I start another series of shots – this time it’s going to be for the Sciatic nerve. Pray it works this time. If not there’s nothing else to do except surgery but that’s out of the question.
A blogging friend sent me some information on ‘Nerve Ablation’ which in short is ‘deadening the nerves’ so that is going to be brought up to my neurologist next week.

Okay on that note…it’s off to sewing – see ya!

Karen

Time for myself!

Good morning everyone....well it's darned cold here and I know it won't get much better now that basically WINTER IS HERE - at least temperature wise that is.

I have been keeping up with my website orders and decided that in order to have time for my own decorating, shopping and family needs I am not taking any more Christmas orders.
Orders can be placed but they won't be made or shipped until after January 1st.
I have made up my mind not to push myself so hard anymore - life isn't worth the stress of trying to do ALL THINGS.  I know me, and that's going to be difficult...I am a doer and a mover so changes are hard for me.

I finally ordered a Hooked Rug kit and it should be here by weeks end - I'm really excited because in my free time now I can relax and work on it....then after that I will try my hand at designing one from the wonderful supplies my friend sent me....I just needed something that was complete to start with.

Here's the kit I ordered:

I need a stool to get in because it's so high so It's going to be a cover for the stool at my bed.

We are going up north to my brother/sil's today and will hopefully go to a couple shops - I'll post what I find at the beginning of the week.

So nothing else is happening here that's fun or exciting but wanted to let you all know that I'm not taking any more Christmas orders.

I still have my Christmas decorating to do and start my shopping so that's going to be next week and I'm looking forward to it!

Enjoy your week/weekend everyone

Karen

Craft Show Goodies – Fun with Kids

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I  hope you all did too.
Two of the boys/family went to the in-laws so we had a small gathering but still wonderful…as usual there was enough food for an army but oh it tasted so good. We had leftovers last night but that’s the last I want to see of it. Love it but enough is enough.
Now I’m ready for something else.

We had two of our grandchildren here Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday and had lots of fun planned.

Emily made place cards for our Christmas dinner while Joe played with his Lego’s (his favorite things to do in his spare time)
I had printed out an old time Santa head on aged paper and Emily glued them onto aged tags and then wrote names on – we’ll tie them onto the napkins…all her idea!

 

They also made ‘snow’ – we bought the pack at a prim shop and thought they would enjoy it and they did…we also bought some Winter figurines to use with it. I think you can buy that snow most anyplace, especially at places like Walgreens, CVS and the like…it’s called ‘REAL SNOW’

This is Emily’s – two boys throwing snowballs
 

And Joe’s is the snowman and deer

We also made Marshmallows! What fun that was…messy but fun!
 

Emily had a Mickey Mouse sweatshirt that had shrunk up quite badly so she asked if I could make a pillow out of it so we did that too. I think it turned out adorable and she was a happy camper to be able to still have it in some form.

From sweatshirt…
 

To pillow
 

Now onto my weekend…well, it just started but it started out great.

A friend and fellow blogger ANN from A Hole In The Basket Primitives, from Ohio, is in Wisconsin visiting family for the holiday and she and her husband Kevin came here for the morning.

 
We first exchanged gifts (her husband had made an extra blanket crane and I wanted one and she chose some of my items plus I threw in a little surprise too) then went out for breakfast and then on to a craft show…it wasn’t very good…lots of fleece, painted items and jewelry – hard to find anything fun or Prim…but I did get a PEWTER CREAMER & SUGAR SET…loved the patina on it and it was only $12.00 for the set.
 
but…this was on the other side…now I just think it was horrible to destroy an antique like this! I’ll display it turned around – I wouldn’t use it as a creamer and sugar anyway because of the lead content.  But isn’t the design pretty?
 

We left the craft show and went to the one and only Prim shop near me – Finders Keepers – and I bought a MERCURY GLASS SANTA that stands about 9 inches.

Here it is next to the pewter for size
  Also bought one of these trees (not sure what kind it’s called though – do you know???)  I have a 3 ft. but wanted a taller one too so this is a 4 ft.

On Thanksgiving we gave Jamie a gift for always taking care of the kitties when we go away…my niece makes rag quilts and Jamie loves ours so it was the perfect gift.
 

My goodness – we NEVER go shopping on Black Friday. Never had the desire but Friday we went to Janesville to meet my brother/wife and niece and I wanted Tina to help me pick out fabric for quilts for our two granddaughters…well let me tell you it was a zoo. CROWDED to say the least…LINES OF PEOPLE waiting to pay and even bigger lines of people waiting to have fabric cut.

We finally got to get a number to wait in line…I had F08…they were on E24 and it went to 100 and then started on the next letter.
We had a loooong wait ahead and they weren’t calling off numbers very fast. People had carts heaping (I mean HEAPING) with fleece fabric – they had a HUGE SALE and people were taking advantage of it.

It would have been at least an hour and a half before we would have gotten taken care of – people said they had been in line for over an hour (they had numbers in the E) so we put my fabric back, bought what we had of other things and away we went to lunch to Applebee’s (good choice!).
So my Niece will go back this week and get what I had picked out.

So that’s my long weekend – now I’m ready to finish orders and get the fall decorations put away and start on my Christmas decorating which will be on-going for a week or so…it’s not getting done in one day cuz I just don’t have it in me anymore.

Now getting ready to watch the Wisconsin game…wish us well so we can go to the Rose Bowl !!!

Have a great weekend
Karen

Some of this – Some of that

It’s Saturday afternoon and I have been on the sofa with the heat on my lower back…yes, still at it.

So as I sit here relaxing I am trying to drown out the College Football on TV. Not that I don’t like it or support it, I DO – but there has been ONLY THAT for days now!  Hoping Wisconsin goes all the way and to the Rose Bowl. (Yeahhhhh they won!)
Badger Football - University of Wisconsin, Madison

I’ve been sewing up a storm too – finishing orders and making some new Pillows.
I bought some remnants from Family Heirloom Weaver’s at market in October and didn’t really know what I was going to do with them.

Friday while Doug was at a football game I made 14 of these cuties..several of them are promised out already but will hopefully get some more made after Thanksgiving. I have another red/taupe and a solid taupe left similar to the one shown.

These are the two colors I made – still have to stitch the bottoms

I made a special order one for my best friend Renea – she wanted one with a branch instead.

Yesterday we had some shopping to do and so stopped at Goodwill to see if I could find some Pewter Creamer and Sugars – sometimes they have them but not this time but I did find a darling woven seat double rocker (toy size) and at Christmas I’m going to put my Antique bear on it and a Santa hat on the Bear.
$4.99!!!
 

I put it on my bench for now – looks okay I think

Also found these darling bowls for my kitties dinners ($1.00) and two wonderful Ironstone pieces - a gravy boat and a pitcher (1.00 each)…. White serving pieces go with everything.

Also purchased 4 yards of decorator fabric for our holiday table cloth. When it’s 50% off at JoAnn’s I take advantage of it and the fabric works the best because it’s so wide.
Also we had a 30% Kohl’s coupon and took advantage of it and bought flatware. Plus it was already on sale so they ended up being $22.00 per box. Great deal huh…and we needed some badly – well not badly, just wanted it badly…

I’m showing the larger picture of the flatware so you can see the pattern better – tried to find something rather Colonial looking – this is the closest we could find. Cambridge ‘Andover’ from Kohl’s

Last night we went to Dan DiPaolo’s Open House at the Barn..it’s so festive there and cold but with hot chocolate, wine and treats and wonderful treasures to buy you didn’t even think about the cold. I bought 2 of Dan’s products and had some hot chocolate, went over to the ‘cabin’ and warmed up a bit and got a great picture with Dan. He and Jamey are just the best – great people, friends and talented designers. Thanks Dan for the words of encouragement.
I will show you later what I bought…it’s all packed up in the basement.
(Photos aren’t good…very dark in the barn and outside)


Off we go to the Cabin (Dan’s studio in the making)

Seth David Roth (former corporate chef to Oprah Winfrey) was in the Cabin with some very special delights.
 

Me and Dan
 

Oh dear…this is what happens when a CD gets stuck in your stereo and the door won’t open and it won’t play…59 screws later here it is!
Needless to say I have a new one out of all that! lol

Tonight we are going to our oldest grandson’s 21’st birthday party. I Just don’t know where that time went. Jess basically lived with us the first 6 years of his little life so we got to know him well – he was like our 4th son.

Let me see – what else…can’t think of anything except
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE
GOD BLESS YOU ALL

 

Karen