Behind The Ornaments

This year as I put the ornaments on the tree I felt very sentimental. Besides the glass balls and the Hallmark ornaments I have these special few. Many of them are handmade by myself or someone else so maybe you can get some ideas of your own.

1. Homemade ornament from a friend.
2. Old family photo of me and Jim with our kids when they were little. Makes me :)
3. Cory's kindergarten picture ornament.
4. An ornament I made using those whirly "dealies" that come off a tree.
5. My mom made these about 25 years ago and gave them to me.
6. Homemade ornament from the PTA.
7. Photo ornament of our dog Duke who passed away about 6 years ago.
8. This is a cute magnet made from a pop bottle cap. See #20 also.
9. This was made by the PTA from a tongue depressor. I always thought it was cute.
10. Another from the PTA.
11. Photo ornament of the kids when they could kinda stand each other.
12. I'm sorry I don't remember who made this one. She is a very sweet angel made of lace and yarn.
13. My friend Julie made this for me last year. It is felted.
14. James' kindergarten picture ornament.
15. An ornament made by Cory when he was in grade school. We painted on tree limbs.
16. Something sent home with one of the kids from school. Went on the tree ever since.
17. Another PTA creation.
18. I made these candy canes one year. They are kinda ugly, I know.
19. Another flop of mine. A snowman kit made this year.
20. See #8 for it's sidekick.
21. An ornament I made one year.
22. My sweet Grandma Bessie made this one for me.
23. Another PTA creation. 3 grown kids from the same school I'm surprised I don't have more! They always did such a nice job too!
24. A painting on a tree limb by James when he was very young.
25. Brandi painted a cat on her tree limb.
26. Canvas snow woman I made one year.....maybe 10 years ago or more.
27. An ornament my Dad made for us.
28. This sweet ornament was actually our Christmas greeting. I put it on the tree and it just goes up each year with all the ornaments. I don't know how old it is but my aunt that made it died almost 10 years ago. I'm glad I kept it when I did.

Ornament Received!

I received my ornament last night from my ornament exchange partner Kathleen Walck from KATYDID AND KID. It is a really beautiful felted ball. I have not heard if she has received mine yet but I hope she likes it too. I intend to leave mine out year round as I think it look fabulous in my kitchen. :) Also, Karri received the ornament I sent her and posted it to her blog The Daily Be!

What a fun couple of days. Jim and I had everyone over for Thanksgiving. This has been my 4th year to house the family for Thanksgiving and I have to say the most relaxing. Other than an outburst from my little sister that was very irritating and directed at my precious dog (which I've already forgiven her for and so has Val) it all was great. I make French cookies every year at Christmas time to give with my gifts. They are alot of work so this year I bought extra supplies to make a ton of cookies and I had whoever wanted to help, help and it went awesome! My brother in law even ran the mixer for all the batches. What teamwork!
We had 3 cookies presses going and it still took a couple of hours.
Every family took home some to give away for Christmas gifts as well!

Also, my grandson and my greatneice met for the 1st time. How cute that was! She is adorable anyway. She wanted to touch him but was afraid. Here is a close up of The Touch.

Eventually she was kissing him! Here she is wearing a hat my little sister made. Check out those eyes! Wow!
On Friday my Mom called and wanted Jim and I to run up north with her and my step dad Jerry. We went to an Amish community and I got some pretty cool stuff. I LOVE anything Western and this store was filled with it. I would love to own a store like that. My mom bought me a lantern type light which I thought she was buying for her house and gave it to me at the end of the day for hosting Thanksgiving each year. How sweet and wonderful! I'll treasure it always! Then we go to have dinner with my friend from New Orleans as she was up visiting her parents. We sat in a pizza shop for over 2 hours talking! I'm glad I brought her hubby a gift (he collects anything with fish or fishing and I found some artist playing cards with fishing lures on each card) he was very patient while we gabbed! Two more days in my weekend so I hope to make them equally as great! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend as well!!!!

Paybacks arn't always hell *smile*

In my last post I have a video where I was picking on my husband with Valentine being a "willing" participant. Well, he has been babysitting all this week and look what the cute, funny man did!

Charms in the mail!

I mailed my Christmas charms!! If you gave me your address and you don't get one soon let me know and please let me know if it arrives broken because I really don't want that so I will send another with even better packing! If your my blog follower and would still like to have one please email me your address to staffbsah@yahoo.com

Tonight I came home from work and relaxed by watching the Antique Roadshow. I love that show! I think I would of even loved it if I was in 2nd grade. I've always been drawn to old things & wonder where they have been and the stories they could tell. Tonight was a great one. It was an old 18K cigarette box from the turn of the century that had diamonds and blue enamel. Beautiful! It was traded for a meal at a restaurant that belonged to the woman's mother. She gave the man 3 meals instead. It is mysterious who the man could of been with this Courtier of Paris box and how he ended up hungry enough to trade it.

In the meantime I had to tease my husband by taking this video. Starring Valentine of course! Mute the music below so you can enjoy! I may try to perfect it even better...she was just so excited over the food. That's my girl!

Ready for the Holidays

My craft show is over. Not a huge money making success but I did get to spend 2 full days with my buddy Chriss (we did it together) and I met a new friend there named Candice which is priceless. Guess I'll get busy now and photograph what I have left and create an Etsy account. I also will get my Christmas charms in the mail for all my blog followers who responded to my last post and one to my ornament exchange friend in Pennsylvania! I just think that is so fun! Can't wait to see my ornament. I came home last night to this giant box and my first thought was that she had sent my ornament already, and my 2nd thought was "my gosh, it's huge." (the box was pretty good size.) Then I seen the return address and it was from my Aunt Nancy. I had taken Senior pictures of her son about a year ago when my uncle was out of work and they were struggling with money. Her and my uncle have both been working for a few months now so she sent me a really awesome leather Relic purse and a Thank You card. I was very, very surprised and thought that was so sweet of her to do! Made me smile big! :)

I didn't get to babysit my little grandson on Friday because of the show but I did have him for a few hours on Thursday. He is starting to get a fuller face. Can't wait until he starts interacting with me and actually smiling! I'm glad I'm so in love with him because we see him alot.

We are still having to fork out the funds for almost all of his mommy's bills which I totally do not agree with but have just kept my feelings to myself as talking to my hubby about them doesn't seem to do any good. She has a fairly new car that she has not been able to afford for since January. I wanted the car to be put up for sale and help her by getting her a good cheap used car. Instead my husband keeps paying the car payment, the insurance, the tickets she keeps getting and whatever maintenance arises. We could of bought her a great used car with all that money we have forked over. That all just makes me sad. I was a single mother for 6 years and I worked my tail off, never took welfare or got child support and didn't borrow money. I did without all the extras. She is living with Coltons dad who really doesn't seem to help her and she is not motivated to better herself to find decent work. They just installed satellite when they are struggling with money. The whole things makes me angry. Sorry, just had to vent. Guess I'll sign off and start looking for my turkey recipe!

My blog followers are so charming!

I would like to send each of my blog followers a charm for Christmas this year. If your interested please email me your name & address to staffbsah@yahoo.com and I will have it to you before Christmas day. It's almost been one year since I started this blog and I have really enjoyed the friendships I have made along the way! Thanks to you all!! Hugs! Stacey

Charms ready to be soldered. This is a joke between my sisters and me so I made a 1st Born, a middle child and the above. If they don't sell my sisters will be getting one for Christmas! lol I am the middle child BTW.

One of 15 hats (all different & very cool!) that will be in my show next Sunday. My little sister can really sew!

I soldered several earrings. I figure if they don't sell at the show I'll post on Etsy and if I can't sell them there I will have a variety to choose from for myself! :) This doesn't show real well since I took all these photos with my cell phone. I added charms to several things so that I can display them at my booth.

A fishing charm on a cutting board.

He loves me, loves me not charm.

I'm going to fill this empty Starbucks bottle with gumballs. If I don't sell it it's going in my office. It has a crying baby on the front and "waah waah". This is a blurry closeup of a vintage postcard charm and a cool old bottle from the Goodwill store.

A better view of the above mentioned bottle and charm along with a sprig of tree with Christmas charms on it. I think it will make a good display. I'll take better pictures with my camera when I get more organized. Just wanted to give you a glimpse of what I have been up too..

Update

We have had beautiful weather here in Missouri...sure unusual for November but we are loving it!! I babysat my new Grandson for 9 hours on Friday. He was so good. My sister and I tried to take him to lunch and that was the only time he had a crying fit. Didn't want Grammie to eat I guess. I have taken some really great pictures that I can't wait to post. My computer is down again so I'm using my hubbies lap top to post so I don't have any pictures to upload at the moment. I soldered several hours yesterday and have several things ready for my sale in a couple of weeks. I'll post lots of photos of that as well!

I'm participating in the Ornament Exchange for Bloggers! Join me! What fun!

Hope everyone has a great week! Happy Monday!

Getting ready for my first show

I have been very busy getting supplies ready for my first craft sale. It is the weekend before Thanksgiving and if I do not do well there I will take everything and create an Etsy site with it. I have also taken some photos for people that I have been busy editing and making c/ds so my blogs have suffered. Ill post some art work soon thou! hugs to all!

Shop Cat

This little girl was in a jewelry shop in New Orleans. I love the look on her face. Total indifference. A "just don't bother me" look. I paused outside the door long enough to capture this photo.

This past weekend we went on a haunted tour of the Marshall house & jail on the square in Independence, MO. It was very interesting! I didn't realize how much trauma went on there in the past, especially around the civil war days. It was creepy, since we were there at night and the only light was a flash light. Besides all the ghost stories our guide did say that tourist will frequently see a cat in the house curled on a bed, perched on a window seal or just strolling around like it owns the place. A cat haunting......now that is my kind of haunting! (No litter box to change) lol

I hope everyone had a fun and candy-filled Halloween night and you didn't meet any boneheads!