Changes

So how personal do you get on your blog? Do you just let it hang out there indiscriminately or do you edit edit edit and keep it unemotional? I have been debating this for a long time. I have friends and am a fan of several blogs that are more personal about their lives and that's probably why I like to read them. But then again I do like the other blogs that show their interior talents in and out doors.

Our family is going through a major change in location. After living and enjoying our home

for 12 years we have moved. We are in escrow right now with our former home and

I am so happy for the family that is moving into our home. They are actually the daughter

and son-in-law of our neighbors. They have a 3 year old daughter and 4 1/2 month old

girl and boy twins. It's a new adventure for them to have their first home and

its a new adventure for us. We have been very blessed and that is an understatement. I firmly believe to my very core that we have a Heavenly Father that knows us individually and loves us as a Father loves his child, so much that he knows our needs. I believe that

if we are obedient to his commandments and strive to do what is right, He will bless

us, I can't stress this enough. I am not kidding when I say that I wake up

each day thanking him for my many blessings. Sometimes, (scratch that) I have been

thinking very recently that I can't believe the blessings that our family has been blessed with. It's like a dream that I'm in and I can't believe it's happening or I'm in disbelief and I hope that

I am worthy of them. I want to be. I will work my darnedest to make sure that

I am worthy of them. Do you ever wonder when a blessing comes out of no where, it just floors you?

And another thing, Last year I took up the "Face Book Read the Book of Mormon Challenge" so I made a point every morning before work to read aka listen to the scriptures. I

finished Christmas Morning. I feel that by making that effort, I felt so blessed and at peace because of it. This year I know that I need to

do the same. It's a new year, new challenges, new opportunities and blessings await.

The EFY theme for 2002 was this song for the youth:

Stand in Holy PlacesIn a sea shifting values

Tossed on every wave

While the winds wail around me

I will not be afraid To call out for my captain

To calm the waves in me

When I stand a little taller

Its only then I finally see

Chorus:

I stand in holy places

Protected from the storm

Anchored safe in harbor

Tough my sails are ripped and worn

I stand in holy places

And I will not move

Until the Lord has come

And says Well done

He is the hope

I hold on to

In holy places

There is a harbor in His holy house

An anchor in His grace

That steadies in the waves of doubt

And in every holy places

No matter where I travel

His spirits guiding me

With the Lord as my captain

There is a peaceful port in me

I hope I can do the same.

Wrapping up 2011

So this year I tried to go all natural in my wrapping and not spend any money on paper or
ribbons and bows. I first started out taking some of my old wrapping paper
and reversing it and using the white side. As you can see just below a small peek
of color on the present on the right of what it actually is. But then for the rest I used
packing paper that I had bought from Walmart. It's kinda off white and I think it looks better. You can get packing paper for so cheap and it comes in large squares. I think you can get like 140 really large squares for $9 bucks that's more bang for your buck in wrapping.

We had a wedding this year and burlap was the trend so I've been using up my burlap and hemp twine as ribbon. As for the gift tags, I got this idea from a shop we visited a week ago. They were selling vintage type gift tags for $4.00. Yep one gift tag for $4.00, okay so
I caved and bought one, thinking I'll use it on my mom's gift, she deserves something
special. But I got to thinking, how hard would it be to make my own? I'm always doing that.
I may not come up with the original idea, but I love to duplicate it for cheap or rather nothing.
And that is what I did with all my gifts here.

At first I just went on Yahoo, yeah I'm still using Yahoo, and just typed in Vintage Christmas images, and then 1910 or 1920 girls black and white images. I just copied and pasted them on
word and then cropped them to fit, printed them out on regular paper and
used some of my cardstock, embellished them a little with glitter, stamped a hole on the
top and waa la, gift tag.

I started thinking, hey I can really personalize these by copying my hubby's and daughter's pictures in black and white and making them into gift tags. So That's him above from a picture on our honeymoon in Mexico 22 years ago. He was a cutie, or I should say he still is.

This gift tag above is how this whole thing started, can you believe I paid $4 bucks for that thing? And I ended up using it on my daughter's gift instead and made an original one of my own for my mom.

This gift tag is of my daughter Cece, she was Audrey Hepburn one year for Halloween and it was already black and white. I decided to just plant it directly on the wrapping paper and embellish it a little with glitter and the ribbon is just raffia I had laying around.
I hope you have a wonderful Christmas. I have so much to be thankful for but most of all I am thankful for our Savior, Jesus Christ, the son of God. He is our elder brother. He loves us more than we can ever appreciate. Remember to keep Christ in your Christmas.

many blessings

'georgie'

Paying it Forward I hope.

Every day should be a day of thanksgiving and taking the time to do something for someone, at least I try to even if it is a small gesture. We live in beautiful Apple Country and every fall everyone in the world, (at least it seems so) migrates up to the foothills where we live to come for apples and everything and anything made with apples. I love it. Our town gets gets busy, people seem
to be in happy moods.
Some time late October is was another
great Fall day, the sun was shining, the air was crisp, perfect for a
Hot Chocolate. I convinced my hubby to go to Apple Hill (I know normally us locals do
the Hill during the week, cuz it's usually crazy busy on the weekends, with
all the tourists. ) but before we did, I wanted a Hot chocolate, so we went through
the drive-thru at Starbucks.
There was a pretty good line so after we placed our
order there were still two cars ahead of us waiting for their order. As we sat waiting,
Hubby said " you know I've heard of people paying for the order of the person/car behind them
before, just because. " Well you know me, I quickly chimed in and " said, we ought to do
it, I mean instead of just talking about it, let's do it!" So as we got up to the window
Hubby and I kept going back and forth, should we? shouldn't we? And of course
I kept saying, Yes! Come on, it will be a nice surprise for them, whomever they are.

Of course I looked back through my mirror to see who we were surprising. They looked like a
nice little family, a dad and mom and I could see there was a child in a car seat
in the middle of the back seat.
Hubby would make up conversations that he thought they
were having, and he even thought maybe they were fighting, he was joking of course.
Side note: does your hubby when people watching, make up conversations that he thinks they
are saying, with different voices?

Any whoo,
We got up to the drive-thru window and as the young girl took our money
and was handing our drinks, we told her that we would like to pay for
the car (suv) in back of us.
She went "awe" that's so nice. And ran their
total, it came out to be $9 and some change, It was more than our order.
What!?
No, just kidding, that's okay, it felt good. As we drove away
hubby wanted to sneak around the corner and watch their expression, but
I told him "no, let's just get going and be anonymous."
So we
left the parking lot and headed up to the hill. As we were driving away
I said, maybe they'll pay it forward for the next car, and so on and so on,
creating the whole domino effect. Who knows.
I have to say it felt really good!

p.s. today would be my father's Birthday. Happy Birthday, Dad!
I love you!!

"georgie"

Giving Thanks

"Welcome to our home".

A couple of months ago I planned to have an early
Thanksgiving dinner with our family because we all couldn't get together
on the actually day due to some of us going in different directions on the actual date.
So out went the invitations in the mail, giving everyone plenty of time to respond.
The date November 19th.

This was the morning of. Our newly married daughter got up and grabbed the camera and went about taking pictures of the beautiful morning. It had rained the night before which left everything so fresh and clean. This is our driveway as you come up to our house.

I love living in the foothills the colors are spectacular, the reds and oranges on the trees are so vibrant.

An hour before our family arrived I enlisted my hubby to help me with making some arrangements for the tables. Mind you this is not my forte. I don't know if you remember a while ago I was under our
little house doing some plumbing work, and while I was there I found a whole bunch of large jars in a box, the newspaper that was in the box was dated 1986, I think it was. I love old things. I know that 1986 isn't that old, but the jars were. Apparently who ever lived there used these large jars to store things like alfalfa, tangerine, rose hips and mint leaves things like that. I washed a few of them thinking they would come in handy, such as this day.

A few weeks ago our youngest daughter helped me make these name cards. I have some scrap book paper and we just went through them looking for colors of the Fall that would go. We kind of made it up as we went, coming up with this idea. Believe me very simple. All of the supplies with things around the house. It didn't cost us a thing, I know my hubby would like that.


16 Servings.

Back to our table arrangements, just some

apples we picked off our tree, some pomegranates and of course the vibrant cuttings

from our Maple and Apple trees. I can't get over how beautiful the colors are, like red on fire.

I had to add a little surprise of Christmas by adding an ornament to our water carafe of course "C" for our last name.

The burlap fabric I picked up a couple of months ago from Walmart. I just took the fabric and cut it in half length wise, no sewing, yeah!

The "Special guest" of our dinner, Mr. Tom Turkey himself all 22 lbs of him. At 325 degrees and 5 1/2 hours he was just right.

From our family to yours, I hope you have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

georgie

Oranges and Pomegranates

When I say Oranges I don't mean the fruit.

Check out those Orange couches,

my daughter's find at a local 2nd hand store a few months ago.

They are acutally pretty comfortable and were barely used.

I checked the tag, and yep straight from 1980. They must have been in an

extra room and the former owners must not have had kids because the cushions

aren't broken in. Score!

We've been moving them around a bit, first had them together and now to

change things up, we have separated them. And the white" trunk was

formerly green that I dragged from the basement. It use to house the kids games years

ago, then it was storage for sleeping bags. A couple of months ago

I decided to paint it white and use it here.

This table has served us well. We bought it from a local antique store

11 years ago and it has 2 extra leaves so it fits 10 for dinner

very well. They are hard to come by.

My Ikea dining chairs, I have been acquiring a little at a time. I'll

buy a few, My sweet hubby will put them together and wait a couple of months

till I can afford them again and get a couple more. I have 6 now, but

ideally I would love to have eight. Maybe next year.

Take care

"georgie"

Thank a Veteran!

I am thankful today for all those who have fought for freedom on my behalf.

I am grateful to live in a country that gives me the freedom to worship who and how I please.

Next time you see a Vet, thank them.

11/11/11

"georgie"

Family is everything

One of the best days of my life. All of us together, I couldn't ask for anything more. I wish we could be together all the time but alas they grow up and have their own families and move away.
I'm feeling a little melancholy tonight.
Maybe it's because of the season, I don't know. I do know that I miss my grown up kids and especially the little ones.
I have a picture of my grandchildren on my desktop at work and here at home just so I can see their cute little faces every day.

I am so thankful for my family, for my children. I love them dearly. The best role I ever had was to be a mom. Nothing tops it.
My children have brought me so much joy. Don't get me wrong, they have brought me to tears too, but it's all been worth it.

I love you Luke, Cheri, Mackenzie and Cecelia.
I am also very thankful for the great people they have chosen to be their mates. Maya, (Luke), Chris (Cheri) and our newest son-in-law, Jared, (Mackenzie).

I would be remiss if I didn't thank my dear husband, David. He is the love of my life and the level head that the kids go to when their mother is not. Thank you David for sticking with me through it all.

"georgie"

Fall Mantel

Remember the frame I was talking about? This is her, mirrored and all.

I think "she" looks great if I do say so myself. Just think, I found her in the back of

a second-hand store collecting dust. Total cost frame, mirror and labor from our

local Glass store, $35.

Here's my Mantel now in honor of Fall.

White pumpkins have been hard to come by due to the shortage back east.

I have found other blogs where some very creative she-ladies are painting their pumpkins

all sorts of colors, like white, blue, copper, even polk-a-dots.

In keeping with my coastal theme I kept my shells and small bits of drift wood

in the scene.

These little albino pumpkins are sooo cute.

Have a great day. I have another DIY project in the works, can't wait to show you.

"georgie"

More DIY

I don't know what it is but I can't do enough DIY projects. A few weeks ago I bought a large frame from a consignment store in town. I really liked the frame and I knew I could do something with it. The Picture/Framer store in town didn't give me a good vibe, he said that he couldn't really use it if I wanted to mat a picture, so I went on my way. Then as I was "blog hopping" the other night I saw what this gal did with her mantel for the "Fall" and it gave me the idea to put a mirror in my frame. So First thing this morning I dropped it off at our Local Glass place and they're putting a mirror in it as I speak. I can't wait to see it and show you'all.

Stay tuned............

"georgie"

p.s. if you would like to learn more of what I believe check out

this site:

http://mormon.org/