Do You Feel It? It's Christmastime!

Merry almost Christmas!

~~ I LOVE CHRISTMAS ~~

Not the shopping, not the gifts, not the crowds, not the family demands,

but the FEELING that Christmas brings.

A Few of the Things I Love about Christmastime:

~ I love the settling in of heightened emotions ~

~ The increased awareness of others life situations, both good and bad ~

~ The heart tug to do something for someone else without them knowing ~

~ The need to see a miracle or make one happen in someone else's life ~

~ The choir singing Christmas songs at church ~

~ The early morning Christmas service at church where there's nothing but candlelight lighting a path to the end of the aisleway where there stands a large, lonely cross holding a crown of thorns, draped in a robust purple cloth ~

~  The song Oh Holy Night, particularly, sung by David Phelps ~
(be prepared to cry your heart out)

~ I love that people start to recognize and acknowledge the presence of angels, miracles, and Jesus ~

~ Standing in the window at mom's with a mug of hot chocolate, looking out at the woods waiting for deer to appear ~

~ Cardinals sitting on the branches of holly bushes ~

(has a very special meaning to my family)

~ Decorating the Christmas Tree. Pulling out each ornament and remembering when it was added to our collection, and the memory attached to it. A lot of crying happens while I decorate our tree. ~

~ Seeing my mother's tree for the first time each year ~
(It's always full of memories)

~ Talking with my mom or my husband over coffee in the early hours of Christmas morning about our loved ones that have passed away ~ 

~ Sitting on the porch watching and listening to the birds sing ~

~ Gathering with family in the kitchen to make Christmas dinner ~

~ ........and mama's Japanese Fruit Pie! ~

Oh, I just love so many things about Christmas!

So tell me, what do you love about Christmas?

And so it goes..........

In answer to all of your emails, YES, I AM still alive.

Thank you for caring enough to check in on me. I appreciate all of you more than you know.

I've been extremely busy and just haven't had much time to check in on my own blog, or on yours either for that matter.

I try, really I do, but it seems when I sit down at night to catch up, I fall asleep with my computer in my lap after about 15 minutes.

Yep, I've been that tired. Both mentally and physically.

I would promise you I'll try to post more often, but the reality is that I never know what my time will allow, therefore I won't make any promises.

I'll just say that I'll post whenever I can, and I hope you will still hang in there with me.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For those of you that follow my blog, you know that I/we have been going through a lot of life changes this year.
I sold my business in Colorado, moved 1300 miles across the country with no plan of what to do once we got here, my hubby and I have had a few health issues, and now, he has to have a complete hip replacement in 2 weeks. A knee replacement will follow that in February or March.
In addition, I've gotten into a few work situations that did not turn out to be the way they were presented to me, which has been a great disappointment.

My store? Well...........without going into details, let's just say it was another one of those things.
In order to make a partnership work, you have to do what you say you're going to do. Good intentions are nothing without actions to support them. I did my part, and I'll leave it at that.
________________________________________________________________________________

So..................what to do now, huh? I ask myself this everyday.
We're in a state of limbo, and we're trying to decide what to do next.
Thank goodness my hubby landed a decent job soon after moving here, but make no mistake,
the loss of my steady income is forcing us to live between the forceps.
We aren't doing without by any means, we're just learning to live with less.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The funny thing is, the less we have, the freer we feel, which has led us to the decision to downsize our home.
We're ready for a smaller house, less yard, no extra storage filled with stuff we never use.
I want a simple little farmhouse somewhere in the country.
I want to decorate all the rooms just the way I invision them, and then sell everything else that doesn't fit inside the house.
I'm tired of the baggage. Tired. Finito. Completo. Burned out. Done.

I want to live here. I think I'd be very happy in this house. :)

(Can someone please find me a house like this?)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Do you find that as you get older, you want less, not more?
I crave a simpler life.
I crave it so bad I can imagine it into existence and pretend it's easy living there........

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Please bear with me as I decide what our next move will be. I will be back to normal blogging as soon as life settles back down. I want to give you wonderful posts full of projects and ideas, and I will, but now just isn't the time for me to do that effectively. My attention is required elsewhere.
I'll be caring for hubby, packing up my house in preparation of our next move, and looking for that little farmhouse that will make my life complete. :)

I do have a few holiday posts prescheduled for you throughout the month though, so I won't be completely gone from sight.
_____________________________________________________________________________

I have a strong desire to pretend I'm actually decorating for the holidays, but since I can't, please let me know in your comments if you've posted pictures of your holiday decor so that I go see your house.

Home Decor Series - Sewing - Is Hand Sewing KeepinYou All Twisted Up?

Do you do a lot of hand sewing?

Hemming pants, closing up pillows, sewing on buttons?


If you do, then I'm guessing you spend a fair amount of time frustrated with your thread twisting up, or one thread suddenly becoming 'longer' than the other one. Am I right?

Are you constantly having to stop and unwind your thread to keep it from knotting up?

Well, if you're having this problem, I have a very quick fix. I promise, you'll never lose control of your thread again!

All you need to do is tie a knot in your thread directly at the end of the eye of the needle.

Here we go:

1. Thread your needle.

2. Bring both threads together and wrap around your needle.

3. Bring the end of your threads across your needle and through the loop you just formed.

 (Don't pay any attention to my grown out nails. I told you I've been busy. In fact, this picture is so old now that those nails aren't even there anymore! I'm aunatural at this point!)

4. Pull your knot tight on the needle.

5. Slide the knot down the needle until you're just off the edge of it a bit.
Pull tight. See how that knot is directly at the edge of the needle? That's important.
It'll keep your knot from catching in the fabric.

6. Also important is that your knot needs to be no larger than the thread layers.
If you make a big knot, it will catch in your fabric and break off.

7. See how you can barely tell there's a knot in the threads? That's how yours should look.

And there you have it - hassle free hand sewing!

Try it and see how much easier your hand sewn projects become. You'll thank me, I guarantee it!

And if you're still hand sewing with a single thread and wonder what the heck I'm talking about.......shame on you. :)