Goodies in the mail and a few more Christmas pics

                         Look what the mail lady brought me on Friday!!!

Last week I ordered these from Kath at The Olde Weeping Cedar. I was surprised to get them so fast. I luv, luv them! It's a combination of a bundt cake, three antique mold pantry cakes and a dozen of her prim cini mini's. I love them so much that I emailed her with another order. Be sure to check out her blog to see more prim items for sale.

Can you believe these are the same bowls that the pantry cakes are in? The bottom one I got some months ago at Hope Harbour for $2.00 and I bought the one with ivy painted on it for $1.00 yesterday from a vendor that was set up outside CWF.

I started sanding and painting them as soon as I got home.

Here they are on my dining table. Not sure if this grouping will stay but it works for now.

The quilt shelf in the den decorated for Christmas.

I think these Santa's are my favorites so far. I bought them last year at Prim and Proper after Christmas for 50% off.

I almost forgot to fill you in on my turkey cooking experience. As I mentioned on Thanksgiving I was cooking my first ever turkey. I know that seems hard to believe but I'm kinda weird because I don't like to touch raw meat. It completely grosses me out. But, since Chris had to work for a few hours that day the job was mine. I did ok getting it out the plastic wrap but I had to call Chris and put him on speaker for the rest. I mean really, what purpose does putting the neck and giblet things INSIDE the turkey. Really? That was the single most disgusting thing I have ever done. I know some of you are rolling your eyes and thinking pa-lees! But, put yourself in my shoes. There's just something about the way it FEELS! YUK! YUK! And double YUK!

But any who, Ashton woke up and came to my rescue. She injected the sauce into the turkey for me and I finished the rest. And after spending much time on pins and needles the house began to fill up with the aroma of turkey cooking in the oven. And, surprise! Surprise! It turned out juicy and tender and everyone loved it. I was so proud of myself, but boy-o-boy, do I ever hope and pray that Chris is off the next time we cook a holiday meal : ).

Thanks for stopping by,

Till next time,

Kimberly: )

Happy Thanksgiving!!

A quick post today while my green bean casserole cooks to say that I hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving.

Chris is working today so Ashton and I will attempt to cook the turkey. Not sure how that will turn out as it will be our first attempt. I know, all these years and I have never had to be the one to do the deed. Someone else has always cooked the turkey and I've always did the trimmings and desserts, so wish us luck.

Today is also a day for us to give thanks for all the blessings in our lives. Though there are far to many to list them all, I know I am blessed to have the love of my family, a roof over my head, food to eat and a job that I love. I know that God blesses me each and every day that I live and I am thankful.

And, can you believe it? We finally started decorating for Christmas.

Yesterday was a busy day of Dr. Appointments, stops at Harris Teeter, Aldi, Food Lion and Wal Mart to get all the things we need to cook for Thanksgiving dinner. And after a quick bite for lunch we headed to storage to get all the Christmas decorations {it took both cars}. Unpacking everything created a mess but it was an organized mess {there is a method to my madness}. So in between cooking and crossing my fingers and praying the turkey is edible I will be working on the mess I left last night.

I'm off for now to do a bit more cooking and cleaning before Erik, Amber and Ben's girlfriend arrive.

Till next time,

Blessings,

Kimberly : )

P.S. I guess that wasn't such a quick post after all : )

Where do the Years go??

 Wednesday my son Erik turned 21. It seems like only yesterday he was a little boy and now he is all grown up and married. Chris, Ashton and me met him, Amber and a group of their friends at Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner.

This is Erik proudly wearing his wing master crown.

Erik and Ashton.

And Ash after she took his crown.

Erik and Amber {to his left} and their closest friends. We all had a really nice time, lots of good food, lots of laughs. That's it for the birthdays this year, NOW, I can finally give Christmas gift making/shopping my full attention. I always say I have to get past the birthdays first, one in September, two in November. Then I begin the countdown for Christmas.

Is it just me or does it seem that the older your children get the more difficult they are to buy for?

Well folks, I'm off for now to relax {stitch} a bit before heading off to bed.

Till next time,

Kimberly : )

My thrift store treasures

 Last Wednesday I stopped by Hope Harbour Thrift Store to look for goodies. I found a couple of things that I plan to paint but the best find was a pair of pewter candle holders for only two bucks!

For now they are on the dresser in my bedroom but I'm not sure if they will stay there. I love pewter so I am always on the hunt for it when I go to my favorite thrift shops and primitive stores.

This is a close up of the runner that  Karen from KM Primitives made for me earlier this year. The space on my dresser is narrow because of the mirror that sits on top and she was able to make one that fits perfectly from the measurements I emailed her. She also sent me some sample colors of the felt so I could choose something to coordinate with the quilt in my room. I love, love it and eventually hope to order small runners for my night stands to match.

This is what I'm working on this week, it's another Jenny Hoffman design. I'm stitching the design on each end of a 14 count aida cloth runner for my coffee table.

Here is a close up of the design. I know it's a bit stark white right now but not for long. Once finished I'll tea stain it and bake it a bit for that aged look. I can't wait to finish it!

Till next time,

Kimberly : )

A few more finishes

 Good evening blog friends. I thought I'd post a few more finished projects while waiting for our pizza. I know, healthy dinner, right? What can I say? Sometimes it just works when you've had a busy day at work.

 Thankfully tomorrow is my day off so I should be able to work on a few more projects. Tomorrow is also my son Erik's 21st birthday. The years seem to go by faster as I get older. Funny how it works like that.

I think this is my favorite pattern from Simple Goodes Stitched by Jennifer so far. My friend Christina has a birthday this month and I think I'll stitch one up for her along with a couple of ornies. I love hand made gifts, they're more personal.

My  BFF Melissa has a birthday tomorrow so these are for her. These are freebies from Sampler Girl and Primitive Bettys. Last year she really like the paper mache ornaments I painted for our tree so I thought I'd paint a couple for as well.

Working on all these Christmas ornaments really has me fired up to decorate the house {not that I needed any help in that department}. I think I go prowl around in storage tomorrow and slowly bring things in and get an early start .

Well Chris is home from a long day at work and I think it's pizza time.

Till next time,

Kimberly : )

A few finished projects

 I hope every one's week is off  to a great start. We had a very busy day at the animal hospital, lots of new puppies. Some only a few hours old. Needless to say, the day went by in a blur.

 I wanted to jump on here to do a quick post to show some of the things I got finished last night and tonight when I got home from work.

One is this freebie from the Primitive Bettys blog. If you want a quick fix, you'll love this  pattern, it stitches up fast. Be sure to stop by and visit her blog and check out her patterns free for you to copy and save as well as those she has available for purchase.

This is a Jenny Hoffman design that I got back in the summer and stitched up for my CWF friend Karen for her birthday. She has an Americana room so I thought this would be perfect for her. After I get my Christmas x-stitch patterns caught up I gotta make one for myself.

I love this little pillow, truer words have never been spoken. This one, I believe is a Sampler Girl freebie {forgive me if I'm wrong about this}. There are a lot of great patterns to be found on the Sampler Girl blog as well. I don't think I'll ever reach the end of my "want to stitch this pattern" list. But I believe that is part of the fun.

There are still several more projects to show you later but for now I'm off  to get ready for bed and do a bit of stitching before turning in.

Till next time,

Kimberly : )

My productive weekend

 Good Sunday morning blog friends! I hope everyone is having a great, safe weekend. My weekend has been very productive. I've been wanting  to change my curtains in my dining and living room for a while now but couldn't decide what I wanted. While shopping at Hobby Lobby on my lunch break one day I found a country red check homespun fabric that I liked and at $2.99 per yard with 30% off I decided to make my own curtains.

 So yesterday I stretched all 9 yards of fabric down my hallway and started measuring and cutting.

And surprisingly it only took a few hours and before you knew it I had some new country curtains.

But as all of you know, once you make one little change, you're suddenly in the mood to change other things around. You know, move this here, move that there. Take this down, well you get the idea.

So this is what I came up with so far.

I found the wooden sconce this past Wednesday at Hope Harbour {one of my favorite thrift stores} and I bought the pineapple candle at Prim and Proper {one of my favorite country stores} which also happens to only be a couple of miles from my house.

I also found this candle holder at Prim and Proper several months ago. It has traveled around the house a bit and for now has came to rest on the quilt shelf that I hung yesterday. But week after next it will change yet again when I start decorating  for Christmas. I've been in the mood to decorate since before Halloween but I thought people would think me a bit weird if I started that early.

So I've been keeping myself busy stitching away on things to use as pin keeps, ornaments,  pillows etc., etc.,

Today I spent quite a bit of time tea staining and baking some of my finished stitching.

Some I will keep but several of them are birthday gifts for  two of my good friends from CWF. I'll post pics of the finished projects later this week as well as some of other things I've moved around in the house and some other goodies I found last week at Hope Harbour.

 I'm off  for now to do some sewing while the mood is still with me. Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,

Kimberly : )

Sweet 16!

 I hope everyone is having a great weekend. It has been a awesome and busy weekend here in NC.
Yesterday my baby girl turned 16. I can't believe how fast she is growing up.

As you can see she got a little cake in her face, lol. We spent the day cleaning and decorating. She had a small group of friends over for snacks, pizza, movies and a dance marathon on Wii that went on for several hours. They had a lot of fun challenging each other to dance offs. After exhausting themselves they settled down to watch scary movies. It wasn't a very large party, just a small group of friends getting together and having fun.

Today has been a lazy, relaxing day so I've had the chance to get out a couple of patterns from Primitive Bettys, Liberty Primitives and Simple Goods Stitched by Jennifer that I want to finish for gifts and for myself as well. I'll post pics once I get them tea stained and framed or sewn into pin keeps.

That's all for now, back to my stitching.

Till next time,

Kimberly: )