A little bit of Christmas

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. I've been doing a bit more Christmas decorating around the house. I started the day before Thanksgiving and still haven't quite finished. But I wanted to share a few pictures of some of what I've gotten done so far.

I love these three Snowmen, I bought them a couple of years ago at Country Comes to Town.

I'm so excited to decorate for Christmas this year now that we are in our house and have more room to decorate. I can finally show you a full picture of our tree.

I am really excited to finally have enough room to use this antique German sled that Christopher had stored in his attic.

BUT, I am the most excited to show you my new Snowgirl that I just received in the mail. Kimberlee from the Patriot Homeplace blog was selling a few Christmas item recently and I just had to have her. I luv, luv her!

My little black cabinet in the dining room with my Santa's that I purchased nearly twenty years ago for Heilig Meyer furniture store. They sold a different one each week around Christmas for $1.99 each.

My little school desk.

And this is the grouping on top of my little school desk.

That's it for now, I'll be back soon with more Christmas around our house and a lot of Hope Harbor goodies.

Till next time,

Kimberly : )

A GREAT giveaway!

Good evening everyone, just wanted to get on here and let you know that  Tammy over at aprimitiveplace blog is having a great giveaway and the best part is that she will be drawing three names. The lucky winners will win a pair of these:

Don't cha just love them??

Much luck to everyone!

Till next time,

Kimberly : )

Happy Wednesday!

 What a great day here in Fayetteville! Mid 80's, windy, perfect for having the windows up to let the fresh air in and no sign {yet} of the thunderstorms mentioned on the Weather channel last night.
Been doing a bit of house work after my doctor's appointment so I decided to take a quick break  to jump on here to show a few more pics from around the house. We've been in the house for five months now and it is coming along slowly. I'm taking my time with the decorating as I go through bins and boxes that both Christopher and I had stored for two years after we got married and moved from both of our three bedroom houses into a small three bedroom apartment for what we thought would be a brief stay while we searched for a house that would enable us to keep my daughter in the same school after the county did a redistrict. Needless to say two long years later we are finally getting settled in and are LOVING have a yard, privacy once again and a nice neighborhood 2 miles from my daughters high school and within walking distance of my stepsons middle school.
I know enough blah, blah for now and on to the pics I mentioned.

Now that I have much more space to fill I've been hitting the thrift store in search of the "perfect" piece. As always you never know what you'll find.

I was lucky enough to find this pewter plate at one of my favorite shops, Hope Harbor for only .75 cents! Can you believe that? Yay me!

Feeling inspired I then went to Goodwill where I found this set of canisters for only $3.66! Luv, Luv!

This is my little cabinet I found last year at Salvation Army for only $2.99. Amazing what a little bit of black paint and sandpaper can do! Next week the display will change for Christmas. I'm sooo excited to get the Christmas decor out. We finally have room for our big tree and  a porch to decorate.

My crock with the Tallowberries my prim friend Sherrie gave me sits next to a primitive green cabinet that I got at Country Comes to Town. I will post pics of the cabinet soon, I'm still working on filling it with goodies.

This is one of the cross stitch patterns I am currently working on. The booklet is called Through the Seasons. I know it's not primitive but I just love it and hope to do all four so I can change them out with the seasons. My list of projects to be stitched keeps growing. Do any of you ever get up on your projects?

Well I'm off for now to catch up on some laundry folding and stitching.

Till next time,

Kimberly: )

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend and enjoying this cooler weather. I was surprising to wake up to frost on the ground this morning.

This post will be mostly pictures. A lot has been going on these past few months but more on that later. For now I want to share a few photos of things around the house now that I am finally getting around to a bit of decorating.

I love that we have a fireplace to decorate again.

I think this banner I ordered for Yvonne at the folkartbythecracklingcrows blog is my favorite. I have admired her banners for a long time and when I saw this one I knew I had to have it. It's great for Halloween and Thanksgiving.

I found both of these pumpkin dolls at TJ Maxx a couple of years ago after Halloween for $2.oo each.

Quilt shelf in the dining room.

I love this little chair. Christopher has had it since he was a baby.

This is my dog Harley's cradle decorated for fall.

This is the top of our tv cabinet in the den.

This is my little that stays out all year. The decoration change throughout the year.

That's all for now. I'll be back soon with more pics from around the house. I'm off for now to work on some cross stitch projects for Thanksgiving. I don't think I'll ever get caught up because I keep adding to the list.

Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,

Kimberly : )

Quiet moment

It's getting late this hot Tuesday night. The house is quiet, Ben is at work and Christopher has fallen asleep with Jason who was hearing noises as he tried to fall asleep. The dogs Baby, Harley and Coco have even left me for sleep.
Funny how the mind wanders sometimes. It has been quite a summer for us to say the least. We have been in our house only two months and the time has passed quickly. It seems only yesterday that we made the decision to move from our comfy apartment by the lake after if flooded twice in less than two weeks due to the pipes in the walls leaking.
On June 10th Ashton left for her second summer in Italy with her dad and step mom.

Ashton in San Moreno.

And in Pompeii.

She visited Tuscany, Rome, San Moreno...

Pompeii and Lucca, just to name a few. And I'm very excited to say she comes home tomorrow night. She only got to walk through the house a few hours before she left for Italy.

We moved into the house mid June, just a couple of days before my 43rd birthday {am I really that old?} and a few days after that I wound up in the ER for 12 hours and then a hospital stay for three days. Nothing really major, just another sign that I'm getting older. A couple more weeks of being home sick with a bad sinus and eye infection {who gets sick in the summer anyway} Really?

Add to all of this the painting and tweaking of the house, going through a garage full of things Christopher and I have accumulated through the years. I think it's safe to say we are both pack rats, border line hoarders {not really}. Ahhh, it has been quite a busy summer. There is so much more to add but I'll save that  for another post. Time for sleep, I want to get up early and make sure Ashton's room is perfect for her.

Oooooooooh, I almost forgot, this is Coco our {Ashton's} rescue puppy....

Her story to follow later.

Till next time,

Kimberly: )

Happy 4th of July!!!

Happy 4th of July everyone!

I have been away from the computer and blogging for so long! A lot of things have happened in the past few months. Our apartment flooded, TWICE! We moved into a house, FINALLY! Ashton left for Italy for the summer :(( and I spent some time in the hospital. Just to name a few.

I've been doing a LOT of unpacking, a lot of painting and all the things that go along with moving into a house and making your own.

So, I will be back soon with updates and pics on Everything! Including the new four legged addition to our family named Coco and her very interesting story.

I hope everyone has a great and safe holiday and remember before the fireworks begin tonight make sure your pets are secure in the back yard or house, some have a tendency to get out because of the loud noises and for those like my Harley, be sure to give medication to keep them clam at least thirty minutes prior to setting off fireworks.

 Till next time,

Kimberly : )

Harley

I woke up at 12:30 a.m. Thursday morning to the sound of thunder and my poor little Harley having a panic attack. I could hear thunder off in the distance and I'm pretty sure he heard it way before me.
He is almost ten years old and weighs about five pounds. Noises like fire alarms beeping, my daughter using her cell phone as a walkie talkie, fireworks or thunderstorms scare him so bad that her goes into a full blown panic attack and usually has to be given a dose of acepromazine {doggie Xanax}. Without it I have to sit and hold him till he calms down. Do any of you out there have pets with the same issues? It's amazing that pets can have some of the same problems as people. Things like feline leukemia & aids, diabetes, cancer, allergies {Baby has skin allergies} to name a few. And on occasion, we get phone calls at the animal hospital I work at from people who want to get rid of their pets because they have health issues. Thankfully my fur babies have minor problems, but I would love them any way.
Anyway, that's enough of me rambling for now. I'm off to do a bit of housework, we had the windows open yesterday because the weather was so nice and now everything inside seems to be covered with pollen, yuk:(
Till next time,
Kimberly: )

A warm thanks to everyone: )

 I just wanted to say thank you so, so much for all the kind comments on my posts about my friend Amy. I really appreciate your warm thoughts and prayers.
Sometimes it helps to put what you're thinking, feeling or going through into words when it feels like you are the only one. And to know that someone out there reads it, has experienced it or understands what you are feeling really makes a difference. Ashton is dealing with it a lot better too. She and I have shed many tears, shared many stories of our friend and some laughter as we remember things that Amy would say in a way that we now call "that's so Amy".
Time does eventually heal all wounds. And those that have left us behind are never truly gone, they are forever with us, as long as we remember them.
Till next time,
Kimberly : )

Saying Goodbye

  It so hard for me to believe it has been just over a week since the memorial service for my friend Amy.  It was beautiful, if that can be said for a memorial service. Friends gathered in a room filled with pictures of Amy and her pets. I have had a very difficult time dealing with the circumstances of her accident. Sometime after midnight on January 24th she lost control of her car, struck a phone pole on the right side of the road, crossed to the left side and struck a bridge support causing her car to burst into flames. She had to be cut from her vehicle and the firefighters found her faithful furry friend Calvin lying in her lap. I was told she did not suffer and I know she is with our Lord and Savior now. I just can not grasp why terrible things happen to good people.

I am very blessed to have known her. I have many wonderful memories of my sweet friend. Thank you Amy for all the talks and all the laughs.

Amy Lynn Zinsser

April 21, 1977 - January 24,2011

Calvin & Tasha

Till next time,

Kimberly: )

When God called Amy answered

My heart is broken and my mind is confused as I try to understand why bad things happen to great people.

On Monday just past 12 a.m. my dear friend Amy lost her young life in a car accident.

This is a picture of Amy & me at my bridal shower in the spring of 2009.

She was such an amazing person. She was an artist and she had worked for several years at a local Animal Hospital before becoming one of Fayetteville's best hairdressers. Everyone who met her instantly loved her. She cared about everyone she knew. It is still hard for me to believe, I can't help but think that if I show up for my 3:30 appointment today she will be there waiting with a smile.

Amy had her two dogs Tasha & Calvin with her and if animals do go to heaven then they too are in the presence of our Lord. Please pray for her family.

Thank you for following,

Till next time,

Kimberly

Feeling lazy

 Good evening blog friends, I hope every one's new year is off  to a great start. We had a very nice New Year celebration here at home with the kids. We ordered deli trays, made desserts, drank some Moscato {fruit punch for the kids} and it was nice, just the family.

This is the new cross stitch project I'll be working on from time to time when I'm not working on smaller projects. I have always loved these prints so when I found the cross stitch kit on clearance at Michael's I knew I had to have it.

I have gotten a bit more of it done since I took this picture but I know it will take me a while to complete it because I keep stopping to work on pin keeps and things like that.

I haven't been feeling well lately, I have COPD and sometimes simple things like sweeping or mopping the lobby {sometimes our clients pets have accidents} at work is a difficult task and can bring on an attack which is what happened a couple of days ago. This one was severe enough to cause me to nearly pass out.

Struggling to breathe causes my chest to feel sore, kinda like I've been kicked. And I feel tired a lot. I know anyone out there living with COPD or Asthma know what I'm talking about. I have never smoked nor has anyone around me so my doctor isn't quite sure how I came to have it. For a while they thought it was my heart because I was having severe chest pains and had been sick for months. After a visit to Cape Fear Valley ER I was finally diagnosed with COPD.
I would love to hear from any of you who have COPD or has someone in your family who does.

Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,

Kimberly : )

Yes Kimberly there is a Santa Claus!

  I made a wish for Christmas and it came true, one day late.

I have always said that if we have to suffer through cold weather we should be rewarded with snow. Well, sometime after midnight last night we were rewarded with beautiful, fluffy snow. I was so excited, I couldn't wait to go out by the lake behind our house and take pictures. Around 9 a.m. Chris and I took Baby and Harley out to play in the snow. Baby wasn't quite sure what to think of it, she took very careful steps and kept sticking her nose in it. Harley on the other hand was petrified. The snow was about as deep as he is tall, so once we put him in the snow he didn't dare move. We snapped a couple pictures of them and let them back inside to snuggle under the warm blankets.

The large picture in the collage is  the view from our bedroom window.

After coming inside to warm up a bit we decided to drive down to the Food Lion a couple miles from our house to return a couple red box movies and to let Ashton get some peanut butter cookies and Hershey kisses so she could make cookies. Can you believe FL doesn't sell peanut butter cookies in the refrigerated section? I mean really? They have every possible type of premade cookies but no peanut butter! Ahhh, well after pulling the recipe up on her phone and seeing that the ingredient list seemed as long as her arm she decided she'd "settle" for the premade cookies with peanut butter cups in them.

On the way home from FL Chris pulled over to the side of the road so I take a picture of this big tree.

The snowman was made by some of the neighborhood kids, I love his hat.

Chris and I took a walk after the Chicago bears game { yay bears} so I could take more pictures of the snow. I know it seem like I've never seen snow before but you see, we don't get very much snow here in Fayetteville so this one is definately a treat. I think we go about 6 inches. I know most of you get much more than that and 6 inches seems like nothing, but this is probably the only snow we'll get this winter.

I can definately say I got my Christmas wish, I hope you got yours too.

Till next time,

Kimberly: )

Merry Christmas!

A little more of our Christmas decor.

We have had a very blessed Christmas this year and I hope each of you have too.

Where did the time go???

 Where did the time go? I can't believe tomorrow is Christmas day! I've been away from blogging much longer than I planned to be. I tried to do most of my shopping a little each day on my lunch break which was much better, less crowds.
 In the evenings I was busy stitching Christmas ornaments for the receptionists, managers and doctors at the animal hospital and wouldn't you know it, I forgot to take pics to show you.

 On December the 11th we had our staff Christmas party at Dr. K's house.

This is the CFAH gang minus two who were out of town.

This past Wednesday Ashton got her drivers license. She was so nervous, but the driving instructor she had kept her busy with chit chat and she completely forgot about her jitters and passed with flying colors.

I thought I would show you a few more pictures of the decorations around the house.

This is a little shelf  that sits on top of a bench in my dining room, I change it out depending on the season.

I guess by now you can tell I love Santa's. The first one I found last year at TJ Maxx for $4.99, the Santa holding the bell I also found last year at Marshall's for $5.99 and the Santa holding the wreath I got at couple of months ago at Prim & Proper.

These are the tallowberries that my friend Sherrie gave me a couple of months ago. I added some pine stems that I found on sale at  Hobby Lobby.

This is my Snowman grouping in my bedroom hallway.

And I guess you could say that I also love snowmen. I found these prim guys at CCTT last year after Christmas for 50% off.

A sampler girl freebie that hangs by my front door. I found the frame at Hope Harbour for .39 cents.

The timer for my green bean casserole just dinged, so I'm off for now to finish cooking a few things and I have a few more gifts to wrap.

 I hope everyone is having a great and safe holiday.

Till next time,

Kimberly: )