Happy New Year 2009

Have a wonderful and blessed New Year in 2009!! May God bless you in this new year and always!

Merry Christmas!

May you have the merriest of merriest!! God bless you and Merry Christmas!!

Some of my favorite things

I have done ceramics since 1981 - the year I got married. Although I don't do them much anymore, I still try and do a few. This first favorite piece is a plaque that lights up when you push the button on the back.


These white snowmen are so elegant.


I love silver. In fact, I even like polishing silver. Although these aren't great pieces, I still like them.

Here they are after their clean-up.


This sled makes a beautiful table center-piece.


My old Santa has to be one of my absolute favorites! Next to him, is the Snowman face that holds candy. So cute!


A tiny tea set with the Nativity painted on it.


My very elegant and elaborate Nativity set from Mexico.

My angel orchestra playing all our Christmas favorites - or so I imagine


A mitten stocking that I made several years ago and still adore.


This snowman lights up and looks so dashing in his top hat and over-coat!

The very first ornament I made with my husband's and my name on it - in 1983. Such a treasure!

Sunday Devotional

Resurrection Hope

"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:16-17).

It was "very early in the morning" while "it was yet dark," that Jesus rose from the dead. Not the sun, but only the morning-star shone upon His opening tomb. The shadows had not fled, the citizens of Jerusalem had not awaked. It was still night--the hour of sleep and darkness, when He arose. Nor did his rising break the slumbers of the city. So shall it be "very early in the morning while it is yet dark," and when nought but the morning-star is shining, that Christ's body, the Church, shall arise. Like Him, His saints shall awake when the children of the night and darkness are still sleeping their sleep of death. In their arising they disturb no one. The world hears not the voice that summons them. As Jesus laid them quietly to rest, each in his own still tomb, like children in the arms of their mother; so, as quietly, as gently, shall He awake them when the hour arrives. To them come the quickening words, "Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust" (Isa. 26:19). Into their tomb the earliest ray of glory finds its way. They drink in the first gleams of morning, while as yet the eastern clouds give but the faintest signs of the uprising. Its genial fragrance, its soothing stillness, its bracing freshness, its sweet loneliness, its quiet purity, all so solemn and yet so full of hope, these are theirs.

Oh, the contrast between these things and the dark night through which they have passed! Oh, the contrast between these things and the grave from which they have sprung! And as they shake off the encumbering turf, flinging mortality aside, and rising, in glorified bodies, to meet their Lord in the air, they are lighted and guided upward, along the untrodden pathway, by the beams of that Star of the morning, which, like the Star of Bethlehem, conducts them to the presence of the King. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." --Horatius Bonar

"While the hosts cry Hosanna, from heaven descending,
With glorified saints and the angels attending,
With grace on His brow, like, a halo of glory,
Will Jesus receive His own."

"Even so, come quickly."

A soldier said, "When I die do not sound taps over my grave, but reveille acute; the morning call, the summons to rise."
From "Streams in the Desert" compiled by Mrs. Charles Cowan

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I so look forward to the day when we shall be caught up in the clouds to meet our Savior face to face! To ponder looking in the eyes of my Lord Jesus quickens my heart and delights my soul! It makes the hard days more bearable and the happy days more joyous when I think about meeting my Lord, face to face!


My week in review: It was a busy week full of Christmas preparations. I did spend some quality and quantity time with my family this week, too, watching Christmas shows and movies; baking cookies and candies with them; and just talking and being together. Family is what makes the Christmas season so special and I want to make sure I remember that as I sometimes get caught up in the hustle and bustle.

We had horrible, cold, rainy weather all week. Since we live on dirt roads, that meant I was house-bound for much of the week. I love being home and not being able to get out is just fine with me. I suppose if it went on and on, I wouldn't find it so wonderful, but we rarely get these horrible weather conditions, so I just relax and enjoy the weather for what it is. I have to admit, though, I am definitely a sun-shine kind of girl! I didn't used to be, but the older I get (and the more arthritis I get) the more I find I want that sun to shine!

I finished decorating (finally!) and just have a few areas that I want to really clean up before Christmas is here and so is company. We will be having my in-laws and my sister and her husband here. I'm so looking forward to that! It's very rare that I get to spend the holidays with my sister and this year we will have had Thanksgiving and Christmas together! Praise God!

I mailed out my Christmas cards and finished up crocheting booties for my nephew and his wife for their foster babies. It's fun to have babies to crochet for again and I really enjoy it. I also finished my son's Christmas stocking and am starting on my other son's. It won't be ready for this Christmas, obviously, but it will be ready for next year.

It was a lovely week and I'm really looking forward to this Christmas. It's been a year full of blessings and I am very thankful.

Stocking Accomplished!

I finished it! For those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile, you'll remember I started this Christmas stocking for my son last year before Christmas. I did get most of it done last year, but then I got tired of working on it and put it away until a couple of weeks ago. I've worked on it diligently and finished it on Thursday evening.


My son is really into sports, so this was a great choice for him. I think it has every sport represented!


The golf clubs actually come out of the golf bag and the tennis racket, golf club and soccer ball come out of Santa's bag. Very cute! It was so fun making this project and now I'm ready to start on the stocking for my oldest son. I don't think I'll be finishing it by this Christmas, but I'll be working on it for next year! I also have a couple of other kits I want to do, too. I enjoy working with the felt and it's good for when I'm doing my TV viewing in the evening.

Hope you enjoyed seeing this.

Christmas Home Tour

I'm participating for the first time this year in BooMama's Christmas Tour of Homes. This is a lot of fun and I hope you'll enjoy my pictures. Be sure to visit BooMama's Blog to see more homes decked out for Christmas!

As promised, here are some pictures of my home decorated for Christmas. This is our main tree in the family room. This tree holds all our ornaments that we've collected through the years. Each time we decorate this tree, it brings back such sweet memories of when my husband and I were newly married or our two boys were just babies, toddlers or little boys. *sigh* Such precious memories!



This little shelf in my family room has my little Christmas doll from the 1950's (middle) and the two little dolls I made several years ago.




These are my Annalee dolls! I have quite a few of them and am always on the look-out for more to add to my collection. Please note the cute little angel "flying" above the rest.

Also on this table, is my huge glass Santa. He's so beautiful and fragile that I keep him with my Annalee dolls in the corner where he will be safe.



Here's a close-up of the precious face on one of my angels. How could you not just fall in love with a face like that?


This is the white tree in the living room. This tree has the antique ornaments on it that were given to me. They are just so unique and, honestly, I never see anything like these exquisite ornaments these days. They are beautiful!

Here's a close up of two of the ornaments on this tree. Yes, the paint is chipped away a bit, but they are still gorgeous!

For many years, my mother-in-law would go down to Mexico for the day and shop. She would always ask me if I wanted anything. I would tell her that if she saw any wonderful nativity sets, to please get them for me. Here's the result.


Also, with those nativity sets is a Nativity Snowglobe that my hubby got me a few years back. It's one of my favorite things.

Here is the most beautiful Nativity set I've ever seen. It was a gift from my oldest son to me a few years back. The panel lights up and the colors are just beautiful. The Nativity set is made so nicely and it's like none other I've ever seen. It's definitely become an heirloom in our family.

Here's that shelf you saw with fall leaves last month. Now it's decorated for Christmas. The desk below is also decked out.

Here's my buffet. This will be where I lay out all the snacks on Christmas day. The snowman with his mouth wide open is a piece I made many years ago. His mouth is filled with chocolate candies!

Here's an old purse that I painted about 3 years ago. It, too, is one of my favorites.


This little bench has some really cute pieces.

Here's my tea cart that I got a couple weeks ago. I'll be posting a before and after picture for you to see it. My son thought I was crazy when I got this thing, but now believes that Mom knows what she's talking about!

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my home.

Christmas Goodies!!

Yesterday I spent the morning making Christmas goodies! I decided this year not to go overboard and make the 15-20 varieties of cookies and candy. My son made a list of our favorite cookies and candy and then we picked 4 cookies and 3 candies that we felt we really wanted to have this year.

The first cookie I made is this delicious and rich Mexican Wedding Cookie. Oh, my. Believe me dear readers when I tell you that one of these cookies is like a butter over-load!
This is a Paula Deen recipe, so should we be surprised that there is a whole cup of butter in these beauties? These are definitely not a sweet cookie, but reminds me of a shortbread cookie. If you'd like to try these, go here for the recipe.

My next cookie were these family favorites - Oatmeal Scotchies! These are totally, totally easy to make. The recipe is on the back of the Nestle Butterscotch Chip bag, but I found it online here for your easy perusal.
Normally, my cookies wouldn't spread out this much, but we've had so much rain and there is so much humidity in the air, my cookies weren't quite as they usually are. They taste good, though, so that's what counts, right?

Last, but not least, we tried something new. It will definitely be on our list from now on! It's Peanut Butter Fudge and I found the recipe here and just had to try it. It's SO good!

Plus, it was so easy. I would have to say it was fool-proof! I didn't add the M & M's to the top of mine because hubby knew he wouldn't like that, but you definitely could. You could probably also add peanuts if you wanted a crunch in your fudge. Be warned - this fudge is super sweet! I cut mine into very small pieces. One bite is just heavenly.

I'm still going to be making a few more things and will share the results and recipes here. It's so much fun to bake for my family - they so enjoy it.

Romantic Living

A beautiful new magazine will be coming soon to an inbox near you. This is an e-magazine and it's going to be so beautiful and gorgeous, you're not going to want to miss out on a single issue!

Go here to find out more information

I, personally, can't wait to get my first issue! What could be better than living in a romantic way?

God bless you ~ Julie

Just my life

I've been busy doing Christmas decorating around here. It's taking me longer than usual because I've gone through ALL my boxes to decide what to keep and what to sell or donate. I have to say, I'm really tired of going through Christmas stuff and enough is enough! I'm still not completely done with the decorating, but a huge part of it is completed (pictures to be posted here soon).

I have my 7 foot green tree in the family room decorated, my 4 foot white tree in the living room decorated and my mini 18 inch pink tree in my bedroom decorated! Yep - pink. LOL It's adorable. I actually wanted a purple one, but alas, they were completely sold out. This pink one is precious and I really like it, too.

Before starting all the decorating, I completely cleaned out my homeschool area that is in my kitchen. That meant going through the book shelf and all the areas with all the books. I'm not sure this was such a good idea to do before decorating, but honestly, it's going to look SO nice, I know once I've recovered, I'm going to know it was totally worth all that extra work. Since this is my last year of homeschooling, I was able to purge a lot of the books we won't be using anymore and was able to competely clean off my buffet area that we had always used for our books and homeschooling supplies. Now my son and I each have a shelf on the bookshelf and I have a clean buffet area!

I'm a lover of old books (they don't have to be worth anything - just beautiful) and I was able to get them all displayed on the rest of the shelf, plus put my gorgeous set of learning books on top of my desk and they look so beautiful! I'm so happy with how it all looks and, of course, I love the organization and the cleanliness. It does make decorating that much easier, too.

I had shots in both knees today. *sigh* Both knees are bad because I have arthritis. My right knee is evidently bone on bone, so I have a lot of pain and swelling. My doctor gave me the shots to bring the swelling down and next month I will get the shots that will help lubricate and give my joints some relief. I'm praying that this will help me. He has informed me that a knee replacement is in my future, but at my age, not a good idea. I'm so glad that God has given doctors these options to help people like me have some relief from having a life filled with pain. The doctor is not guaranteeing that these shots will work for my knees, but I'm hopeful.

Since I have to stay off my knees today and tomorrow, I probably won't get much more decorating done until Wednesday. Of course, I may not get more done Wednesday either because tomorrow I have another shot done in my back. This time I will be using sedation drugs so I don't react so weirdly to the shot (I hope!). I'm glad my appointment is at 7:45 am so I don't have to sit around thinking about it all day. It's good to get it over with quickly in the morning.

I'll post pictures of my decorated home as soon as I can - stay tuned!

God bless you - Julie

A Crummy Commercial

We interrupt this regularly scheduled blog to bring you this:

Oh. My. Goodness. If you are a coffee drinker and you have not tried this yet - run, don't walk - to your nearest grocery store and pick some up! Believe me, you'll thank me later!

God bless you ~ Julie

Thanksgiving Pictures

Here's where I went for Thanksgiving. Gorgeous, isn't it? Look at that sky! And of course, I really love cactus, so this is really my kind of country. Just beautiful. An added plus is that it was really quite warm, so we enjoyed some time outside as well.


Here's some of the activity that kept the guys occupied! This pictures shows my youngest son getting ready to shoot while the others look on.


Here they are contemplating the next shot. That's my nephew on the left, my oldest son, my youngest son, and my hubby holding our grand-nephew.


Here's a picture of me with my beautiful sister!

Here's a picture of me and my oldest nephew. Isn't he just a cutie?

Here's a picture of me and my youngest nephew. Isn't he just so handsome?

Here's the four cousins. That's my oldest nephew, my oldest son, my youngest son and my youngest nephew. So hard to believe they really are all grown up and not little boys anymore!

What do you think of our family portrait? Makes you want to know us better, doesn't it?

Actually, we really do kind of clean up pretty good and take a nice picture!

We had such a wonderful and precious time together! This has to be one of the best Thanksgivings I've ever had. My youngest nephew referred to it as "fellowship" and he was so right!! I'm so glad I was able to go and see them all and share this wonderful time with them. It all ready is such a precious, precious memory!!

God bless you ~ Julie