Twelve Days of Christmas

Hello there!

 Merry Christmas! Yes, it is still Christmas, you know 12 Days of Christmas begins on Christmas Day and goes through January 5th.  So in that spirit I 
thought I'd share a few Christmas photos from around the house. Grab a cup of coffee or tea.

One of the first signs of the season.

Picking a tree.

Sharing time with the grands.

The stockings and wreath are hung

Decking out the china

Deck the Starfish!

A tree in the kitchen holds vintage elf and lots of kitchen gadgets. 

Little angel from the 50's and other mini angels.

Wishing a Merry Christmas and Happy Healthy New Year! 

Blessings!

Suzy

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Blessed Christmas Friends! 

Wishing you a blessed Christmas Day filled with the love, joy and peace of Christ!  Let us remember the  FIRST Christmas:

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.  This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.  And everyone went to his own town to register. 

 So Joseph went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee in Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks by night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, " Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, " Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about".

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.  The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.  -Luke 2:1-20

May you treasure up these things in your heart and ponder the wonder of our Lord Jesus Christ who's birth we celebrate this day.  

Wishing you a blessed Christmas Day filled with the love, joy and peace of Christ! 

A GIFT OF ART

A Great Big Hello There!

I'm starting a new class the day after Christmas.  As a gift to myself.  I know. But I wanted to take this class since it was introduced in the summer, so why not after Christmas when there is some down time?  Last year I signed up for two classes to start the New Year, I'm getting a jump start on 2015.  And THIS time it will be different, I think I will actually stick with it for the entire 4 week course.  Last year was a kind of a bust for me when it came to sticking with classes. I admit that I was a bit hasty in my decision to sign up for not one but TWO year- long projects and became overwhelmed. And, well sometimes you find that once you get into a class it just isn't your cup of tea. At that point you can decide to either ditch the class or make yourself miserable. I chose to ditch both, one after the first month (not my cuppa tea) and the other after a few months (lost interest).  Yes, I lost a bit of money on the deal but I have No Regrets! Live and learn, right?

Recently an email reminder came through my in-box about Mary Ann Moss's Sketchbookery class that was all it took for me to zoom over and sign up! I knew from reading about the first class she offered in the Summer that the Winter course fits my time schedule as well as my love for watercolor and sketching. Besides, to be perfectly honest with you, I've been a big fan of MAM and her blog Dispatch From LA for a few years now, secretly admiring her travels, work, carefree attitude and crazy sense of humor. I love MAM style and her willingness to share it.  Go ahead, check out the class and let me know if you sign up, maybe we will see each other in cyber class! I can't wait to get started and I'll be posting here about it. 

Bee Creative!

Suzy

P.S. 

I'm still enjoying my class with Joanne Sharpe! 

Christmas Decorating

Hello Everyone!

Thank you for taking time out from your busy holiday schedule to stop by!  We've been busy over here getting the Christmas tree up and decorated.   Dear Hubs always puts the tree up (it's a live one) and we string the lights together, after that it is all mine to decorate. Now I admit that it's an ordeal to get everything out and un-packing the ornaments and decorations is a big TO DO and takes me most of the week to accomplish the task but this year I had a very special helper. I asked Dear Hubs to hang the balls on the tree (first time EVER), and he did such a great job (who knew?) I enlisted his help to hang ornaments! Now folks, this is a BIG deal for me since I was raised by my Mama who liked to do everything JUST SO. Yes, sorry Mama but it is true that each strand of tinsel had to be hung individually AND perfectly on each branch.  I don't put tinsel on my tree for that very reason. Any how, decorating went fairly fast and the tree looks wonderful and DH is very proud. I think he has a new job <wink,wink> in the future!
My sister and I were on Skype the other day and we were talking about ornaments and decorations. I gave her a little tour of some crafty Pinterest inspired  Check it out here.

 Pinterest inspired cone trees wrapped in tinsel and vintage buttons, covered in vintage dictionary pages.

                                                  Vintage buttons and tinsel trees.

 

Last year's Christmas ball project (also Pinterest inspired HERE) with the sequins hang on the chandelier with snowflakes and Pier 1 collectible ornaments.

Little Sunshine and Lollipops have been busy too! Here's some of their latest ornaments inspired by Pinterest.  Click on the red HERE to see the links.

Popsicle snowflake ornaments HERE. Instead of buttons we used sequins because these girls love bling! We added a bit of glitter too just for sparkle. They looks so pretty on the Christmas tree.

Pom-pom Christmas wreaths made from recycled cardboard. They painted the wreaths and glued pom-poms, each with their own personality shining through!

 The girls made snowmen and each added their own flair.  Above is Lollipops design. She added "snowshoes" for her snowman and snowflakes and scarf and hat she hand drew.

Little Sunshine: I can't draw a no-man Mimi! Mimi: you can use a circle punch! Sunshine; ok! Let's Do It!  SS: I can't drawn his nose Mimi, I don't know how! Mimi: yes you can, it is a triangle upside down.  SS: ohhhh.   SS: B has arms on her no-man!  Mimi: you can have some too, draw them. SS: I don't know how to draw them!  Mimi: make a line out to the side of each side of the snowman! SS: ohhh I DID IT MIMI!!!

Oh what fun it is to craft with these little ones!

Hope you week is going well and you are having fun crafting up a storm!

Bee Creative!
Suzy

A LITTLE OF THIS AND A LITTLE OF THAT....CATCHING UP!

Hello there!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here, bet it does at your house too! The temperatures have cooled down some and there is less humidity here, an occasional day where we must wear shoes other than flip flops.

Sunshine and Lollipop were happy to see little Calvin Houdini in October when he visited with Mommy and Daddy from Michigan.

 Calvin drove his Uncle Chris's boat  and played on an island in the river with his cousins Sunshine and Lollipop!

What a fun time and we attended a beautiful wedding in downtown Miami to celebrate the marriage of our friend's daughter while they were here. Hubs and I just celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary too.

And now the Christmas season is upon us.  A wonderful time of the year for those who celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The miracle of God coming to Earth in the form of a child, for us. (I love that song: Mary Did You Know?).   Our church hosts a celebration for three nights each year with a Live Nativity. People love to walk through the Living Nativity and see  the story of Christ's birth come to life! It seems each year it draws more people to hear about His birth and I feel privileged to be a part of this event in the Angel choir. Now don't laugh. It's the only time I'm allowed to wear a halo <wink>.  This year I'm going to try to remember to take some photos.

The Grands are so excited this year about decorating.....their house looks like an explosion of Santa's workshop! There are decorations everywhere but the most special decorations are those they make themselves.  Precious little hands making ornaments for the tree, they delight in making them as glittery and sparkling as possible!  I love watching them color and draw and make stuff, it is the highlight of my week.It is challenging too as you know if you have little ones, there are hands going in so many directions and glitter flying through the air, glue everywhere....I wouldn't change it for a moment. SPARKLE ON!

If you have little people in your house you might like to click on Pinterest for ideas to keep them busy.  Check out my Christmas Kiddie board and also Kiddie Crafts.  There's lots of entertaining ideas and such fun to be had by little ones and big ones as well.  I'm happiest when there is paint, glitter and glue involved in any project.

Have a great week!

Glitter on!
Suzy

Hello There! Happy December!

Hello Everyone!

Happy December!!! Hope all is well in your neck of the woods! We are all doing well here in our little slice of paradise, enjoying nice sunny days and warm weather, still wearing our flip flops most days.  

I'll be posting a catch up letter soon.  Meanwhile I thought I'd share a some of the Thanksgiving Kiddie Art with you.  My little darlings, Sunshine and Lollipop are busy drawing their little hearts out and making decorations. 

We trust that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you are enjoying your preparations for the Christmas season.  We are working on some snowmen and Christmas tree ornaments we will be sharing with you soon. 

Meanwhile my friends.....

Bee Creative!

Suzy