Just a Wee Bit Behind

Ok, so I should've posted over a week ago. Life got in my way and every time I *really* wanted to post something better came along that grabbed my attention. Since I last posted say what's it been...12 days ago I:

1. Had a birthday

2. Went to my parents house for Thanksgiving in WV

3. Went Christmas shopping the day after Thanksgiving and at least 4-5 other times before and after.

4. Finished stitching a couple of Christmas gifts

5. Painted a large portion of the rooms downstairs...by myself, yay me!

So for my birthday I did pretty much nothing but entertain myself Christmas shopping most of the day. I was going to go to Mount Vernon...you know...George's house. I've not been there yet and mostly wanted to go to the gift shops to go Christmas shopping. I also wanted to stop by In Stitches if I went but I nixed the road trip all together for 2 reasons:

1. I decided I didn't feel like going by myself and all of my friends here work.

2. This is the good one....My BFF from Texas, Nealy and her 2 kiddos are coming for a visit next week! Yipppppppppppeeeeeeee!!! So I'm saving my money for our excursions. I could spend a small fortune at both Mount Vernon and In Stitches, you see.

I'm just too too excited about that!! They're flying in to Baltimore on Tuesday and I'm going to go pick them up. I'm taking the kids out of school on Thursday and Friday so we can go pal around D.C. They've never been and I'm just way to excited that I get to be their tour guide! Yippeeee!! I don't think I need to remind you how much I love going to Washington. The National Museum of American History just reopened and that Star Spangled Banner is just waiting for me to see it! And her too LOL!

I'm in a birthday exchange in one of my groups and got a really great box of b-day goodies from Cheryl! Look what she stitched for me! Isn't it pretty?!

I also got another stitched gift from my friend Lavon. She made this really cute Christmas bag for me and that cute little Santa. Isn't he cute? Her birthday is on the same day as mine. I stitched this little ornament for her.

Rachel, another friend of mine made this really great bracelet with matching earrings for me. I love the little crab in the center of the bracelet! Cassie does too and has already tried to talk me out of it..lol. The pic didn't come out very well. They're very pretty in person!

That does it for handmade gifts. I got lots of other gifties from other people too :).

And here's a Prairie Schooler Santa that I stitched and made in to an ornament for Mo for an exchange.



For some reason every year either right before or right after Christmas I get bitten by a decorating bug or something. The very first house we bought, I got new carpet right before Christmas. The second house we bought I got new furniture right before. When we moved here last year we got new carpet downstairs right after Christmas. This year I decided I need to paint which is really not like me because I don't like to paint. When we moved in to this house the walls downstairs were black. We were desperate to get rid of that so Mike painted them white. He painted every room except for this small room right off the rec room and by the laundry room. It's very small and has a door that goes outside. 2 of the dogs sleep in this room at night. I decided the other day that I'm making this my little room and I plan to get a little table and chair to put in there along with my sewing machine and some of my other crafting things. I'm going to make it in to a little primitive looking room. I bought a really great wallpaper border for it and a can of paint in a nice shade called camel. I spent last night painting my little room and love the camel so much that I've spent the entire day today painting most of the rest of the downstairs minus our bedroom. Of course it may end up being camel too. In fact, the kitchen might end up in camel. I've always had a hard time choosing paint colors but I do believe I've found the perfect one this time. It's amazing what paint can do for a place. I might kick everyone out and make the whole downstairs mine. Wouldn't that be nice?! I really don't like white walls. If I would've known how much better the place would look in camel I would've painted a long time ago. It's getting late though so I've cleaned my roller and brushes and have put everything away. Now my needle is calling my name. Nightie night.