Scavenger Photo Hunt, Last one for December 📷

Here's the last Friday photo fun for December, from Katie @I live, I love, I craft, I am me... and this week's word is... 

My own choice...

One of my favourite places to spend some time walking and/or shopping, is Historic Ellicott City. It's changed quite a bit since 2016 and 2018, when it had devastating floods rage through the town.

But earlier in the week, DH and I took Chewie for a walk along the Trolley Trail and did some window/miniature train spotting! 

Normally, all of these displays are shown at the Fire Dept in Ellicott City as a Train Garden, but due to darn Covid, it was moved to various windows in the shops on Main Street. It certainly made for a fun walk though!

Along the Trolley Trail, I spotted this piece of wood that totally looked like a dragon to me. Can you see it?

Does this help you see it?!

How to draw a dragon head

Be sure to take a look and see what others have chosen.

January will also be done weekly, will you be joining in?

A Chrimbly Friday 🎄

Here's the next Friday photo fun from Katie @I live, I love, I craft, I am me... and this week's word is... 

Tree - a snap shot of your tree, this year's, last year's, the black and white one of you as a tiny tot helping to decorate, the one on the village square, that shiny white one in the shop, a native tree bedecked with lights and bird feeders - any festive tree :)

Oh boy, do I have some trees for you, are you ready?!

DH's dear Nana gave me this lovely "old" tree that she made way back in 1971! I was so thrilled when she asked me if I wanted it. A lovely memory of her, we're still missing her five years later.

I know it's hard to see, but this tree is filled with Swarovski crystal ornaments.

This tree sits in the basement and has our family names ornaments and White House ornaments on it.

We were lucky to get some snow the other day, so it made the outside trees look even prettier.

This is an original tree made out of whisks in a kitchen shop.

Beautifully lit trees last year on my getaway with my chosen sister, Cori. Sadly we were unable to go this year, just not worth it.

Another place we won't be going to see is the Christmas tree at the White House and all the little State trees. But here's one from a previous visit.

I thought I would throw in this oldie with me and my older brother, taken at a party at our Dad's work. And I still love Fisher Price!

Now I didn't make this one, but my precious Momma did before her rheumatoid arthritis started. 

This is the surprise tree that Santa leaves out every Christmas Eve with pjs and little ornaments for the boys, although now it's just Nathan.

I stitched this one years ago and decided to keep it instead of giving it away like I usually do.

These are my parents trees, although you can barely see the green! Their little pup Addie is in there too, can you see her?

Here are the boys decorating the tree this year with their ornaments.

The almost finished tree because that night it fell over! We lost a couple ornaments and I was able to save the others. So a little tightening later, I got to redecorate it.

This is the first time I put this tree up in my craft room, filled with cross stitched ornaments from friends and exchanges.

Step away from Christmas, here's the last one for fun - a wine tree that was next door to us at the beach one year!

Be sure to check out the other trees, we'll have a forest at this rate!

The Return of Spike and Scotch 🧑‍🎄

 Oh boy, the boys are back! Although I thought last year would have been their final year, here they are again.

On day one, they brought TWO chocolate advent calendars. One was supposed to be for Nathan and I thought one for me, but Nathan started enjoying chocolate from both of them - until I set him straight!

Scotch knows how to wear his mask. Spike, not so much.

On day two, they got into the Lego catalogue to help Nathan out with his Christmas list.

On day three, The Child aka Baby Yoda aka Grogu, joined them as their model. Um, artists they are NOT.

BTW, I'm going with Baby Yoda from now on, I like the way it sounds. (Maybe because when Nathan was a baby, his cousins called him Baby Nathan.)

On day four, they found Nathan's birthday present and wanted selfies with Mando and Baby Yoda.

On day five, they left this for Nathan to make. Sadly, he wasn't very interested. Darn 14 year olds.

On day six, they brought a keychain. Fantastic, no more frogging my dear stitching friends!

On day seven, it was old time gaming on the PS3. Too bad Nathan was in school all day!

And that was their first week! 

A Chrimbly Friday 👩‍🍳

Here's some more Friday photo fun from Katie @I live, I love, I craft, I am me... and this week's word is... 

Baking - festive or otherwise and maybe share the recipe so we can all have a taste.

I much prefer baking over cooking, and I try to limit it to special occasions. But how nice that a big one is coming up! 🎅

Cookies are always a hit, and so are cheesecakes. My Dad makes lovely mince pies, but I haven't tackled that one yet, probably because I'd be the only one eating them around here!

Although my favourite cake to have during this time of year is definitely Cranberry Christmas Cake.

And it's even better when paired with cranberry coffee.

I can't remember where or how I found the recipe, but it's here @Barefeet in the Kitchen. Simple ingredients and super easy. I've only ever used fresh cranberries so I'm not sure how well frozen ones would work.

Stitched cookies are nice too, they last a really long time!

I'm looking forward to seeing what others have posted and hopefully try something new! 

Day 11 of the Advent Calendar 🎅 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Welcome to day...

of the Online Advent Calendar, hosted by Jo @Serendipitous Stitching!

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, please take a look there to start from the beginning. If I looked back correctly, I think this is my 10th year doing this - time flies when you're having fun!

Here we have the Celtic Santa from Wales I stitched for my Dad this year. I asked him how he wanted it finished and he asked for it to be in a gold frame. Too bad Mill Hill doesn't make them! So I'll be looking for one online, or most likely painting it myself.

The second part of the hop this year is sharing what our favourite Christmas book is. I don't really have one for myself, but one that I used to read to Nathan. Sadly, I didn't read it to the Gmen since we didn't have it back then.

It's called the Advent Storybook, 24 Stories to Share Before Christmas. It tells the story of Benjamin Bear's Mother reading him a short story every evening about another little bear and his journey to Bethlehem, and the true meaning of Christmas.

Per Mother Bear, "But it's nice to know that God gives us friends and loved ones to help us on our journey."

So dear friends, I know this is a totally different year that none of us expected, but I'm wishing you a very Happy Christmas and blessings in the New Year.

Thanks Jo, for putting together another fun year of Blog Hops, we really needed it this crazy year. I'm a little behind on my hopping and hope to catch up this weekend.

Happy 60th Anniversary to my Parents! 🥂

On this day in Braintree, Essex, a beautiful young girl from Germany and a cheeky Welsh lad, so some say, were wed after a brief four month courtship. As poor as church mice, but wherever love falls and it was love at first sight! The naysayers said it would never last but here we are sixty years later (awaiting congratulations from Buckingham Palace) to prove them wrong. With Ulrike by my side, we achieved the impossible dream, found our nest in the west, and are happily content to let the rest of the world go by. Ulrike has always been the wind beneath my wings and I owe everything I am to her, but I no longer eat cake!!

 

And here they are, 60 years later, although he may be the one feeding her nowadays.

Dad is not one to send or give flowers, a piece of china is so much nicer according to him! But today, he gave her roses and carnations for their special anniversary. She was totally surprised and can't stop looking at them. Even Addie is enjoying them.

I came to visit with them today, with flowers and I made their dinner. I have a little something I'm stitching them, but haven't finished it yet, ugh! I'll show them how far I am and hopefully finish it soon to give to them.

A Chrimbly Friday

Here's some Friday fun, Katie @I live, I love, I craft, I am me...  came up with the idea of more photo treasures, this time it's posting about different things each Friday for the month of December - except for Christmas, it will be on the 31st instead. Please pay her a visit to see what others have posted, maybe you'll want to join in?

Decorations - a favourite one, or maybe more?

I have a Christmas village set up with various houses and buildings, but these are two pieces are my favourite. My Momma painted them for me years ago before her hands got too disfigured from her rheumatoid arthritis. She can barely hold a spoon now, so I treasure everything she's ever made.

I've had this little Odie on my tree it seems like forever! I still love this silly little dog, and have several other ornaments of him too. I also have plenty of stuffed animals and various other items, it's not very often I see much of him now though.

This came as a kit and I made several as gifts in the early 80's. I think this was my first ornament I stitched and kept. Or maybe I "borrowed" it from my parents?!

I know I have more, but I'll spare you and stick with these three.

Although I do have the manger that I grew up with, but couldn't find a photo of it and haven't brought it out yet.

Do you have a favourite decoration you like to put out every year?

Scavenger Photo Hunt, November 📷

Another month has flown by and we just celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday. It was definitely on the warm side for the end of November, we even had the door open to cool off the kitchen!

Now it's time for Katie and her I love, I love, I craft, I am me... scavenger photo hunt.

The words for November are...

Houseplant/s

We bring this hibiscus plant in during the winter (although it's still outside at the moment) and it blooms while inside. A nice thing to see when it's all white outside!

Ring/s

This was taken while DH and I went on a hot air balloon ride years ago in the late fall. I was taking photos of the scenery and got this one of us. Even though I'm afraid of heights, I loved it and would go again in a heartbeat!

Harbour

I tried to find photos from Clovelly when we stayed at Clovelly Court twice, but that was back in the 80's and those photos are much harder to find!

But here's Baltimore, Maryland's Inner Harbour. It's a nice spot to walk around, although now I'm sure it's pretty quiet and I don't know how much is even open there. 

This is the USS Constellation (1854), now a museum at the harbour, but is currently closed.

Window

Nathan has this little window in his closet at the front of the house and we have a colourful, friendly ghost that likes to look out of it! This time he's looking at the full moon around Halloween a few years ago.

Sky

Deep Creek Lake in western Maryland is a beautiful place to see the moon and the stars since it's pretty isolated out there.

And this beautiful cotton candy sky is a scene from our deck looking out the back.

My own choice

Our Halloween tree guy seems to be sticking around for the holidays! He'll be getting some company this weekend with some other holiday friends.

Make sure you take a look at the other scavenger hunt photos and I hope to see you next month as Katie has decided to post then too since we're had such a crazy 2020! It can only get better from here, right?!