Christmas 2007

The holiday season for us always starts out with the Birthday celebration of our little Christmas angel baby Josh (who's not a baby anymore - only in mom's heart). It was the usual with the whole fam including g-parents at our favorite Mexican restaurant. It was great as usual and we were stuffed. Josh ate his usual one bite of cake and the rest of us devoured it - on top of Mexican food. We were stuffed! Here's Josh & all 4 of his grandparents!

We spent Christmas at the farm of course with our family. It was so much fun. We went to my folks' house a few minutes away Christmas eve and had all MY family there and all us kids went in together and got my parents a nice Howard Miller wall clock that chimes that they'd wanted for a long time. They had no idea that we'd gotten it. We all pretended they didn't have any presents to open while all the rest of us opened ours. Then their present was the grand finale! They loved it!
Mom's and dad's faces say it all! They were thrilled with their clock!
Here's my hubby with a silly grin playing Santa Claus passing out gifts at mom's house.My three kids - I think this is the only one I actually got of them all together. They're never all in the same place at once. You know how that is... I'll get back to Christmas a little later...
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I lovedVee's post where she was taking random photos of things at her house. Made me chuckle cuz it's fun just to be random sometimes, isn't it? I've got lots of random photos myself. Lots of random thoughts, too, right? I randomly ramble alot, don't I?
Well, gotta get off the computer - this one is my daughter's and she swears she's going to have a cow if she can't check her MySpace or FaceBook one more time before she goes to bed (OMGosh). My PC at home is junk, my husband has his and is out of town, and the boys are not here of course with theirs, so I hijacked the Princess's computer for a few minutes. Photos are on my work computer - I'll be back soon - Take care everyone. Thanks for all your posts! I was so pleased when it said "8 comments" on my last post! Thank you thank you thank you!

Busy Busy Busy Week

It's been busy busy this week! You all are, too, I know. I haven't had time for much blogging and today I'll make it short and sweet! Thanks to all of you who take the time to visit me.

Princess and I closed out the stores last night trying to get finished up shopping. Now all I need is gold ribbon and bows and would you believe that I'm having a hard time finding it! Everybody's about out. Of course, it's not really my fault that I've waited until the last minute, is it?????

MY KIDS ARE MY LIFE. Friday is #2 son's 22nd birthday, so we'll pause the Christmas stuff, and take time to make him feel special. I always order him a cake (even tho he doesn't eat sweets - but the rest of the family does!) and he'll smile, take one bite and leave the rest to us. #2 is the strong silent type. A young man of few words, but when he DOES speak, it's usually something worth hearing. Typical middle child when he was young. I miss him being little SO MUCH!!! He and I were so close and he "needed" more of me than my other 2 independent kids. My husband likes to tell him now that he was like a leech on me - we had to peel him off of me. He loved me so much. We always had a 1/2 year birthday for him when he was young since his birthday falls right at Christmas. We never combined birthday and Christmas for him. We always told him that he was our special Christmas angel baby. And he looked it - he was blue-eyed and had white blond straight silky hair. He really looked like a baby until he was probably 8 or 9. I kept him in bubble suits (which I smocked myself) and knickers until he was almost 5 and my husband finally told me that was enough. I had to let him grow up. : (

I made nearly all of his outfits - all English smocking and all originals - probably more for him for than my daughter. He had a new smocked bubble or knickers or button on shirt/shorts nearly every other Sunday when he was little)

#2 son is on the right and #1 son is on the left - they are standing with their grandpa. I think they're kinda cute myself. They are both tall like all my people. I miss them being little..... I would love to have them climbing up on my lap and snuggling. #2 son spent the first 6 or 7 years in my lap, but he's grown up into a very nice respectful and mannerly young man. I'm proud of all my kids.

Here is Princess, spoiled by our whole family - mostly her brothers - the only girl, so you can imagine she really IS a Princess. But she's growing out of it. I will fill you in on her and her oldest brother another time. (I think I said short & sweet on this blog, didn't I) I will say that Princess can slug and hit and scream and is just as tough and crass as her big brothers at times .... so lady-like.....

Back to the Birthday Party - We ALWAYS have all the grandparents and our whole family for our birthdays for the kids. They have a favorite Mexican food restaurant we always go to, and we take the Cake and presents and celebrate. Can you believe that my husband and I still have all 4 of our parents!!!! We are so blessed , and so far they are still in good health. They have been such an important part of our kids' lives and have helped to not only baby-sit (we never called sitters), but they have reinforced all the Christian ideals and morals and Godly ways to live that my husband and I have tried to instill in them. Of course they're not perfect! None of us are. But how great a blessing it is to have that extended family - and they all live here, too. Our kids have all admitted to us that they feel so lucky to know that they are loved, that our family is STABLE, that there was never divorce nor will be, and they have seen by looking at their friends how blessed we all are. I hope and pray that they will carry these beliefs and standards forward into their futures. I pray for their future mates every single day that they, too, will have these same beliefs and will be committed to God. It's so hard to find that nowadays. Most kids have experienced divorce and other traumas in their lives and it's no fault of their own. The Lord has been so good to us to leave our folks around to help us raise these kids of ours and to spend valuable time with them. What more could I ask?

Christmas blessings to you all - Vickie

Off to the Farm!

Hi - it's Friday so you know what that means!!! We're off to the farm again. I live for the weekends right now. Looks like we may need to find an indoor project to work on tho. Hubby says he's got lots to do outside tomorrow trimming trees and burning, etc., but I told him he may freeze his buns off. It's supposed to be cold and winds of 20-30 mph. Whew! We CAN build a huge fire tomorrow afternoon after the winds die down and if it's not raining, sit around the fire until late. I absolutely love sitting around the fire staring into the wavey flames. It throws me into a trance and I can get lost daydreaming or sometimes I feel like I'm just "zoning out" and think of nothing at all. I get all warm and sleepy sitting there listening to it crackle and burn.

We were sitting outside last night for a little bit and saw some shooting stars go flying across the eastern sky. I remember seeing a blurb on Yahoo or somewhere and it said Dec 13 and 14 were going to be good nights to watch for meteor showers. Of course tonight's sky is going to be covered with clouds. So I'm glad we caught a little shooting star action last night.

We're planning on making a huge caldron of venison chili outside tomorrow - the kids & various friends and our folks always come out for Saturday evening expecting good eats. Tomorrow I think it will be a "chili" day! (no pun intended)

I will take the Christmas gifts I've already got and get them wrapped and under the tree at the farmhouse, and do a little more decorating, maybe a little baking, who knows. I was thinking of looking at some of the great blogs I've looked at this week and find a neat project to work on for Christmas. It'll go by all too quickly I know.

Have a great weekend. I hope to have some more pictures Monday. I haven't shown you my family - Vickie

A Party! (pity party, that is!)

Good afternoon - just a quick note to self. Should I or should I not have both our houses decorated for Christmas - our family house or the farmhouse? I am not a humbug, but having to do everything myself (practically), all the decorating, all the shopping for our families on both sides, all the wrapping, hold down an almost full time job, cook, clean, put up the tree, take down the tree, put up the lights, take down the lights, take care of my family and remember everything for everyone else around me, the list is endless - plus the added pressure of having to deal with the checkbook at this time of year.... My dear husband does as much as he can, but he has a stressful time consuming job, and I try to take as much stress off of him as I can.

I think I'm going to only decorate the farmhouse. I've asked my kids and hubby which house they'd rather have Christmas in and nobody seemed too committed one way or the other, I chose the farmhouse. It's smaller, there'll be less to do, and if they whine about not having it in our home where they've all grown up, well then they should have spoken up a little sooner. Princess has a job and attends classes at our local community college, my oldest of course lives in Nashville, and the middle son has an apartment and is in college and works. So you see, it's not as if they could all pitch in and help me out all the time. Princess helps out somewhat and anything at all is appreciated.

Guess it's just this time in my life - probably many of you out there in blogland are in my shoes. I'm meeting myself coming and going most days, and I'm tired and I've begun having back problems and vision problems from sitting at a desk and working on a computer every single day. I don't have those complaints when I'm out at the farm. I will have to work for another year or two or three until #2 son and Princess are out of college. Boy, am I looking forward to that! We were very blessed that during the young formative years of our kids, I was able to stay home with them. We made sacrifices for me to stay home, but I didn't go back to work until Princess was in high school. It was nice. I'm going to spend my time when I quit working my day job - on my garden and plein aire painting and helping others and spending precious time with dear friends and family more and whatever else my little heart desires!

Well, I'll quit my pity party for today. Must mean that I haven't been spending enough time counting my blessings - which are infinite! I'll have a better attitude tomorrow. Christmas is coming and I love Christmas! Vickie

Estate Sales & Turkeys

We're off to the farm until Sunday evening! YEA! Hope it doesn't rain, we have a lot of work to do! it's supposed to be 81 degrees tomorrow and muggy. WOW - December and Texas weather. We'll come in for church Sunday morning of course, and then back out for the afternoon.

I went to an estate sale Thursday a.m. for a little old great grandmother who'd recently died at the ripe old age of 98. Her granddaughter was doing the sale and she had some really great prices. Usually, around here the estate sales are held by estate sales handlers and they have things marked up so high that most of us can't afford to buy anything. But this was a nice lady who wanted to sell everything at a fair price and so I didn't even feel the need to dicker with her - sort of felt like she was short-changing herself. I didn't get there until mid-morning, so I'm sure I missed some good stuff. But I did find a few bargains.

My husband loves old metal yard chairs and we have 6 and a glider. I have paid anywhere from $25 to $45 for good chairs. At this estate sale I was able to get one chair for $15 and one for $20 which I thought was great. My hubby sands them and repaints them - he's repainted them all a different bright color (my daughter thinks it looks "gay" to not have them all the same color - do I care? NO). Both our grandparents had these old chairs and it just brings back such great memories. .......... I can still remember my granddad and my daddy and my uncles all sitting under the big mimosa tree before and after mamaw and all the women cooked dinner and they'd all be leaning back in those metal chairs a little with full bellies and with their boots all propped up on the tree trunk. Like as not, they'd all be spittin' tobacco and solvin' the problems of the world - you didn't wanna walk around barefooted by the mimosa tree while they were sittin' out there! (hey-maybe that was a way to keep us kids away while they were jawing and chawing!) All the men got to eat first, then the women and us kids. Mamaw didn't have air-conditioning either, just an old water cooler in the living room. All the womenfolk would be in the kitchen cooking and sweating, but boy - could Mamaw cook! She & Papaw always raised all their own food and we had fresh vegetables and homemade everything at her house. She is my reason for doing the whole farm thing! It's in my blood.

I will pause here and go off on a tangent because I thought of a funny story about being at Mamaw's - Mamaw and Pappaw raised big white turkeys among other things. When I was about 12, my younger sister and cousin and I got into the turkey pen. It seemed to be so funny to us that if you squawked, it made all the turkeys gobble. So we were sqawking away and they were gobbling, and one thing led to another, and pretty soon we were trying to catch us a turkey. Well, then it became a game to see who could catch one first. We were all chasing and laughing and squawking and the turkeys were gobbling and freaking out and running around crazy and stirring up dirt and we were all having a ball. We had one turkey singled out like a calf and we all began chasing it. After only what seemed like a few minutes we cornered the turkey in the shed. It was flapping its wings and then, all of a sudden, it heaved and gave up the ghost and it's big ole knobby head fell over on the ground and then its body followed. IT WAS DEAD!!! We had scared the poor turkey absolutely to death! We all looked at each other and started screaming and crying. Then we ran into Mamaw's house and told her what happened. She was livid. But she never said a word. Instead, she went over to the turkey pen, and got the turkey out. Then she sat us down outside with a washtub, and told us to git busy plucking it. She finally said, "ya'll did this, and ya'll are going to get it ready to cook or put in the freezer. I'm not going to let it spoil." We were totally grossed out of course, we had to do everything to that turkey, even pull the pinfeathers out after she poured boiling water on it, and clean all the guts out. She stood over us all afternoon until we got it all done, but she never once hollered at us. Well, we never bothered the turkeys again, as you might can guess....
Anyway, back to the estate sale. I bought a vintage real wicker clothes hamper with wooden bottom and top for $5 (this thing was sturdy - you can sit on it), a nice hooked rug for $5, a piece of stained glass from an old church window (I think), and some other small items. Nothing much over $2. I felt it was money well spent. I'm getting to be rather good at looking for bargains - I've learned alot about antiques, glassware, etc., after spending this last year going to sales every single weekend. I have bought alot of "just Junk" before I knew any better (which will go into my moving/garage sale probably after Christmas) but it's been fun searching!

Gotta run - I'm through with work and if anyone reads this I hope you have an especially fun weekend getting ready for Christmas! I plan to - Vickie

More cottage photos

Good morning! I have a few more photos to show you. They are not really in any particular order. I would like to hear your ideas on what to do with this fireplace. It is not functional (sadly) , but I would like to decorate it. It's white brick, and I sanded down into the layers upon layers of old paint through the years and found that vintage greenish bluish color and left it peaking through in many places. I have an old rusted gate that I've leaned up against it. Not sure whether to leave it or put in on the wall somewhere. Those old chippy blue shutters are just laying there, too. That painting is an antique that I got at a garage sale and it's rather dark in real life. I don't know if I'm going to leave it there or not. I have two sets of wall sconces for candles that I thought I may put up there when I decide about the painting or maybe a big mirror.... Any ideas???

THis next one is in my daughter's room. It's an old vanity that a lady at a garage sale practically gave me. She had already stripped the old varnish off and all I had to do was paint it and fix up a little of the veneer on the inside. We put glass knobs on it and it looks SO CUTE! Princess is going to use it for a desk, computer, etc., as well as makeup.

Here is my garden shed that we are fixing up. It was falling down - literally - and our carpenter jacked it up and put new studs and floor into it. He's putting some doors on it and I have some old windows that I bought somewhere that he's going to hinge so that I can swing them out and catch a breeze when I'm out there. We're going to run electricity and water to it from the pumphouse for the garden area. We've still got some work to do on it, but it's gone from the leaning tower of Piza to a sturdy looking garden shed. Our lab, Jake, loves it - he's got a little hay box out there already that he sleeps in at night. My husband bought old weathered wood to replace the rotton stuff with on the outside so it'll look authentic!

We had some shelves built in the tiny bathroom for storage. The bottom I had cabinet doors put on but left the top ones open. I later found an old tablecloth with light blue cutwork on it that I used for a drape over the open top. It's held back with some old blue rhinestone earclips that belonged to the old maid cousin - she really went in for glitz and glam. I have 2 jewelry boxes of this stuff! Still working on the bedroom and things to put on the wall, but I wanted to show you all my headboard. I found a couple of pieces of old iron fencing, had my dad weld them together in the middle, and bracketed to the wall (they were so heavy we couldn't attach them to the bed). I love it and it's really different!

This is the other corner of my bedroom. See the wallhanging? I'll try to get a better photo. I bought this old screen window with shelves on it from Margo at Robolady at her barn sale. We had this awful huge electric panel on the wall and this covered it just perfectly. I put some old quilt behind it to cover the panel. Works great!

Here's just another shot of part of my living room, where you can see the curtains a little better.

In my kitchen at the end of the cabinet, there's this little rounded spot which was open on the bottom. You could put all sorts of neat things there, but I decided since space was a problem that I'd put a skirt around it and use it to store paper goods and extra boxes of soda, etc. I love the little display shelf on top, too. I've started a collection of pitchers. Didn't mean to, but it's evolved into that. See the little brown spice cabinet? Uncle Claude built that, too. I keep aspirin and stuff in it that usually you'd find in a junk drawer. It's so old that I couldn't keep spices in it - it smells really musty even after scrubbing with baking soda, etc. Oh, by the way, I got a really nice surprise yesterday - Vee from A Haven for Vee tagged me. I'm going to figure out what that means and tag some other folks. I wish I had the gift for gab and clever writing that some of you smart ladies have, but alas, I do not. I am in awe of anyone who can hold my attention with words! Talk to you later!

Country life woes

I hurried out to Sand Flat Farm this afternoon after work. My hubby found out that the power had been off in our whole area for quite awhile and I was afraid that the food in the freezer and the fridge maybe had ruined or thawed out. Been there and done that, and it ain't pleasant to clean up, let me tell you. Luckily, the power company must have gotten the electricity restored in time to save my groceries. Everything seemed fine. Maybe a little soft around the edges but OK. Whew! Guess that sort of thing just goes along with country living, huh? I still wouldn't trade it for anything!

I'll have some more photos for you tomorrow. I took some more when I was there this afternoon. I had to stand in the pasture and just stare - you know that "golden glow" that you get in the afternoon just before sundown? At least that's what us artists call it. Everthing is glowing with autumnal colors as well as the warmth from the sun, and it's breathtaking to me. I see it mostly in the fall and winter months. Hard to capture on canvas too, but I'll keep trying.

I'd like to post some of my paintings on my blog at some point. I have some of them on my computer, but the size is too big, will have to take some smaller pics. I'd like to see what you all think about my work. Have a good evening and I'll be back tomorrow. Oh, Margo is bringing me one of her cute "chandies" tomorrow! Can't wait to add it to my garden shed! Vickie

Title lost

Well, the picture is up there, but can't get the SAND FLAT FARM title on there, but this may have to do... Oh well. It's the best I can do for right now. Thanks for being patient with me. I did add a little blurb about our place over on the side above my picture, so maybe that'll help.