Ready, Set, Decorate!!

I feel a little behind the eight ball, but I am finally getting going. I thought this would be the year that I would do a little less... Well, I am having a little trouble with that concept, but I am trying. I have lots of help...I mentioned to Sam, he might want to decorate the branches a little higher or a little lower, he assured me he was!

"How is this mom?"

Almost done...

These display trees are pretty pathetic with nothing on them..

Just a few dozen balls and what an improvement.
I'm having a little trouble making up my mind with the color scheme for the rooms. Now that I have redecorated the same tree 3 times I think I'm set. Stay tuned for updates on that!

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Thank- full

How funny is it that we celebrate Thanksgiving with a big "feast" and so we are giving thanks and we are thank-full... I think I need to stop over thinking these things... Since Sam started school he has been referring to Thanksgiving dinner as a feast. That seems much more festive, I think we will go with that. And by the way we were thank-full, and we were festive, it was a great day.

It has been several years since I hosted Thanksgiving, I am usually buried beneath an avalanche of Christmas decorations, getting ready for the next weekend's open house. And it seems wrong somehow to celebrate Thanksgiving with Christmas decorations everywhere. It was a great change of pace and now that I know I can do it, I will be happy to let my sister Toni have it back...

Here are the turkeys that showed up..

A few more turkeys..

A couple of cute chicks!!

Table decorations

More table decorations,

and still more table decorations...

We are a very quiet reserved group...Ever so sweetly explaining the game to the little ones...

And then things get a little rowdy!!!

She doesn't like those rules!!

This big boy doesn't want his picture taken I guess...

I hope you had a great group of turkeys to be thankful for.

I'd Be Happy To

How many times have you said those 4 little words and later thought, yikes! What have I said yes to now? A few weeks ago my friend Lynn asked if I would be willing to decorate a wreath for an auction benefiting the Oregon Garden. Well of course I would, I'd be happy to... I was happy when I said I would, then as the deadline grew closer I started thinking, I don't want my wreath to not be bid on... I don't want the Oregon Garden to have to pay someone to take my pitiful wreath... I need to have an idea... None were forthcoming...oh great, how embarassing, how tragic, I can see the headlines now... "Hideous Christmas Wreath Donated in Silverton." Not that our town hasn't been on the front page of every newspaper and news station in the entire nation, now I will bring further unwanted attention to my friends and neighbors.
Then it came to me (not in a dream) more like a flash... attach the iceskates to the wreath, glitter the blades, tie a white ribbon on, add a little tinsel, a few snowflakes and get over it!

Out After Dark??

There was a time when I couldn't understand what the big deal was for people to go out at night. Now adays, if there is something I want to do and it is only happening at night of course I will go! But if I have the choice, go early, or wait until after dark well...I like to be 'settled in' for the evening...
I can't remember the last time Dave and I had a 'date night' well... last night was it!! All by our selves just the two of us, it was dark, we were 'spruced up' and off!!

We had dinner here,

I had been here before with girlfriends, but I was anxious for Dave to try it. It was very good, and oh my gosh I was so delighted not to order from the counter and wait for my number to be called! I had almost forgotten what that was like, it was fun! It made me happy, much happier than a Happy Meal!!

Then we traveled a little further downtown Portland to Powell's Bookstore. This is always an adventure and a place we take Sam, but like having dinner out, much more fun without him. He prefers the children's section and I prefer almost all the other ones more.
We only had an hour before closing and I can get seriously distracted, but I thought these would be fun to read.

And who wouldn't want to read this?

I flipped through this one briefly, but I couldn't decide if I should read it or write it??

This is one I want to read. I have her other books and they are full of great ideas. The last thing I need right now are more ideas, so I will get it later...

Then since it was only 11pm... we moved on, to see what we could see further down the road.


You can only imagine our surprise to see this handsome guy out on the street!!

What in the world!! Dusty dressed up like a bouncer at an Irish Pub!! Yep, that's him alright student by day, bouncer by night. I figured I better check this out for myself.
Evidently we are the only people not out and about in the late night hours. There were people every where!! They seemed to be having a great time, many were waiting in line to get in and many more were already inside ( some had obviously been there awhile) Oregon State had won their football game and there was celebrating to be done!!

Irish fare to be eaten.

Irish drinks to be consumed.

Great ambiance.




It was late, we had a terrific cup of coffee and headed home!

Love These!!

I was able to be with several of my favorite people on Monday night. My sister Terri and I were helping my other sister Toni get the church ready for her mother in law's Memorial Service. Here is a shot of the nieces while we were decorating for the teaparty reception
to be held after their Grandmother's service. Doing things with these sweet girls is always precious, these are times that I cherish.

We have done lots of "get togethers" over the years and it is fun to see them do all the really important things that the "older" women have done for years. They can cook, set the tables pretty, get it all organized and be very efficient worker bees!! It goes without saying that they do it like we would.

In some ways doing the set up is more fun than the actual event. Not that I don't enjoy a party mind you, but working together seeing every one's input and co-operation is a pretty big thrill for me.
When Addie had her first birthday, Brynne and Jared had a big party for her. I remember thinking on the way, how strange it was because I had thrown a big party for my first baby's birthday who had been born exactly (Dusty and Addie have the same bday) 25 years before. It was hard to believe that it had been 25 years, the little ones were now the moms and dads...If I was still young, how could they be old enough to be parents?? They were acting like they were capable of throwing a great party and raising babies, but they were still babies, how could we be the same age??? Gee what a crazy mixed up world...All this to say, I need to lay off the caffeine..no, all this to say what fun to be part of a family, to watch the little ones grow up, to see that they care about each other and all the little things that we have enjoyed doing together will continue. Maybe we influence people in ways we aren't even aware, maybe when I'm "seriously old" I will just sit back and watch it happen...But until then, I am looking forward to the next "get together", someone needs to be in charge!

The flowers were lovely.

The silver was shiny

It was beautiful way to honor their grandmother.

What a Great Idea!

I had the best idea recently. I thought since I don't have any shows for several weeks, I should start posting every day. Not some big ginormous post, but you know, just a short and sweet little something! There are a couple reasons that's not really working for me... One, you would need to be organized and remember before bedtime that you need to think of something coherent to write. Two you would have to do something "blogworthy" to write about. Since neither of those things are happening, what will I do? Well do not despair, I have never let not having something to say keep me from talking!! So I will just go in that same frame of mind and keep the keys aflyin'.

I have been making some book covers, and that is very, very, fun! I got a great deal on a couple huge reams of paper and I am having them made into blank books.

Some that are more customized for individuals, this is my friend Karen's daughter and her fiance. She sent me a save the date card that she had been working on, so I stole repurposed the image from that...
I used some pictures from Mindy's wedding for this one.

And that was so fun I changed the background and did it the same on this one.

Then I had to have a reason to use this collage of Addie...


This could definitely be addictive!

Working Girls

Last evening I made a quick dash to my friend Pam's daughter Mindy's open house for her salon. I had been out of town all day and I couldn't quite remember the time... You guessed it, the party was over before I got there. Wonder why this has a familiar ring to it??

You recall the family reunion we attended, missed earlier this summer?

Just as well I was late, she had a huge turn out and I wouldn't have been able to get photo's of her shop had it been crowded with people. I like to refer to this kind of thinking as, making lemonade out of lemons. She had a few vendors selling jewelery, purses and custom designed shirts. They were gone before I got there, but that was just as well, I get too excited when I see really cool things (more lemonade). Here are some shots of her shop and of her with her mom.

Pam had come straight from work, where she is in charge (for the first time) of harvesting a bagillion Christmas trees. She got there about the same time I did, I thought it was an interesting contrast of how many different hats shoes working girls might wear... It is also noteworthy that sometimes women, have to step up and put on a pair of shoes that they haven't worn before to get the job done. Those shoes/boots might not be the ones you would have picked and they aren't that comfortable, but the job has to be done...

These are some shots of Mindy's wedding, it was in August this year.

I shared a few posts back about Jori's felted wool pins, that I saw during Christmas in Historic Silverton. Take a few minutes when you have time to check those out, they are so cool!

Let's Get Real...

Here is more from the continuing story of, I wish I knew how to make the computer do what I want it to do and less of a hit and miss way of using it. One of my big boys, who will remain nameless but we all know which one, (consider birth order) told me I should get a book that was several years old but kind of explained the basics of computer use. His thought was if I started back at the beginning, when maybe computers were a little less complicated (when would that have been?) maybe I could get a grasp. In other words, "Mom I have explained the file, folder, application thing a 100 times what don't you understand??" I'm thinking this isn't the right time to ask about pixels...
As any obedient mother would do, I marched right down to Border's to find that perfect book. After an hour in the magazine aisle looking at what I like and when I was certain no one was watching, I found the aisle with how to computer books. Well, I am here to tell you, there are aplenty!!! I had some trouble deciding which would be the less sleep inducing, here is the one I finally chose.

To some it might look like this

but everytime I see it, I see this...

How excited I am to work my way through this maze! Thankfully "multiple choice tests will show you how good your knowledge of Internet and e-mail is. If you pass the test, you will receive your free computer certificate by e-mail." Words cannot describe how thrilled I would be with an email certificate that would hang in my office claiming me as email certified...
Now you know what I have to look forward to...Life is just too exciting sometimes.
I showed the big boy my new book, he said he'd be out this weekend to get me straightened out.

Okay, Now What?

Here it is 4 hours after the day after the second day after the fourth day after the "event" and I can't help but wonder...What AM I going to do with myself?? I have no "events" planned for who knows how long and so NOW WHAT?? Yes, I could clean house, I could do book work (but seriously it isn't even April yet) I could do lots of things, but what oh what should I do?? I'm getting a little nervous here... I will have to make a plan and work the plan as they say...

Well needless to say, I have found plenty to keep me busy since I started this post... I guess the plan should be, find time to do a post...

Enough about my worries, I want to share a little about Christmas in Historic Silverton. I had some concerns about turnout since I did an email but not a postcard mailing as I do for most of the sales I have here at the house, but I have to say we had a terrific turnout!

I'm not sure how I found out about this event, but over 20 years ago (yikes that means I was just an infant) my girlfriends and I would travel from Oregon City (about 30+ miles) to Silverton, there were the cutest shops and the most wonderful bazaars, we made it an annual pilgrimage. Never would I have guessed that someday this would be my town, that I would be fortunate enough to be involved with the other shopkeepers and artists celebrating Christmas in Silverton. Many of the venues and most of the items have changed over the years, but it still feels the same in many ways, there is a map, still printed in red ink. You will still see red, green and gold balloons marking the participating vendors. It is a fun day to spend in Silverton with your girlfriends getting ready for the holiday season.

Here I am with Gayle, she was one of those original girlfriends from Oregon City that came with me all those years ago.

And 20 years later we are still enjoying Christmas in Historic Silverton together.



When the last customer left my shop Friday evening, Gayle and I made a beeline downtown to see what was going on. As clever planners would have it, this event always coinsides with First Friday (the first Friday of the month) most of the downtown merchants stay open until 9pm.


We found Jori, she looks glad to see us! She was set up with her wonderful repurposed fabric art on the second floor of the Wolf Building. She and Cecila (the owner of the yarn The Purl District and fabric store Snippets, down stairs) both had items that were remade with felted wool.

I'm pretty sure she was waving, I don't think she was shooing us away??

That must be a look of delight on her face

Now Jori thinks we might want to go thisaway??

Behind Jori is Jen, who is also setup to do business upstairs for the weekend. Her business is Sew Divine.

She has a darling line of baby items, that sweet little baby on her business card is hers!
This was the view from where they were.
Yes, more shoppers!!
They look excited too!!

A sample of Celia and Jori's merchandise. Not a very good a terrible picture (an idea for what I can do with all my free time, practice photography)
Here is that excited shopper, we saw coming in the door.

She has a new felted pin she is modeling.

It was so much fun seeing every one of you that made it out for Christmas in Historic Silverton. It always feel like a party to me, to see my old friends, meet their friends and make new friends. This was my 10th year of having the store open for this sale. One of the best parts of all of the things I do is connect with all of you. Some of you I met the first year and what a wonderful pleasure it has been, that only gets more precious with time. If I'm acting a little over excited to see you, it's because I am! Here is a little princess that came with her mom, her grandmom, and their our friend. I have heard what a precious angel she was, but she generally gets left behind. (By the way, it is a treat to have your little ones here, they absolutely delight me.)
When they asked her if she wanted to go with them to see Auntie Joy, and she most certainly did!
Did she have a clue who I was? Nope but, being a princess after my own heart, she knew there was a good time to be had and didn't want to miss out on the fun! And she was right, she was having a great time making friends and finding treasures!