New Year's Eve At The House

Just skiing by to say Happy New Year's Eve!

My son and I have been watching movies from Redbox all day. Muppets From Space, Transformers - Dark Side Of The Moon, Green Lantern and Diary Of A Wimpky Kid - Rodrick Rules. Try not to be too jealous of my viewing choices.

I was planning on watching The Help, but decided that I wanted to wait to read the book first. Plus, I didn't want to hog all the good movies out of the Redbox kiosk (that Muppets From Space was riveting, I tell you).

Lest you think I'm a bad Mom, we don't usually watch that many movies. My son was feeling cruddy today, so we're staying in and hanging low.

Enjoy your festivities and be safe out there. See you in 2012!

Top Ten Lists

My family and I had a wonderful Christmas and have been enjoying some fun family time while my son is out of school for the winter break. Lots of dog walking, playing with new high tech gadgets and way too much eating.

Good news is that there are no fattening Christmas cookies left in the house. Bad news is that they are gone, because someone (naming no names here, Pam) ate them.

But I thought I'd better pop in here and let you know I was still here (waiving). Plus, I wanted to review a few things before the year goes out with a bang. Literally. You know that the Mayans thought the world was ending in 2012, right? We'll see.

Now, I'm not a fan of all the top 10 lists on TV and in magazines this time of year. You know the ones. The top ten news stories, top ten internet sensations, top ten insert any annoying thing in the world here of 2011. For some reason it sets off my ADD, and I can't wait for the new year to start, so the lists will end.

So what's a girl to do?

Make my own list and hope there's no one else in the world that gets as annoyed about these lists as I do.

So here's my Top Ten Thrifty Finds Of 2011, in no particular order.

Kate, my 1925 Royal Typewriter. She is named after the very regal and royal Kate Middleton.

A dandy Cosco step stool that made her modeling debut in my Christmas card post.

Bone handled silverware that did not clean up as well as I had expected, so they are just for decorative use now. We all need decorative knives, don't we?

My much sought after croquet set that was part of my childhood memories.

A Bakelite cocktail shaker bought for 90 cents at a thrift store.

A wooden pulley that has an awesome patina.

Some vintage picnic items, one of which I used in my winter front porch display.

A beautiful silver tea pot which makes a great photo prop, since I don't drink tea.

A vintage porcelain topped cabinet that has become a focal point in my kitchen.

Lots of vintage Christmas goodies.

My wooden drawers that I paid 25 cents each for and turned in to a Pottery Barn-esque cubby shelf.

For those that are counting, that's 11. Just consider the last one to be my New Year's gift to you!

Linking with:
Common Ground's Vintage Inspiration Friday
My Romantic Home's Show and Tell Friday
French Country Cottage's Feathered Nest Friday
No Minimalist Here's Open House Thursday
Stuff and Nonsense's Fridays Unfolded

'Tis The Season

I think the most beautiful thing about writing a blog is all the friends that I have made that I would have never met if not for this internet thing. Thank you Mr. Gore.

And thank you all for following along with me this year. Whether you visit daily, weekly, monthly or just whenever you can remember the name of my blog. Whether you stop by my blog address, receive it by email, read me in a reader or through Facebook and Twitter. I really do appreciate each and every one of you!

(I may need to get the roof fixed again - it's snowing in my kitchen)
Wishing you and your family a wonderful holiday and a healthy and happy new year.

The Joy Of A Trimmed Down Christmas

I know I've said before that I was doing a more scaled back Christmas and I really am. I did not put up 1/2 of my normal Christmas decor. I did not put up the dining room tree with all my Grandmother's vintage ornaments on it. It didn't decorate my banister with oodles of greenery. I didn't decorate my basement family room at all. I tried to just plop down some Christmas items in among my normal decor, instead of totally redecorating the entire house.

Looking around my house I have a sense of calm now, rather than the nagging thought in the back of my mind telling me that "Pam, you have to put all this crap away after Christmas!!!". I think I can easily put this stuff away, with the exception of the tree, within a few hours.

What was that? Oh, that was a sigh of relief that you just heard coming from central Ohio.

So, here are some photos of my trimmed down Christmas trimmings.

Angels We Have Heard On High

This vignette is part of my reduced and simplified Christmas decor.

It sits on a table in the hallway off the living room. (No way to make this view pretty, there's just too many door frames).

I use a lot of these faux trees that I bought at JoAnn Fabrics a few years ago. They are an easy addition to my normal decor and adds an instant Christmas look.

Just plop one into a silver urn and you are good to go.

A vintage angel Christmas tree ornament sitting on a prayer book and German Bible from 1866 is just icing on the cake. Or fluff on the cloud. That sounds more angelic.

Well, these presents aren't going to wrap themselves, so I better get off the computer and find my scotch tape.

Did you ever type something and it looks totally strange? I always call scotch tape, scotch tape, but I never typed it out before. Sounds funny.

OK, back to wrapping now.

Christmas Cards

I mailed out my Christmas cards today.

I felt a little old fashioned standing in line at the post office, stack of cards in hand, waiting for my turn to buy Christmas stamps. I bought the ornament stamps, BTW. It seems that in this day and age, fewer and fewer people are sending out cards.

I remember sending out cards the very first year that I had moved out of my Mom's house. It seemed a right of passage. I was a grown up now, in my eyes at least, so I was sending out my very own slice of Christmas cheer.

I used to endlessly scour the stores to pick out the exact card that I thought personified who I was. And even though what personified me changed each year, I just knew THE cards when I found them.

I would sit down on the floor in front of my coffee table, new pen in hand (had to be a new pen), cold beer hot chocolate in front of me and write out my cards. And not just sign them, actually write a little holiday blurb in each one specific to the intended recipient.

To say I used to enjoy Christmas card writing immensely would be an understatement. To say I am a little bit of a dork about all things Christmas related would also be an understatement.

Now it seems that more and more people are doing away with sending out cards. Not sending them altogether or sending ecards instead. To me, opening an ecard is just not the same as opening up a paper card from someone. There's something about the anticipation of seeing the cards come in the mail, opening the envelope, catching a glimpse of the pretty scenes on the front and reading the message tucked away inside the card.

Clicking, reading and having a giant dog wearing a Santa hat tap dance across your computer screen is just not the same.

But with today's new fangled technologies, ie Facebook and email, it seems like Christmas cards are not a necessary part of keeping in touch with someone. You don't have to wait all year long to see that their kid got out of braces or they took a vacation to Hawaii. Their life is all in front of us daily, if we choose to accept them as a "friend".

I wonder, if in five years, I will send out cards at all.

Do you still send out Christmas cards?

And why is the snow cat above smoking pipe?