I'll take the warmth of Texas with me.....

I'm off to the windy city of



I have tried to soak in all the heat of Texas to take with me... the temp this week -nothing above 20 degrees. How can this Texas girl survive in that cold????

I will spend the week working and planning for the new year in my store. That will keep me warm and happy inside!

Off to pack a few more socks, gloves, cuddle duds whatever it takes to keep me warm in the windy city.... believe me it lives up to that name!!!

Check it out....

I love checks...especially red checks....

Thanks for checking it out!

11 days of creating....

Several years ago someone told me that whatever you do on January 1st you will do ALL year long. I have been selective of what I do that day since. This year I decided I would organized, cook and do some creating. SO what have I done everyday since? Organize,cook and some creating! Let me share what I have already done in the last 12 days of the new year...


I have created several new vignettes around the house...

I decide to gather all my red trays with strawberries on

them and group them together - red - of course!

I spent Jan. 3rd decorating for a dear family friends wedding....

I think a good name for it was....Visual coordinator!

A little cooking - I tried this and it was Great - I felt like I was eating at Macaroni Grill. I used roasted chicken from United and presto - Dinner.

A little more redoing around the house - a new mantle vignette!

I finally got to use the shredded book I bought from Roxanne at the Quaint Old Homes Market day back in the fall. Love it!

I have loved this print for months and decided I needed(HEHE)it in my living room - framed and hung - I love it!

Made some new pillows and embroidered the verse for my bed.

And yes I have done a lot of work so far - inventory and year end reports always a busy time at work.

So far the year has been great-I have done what I love-creating, cooking, organizing and working.
So what have you been up to?

Remember ....

15 years ago today we buried my Dad.I have felt a little sad all week and then all of a sudden I realized why.I wonder if it ever gets to where you stop missing them. Oh to just walk out to the garage and see what Dad was making today on his wood working tools. I think of all my family I am more like my dad than anyone. He had a happy spirit and could find the good in anything, a non worrier - for sure-and a person that was as happy in a crowd or alone creating something. I ran across this writing I put in my store newsletter back in 1995 over the holidays and decided I wanted to share our special gift we got from our mom that Christmas....

The Christmas of 95 I received a wonderful present. It wasn't big, expensive, shiny or gold, but it was one of the most precious and most prized gifts I've ever received. It was wrapped with love and devotion -it was a gift that spanned 38 years. As I held my present I sat like any child and wondered to myself what it could be. As I unwrapped it at the same time as my Brother and sister, I felt like we always felt together on Christmas morning-excited and full of expectations. What we unwrapped though we were not ready for. It was beyond our greatest expectations.

Our present was conceived two years ago right after the death of my dad. Mom decided she would make us a quilt from Dads shirts. She tried several times over the last 2 years but couldn't bring herself to do it yet. Then in October when I was away from the store for 5 days she washed the shirts for the last time and together with friends cut and sewed us each a wall size Bow-tie quilt. She could not have done it emotionally without the help of a circle of Quilt friends. She put a label made from his pockets monogrammed with "Mack" the label read " Any man can be a Father but it takes someone special to be a Daddy"

As we opened our boxes and realized what we were holding we could hardly speak. For once again I was looking through tears of favorite shirts my Dad wore- favorites he wore to the store or wood shop and Church. Some we had given him on past Christmases and somehow we felt his presence.

Love and memories came to me Christmas Morning and it was the greatest gift. No gift can compare to the gift of Love. Maybe someday I can look at "Daddy's Shirts" quilt without the tears -but never without the love I feel when I run my fingers over the stitches......

What a special gift that was 14 years ago - I was so blessed to have such wonderful parents. They are together in Heaven now but still very missed on this earth. God is good and every once in a while I feel their precence when my family gets together. Looking down with a smile on their faces......

Eye Candy...

My friend Amy -blessings and baubles-recently shared a blog she had found and loved. I had a visit and I LOVE it! Who needs magazines for inspiration when you have daisypinkcupcakes

(located on side bar).WOW! Well I need to go I have the need to redecorate a room or two. HEHE!!

Nothing like a New Year to clean out.....

I have spent the last few days -CLEANING OUT. I always feel like with a new year it is time to clean up things and get on with a new year. Start out organized,cleaned out and ready to go toward the new. I wish you could actually see anything that I have done, but that's OK ,I can see it every time I open a drawer or file cabinet -I smile to myself!

I wish cleaning up a life was as easy. Open up and throw away all the bad habits,trash that we carry around all year. Our lives would sure be better if we could do that. What we need to remember is that God can clean up all the trash and throw it all away IF we will let him clean us up. Make us white as snow-as the song says.

Continuing to clean up my home, store, heart and life.

New Year baby....

I had to share the cutest picture I have ever seen...OK I am partial....

HAPPY NEW YEAR

New Year ...New Hopes...New Dreams....

Its hard to believe 2008 is slowly coming to a end and we will welcome a new year of hopes & dreams. I love new years -to me its a time to start over. I am a person who makes new year resolutions, do I keep them all year? Yes and No! But I believe if we think of things we would like to change or accomplish. then we remember them all year long and strive to do them. Every New Years I look back at the year past - this year I want to say WHEWWWW! What a year! I survived!!!

I have my top 5 list just like David Letterman....
5. Weekend spent in Ft. Worth buying a wedding dress for Sarah and seeing Mama Mia - Fun
time spent with family.
4.Trips to the Canton flea market with family and friends.
3. The success of my little store - what a blessing it has been to me.
2.Sarah and Joes Wedding -I'll never forget it.
and
#1 The Birth of my darling grandson - Drew- it doesn't get any better than that!!!

I will never forget 2008. This year more than any year in my life I have been to the deepest valley and the highest mountain, I am always amazed that God leads us through EVERY journey. What a friend I have in Jesus.....

I want to thank each of you - family and friends - even the ones who I never know read my thoughts for sharing this year with me. I have sooooo enjoyed sharing my little mundane life with you. I just can't wait to see what God has planned for me in 2009!!

BLESSINGS FOR THE NEW YEAR FRIENDS !!!