walkin' in a winter wonderland

I love taking photos after a fresh snow. These are from the snowfall last week, and the way it is looks today, I probably will be able to get more pictures of this loveliness.

long shutter

When there is a heavy snow, my mother makes special provision for the birds, makings them places to be protected from the weather while they eat. She leaves branches in piles, or pushes the snow in mound walls so the wind won't reach them. I enjoyed getting a few photos of the birds at her place while they were eating. I think birds are so beautiful, and a special part of God's creation.

Slate-colored Junco 

Cardinal

Downy Woodpecker

"Tommy" Tufted Titmouse

Finches

A little area to eat on the ground

2012 in review

January 1, 2012 - Claire and Dad

Frederick, Elauna, and Claire

my kitchen helper

3 months old

Look, Mom, I picked your flowers!

after Elauna's baptism

Elauna and her Mimi

Miss Claire and her handsome Dad

Made a church out of his duplos

playing volleyball at camp

Dad's Jeep in the parade

my girls

with dear friends Toni and Marlen

Dad's heart attack

uncle Bruce and mom

at the beach

story time with cousin Blake

being silly

harvest

at Quarter Horse Congress

Claire, almost 1

Elauna doing school work

new little dog, Pippa

feeding fish at the farm

Claire and Mimi in the woods

Claire in Junior's hat

Auntie Ellie and Miss Claire

Claire and Elauna Christmas

Jeremy playing games with the nephews

with cousin O and uncle Matt on Christmas day

me and my kiddos

flower button gloves

These are my favorite pair

Another do-it-yourself Christmas gift.

My sweet Elauna wanted to make each of her girl friends from church a gift this Christmas. It was so fun going to JoAnns with her and watch her come up with ideas. Each department would be a new idea, and I knew if she was anything like me (which she is), we would be there all day thinking up creative ideas.

She found these gloves and I thought we could add something to them and we would have a cute, but practical, gift she could give. She picked a different color for each friend.

Supplies:
Buttons (I keep a jar for each color group) - I chose white for this project
Felt or light-weight wool (I have wool rounds for making rugs)
Gloves ($1.00 almost anywhere this season)
Hot glue gun

Step 1 - Cut the flower shape in 3 different sizes
Step 2 - Assemble flower and hot glue together with button on top
Step 3 - Hot glue to gloves....all done.

Supplies

Flower cutouts with button

Gloves assembled

paper "joy" wreath

This is another project I enjoyed working on. It is inexpensive to make and can easily be made in a couple hours.

Supplies Needed:
Foam wreath
Yarn
Old songbook
Black paper
Scrap neutral-colored fabric
Cotton twine or jute
Hot glue gun

1. Start by wrapping the foam wreath with yarn. This is also a nice base for another wreath with fabric flowers.

2. Cut songbook pages to about a 4*6 inch size. I am using a small wreath so I am making smaller cones. Use your own discretion though. You can find discarded songbooks at Goodwill, Salvation Army, garage sales and auctions. I would not suggest using good books....that is a waste. Find ones that are falling apart and the pages discolored or torn.

3. Make a cone out of each half of the songbook pages. Make enough cones to make a ring shape. I used rubber cement to hold the pages fast because it dries quicker than the hot glue gun and it will not burn your fingers to hold the page in place while it dries.

4. For the second ring, cut the page in quarters and make a smaller cone from each quarter sheet.

5. Take the hot glue gun and attach the larger set of cones to the wreath. Then attach the smaller set of cones on top of the first set of cones already attached to the wreath.

6. Next, I used black paper and made small cones for the very center. Attach those, too, with the hot glue gun. I found a free sparrow template and printed it on card stock and cut out, then attached to the large cones at the top. See the Graphics Fairy website for her free sparrow silhouettes.

7. Use your remnant fabric and cut triangles for a pennant. Cut as many as you need for whatever saying you will hang. I chose "JOY" and hand wrote the letters on each triangle. I love fonts, so find a cute font to fit the design you want to use. Mine looks vintage, to go with the old paper, and the sparrow. Trust yourself -  you can do it by hand. Otherwise, you can stamp it on too. Here is a great resource: www.1001freefonts.com These fonts not only are free, but you can preview them too. Type in a word and you can see what it will look like in that font. Awesome!

8. Hand stitch your triangles onto some cotton twine and you have a very cute little pennant. I did not hot glue my pennant on so that the saying could change with the seasons.

9. Hang it up and you are done.