Wishing all who enter here and those they love a Blessed and Merry Christmas.

A special Thank You and well wishes to our military, and civil servants both here and abroad. It is because of you and those before you that we are able to celebrate this holiday season, in the tradition that we are accustomed to.

Prayer for Peace

 

Wishing all a Blessed and Healthy Christmas

As we go about our way this week, celebrating the birth of Christ, and remembering Christmas's past, and memories of loved ones; please take a moment to pray for the families left behind after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

 

In memory of these precious angels who were rushed to heaven's door.

Prayer to Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

An Early Christmas Present from Hubby

What a guy!
He had more errands to run today. I stayed home and worked on emptying out the room I'm making into a dining room. I had a suspicion that he would stop back at the shop we visited yesterday, but I really didn't think he'd be bringing the hoosier home today. Not to worry, it's here to stay. I'm not giving it back.  The piece is in fairly decent condition. The front kickboard and a side panel need to be replaced. It's been repainted and the original hardware is missing. I'm planning on a red theme for the dining room, so the red and white enamel surface fits in. There are 3 other cabinets that will be sharing the room, so I'm going to have to take them into consideration when I pull everything together. I definitely have a project on my hands. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears! 

There are no stamps on this piece, but there was a foil label laying in one of the drawers embossed Marsh High Point NC. It's not a heavy piece of tin like I'm used to seeing tacked into older furniture, nor are there any tack holes. Marsh Furniture and cabinet makers is still operating in NC. I'm considering sending them a picture to see if they recognize it. No stamp on the flour hopper either. I'm wondering if it is a reproduction. I guess time will tell. Whatever the case may be, it's perfect for our home and I'm thrilled to call it mine.

Getting into the Spirit

Preparations for Christmas 2012 have finally begun. We picked up our two live trees on Wednesday. One has been planted in the front yard and is waiting for the rain to end so we can decorate it. The second is potted and sitting in the living room. We'll be starting on that as soon as I finish this post.

Two Blue Spruce - We feel blessed. We found a tree farmer who will sell us a live tree for the same amount as a cut tree, and he helps dig it up. We've gotten our trees from him for the past two years and have had wonderful luck transplanting them. We'll be going back next year.

Tree number 1 is waiting to be decorated. We've had chilling rains ever since we planted it. Hopefully the sun will come out soon so we can decorate in a little bit of comfort. Temps have been 40F here during the day.

Hubby put this display together. Some of our new GW finds are here along with some old and treasured pieces. I love how he places the little trees. He's got so much patience and an artistic eye for detail.

First Decoration Placement of the Season

My first attempt at decorating with a purpose. My creativity isn't jumping out at me today... must have too much on my mind. Or nothing at all. LOL

Goodwill Christmas Shopping Spree

Marty's (A Stroll Thru Life) post last week reminded me of the wonderful shopping nights at Goodwill a friend and I used to have when I lived in Massachusetts. Back then I lived in a 3 level house with 13 living areas that I could and did decorate to the hilt. Now I live in a cozy cottage for 2 and for every new item I put out, I have to put 2 into storage. Needless to say I haven't spent much time at the Goodwill of late.

Today I had one of those once a year appointments that we gals so much enjoy. Hubby and I usually make appointment trips together. At this age you never know what shocking news a doc might have in store for you. My appointment ran 45 minutes late and by the time we got out he was famished. (He missed lunch trying to complete chores before we left.) We stopped for an early dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant. As we headed down the street to our next destination which should have been Lowes, he asked; "Where to now Dear?" as we approached the local Goodwill. Quickly I said, "Turn Here!!!".  Him:  "Goodwill???"  Me: "Yes Dear." As directed, we were careful to watch out for wandering reindeer as we entered the store. My.. "Let's just take a quick peek.", turned into a 2 hour shopping spree. Even he got into the spirit of looking for things to put together for Marty's "Tabletop Tuesday".

Here's a picture of our wonderful finds, with the exception of the painting.

We purchased 25 items for the grand total of........................................................ $48.64!
Now to start decorating!!! :)

Huggs and happy bargain hunting!
          Joanie

Christmas Past

This picture taken Christmas 1956 and a comment from a dear friend that it's OK to post old pictures until I can complete this year's decorating, prompted me to create Christmas Past.  

I hope you enjoy what I've come up with.  

  Huggs! 

Joanie

Running a little behind...

Hi there!
You probably thought I forgot all about you. Not a chance! I've been trying to find the perfect server to link the blog to, because I am fearful that I'll run out of room. I created a couple of new domains, and several sub-domains and settled on Yahoo and Bear-Necessities because we seem to be dealing with a lot of bear and other critters lately, and  our home improvements are putting us back to bare necessities in a couple of other areas. 

Our outside cameras caught this critter running through our property at 4 PM the other afternoon. He's a brazen little fellow. A second camera found him by our front door just minutes before we let our pack of 4 legged critters out for their afternoon run. 

The weather has been above freezing the last couple of days here in the northwest corner of Connecticut, so we've been getting some extra outside work done on the property. Hubby finished the siding on the front of the garage and installed two decorative lights. I'll take pictures tomorrow. We're also hoping to remove an ugly blue spruce and replace it with a new tree on Monday. Tuesday will be a day on the road for us. We probably won't get to decorating until Thursday, as it will take all day Wednesday for us to gather up our holiday decorations.

We are still trying to finish up the inside of the house. Just a few pieces of trim are needed. I did manage to get 2 sets of Christmas dishes out of storage and got hubby's Budweiser Stein and Texaco vehicle collections packed up until we are done with our kitchen expansion project. He's toying with the idea of selling them. I don't think today's economy is going to do him any favors. I vote for making a nice enclosed, just-below-the- ceiling shelf to display them on in our new dining room. 

Well, it's witching hour here. Time for me to get some beauty rest. Hope you enjoyed the video. Stay safe!

Huggs!

         Joanie

Living/Computer Room Ceiling Project

Making Progress

With a new roof over our heads and a lifetime guarantee that we'd experience ice dam free winters for the rest of our lives, we acted on our plan to install a knotty pine ceiling in our living/computer room. We're still in the cleaning up stage here, so I'm going to refrain from posting full room shots. Below camera level is a lot of dust covering an assortment of tools, fasteners and light fixtures. 

Our local saw mill cut the boards and kiln dried them for us. We love this man! We've no idea what we are going to do when he retires, other than trying to get all of our projects done before he does retire! 

The first picture shows hubby hand rubbing the knots in the boards after I stained and washed them. Rubbing the knots and darkened/colored grains brings out the character of the board. I come from a family of wood crafters. We love our grains and knots.

The first board is in place in the top right picture. We've been waiting for this moment for 2 years.  We enjoyed a quick moment of celebration and moved on. 

Bottom left is my computer area viewed from the north end of the room. New ceiling, trim, curtain rod and curtains in place.

Bottom right is viewed from my computer area. New recessed lighting has been installed. We've still got a 6' x 6' stretch of hallway to complete and 3 hanging lights that hopefully will be in place by the end of the weekend.

I'm posting the following pictures especially for my gaming friend Shortfill. His comment last week when I was telling him about our knotty pine ceiling, was.

"But.. but.. aren't you supposed to put knotty pine on the walls???"

Portions of this room are going to be changed next spring. We've plans to open up the wall on the left side of the windows and moving our eating area into that room, giving us a larger eating area and more preparation room. I do love my kitchen the way it is though, as long as I'm the only one in it. :)

On that note, I'm going to sign off here for the day. I hope your day is a splendid one!

Huggs!!

Welcome to Country Roads!

Welcome to my blog. Please bear with me as I'm new to this. I do use Facebook, but I'm interested in connecting with other people who enjoy remodeling and redecorating. I'm a crafty person. Have been all of my life. About the only craft I haven't tried is blacksmithing. But give me time! LOL

Hubby Bill and I live in the northwest corner of Connecticut in a 5 room house that was built during WWII with used materials. It had no basement until 1960, and probably no indoor plumbing either, as there is an outhouse still on the property.

The house is a fixer-upper-house that he purchased in 2000. It's on the most beautiful 3 acres of wooded land that you can imagine. The pines here have to be 500+ years old. We've been fixing it up ever since I came into his life in 2006. Earlier renovations are documented at Hawkseyes' Blog. I won't bore you with that stuff here.

We've spent the last 4 years remodeling the kitchen and family/computer room. We've beefed up 2 of the outside walls and put on new barn board siding. Between remodeling projects we've had a 400' well dug and just this October had an Interlock Roof installed on our home. We're wrapping up installation of new lighting and tongue and groove knotty pine ceiling in the family/computer room. Hopefully the living area will be in order for Thanksgiving so I can share before and after pictures with you.

Unknowingly to her, I've been inspired by the wife of one of my World of Warcraft gaming pals (Shortfill) to venture off on this type of site. There is no way I could ever compete with this woman. She is fantastic! I love the way she mixes styles and materials. She's a natural. You can see her wonders at A Stroll Thru Life.

Well, that's enough for now. Hubby has advised that he's shutting off the power, so that means this has to shut down now. See you soon!