Wow, look at those trees!

On the way to our daughter's house for Christmas Eve dinner, we passed these amazing trees. We had to take a little detour to look!

They surround Chesapeake Plaza in Ft. Worth which is home to Chesapeake Energy and also houses the headquarters of Pier One Imports. 

The building has lights on top which are pretty cool -- these for Christmas change from red to green with a display that reminds me of playing Tetris!

This white tree is kind of eerie.....

And this is a cool psychedelic shot!

Sharing these trees for Rednesday hosted by It's a Very Cherry World. 

♥♥ I usually have my Rednesday posts over on my vintage blog, Magnolia's Attic, since mostly my reds are older than Methuselah as my mother used to say.  But sometimes it might seem more logical (at least to me) to have those red posts over here. So you will see some here, some there. It's good to mix it up!!  : )

Noli the Skateboarder....

Noli loves skateboarding. She's pretty funny on a skateboard, but she tries! Really not too bad for a five year old!

She has this one trick where she sits on the skateboard, rides it a few feet, then flips it out from under her and jumps on to finish the ride. I'm sure there's a name for that move somewhere, but I have no idea what it is. Of course, she does this at a very slow speed, befitting a young lady of a modest age.

She whispers in my ear.... "I can skate better than Mommy. She can't do the tricks I can" .... what a kid!!

So, of course, I had to make her a crocheted skateboarder for Christmas...

This is Noli after she jumps back on her skateboard after doing her trick!

I kept her hair wild and free just like Noli's (mainly because you can't get her to sit still long enough to brush it!) I pulled the yarn for the hair from the middle of the skein so that it would be wavy and curly!

Oh, and did you see her thumbs? Thumbs!! Don't you love it?!

Skateboarder Noli is made from a cute pattern by K and J Dolls on Etsy -- she has the most adorable amigurumi patterns for sale! If you crochet, you should definitely check out her shop. Or even if you don't crochet, the dolls and animals are just so cute to look at!

  I just might have to make this one for Noli for Easter! What's really sweet is that she has two outfits! Noli will love that!

♥♥

Noli Ornaments!

Noli and I were in JoAnn's, shopping for some yarn. Well, I was shopping for some yarn.... Noli was shopping for Noli.

"Please can I get a toy?" No, sweetie, it's almost Christmas and Santa will be bringing you toys. "Please, can I get a craft to do? Puh-leeze. Puh-leeeeeeze! --- I want to make Mommy and Daddy an ornament. Puh-leeeeze?"

Who can ignore that! We are talking about crafts, you know!!

So she picked out wooden ornaments to paint -- a reindeer for Mommy and a bird for Daddy. (and, yay! they were on sale!! Always a good thing!)

Back home we got out the paints and covered the table with the old plastic got-everything-in-the-world-on-it-that's-messy tablecloth that we use for our crafts. Put on the smock (an old shirt of mine). And she set to work.

Notice how she wrote her name on the tablecloth - "Noli's"  

I wonder what happened to her signature ♥ dotting the " i ".....

She's always very business-like when it comes to painting.  She knows what she wants to do and sets about it in a very concentrated way until it's just right!

Mommy's has lots of glitter on it. LOTS. The glitter paint is iridescent and Noli likes that.... a lot!

Daddy's doesn't have glitter (not sure why) but she mixed some colors to make Mr. Bird cheery. Telling me what colors mixed with what colors make other colors.

We hid them away to let them dry in a place where they wouldn't be found. A few days later she was back and wrapped them! That was a sight -- LOTS of tape! I wish I had gotten a photo, but we were in a hurry 'cause Mommy was on the way!

I'm sure that Mommy and Daddy will love their special Noli ornaments. She signed and dated them on the back. (That was funny too -- the way little kids write all over the place instead of in a line...)

Have you, or your kidlets / grand-kidlets, made any special ornaments this year?

♥♥

Special Pink Ornaments!

I have two very special ornaments that just happen to be pink! They were both given to me by my daughter, who is now an adult 28 with a daughter of her own. (that would be Miss Noli, of course!)

This angel ornament was the first Christmas present that she gave to me that wasn't a drawing or craft done in Mother's Day Out or school. Of course, I value those little gifts more than life itself, but this one was special because she and her Daddy went shopping and she picked it out all by herself. I think she was about six. It is also my birth angel so that made it super special!

And she painted this one for me when she was in early high school. She knew that magnolias were my favorite flower. She has given me other magnolias over the years, but this one was special because she painted it. Oh, and of course, she gave me the lovely Miss Noli too -- her name being Magnolia! Nothing much more special than that little sweetie!

(See the ornament next to it? That's the one we got for Stephanie's first Christmas!)

Sharing my special pink ornaments for Pink Saturday over on How Sweet the Sound. Have a look at some of the other awesome pinks or Christmas posts -- there's fabulous stuff over there!! (and there's a lot of them -- I'm number 161!!)

♥♥

Foodies -- BBA Style!

Oops, I almost forgot! And I shouldn't because they are all such awesome artisans! As in Blogging Business Artisans....

I made this treasury a few days ago to feature my teamies and totally forgot to blog about it!

I thought it would be fun to see if I could make a whole BBA treasury using food in the titles, or in the item itself, and these guys didn't let me down! It was a bit of a challenge, but I found them!




So, if you follow along, we can go to the restaurant (taking our crayons) and choose from a very sweet menu (no veggies here!) of yummy delights, raising our glasses of wine to toast our choices, and finish off with cafe latte laced with sugar.

♥ Click on each one to see the full food name, and to go to each shop) ♥

♥♥

Blue on the Christmas Tree

I discovered a new (to me) linky party called "Blue Monday" which is hosted by Smiling Sally -- and decided to participate for the first time!

I was looking at my Christmas tree and, lo and behold, there were blue ornaments! So I got out my trusty camera and snapped away -- and now I will share a few with you.

I love this porcelain bell -- not only is it blue, but it depicts the First Christmas in such a lovely way. So serene.

This ornament has a place for a tree light to go in to illuminate the beautiful carving of Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus. It too, is porcelain. 

This second photo was taken on a setting that allows the light to shine through.

I love these little snowmen -- I have a whole set of them! This little guy is so cute with his cuddly bear and his blue vest!

And we can't leave out Santa! This one was made for the millennium celebration in 2000. Isn't he the cutest? He's having a great time leading the parade!

I was deep into ceramics during the 80s and made this woodland Santa. I love his blue skirt under his red robe, and the blue toy in his bag!

And the very best of all -- a flower ornament that Noli sewed by herself. Last year in her Montessori preschool, the kids learned to outline with a running stitch. They made a whole series of cute blocks and mommy Stephanie decided that they would make excellent Christmas ornaments for family members. Mine is a blue flower which just happened to be my favorite!


Noli was so funny -- she didn't give it to me... instead, she left it behind a picture on a table where I have a lot of family photos. It's one of her favorite hiding places when we play "hide the ......." (little toys du jour) and we always forget how many we have hidden and they show up days later....  So, of course, I didn't see the ornament until I dusted several days later!

Linking my blue ornaments to Blue Monday -- lots of other blues there too!

♥♥

Angelic Pink at Christmastime

Most of my Christmas decorations are bright red, mostly fun in style. But this angel is an exception -- she's a lovely pale pink with golden lace wings. Her wings scare me whenever I put her out -- I'm so afraid they will get broken! I always put her on my buffet which is probably the safest place, as long as the 800 pound oil painting above her doesn't fall down!

Oh dear, I hope I haven't jinxed myself -- y'all cross your fingers!!

I made her sometime in the 80s when I was deep into ceramics. I remember cleaning the greenware and hoping against hope that I didn't break those wings! But she (and I) survived. She is done is an ivory with a pale pink wash and dry brushing on her lacy dress, and her wings are an ivory wash. She glistens with a bit of subtle glitter over her dress and wings.

She's actually a candle holder. Sometimes I put a candle in her holder, but I really prefer her just as a lovely and delicate angel.

Linking my pink lace angel up today over at this week's Pink Saturday on How Sweet the Sound.

♥♥

Giveaway for Cat Lovers!

It's Giveaway time over at the BBA (Blogging Business Artisans) team! If you love kitties or know someone who does, this is the giveaway for you!

 >^.^<     >^.^<     >^.^<

Deb, of Storybeader's Bookshelf on Etsy has made the cutest jewelry set to be given away to one lucky winner! Maybe that will be YOU!!

There's a two-stranded necklace with cute kitties and colorful beads.

A pair of dangly earrings with black and white kitties to match the necklace.

And that's not all!

A dozen kitty beads are included, just in case you want to design your own matching bracelet! 

 >^.^<     >^.^<     >^.^< 

To get all the information for entering, go to the BBA blog and follow the instructions. You can even get extra entries! Deadline is December 20, at 11 a.m. central time.

And be sure to visit Deb's Etsy shop, and her blog, The Storybeader's Journal.

Good Luck!!

Playing in the Snow!

Hello! I hope your Thanksgiving was fun and that you didn't gain too much weight with all the yummy pies and stuffing and such!!

I wanted to pop in and share a snowy Etsy treasury that I just curated. It features members of the Blogging Business Artisans team -- a talented group of bloggers and Etsy sellers. If you'd like to check them out and read up on some great blogging tips, go to the team blog, you'll be glad you did!

Playing in the Snow!

Click on each pic to go to that shop, or on the title to go to the treasury on Etsy!

Pink Lightning!

Noli got new tennis shoes. Pink. Sparkly beads on them. Fancy, schmancy silver shoelaces. 

And they light up, front and back!

She came in the door pointing her toes and stamping her shoes so they would light. 

Showed them off to me. Showed them off to Papa. 

Thought she was the coolest thing in town : )

So we went in the closet to take a picture. Didn't work so we went in the bathroom. 

PINK LIGHTNING!!!

Oh yeah, we're cool.

Linking Noli's pink lightning shoes to Pink Saturday!  Hop on over and visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound. You'll find lots of pink goodness there!

♥♥

Is It Fall Already?

Halloween is right around the corner and even though I don't decorate for that anymore, I do add a bit of fall goodness here and there. I've got to get my fall storage box out of the shed and get going with it!

In the meantime, I'll share a few fall and Halloween themed items from my shop. I must admit, I got kind of candy corn crazy!

Felted candy corn coasters. 

The goblet belonged to my grandmother who died when my mother was fifteen. 

I'm so glad to have two of these goblets!

This was fun to make, and hooray! it sold!

A little one is going to have it for her very first official Halloween! 

I had to include it here because of the candy corn!!

No candy corn here but I guess you could put a bunch of it INSIDE the bag!!

And a candy corn cozie for your fave canned beverage! 

And last, but not least, a witchy candy jar!
(She ate all the candy corn....)

Uh, did I mention Candy Corn?

Linking my fall goodies to the EtsyBloggers Blog Carnival -- one of the questions posed is about what you have in your shop, and what plans you have, for Halloween. Click on the link and find some more!

♥♥