In the mood to sew...

In my new effort to come out of my comfort zone with coordinating fabrics, I am going to try to do some pillows for Christmas. Thinking about pairing this pretty cardinal with the material that says Red Cardinal on it. This will be for my bed during the Christmas season. 

I love this neutral ornament material and I think I will pair it with the gold/green swirl for a throw pillow for the living room. 

And I think I will pair the reindeer with the red and white stripe.

Stay tuned for updates.

Going out of my comfort zone....

Do you ever get in a rut and do things the same way over and over because that was the traditional way? I am like that with decorating. I never mixed patterns and I never mixed colors that weren't normally together. A perfect example is Christmas. I either do my kitchen in red and green or I change it up and do it in blue and white snowflakes. 

This year is going to be different. I am stepping outside the box and doing it in red and blue. It all started with a Pyrex bowl.....

And a dish towel....

I received the Pyrex snowflake Garland bowl in a trade. I loved it so much that I thought I would do my kitchen in snowflakes this year...thus insuring a blue and white kitchen for Christmas. THEN my friend Stevie Marie, posted these cute dish towels she did in red and green and I fell in love with the hot chocolate cups because I drink it all winter long. So I went to see Stevie and requested a dish towel in blue and white. She didn't have snow flakes but she is very created and I love the way she matches things I would never thing to match. With the help of her and her mama, they convinced me Christmas doesn't have to be red and green or blue and white. You can combine both. So I gave the okay and the did me a dish towel and I fell in love.

I draped it over my Pyrex snowflake pieces to see what I thought.  

I was beginning to like this blue and red in the kitchen together for Christmas. Then I went onto Pinterest to look for Thanksgiving decor and this popped up on the home screen.

And this morning as I was looking at blogs, I saw this. 

And this was on another site I went to.

I am now convinced I am onto something with this new theme for my kitchen. I found these Santa cups by Pyrex on Ebay and I'm thinking about getting them. 

And I didn't know that Pyrex did Christmas ornaments. I must have these for a little tree in my kitchen.

My sister bought this set of dishes for her Christmas table a couple of years ago when she visited me. The antique store that carried them still has tons of them so I want to go back and get a set for my Christmas table. 

I am so happy that I have my Christmas theme now. I can't wait until after Thanksgiving so I can start decorating. 

Some Christmas thoughts...

I know it's not Christmas, but it is time to start planning on Christmas crafts I want to make and on decor. Hubby and I were discussing yesterday that we weren't going to fool with putting lights up on the house this year for Christmas. With his legs, it is hard for him to climb up and down a ladder. So we decided we are just going to look for a little tree we can tie bows on and put on the porch.

 

We also decided to put a wreath up on the front door.


Maybe something cute like this for the table on the porch. It would be so easy to make.



I saw some cute ideas on Pinterest as well for some things I would like to make this year. I would prefer to use a thin Christmas ribbon instead.




I would want a Santa key to put on it.



I would like to make these if we ever had enough cold temp for them to survive. You fill a balloon with color water, freeze it then pop the balloon and remove it.



I want to make myself one of these t-shirts or sweatshirts. I think they are so cute.



I guess I need to get busy and plan what all I want to make. 

My word for the month...

My word for my life is faith. Everybody that knows me usually knows that. My word for the year has been BELIEVE. But my word for the month is going to be BLESSED. God has blessed me in so many ways. A wonderful family, supportive friends, a great job and a very happy, contented life. I don't have great wealth or fame. And I don't need it. I have what joy and peace and love. And it doesn't get any better than that. 

One of my favorite bible versus that I live by is found in Philippians 4:11 (NKJV). Paul describes my life when he says "Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content"

We have probably all heard the words to that old hymn "Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what God has done."

My sisters church sings a song I am Blessed. It is kind of the churches signature song. I love it and the lyrics go through my hear at random times. I was able to find someone singing it on You Tube. Hope you enjoy.

I love Saturdays!

I love starting my Saturday off with a clean house. Been up since 5:30 and got everything done. Changed my purse this morning to go shopping today. I'm really into polka dots. I've been accumulated some of the new fall items in the polka dot patterns from Thirty-One. Then yesterday, I found a red/pink polka dot Martha Stewart notebook at Staples. Wrote my shopping list in it for the grocery store later today and now I'm ready to roll.

I have been trading Pyrex in one of my Facebook groups and just received this lovely piece in the mail yesterday from a lady I traded with. I was so excited. I love the 403 mixing bowls. I have this pattern in a fridgie, but this is my first butterprint bowl.

I found this awesome looking cake frosting last week. I decided to bake a cake last night. Then I thought, well what if I don't like the frosting? So I opened it before I baked the cake and took a taste. Suffice it to say I didn't bother baking the cake and I guess I need to stick with homemade icing. This stuff was not good. Hubby even made a face when he tasted it and he is not as picky as I am. 

My phone cover is starting to get a little worn. I need a new one. The one I have is just the white one that I got with the phone as a freebie. I would love to find something like this one. 

Or even something blingy like this.

May head to one of the Kiosks in West Town Mall today to see what they have. Hope everybody has a great day.

I had an idea.....

I had an idea this morning concerning tablecloths. I love vintage tablecloth. My favorites are the ones with the pinks and blues. 

The problem is that when I find them, they usually have stains that are pretty bad and I don't know if I could get the stain out. 

The other problem is the size. My table needs a 102" long tablecloth and those are just about impossible to find. 

I see a lot of people who buy the vintage table cloths and make pillow from them. 

But I really don't use that many pillows. So I kept looking and saw where people use them to make kitchen towels.

And I thought that was cute and I could do that. But I also thought about using them to make a table runner.

Then last night, I was going through the house turning the lights off before bedtime. As I walked through the kitchen it hit me....APRONS! I love aprons and I thought that is something that I could make from vintage tablecloths. Any stains would not matter as I could use the good part of the material for the apron. How cute would that be?

Then I thought of pot holders as well. 

And how cute to make them with pockets and enclose your favorite recipe for a little gift. 

I think I am on to something. May need to go antiquing this weekend to look for some old linens. 

Just in time for baking season..

I got this lovely in the mail yesterday. It is the Colonial Mist mixing bowl. Colonial Mist is one of my fave patterns. I was so excited with the trade!

When I was at the store, I happened upon a new flavor of Betty Crocker Icing. Whoever decided to mix chocolate and caramel together for icing is a genius. Can't wait to try this on a chocolate devils food cake. 

I got up this morning and made brownies in my new mixing bowl. I love baking and this time of year gives me that opportunity. These will be used tonight in making one of my favorite desserts, Reese Peanut Butter Brownie trifle. Yum. Can't wait. 

Since I have to cut the brownies small for the trifle, I bake them in a cake pan with parchment paper. That way I can lift them out easy and then just use my pizza cutter to run through them to make the small bite size I need. 

Come back tomorrow for the finished dessert with step by step instructions.