Favorite Christmas Decorations....

Of course there are my mice-Santa mouse; Santa's helper mice; the new along with old Wee Forest Folk mice in my WFF case; I decorated my hall tree with a mouse Santa hat, flashing red nose and mouse slippers; and my toy shop (in a cheese box). All part of my favorite holiday decorations which will stay up until February. I didn't get everything out this year but the house looks festive, warm and happy! I hope everyone enjoys their decorations past New Years Day!

Countdown to Christmas....

The days have zoomed by! We hosted a family party last night so I finally finished some decorating. This year I find I lacked the energy to put out everything (darned bronchitis)...but the house looks very festive. I LOVE our new tree! We have a new artificial tree which allows me to display all my wonderful ornaments from the past forty plus years! Wow! I am OLD....and I have been a collector for most of my life! Plus, our cat who used anything on the floor as his personal place to relieve himself is now an angel kitty so I can use my gold tree skirt!

I hope everyone is taking time to savor all the magic of these days!

Treasure of Christmas Past...

One of my holiday treasures is a collage of our annual 'Santa' pictures. It took much persuading to get both boys to visit Santa every year until they were about 17. Then I gave up. They surprised me one year while both were in college with a picture of them once again on Santa's lap. I think that this year I will do my best to persuade my husband to visit Santa so we can send the 'boys' a Santa picture of us!
I love this picture collection so much that I have it in our bedroom year round. The years seem to have sped by~so glad we have the pictures to remember those sweet times.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I feel so blessed to spend this Thanksgiving with both our sons in beautiful (warm) South Carolina...and be surprised with this wonderful bouquet from my Mom!
I am counting my blessings today for health, happiness and family.
My wish is that everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Need a Thanksgiving centerpiece?

This is something I love to do as a centerpiece~take my candlesticks and put ornaments on them in place of candles. I have brass candlesticks and glass/crystal candlesticks that look gorgeous with glass bulbs,fancy or plain Christmas ornaments sitting on them.
I bought this set for my son and his girlfriend last Thanksgiving. It will look terrific on our table for Thanksgiving!
Enjoy your Thanksgiving with loved ones! Count your blessings!

Urban Fairy Doors of Ann Arbor

I spent a wonderful day last week with my wonderful sister. We shared breakfast, lunch and dinner and even got some shopping in. Most of the day was spent in Ann Arbor where we visited some lovely shops. I had a list of gifts to pick up for Christmas and was eager to get started. While browsing in the first shop, Peaceable Kingdom, I happened to see someone sitting on the floor by the front window. Curious, I went over and discovered two miniature windows. I gingerly knelt down, looked inside and found a fairy store! My curiousity led me outside the store to find the door to this tiny store and there it was~but my camera battery went dead. I did get some pictures of inside the fairy store but had to take a picture of a postcard to get a picture of the door.
Now I need to return Ann Arbor to seek out other fairy doors~Small Enchantments are found when you least expect them.

Pumpkin Carving

I found these pictures from last year and thought I would share them. We went wine tasting a year ago on Old Mission Peninsula (Traverse City) and stopped at the Jolly Pumpkin behind Bowers Harbor on the west bay side of the peninsula. They had a pumpkin carver there earlier in the day, Most of his pumpkins were gone but I did get these pictures. I haven't attempted this kind of carving but think it looks great!

BTW, the homemade potato chips are tasty there-as well as the white fish! Yum~now I am hungry!

Don't eat too many treats today!

Boogedy Boo!

HaPPy HaLLoWeEn!

Enjoy the weekend~but don't lose your head!

May all your spooks be small and your enjoyment large!

I will miss Halloween but there is Christmas looming in the future...

Halloween Lamps Continued....

I did say I love lamps and this time of the year I find I have several Halloweenie lamps.

I found the Harry Potter lamp in Petosky a few years ago and knew it would be great with a colored bulb during this season!

One of my personal favorites has to be the witch hat lamp I made myself. I saw what I thought was a witch hat lamp in a store but the price was high. I was perusing Target and found a toddlers witch hat so decided to make my own lamp. I bought a cheap black lamp at Hobby Lobby (half price) and changed the lamp shade by making a cone shape out of parchment paper, adding bat shapes to the parchment which show when lit. This wasn't quite stable enough so I searched for something heavier and found a clear plastic cone (and I cannot remember where I found this-maybe in the floral section of a hobby store?). I added black netting over this. I dressed up the witch hat with fancy netting and bead trim (glued on) and Voila!

Hope you can tell how cute this is from the pictures! And BTW, the witch lamp I thought was so expensive turned out to be just a hat on a stand~not a lamp! So my idea came from misinformation. So glad I took initiative and made it myself!

New Halloween Lamp

I have a weakness for lamps~don't know why but I do enjoy buying them!

It all started with an expensive agate lamp I bought years ago-which took the place of a vacation out east that summer (my husband was relieved-he hates to leave Michigan in the summer).

I found this new Halloween lamp two weeks ago when I stole time away from the miniature show I was working on to shop (with coupon in hand). I immediately knew I wanted it, but have started questioning whether I have a place for it. Of course I found a place and I love it!

I thought I would share pictures for those of you crafty bloggers (Kim-this is for you!). It doesn't look very hard to make-good luck!

Zimmerman Girl's Weekend.

It's quiet now, but this weekend I was host to my Aunt Jeanette (90 years young), two cousins, Mom (who just turned 87) and two sisters (I won't reveal their ages). The cottage was the place for our mini reunion and we thoroughly enjoyed our time together.
Friday we drove into Traverse City for supper at a favorite restaurant-Apache Trout Grill. The restaurant was generous and allowed us to celebrate both Mom's and Aunt Jeanette's birthdays with yummy desserts (I am notorious for asking for birthday desserts!).
Saturday we drove up to Petosky, stopping along the way at a favorite upper Michigan art gallery-Bier's (http://www.biergallery.com/ ). Many of us found gifts and treasures to take home. I don't miss attending Ann Arbor Street Fair every July since finding this gallery. Ray&Tammy Bier traveled the art fair circuit until they became established in an old red school house/gallery just south of Charlevoix. We drove on into Petosky for lunch at City Park Grill-terrific place where Hemmingway spent time (at the beautiful bar-many years ago). We walked around town a bit, helping the economy before getting back on the road. It started to rain by then so when we drove through Charlevoix, we had a quick drive-by tour of the stone houses built by Earl Young. I took an inside tour of eight of these house this summer so I could share some of the highlights. It is always a treat to show these 'smurf houses' to others~the houses are so unique and special. We stopped at the Charlevoix Public Library for a potty break. I just discovered how special this building is this summer. A public school was converted into a magnificent library with many amenities. Wonderful place to check out if you are in the area!
The weekend involved delicious food-Aunt Jeanette brough homemade apple sauce made the same way as Gramma used to make it. The cookies, muffins, white chili, salsa and so many other terrific food choices made us all feel the love of family (although too stuffed!), not forgetting to mention the wonderful pies from Grand Traverse Pie Company. Yumm!
So I am here alone now, resting up for our drive home. John is outside working on something (no football game on at the moment). We have already decided on another weekend together in a warmer month. Looking forward to it!

An inspiration....

While sitting in my big chair, daydreaming, I had a sudden inspiration. I have two topiaries for my mantle during the spring and summer seasons. The topiaries have been relocated to a corner during Halloween. I also have a toddler sized witch hat which my big bear has worn in past Halloween seasons (he is a Monarch butterfly this year). One thought lead to another and now my topiaries have hats and glasses or a mask which makes them very festive. I also turned miniature topiaries into witches with bat masks. There is always some small spot ready for transformation into Halloween!

Boooooooooo...!

I am exhausted but had to share a picture from the miniature show I am helping put on this weekend! Some friends made miniature glitter houses from using printables from this website-

http://www.littleglitterhouses.com/paul/howard_how_to.htm .

I used my Halloween pedestals to display some of them and added my Haunted Clock and a few other goodies to made a terrific display at the show! It was especially fun to turn off the lights to see the display in the dark-the glitter houses have flickering lights! Don't you love the new lamp?! Found it today! Love the colors.

Now off to bed to be ready for another fun filled but busy day!

Paper cuttings continued...

Had to include pictures of my mouse silhouettes as well as the cups I just bought (with an orange cup inside to show off the silhouettes). Also forgot to take a picture of a new paper cutting I bought in IL at an art fair. I watched a man doing paper cutting and had to purchase something from him-and this had mice!

Scherenschnitt....

The art of paper cutting has intrigued me for many years. I have two silhouettes of each of the boys, done a few years apart (the silhouette of the girl was a find at an antique shop). I found a terrific buy on an older Scherenshnitt at a shop which specialized in taking old furniture and turning it into something else. That shop on Diamond isn't there anymore but the thrill of finding the framed paper cutting has remained. The man who owned the building worked overseas in embassy work so he returned to Grand Rapids with many treasures (his children wanted nothing to do with his antiques!). He bought this while stationed in Germany. I added a new matt and frame and just love it (even though I can't read the German saying on it). The Scherenschnitt on the piano I found on Ebay last year. It still needs a new matt and frame but is wonderful with the old lantern lighter (who looks like a witch) and the black cat. I bought some new paper cuttings at The American Sampler on Thornapple River Drive near 28th Street in Grand Rapids. Love the Halloween Parade. The smaller pumpkin silhouettes were hard to resist. The artist is Pamela Dalton and I also have several of her Christmas paper cuttings. Another of my collections which I added to today with Halloween silhouette drinking cups and flocked silhouette votives-which even have a mouse (or is it a rat?)!
Did I mention the Martha Stewart mouse silhouettes which are scurrying around the house looking for a non-existent mouse hole?

Clutter...

I must admit that clutter has always been a bone of contention to me. I considered myself fortunate that we live in a rural area, away from others, so I don't have to worry about others thinking that I am a slob. It is a rare occasion that we have visitors. I sometimes work on my projects on the dining room table or at the kitchen counter and it usually looks like a cluttered mess. I cleared away everything when a friend came to stay last month. I forbade her to even look down the basement stairs...where my 'workshop' should be. But it is cold and dreary and dark down there and my things tend to appear upstairs, bit by bit, slowly creeping up to add to the clutter I have surrounding myself when I create. And who can deny that the view outside the dining room windows is wonderful! The basement is full of boxes and tubs and 'stuff' I have collected over the thirty(!) years we have lived here, just in case/maybe/someday...and looks a disaster. I am lucky that my husband tolerates my mess, as long as I clear a spot for him to eat. I guess after all these years, he knows me well enough not to agnonize over the mess I make since I am 'working'. Then I read this~ 'If the evidence of a life well-lived is in the clutter, I can learn to love it.' This rings so true to me. I plan to embrace my clutter and keep it somewhat organized...and keep on creating!

And I just realized that I have already writen on this topic...must be it really bothers me! Guilt~ at times it is my middle name....

Goodies from Ghoultide...

Everything was so wonderful at Ghoultide gathering that it was extremely hard to decide what to buy. Of course, the crowds around every artist's table kept me from getting too close to many things but friends from CA were there and helped me snag my 'Purrceptiby Happy Monkey Cat' (Purrcie for short) by Laurie Harden. I also found the owl ornament who may reside in my birdcage for the Halloween season. My sister, Lynne, surprised me with a hand painted box with a mouse(!) as an early Christmas gift from an artist who ate breakfast next to us that morning. I wish I could afford something from Scott Smith (Rucus Studio) but alas-so expensive! I did buy some postcards of his work. And I couldn't leave without buying some of the wonderful decorated sugar cookies. My sister snagged a few things which I will admit I lust after (but didn't get pictures of-yet!).
We plan to go again next year!