A quick look back at 2009

With only a few hours left in 2009, I decided to put together a photo collage of some of the more memorable events of 2009 for me.
--New Year's Day 2009, our new porch railings, my painted kitchen cabinets (let's try to forget the 3 months it took me to do this), Halloween, my daughter's 5th grade graduation, my son's First Communion, our new pool, my daughter's braces, we finally made it to Disneyworld--
Overall, it was a great year. It did have some heartache here & there, but we survived it.
As you are getting ready to ring in a new year, I hope that 2010 proves to be a wonderful year for you & yours. HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Getting ready for a New Year

I hope that each and every one of you had a Merry Christmas! The photo above shows my dining room table--we had Christmas Eve dinner for 18. I didn't have a very imaginative tablescape this year. I guess all the baking took the creativity right out of me! lol
I'm off from work all week so I've been enjoying my time at home with my husband and kids. I hate to admit it, but I have taken a few decorations down already. I thought it might be nice to dismantle things a little at a time instead of having one giant mess overtake the house. What happens to me anyway? I spend what seems like days and days decorating yet when Christmas is over I can't wait to pack it up and get it out of here. Although this year, I'm not really in a hurry to get everything down yet this is the year that I have to. On Monday, January 4th, we are having our dining room hardwood floor refinished. If I have to have a big mess from all the sanding and such, I refuse to have a mess on top of the Christmas decorations too. So, I've got to get it all down by this weekend any way you look at it. Have you begun the process of "the big take down" yet? Do you find that you are a cleaning maniac this week? I go nuts cleaning after Christmas every year. I don't know what it is that sends me into crazy cleaning mode, but it happens every year without fail.
In case I don't post for the rest of the week, I would like to wish all of you a Happy New Year! Let's hope it's a fabulous year for everyone.
Oh yeah, a note to my scrappy friends: Would you believe I've been scrapping again? The mojo is flowing & I'm not going to stop it. Who would have thought? :)

When will the madness end?

I've been doing lots of baking. So much so that I don't care if I ever see another cookie again! (Hmmm...I wonder if a week from now I'll harbor the same animosity towards cookies?) Anyhoo, I thought that before I get completely overtaken by flour and sugar, it would be best if I wished all of you a Merry Christmas right now. It's quite possible I may not be able to sit at the computer (or really just sit in general) until December 26th! (I'm only partially joking on the sitting part) So here goes--
May all the joy and magic of Christmas be with each and every one of you. Merry Christmas friends!

Snowmen ala Dee Foust

I have fallen in love with Dee Foust's creations! (She makes vintage inspired pieces.) Even though I have an attic filled with Christmas decorations, I couldn't resist and had to have these.


Please say I'm not the only one who continues to buy decorations when they have enough to fill three houses? Please? It's ok if you have to lie to make me feel better, okay?

All around the house

I feel as though I've been missing in action lately, but I suppose it's just all the preparation that goes with this favorite holiday of mine. I'd like to share a few more photos of home. I'm no master of decor & nothing is ever perfect, despite my best intentions, but here goes anyway.
This is what my dining room table looks like. I did a complete change this year & went with silver, gold, white, cream & blue in here, no red or green to be found. Best thing I ever did.
Another of the table centerpiece.
I added a little sparkle to the chandelier.
Sometimes you have to add a little something to the bathroom. It's not easy adding a little holiday sparkle to a 1933 Art Deco style bathroom, but I did my best. (Won't Santa ever grant my "let's gut the bathroom" wish?) I guess I shouldn't be complaining though, because Santa gave me this as an early Christmas gift... I must have been an awfully good girl this year--or maybe Santa just couldn't listen to my incessant chatter about my need for this camera any longer? Hmmm...I guess we'll never know.

Oh the weather outside is frightful!

Yes, we are getting hit with a snowstorm. I can hear the wind howling and the see the snow blowing all around. I don't mind, I love the snow, especially at this time of year. The best part of today though? Snowday!! The schools are closed which means the kids are home and there's no work for me. As if that wasn't fun enough, my husband is off from work today as well. I can see a great day filled with hot cocoa, warm cookies, board games and Christmas movies. Ahhhh, what a wonderful day! I also would like to wrap some gifts and then...I hate to say it...clean the bathrooms. I know, I know, cleaning the bathrooms does not fit into this pretty little picture I've painted, but nonetheless, it needs to be done.
I thought I would leave you with a photo or two of some holiday happiness at home.
I love this Santa on the Moon. My mom & dad bought it for me several years ago.
Blue decorations are new for me this year. With my new furniture, I refused to go with the traditional red & green in this room. I'll share more photos later. Have a great (& toasty warm) day!

Show & Tell Friday

Today I'm participating in Show & Tell Friday over at My Romantic Home. I would like to show you my beautiful watercolor painting. This was a Christmas gift from my husband in 2002.

It's a watercolor painting of our home.
Let me give you a little background:
One day, I was shopping in one of my favorite gift shops--My Sister's Secret. I noticed this beautiful painting on the wall that was a painting of the actual gift shop I was shopping in. I thought it was amazing! The corner of the painting held the artist's business card as well as an approximate price. It was quite expensive and rightfully so considering the work & detail involved.
I went home and remarked about it to my husband, telling him all about it and "if we ever had money to throw away, I would love to have a watercolor painting done of our house." That was it, end of story. I never mentioned it again. Although every time I went to the store, I did stand and stare at it.
Forward to a year later. It was Christmas Eve 2002 and we were celebrating with my family. All the gifts had been opened when suddenly there appeared this unwrapped, large, thin box. Having no idea who it was for or what it was, I looked around the room and noticed everyone was looking at me. My husband was taping me with the video camera, which was unusual, so I realized this box must be for me. I took one peek inside the box and realized what it was. I looked over at my husband, in disbelief and said "you didn't?" I could not believe what I was seeing! Through tears, I pulled the painting out of the box, completely shocked. One look at it and I was hysterically crying. It was beautiful, just stunning, the detail! I couldn't believe he had this commissioned for me, knowing how much I love our old home. I couldn't believe he even remembered and did this all on his own. I just couldn't believe it. It is, to this day, the greatest gift I have ever received and there are no words to express the joy it gives me when I look at it. It is such a treasure. (So much as been changed to the house since 2002, and I love that this painting shows our home in it's original state).)

A Happy Thanksgiving

As Turkey Day draws to a close, I do hope that each & every one of you had a wonderful day. As promised, I am posting how my little antique shop find turned out as my table centerpiece. Remember this?

Here is the final product:


I don't think it turned out half bad. My father-in-law was the first to remark about it. He made sure to tell me how beautiful it was and how he couldn't believe I made that out of an old carpenter's tool box. A compliment coming from a man who you wouldn't think would notice something like that, really made my day! (I only wish I had taken a picture of it with the candles lit too. Oh well.)
It's getting late, I really need to get to bed now...lots of decorating to do tomorrow! :) If you are decorating or brave enough to go shopping tomorrow, have a great day!

My very first award

Well look at that! I received my very first blogging award. (insert applause here) The lovely Jen Coen
gave me this award, so thank you, thank you, thank you Jen!
To accept this award do the following:
1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
5. Nominate 7 Kreative Bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they have been nominated.


Now I must tell you 7 things about me (oh I hope I don't bore you with these!)
1. My birthday & my husband's birthday are 2 days apart. The really interesting fact though? We were in the hospital nursery together. My mom even remembers meeting his aunt who was visiting her sister-in-law who had just had a baby. (my mother-in-law) What can I say? He must have been checking me out when he was days old! LOL
2. I have always lived in the same city I grew up in. I didn't even go away to college. I've always been here.
3. I once was a hair model at a show given by L'oreal to introduce their new products to area hair dressers. I remember being given the most beautiful perm I ever had. (no laughing, this was the 80s people!) Now for the real trauma? They cut my hair really, really, and I mean really short afterwards. I was a teenager, it was the 80s, era of the big hair, needless to say I was shocked! As I recall, it looked nice but it was soooo New York City. I remember all the hair dressers telling me it was about 3 years ahead of it's time for our little city in Upstate New York!
4. I gained only 7 pounds while pregnant for my daughter, 6 pounds for my son. At one point, I remember even losing 5 pounds!
5. I have met celebrity chefs Sara Moulton, Paula Deen and Giada DeLaurentiis. I have pictures with all of them.
6. I have met Josh Groban and have a photo with him as well!
7. There were 452 people invited to my wedding. I don't know why but people are always shocked by this. What can I say? Big Italian family?
Whew! Glad that part is over!
I am supposed to nominate 7 of you for this award, but I think I'll cheat and say I would like to give it to each & every one of you because you all deserve it...so much creativity out there! Is that acceptable or will the award police try to defame me? (sort of like Kanye & Taylor Swift, heehee!)

The incoherent mind

That's me, owner of the incoherent mind...especially, at this time of year. My head is swirling with thoughts, all kinds of thoughts, all over the place, like Thanksgiving dinner, tablecloths & napkins, appetizers, my new rug, Christmas gifts, having a wall shelf made, folders, something to match my new brown shoes, painting, haircut, baby gift, bottle brush trees, scrapbooking... I have lists that are too numerous to mention. It's getting out of control and the holidays are not even in full swing yet! Last night I went to bed with a pen and paper placed on my night stand because I knew that as I was trying to relax and fall asleep, I wouldn't be able to without thinking of a thousand things I needed to do first. The result? Another list added to the pile.
(Now you know how my blog got its long & odd name...well, that and the fact that I couldn't think of anything creative to name it that day!)
I wanted to share this find that I got at the antique store last week.

I think the owner of the store was intrigued by my buying it. He joked that I must have alot of work to do with a tool box of that size. Then I told him that it was going to be my Thanksgiving table centerpiece. He was definitely surprised and commented on my creativity. Well I think we'll need to see what it actually looks like when I'm done with it before we praise my creativity. Who knows? I could end up destroying the thing! I'll post a picture of it if I manage to pull it off though.
I just have to add that I am so ready for this tomorrow, I'm nearly salivating!

Have a good day my friends!

Blessings

I've been pretty scarce around here lately...here's my story. (not that you asked, but you're gonna get it anyway!)

In October, I had a mammogram. A day later, I had my worst fear...a phone call. Now I know that the technician said NOT to panic if I get called to come back, but really people, what do you think a normal person is going to do? They needed to repeat the mammo and suggested an ultrasound be done too. The earliest they could get me in was some 9 days later. Of course, the fact that my doctor sent me the radiologist's report during this 9 day wait did not help. I know just enough from working in the medical field previously to scare the heck out of me. Why would she do this? I still can't believe it, it's not like I requested the report! Anyway, 9 days of panic follow.

Why is it that when you are going through something rough and trying not to think about it, the more you are surrounded by that thing. Know what I mean? What is October? Breast Cancer Month. No matter how much I tried to take my mind off my worries, the more I saw online posts, tv commercials, pink ribbons, etc. all pertaining to breast cancer. It was seriously scaring me. (I would also like to apologize to my blogging friends that had heartfelt posts about breast cancer on their blogs (Melonie and Ana, I believe). I wanted so much to respond but it was all too close to home.

I finally go back to the hospital and this technician mammograms the heck out of me. I'm telling you a good 15 additional views! I wait and wait and wait. People going in after me have now left and here I sit, contemplating the worst. I finally get called in for the ultrasound. The technician leaves to go show the results to the radiologist and she returns with the actual doctor. I took one look at him, uttered "Oh no!" and knew I was in trouble. He explained that he found a "nodule", solid looking, that he recommended be biopsied. More panic. He tells me that there's an 80% chance it's benign.

More worry. I finally get an appointment with a breast surgeon, some 2 weeks later. 2 more weeks of worry & panic follow. Luckily, he was able to get me in for the biopsy within 4 days. 4 more days of panic. I had the biopsy this past Monday. Doctor thought it looked benign. He couldn't say for sure because the pathology report wouldn't be back for 2 days. 2 more days of worry.

Yesterday, it was official....all is fine! Thank God! Thank St. Jude and St. Anthony who I prayed to over and over again. I feel as though I've been through the wringer, but yet I know that this could have been so much worse.

So here's my public service announcement to all my friends....Make sure you do monthly breast exams and get a yearly mammogram. (if you're old enough) This "nodule" was not something that could be felt and was only found with the mammogram/ultrasound.

Sorry if this post was TMI, but I feel blessed and had to shout it to the world!

27th win

I just can't let the moment pass unblogged (is that even a word?). The boys in pinstripes have done it again!

Congrats to the New York Yankees on winning the World Series for the 27th time!!

Etsy love

Instead of ironing, like I should be doing, I'm hanging around Esty. Here are some of my favorite finds today:
Ok, how adorable and amazing is this? Look at the detail!

from craftymarti

How cute are these? Love them!

by truLuxe

This cracks me up! I'm a huge fan of toast.

by sianuska

Isn't this so pretty?

by fray
I really love hanging around Esty. I just wish I had more time to do it!

Pumpkin Cake & Halloween

October is such a busy month for us. I don't think I've had a moment to sit & think since the 1st.
With so many birthdays (my husband, my son & I in the past week alone) I decided to make one of my husband's favorites, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cake.


Can you say "yum"? I really only make this cake in the fall and truthfully, it's a shame. Why wait until fall to eat something so delicious?
I started adding Halloween decor to my fall decor. I just received this guy from ebay the other day. He's from artist Dee Foust for Bethany Lowe. Isn't he adorable? I love him!

I guess that's all for now folks. Stay warm! We're on a winter storm watch this weekend. Should be interesting to see if anything actually develops!

17 years ago today

Photo by DeNicola Photography
Can this really have happened 17 years ago today?
My first thought: oh my, how fast time goes by! Can it really be that long ago? My second thought: Am I really that old to have been married for 17 years?
The honest truth: I'd do it all over again. (maybe not quite so "grand" this time though. lol)

Beautiful bedrooms **sigh**

The above from Better Homes & Gardens
**sigh**






The above from Country Living
**sigh**
Why all the sighing you ask? My bedroom furniture is mahogany and kind of victorian looking. It couldn't be any further from the above looks. **sigh**

The porch disaster

I don't believe I've ever shared the story of our porch disaster. This is a long one...I hope I don't bore you!

In the early summer of 2008, many of the lights in our house went out. Thinking that maybe we just tripped the breaker, my husband went down into the basement to investigate. No matter what he tried, the lights kept going out. We knew it was time to call in our electrician.
Enter electrician and about 3 days of trying to find the problem. (Our house was built in 1933. The basement was somewhat finished by the previous home owners and as a result, he had to break into the ceiling to see where the wires were going.) Anyway, that big mess being considered, he found the problem. I guess when they built the house the wiring went outside under the porch.(?) I don't understand the whole problem, but this was something that sent our electrician into a complete panic. He was amazed that we didn't have a fire because these wires were lying on concrete and sparking. The blessing in all of this was that there was a crack in our porch so whenever it rained the rain would drip through the porch and keep the sparking wires at bay. (Can you even believe this?)

The electrician fixes the problem, and now it's time to call our mason. Being that we love the character of our old home, we're really upset because we don't want to ruin the integrity of this original porch. We were able to keep the old brick base and the mason just broke up the old concrete and repoured new concrete. Until.....he found that the wooden sill that holds up the front wall of the house was rotted. (Oh I can still see from my front window the look on the faces of the mason workers when they found that rotted sill. I KNEW something was wrong out there, I just knew it.)
Time to call our contractor. He had to come and replace the sill before the concrete could be poured.


In order for the contractor to replace the sill, the front of the house had to be jacked up. Go ahead, jack a house from 1933 and see what happens to the plaster wall inside!


Oh yeah, you knew it...BIG cracks! (OK, let me admit, I was angry over this but kind of glad too. I knew the wall would have to be repaired and with that a new paint job. Good riddance to that bright green!)
Needless to say, after this whole big rolling disaster we were quite literally out of money. We had to leave the porch as is with no railings. (which I found annoying)
This summer, my husband and I decided to take on the stress of do-it-yourself-ers and added white vinyl railings to the porch. It was not entirely a horrible project keeping in mind of course that nothing can ever be level or square in a house this old!
So this is what we look like now:



It still amazes me today how a few lights going out in the house led to all of that. Such are the joys of the old home I guess!

Look what I made!

I'm not much of a crafter. Ok, maybe I was a scrapbooker for 10+ years but when it comes to projects, I'm definitely challenged. I'm not quite sure what drug I was under the influence of when I decided to make a fall pennant flag for my fireplace. (lol) Being craft challenged is one thing, but thinking I could actually sew something had to put me in the certifiably crazy category! To understand you would have to see how long it takes me to sew a button on a shirt. Believe me, women have given birth in less time!

Anyway, I wanted a fall pennant and I excitedly stalked etsy looking for one. I found many of them, but I really wished I could have one in the fabric I selected. Enter my big idea. I took a trip to Joann Fabrics, selected several fall looking fabrics, made a template, cut and then sewed each flag by hand. Of course, I did this by hand because a) I don't have a sewing machine and b) I wouldn't know what to do with a sewing machine if I had one. I must be truthful, I did enlist the help of my mom to sew the binding on. She has a sewing machine and I was terrified of sewing that part by hand. So without further adieu, here it is:



Not too shabby for a girl who can't sew, huh? It's not perfection, but I'm still shocked I pulled it off at all.
Here I am, off to share this over at Twice Remembered which is actually quite funny because never had I imagined I'd ever be able to share anything for Make your Monday! (That is unless I can't figure out how to link this whole thing up. Did I mention I'm computer challenged as well? LOL)
Have a great week!