Now, that's a party!

This is for Take a Word..the theme is, Celebrate.

I usually do the same thing every New Year's Eve..

watch a movie, make a pan of fudge and hang out with my girls.

Nothing too wild..I certainly have never been to a party with a cat playing a banjo:)

Maybe next year!

I hope your night is fun, safe and entertaining.

Covered in books and stars

Three Muses challenge this week is Books..

"Books are a uniquely portable magic"

-Stephen King

 

Not very long ago, I had a dream about walking through a forest.

As I was walking, I kicked something, when I looked down

I saw there were stars on the ground..

then I noticed that the tree in front of me

was covered in books and stars.

When the wind blew through you could hear the book pages rustling,

it almost sounded like someone was whispering.

The stars were swaying back and forth like heavy fruit.

In order to remove a book from the branches, 

you had to ask the tree's permission.

I was extremely excited and thought perhaps I had died,

since I'd never seen a book tree before.

 (but have always wanted one)

Trying to decide what book to read first was my only worry.

It was amazing!

 

Merry, Merry Monday...Christmas time is here!

Thank you to everyone that stopped by, commented and did their own

Merry Monday posts..

I'm so grateful.

I hope you are with those you love and enjoying, no, basking..in the magic of the season.

That's what I'm going to do..

Santa brought me everything I need.

There's plenty of cookies and cake...

 and a couple of extra sweeties:)

I'm getting Christmas breakfast ready as soon as I'm done here & 'A Christmas Story' is on television.

I'm also waiting for someone to wake up and see what Santa brought her!

Thanks again, this was so much fun.

many hugs to you!

Merry Monday, it's beginning to look a lot like it's supposed to look.

Welcome back,

It was cold last night..44 degrees! Finally!!

Now it feels like the holidays are here:)

It rained the other night too!!! It was awesome!

Next week is Christmas...

Are you ready for it?

We are pretty much done..

We have some last minute groceries to get before Christmas eve, but that's it.

Do you make something extra special for your family?

I make the usual, either ham or turkey dinner, but I always make

a cream cheese dip, It's so good!

Here's the recipe in case you'd like to try it:  

1 8oz package of cream cheese

1 8oz can of crushed pineapple (very well drained)

2 teaspoons of dried, minced onion

1 medium diced red bell pepper

1/2 teaspoon of salt

soften the cheese and blend in the ingredients.

 chill for at least an hour

you can shape it into a ball, then roll it in chopped cashews or pecans.

 I made another batch of the cake mix cookies on Saturday.

These were a funfetti flavor, which is just vanilla with sprinkles..

We also made this..

it's like rice krispy treats but instead of the cereal we use popcorn.

It's always fun to add food coloring..I thought it was going to be red but this is pretty too:)

I've been busy making gifts..

I always create something for my girls.

Most of the time, they put in their requests, haha!

I take breaks from painting and felting

 and make a few little ornaments for the little tree by my bed.

I tried to make this look like a snow globe.

These are my favorite!!

Aren't they adorable? they are all made of salt dough!

I colored the edges with a little pastels to give them a "baked cookie" look.

I'm obsessed! lol

Here's a great place to find the recipe

 These are our stockings..we officially have more pets than people here!

our tree..

Can you see my Kane angel ornament?

If you don't already know, he was my big, fat, gorgeous, kindhearted pit bull.

I lost him to cancer five years ago..there isn't a day that goes by that I don't miss him.

I made this out of felt about a month after he left us. 

It's in my room year round, but during Christmas, it goes on the tree.

Remember the kitty?

She has a name now..

Tabitha.

She has bonded with our monster cat,

Peeves.

We never would have guessed!

He's such a mean kitty to the others.

This is them, relaxing after ripping up some toys.

meanwhile...

Spanky tries on a tennis ball hat.😂

A while ago, a friend of mine wrote me a short story.

It's called the 'Christmas Faun'

It's about a little girl (me) that meets the Christmas Faun deep in the forest.

He gives her a gift..it's the last wish he has left, one that he has kept for thousands of years..

One he has saved just for her..

it's in the shape of a very bright star.

The story is beautiful and wonderfully written.

It was given to me for my birthday and I was very surprised and moved by his thoughtfulness. 

I wanted to share it with you, but it is long and  most of these posts are already long, so

instead I made a little digital picture to show you.

Before I go I'd like to talk about a couple of really cool blogs.

I've followed these for a long time.

The first one is called Altered Book Lover

I've been following it for six years.

Not only will you will find instructions on creating your very own altered book,

you will be shown different art projects and techniques. 

There's plenty of tutorials to choose from.

I love this blog because Elizabeth shares both her artful success stories and her failures.

She's sweet and talented!

The other blog is called

Calamitous Botanicus 

(following for three years)

You'll find the house skeletons

Burt & Ivy

on various adventures during the Halloween season..

They always come to play on Haunted Humpday.

Other times, the gardens, the cathedrals and the visits to the fair are chronicled

and brought to you with plenty of pictures and history.

Hope you get a chance to visit these amazing sites.

they're both a lot of fun!

This week we are going to watch 'Meet me in St. Louis'

'Little Women' and 'Untamed Heart'

It wouldn't feel like Christmas if we didn't.

Do you have any holiday movies that you just HAVE to watch?

Well, I'm done for today, I will be back later this week and for sure

next weekfor my last Merry Monday post of the year..

Until then, have a magical week, stay safe and keep warm!!

Merry Monday, Birthdays and Strays

Welcome back to Merry Monday.

How was your weekend?

I had a great one..

On Friday we went to A Christmas light display in Mesa, which is about 20 minutes away from us.

It's gorgeous! and it was cold..cold enough for us to need cups of hot cocoa to keep warm.

Have you ever made cake batter cookies?

I made some on Saturday, before we decorated our stockings.

It's so simple!

You need a box of cake mix

1/2 cup of oil

2 eggs

mix everything together

drop by tablespoon into a bowl of powdered sugar

roll into balls then set on a baking sheet

 10-14 minutes at 350 and you get soft amazing cookies!

and there's an abundance of flavors to choose from.

I made chocolate fudge..

 

 And Grinch hearts..(it's just vanilla flavored with green food color)

 

So, it was very cold ..39 degrees is heavy coat weather here in Tempe..

our summer highs are sometimes 120 degrees, so we are chilly when it goes anywhere under 50.

Well, I took out the trash and found a cat trying to get into the laundry room.

I had to bring it in..

I'd already noticed it wandering around earlier in the day.

My niece posted the cat onto some websites .

We also made 'found' posters and set them around.

While we were taping them up we read a note on the mailboxes

stating that someone else had found this cat a few days ago but

didn't want to keep it for long because it was fighting with their cats.

This person just opened their door and let it out..

knowing the temperature was going to dip very low this week!

What's worse is that I think it belonged to a family that moved recently..

So she (I'm pretty sure it's a she) was left here to fend for herself!!

No one has claimed her 😞

 

 

We have not decided on a name yet..LOL

Isn't she adorable!

 

As you may know, from last week's post..

Yesterday was my birthday.

 

 It was the best!

I always start my birthday watching Stephen King movies..and Hellboy.

Then after that, birthday doughnuts.

We made dinner here at home..

Then we drove to a beautiful place called Tempe Town Lake, 

the breeze coming off the water was absolutely delicious!

afterwards, we stopped at a drive thru coffee shop called Dutch Bros,

The drink is free when it's your birthday

I told everyone that I didn't need anything this year..But they got me gifts anyway...

Back in July I honestly thought I wasn't going to be around to celebrate this birthday.

I had large masses in my abdomen which turned out to be cysts..massive cysts on my ovaries.

I was pretty much shut out of my regular ob/gyn because 

she was unhappy with my tumor markers and potassium levels..

 so she sent me to a oncologist.

It was a frightening and painful time for all of us.

But, here we are...

celebrating another birthday and I am more grateful than I can express. 

(Rigby photo-bomb)

I really enjoy watching 'Stranger Things'

so everyone knew exactly what to get me:)

 

And something King-ish of course

 I also received gift cards and books

Everyone spoiled me!

Oh! this was in the fridge:)

We ended the evening by watching 

I really had an amazing time, everything was just perfect.

Our crafts this week were all very small..

A wand I made by adding extra garland to a star pick:

A tart tin ornament

& my favorite..salt dough ornaments..

We actually  painted and glittered a bunch,

but I thought these two would be enough to show,

The candy cane is the one we left at the lake..it has an 'believe in your dreams' 

sticker on the back, plus we added a silver ribbon to hang it.

Thank you for visiting, I really appreciate you.

I hope you have a magical week and remember..