Where, oh where....

...has my blogging time gone?

Here ----->

 I had resisted the urge to join this latest craze, but am now completely obsessed. Not to worry. I am just taking a bit of a blogging break and will be back shortly after the New Year.

May you all be blessed with love and joy and cheer for all this coming year!

P.S. If you are a fellow Pinterest Addict, too, then feel free to follow me and I will follow you! (a pinterest follow button is now located under the friends widget on my right sidebar).

Sunday Scripture

{souce}

Merriest of Christmases to you and yours!

A Christmas Heart...

 to wish you a  

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Glimpses of Our Dining Room

 These sweet birdie salt and pepper shakers were from Cracker Barrel's gift store. 

Love that place! Good eats and sweet little treats for the home. Can't beat it!

 The pedestal plate has holes all around the edges that are perfect for threading

ribbon making it versatile for many different occasions. It was a birthday gift my 

mom got me from the Country Living Fair. My vintage table runner came 

from one of our small town antique malls.

 Believe it or not, the chair backs, bell, and sign all came from the Dollar Tree after Christmas. That's right. I paid just 50 cents (and in some cases 25) per item! 

(They are a most excellent place to get wrappings, too).

This truly is my favorite time of year. I have so enjoyed sharing bits and pieces of mine and John's  first Christmas. Thank you for indulging me in this dining room tour ;-)

May Christmas sprinkle your home with love and joy and cheer!

What's in my bag?

 Some of my favorite Christmas books, of course!

(and you probably thought it was yarn ;-)

 That silly, troublesome monkey we all cannot help but love...

 ... the sweet old-fashioned illustrations and crafty goodness of Susan Branch...

 ... more beautiful illustrations...

...and a heart-touching Christmas tale....

There are many more books that bring Christmas home for me, but these were some that were a bit further off the beaten path. I bring them out each Christmas and since my bookcases are perpetually full, decided this year to use my Christmas tote to keep them all handy yet prettily out of the way. I had initially intended to use the tote for my stocking crochet project, but found this a sweet change of pace. 

Hope you find some time to snuggle with a good Christmas read!

Stocking-to-be

 I so love how the centers of these sweeties resemble snowflakes. Once all 17 are finished, they will be sewn into a stocking for John. (Am kind of dreading the sewing part. Any pointers y'all can send my way, would be muchly appreciated!)

Wishing a happy day to you!

Whooooo!

After admiring similar patterns for a very long time, I finally got on Ravelry and tried one. Won't my 2 year old niece, Alice, look adorable? The pattern was surprisingly a breeze to do. I had dreaded making the ear flaps and top tassels, but they ended up being quite simple. This pattern was such a delight, I would definitely like to make it again. Just imagine all the fun color combos waiting to be tried!

In other news, I am very grateful to the lovely Nicole of the fabulous blog Nicole and the Bee for nominating me for a Liebster! I am so touched and very eager to share the love. So, after careful consideration of the blogs I love and who meet the criteria (are fairly new and have only 200 followers or less), I have chosen the following five:

1). Leah of Why Didn't Anyone Tell Me?

2). Karen of My Four Lil Girls

3). Kylie of Blue Teacups

4). Kristen of Cozy Things

5). Tracie of CroCreations

Be sure to congratulate these ladies by heading over to their beautiful and inspiring blogs. They will be doubly blessed if you should decide to become a follower. ;-) 

May the winds of creativity blow your way today!

Sunday Scripture

{source}

... and finally... 

SOME SNOW!!!

If this will only keep up through Christmas, 

I will be one very happy girl. 

An Afghan for Baby Madison

Friends from work are expecting their first baby in late January, so we are all throwing them a baby shower in December right before Christmas break. Since they are doing Baby Madison's room in lady bugs, I thought this Lion Brand Yarn in Homespun was the perfect color combo to go with the lady bug motif.

I especially love how the edging came out in such sharp contrast. Makes the scallop sweeter somehow. 

Hope all your Christmas crafting is going smoothly. 

Have a happy day!

Snowman Wishes

As much as I love my collection of Christmas snowmen, I am really, really, really hoping for a big batch of freshly fallen snow for mine and John's first Christmas together so we can make an actual snowman in our front yard. Then he can wave a Merry Christmas to all the merrymakers who pass by that day.

C'mon and snow soon!