Wishing you a very peaceful and beautiful Christmas.

When you behold the snow lying on the countryside like a white velvet cape,
when you hear the winter winds whisper, "Welcome Christmas,"

you have seen beauty . . . you have known peace.

Concentration

Today's chore was to match up these dust jackets . . .

with the book that they came from.

This is just a sampling, but they are all from a large bookshelf that we are boxing up, to clear space for a redo of our basement pottery studio.

I have no idea why we keep so many books, but this one caught my eye.




I mean, now really.

Waking Up My Tired Dining Room Set

This post involves painting over wood furniture, just in case you're a little squeamish about that.

Besides paint, I used paraffin wax and also a paste wax (for cars) that I borrowed from Henri.

Before beginning to paint, I used the paraffin wax to rub on the areas where I wanted the paint to wear off naturally.

I decided not to paint the top of the table though, once I saw the nice contrast the natural wood gave to the painted surface.

I think the creme colored paint did wonders for the chairs.

Originally, I was going to change out the upholstery, but decided I like it with the new paint job.

I applied paste wax over the entire painted surface for several hours before buffing it out. I decided not to distress the paint finish quite yet. I want to live with it for a while.

Plus, my calendar shows there are only 3 days left before Christmas!

Early Visit

Someone pulled into our driveway early this morning.

There were footprints left at our front door.

I heard a knock on our door . . . instead of the ring of our doorbell.

Take a peek at what was inside a box that had been left at our door.

This one even sparkles.

How did they know our favorite colors?

(Hot pink and lime green are the colors of our lobster buoys.)

Everything is so beautifully wrapped.

The gift tags all say they are from Santa!

I wonder if anyone saw him?

Santa must think we've been really, really good this year.

Beak Deep In Snow

Earlier today right outside our door.

Baby, it's COLD outside.

Since I was already in the middle of making sugar cookies, I used my birdie cutter.

And naturally, it would be a shame to let inspiration go unnoticed.

One more look at our little friend.

Well, at least it finally quit snowing!

Quick Study

My camera gave up the ghost tonight.

I just took this picture with my new camera I bought less than an hour ago. Plug and play, point and shoot and I made my midnight deadline before I turned into a pumpkin.

Snow Baking To Celebrate What's Coming

I used fondant with my cookie cutter to make a snowflake design for a cake I baked today.

I like the contrast on the chocolate cake.

My tiny fondant snowballs won't hurt a bit.

My cupcakes would need a touch of snow too, if they were going to travel to a holiday party with the cake.

Inspired by the latest weather predictions ripping up the East coast from our Southern neighbors. Cheers Y'all!