Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Finished Ornaments and Merry Christmas

Just a short post before Christmas. Here's the finished ornaments for the boys. I really hope they like them. 
 Getting ready for the boys to be here all week. I can't wait! I think everything's done-at least that's all I'm gonna do. Now I can sit back and enjoy the holiday and kids being home.
I want to thank you all for following along on my crazy projects and ideas. I have loved your comments. I hope each one of  you has a wonderful and Merry Christmas! I 'll see you after the holidays!
Leslie

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Enjoying The Season, Fa La La La La

I'm sitting here looking at the Christmas tree lights. The tree is still not decorated, but we did add the lights. We're waiting for the kids to come home to finish decorating the tree. I can see my blowmold Santa lit up on the entryway table like a giant nightlight. I've been listening to Christmas music all day long. I have been cooking ahead-enchiladas and beans, for when the kids are all here. Baking cookies and chocolate banana bread, scones, and cinnamon rolls. Just nesting and enjoying the season. I even sent some Christmas cards this year. Last year they got away from me, and never got done. I still have a tiny bit of shopping to do, and then the wrapping. I look forward to that, so can listen to some more music. 
 A few more things I haven't shown you. I stitched this from a kit a few years back. It hangs on the front door knob to welcome you.
 Last year after Christmas I started this tree skirt. The embroidery goes all the way around. I guess I should have taken a pic before I put it under the tree. I borrowed ideas from Pinterest for the houses and made it from felt.
 Some of the baking going on around here. I didn't get much done last week. I had a friend visiting from out of town and she stayed here. We shopped and ate and went to son's Christmas Concert. Alot of fun.
 Notice the missing cookie.I had to make sure they were okay to eat-you never know! Just enjoying the season. I hope you are doing the same-whatever makes you happy. Thanks so much for all the comments on my little house tour. They really made my week! You guys are great. Have a wonderful week!
Leslie

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Deck The Halls at Brookhollow Lane

Welcome to Brookhollow Lane! Here's a tour of my home decorated for Christmas. I won't write alot-just let you scroll through. Just to let you know the first 2 pic's are from last year-no snow here yet! My theme is red and vintage. Hope you enjoy the tour!

 Entryway-
 Got this idea from someone at Cozy Little House.
 Dining room


 Family Room


 Here's an overview of the whole room-so hard to photograph.



 Breakfast nook-
 Some of you saw this last week
 A Christmas touch in the guest room.
 Favorite ornaments in the bathroom.
As you can see I didn't include the tree-its not decorated yet. We wait for the boys to get together to do it as a family.
I hope you got a few ideas. As you can see I love retro, vintage and red. Hope you enjoy touring some more homes and link to Cozy Little House, Thanks for stopping by and come back any time. Happy December!
Leslie

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Christmas Table and Homemade Ornaments

Thought I'd pop in and share a few photos from last Christmas. These were some of my Mom's ornaments and they are very precious to me.
 I did this simple tablescape for Christmas dinner. The letter ornies on each plate were made by me. I got the idea from Target last year. Everybody loved them.
 The tablecloth is fabric from Ikea last year. I also used it to make curtain panels.The candles you see all over Pinterest. Old sheet music on a dollar store candle. Add glitter and your good to go.
 Here's the progress on the boys Christmas ornaments for this year. I showed you the Seattle skyline in the works. It's all sewed-no I have to turn it into an ornament. The sackbut, don't laugh, is an early trombone. Youngest son is a trombone performance major and has played this instrument this year. I try to do some event, or something special from the last year. Also have to turn this into an ornament. I'll show you when I'm finished with them both.
Come back later this week to see my Christmas home tour. Can't wait!

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

New Camera, New Friend and Newly Decorated Hutch



I met a fellow blogger that lives in my town. It was Celeste from Celestina MarieDesign and her blog is Southern Day Dreams. It's a beautiful blog and Celeste is soooo creative and such a sweet person. We met and had a wonderful lunch and got to know each other. It felt like we were old friends with many common interests. Of course my camera was still on the fritz, but I finally got a picture of the pretty pumpkin she made for me.
 It went perfectly with my fall decor. So cute. Here's the post she did about our fun meeting, since she was a good blogger and took many pic's that day. Thanks Celeste and hope to see you soon so we can go junkin' together!
 I finally got a new camera. Now I need to figure out how to use it, but I managed to get some shots of my Christmas kitchen hutch.
 I decided to do jadite and red for a fun vintage look.
 I found the green teapot at the thrift store and it matches the Jadite perfectly.
 I've been Christmas decorating and finishing up the craftroom mini re-do. I'll put some pic's up real soon.
 I have some new listings in my Etsy shop. Use the coupon code Santa1 and you'll get 15% off your Etsy purchases. Sale will go through Dec. 7, 2015.
We had a fun but rainy Thanksgiving. Very relaxing. Now the rush begins. I hope you all had a great break. Let the merrymaking begin!
Leslie

Monday, November 23, 2015

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to pop in to let you know I'm still here and still having camera issues and have decided to buy a new one. Will do that this week before the Christmas shopping rush.
 I have been busy and can't wait to show you my craftroom update. Not a whole redo, but a new desk, and some tweaks.
I've also been working on Christmas ornaments, and will share my progress.
These are pictures from our old house in 2010.
Mostly I wanted to wish you all a very Happy and Safe Thanksgiving weekend!

Leslie

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Christmas Ornament

I've been busy working on a few projects. One project I do every year is to create a special Christmas ornament for each son. I try to do something that happened during the previous year. This is one in the works.
Sometimes I embroider, Other times I use paper. For this Seattle ornie I'm doing a felt collage.
I have cut out all the little buildings in the skyline. I will hand sew them on the background and then decide how to turn it into an ornament.
I'll share more as I work on it. I'm also making a new corner desk for my craftroom. Hopefully  by next week I can show you my progress. I'm still having camera issues, but thought I'd check in.
Sending thoughts and prayers to the people of Paris.

Leslie

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Camera Issues and Autumn

After much packing and cleaning we sent son off on Halloween night on a flight to Seattle. He took his black cat on board with him and shipped the car. Much easier with a kitty. We had her here for the week and Bowie and her got along just fine. We had a blockade in the hallway and they each had their own part of the house. The night before he left, we all watched Sleepless in Seattle. Son had never seen it and he really loved it. Sad and Happy!!
 I added a few Thanksgiving touches to my existing fall decor. I can only show you 2 pic's. My point and shoot was never great to begin with, but now most shots are out of focus. Hmmmm. I'll have to solve that issue soon. Added a vintage turkey salt shaker. This was the one that started my collection. I found her at Salvation Army. It took a few more years to find the Tom Turkey.For those of you who have been following a long time, you've seen my whole collection of turkey salt and peppers. I just pulled out a few this year. Trying to simplify.
 The penny rug is another that I designed and made out of felt. I love the acorn edges.
I'll try to get my camera fixed and post more soon. As I was walking Bowie this morning, I was thinking how lucky I am to be walking Bowie in this pretty fall weather. The weather is damp and cooler here, and we're supposed to get more rain. Hopefully not more flooding. Anyway, just feeling thankful today. Have a great week!
Leslie

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Great Gift Idea

 I know you probably haven't thought about (dare I say) Christmas yet, but I know some of you have probably already have all your shopping done, This  idea  takes a little planning.

 My son gave this to us last Christmas. It was a planned staycation. You could do a short day or an elaborate weekend for someone you love.


He drew up the little book. He planned the whole day, including times we should be at each site. They had tickets and reservations for everything in advance.
It included food, brewery tour, shopping at an antique store, going up to Reunion Tower, dinner and hotel room at a cool retro hotel. We've lived in Dallas area for about 17 years and had never been up to the tower.
Instructions were to text pictures through out the day, so they could follow along with us.
Such a fun and creative gift that anyone could do.They also included pet sitting so we could spend the night. You could customize this to anyone.
If you aren't artistic another way you could present this gift would be a kiddie viewmaster slide show of the different stops. I did one of these for Hubby's birthday and he totally loved it. Here's the link for this-so fun to do. Let me know if you decide to this and how it turned out.
Here's some pic's from that day.



It was such a thoughtful and memorable gift. We loved it!
I promised a pic of the pig clock on the wall in the kitchen. It's above our back door.


It's been a crazy week here. Middle son is getting ready to move to Seattle this weekend. I'm so excited and sad at the same time. Is that possible?

Have a wonderful Halloween and week!
Leslie