So pleased to announce the winner ….

 

The Winner for the Jingle Bells Candy Canes Shelf Pillow Giveaway is…..

Cathy from  Tolentreasures .  Cathy is such a wonderful artist herself, I’m honored to know that something of mine is in her home.  Congratulations Cathy.  I hope this will help to bring you into the Christmas Spirit. 

 

I am getting more into the Christmas spirit now.  I’m finally finishing up orders so I can start stringing popcorn for the tree now.  I have to have popcorn on the tree, you see.  It’s tradition.  My daughters will roll their eyes when they read this and say out loud “there goes crazy mom stringing popcorn for the tree again”  but ya know … I betcha if I didn’t do it, they would miss it on that tree!    Every year I string new popcorn.  I wish I could save it to use from year to year, but I tried that one time.  I packaged it up nicely and stored it in a plastic bin so that no little creatures would be able to sneak in for a popcorn feast.  But when I went to get it out the next year, the oil in the popcorn turned rancid and it smelled BAD.  It looked good.  I actually considered using it for ohhh… maybe 2 seconds but the smell took over and knocked sense into me.   WHICH reminds me of this … gotta go get a picture of this ……  

 

My wool blackbird has been sitting high up on a shelf for YEARS.  I’d say this guy was about 10 years old.  So guess what?  That popcorn is 10 years old now too.  haha  The once fresh cranberries are completely dried up.  I love my crow sitting up there on my shelf dangling the popcorn.   I swear there are no creatures feasting on it either.  I probably should put a fresh strand on it.  Yeah, I guess I will.  

Dental floss is what keeps that popcorn on there.  I used the waxed dental floss to string the popcorn and cranberries.  It never breaks and if you use the mint flavored floss, it smells minty fresh as you’re stringing it. :)

And just some quick little snippets of what’s happening in the world of Cathy:

 

• Rachel is coming home for Christmas break today so I have to get MY laundry done before she takes over the washer with HER laundry. 
• Ebay used to be fun and I’ve never had one single problem in all the years that I’ve done it until this past week.  Three problem people.  Ya know … what the heck is so difficult about clicking the “buy it now” button and then clicking the “Paypal” button to pay for it?  Huh??  sheesh. 
• I  weeped pretty much all day yesterday because my friend Fred Honsberger died.  Fred was the afternoon talk show host on KDKA radio .  I don’t watch tv during the day.  I listen to Fred every stinkin Monday through Friday.  Fred and I go waaaaaay back.  I don’t know what I’m going to do in the afternoons without Fred to keep me company. Gosh I’m tearing up just typing this. 
• I really like Windows Live Writer now and I encourage anyone who blogs regularly to try it.  I can easily post pictures now, exactly where I want them and I can easily make cute little bulleted snippets just like this.  All the problems that I had before are completely eliminated now. Just take a few minutes to go here to download it.  I finally figured out how to use it and I’m so glad I did.  I have to thank  Rondell from Tomato Creek Primitives for giving me the push to learn to use it.

Ok, I’m outta here …:)

 

Happy Day everyone!