Some things I forgot...

I was looking through my "Blog Photos" file for January and realized I missed

 sharing some things this month...

A Christmas gift from my sweet friend Bethanie

Coasters made from ceramic tile squares that

she covered with sheet music and decoupaged.

They came packaged in the cute angel box

Another sweet friend, Mimi, of Dandelion Wishes,

gave me story books to read to the boys, and coordinating

 finger puppets (which she makes-eeek!)

Mimi makes the cutest gift items for babies and small people and you can find

 some of her things here on Etsy.

One of my Christmas gifts was a gift card from Michael's

I chose these two suitcases

(just light-weight cardboard...not strong enough to travel with :D)

I thought they'd be good for storing some Tim Holtz  goodies and other vintage supplies.

I received an order of the new Basic Grey Valentine scrapbook papers in the mail....

Kissing Booth...so yummy in my favorite pinks and browns!

Today on my way home from church, I stopped in to Michael's to see what was new

and these caught my eye...and then they jumped into my cart!

Unfinished wooden birds.

Wire feet.

The possibilities are endless!!

Hope you are having a cozy Sunday!

X0X0

Joyce

and the winner is......

I know you have been anxiously awaiting the announcement of the winner of my Birthday giveaway.

I loved reading all of your comments about how you celebrate your birthdays.

I can never understand why some people hate the thought of having a Birthday....

we should celebrate every one of them...they are all blessings.

The winner of this contest was selected very scientifically.

David and I were driving home this evening after seeing The Descendants, with George Clooney,

and an early dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

I asked him to choose a number from 1-21 and he picked

20....Elyse Major! Yay Elyse!

Please email your address to me at jegleason1(at)yahoo(dot)com and

 I will get your gifts out to you right away!

David and I both celebrated our birthdays all weekend last week

Because he turned 65, I couldn't miss the chance to make some funny "age" cards

using images swiped acquired from Pinterest. I'm sure you'll recognize them...

I'll be back next week to show some items I've made for two swaps I am in and

the latest creation from Say It With Letters.

xoxo

Joyce

My Birthday Giveaway! Yikes-I almost forgot!

NOTE: Several of you have emailed me that you are unable to leave comments on my blog. That's not good when you're hosting a giveaway!! Others are having this problem with their blogs and a friend suggested that I change my setting so that the comment window is in a pop-up format. I hope that works!


For the past several years, I've had a Give-Away for my Birthday.

This Friday is my Birthday...no need to go to earlier posts...I'll be 63!

I can't celebrate my birthday without celebrating YOU...my dear friends and readers.

I'm late with this posting so I will let this run until Friday, January 27th, before choosing a winner.

This is what you can win...

A cute little journal to decorate and some flowers to help...

More flowers, a cute pencil case and a chipboard LOVE to alter...

2 vintage butter pats...you could also use them for paperclips or other doo-dads,

and this book...

Rediscovered Treasures

I wrote about this book when I first got it last summer.

I was able to purchase another copy so I thought I would share it with you..

Wonderful ideas inside this book...

You don't have to do anything fancy...just leave a comment on this post.

Tell me how you like to celebrate your Birthday? Cake with gooey icing? A special dinner

with family and/or friends?

Remember that my One Little Word for this year is

Celebrate!

I'm off to a good start..

Celebrating every birthday!

Celebrating the return of good health!

Celebrating my blogging friends...

and my friends who don't blog but stop here to catch up.

Now, my Birthday is the 20th and my sweet husband's birthday is the 22nd.

His is a much bigger deal this year...

he is turning 65!

He has his Medicare card in his wallet and he's

ready to party!

Happy Birthday David...I hope you don't mind that I just shared

your age with the blogging community :D

Celebrate every day!

xoxo

Joyce

Distractions...

This Thursday is the weekly gathering of our Book Group.

We are reading this book for January...

By the time I got to page 3 I was hooked!

I'm only half way through the book because of the distractions...

watching this...

I gave David the First Season of Downton Abbey DVDs for Christmas.

I was advised to purchase the UK version as it is not edited. (Apparently the

Masterpiece Theater series is edited)

I also ordered Season Two which will be out in February

We both love British period drama and comedy.

Back in the 90's we were in LOVE with these girls...

(which you can find here)

Further distractions....

Playing with this...

my new Kindle Fire...a gift from our daughter Michelle

Words With Friends is my favorite game. Do you have it? If you'd like to play with me let me know.

Then there is Angry Birds...

Fun for one but it can be time consuming!

Then of course there's

(the link to my boards is right on my right column)

While on Pinterest the other day I came upon this recipe for

Stuffed Pepper Soup

I made it last night for supper and it was delicious!!

The only modifications were that the tomatoes I used were flavored with Fennel and Peppers.

We didn't even add salt and pepper because the soup on it's own was so flavorful.

We had a crusty French baguette with dipping oil as our side.

Yummy and hearty!!

OK-back to the Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie society..

xoxo

Joyce



Christmas/Winter Decorations

It's only the 9th of January...too soon to take down the Christmas/Winter decorations. It is sunny today so I thought I'd snap some pictures.

The majority of our decorating this year happened in the dining room. We had arranged for new carpeting to be installed in the family room on December 30 and it seemed silly to put up the big tree in there and have to take it down before New Years. We put the 7-foot tree in the dining room with only white lights, crystal garland and Swarovski snowflake ornaments. It looked magical and we both decided that we liked the tree in  a simpler form.

In the family room, we had our little 4-foot Swedish tree with apples, straw ornaments and...

 some new Tomptes...

Only a few Santas from my collection were displayed...

and a sweet piece I purchased on Etsy several years ago...

(That whole scene is in an Altoid tin!)

OK-moving on now to what has been distracting me lately!

xoxo

Joyce