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

One Little Word 2012, a New Planner and a Sneak Peek

I have been giving serious thought to my One Little Word for 2012.

One Little Word was initiated by Ali Edwards several years ago, as a way of choosing a word to inspire you for the year. You can read her post about it for this year right here, and also check out one of Ali's posts from January, 2011 with some suggested words here, as possibilities.

In 2009, the first time I participated in Ali Edwards' challenge, I chose the word focus. For that year, I tried to focus my attention on what was in front of me instead of being so scattered. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't.

2010 's word was Manage and I wrote about it here.

I wanted to manage my time, my health and my priorities better.

In 2011, my word was Simplify, I wrote about it here.

As it ended up, 2011 was anything but simple.

This year the word I've chosen as my One Little Word is

Celebrate!

2012 will be a year of changes for both David and me.
We've come through some struggles in 2011 and now it's time to be joyful!

I will write more as the year goes on but we will have lots to

Celebrate!

How about you? Can you chose one word to inspire you for an entire year?

I have never been a good journaler but this year I read about a great planner that I think will help me.
Vicki Chrisman, a wonderful source of inspiration, had a giveaway of this marvelous planner and the new Crafty Secrets Creating with Vintage Images CD. I had already purchased the CD so I went right to the source to order the planner, which can be found here. (Sadly, it is no longer available for 50% off)

There is a lot of room to write while also giving you the whole month at a glance.

At the beginning of each month there are pages to scrapbook or just slip in your favorite pictures.

Here is Vic's cover....

(courtesy of Vicki Chrisman)
 Here is my cover....this qualifies as my Pinned It and Did It for this month.

I save my pocket sized planners every year because they are the closest things I have to journals.
If you want to know where David and I had dinner on our first Anniversary in 1991...I can look it up!


I'm also showing a sneak peek of something that I made for a special little guy's birthday party.

These birds are winging their way to you Jo and should arrive Tuesday or Wednesday.
Let me know what you think :D

xoxo

Joyce

Happy New Year

It is New Year's Eve and as I read some of my favorite blogs, I'm struck with how many of us have had  our share of challenges this past year. Health issues, our own or those we care about; employment and financial issues, the death of someone we love, relocation, emotional concerns, worries about children...the list goes on and on.

I'm not one to make resolutions at the New Year. Too many times, I have set unreasonable expectations for myself and then feel let down before February arrives. Weight loss, exercise, being more organized...you get the picture. For now I'm just grateful for the return of my health, the love of my family and the care and support of friends...the ones I see often and the ones I've never met in person...my blogging friends.

Thank you for your prayers and kind words this past year.

I have appreciated every one of you more than I could adequately express.

I am so blessed.

My wish for the New Year is
Peace in our world,
Joy in our hearts,
Love in our homes.

Blessings,
Joyce

In the meadow we can build....

I wanted to share my new Christmas wreath with you. Actually, this one will probably stay up all winter. I was so happy when I opened the box from Deb at Say It With Letters and saw this wreath shape!

 So many ideas came to mind.

My first plan was to make a variation of the famous Martha Stewart clothespin wreath...

I covered the wreath shape with my favorite ledger paper...

but I could not for the life of me figure out a pleasing pattern for the clothespin placement!

I finally decided to wipe the slate clean and start over.
 This meant recovering the wreath shape and then decorating with
SNOW PEOPLE!!!

Wonderfully fun snow people!

The little song line was done on the computer and trimmed with a digital cardinal.

The snow folks were made with the Cricut (of course) and are from a cartridge called Snow Friends which, I'm afraid, is out of production. Some punched glittered snowflakes were the final touch.

Sometimes re-thinking a project and changing the plan can be a good thing.

Please take time to skip over to Deb's blog and see the beautiful creations for the other design team members. You will come away inspired!

xoxo

joyce