What a weekend... Life is Good.

On Friday I had a birthday. I turned 71. When my grandmother was in her 70's I thought that was REALLY OLD. I suppose it still looks old to some... but now that I'm here, and the reality of it is apparent, I don't feel this old.  I don't feel like I did a few years ago when the BIG 70 was looming like a huge slow motion title wave. I have a year of this under my belt now and I think I'm going to be OK...if...
I can find my glasses, car keys and the really comfortable pair of shoes that I put somewhere so Carl, our Corgi, wouldn't find them and chew on them. The ones I still can't find.
And then... there's my left knee. It seems that nothing heals on its own after 70. You hurt yourself without doing anything that you can remember ...and there lies the rub. You can't remember how you hurt yourself so you can't tell the doctor what happen... so they have to probe, test, examine and stab at a guess about what might have caused this injury. Then you start with ice packs and Tylenol, and hope for weeks, that this will be the answer... but it's not. Then an xray finds the beginnings of DEGERERATIVE ARTHRITIS and BONE DEBRIS and they tell you that you may have to try some cortisone shots and possibly have a knee replacement... "...down the road". I call it my "road" of discontent. The ragged road of being older than dirt. It's an ongoing saga. I'm trying to be positive about this but pain sucks.

So... enough of this... I had a great weekend. My sister was here. It's kind of a tradition that she be here and, in January, I will drive down to celebrate her birthday. We do this because we love each other and because we need to support each other during these trying years and cheer each other on. I have good friends and they are wonderful... but there's nothing like a sister for whining and crying. We have history. We understand each other.
So... We spent four days doing fun stuff.  On Friday, my birthday, I strapped on my knee brace and we went to an antique store, in Jackson, just for fun. The Prospector took us to dinner that night.

 Sis brought me a homemade carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and a hand packed box of See's candy. 

 Yeah... it was a good day.

 We went shopping in Sutter Creek for the Christmas Open House on Saturday. I kind of over did it with the walking, but we sure had fun.

Also, on Saturday, we cut some Manzanita Branches for decorations. We do this every year before Christmas. I use one as a Christmas tree. Sis uses hers over her kitchen window. Then we decorate them with homemade items and favorite ornaments.
This is my "tree" on the buffet.

We also made paper wreaths out of old song book pages.
This is the progression of rolling and gluing the pages onto a backing and the final results of my sister's wreath. She used small twigs, brown packing grass, some gold paint and a sparkly silver ornament.

It's so beautiful.

Mine was done a little differently. I used smaller pages from an old Christian songbook.

 Instead of making cones, I rolled the pages and shredded one end of each rolled page before hot gluing them to a round cardboard backing.

Finally a few pieces of mossy twigs, and three star ornaments.  I'm quite pleased with the wreath.

I want to try more of these. The possibilities are endless.
After dinner we started Christmas boxes. It's the technique that I used on the Halloween boxes that I've made before.
 You start with any old box or book and hot glue plastic toys and fake flowers and, in this case, plastic words like JOY and MERRY CHRISTMAS on the top of the box. Then you separate two ply paper towels, wet them and lay them over the top of everything that you have attached to the box and use Mod Podge glue to attach the paper towels and tuck, fold and push the towels into all the nooks and crannies of the figures on the box. We did this last night so it would be dry this morning.
I should have taken more photos because the transition is really amazing.
I went from a plain box like this...

To a colorful, painted box with Joy written all over it... and a dragonfly... and a little frog. In the right top, the word, the frog and the dragonfly didn't seem to stand out, so I added some black paint with a dry brush and more gold. I also added a bit of gold sparkle glue too, which isn't that noticeable in the photo, but added some real bling bling to the whole box. The darker color brought out the letters and accents more. Compare the upper right photo with the lower left. You can see the difference in the two of them. This whole process gets easier with practice.
My sister nailed it on her first try. She used and old soap box that hinged. She had a dollar store "Merry Christmas" ornament that took forever to tuck and wrap with the paper towel, but she did it and it turned out so festive and gorgeous.

I love this technique. It can be a bit labor intensive on a late Sunday night, when we did the wet paper towel/ Mod Podge part, but the results are always worth it. Here's a link to Pinterest and the original site were I got the idea. Just click here.
Sis went home this morning and I miss her all ready. As a distraction, I went to the dentist. Two hours in a dentist chair with Novocaine was not my idea of the way to end this wonderful weekend, but it did give me something else to do for a few hours. At one point, I was looking out of the window. I noticed an incident across the road. The dentist, his assistant and I watched as two woman have a knock down, dragged out, kicking and screaming fight in front of the library across the street. Someone called the police. One of the women got arrested. Real drama in downtown Jackson. That doesn't happen very often in our small town... in broad daylight. It was kind of comic relief for all of us.


I miss you Sis. Thanks for everything... you are a dear person, even if you were a pain in the arse when you were little. You grew up to be my very special friend. I love you. See you at Christmas.

Oh Christmas tree... oh Christmas trees

We finished hanging the outside lights today. I helped the Prospector curve a PVC pipe over the iron gate that is the entrance to our front yard. Then we wrapped the pipe with garlands of green and added some Christmas lights, from the house, over the gate to the end of the fence. It is so pretty tonight, looking out there and seeing the lights outlining the fence. So very Christmas.
I've spent a couple of days decorating the house. There are three trees this year. All small but different.

The first one is near the piano. It was going to have a cowboy theme but I haven't found too much to fill it yet. So far I've hung our son's old handmade ornaments from their school days on it.

They are old and have been repaired many times.

I love these ornaments. They are filled with memories.
This tree is also were the animals live. The little dogs and cats with wings ( in honor of pets that are no longer with us), the glass pine cones and cowboy bells and anything that makes us think of country living...
The assorted deer and antelope...

I set the four foot tree on the folding metal chair that I painted chartreuse last year and covered the seat with an old tablecloth that was my Mom's. The boxes are empty. I store the ornaments in them the rest of the year.
"Carl? You are not to touch any of the Christmas things. I know that you will chew any sock if it's left laying around, but all of this is off limits. Do you hear me?"

 "CARL??"

His ears were listening but his body was not moving.
Then he slowly turned around.
He looked at me.
I repeated, "Did you hear me, Carl?"

"YES! I hear you. I just can't make any promises."

He gave me his best "How could you blame me for all those socks." look and then walked away. 

The second tree is a 3 footer. It's on the chest in front of the porch window.

This tree holds a few gourd ornaments that I've made and small collector ornaments that I have collected over the years. The paper mache deer was a thrift store find that had an ugly, faded crape paper flower on it. I took it off and make a rosette for it. The deer was $.50 and my labor was free.
The P. Schifferl ornaments that I've collected over the years are in and under the little tree.

 I love these little carved ornaments. Most are very small and hang on the tree... but this one, with Santa riding an owl, sits below the tree waiting for Christmas Eve. He's ready for his big flight.
 It's one of my favorites. I like the idea of a huge bird flying Santa around the world with his bag of toys.

The third "tree" was inspired by my sister. She cuts manzanita branches when she's here, takes them home, sprays them with different colors and hangs them over her kitchen window. Black for Halloween, white for Christmas and sometimes just natural with leaves that she makes with old pages of a book or sheet music.
So while she found some pieces to take home, I cut some branches and made a "tree" for the buffet.

This was so much fun. I used my mom's old brass bowl and filled it with foil and paper to hold the branches in place.You can also use rocks to hold the branches steady as well.

I'm not finished with this yet but when I am, it will hold all the felted and paper ornaments that I've made or have been given to me. 
I made this one out of vellum paper, an old thrift store, wood ornament, plastic sparkle pieces from the Dollar store and some lichen from the oak trees.  There are also some sea shells attached that I found at the ocean. Added some glitter and old ribbon too.  These small ornaments make great additions to the top of a gift box.

And any wonderful things that I find on my hikes, like this nest, below, that I haven't had time to find a name for. It was kept in a bottle for a few days when I first brought it inside, just in case there was still something hibernating in it. There wasn't. I would have died if thousands of baby spiders had crawled out of it in the warmth of the house.

There are memories of my trip to Germany, last year, hanging here and some photos of the snow, in Montana, that my friend sent me for my birthday. She doesn't have "glitter" where she lives. She has lots and lots of snow. It's beautiful.
The little heart ornament from Munich reminds me of all the snow we saw there and how lovely the city looked from my hotel window on my birthday last year. I was sick. I came home sick. But Munich was beautiful in the snow.

I will show you more as I add things to the decorations. It's fun to change the living room into Christmas. I honor the tradition and love the whole, wonderful season.

Friends for Lunch and a New Scarf.

Yes! Flowers and a tablecloth. Company was coming.

On Monday and Tuesday I pulled out some stored Boxes of Christmas and did some decorating. A little here and a little there...

...to make our little house feel warm and holiday-ish.
Two friends arrived bearing good will and homemade apple butter.

One friend is in my gourd group and the other is in the goat club... and they have known each other for years... way before I knew either of them.
Both live in the valley and have farms. Sylvia has a garden (both vegetable and flower) that makes me want to move to the flat land of the central valley and dive into the wonderful soil down there. She grows gourds that are absolutely wonderful... all kinds and thick skinned. Her Dahlias are to die for and she saved us from an over population of GOPHERS a few years ago when she gave me some gopher purge. It worked.
Jane has goats,.. Alpines...lovely and sweet. I have posted about Dick and Jane's farm before, here. I wish you could stand in the middle of these goats in the field and watch them. They are really beautiful animals and some will be having BABIES next year. I hope I can go down and take pictures of the kids. Jane thinks I need some does. Wouldn't that be lovely. Goat milk to make cheese and ice cream with, and some babies... sweet little newborns. Oh yes, that sounds delightful.
So they braved the fog in the valley and our scary road, to come up for lunch.
Having them here was so nice. I made vegetable soup and salad with Pumpkin pie for dessert.
The Prospector disappeared to find paydirt in the hills and leave the afternoon to the women.
After lunch I showed them my newest felted scarf. I had tried to take some photos of it on a gourd Tuesday. No one has a neck like this but I just wanted to see how it wrapped.
Fluffy butt Carl didn't want to model it for me. He wanted to chew on it, so I tried the gourd.

 It was OK, but I got a real person to model it yesterday and it made such a big difference. Thank you Jane.

I could see how it wrapped and tied on someone.
This was a felting experiment that worked out rather well. I love using separate pieces of knitting and adding crochet for trim. I love to detail a scarf with old buttons and eye cords.
this will be a Christmas gift for someone.
We had such a good time yesterday. I love having friends up here.
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I'm having a quiet day today. There are a few things to do. Got to go to town this afternoon.
Tomorrow my sister is coming up for the weekend to help me celebrate another year of life. Oh lord. I guess I should be thankful... and I am... really, but I didn't think I was going to get THIS old. Guess you just have to go with it. It's better than the alternative.
My friend "C", from Sacramento, is coming up for the day too. I'm looking forward to her visit. She is the same age as I am. She understands. We can commiserate together. We knew each other when we were 16 years old. Where did the years go?
My birthday isn't until Sunday but, since I found myself alive when I woke up this morning, I might as well milk it for all it's worth (Life, not goats.) and stretch it out for as many days as possible.
Don't ya think?

Wordless Wednesday: "I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year." ~ Charles Dickens (1812-1870),

Oh, the smell of Cinnamon....

I have this wonderful hurricane lantern that I bought last year at, I think, Home Goods. I love this lantern. It's suppose to have a big candle in it but so far I have just filled it with seasonal things like shells in the summer and some leaves and buckeyes in the fall.

 Before Thanksgiving it was looking kind of sad and dusty, so I dumped the contents and washed the glass lamp. I had been wondering what to put into it. I love shells and I thought that some big shells with a small battery string of lights in there would look really pretty. Then I was shopping at Walmart one day and I found these...

They are called Cinnamon Scented Mini Pine Cones and they were only $4.00. Well, they stopped me dead in my tracks just because of the fragrance. As I walked down one of  the Christmas isles  the whole area smelled like cinnamon. I started sniffing and looking for what was giving off this wonderful scent and then I found this bag of pine cones. That was it. I was sold.... $4.00 What a deal!  They are so pretty. Some are  red and teal blue and some are just natural.
So I brought them home, put them into the lantern and placed it on my Mom's old table between the couch and the piano.

What do you think? I can take some pine cones out and add some of my "found" treasures from my walks up the mountain, a few sprigs of pine or some oak balls. I could still put some lights in there. I have this 10 light string that I got at Ikea. It uses batteries. It would fit nicely in between the pine cones. I could hide the battery pack with  some leaves near the top. You have to be able to turn it on and off. I'm open to other ideas if you have some. 

Even if I don't do anything more than this.... it will be a pretty addition to the holiday decorations in the living room. I like natural and simple.... and the aroma of cinnamon is amazing. It just makes you happy.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

It's official! Christmas has arrived at Three Dog Farm. Not everything is in it's place and I'm finding that the old adage of "Less is more" seems to sound better every year. So, as I try to honor the holidays after a long and sometimes heavy hearted year, I have decorated the house with the things that make us feel happy. Not an over abundance but a collection of decorations that have meaning and memories. I think it all looks very pretty and thought I would share some of it with you.

The Tree is a bit disappointing this year. I decided to buy a four foot artificial tree that was very inexpensive at Wal Mart. It had clear lights that were already attached and I thought that a small tree on a table would avoid "Pupster" damage, if you know what I mean.
This is probably the most "Charlie Brown" tree we have every had. It's not very straight and the top seems different than the bottom. (There were two pieces that you had to put together). It looks OK, now, that I have ornaments on it but I think I need a garland or some pretty bulbs to spiff it up a bit. I will work on it.
When I went back to Wal Mart the other day and bought the tree, I passed those blue lights again. The ones I didn't buy the first time. Well, guess what. I couldn't pass them up again.
I guess it's going to be a "blue" Christmas without you Mom..., because I put them on the Christmas tree and outside on the Mock Orange near the porch. They are really very beautiful. They reminded me of you. I hope you can see them.

This is my little Birthday Boy.

Tomorrow will be Baby Bean's 3rd. Birthday. We had a celebration on Saturday at a place called MY GYM in Elk Grove. I took lots of pictures..., imagine that. I will post some photos tomorrow .