Wallpaper#@%^*+*&%#@

Hi y'all. I am writing a quick post here at the yellow house where we are on vacation. We are attempting to remove wallpaper from the master bedroom wall. Wallpaper is of the devil. The person who built this house applied the paper directly on the wallboard. So when we pull the wallpaper off it tears off the wall board.

Did I mention in my frustration with this I ate an entire bag of Peanut M&M's for lunch yesterday? I am awesome I know it.

We worked all day yesterday with that chemical gel stuff and got maybe three wallpaper panels off the wall. At that rate the room might be painted by summer!

Did I mention every bone in my body aches. I told Joe he must have thrown me down the stairs. He said funny he felt the same. We are wallpaper wimps.

I cussed the contractor of this house up one side and down the other. I learned how to do that from working as a nurse in the state prison system. God forgive me.

Did I mention we have house guests arriving for the weekend at four o'clock? I must start cooking very very soon.

The guests are bringing wallpaper steaming stuff! Yay!

Here is a photo of the house in our skimpy snow and then the horrid pink wallpaper and the ugliest curtains I ever saw.

I painted the great room, kitchen, and den last year when we bought this house. We left the two bedrooms that are in cahoots with the devil (wallpapered) to be painted later.

If I am absent from the blogs I am in the pink room pulling paper off the wall y'all!

Happy New Year

♥♥♥

Joy to the Bloggers

grace surrounds us

Olive

Snow in the Deep South

Snow in the Augusta, Georgia area at Christmas time has not happened since the 1850's. Technically it still has not happened on Christmas day since then because it started snowing this morning at around eight am, the day after Christmas. That is okay. We will take it. It snowed once this year last February. Yes, we can recall every time it has snowed in these parts.

It is almost six pm now and it is still lightly snowing. Joe reports the front yard is now white. The three of us and our neighbor went shopping early this morning in the snow and it was so pretty. We went to church on Friday by the way and were transported by the the music and the message of True North Church.

For those of you who are inundated with the white stuff please do not laugh at my photos for we are proud of the least little amount we get!

CC is delighted by winter in general and snow in particular.

I pray you all had a blessed time with family and friends. We had a quiet Christmas day of cooking and a bit of visiting.

We have plans to paint the master bedroom here at the yellow house. We get distracted easily so we shall see if that project makes this blog.

grace surrounds us

Olive

~little church~

On one of my now not so daily walks I was delighted to discover this little church by the side of a gravel road. It is a scale model made by the father of the man who owns the house in the background. I am told he places it by the gravel road every Christmas and hangs a star above it. The star is barely detectable in two of the photos. I love small country churches and photograph them all the time.
Edited: Some of my readers this morning and CC's grandmother did not realise this was a tiny church. Tiny as in doll house size. Perhaps 18 to 24 inches tall. Olive does not wish to confuse.

 I went kind of crazytown in Picnik today. That is the only snow we will see. For my friends in the Great Britain I know you are covered with snow and are having travel issues for the holiday. I do wish you safe travels and pray for your safety.

I am linking with A Southern Daydreamer for Outdoor Wednesday.

grace surrounds us

Olive

~little trees~

We have an enormous tree that I may not photograph until 2014 and a little kitchen tabletop tree on the bar which I jokingly call the autopsy table. I have been fussing with gingerbread cookies for this tree all week. One hard earned tip, chill the dough for two days at least. One day for me was not chilled enough for my dough to roll out properly. The second day was soooo much easier. I made extra cookies to give away to our neighbors. All my cookie cutters are from garage sales. The star and diamond shapes are from vintage cookie cutters.

The next tree is a smaller one that I believe to be vintage. We bought it at an estate sale last weekend. It is marked Japan on the bottom and has signs of age on the berries. It looks perfect on the table with the funky lamp.

We paid five dollars for this little tree and  I felt that was a bit pricey but had to have it. Maybe I can talk CC into taking pictures of the large tree with her swanky camera for me.

I am linking with Laurie at Bargain Hunting (and Chatting) With Laurie for Some of My Favorite Things Saturday link party because Christmas trees are some of my favorites. Do visit Laurie who is definitely another favorite of mine.

grace surrounds us
Olive

The Other Reindeer

Did you hear about the little girl who asked her dad if he could name all of Santa's reindeer? Dad knew the eight, plus Rudolph, but the girl insisted that there was one more, named Olive.

"Never heard of that one," says dad.
She then begins singing Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer and this line comes up: "Olive the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names.."

You may have seen Olive, the Other Reindeer, a popular children's book and animated TV special.

I have been off the internet for about two days. I made gingerbread men cookies. It was harder than it was thirteen years ago or I have less patience. I also made fudge. In the midst of being in the kitchen I have had a fire in the wood stove most of the time which involves moving about wood all the time. That is hard work that gives wonderful cozy results. The photo above is a game set on our dining table.

I am going to visit you my best buddies right after I build another fire. I will leave you with a cell phone image of the Clovis the C-Cat all decked for the season.

Thanks bunches for the comments on my ornaments I found last weekend. We had a lively chat.

grace surrounds us

Olive

~Nativity~

It is time for Lynn's "Reason For The Season" party at Happier Than a Pig in Mud.

My only Nativity is a Dreamsicles set.

I am still fiddling with where to place things in the yellow house.

For now to the left of Muffy the bear and under the gangster Santa {Joe}.

This is the den in the yellow house by the way. I do not often take photos in the den.

Do you want to see two flakes?

While we are in the den.

Yep, that's us the flakes. The first Christmas we were married in 2004. I was a chubby monkey. I love that Joe would put that headband on. That large dark space is an antique steamer trunk. Praying/wishing for a new camera I am.

I strayed off topic, I just do not have a plethora of Nativity scenes. I will add them to my thrifting list. Please join Lynn for more of the Holy Family.

grace surrounds us

Olive



Vintage Ornaments or Not?

We went to a couple of estate sales on Saturday and one garage sale. The three of us had fabulous fun. Because of you my blogging buddies I have been looking for vintage Christmas ornaments and bottle brush trees and I found both. I think.

You tell me. Are these vintage? I paid one dollar for the entire box.

I love the pine cone and the pear. So what is the verdict? Vintage or not? I love them  what ever the verdict and need a table top tree for them. I do want to be able to recognize vintage.

CC and I are off to go shopping at our favorite thrift stores in what we hope are relatively quiet locations. I know I am delusional. 

Wishing all of you a Happy Christmas!

grace surrounds us

Olive

Cold, Homesick, Glass

It is bitterly cold here for our part of the south and our heat pump is having a difficult time keeping up with the frigid temps. The water stopped flowing this morning after I had been using it for hours. Curious yes? A street pipe had burst and now I am boiling water. It may be contaminated. Woot.

The happy, happy good news is CC will have finished her exams by tomorrow and I am fetching her from college and she will be home for a month! We will snuggle and boil water, no matter she will be HOME.

We have big plans. Baking gingerbread cookies, pound cake, toffee bars, and making fudge just for starters. Most to give away. Plus a tiny bit of shopping for her. She is homesick. She tells me on the phone every day she wants to come home.

I am frankly dizzied by all the blog parties. All of your homes are gorgeous. I am inspired every minute I read a blog. I am trying to catch up or maybe I will give up and just watch all of you and enjoy my kiddo. That sounds wonderful to me.

I do have two cloches photographed for Marty's cloche party and some snow globes.

The dining table vignette is kind of growing. No room for actual china. Who needs to sit down and eat? We have baking to do!

I have snow globes in the window seat. They have objects under glass. Not a cloche but I am overly fond of them.

Most of the snow globes play music. Did you you see Jack from "A Nightmare Before Christmas?" We love that movie and all of Tim Burton's movies.

Do visit Marty at A Stroll Thru Life  for far more beautiful cloches than mine. I am posting one day early because tomorrow is sheer craziness that should last until about Saturday.

grace surrounds us

Olive

Coffee and Chocolate What's Not to Love?

Toffee Bars

1 Cup Soft Butter
1Cup Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Almond extract (I use vanilla)
1 tablespoon Instant Coffee (up to 2 tablespoons for more flavor)
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
2 1/2  Cups Flour (approximate)
1 Cup Chocolate Chips (up to 2 cups)

Cream together the butter and brown sugar.

Blend in the extract, instant coffee, baking powder, and salt.

Add enough flour to make a stiff dough.

Press into a well greased 9x13 pan and sprinkle chocolate chips on top.

Bake at 350F for 20 to 25 min.

♣My notes♣

I like vanilla extract better. I use 2 tablespoons of instant coffee.

This is a very stiff dough and I usually end up using 2 cups of flour.

I make the dough in my food processor but any hand mixer would work fine.

Karen at Brayton Homestead Interiors asked for cookie recipes and for once I actually did a post in a timely manner. I took these photos in October however! CC and I make these bars often and she just took a batch back to her dorm to share with her suite mates.

Pour a cup of coffee and eat one of these...go on just do it.

Bliss

grace surrounds us

Olive

Decking the Blue and White

My blue and white thrifted collection meets Santa and the snowmen. Call it decking the blue and white shall we?

At this point I never see the blue and white ever leaving this three drawer chest. Christmas decor just gets crammed in! Maybe it is the Southern way. More is better. More butter, more bread, more blue and white, more Christmas decor. You get it. What do you want more of in decor?

The snowmen were purchased from a Lenox outlet. What chubby monkeys they are...love em. One is shy and is hiding in the shadows and got cropped.

This Santa appears one eyed...Ha! Maybe his beard needs a trim. The Santa ornaments came from an estate sale months ago.

I am joining the following parties (buttons below).

grace surrounds us

Olive

Photo Challenge: Vignette

Photo Challenge Vignette is two fold this week. The first image is the actual vignette and a subsequent one shows it in the context of the room. Here is a cloudy day vignette of my little deer. I am somewhat obsessive about keeping the yellow house neat so there is no big reveal in the fuller view image. OCD...no meds for that!

Now the living area of the yellow house and the chest with the Mid Century Modern Lamp that one of my readers told me was hideous (you know who you are). I thought that was terribly funny.

That is our daughter's picture hanging above the chest. She passed her very important test on Tuesday!

Thanks to all of you for wishing her well and we give God much credit for her sense of peace while taking the test. She has test anxiety big time.

Do visit Chania for more challenge links at Razmataz.

grace surrounds us

Olive