My favorite mags

I love these magazines!!!! And I love Valentines! These are the perfect issues to cheer you up on a cold winters day. Its been waaay below ZERO out for the last few days. Snowing and blowing. You should see the snow piling up! Its the kind of day you want to snuggle up with a warm fleece blanket and a cup of hot chocolate, or maybe tea and some comfort food. Ahhh... to sit and while away the day with my new issues...dreaming of hearts and love and warmth.

Try one more...

My colors

The top picture is of the fabric I chose for my curtains. The colors of the walls will be gold and red. Gold tiebacks. The two pictures are of my quilt with the red and golds. I scanned them on my printer. The gold embroidery fabric and color swatches don't show their true brilliance.

Charley dressed for the cold

Charley would not go out in the cold to do his job. He'd quickly go pee, then head back to the door. So today I went to Wallmart and bought him a new winter coat. Only it was way to small. I also bought him a baby T-shirt and some infant socks. I came home and took him out and he did stay out a little longer, only the socks would not stay on for long. It is so bitter cold and snowing. Its been way below 0* for a few days now, with another cold week ahead. I hope to get out and get some pictures of our snowy winter wonderland here in the Copper Country!

Take a sneak preview

The colors I picked are going to be red and gold. I'm doing the window wall in red and the others in gold. I bought the fabric downstate at JoAnne Fabrics during our Christmas trip. I've got them temporarily draped over the rods. I'm going to start sewing them soon. I can't wait to do all the finishing touches!

New Floors and furniture

John's busy sanding our floors in our bedroom and hallway. Sure was a big job. We put 4 coats of varnish on the floor. It turned out so nice! I wonder if the spots in the photo was dust magnified? We've got alot more to do yet. The furniture is now set up, bedroom cleaned and I'm now in the process of organizing my closets and filling my new dressers. I'm looking forward to getting the painting done in the next few weeks. Then later on I want a new ceiling (dry wall) put up. I would like to get some crown molding in our room. Now that would sure give the right finishing touch!

Our new bedroom furniture

I printed out a picture of our new bedroom set that is on order. Then I scanned it to my pictures. I hope this works. The bottom of the page has the website of the furniture company. It is made by A-America and should be delivered in two weeks or so. Today we reaaranged all the furniture upstairs in preparation to finish our hardwood floors. The whole upstairs got a good cleaning, walls wiped down and all. I can't wait to get this room done!! The bedroom set has a queen panel bed, chest of drawers, a dresser with a large beveled mirror, and a very lovely bedside stand with 5 drawers.

I copied the description from the website: Inspired by the pine furniture found in cottages along the Irish coast, this collection appeals to a broad range of customers who are looking for the cottage, country or coastal feel in their homes. Made from solid New Zealand pine it's harder than American pine so it sands and finishes better. Case piece drawers have "tongue & grove" bottom panels. It's called the Copper Creek Collection in Honey Pine. The website is www.a-america.com.

Christmas memories...

Time sure flies! We spent a week and a day downstate. We had planned on coming home on Saturday, but heard about a storm brewing in mid-Michigan. I'm glad we stayed another day, as that was the day we went to downtown Detroit. On Christmas Eve we opened the majority of our gifts as we had our church services going on for the few days during Christmas, actually, they ran from the weekend through Christmas and were held in Minneappolis, so we were hearing them at our Detroit church on the phone patch. It was really very special to us as we could hear all of our dear preachers speak from all over the U.S. Christmas meetings are always a special part of our holiday. So, we opened gifts with our family and Andy's mom, and my father-in-law Christmas eve, and had a nice supper with lots of food and bakery. Christmas morning we went to church, then hurried home to finish our dinner, as we had my sisters and families at Vanessa and Andy's. My two nieces with their children and hubby's. Holly and Chad and Beth and Joe, (they came from Washington state. I wish I had a picture of them. I did get Holly's picture. We had 11 kids and 14 adults for Christmas dinner. John's dad came down with us, he is 87 years old. Vanessa and I worked for two days cooking and cleaning, and shopping. I brought a turkey I got for a Christmas gift from the Northridge Pines ( my work). We made dressing, cranberries, had ham, potatoes, gravy, brocolli salad, pumpkin pie, and rolls. Janice brought two pans of cheezy potatoes and lots of bakery. Everyone brought dishes and cookies to share. The dinner was delicious. We opened gifts after dinner and sang Christmas songs. The kids played dress-up. It was sad that some of the kids were getting over the flu and Cade (Holly's 2 yr. old son) had to go to the E.R. and be admitted to the hospital early in the evening with an ear infection that spread to the mastoid bone.

We shopped alot after Christmas. We went to IKEA for a day and got lots of nice things. I wish I had a truck to haul back some furniture. We ate Swedish meatballs and Swedish coffee and desserts there.

I got to Target, JoAnnes Fabric (of course), Kohls, Sears (I bought a Lands end down filled coat). It is so much fun to shop, as we don't have any of these store here in the Copper Country. We have a small mall with a Penny's and a Wallmart, and Shopko. Not much else. My kids get a little annoyed with my shopping binges and the fact that I want to shop till I drop. I get teased alot by the guys--son in law and brother in laws about how they don't see me much as I'm gone shopping. I had to stalk up on food buys from Costco of course, and get my healthy foods and supplements from Whole Foods or Trader Joes, you know!!

Got over to see my sister Kathi and Frank's new place, (they're in a condo now.) Then we went to Janice's for dinner on Saturday night. We had some great visits, but sure had the kids to keep things a little noisy and hectic.

The weather was great for this time of year. Quite mild, in fact. We did have a brown Christmas though. It snowed and melted a couple of times while there. Sure was a fun trip and we all kept healthy, thanks to God. Many blessings in our lives!

Happy New Year!

Below are some pictures of our trip downstate to see our kids. It was a great trip. I will have to post more about it tomorrow as I'm getting ready to head back to work. Gotta work a night shift tonight.

Trip to the Renaissance Center

This is the trip our family took to downtown Detroit on Saturday, our last day before heading home. We had a fun time there. We rode the People Mover all around the city. Sure was a beautiful view of the Detroit River overlooking Windsor, Ontario. Seeing the new General Motors Tech Center in the Renaissance Center was spectacular! First time I got there since the GM restoration. I have some great memories of going there with our kids and my mom and dad years ago. We whizzed by the Joe Louis Arena,(a Michigan Tech hockey game was playing there at the time), Cobo Hall, and many other big buildings while on the people mover. We saw Greek Town, and Trappers Alley, Comerica Park (where the Tigers play) and the skating rink with many Christmas lights and music. We were very disappointed that we could not go up to the top of the Ren Center to the rotating top floor with a restaurant. When we got to the elevators to ride up the 70 some floors in a glass elevator outside of the tower, and were stopped by a man who said the top floor is closed for a private wedding. Too bad! Can you imagine what that must have cost to rent for a wedding reception!