Exciting times!

It's busy, busy, busy! But December is full of Exciting times in our family.

We started off the month with Birthday # 1, last Monday was Girly~Whirly's birthday!

 

clockwise from the top: day that she was born at 9lbs 2oz. 

1st bday to 5th bday and then in the middle is a photo of her recently.

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This past Monday was Birthday # 2 (I am now officially in the golden age...mid-century...or half a century old...don't they say that 50 is the new 30?...or something like that. :o)

top: my 1st bday, then my 3rd bday...and then this past Monday night at a German restaurant for a birthday dinner with my hubby.

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Next week, along with the wonderful celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ...
we have Birthday #3 My handsome hubby... He says his mom would tease and say that he was a perfect 10 pound Christmas gift, but once he turned one year old...

Top left: 1st bday, Top right: 2nd bday, bottom left: 3rd bday and bottom right: another taken at my birthday dinner :o) ...since we haven't celebrated his birthday yet.


And we will at one point in time, have all our kids and our grandbaby here with us!

I really like making the photo Christmas cards with our family...this year, it was hard to get everyone toether at the same time, so I used our family photo taken at our son's wedding in Sept.

 (I cropped the bottom of the card, since we had all our names there. Blessed to have my dad on this card too :o)

May you all have a wonderful and blessed Christmas and a very blessed and Happy New Year!

Joining in with Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday's E! (I am still catching up to some return visits to all those wonderful visits that you have made here....slowly, but I hope to catch up!)

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And some art that were also in celebration of some birthdays :o)

 

 This little duck drawn entirely with this little one's first name CLAIRE.

 This little guy goes by his middle name, so it was drawn entirely with CAMPBELL. The little firetruck was from some of the bed linens in his nursery.

Decorating for Christmas

...as I slowly find them in our boxes from our move to our new Kentucky home.

This ledge is on a landing to our finished basement, where we have our tv room, another bedroom, bathroom and my art/sewing/quilting/craft/grandbaby play area.

I love old windows, and one of these are from my parent's place. The little angel on the left is from my great uncle's tree.  The second Santa from the left was my hubby's when he was a little boy. And the wood Santa next to the large printing letter B block is one my mom painted for us years ago.


There are some other decorations that I still have not "found".

But I am so happy for the Rubbermaids and for an organized Handsome Hubby!

(The ones I have yet to come across, are due to my "I'll put these away somewhere safe" way of putting them...but I should have put them away in one of the many storage containers that my hubby marked as Christmas!

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Here are some decorated areas around our home.

Our tree this year is in my hubby's office, since that huge front window is at the front  of the house. And I wanted to have the tree shine out at night at the front.

We have an antique fireplace mantel that is in the tv room and I'd like to put another tree near it as our "Grandbabies tree"with all the cute "jingle bell" ornaments that I have been collecting.

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Here is our living room. You might notice throughout our whole house, that we don't have any paintings or pictures hanging up yet...just the ones that we were able to lean against something.  

I have our kids and their spouses' stockings hanging on the same holders, my hubby's mine and our grandbaby's stockings hanging on their own holders.

(Oh! And for an early birthday gift, my sweet hubby surprised me with the crock that I had hoped to find to add to my other crocks. It is the 5 gallon crock that a Filipino broom called a "ting-ting" in it. The broom is made of the mid ribs of dried coconut palm leaves.)

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These are two bedrooms upstairs...in one of them, I have children's books on the antique desks that I use as  nightstands. And also have children's Christmas books put out now, with other little Christmas sleds and ornaments.  

I still have more decorations to put out in the other bedroom, as well as, decorations in our bedroom, the bedroom and tv room downstairs.

 

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Here on the kitchen/breakfast room windows, I have three square cranberry wreaths hanging from twine. I still have to find my garlands of cranberries.

 We had our island made by a family-run business. They are amazing! They made it just from a sketch I had given them. My hubby finished it with a layer of dark paint and two layers of the off white, so that it could be lightly distressed. We like it as it looks now, so decided to let it get "distressed" as we or grandbabies "bang" and distress it :o)

 ***

 Wishing all a very Merry and Blessed Christmas!
From our home to yours!

 A layer of snow ~ taken after our third snowfall this season.

 Joining in with Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday's D!

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Here is one I have shared before...decorations...ornaments, drawn by a family with a HUGE  Christmas tree and Christmas ornament collection.

This was a photo of it matted and framed.

 

Cathedral Quilt playtime

While spending time with our little granddaughter, I was able to see her play with the little Cathedral Quilt that I had made her.

Here she is putting her two "dog-dogs" down to nap...she puts them on their tummies and pats their backs.

I had sewn this before she was born and talk about it here on Q is for Quilt and also my Cathedral Quilt tutorial post.

I had basically made it so that on one half, a center fabric would match up with another center piece on the other half. So that she could play a matching game or "seek and find" game with the material.

And dividing the two halves, I used solid color fleece to run down the center....incorporating the colors of the rainbow...Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, as well as pink, grey, black, white, brown.

It was so fun to see that even at 19 months, she is able to actually play the matching game! (She was often actually faster at finding the matches amongst all the different fabric than I was! And she loved to point to the solid color fabric and wait til I said what color they were.  Two of her favorites to say and she knows are Blue and Yellow :o)

 I have a cute little clip of her from our daughter's phone, it has sound, but it won't play here. And it is moving a bit faster than normal speed. (Although she is very quick at it!)  In this one, she is standing up and pointing at the squares as she finds them :o)
We usually point to one square and then she looks for the matching one. On this clip, when we asked her where the duck was, she found the first duck herself and then found the other one.

And here she is on her quilt during her nap time, covered up with her crocheted blanket that her Auntie Girly~Whirly made for her...
And as you can see we read quite a number of books before falling asleep :o)

*****

Joining in with Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday's C!
And Jen's In the Studio.

And here are some "C" related artwork.

Celtic cross for a little one's birth. This entire cross was drawn with ELI JOSEPH. Additional calligraphy above and beneath written in lettering: Charlemagne

Crocheted Cross for a special event for a young girl. This lacy cross was drawn entirely with the first name CHLOE. Additional scripture verse written in lettering: Edwardian Script

  

 Another repeat posting of this one: 

This Crown was for one of the Derby princesses, when our daughter Girly~Whirly was one of the five Derby princesses. Drawn with CHRISTIN.

 

 

Bunny, Books and Best Buddies

As mentioned in my previous post, I had almost a whole wonderful month to visit with our grandbaby girl, Bunny.

(outside...looking at a Bird).

...(and of course that includes this little one's mommy, daddy and her two "dog-dogs". ("Dog-dog" was one of her first words! She has always said it, just like that "Dog-dog"...maybe since they have two real dogs, she thought she should be sure to call out to both :o)

We were about to go inside...these are her "dog-dogs". The older one is a cocker spaniel, whom we have always referred to as older beyond his years...even as a puppy, he was an old man. He is Bunny's guardian.

And the younger one is a King Charles Spaniel, such a sweetie! More often than not, wherever Bunny is, she is there too.

...and  in that photo, she has a hold of her two favorite stuffed "dog-dogs".

Here she is again with her stuffed "dog-dogs".

Now, she is with another of her favorites...books...small book, medium book, big book...ANY book!  She loves to "read" aloud and be read to.

Two more photos of her with one of her Best Buddies...

*****

Joining in with Jenny's Alphabe-thursday's letter B.

Here are a few B related artwork

This was a photo taken at Bunny's 1st birthday back in March. I drew the bunny and the flowers with her name. Each different flower represented her birth state, and each parent and grandparent's state that they were born in...as well as the Sampaguita, the Philippine national flower, where I was born.

I have a close up saved somewhere of it, but will have to look where I put it...

so I am also sharing this one, so that you can see a close up view with the names...

This is a different bunny that was ordered for the birth of another little sweetie.

(The top shows it in black and white and the bottom shows it after some color was added).

This was an order for a parent volunteer, who volunteered at her children's school library from 1998 to 2004 before moving with her husband's retirement.

And this is one that I may have posted before (I try to post ones that have not already been shown), but it is perfect when talking about "Buddies".

This was for a son and his dog of many years...they had their son's name in the dog's image and then his dog's name in his image.

*****

Have a blessed and wonderful Thanksgiving! And that you build wonderful memories...each and every day you are able to spend with your loved ones.

 

A is for Adorable Angel

A...Adorable...

After almost a month, I am back from  an Amazing, Awesome visit with our grandbaby girl...a sweet little Angel.
(...who I call "Bunny", on my blog.)

...first a little peek-a-boo.

... then most likely talking about the birds or the airplanes she sees.

...posing in her little house, she LOVES to go in and out of.

...very interested in the flowers in front of her "school".

...sitting on the front porch...

watching out for passing Automobiles And Airplanes!

(She has an eagle eye and sharp hearing, since she usually spots the Airplanes first!)

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Joining in with Ms. Jenny's Alphabe-thursdays...and I will include some past art work that starts with each letter that is featured for the week.  As some may already know...each is drawn with the name of an individual.Thank you all so much for continued interest, and thinking of these for gifts and for keeping me busy with the art requests!

A is for Airplane!

These two military aircraft was drawn in honor of this veterans military service.

This civilian Cessna was drawn to celebrate attaining a pilot's license.

The little biplane was drawn for this little fellow's birth. It was drawn with his first name GAVIN and the birth info added in the border around the image.  First shown in black and white and then shown after color was added.

Also to mark the birth of another little one...this is a style I call my "Calligraphics". The biplane is drawn using of all his birth info.

Also joining in with Kim's Blog Hop Social!

 

This n that...Burlap, mason jars, pickets & home made signs...

"This n That" for Heart~throb (our son) & Sweetie (our daughter-in-law's) wedding...

The cross was built by a family friend of our daughter-in-law.  There were beautiful fresh cut flowers that hung from the cross, which were like the beautiful, colorful variety of flowers that the bride and bridesmaids carried.

~ ~ ~

 At the guestbook table, I used one of our old 6 paned windows that we had and painted the greeting to the guests.

 

There was a book, "Sweetie" had printed of their engagement photos for guests to sign their names and any thing they would like to add for the bride and groom.  I love that they also had their family bible for guests to highlight a favorite scripture and sign their name by.

  (Here is my go at a little rhyme :o) that I wrote on the window)

"With your name, feel free to add..

Words of Wisdom or of Wit,

lots to write or just a bit.

Hints you share

or sage advice,

or heartfelt quotes are nice.

or

Memories shared,

we do teasure.

Sweet or silly

times together.

~ ~ ~

At this table, they also had their programs they thought about and put together themselves. It included with the ceremony details, a sweet thank you for being a part of this special day...and our son and daughter in law also wrote something about each of the 16 in their wedding party. Aas well as the moms and dads and grandparents attending, which was a sweet surprise to the parents and grandparents :o)

Such sweet, kind words that I hope to live up to! And I whole-heartedly agree with our son's words about his dad (my husband). The Lord has blessed our family with a man who loves the Lord with all his heart.

 (***I have lined through some names throughout the photos, since I have tried not to use any families' first names. ...I just posted these written to my hubby and me, but each written for/about those in the program was very special.)

~ ~ ~

Here is my hubby cutting & creating signs from some of the extra pickets from our fence. The fence was made by the local Amish from wood taken from one of their 100 year old barns.

Our daughter, Girly~Whirly, was able to fly in a few days earlier and helped with painting and sewing bowties for the groomsmen. 

 ~ ~ ~

 Here is one of the picket signs to show the path to the ceremony in one courtyard and pointing towards where the reception would be in the opposite direction. (The lettering I painted was one of those used on other signs called American Typewriter.)

Along the both paths, hung  twine with childhood photos of bride and groom clothes-pinned to the twine.

~ ~ ~

A beautiful, blue sky day! Perfect! And when it got dark, there were many strings of lights underneath the tent cover.

This is where the reception was held... The HUGE screen window was one our son found to be discarded while in college.  The American Typewritter lettering was what I used again, where the guests would find their printed tags with their name and number to their table.  The tags were pinned to the screen with a little clothespin.
The tags were palm-sized and some guests pinned their tags on them.

~ ~ ~

More details... I created their wedding logo that they used for their layered wedding invitations... There was three layers, a textured, heavy white paper...then kraft paper, then the printed invite on white paper...  All three layers were tied together with twine and a tag with their wedding site.
(Again, the squiggly lines are just to cover the names and addresses :o)

 Brown tags like the seating tags...

...and I also drew the scroll design on various other signs at the wedding. The water, tea, lemonade signs, was with white paint pen onto black cardstock.  I went to our local grocery store florist to buy some clear floral picks, but she just gave them to me.  The signs were secure in mason jars filled with small river rocks. These were placed by the beverage dispensers.

~ ~ ~

A sign drawn for the Cookie Bar and another to direct guests to the bathrooms.

 

I used black construction paper and a paint pen to write the signs so as to make it look chalk on chalkboard. The frames were also from old barn wood, that their friend loaned them for the wedding.

~ ~ ~

The Cookie Bar created by two of the bride's family friends had tons and tons of cookies for guests to put in white paper sacks.

Our friend's cute18 inch tall wood barrel was used for any guests to drop wedding cards brought to the wedding.

~ ~ ~

Here are some photos of the Menu Signs and center tables. 

Again, I wrote on black poster board with a white paint pen. 

Each table was covered with a white tablecloth...

topped with burlap runners...

a round of cedar (that as cut by the bride's family and friends)...

and mason jars filled full with a variety of blooms...

lanterns or mason jars with candles were also included...

twine-wrapped wine bottles...

And each table had the tops of picket fence that the table numbers were painted onto.

At the head table, it was the same, except there were large mason jars ready to hold the bridesmaids' and the bride's bouquets after the ceremony.

~ ~ ~ ~

I am joining in with Jenny's Alphabe-thursday's "T"!

And joining in with Kim's Blog Hop Social!

And joining in with Amy's (& co-hosts Krista, Aniko & Laura's) Work It Wednesday Linky party! :o)

And joining in with Lindsay's Artsy Corner Link party!

~ ~ ~

This week's featured artwork... a couple of recent art orders...completed and shipped.

For those new to my blog and the art that I do...each image is drawn entirely with a name.

This was drawn from a photo taken of this newly married couple at their wedding. The bride was drawn with her nick name ALLIE and the groom was drawn with is nick name DREW. Beneath their image is their names and wedding date written in a lettering style called Edwardian script.

The monogram was ordered for a couple who had a beach wedding, so the little starfish was requested somewhere on the monogram art.  The bride's name HALEY was drawn throughout the H. The S was drawn with their last name SMITH. and the groom's name CHRISTOPHER was drawn throughout the letter C.  Additional calligraphy of their names in the upper left border and their wedding date in the lower right border, as well as the monogram itself were in the lettering style called Alys.