Our Quiet Christmas

Dear Folks ~ I hope you all had a lovely Christmas day whatever you did, wherever you are. Yesterday was a perfectly gorgeous so. FL winter day, temps in the mid 70's, sun shining, earlier this morning it was rainy, now it is really windy and chilly as yet another cold front moves down over us.

We really had a nice quiet Christmas day. We keep our gift giving small, as we've basically got what we need, as we buy things during the year, when we need or want them. We had a few unwrapped presents under the tree since we already knew what we were getting. Plus a huge box 27"x18"x6" weighing in at 15 lbs., came on Christmas eve and was under the tree too. (More about that in a minute.) For ourselves, we got a Dusbuster as our old one had 'bit the dust'. :-) DH got a wire brush for his grinder, and we got a bottle of delightful Raspberry di Amore liquour. (Which we had a little bit of Christmas Eve in celebration of the pkg. arriving earlier.)

Once January gets here, I'll be ordering, as part of my Christmas, two embroidery books from Amazon. We didn't want any credit hanging over into the new year, so I am looking forward to getting these in the next couple of weeks. They are: Diana Lampe's Embroidery from the Garden and Diana Lampe's Embroidery for All Seasons.

I also got two lovely Chinese bars of soap with essential oils and amber scent, they are wonderful.

DH told me also that he had a little something that was hidden. I had to ask him for hints as I wasn't finding it. It was under the tree skirt, sitting in the tree stand and I was tickled pink. It was my retro kitchen timer that had suddenly started doing a weird clank instead of it's nice 'ping' when it went off. He had taken it back to his workshop a few days before Christmas to see if he could get it working right again. I figured that was it, since he didn't come back with it, so was using this other timer which I don't like the sound of at all, but it works. Here is my sweet timer working just fine now. Hurray and thank you DH.



Now, onto the pkg that was delivered Christmas Eve. I had been contacted by a blogging friend awhile back telling me she had some embroidery threads and some beads she'd like to send me, she had to dig them out of storage. You can read her blog here Denimflyz Homestead. She is an inspiration to me with the things that she does, for herself and others.

Thank you Denimflyz and Mom.

Anyway, the other day, I got an email saying the pkg was on the way, and should be here on the 23rd. She hoped I would have it in time for Christmas. The 23rd came and went, but we kind of figured UPS would be back logged, the pkg had made it to the warehouse at least. The next day I was sitting here in my little space, when I heard what I thought was the UPS truck pull up out front, only, he did not honk his horn as they always do. I raced outside, and he took off before I got out there. I walked barefoot to the next street but didn't see him, and came back and told DH. He decided to see if he could track him down to see what the story was, and took off in the car. He finally caught up with him and the guy told him he was taking someone else's route, and the pkg was on the list, but the pkg was not in the truck. Well, what a bummer. I was a bit upset, but conditioned myself to getting it on Monday. About an hour and a half later we hear another truck and a horn honk, and it was another UPS truck and I was handed this huge box. I thanked them and wished them Merry Christmas and happily put the box under the tree.

The next few pictures show what was inside. I was flabbergasted to say the least, and my fingers are itching to be doing something. :-)



Here are the goodies after I separated them into categories.


Here are the metallic threads after taking them out of the pkging.


Here are the Perle size 5 embroidery threads separated and bagged according to colors.


Here are the beads and a pkg of different sequins.


After all the sorting, I did some rearranging in my little craft space storage drawers to work this all in and did it and am very pleased with the results in this small space. All of the beads went into the third drawer of the white storage unit, and the threads went into the top 4 drawers of the little unit.



She also sent me a beautiful 120 year old goldwork embroidered panel that was in the act of being restored by an elderly nun when it was purchased years ago. My friend thought I would like it, and I would like to tackle finishing the restoration of this piece, once I get a little more comfortable in learning how this is done. She and her Mom will help me along the way, and I am grateful for the gift of this piece and the beads and threads, and for their help. Click on pictures for larger views.









While I was working inside, DH did some puttering outside. He's in the process of consolidating iron collected over the years into one area, and we are calling it the 'junkyard'. (We have privacy fencing around the back and sides of our property.) It is in the back northwest corner of our property, more or less between two buildings. He called me out to look at a piece he had put up over the new entryway he's making into this area. We bought this 4 years ago in GA when we were passing through to NC. We've been calling him 'Shovel Bird', now he's our "Junk Yard Bird'. He cracks me up. We have had huge buzzards in our property a couple of times, I wonder if one will land on this guys perch. :-)




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I want to say a heartfelt thank you to all of you who have visited my blog and left your comments this past year. I have enjoyed visiting your blogs as well and look forward to the new year of continued and new friendships, and more inspiration for living life, cooking, crafting and gardening.

Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL

Thunderstorm and found goodies

We are having a whopper thunderstorm with heavy downpour. I'm thankful for the rain, but could do without the thunder and lightening. :-) I mowed, trimmed stuff along the driveway, and used the electric hedge clipper on the front hedgerow, this morning. Just have a little clean up to do along the driveway as I was too dang pooped to do anymore, so that can get done tomorrow morning.

We're still not sure what's going on with the leak. The meter is hardly moving today, so who knows. DH did not go under the house, he's waiting to see, and will read the meter daily instead of weekly to keep on top of the water usage.

He went out on an errand this morning, and when he got home, he stopped by the kitchen porch, opened the hatchback of my little old Mazda wagon and started unloading boxes that said, crafts, linens. I thought oh my gosh, and just kept laughing as he pulled the boxes out. Today was trash day and if he hadn't stopped for these the goodies would have ended up out in the landfill. What a waste.

I started sorting after I took a picture of the boxes, and the one box with the red basket on the top, was 'mostly' junk, from a kids room, BUT, we did get a VTECH phone with charger and it works, and we found a sterling silver pin, with what looks like Marcasite stones surrounding a nice piece of mother of pearl. Also, we found a 14k gold ring with maybe two tiny diamonds and a cultured pearl. It's been many years since we've found any gold and silver while curbside shopping. So, it just goes to show, you never know what you might find.








I laid out all the craft items on the floor. Look at that pink little case filled with embroidery threads. :-) Then there is a clear compartmentalized case that had 4 kinds of beads in it, some quilting material, a few Christmas bells, and three other gold colored ornies,
lace trims, a gromlet sort of tool, a little Continental sewing machine with a foot pedal, it works, tissue paper, a new photo album, maybe I'll start putting pictures of my beaded pieces in it. We also got some other odds and ends, but the picture below shows the main bulk.


I sorted the threads and put them in zip-lock bags,
with the date and saying we found them.


Below are the lace trims. Now I need to figure out how to use them.








Here is that bead box, the 4 compartments at the top have the beads that came in it, the rest of the beads are mine I just got the other day with my gift card. I needed somewhere to put them, and now I have it.


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Thanks are justly due for boons unbought.

Ovid

* boon - noun - something to be thankful for; blessing; benefit. *


Hope you all have a great week. Maybe you'll come across something interesting looking on the curb. Don't be ashamed to stop and grab it. It gets easier with time to not be embarrassed, and you really don't know what hidden treasures might await you.

Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL