A Few Nuts Adds Country Charm

This old wooden bowl seemed just the right place for some fresh greenery and nuts. The cookie cutter is a reproduction, but has a pretty good antique look to it.

Christmas Hoosier

Here is my Hoosier all dressed for Christmas. I love that it looks great with little decoration, just fresh greenery! How quaint, old fashioned and simple...but with great results! I stuck greenery in any crack or crevice I could find around the house. I did not realize how Christmasy it could look with such a simple effort.

NOEL bells

I love this little log with bells attached. It is a vintage piece, not sure how old, but old enough to work in my home. I just love bells, especially ones that have gotten a burnished glow on them. They remind me of Christmas's past. Two of my favorite carols are "Carol of the Bells" and "Silver Bells. " So I tend to collect and am drawn to things with bells on them. This little piece also has a little snowman on the top, it appears to be made of spun cotton. I have gone crazy for snowmen in the past...but have gotten to where the snowmen I get have to be vintage or at least vintage looking. So this has slowed me down in collecting them...which is a good thing. I do have some lovely snowmen to sell...so whenever I get my little Mercantile open I will be offering many of them to others to take home to love. It will now be next fall that my Mercantile will be open, as we did not get the garage changed over to a store this year. It is still a garage. I was hopeful, but my hubby did not get to do the work needed to have it completed. So it was just not meant to be, which was hard for me. But I had to put it into God's hands and let it go. For whatever reason, I was meant to do other things with my time this fall.

Joy, Peace, Hope tins

Aren't these great! I love the look of red and white together especially at Christmas time. It reminds me of peppermint candy and wrapping paper designs from my childhood. It looks like something that you would see in an old mercantile...which is my favorite thing, right after the homeyness of my home. I dream of having an old mercantile for my studio.
Anyhooo...these tins are at Joanne's Fabrics. Did I bring any home? Nope, thought I would wait until the after Christmas sale, so we'll see. They were 50% off.

First Snow

This little garden cart that sits near my front door. I had put some fresh greens with pine cones on it to decorate for Christmas. Our first snow fall lies softly on the greens making for a very Christmas welcome. Another snow fall came in last night. More expected on Saturday. It sure puts one in the Christmas spirit!

Pretty Bird

This drawing was done by my greatgrandfather, John Prentiss Chapman Reeves in 1946 on my dad's side. My mom brought it to me when she came to visit this last time. I was so very exited to get it because my grandmother had shown me some of his drawings of birds about 16 years ago and then I never knew what happened to them. I still don't know where they are, but at least the one came to me. It has actually been photocopied, then draw over with a marker pen. This is probably done by my grandmother.
I am happy as a 'lark' to at least have a copy of one of his drawings. He was also a penmanship teacher as a profession back in the early 1900's. I have a picture of him with one of his classes next to the old school house.

Amish quilt pattern

I bought this vintage quilt pattern, amoungst others, at the Spokane Quilt Show a few weeks ago. Little did I know then that I would be using it on my own family quilt. But that we did. It was the perfect size to fit on some plain blocks that needed some decoation. So we used it four times on the quilt. I do not know if the pattern has some meaning or just someones design, but I do like it.
I liked that this pattern was used and made by Pennsylvania Amish quilters. I bought four patterns from the same vendor. They were made from cardboard and still have the advertising on them, which I loved. They are hanging in my studio on the wire that goes across the room.

Dining room ready for feasting

Here is where we had our Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. Had a couple of extra guests at the last minute so I added the little card table you can barely see to the right. I usually am so busy getting the food ready that I get all the way through the dinner and do not get any pictures. So I am proud of myself for getting these before shots. I do wish I had gotten more of us at the table and of the food table...had planned to do this, but the food was getting cold so we needed to get to prayin' and eatin.' Well, I forgot to get a picture of the food table.

A bunch of Turkey's!

Here is me with my gang making crazy faces after indulging in a Thanksgiving feast fit for a king. How blessed we are. I love to have someone take a bunch of photos at the same time as we make faces and then go through them real fast on my laptop...it is like looking at one of those flip books. So fun when it is our own family making the pictures funny. Hey that's a good idea...making a flip book with my own gang...have to ponder how to do that. Anywhooo...this is one of the funny photos we took yesterday.

Two Quilters

Here is my momma and I working on the Cunningham Family Quilt. This block is the last one to be completed. I do not appear in photos very often wearing my reading glasses, kinda nerdy looking! But I am glad to have them as I could not see to do any fine work if I did not. We worked on this quilt for most of the ten days she was here for a 10 day visit. But it was good bonding time. I am glad we did this together...making memories!

Cunningham Family Quilt

Here it is nearly complete...the hand quilting is done. My momma gave this quilt to my son, Zach. He asked for it so he got it! How cute. This quilt was a project started 20 years ago and mom is finally getting hers done. She left it with me to hem, so this will be done after the holidays. She picked these colors, likely to match the colors in her home. The fan designs are the blocks I made. Mom made the one with the black cross on it. It also has a bible, with our names on it. Now, I have to get mine sewn together.

My Mamma & My Baby Boy

Here are two sweet loves of mine. My dear mother, Wanda Juna, and my fun loving son, Zach. Mom has gone back home to California now, sadly. But Zach lives one block from me...a momma loves that!

Old Wood Bobbins from Grandma Verla Pearl's sewing basket

My came up to visit us from California about ten days ago bringing with her a suitcase of goodies for me. She knows how I love anything old from the family as keepsakes. So these wooden spools were part of the 'loot' this visit. They had belonged to my Grandmother, Verla Pearl Ogden Cunningham, and mom gave them to me. Two of them are wooden actually needle boxes. I love the big one the mostest! These will find a home in my studio and I will cherish them forever. I will label them as well, so when my memory is gone or I am gone my kiddles will know where they came from. Hopefully they will treasure them as well.