Tour of Nativities

Christmas isn't Christmas until the Nativity has been set up.

...or Nativities....

As a Christian and a pastor's wife, I've been asked the question so many times, "Do you put of a Christmas tree or a nativity?"...

that is such an interesting question to me.  I never thought of only doing one, not both...

We do both...

one tree and multiple nativities all over the house! (I guess I have a few tiny fake tress scattered around the house also)...

I see no reason why we would have to choose one over the other.

Anyways...

I love my collection of nativities...

and I decided to give you a tour of them over the next few days/week...

this first one I picked up at a weird yard/book sale thing that we went to a few years ago.  It was a house & property that had 1000's of books, bookshelves everywhere, inside and outside all under tarps and easy-up's, etc... and most of them were for sale...it was the oddest thing...

anyways, the girl child pointed out this glass nativity sitting on top of some books, I asked the lady how much for it and she said I could just take it...okay!  

Not all the pieces were there, I don't think, sometimes it's hard to figure out if you  have a Joseph, Shepherd or wise-man...I feel like this one is missing Joseph and Shepherds...

I set it up this year in our kitchen window on a cake stand.  I had some cranberries that I didn't use at Thanksgiving (yes, they are real)...and then some moss that I found in a cupboard in the garage, not sure where that came from.  But, anyways...I just threw them together for a fun little display...

and here is my whole kitchen window...(with a small fake tree in the back right corner!)...

Do you have more than one Nativity set?

Where do you display it/them?

Merry Christmas...

my mom in a swim suit!

yep...
I'm posting a picture of my mom in a swimsuit on my blog...

the date stamped on this makes my mom about 6
...the same age as Wilson...

isn't she adorable!...

I was looking thru some pictures to change out and add a summer vibe to my living room decor and I found this one and a few others that just felt like summer to me...

here it is on the whole 'pia-ntle' (piano trying to be a mantle)

she's to the left of the plant...held up by a large teal clothes-pin

and a step back...

my summer subway art is framed and on the left side of the piano...

and because she loves when I post pictures of her in her swim suit...without asking permission...
here is the other swim suit pic of my mom...

this is framed and on the right side of the piano

doesn't this picture just 'scream' summer to you?...I love it...I'm guessing mom's about 17...and that's her mom..my grandma...making grandma about 64 in the picture...love the pose from both of them...
and looking at the age of my mom...I'm just guessing that my grandfather (her dad) had died maybe within the last year before this picture was taken...this might have been a really hard sad summer for both my mom and grandma so it makes my heart happy to see them being a little spunky at the beach!

any maybe my most-favorite 'embracing the summer' picture I found of my mom...

framed in the center, slightly to the right of the plant.

love this picture...my mom talks about being shy as a child...but this picture..at the beach, standing on a bench, hands on hips...says she wants to take on the world...or at least the next 3 months of summer vacation...
...
do you ever look at pictures of your parents or grandparents at different ages and wish you could step back and spend a day with them at that age...
I see the little girl in that top picture, the same age as my son, and think how much fun the two of them would have running around on the beach together...
the carefree teen with her beyond middle-aged-mom I'd love to sit and share lunch with the two of them...
or the spunky little girl that is taking summer by the horns...I can just imagine her and my daughter laughing and giggling and being amazing little girls together...

happy summer...
hope you enjoyed my mom in her swim suit...

confessions

*I heart yarn
....like really really love the stuff

*I try to justify it by saying things like I can decorate with it

....bowls of yarn are totally.100%.home decor....

thankful decor

don't usually decorate for Thanksgiving...
it's more of an Autumnal (is that a word?) theme that gets carried thru...

well this year I added a little more to the Halloween decor....
dino bones & pirates
....so this year after Halloween
     I packed away the dino bones &  pirates
          and pulled out some turkeys...

so Welcome,
come in a take a tour of our humble abode...

...give thanks pendant printed from publisher, I made some triangles and put a text box in the middle of each one and used a different font for each letter...then attached with some hemp cord

my 'mantel' aka piano...

 close up...I printed off a definition of the word Thanksgiving...crumpled it up and placed it in a frame..

I also pulled out some scrabble tiles...spelling words I associate with Thanksgiving...
this one is 'pies'

more scrabble Thanksgiving words 'turkey' and 'potatoes'...
'framed' the thankful turkey boy child made at school, took an empty frame, taped some hemp cord across the top and clipped the turkey to it...he wrote what he's thankful for on the tail feathers
family, Jesus, home, friends, God, life...

blog tangent...
he made this in his public school...
this is just one of the reasons my husband and I have made the choice to 'public school' our children...who is to be salt and light to those kids if we take all the Christian kids and home-school or private school them?  no need to argue this, I totally get that different kids and different families need different things, but our kids are wonderful kids and we feel that we have/are raising them up the way God would have us and one thing that these kids are called to do is take God's love into their schools!
end of tangent....

the top of the wall divider/record collection...scattered some leaves and gourds, and then filled a bowl with more gourds...easy peasy lemon squeeze...and festive...

and then I decided to jump on the whole 'thankful tree' bandwagon...
grabbed some sticks from outside and placed them in a jug thingy...
made a bowl of leaves...for people to write what they're thankful for...

and hang on the tree...also made a paper turkey and placed in a frame without glass...

one of the boy child's leaves...

and the girl child...yes, that says, 'I'm thankful for Shawn Cassidy'....
and no it's not 1977....but I'd much rather her crush on Shawn Cassidy than Justin Bieber...

and there you have it...the turkey day decor...
now off to shop for all the fixin's ....
yes,
I know it's only 3 days before...
yes,
I understand the stores are crazy...
but I have the smallest fridge known to woman kind (one step up from a dorm fridge!) and I can only hold a turkey in the fridge for a few days...
if I also want to keep food for all the other meals between now and the turkey feast!

have a great Thanksgiving week, day, feast!

books

i have a confession to make

 we sorta like books around here...

there're so pretty...

different colors...different textures..

if you visited our home you will see them stacked here and there...

and there...

i collect family Bibles...love them

and there....

amazing books...twain's 'puddin' head wilson' is a must read...
and then sinclair's 'the jungle' and defoe's 'robinson  crusoe'

even stacked in the kitchen...

my husband has a bookshelf stacked to the ceiling in our bedroom with the lovely things...

 and a few more boxes left to unpack...

just a few....

they may get unpacked in the next year....

oh, and i have just a few on my nightstand...

and then a few more inside...

the girl child also has a small collection of books

still on the hunt for the right bookshelf for all her books...

the kids and i spent about an hour an a half the other day just reading...

totally recommend 'glass slipper gold sandal; a worldwide cinderella'
 fun to read the different versions of an age old story...
& then some WWII history from a little girls perspective
 'the little ships; the historic rescue at dunkirk in World War II'

we went thru a pile of book from the library...

and then we exhausted the library stack we grabbed two of my favorite off the shelf...

'roxaboxen' & 'christina katerina & the box'

these two are MUST own books....
but if you don't own them you need to visit the library and check them out...
both of these capture the essence of childhood and allow you to revisit it over and over again...

books are full of information...

 memories...

feelings...

history...

here is a great historic read...and emotional...

maybe just for me...but it's about the library women in the 1930's that took books into the appalachian mountains ...very touching story...and yes, i cried every time i read it...

...off to read now...
pick up a book and get lost for awhile...

take 2!

okay so you all saw my post a few weeks ago about having our Spring Open House and Craft Boutique....
well...
the problem was that March happened...
and March didn't get that whole memo about
'In like a lion...OUT like a lamb'
and it decided to just embrace the whole LION concept...
so basically our open house was a bust with crazy....
I MEAN crazy weather...
and we had tons of people say,
'wait, I wanted to come, really we did, but the weather was just too crazy to be driving around in'...
so, since we love all our friends and family and other people that like to buy our stuff...
we are having our
 3rd Open House and Craft Boutique...Take 2!!!
minus the wind, rain, hail, and crazy!

and we also all said...
'wow, we won't have to make anything for it, we have so much stuff already!'

...and guess what...we're all liars and made more stuff...more spring/Easter/Mother's Day stuff....

cutie little birdie block that wants to go home with you

some 'harlot' pendents that Mrs. Smith has been making....

bowl of eggs and a sweet bird...all for the taking

need a sweet bow tie for your little boy this Easter?

Mrs. Smith unique facet necklaces....

so even if you came last month...come again and check out our new stuff...
and if the weather kept you in last time...we promise we won't call you names like sissy and chicken
...we'll be nice...

so just come and have a nice time shopping and hanging out with the ladies!
visit our Open House and Craft Boutique facebook page for directions.....

Just Doodling!

my mom was a doodler...
I'm a doodler...
my kids are doodlers...
not sure if it's genetic...

anyways...I bought some plain brown paper eggs yesterday...
my plan was to just keep them brown...

and then I saw the Sharpie just sitting there...
and the eggs looked so lonely....
and I started doodling away....

think they turned out fun...I need a whole dozen...

too bad my purple Sharpie ran out of ink...and my kids ran out of quiet...
so the fun ended and the parenting started!

No Pinching

I just took my Valentines decorations down on Saturday...but hey, it was still in February...so not too bad, how many of us wait until January to take down Christmas?

anyways...here is a little tour of our ChambersMade Irish cottage....

our festive green'ish wreath...look familar...yep I recycled it from Christmas...

the shelf in the entry way...

~the subway art piece is a free printable from here

~the rain boot picture is from a few years ago of my kids...

~the milk jug vase is left over Valentine Decor ('I love you' is on the other side, just turned it), with green leaves off our Camilla tree

~the frog and green glitter basket are both from Target $1 bins

~the limes were in my fruit basket for lime chicken that I plan making later this week...hmmm might need to get some plastic limes

~and the Lego Leprechaun was made by Wilson

Sunday was day 8 of sickness in our house...

both kids and I were getting a little sick of Cosby re-runs and Phineas and Ferb...

so to break it up...I sent the kids on a 'green, gold & rainbow' scavenger hunt around the house...

be forewarned...you may end up with some very odd items and have to explain why you can't...won't use Lincoln Log roof tiles in your decor...

our 'mantel'...aka...top of our heater...

~green frog, green box and green hand sanitizer (small in front next to the milk jug) all from the scavenger hunt...I will probably remove the sanitizer soon, but the kids veto'ed me when I said it was weird!

~vase full of green trimmings from our yard...

~ball of green yarn and green striped dishtowel...all from around the house.

our trunk/end table in our living room

~stack of green books (scavenged mostly from Beau's book shelf...without permission...)

~teddy bear in green velvet bag (bag from the scavenger hunt)...

~another vase of greenery from our tree...and the vase has those weird beads that soak up water...and just happen to be rainbow colored (Wilson got them from Aunt Brook for Christmas)...

~green candle (was a Christmas gift)...

and on top of the green books...

~a green crocodile Littlest Pet Shop...
~green Hot Wheel...
and a jar of rainbow Squinkies...and if you don't know what Squinkies are you probably don't have a 10 year old girl! all from the scavenger hunt...

 top of the piano...sorry for the bad lighting...

from left-right.

~our greenish Scentsy (plug in candle thingy)...

~frame of Beau, Madison and I the first time Madison saw the ocean...it's always on the piano...didn't want to find something to replace it...

~a green plate with green pears...

~a green tea/coffee cup holding up a stack of 'golden' books...

~and the candles that are always on the piano...

close up of the 'green & golden' stuff on top of the piano...

and forgot to mention the clay elephant on the far right that Madison made in 3rd grade...

he's not green...but I just love that little guy!

it was fun getting the kids involved and decorating for St. Patrick's Day...don't think I've ever decorated for it before...and I only spent $2 everything else was from around the house....

was also thinking most of these things I will be able to re-use and just add other colors for Spring/Easter decorations...

I'm linking this to Inspiring Creations