A Very Happy and Healthy New Year

Can Christmas really be over and ready for a New Year? We had a very nice Christmas, saw the kids on Christmas Eve day and then came home, Al and I had a quiet Christmas Day.

I even had an order for 2 of my Homespun Christmas stockings 2 days after Christmas. Now that is REALLY starting early for next Christmas. Maybe we should all take a lesson and start early to make it easier.

In my mind I am making New Years Resolutions, perhaps I should put them down on paper so I have no chance to deny them. LOL

Wishing you all a very Happy and Healthy New Year. Touch base and let us know how it goes.

Giveaway

You might want to look at this. Nana Thena has a giveaway which I am participating in.
Sorry I am so late in posting this but am still in cruising mode, I guess. I have not been swift in getting it together.

The Cruise.........

We went on a wonderful cruise this past month with my youngest sister and her husband and another sister and her grown children (with a couple of grandkids) and a brother and his wife. We had a grand time, although it was tough for Al to get around, the ship is VERY big.

The service on the ship was superb, no attitude, lovely people all of them. The ship is beautiful, staterooms are larger than normal and beautifully appointed. Food was good but not wonderful, probably better than most, although we went on another cruise where the food was really gourmet quality.

Three of us went to St.Maarten and I loaded up with souvenirs. Very inexpensive tote bags, I could not have bought fabric for what they charged for a good quality embroidered bag. T shirts and hats and bags were the items of the day.

It was nice to get away-----it was nice to be home.

Wedding is over.....

The wedding is done. I went to take pics and found my card was full so we will have to wait for Dianns pics.
It went off well, the weather in Florida was lovely, no rain and it cooled down the weekend before the wedding.

Sara had gotten real sunflowers and gerbera daisies for the bouquets and they turned out well. It was hairy with the thick stems of the sunflowers and the delicate stems of the gerberas but it worked. Just what she wanted. Lots of family turned up.

The shower ended up with lots of food, drink, balloons and presents. We had some fun games which Ashley emceed. I think Sara was happy. Joann worked very hard to make it nice for her. This is a time when lots of aunties come in very handy. Sometimes many opinions make it crazy but I am always grateful when the girls get together. One was missing due to another wedding commitment in California. We missed her.

The day after the wedding I went with Alison, Michael and Bailey to Blue Springs State Park. Wow has it changed since we started going there 20 years ago. We saw some huge fish and a few manatees. We met Billy, Di and Ashley there. Then we headed to Daytona to the boardwalk, sorry it was closed. All in all a great day. Later that day I took Melissa, Michael & the kids, Sam and JJ to Beef O'Bradys for dinner. (kids eat free on Tuesday) and we had a good chat.
Wednesday back to Massachusetts on Amtrak. (More about the Amtrak trip later)

A Florida Wedding

Sara is getting married in Florida, a wedding in the park and a reception at home. The wedding is a Fall wedding and basically a do-it-ourselves. My daughter Joann is giving the shower and working hard on making soap for the favors, she is cooking the food for the shower.

After my daughter Diann and I had a lovely lunch last Friday we stopped at Gardencraft to get ribbons and to check the sunflowers. We would love to have real sunflowers for the wedding but the ones at Gardencraft are so realistic you would have to be on top of them to know they weren't.
I did buy gold and sage green double faced satin ribbon for the girls bouquets. It is exciting to get together all the stuff for the wedding and the festivities.

Stay tuned for pics of the shower and the wedding festivities.

Labor Day

A beautiful day ending our summer. (Not that we really had one, summer that is)
The acorns are falling off the trees, though not as many as last year. Maybe that means we will not have a rough winter. Oh, we could only wish..........

I am using the acorns to make small wreath like centerpieces. It takes a lot of work, washing the acorns, letting them dry out and then gluing the caps on before you can even start the wreath.
I made it simpler this time by using some small pinecones along with the acorns. My original had nothing but acorns and took hours to complete.
I am cutting a circle of cardboard, with the center cut out--to make a place for a candle. Then I will glue around the perimeter small pine cones then start the acorns. Stay tuned for a tutorial.

Berries and more berries....

I have been picking blackberries and raspberries on the property here----hoping to get enough to make a couple batches of jam. Last week I made samples of salsa, orange marmalade and spicy corn relish for the Out of the Box Sampler. I sent samples of spices the first 2 months I was in the boxes, since I only signed up to do 3 months I thought 4 ounce jar samples would be a good thing.
Hopefully there will be some business from it.

Glad the blackberry season is over, my body is all scratched up. I saw some blackberries at Whole Foods and they were $19.95 a pound so I forced myself to pick every day of August.

My tomatoes have finally started to ripen, we put 3 plants in a BIG pot and 2 small plants in a topsy turvy, cannot say it is a better way to grow. The tomatoes are late due to all the rain and lack of sunshine. Hope the frost does not get them before i can make my salsa, it is soooo much better with fresh tomatoes.