Holiday Highlights!

Did you have a good Christmas?  Our family did my dh came home and my fil is feeling better after having surgery.  We feel very blessed.  My family gathering was wonderful.  I missed my niece and my sisters family.  She is having her first baby and didn't want to expose herself to my son who was recently sick.  He has been under the weather for about a week now with fevers on and off.  You can tell in some of the pictures he didn't feel good.  I have been sick at Christmas before, not the best time of the year to be sick that's for sure.  I guess there isn't a good time.  I wished she could have made it but I can respect her  decision. 

We had appetizers, ham and I made a bunch of dessert goodies including some recipes I have already posted.  My daughter took some of these pictures. 

Festive Eggnog Punch

Candy Cane and Turtle Brownie Bites

Miss Santa Claus

opening presents

Even the dog was excited about presents!

modeling her new vest

my son with his Grandpa

our big family gift for the media room, now we can watch movies and have theatre popcorn!  We've been watching planet Earth, which I highly recommend.

a family tradition,  reading Twas' the Night Before Christmas

Going to Church with our family

One more question for you, do you make New Years Resolutions? If you do how many of you keep them?  Just wondering, it's that time of the year. 

Hope you have a wonderful New Year!

Carey

Christmas Eve is upon us...

our large tree

I thought I would share a few more glimpses of my house and some yummy things I made for my family gathering tonight.  I got my prairie curtains hung in the family room and they look so neat.  I took this graniteware bowl that I had somewhere else and put it on the coffee table I put some pinecones and layered my other bowls a spray that I bought at Jo Ann's.  Inside the bowl is one of my favorite B & BW scents is Spice, it's a pretty dark red color.  Love that!

a candle clip that I purchased at K-mart on sale, they are battery operated timers so they come on and stay on for 8 hours, love the ease of that.

family room with new curtains

We've been busy getting ready around here...

doing a lot of this

This is something I came up with when I found I purchased the wrong brownie mix, a twist off Picky Palate's version is below and these couldn't be easier!

Carey's Turtle Brownies

1 box Turtle Brownie mix (the kind with the carmel)

1 bag Nestle toll house semi sweet chocolate chips chocolate

1 bag Nestle Toll house milk/carmel swirl chocolate chips

Make the brownies as directed on the box, stir in 1 cup of the milk/carmel swirl chips.   Place into a mini muffin pan or mini cheesecake pan and spray generously with nonstick spray. Put into a 350 degree oven for about 20 min-23 min. Let cool completely, remove from pan.  Then glaze them with the semi sweet chocolate chips and a few tbsp. of heavy whipping cream (optional) for added richness.  Then take the carmel from the packet the brownie mix came in and drizzle onto the brownies.  I added a milk chocolate carmel chip on top of each one for decoration.  Delicious!

Click here for Picky Palate's Candy Cane version

gotta get those candy cane kisses!  They have a sweet surprise inside.

Have a blessed Christmas with your family, Jesus is the reason for the Season!  I'll be spending time with my family this week and be taking a little break.

Carey

Let it snow, let it snow!

Well, the weather outside was a pure delight this weekend.  It was just beautiful.  The kids were out of school and we had nothing to do but enjoy our hot chocolate, bake some cookies and enjoy being together.  They decided to venture out after getting an urgent call from Grandma that the snow packed well to try and build a snowman.  I had discouraged this due the the amount of snow we had but as you can tell they managed.  It's amazing how much they fight but given enough time can really get along well when they want to accomplish something together.  So here's the proof!

the end result all of about 2 ft high

Hopefully, we'll get some more snow for Christmas it's supposed to rain Christmas Eve so I just hope my family and my husband makes it home safely.  I'm so excited to show everyone our home and host it this year.  It will be so nice to truly be home for Christmas.

Carey

Master Bedroom Tour

My master bedroom is finally done, the curtains are just what I needed to complete my room.  The windows are very wide in there and it's very nice but makes it hard to cover when you need a little R & R.  My first few nights in there were like spending the night near a fountain.  LOL! We have the little landscape lights and it lit up my ceiling in my room.  I used my old curtains until we got our cordless shades and even resorted to a sheet in the middle for a little while.  I bought the curtains from From the Farmhouse.  They are panels called nutmeg.  I thought they went well with my quilt and if I decide to swap out the quilt they're still neutral. I got the guest room and my new family room prairie curtains there also.  The owner is very nice and prices are very good.

I don't have a lot of Christmas decorations in here simply because I had twice the house to cover this year.  I figured that I didn't need a lot.  Some of the things we want to do to our house include painting our Master bath, it's a terra cotta and golden rod color.  I'm not sure how to make it prim but I'm sure I will be asking you for suggestions come spring.  We also need to paint our kids bathrooms as the shower rods have ruined the walls.  I will share more about that later.

my little sheep collection and my clock that my uncle made for me

dresser

one of my christmas candles I got last year from my favorite prim shop

a side shot of my long pillow I just bought some homespun in brown ticking stiched up the side and tied it in a knot with some twine.

redwing that my husband turned into a lamp for me

I bought this cute little white star on ebay and the little pillow that will find a home in my winter wonderland downstairs.  They're from oldfarmcreek  What a nice seller to work with very quick shipping and her prices seemed reasonable.

This is a little nook in front of my bedroom.

I loved the message in this pillow. 

I'll be back soon to share some snowy photos and family fun.  Plus I have some more decorating ideas that I changed around and am really pleased with.  I know it's only a few days away but maybe you can use the ideas for next year. 

Stay warm,

Carey

Chocolate Minty cookies and my guest room

Happy Holidays, almost blogging friends! I thought I would share a quick recipe I made for my kiddos the other day.  You can see my daughter really enjoyed it! Sure is getting busy but I wanted to show you my guest curtains.  I don't have any other furniture in that room but plan on getting a bed eventually.  I still need to fluff up my master bedroom a bit before I take pictures, LOL! I bought another set of panels to add some fullness to the window.  I need to iron them too. They are wide windows, not an easy feat.  Here's my guest room before:

Remember it was sort of a dove gray with champagne colored curtains?

Now

They are a cranberry plaid color.

I know the cords are showing, whatcha gonna do, until I find some different window lights.  I looking for the battery kind with timers and no sensor.  Any ideas for me? I found one website that wants 4 for 29$ but I have 12 windows just in the front of my house.  What's a prim gal to do? 

Anyway, onto the delicious recipe, click here and you can make your own Nestle goodness. 

Mint Chocolate Delights

Enjoy your weekend!

Carey

Winter Wonderland in the Media Room

Good evening, I appreciate all of you stopping by at such a busy time of year.  I think it's so important to remember purpose the real reason for season.  Jesus...that little baby that was born in a stable on a crisp December night.  Think of all the things that went through Mary's mind as she prepared a place for him.  I also think Joseph played such an important role and often gets overlooked in the Christmas story.  What would have happened?  He truly embodied the love of God as he took care of Mary.  May you remember all the joy that unfolds during this time of the year and share it with those around you.

Here's a few shots of my basement, this has been pretty bare so I haven't really shown you any pictures of it until now.  This is where we just put our new flat screen TV, our very first one and it is also home eventually to my husband's hobby room, storage, and scrapbook room for me someday.  I'm so pleased with how it turned out.  We watched Up on Blu-ray and it was really neat!  The couch is a spruce color, have I mentioned I'm not a green person.  LOL!  However, it was very comfy with the recliners and cupholder in the middle.  I don't do black leather and the only other choice was taupe or beige.  After looking at the colors of the carpet and walls I really wanted some color down here.  We ordered two of them and only one was in stock, my dh is going to build a raised box so we can have a real home theatre in the media room.  We're going to put the 2nd one behind the first one so everyone has a great seat.  Cool huh?

The fireplace mantel down here has a frosty inspiration.  I used my old window frame and hung a few silvery snowflakes, some greens with a light dusting of snow and little pinecones to complete the look.  I love the garland so much I went back for two! Frosty and a few snowballs in a vintage looking bucket set the theme.

notice the garland

Here's the wintery themed tree with sparkly ribbon, silver flakes and sparkly mica flaked candy canes and ornaments.  Try and pretend you don't see those cords.

This was an old grapevine wreath that I added some glazed vine and white snowflake to for my theme.

This grapevine garland is hard to see but it's glazed with a layer of shimmer, so neat!

This is our little cabinet that holds our cd collection

 my pie safe with village that holds movies

my small buffet greets you as you go downstairs

my little graniteware bowl with fresh snowballs

the new spruce couch, I plan on buying a new throw blanket to keep us warm and accent pillows in a cranberry red color.  Sorry about the flash but the lighting down here isn't so great without it.

Blessings to you and your family,

Carey