National Friendship Day - Sunday

Anyone else missing their friends, the gatherings, the hanging out, the in person conversations?  Well Sunday can be your day!  This Sunday is



Photo credit: holidayscalendar.com

Maybe through some virtual platform or email or text you can take the opportunity this weekend to reconnect or at least check in on each other.

We may not be able to visit in each other's homes or even share a meal at a restaurant BUT we are going to have to find new, innovative ways to keep those connections.

It has been really fun to watch my daughter and her friends actually write letters to each other this summer......way to go girls!

Maybe this celebration of National Friendship Day will be just the prompt we need to send some love to special folks in our lives.

Please allow me to be the first to say to all of you

HAPPY FRIENDSHIP DAY!!!!!

Thanks for staying connected with me here.

Have a wonderful weekend.

If Walls Could Talk.....

We've all heard the expression....if walls could talk....well maybe they do.  I have said before I am a huge word person which, of course, is why I enjoy a good book and detest a bad one.  I also really like word art because it is good way to put out a positive message.

So what are your walls saying about you?  Lots of my walls are saying....zzzzzzzzzz (totally boring).  But a few walls are speaking exactly like I want them to.

Here is a canvas I had made for our bedroom

It is kind of the hinge-pin of marriage, right and we thought it would always be a good reminder to us.

I used this company Great Big Canvas. You can create a canvas in the size and color you want with any wording you want.  So if you have a favorite scripture or quote it is a good way to get that done for your walls.

This is what we call our memory wall.

It is in our breakfast area.  It also has a scripture canvas.  We decided on this scripture as a family and had it made.  We also have several momentos from different trips - a photo from Hawaii, a cross from Italy, a wooden G from Magnolia in Waco, a starfish from Nantucket.  I also have a painted pictures of a couple of cows in honor of my dad.  He always raised cows as I was growing up and I spent a many a day in the pasture with him.  It always gives me a smile when I see those cows.  The tree is for my mom because she loves trees and can always spot an unusual one or pretty one.  I have to say I don't notice enough, but I am always amazed when she says look at that tree and sure enough it is a beautiful creation that I almost missed.  And my resident artist painted the simple grace we all grew up saying on a canvas for me. This has been a fun wall to add to.

I shared with you guys here about the inspirational wall we did in the hall bathroom

And I found this sign at Sugarboo and Co. and it is what we see as we exit our house every day.

It may be hard to read in the picture, but it says "Your day will go the way the corners of your mouth turn". I thought it was perfect to read going in and out of our house.

See you back on Friday!

Wrapped and Ready

Well July 25th was quite successful.  We started the day with a little Christmas breakfast

Ham and cheese quiche and some blueberry muffins from Publix.  I prepped everything for the quiche the night before and got up about an hour before everyone and popped them in the oven.

Then I got all the fixins in the slowcooker for our traditional chili.  Fortunately, our baker was on duty and she made about 6 sour dough loaves to contribute to the day.

We pulled out all the tables, the supplies and got busy

QVC was kind enough to be selling Christmas stuff all day so we tuned in......and only ordered a few things.

By five o'clock we had wrapped about 200 presents

This year was a little different.  I always do 12 days of Christmas for my daughter and her college roommates.  Usually it is a fun little treat for them all because they are leading up to finals and who doesn't need a present to open every day leading up to finals.  But the college has decided finals will be over when they come home for Thanksgiving.  There are 4 girls so I normally wrap 4 of the same items in one box, but this year I wrapped each girl's items individually.  They will each take all 12 of their presents home with them and they can zoom or Facetime to open them.   Anyone else already planning on virtual Christmas celebrations.......yeah, we are hoping not but planning just in case.

I always get a lot of questions about storage of all these wrapped presents.  Here's how we make that a success

1) tiny packages all go in a storage bin with a lid for easy storage

2) Use quality boxes.  Good quality boxes will stack nicely and not cave in or smush

3) Carefully stack the packages from heaviest to lightest

4) Stack in a Jenga fashion.  You all know the Jenga game, right? 

Well that is exactly how I stack the boxes.  One layer going one direction, the next layer turned in the opposite direction. 

5) I have one closet in my house that is truly the gift closet.  All my gift wrap supplies are here.  I have talked about my Elfa organizing system before.

All the gifts I buy through the year are stored here as they wait to be wrapped.  Once wrapped they go right back into the same closet.

When it is time to put up the trees, we will pull out the presents, put on ribbons and embellishments and we are ready to go!

Thanks to you all for sending me sweet Merry Christmas messages on Saturday and all the nice comments.  Nothing makes Christmas better than enjoying it with friends!!!

Wishing you a great week!

Getting Ready

Short and sweet today, girls, because tomorrow is a big day.....

And you know what that means.....

We will be watching Christmas movies

We will be wearing fuzzy PJs

We will be eating chili

We will be WRAPPING CHRISTMAS GIFTS!!!!

That's right, we will be dragging out all the bins and we will be surprised by some of the things we find that we don't even remember buying.  I got a new shipment of boxes. We are fully stocked in tissue paper and tape.

And all this quarantine time has given me more online shopping hours.  I am probably 95% done with all my shopping this year.

It is going to be great!!!

I'll give you a full report next week.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend too.