Prayers for a friend

While visiting blogs today seeing how everyone's holidays were going.....I came across one of my favorite blogs......Edie @ Life in Grace. I know most of you, if not all of you, know her. My heart broke when I stopped by her blog. A blog in which she shares her love of Him, her beautiful family and lovely home. Yesterday she suffered a tragedy. She lost her home and all of her possessions to a fire. Her family all escaped and are safe.

Please keep Edie and her family in your prayers.

God Bless Edie and her family.

Toni

Merry Christmas

(Source - Mary Ruffle)

Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight.....

Lunar Eclipse

Two astronomical events...last night's lunar eclipse and today's winter solstice. Today's winter solstice isn't much of a visual event but if you stayed up last night to watch the lunar eclipse, I'm sure you enjoyed the show. My son, Tyler and I were crazy enough to stay up and watch the eclipse which started about 11:30 - midnight and lasted a little over an hour. I was not able to take any photos of the event.....but at about 10:00 last night we were outside checking to see if the eclipse had started and were amazed at just how bright the evening sky was.

It literally almost felt like it was daytime. Living in the country, we don't have the street lights to light up our property so it is usually very dark around our house at night. But last night with the somewhat clear sky and the moon reflecting off of the snow....it was bright enough for us to see the shadow from the trees on the snow covered ground. I took a few pictures to share.

All of these photos were taken last night around 10:30 without the flash . That's why they are a little grainy and blurred.

Check out the sky, you can see the clouds and

this photo doesn't show it but the sky looked blue.

Shadows on the snow from the tree. And the lights from

town in the distance. Most nights we would need a

flashlight to see this fence. We are talking a

BRIGHT night.

Tyler's shadow.


Look at the sky in this photo....see the blueness of the sky and

the white clouds above the trees?
That is how it looked last night.




I love how the sky looked above our barn.

From the front of our house, across the field looking

at the neighbor's house. Usually we can't see

across the road let alone the neighbor's house.

The lights in the distance to the left is

Bogus Basin ski resort, well over 50 miles

away.

Until Later,

Toni

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The three sides to snow....the good, the bad & the ugly.

The Good......

Everything is white, beautiful and pure....

(Sorry for the blur in the center, it was snowing when

I took these pictures and a snowflake got on the lens)


Beautiful......untouched...pristine



Definitely the good......wonderful son shoveling the walk at
grandma's house.

The Bad.....
I had to dig out before I could drive anywhere.
12" of snow on top of my SUV & all the way up to the
bottom of my doors.



The ugly....this is my driveway.
Slippery, muddy, yucky dirty snow.
Of course part of this somehow
always finds it's way
into my house.

This photo is blurry because I was slipping trying to take the photo.

Until Later,

~Toni~

Beautiful

Jack Frost is definitely nipping.......This is what I awoke to yesterday.......Everything was white with frost. The sky was blue, the sun was rising and everything was shimmering........

BEAUTIFUL!

I thought I would share with you.

Tonight we are expecting more snow.........Winter Wonderland.

I really love the beauty of it......I just don't like to drive in it.

Until Later,

~Toni~

Happy Birthday Mom

11-25-1928

Today would have been my mother's 82nd birthday.

Happy Birthday Mom!

I Miss you everyday.

Toni

Happy THANKSgiving Day

Wishing all of you and your families a very Happy THANKSgiving day! Here's wishing your tables are surrounded by family and friends, topped with bounties of food and reflections of all we truly have to be THANKful for.

I am Thankful for my 3 sons, our health, my family and friends and all that God continues to bless us with.

Hope your holiday is as special as all of you are.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Toni

Everything is turning White

I woke up to WHITE this morning. Not a lot of white, but just enough to put me in the holiday mood. I sat for about an hour this morning with a cup of Chai Tea, watching the snow fall. I love the beauty of it. I still hate to drive in it, but I love how it makes everything look.

This is right outside my front door.

My son's bike outside of the original farmhouse, which is

just behind our house.

(He needs to put his bike away)

Another view outside my front door.

I love this tree! It's so big.


You can see there is not a lot of snow on the ground yet.

My blue metal roof is now white.

Our red barn.

So, with the snow outside and really nowhere to go today.....I am going to finish painting my living room and hopefully start to put some holiday decorations out. I know a lot of you have already started....I know because I have been visiting your wonderful blogs and seeing wonderful ideas that I will be borrowing ;) Hope you are having a wonderful Sunday.

Until Later,

~Toni~

New Fluffing around the House

Hi everyone.......It's been awhile since I posted anything. But I assure you, I have been around visiting all of you, keeping up on everything that you have been doing. I have just been behind the scenes...so to speak :) Checking out all of the yumminess that is always around blogland!



With the holidays just around the corner, I started to look around my house and decided I wanted to fluff it up a little bit. Get her ready for the holidays. So I went digging around in my junque pile, pulled out a few supplies and started fluffing. Digging around in my junque stashes started to make it feel like Christmas morning, with shiny new packages just waiting to be opened!

Here is the first one I opened

I Love this window, the glass is missing and it is chippy in all the right places. Since everyone else in blogland have made wonderful burlap wreaths, I had to have one.



(Note: I just picked up some wonderful paint that I will be painting my dining room and living room walls with. It's a soft linen color. No more white walls. I know.....I probably should have painted first, but that's how I roll)

Here was the second present I opened.

I have had this 1890's farmhouse door for

a while. She was originally covered in

white chippy paint, that was making

a huge mess, so I took most of it off

(don't hate me)

I think it now has a little

warmth to it.

I wanted to feature the original wood applique/carvings.

I think they are stunning.



So beautiful, I really love the door with a more natural look and
just a hint of chippy paint.
What do you think?



I really do love chippy paint, but this was seriously flaking/shedding/molting all
over my house.

And these little treasures I unwrapped at my local thrift

store, garage sale, and at my friends sale....

http://www.gatheringsattheschool.com/

I love my new little mini scale and numbers.

They make me happy :)

Little $4 rooster lamp.

Perfect vintage platter that will be partnered with this lovely frame on my wall.

And a $2 picture from the thrift store.

Hope you all are having a wonderful day........

Until Later,

~Toni~

Metalicious ...........

Hope all of my bloggin', junkin', thriftin' treasure huntin' friends are having a great week. I just wanted to pop in for a minute to show you some new treasures I found. I am so loving the industrial, rusty, chippy metal pieces. And so excited about my latest finds. These little beauties are going to fit into my new decor at my little farmhouse. My new decor being industrial/shabby/metal/cottage/french/farmhouse :)

I am soooooo loving my new toolbox!

(Funny story about the toolbox)

I'll share later.

How about this sweet little funnel and oil can.

Doesn't the toolbox have just the right amount of rusty love?

And my sweetest piece.......this little metal cabinet.

I believe it is an old hospital cabinet that would

be used next to the bed.

(You can barely see it to the right of this photo)

My little vintage folding clothes line.

Love it!!

Until Later,

Toni

Just Do It

Just Do It.........October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and if you haven't scheduled a mammogram for yourself........now is the time to do it! Do it for yourself, do it for your family, do it because we need to take control of our health and be on the defensive against this ugly disease. We are all so busy in our lives trying to take care of everything, our jobs, our family, our homes that we forget to take care of the most important thing which is our health.

My Mom....Helen Marie

This is how I remember her

It's a simple procedure, it doesn't hurt and you could save a life......yours. If found early it is often treatable! You're worth it! So Just Do It! Get a mammogram. I was 36 when I started my yearly mammograms, you are never too young.

14 years ago on October 28th, 1996 breast cancer took my mom. She was 67, I was 36 years old. She had been diagnosed in May of 1991, just two months after my twins were born. She went through a mastectomy, all the treatments and was given a clean bill of health.....she was in remission. Then, just when she hit her 5 year marker, she said she wasn't feeling well, she had pain in her back, it was July 1996. I urged her to make an appointment with her doctor. I will never forget that day in mid July. It was my sister's birthday when mom told us it had come back and she was terminal and was given 3 months to live. The demon was back and it was growing throughout her body, it was already in her bones. Stage 4.

All I could think was .....3 Months!!!!! That is not enough time!!! Not enough time for me to have my mom! Not enough time for her to watch my children grow! How could I possibly put a lifetime into 3 months! How could I share all the things I needed to share with my mom in 3 months. I wanted her to teach me how to make her famous homemade bread and sweet rolls, so I could make them for my children. There wasn't enough time for all the things I wanted. What I did was spend every day with my mom, letting her know how much I loved her. And almost to the day, it was only 3 months that we had left.

Please, schedule a mammogram for yourself......Just Do It!

Until Later,

Toni

Remembering

With the weather getting cooler I find myself baking more.

Banana Nut Bread.

Just a simple recipe from my 1963 McCall's Recipe Book.

But, oh so yummy.....

I love how my home warms with the delicious aromas.

My boys enjoy the fruits of my labor.....

just as I did when I was a young girl

and my mom would bake.

While I was baking my thoughts drifted to when I was young and I would come home to the smell of my mom's homemade cinnamon rolls. In the country where we lived...she was famous for them and her homemade bread. There would be bowls of dough rising on the stove, always covered with a cloth. Trays of cinnamon rolls cooling, waiting to be frosted with mom's delicious frosting. Once she rolled out the dough on our kitchen table, us kids would be allowed to help spread the melted butter, cinnamon and sugar. With her recipe she would make cinnamon rolls, bear claws and during the holidays she would twist the dough into candy cane shapes and make the stripes out of strawberry jelly and frosting........oh they were mouth watering delicious! We lived in the country and us kids attended a little two room country school. Whenever we had a class party, both teachers and all my classmates begged for me to bring my mother's homemade cinnamon rolls. She would always oblige. I remember one such occasion, I promised my class that my mom would make her cinnamon rolls, only I forgot to tell her until bedtime, which at that time was 9:00. Because she used yeast and the dough had to rise a couple of times, my mom stayed up all night making those cinnamon rolls for me and my classmates.......frosting them as she drove me to school........never once did she complain.

She has been gone 14 years next month...I miss her terribly.....and I cherish the memories of mom's famous cinnamon rolls.

Toni ♥

Vintage Re-Designed Bling

Winner, Winner.... Chicken Dinner! That was me...the winner of a fabulous giveaway! Recently I was out and about blog hopping, visiting all of my favorite people, when I stopped by Junk Bonanza and Jill was featuring a super talented lady.......Gretchen of Mimi-Toria's Designs, who was hosting a fabulous giveaway of one of her beautiful vintage re-designed jewelry. I stopped by Gretchen's blog to check out her jewelry and immediately fell in love with all the beautiful treasures she created, I mean I was swooning! I quickly became a follower of her blog and I couldn't get back to Jill's blog quick enough to enter the giveaway. Like most of you, I'm sure, I entered the giveaway, never really believing I would win.

Gretchen is so very talented and makes beautiful jewelry, each are unique, created with her junk finds. Just look at the gorgeous necklace that I was lucky to win......Created from an old cash register price key, crown and charm. I LOVE IT!

Here is another one that really had my heart going pitter pat.....but unfortunately it is already sold. This one had me at hello........

I have always loved crosses and this one I know wants to come live with me :)

I truly love the whimsy of this necklace, the cowboy boot reminds me of my never ending search for a Wrangler wearing, boot scootin' tall drink of water cowboy to sweep me away like a Harlequin romance novel!

Another favorite cash register tag necklace, Paris inspired......ooooh la la.....LOVE it!

She has many more beautiful treasures for sale on her blog Mimi-Toria's Designs, so stop by for a visit, I know you will fall in love with her beautiful vintage re-design jewelry like I have.

Thank you Gretchen for my beautiful necklace.....I Love it!

Until Later,

Toni ♥

There's a New Girl in Town

Yes, there is a new girl in town.......or should I say at my house ;) I'm a single mom, living with sons, all of them 300% boy!! It gets a little much with all the testosterone running rampant at my house! Even the cat is a male! I have, however, managed to carve out some "girly" space in my house that is just for me! So....you can imagine how happy I was to find this sweet gal......who was willing to brave the male.ness at my house and come home with me.

I didn't even have to pay her that much to agree to come home with me, considering her previous home was at a warehouse. She's not a young gal, she's been around for a little while. I wouldn't call her antique....she's like me....vintage.

The best part..... she loves all the things I love.....She was already looking through my stash of lace, old linens, vintage aprons.....She didn't have much when I met her....you could say she was in her birthday suit!

Here she is....my new roomie.......

I haven't decided which room will be her's, but I'll be sure to share when she has settled in ;)


Until later,
Toni ♥