Spring Break

I have big plans for Spring Break next week.  First of all, my four kids are coming home for the whole week!  That is so cool!

Along with them will be many of their friends.  Friday night is when it starts and we'll have 6 young people ranging in age from 17 to 28; two girls and four guys.  By Tuesday, one will have left and two will have joined us. 

Then to crown it off, on Friday we're having a Par-tay!  I think we'll at least double the number of young people here.

I am so excited!

But to be practical, I've been planning how to sleep that many people.  We have three guest rooms with sleeping room on beds for 5 people.  We'll also have 5 floor pads, a queen size inflatable mattress, some sleeping bags, lots of sheets and blankets and lots of floor space.  Sleeping taken care of.

We have one 40 gallon hot water heater and lots of teens and young 20s here who'll want/need to shower daily.  I plan to have a shower schedule they have to use.  Showering taken care of.

Next to consider is feeding the crowd.  I have a menu planned that includes easy and inexpensive food that kids that age like to eat. 

Here is the dinner menu:

Friday - French Bread Pizza for late night snack after all arrive between 10 pm and 12 am
Saturday - Tacos (I cooked the meat today) with shredded lettuce, chopped tomatos and shredded cheese
Sunday - Pork Loin on the rotisserie, canned baked beans, green beans and rolls
Monday - Sweet & Spicy Pork Tacos with Cilantro Lime Slaw - recipe found here
Tuesday - Spaghetti, salad, french bread
Wednesday - Bean Burritos, fruit salad
Thursday - Mac 'n Cheese, apple slices
Friday - Party! Nachos and Tacos with Cilantro Lime Rice and popcorn for munching

My boys leave on Saturday so I'll just have three left to feed and I figure we can eat leftovers.

I plan to make lots of cookies and bars for munching and desserts.  My daughter is a cake decorator so will make a cake for the party on Friday. 

I'm planning on making lots of quick breads to have on hand for breakfasts.  I'll definitely make my Grandma's Banana Bread as it's always a favorite with everyone.  I think I'll make pumpkin bread and apple cinnamon bread too.  Then there'll be eggs including boiled eggs for the non-cooking ones.

I'm hoping there'll be dinner leftovers for lunches and I'll expect the kids to serve themselves.

OK, that sounds like the food is taken care of.

Then to keep them entertained - as if they really need me to do that - I have a project planned for the yard.  Since we just moved into a new house we need to add plants to the backyard.  My husband recently planted two apple trees and two peach trees across the back fence.  I plan to remove the grass from the back fence to about 10 feet out and put down three inches of mulch.  That way we can also plant shrubs and perennials there and limit the amount of mowing needed.

Removing grass is a big job, as is picking up and spreading mulch.  My youngest son and daughter have agreed to help with the job.  Two of their friends will also help.  I like to say that hard work is a good use for a young person. 

I plan to post some 'before' pix in the next couple of days and then some 'during' and 'after' pictures when we're done. 

Because of the crowd and the back yard project, I may not post as much in the next week but I'll be back.

What are planning for Spring Break?

Cindy

Valentines

I love Valentine's Day!

When I was growing up, my father always gave my Mom and my two sisters and I gifts for Valentine's Day.  That always meant so much to me.  When I was raising my kids, I continued that tradition.  My third child, Jimmy, was even born on Valentine's Day which was a real gift from God to me. 

Every year, we always set the table with all the pretty pink, red and white tablecloths and red and white crocheted doilies I own.  We used pretty dishes and had a special meal for Valentine's Day/Jimmy's Birthday.

Jim has grown up to be a fine young man who'll be 21 on Monday.  I'm very proud of him.
 

15th birthday, 2005



18th birthday, 2008

I haven't been with him on his birthday since 2008 but I still send Valentine goodies to him and his brothers. 

These are my boys this last December.  That's Jim on the left.

This year my oldest son requested brownies so I sent him a whole panfull.  Jim and my youngest son both requested chocolate chip cookies so I made Blonde Brownies and added a whole 12 oz. bag of chocolate chips and they each got a whole panfull of those.  Additionally, Jim asked for sugar cookies so I made them into sandwiches with the frosting in between so they would pack easier. 

I really didn't do Christmas this year (you can read about it here and here) so I had such a good time baking for Valentine's Day. 

Since this is the first Valentine's Day I'll be away from my daughter, I got to send her some goodies too.  She requested fudge. 

I packed it in a little foil baking pan and added some scrapbook paper, stickers and a happy greeting before mailing it.

I made an extra batch of Blonde Brownies and had sugar cookies and fudge left over so I prepared several plates of these goodies and took them to our neighborhood fire station, the sales office for our builder and church for the staff.  It was so much fun to brighten the day for other people and spread around the happiness I feel with this holiday.

If I could, I'd give Valentine's goodies to everyone who reads this blog.  Instead I'll just wish you loads of pink and red joy and a happy Valentine's Day!

Cindy

Christmas Bling

I love to wear sparkly rhinestone pins but no time more than at Christmas.  I have many, many Christmas pins and keep adding to them yearly. 

This is probably my favorite.  I love the simplicity of it, especially the colored stones offset with lots of white.   

This is my close second favorite.  It looks equally good with jeans and a sweatshirt as it does with my best Christmas finery.  I usually wear it with a pair of everyday rhinestone earrings with little green flowers that just match these green flowers.

                  

I have four wreath pins but the following two are my favorite.  This one is just so simple but elegant with the red and green offset by the white rhinestones.

I made this one after seeing a similar one years ago on a lady who was probably 30 years my senior.  She had a little red ribbon on hers but I added the beaded bow because I thought it just looked so cute.  I love to do tiny needlework and this one fit the bill for me.  I wear this one a lot!

This one is special to me because my best friend gave it to me.  I kept admiring it all season long so she bought it for me.  

Then there’s this one that was very inexpensive but I really like it.  It doesn’t have so many rhinestones but it’s just fun.

I have lots of patriotic bling that I’ll share in the summer.  What do you like to wear to celebrate the Christmas season?

Cindy

I'm linking to the following parties:

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia's Tuesday's Treasures

Blue Cricket Design's Show and Tell

My Cottage Charm's Treasures and Trinkets Thursday

Jolly Christmas Kitsch

I loovvve anything kitschy! 

I love to add kitschy things all around the house just for fun but no time more that at Christmas.  I love to decorate with the kind of stuff I saw in homes at Christmas when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s but I also love anything that looks like it came from the 40s or 50s. 

Here is one of my favorite displays of kitsch at Christmas. 

Most of these items are contemporary and were gifts from my daughter or items that I bought at after Christmas sales.

But . . .

There is one item in the display that I bought at a garage sale years ago.  I think it was 10 cents.

Do you see it there in the center?

Here, I'll point it out to you . . .

Isn't that just great? 

It's made of plastic.  All plastic.  The letters are white plastic with gold glitter.  The poinsettia is shiny red plastic.  They didn't even try to make it look real by adding fake velvet.  Just left it shiny red plastic.  Ditto with the holly leaves.  Shiny green plastic. 

I. Just. Love. It.

Does that make me weird or something? 

I hope not, but even if it does, I still love it.

I think this is one of my favorite, if not my very favorite, Christmas decorating item.  And someone let it go for only 10 cents!  Can you believe that?

On another, totally unrelated subject, my daughter and I randomly pick a word-of-the-day and it stays the word-of-the-day until another is picked.  We pick words that are fun to say or are pretentious or whatever.  Just any word that strikes our fancy.  I think our all time favorite since we began this several years ago is 'foodstuffs'.  Come to think of it, foodstuffs is rather a kitschy word.

Anyway, our word-of-the-day for the last few weeks has been 'jolly'.  Target is using jolly in their advertising this Christmas.  We get points for using our word-of-the-day in our everyday tete-a-tetes.  Sometime we have a phrase of the day.  Our latest is 'tete-a-tete'.  Notice how I just naturally used both jolly and tete-a-tete in the sentences above.  Those are worth a point each.  Except I think I should get points everytime someone reads my blog and reads jolly and tete-a-tete.  Don't you?  I used jolly in the title of this post too.  That's worth a point. 

Wow, if you add up all the jollys and tete-a-tetes in this post I get 12 points everytime someone reads this.  So now I'm way ahead of my daughter.  Thanks for helping me.

By the way, today is my daughter's 24th birthday.  Happy Birthday Ms. Neat Stuff!  I'm ahead!

Have a Jolly Christmas (13 points) everyone!

Cindy

P.S.  I'll make sure my daughter reads this.  If you want to use jolly (14 points) and tete-a-tete (15 points) in your comments, I'll let you have points too.

P.P.S.  My daughter just informed me she's starting a blog called 'Jolly Blog' and she'll use jolly 3,827 times.  I just earned 2 more points. 

Linking to:

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia's Link Party

Blue Cricket Design's Show and Tell

Some Simple Christmas Decorating Ideas

I like to decorate for Christmas, but I really don't like to un-decorate after Christmas.  I'm always looking for ideas that are easy to put up and easy to take down.  Following are some great decorating ideas that could be easy to do quickly but pack a lot of style.

This is so simple and doesn't involve putting up a tree or lights.  Just use a pretty footed dish and add ornaments and garland.  Notice that the ornaments are all new silver ones.  You could use any color you have on hand and put wadded up tissue paper underneath because the top layer of ornaments is all that shows anyway.  This garland looks vintage, but a new one would look great too.

Here is another take on the last idea but with clear glass.  In this picture a beautiful glass hurricane is used but even a glass mixing bowl would look elegant with pretty ornaments such as these.

Martha Stewart shares this idea.  There are lots of pretty jars available for purchase at places like the Dollar Store, Target or Walmart.  Or do what I do and save jars during the year and spray paint the lids.  I especially like Krylon's Cherry Red spray paint but use any color that fits your Christmas decor.  These make great decorations when displayed together and they can also be used as gifts and they don't require any baking.  Notice how Martha layered candies by color and type.  I used this idea last Easter with pastel M&Ms.

I love this ribbon candy but any pretty Christmas candy or even cookies would work.  This doesn't even require a footed dish.  Embellish with a few sprigs of greenery.

How pretty and simple is this?  Just a few solid, plaid and gingham ribbon spools in a large glass jar.  Notice the peppermint sticks in the jars; another take on Martha's idea.

Besides the beautiful walls, bed and linens in this room, is a cute little tree in a bucket.  A small tree is quicker to decorate and quicker to take down after Christmas but adds so much to a room.  Think about this if  you plan to have overnight guests at Christmas.  And don't miss those pretty wreaths in the windows.

This is another take on the small tree idea.  On this tree, all the ornaments are the same color.  Continuing the monochromatic theme are the jars of ornaments and the while lilies and poinsettias.  Use this idea on your kitchen table or a side table.  This could even be modified for your mantle.

This tree is covered in what looks like favorite family ornaments and toys.  I love that it's in the kitchen and the tree skirt appears to be a dish towel.  You could decorate the tree with kitchen gadgets, cookies or even small wrapped toys or gifts for the kids to open as an advent calendar.  Even a small tree with only lights would be pretty and add that holiday cheer to the kitchen.  Notice also the bottle brush trees and reindeer on the shelf in the back.

Now, this one may not be so simple but isn't it cute?  It spells out C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S.  Each letter of Christmas is the first letter of the item hanging below.  C - candy cane, H - heart, R - reindeer, I - ice skate, S - snowman, T - tree, M - mitten, A - angel, S - Santa!

I Looove this tree!  If you look real close, you can see that there isn't one ornament on the tree; only garlands.  Notice that the garlands are mostly red and white but you can use any that you have.  I liked this one because my garlands are easier to pack away than ornaments.  I always go for easier if it can look just as good.

So there are some simple Christmas decorating ideas that really dress up the spot they occupy but only take minutes to take down at the end of the season.  What easy ideas do you have to share?

Cindy

For some budget friendly Christmas ideas, join the Beautiful Christmas on a Budget series at Beneath My Heart, Cha-Ching on a Shoestring


I'm linking up to:

I'm not Decorating for Christmas This Year

Yep, you read that right. 

Absolutely not at all. 

You see we're supposed to be closing on our new house on December 30.  Instead of bringing out Christmas decorations, I'm packing for our move.

So I thought I'd share some pix from previous Christmases.

2005



I love the pastels.



I'm big time into kitsch at Christmas.


2006

Isn't Santa cute getting ready for his Christmas Eve ride?  He has a whole passel of reindeer to pull his sleigh.



 Probably one of my favorite Christmas decorations.  And it's made it through five moves so far.

2007

There are no pictures of Christmas 2007 on my computer.  I'm sure they exist somewhere in e-space on my husband's computer, but not on my computer. 

It's actually rather symbolic because this was the year I had a miscarriage and my first child left home. 

You'll see a difference in my pictures after this.  You'll see more pix of my kids.  My boys are at school in New York and I live in Texas.  I only see them twice a year and maybe three times if I'm really lucky.

2008



I love this picture of my daughter enjoying decorating Christmas cookies while my oldest son enjoys some quality time with BD in the backyard.

2008 was the year my second boy joined his brother at West Point.  It was so good to have them both home and looking so handsome.   

 
This picture of the kids being serious cracks me up.  Not only that, but they're actually being quiet here.  That's pretty rare when they're all together.

2009


This was my kitchen island last Christmas.  We were getting the house ready to sell.

In the background you can see the same island a few days later with unpainted beadboard.

My boys are filling their marshmallow shooters and BD is watching attentively so he can eat up all the ammunition when they're done.  Smart dog.

This is the undecorated tree and that's how it stayed for the whole season.  It looked so pretty all lit up and that way I didn't have to unpack or repack ornaments.

A month after these pictures were taken, we had 750 square feet of family room, kitchen and entry floors torn up for the new tile my husband installed.  He's a beast!

The next time I saw the boys was for just a few days in June; at the same time that we moved!

So guess what we're doing for Christmas this year?  Yep, moving!

I hope that many years of visits to come will be to the same house so I can concentrate on hospitality instead of moving.

2010

This is what I'm doing instead of decorating for Christmas this year:

Packing!

This year my youngest graduated from high school and joined his brothers at West Point.  At the same time we moved three hours away from my daughter.  But all four kids will be with us for Christmas.  Here is a sneak preview:

This was taken Thursday night after the West Point Christmas dinner.  Steak and lobster and cigars after dinner.  It's a tradition.  That's my oldest in the middle.  He's a Firstie (senior).  My middle boy is on the left.  He's a Cow (junior).  My youngest is on the right.  He's a Plebe (freshman).  Don't they look fine?

I don't really care about the decorations this year.  I'm so glad to have all six of us together again if only for a few days.

Thanks for letting me share and I'm enjoying all your Christmas decorations on your blogs.

Merry Christmas!

Cindy

I'm linking to the following blogs:

Southern Hospitality's Christmas Vignette




Very, Merry Vintage Style's A Very Merry Holiday Home



Hooked on Houses Impromtu Holiday House Tour Linky Party


Home is Where My Story Begins Home and Family Friday


Pink and Polka Dot's impromptu link party