Snow Pictures

I took these pictures last week. The picture above shows a feeder I rescued from the dumpster by our house. Yes, it continues to bring me treasures now and then, lately for the birds.
There are now three houses in front of our house. In this picture I like the rabbit tracks that lead out to them from our house. We have a bunch of rabbits that like to eat the corn I scatter under the bird feeders. The cats like to watch them too.
In this photo you can see the fish houses between Sandy and Point Comfort. I've never seen so many out there before.

Doesn't Junior's cabin look cozy in all the snow?

More snow fun-

I think this first one is my favorite!

These boys kept adding more and more. I think they maxed out at 8!

A fun day!

Here are most of my 5th graders at the top of the sledding hill that goes down to our FB field. It was the perfect spot. The committee picked this activity out for their Christmas party.

Love those expressions!!

At 2:00 today we ended the day with our Christmas program, postponed from Monday. They did a great job.

When was the last time you had this much fun??

Powder!!

Back in the room for popcorn and cocoa. See the boys by the counter, they were the popcorn boys and took care of everything, butter, oil and served it up too. A mom donated a popcorn popper so we may have to have more popcorn this year-darn! :) A 5th grader's big sister helped with the hot chocolate. She was a former first grader of mine, time flies.

A pretty sunset and notice all the fish houses off the point this year.

Our art teacher, Melissa, won ugliest Christmas sweater this year! Just an FYI that I disqualified myself because it was my idea, not that I would have won but who knows. I made a pancake gift basket for the winner.
Here I am with my room neighbor, John, science, with our entries for ugliest sweater. People thought my fur was too pretty so I took that off early and let one of the paras wear it instead. Sue was loving my fur and hated to take it off at the end of the day.
I made another bulletin board out of an old plastic frame, this one is a smaller version but quite handy. HAven't found a permanent spot for it yet but after all the Christmas items come down I'm sure I will. All I did was paint the inside black.
This is another great find at the Bargain Bazaar-a down filled vest from the Gap for just $1!!!!

Karen's Holiday Decorating

My cousin Karen shared some of her decorating pictures with me and said I could share them with you on my blog. In the top photo I just love the little tree in the red basket-Longaberger I bet! The ornaments are darling on the feather tree.
Karen commented on my old cake pan and came up with her own for decorating. Yours looks great! I bought one at the BB that I use for baking and there was another that was a little rusty so I left it. Well, it sat there for almost two months and finally I bought it for $1, I might come up with other uses for it too, who knows.
Can you see Jenna's crown near the top of the tree? Isn't that fun and a special memory too!?
There are a lot of things I really like in this photo, those twig reindeer are really fun and the vintage ornaments in the jar are so pretty. But the main thing I noticed is that Karen has a twin to my hutch! I got mine at a Brandon antique store and it turns out that Karen almost bought it before I did! We both must have got a matching decorating gene as we like very similar items. Where did this one come from, Karen? Did you have it when you were considering the one I purchased?
In this photo, my favorite thing is the trophy! I'll take that if you ever get tired of it, Karen!! Oh and that metal laundry basket too. :) I know, fat chance....

Sarah Richardson

Most of these photo's are from Sarah Richardson's country house which is a Canadian website/tv show. I love her style. The black dining room is not hers. I love her wainscott and how she uses wallpaper above it. I'm thinking about doing something similar above the wainscott in the entry and maybe one other room. I could easily put it up myself because it would be short strips.

This picture makes me think I should paint my hutch black.

Back to Sarah's house, doesn't the wallpaper look nice in this room?

I like how they used a towel bar to hang a quilt in this room, thought some of you quilters might be interested in that idea.
The entry is my favorite-the red door pops and the paisley drapes are perfect. Google Sarah Richardson and you'll find her blog which shows about 7 different homes she has decorated in totally different styles. This country house is my favorite.

It's hard to believe it's the last weekend before Christmas. It definitely looks like Christmas around here. On Thursday we got about 6 inches of school. I was surprised to hear that school was cancelled but enjoyed my snow day very much. Lazy mornings are always a nice thing in the middle of the week! After I'd had enough coffee/lounging I decided to be productive by shoveling the walk, and in front of the garage. Dan blew the driveway later. I did a couple of craft projects, and organized the entry for all our winter gear. Dan was working from home, so wasting time on the internet was not an option. He was in Mpls on Tuesday and Wednesday and was shocked by the amount of snow they had, especially downtown. It sounds like we could get dumped on again on Monday, but the rest the week sounds good for travelers.

Have a good weekend, whatever you're up to!

He's back!

I walked through the living room this afternoon and that little bright red spot in the snow caught my eye. It's been over a year since I have seen a male cardinal in our yard. We had a female last winter, but she disappeared in the spring-probably in search of a mate. I wonder if this male has a mate or if he's a loner. He was eating sunflower seeds and cracked corn on the ground. His color will be a welcome addition to the landscape this winter. Hope he sticks around!

A little more Christmas

This manger is made from wood from my Grandpa Larson's barn. It was torn down a few years ago so it's nice to have something to remember it by. I do have some photo's of the barn. The animals are figures that Dad gives us quite often. The company produced a Nativity set that we found at Town & Country.

Lights at night-the days are so short now.

Christmas Decor 2010

We went to Matt & Jenny's wedding last night-very nice! Fun to see all the Huntley family celebrating and many other Cyrus people too. Dan enjoyed visiting with former UMM coworkers too. The gift pictured above was for Matt & Jenny, it was fun to be able to use Christmas wrap. I didn't take any pictures at the wedding but I'm sure there will be plenty on Facebook. They are a nice looking couple!

I love this little planter.

Vintage cake pan-now a candle holder

I think this little towel came from the BB.

Plaid pillow made by Annette, Santa purchased at the Cyrus Bazaar made by Paulette.
I'm using the hutch as a Christmas secretary this year. You can see it's still white, maybe someday I will paint it, just not sure what to do yet.

On top of the fridge

I went with the natural look on the mantel.

I found this old fashioned tree topper at the Fergus SA for $1.

Dan's getting used to the tree dropping needles in his sink. The wire basket was a recent clearance find at Walmart for $3. I only bought two, wish I would have bought more.