In With the Old, Out with the New

Well, my title has more to do with vintage stuff, than a time of year. But, this being the New Year coming up, I've been rushing this week to beat the new year. My tree's came down a couple days ago, and all the Christmas ornaments are put away. I think for another month of so, I'll leave my husband's lead skater figures out for a winter scene. In a month, I except spring to be here haha! I actually mowed the lawn on Monday! It was cold out, but I really did it just to suck the last of the leaves up in the bagger. I hate raking that huge maple tree up!

Beating the New Year for me also means getting my house organized a bit. Get a grip on things that have become out of order. My sewing/crafting room for instance. Here it is after midnight and I just finished doing some major cleaning in here. It doesn't look as good as it should yet, b/c I have boxes of stuff still set out to take pictures of and get on Etsy. But I do have a goal, and it will happen!

This holiday season has been very busy for me with baking bread. I'm really glad to be taking a break from it. It's giving me a chance to get these things caught up before we get back to homeschooling next week. I went out today and checked my greenhouse. Ooops, I lost a great big indoor houseplant I had left out there to repot. We'll see if it can revive itself soon. I've got a list of my seeds I want to order from an organic seed company this year and am anxious to get that all going, so I can be outside. Where it's bright. And warm. (As long as I'm in the greenhouse!)

You know how magazines often come a couple weeks before the month they are actually for? Every year when it's Christmas, I get the January Martha Stewart 2 weeks before Christmas. I told my daughter I was leaving it in it's wrapper until the day after Christmas. I always do. Before Christmas gets here, I don't want anyone or anything hurrying me through it. It comes fast enough as it is. But when you get the Martha magazine, it's usually all about cleaning, organizing, setting goals.....and I just can't face it until Christmas is over. Being silly, she went ahead and opened it early. OK, I finally read it. It wasn't as full of the cleaning and organizing as it usually is, so I was glad to see I was ahead of the game of cleaning and organizing lol.

I've got a lot of stuff to get put in my Etsy shop. I'm working on parting with some Valentines, too. I have a pretty big bunch of them. I have one box of vintage cards that I may have mentioned before; I got them from a trip we took to the Wallowa's, from Karla, at Jingle Bob Vintitques. Actually Randy bought me two boxes, and one was full of cards done by the same artist, many of them are her prototypes. I put a couple of the cards I got from Karla on my blog. I'll have to get out the rosy cheeked ones and share some with you. I'm a sucker for Valentines. I like them the way I like the Napco Christmas figurines, only they're easier to come by. I have a lot of Victorian styled ones, but my favorites?? Yep, the 50's or 60's! They have those cute little round rosy-cheeked faces. They remind me of the days when I was in school. We'd make big envelopes all decorated and when we had our Valentine's party (my mom always gave the party, because she was ALWAYS my class's "Room Mother") they'd be taped to the front of our desks and we'd put them in all the kids envelopes. I just thought that was the best! To bring them home and read them and somehow believe that the cute boy really meant what his card said. And what do you do with the ones that came from the boy that you absolutely DIDN'T have a crush on, but you feared he also meant every word on his card? Yuck! In my family, you sure didn't have the other family members get ahold of those "love letters", because at dinner time, I never heard the end of the teasing. My dad would tease me until I'd be crying. So, they were private treasures that you would keep, until your mother said it was time to throw them out. I sure wish she would have let me keep them now, though!

My husband is my Valentine now. He is actually more romantic than I am over cards. He IS very serious about what the card says, and he always adds something sweet to it. Cards are a really BIG deal to him! Which is why I was embarrassed when I was trying to write a sweet thought on his Christmas card, messed up, it sounded so stupid, so I scratched it out and started over. He of course asked, "What did you scratch out?" He's into details.

I had a convo today from a lady telling me that my green thermos in my Etsy shop made it to a Treasury! That's always fun, and a great way to end on year and start another!

I hope this year is a great one with many blessings!! I do wish we could take May through October and SSSSTTTTRRRREEETTTCCCHHH it out a bit, that would be my wish. Then again, there are things I've prayed for and am so glad God didn't give me! Have a safe and Happy New Year's celebration!!!

Officially Retired...For the Whole Rest of the Year haha

How Christmas got here so quickly, I sure don't know, but here it is, the eve of Christmas Eve. It's been a really busy season for me, I've haven't counted lately how many loaves of Finnish cardamom bread I've baked this Christmas season, but I know it's at least a few hundred. My hands show it, too! Between the cold spell we had here in the northwest a couple weeks ago, and the bread, my hands are in dire need of a manicure, and it doesn't look like I'm getting one tomorrow. I do have a great mixer, so I didn't actually knead the bread, but the braiding is enough. I'm very thankful for all my wonderful bread customers, too. It's so odd to think of how many places people tell me my bread goes. Yesterday, I had my last orders to fill, got them delivered, and breathed a sigh of relief, I got it done, and now, I'm officially retired, at least to the end of the year lol. Seriously, I really don't do this for a "real" job, and now things should definitely slow down.
Well, now I get to relax and enjoy the holiday with my family. I've actually been doing that all along, celebrating Christmas in all kind sof ways. Even though the time has flown, there have been some sweet times I've cherished this season. The other day, I was at the store, it was busy, people everywhere, and you know the thing, bumping into carts, etc. An elderly lady and I kinda collided going around a corner from different directions; we looked at each other and started laughing. It was as if we both were thinking the same thing, life is hectic all around us, people rushing, in a hurry, but we had time to laugh and appreciate a moment. We said a few words to each other, then started to part, and she said, "Honey, you have a real nice day!" I thrive on times like that, just the moment, you know? We have a little tiny church that we have a Bible study in on Wednesdays. Most of us have other churches we go to, but this little fellowship is special to our family. We have a lady there who is, I don't know how you'd describe her exactly, kinda needy. She is about my age, but had a sickness as a child that makes it hard for her to make some decisions, at least that's what she told me. How do we measure where we are in our lives, how competent we are?? Anyway, this lady has kind of adopted our family, she's really a sweet heart. She gave us a Christmas card that was so eloquent, so enduring really. It was just another one of the many ways that people have touched me this season with just a thankfulness, an appreciation for something so simple as a good word fitly spoken. My boys have been excitely making plans for the shopping they have in mind for me. I know that the potholders I told them I needed probably won't be the ones I would have picked, but, how long does a potholder last? I'll have them for probably many years, they won't match my kitchen, but what's a mother to do? I'm going to love them lol! No, I haven't snooped, I just gave them some inexpensive ideas of things they could get me when they've asked. So their dad's taking them shopping tomorrow, and I'll be surprised.
I really hope that you have a wonderful Christmas, wherever you will be. I'm amazed every time I celebrate Christmas, of what God has done for us, sending His own Son as a child-King, destined to suffer for His love of mankind, in order to give us a place in His Kingdom! What a gift!