About Me

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West Virginia
When I started my retirement travels in 2009, I wanted a way to share it with family and friends as it was happening. Hence, "My Travel Journal". However I realized I wouldn't always be on a trip and wondered what to do with the blog in between times. My daughter pointed out, wisely, that travels can also include trips to the kitchen to try a new recipe, trips to visit family, trips to my neighborhood Starbucks, or a fun day trip with a friend. You're welcome to join me on any of these journeys! I've set up individual pages for each of my major trips (see tabs above).

Also, I have an Etsy shop where my current needlework resides. The last pieces I posted here were in 2013! So if you'd like to see what I have accomplished recently, go to (and I apologize for having to copy and paste):

www.etsy.com/shop/thedollhouseneedle

I recently added an "Italian Word a Day" thingie which shows up at the bottom of every page. You see the word and can click to hear it pronounced. I've been enjoying it and I think my accent is improving as time goes by.

December 10, 2009

Two Nice Days

Not too much to report really - no great progress on my kitchen scene.  Yesterday it poured rain all day and night and I spent a long time trying different ways to electrify my scene, none of which were satisfactory but I think I've narrowed it down to a way that will work so I'm not discouraged.  But I decided I'd better put it aside for the rest of the day so I started a little bit of Christmas decorating and enjoyed that.  Then Cindy called for a little catch up and we decided last minute to go to Five Guys for a burger and fries.  She came downtown after work, we had a little wine and looked at her pics from her visit to see her new niece and then a cruise she took between Ft. Lauderdale and Cozumel, Mexico.  Made me wish I could talk myself into a cruise, but when I look at them on line I always end up deciding they're not for me.

 So that was a nice evening and then this morning I decided I'd better do some of my on line Christmas shopping if I'm going to get it in time to wrap up and give away.  So I worked on that for a while and found out a couple of the things I could buy here in town.   Peggy called early to say she was going to bring her granddaughter to see my miniatures (we had talked about that a few days ago) so when I was done with my "shopping" I decided I'd finish my decorating and decorate the Fabric Store and my half scale house which is fun.  I did a quick and fairly sloppy job of finally displaying a little Christmas village I've collected over the years.  There's a woman who makes all kinds of little, tiny houses, stores, churches, etc., in porcelain and she even puts little holes in the windows so you can light them.  So I got out a miniature strand of Christmas lights and, way too quickly, made my little display, but at least it's there.  And it inspired me to maybe collect a couple more pieces (always nice to have an excuse to buy minis [or get them as gifts? - my son bought me one of the buildings one Christmas...] ) and get around to doing a well-made display with them.  The woman who sells them has a display at shows that is an entire hillside covered with trees and all the buildings she sells and all lit up - it's wonderful to see!  But here's this year's sloppy one:

This is looking into the living room of the upstairs apartment in my fabric store.




And these two very poor quality pictures show how the poor people living there are going to be falling off the cliff soon.  But at least you can see the lights shining out the windows!

Since I've moved into the condo, I've not had a Christmas tree but I decorate a little each year.  I didn't take pictures of everything but I did take pictures of my hallway cause I've been enjoying having my poster hanging there so much and once I put various pieces of Christmas stuff there, I'm enjoying it even more.  My nativity set is Hummel that I bought (thinking, thinking) 48 years ago!!!  That was when I had graduated from high school and got a job and an apartment in Chicago and had a wonderful year and a half of being a 'career' girl before I married.  The big angel in that arrangement is one my sister gave me one year and I think this is my favorite of all the various places I've placed it over the years.



The one on the left is looking down the hall towards the bedroom and the one on the right is looking down the hall towards the living room.  In the "real" the lights aren't glaring, of course, and it's just real nice and cozy looking.  I took the pictures so next year I can remember what I did!

And below is the nativity and angel...




The angel is large and in the photo the nativity looks tiny, but those figures are really around 6" high and don't look "threatened" by the angel. 

I like having this much stuff on these two windowsills cause I never open the blinds and I think it's adding a lot of interest to my little hallway, so I may keep them a little more cluttered when it's not Christmas.

My next entry will hopefully be to record at least a little progress on the kitchen scene.  Although I'm going to have to start wrapping presents one of these days too.

5 comments:

January said...

Glad to hear you're decorating for Christmas! I "splurged" and bought me and Maggie a replica of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree that is only about 14" tall and very spindly. I have it on a tray table covered in a Christmas table cloth with four ornaments and then Chinchy's little Christmas village and train around the bottom. I like it.

Mary Lynne said...

Good for you! Even when it's just a little, there's something real nice about decking the halls - leaves you feeling warm and cuddly. :)

xo

Christopher said...

Your hallway this, your hallway that---I believe "gallery" is the word you need to use, when you have a little area or passageway in the home, complete with niches (now that the blinds don't get opened, they are architectural niches!) filled artfully with lovely things to look at...! :) "And over here in the gallery, I've arranged a few momentos for the season." hehe...
And I really like that poster hanging there! A brilliant idea, to be sure.
As for me, I've put the ornament wreath on the door, so its a step towards holiday decorations... :)
Will your guests tonite be seing your gallery for the first time, since the poster went up?

Mary Lynne said...

Glad you like it Chris. I'm really enjoying the poster there too. One of my friends had already seen the poster. The other lady was my artist neighbor and she loved it. Matter of fact she was good for the ego, spent the whole evening saying how much she loved everything!

Sandra said...

Yes, definitely a gallery Mary Lynne, and a gracious, lovely one at that. The poster is too nice to be called a 'poster' - picture is more accurate now, or drawing. Love the mini decorations too, and you are one of the Petitpointers Group I have to blame for my splurging in those self-same mini houses last year vbg! And I don't even get to display mine this year after all! But yours look really pretty with the lights in them even if you did do them quickly.

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