♫♪Deck the Halls♪♫

Yea for Christmas time! I LOVE the holidays: The music, the lights, the decorations, the feeling you get when you give a gift, the magic and the sparkle (this is the only time of year that it is totally okay for grown adults - with no children - to decorate their home with GLITTER)! Here is some pics of my decorations. Not worthy of a magazine cover, but fun to share!

There are stockings hung on nearly every door!

Most of the deer are sporting their holiday spirits!

Mr Elk and Mr Deer are adorned in their holiday gear!

Mistletoe!

This year, I got to decorate the porch in - what else - but PINK & SPARKLES!!!

Being the porch is our "John Deere" room, all the little tractors each got a bow!

The air plane, too!

All the plants got some type of pink, sparkly adornment too!

Windows are all trimmed with pink and silver sparkly ornaments!

AND THE TREE....Ahh, I'm IN LOVE

And even the light fixtures!

Mr Snowman that sits on my kitchen counter!

The red/snowflake garden in the entry way

My "snowflake" cross. I made a leaf cross for fall and really liked it, now I want one for all seasons...and this is the winter one!

The yarn-wrapped vase I made with some foilage from the gardens (yes, there is glitter on the flowers, why wouldn't there be?!)

The mantel...garland is a tish crooked, I see, but oh well!

The painted candle sticks with pine cones

We got these for a wedding present and I LOVE them. They were hanging from the mantel originally, but fell down and this is where they sit. I don't know if they'll make it back up or not! He he!

Barbie and her snow babies!

MY MR MOOSE!!!!!!!!!!! We got this on our anniversary trip to Grand Marais. Barney said my eyes lite up like a kid in a candy store when I saw this. Nothing better than 2 of my favorite things in 1 -- Moose and GLITTER!

This poor plant...I hope it makes it through the holidays! Not sure if this is the best thing for it, but I like it!

My christmas fabric flower wreat that I made! I made one for fall too and also felt that one wreath for each season would be fun!

My table and center piece. All the left over ornaments that didn't make it somewhere else went here along with some candles and a few pine cones.

Ahh, the SNOW! So far, this seems to be all we'll be seing for snow this year! Cotton balls stung onto fishing line and (of course) sprayed with glitter! Fun!



Our wedding cake topper/first ornament as a married couple!

The little "normal" tree in the kitchen!

Like I said, there are so many reasons to love this time of year, but we must not forget the real meaning of Christmas~~Jesus. May you all have a Merry & Blessed Christmas!

Deer Hunting

Now that the "deer hunting season" is over...I thought I would share this year's story:

This year, Barney decided that he wanted his own stand so we can "cover more area". I was hesitant about sitting in my stand ALL DAY by myself, but decided it would be fine as long as he walked me to my stand in the morning, walked me out of the woods at night and would still gut and drag my deer. He agreed so I went. Opening morning, about 8 am, I had a 4-point buck come walking up one of my shooting lanes. Pulled the gun up, watched him, waited for a decent shot. This deer was nothing spectacular...probably last years fawn...but none the less, the last few years, it's a rare thing to see ANY deer so I figured if I had a decent shot I would take it. I watched him for about 15 minutes before he came into a different lane and gave me a good shot. Took the shot (I like to shoot in the neck so they drop and I don't have to worry about tracking and finding)...he dropped. After I knew he was dead and not going anywhere, I sent Barney a message and told him I got one...yada yada yada. It was about 8:15 now. Barney said that if I see any more deer I couldn't shoot it unless it was a 6-point or bigger (oh, and he also entered us in the "big buck contest" so that was another reason I had to shoot a bigger one). I honestly didn't think I would see much more for deer, but low and behold, about 9:00 another buck, roughly the same size as the one I shot, was hanging out by me. I quick sent Barney a message to make sure I couldn't shoot another one the same size...and while waiting for his reply, I coulda had like 3 different shots on this one...but in the end I didn't get permission to so off he went! Then I was sitting and hangin out some more...eating peanuts, getting the heater goin, watching squirrels, etc...when I happened to glance into a lane that we NEVER see deer in and what do you know, MONSTER BUCK comes strutin' through...Grr. This one I knew was big enough to shoot...heck, he was a wall mounter! I didn't have much time and I knew I only had 1 shot at this buck. I quick scrambled to position myself for the perfect shot on the perfect deer. He came into my sights and I shot for the neck (same theroy as before) and off he ran. I was pissed. I was nearly swearing (which I hardley do anyway). This had to be at least an 8-pointer and it was a thick, massive rack...GRRR!!! I still get mad! Barney knew it was me that shot and immediatly text me to see what I shot this time...I told him and he said in about 20 minutes I should go down to double check for any blood or fur or sign that I DID hit him. This was about 9:40. So I waited, still swearing at myself and thinking of all the things I could have or should have done different, Mad that Barney wasn't in the stand with me cause we would have seen it with both of us in there... 20 or so minutes go by and I make a quick look thru all the lanes for any deer before I go investigate for signs from the big deer. What do ya know...ANOTHER deer starts walking up another lane...I knew it was a buck...nothing big again, but I wanted to get a closer look to see how many points were on it...if it had at least 6 I was going to shoot. As I was waiting for it to come through another lane I was just sensing something else was going on...I felt eyes on me...quick turned around to find a doe right next to my stand watching me. She hoped off after i saw her and then I went back to looking to see how big this other buck was. Fortunatly for his sake, he never did come back out and I never did see what he was. It was about 10:15 now and I finally went down to look for signs that I hit the big one. Looked for about 15 minutes and saw absolutely NO SIGN that I hit it. So back to the stand I went to wait for Barney to come help me take care of the deer I did get. Once he came, we went and looked for about 2 more hours for signs but we didn't find ANYTHING. And the rest of that day, all of Sunday and the 1/2 day on Monday that we were hunting I didn't see any thing else...AT ALL (besides a red squirrel, an owl and some birds). I thought I'd see all kinds after seeing 5 in the first 2 hours. AND it got VERY boring...especially sitting in the stand alone. I brought some magazines with, but I couldn't get into reading any of them...I definitly needed an actual book! I played with the camera one of those afternoons and took a bunch of silly shots. I took several naps (curled up on the floor of my stand). And ran the battery dead on my phone from texting family and friends. Was I ever glad when Barney said we could start packing stuff up to go home! Barney didn't get a deer this year either...at least not rifle hunting. He did get one with the bow, but this is year #3 that he's gotten skunked rifle hunting. He even hunted at home every night and the second weekend once we got back and had no luck. At least we will save some for next year! Here is some pics of my hunting experience this year:

Here's my deer laying in where I shot it. Hard to see but it's the white spot in the middle of the lane Barney gutting out my deer ♥ that he does that for me!

The gut pile!

The "monster" himself.

Me and my deer

And here is where all the "bored" pictures start...
My deer call with 2 of the shooting lanes in the backround
One of my shooting lanes and I some how got the picture to look super dark and scary!

A couple other shooting lane shots

More shooting lanes...yes there is alot of them...10 to be exact!

Playing with the macro setting on the camera - heater pictures! LOL

Really bored! Pink finger nail polish!

Also took pic of my eye! This one, if you look close enough, you can see reflection of the rest of the stand/woods in my eye...kinda cool!

And I made PINK CAMO with the color swap feature on my camera! Only if they actually made it like this and it was actually legal to hunt with it!

Squash

Apparently squash is supposed to be good for you. My aunt kept trying to tell me we should try it. I remember not being a fan of it as a kid, but I thought I would give it another shot. Barney was kinda the same way. My aunt brought me 2 of them. I made one for supper last. 2 to 0 vote...squash is gross. End of story.

Fall Crafts

Here are some of the crafts I have made this fall. Fall decorations are something that I was lacking in my decoration inventory for the house so I thought I needed to do something about it. I had a REALLY crafty brain one week and found all kinds of project ideas and then got the supplies and WHALA....this is what we got!

This is not the best picture, but here is the wreath I made with hand-made fabric flowers. I want to make a wreath of some type for all the different seasons and this is the first on my list! And I've got all kinds of ideas for other seasons floating in my head now too!

This cute little pumpkin I picked up at the craft store in the clearance section. Part of it was kind of broken so I got all the flowers and decorations to help cover up the broken parts. It turned out pretty cute and was also super simple to make! I'm thinking after the season is over and pumpkins like this are on clearance I'm gonna pick up a few more to decorate for next year!

When I saw this project idea I thought that it was super cute and SIMPLE! I figured I could whip it together lickity split. NOTE TO THE NEXT PERSON WANTING TO TRY THIS: Stick with larger eyes if you can! I didn't get too many of the larger sized eyes and all those little ones took alot of time and patience!

I LOVE making fabric flowers! They were perfect for the wreath and as I was making them I was thinking of all kinds other ways to use them: headbands, necklaces, clips for purses, pins for coats, other decorations, gift wrapping, and the list goes on and on. I am now on the hunt for scrap material of any color and pattern! Slightly time consuming when I first started, but so much fun, especially when you see the end product!

This idea just came out of no where kinda. All these leaves were used as table decorations at my cousins wedding in September and I noticed how colorful and STURDY they were. When they started cleaning the tables that night, they were just going to throw them away, so I made sure to collect as many as I could. It took me a few weeks to decide what exactly I was going to do with the leaves. I finally decided I wanted to make the cross, just didn't know how I wanted it to look. So I just told Barney to make me a cross some how and that is what I got! I love it though! Now where to put it...

This was another fun one! Wood letters, scrap book paper, decoupage and embellishments: Super easy and Super cute! This one too gave me a bunch of ideas for different holidays!!

And that is what I've been making this fall! I'm looking forward to making decorations for seasons to come now too! Decorations mean so much more if there is a story or an experience behind them!