Christmas under the bridge

During this hectic and all consuming season

I hope you find moments of peace and solitude in your heart

Sharon

Christmas crafts and little white lights

I am not a big craft person but when I saw this one on Pinterest . . .

Source: wenderly.com via Sharon on Pinterest

. . . I thought 'How tough can that be!' Not to mention it's a cute, simple gift idea that I know I would love receiving.


So a few days ago I went out and bought the bulbs for $1.29 each, the glass jars at the Dollar store, and purple ribbon at Walmart for $3.79. We already had soil. Oh, and I bought of bag of sphagnum moss, also at the Dollar store. 


Just a couple days before Christmas I'll wrap ribbons around all the jars (so they don't accidentally get water stained in the mean time), add a touch of moss, and print out Georgianna's gorgeous tags she has offered up to her readers. And if you aren't a reader of G's blog, you should be!  

On Christmas day I'll attach the tags with brown twine just before giving them out to the ladies in the family. 


I've made one extra, just in case ; )





You know you want one. Seriously.


Speaking of crafts, my younger daughter, Elise, is about the craftiest young lady I know. She see's an idea she likes and it takes her about 2 seconds to whip it up! Not to mention she has come up with some pretty good ideas of her own too. She's like a mini-Martha Stewart.

We had seen these necklaces at a local shop one day and I think they were asking close to $30 for them. Elise came home and looked them up online, then we went to Joann's so she could buy the materials.

Aren't they adorable?! 


Yesterday I bought some bird charms she could attach. I know she's giving several to her friends for Christmas (and one to her bird brained mom, of course).  She had also asked me to list some of them on my blog for $10 each, in case anyone wanted to buy one, however, I'm not sure which ones are for sale and which ones aren't. Her weeks are busy with school and homework so she hasn't given it much thought. If she figures it out I'll let you know!

My little birdie

I love the glass candle goblet I found at TJ Maxx yesterday for $6.99!! That's a 'WooHoo' deal!


Can you feel the stress yet? LOL! Just think, less than a week until the shortest day of the year. Then we start going the other way! If that isn't something to look forward to I don't know what is.


I hope you have a wonderful week-end whether it be out there with the masses, spending time with family and friends, or just being in a quiet place. My favorite place to be.


* Don't forget Pioneer Woman's holiday TV special starts tomorrow, if you're interested

Christmas Goodness

I just wanted to share a few images of our Christmas tree and such. This year, except for the red bows on the garland, we went with a simple white theme. We don't have a big house or a lot of decorations but I so enjoy what we do have!

For the first time in the 20 years my husband and I have been married we finally have a real tree, a Concolor Fir. The artificial tree we have is so large that I really didn't want to have to remove furniture to put it up, so, we looked everywhere trying to find a slender artificial white tree like Jesse's but there wasn't anything available. As we strolled the field trying to find the perfect tree, my husband thought all the trees my daughter and I kept picking out were to small. Even though we brought a tape measure with us he just wasn't convinced. I told him it's going to look a lot bigger once we get it home. Wouldn't you know as soon as he and my daughter brought the tree in he said, "This tree just got a whole lot bigger!" LOL!

Now that we've bought a real tree I'm not sure if we'll go back!

I'm loving this ornament! It's a teardrop shaped glass ornament that I found at JC Penneys this year. My husband and I scoured all the trees they had trying to scoff up every single one we could find. Normally they're $4 but were on sale for 50% off. The glass reflects the light and just add a nice sparkle to the tree.

Again, another ornament from JC Penneys, purchased a few years ago. And again, I bought every single one I could find! They weren't cheap, even at 50% off, but they're good quality and will last forever.

On a whim my husband started adding plumes from the enormous ornamental grass we have growing out by our mailbox. I like the soft look!

Ooooo, yummy! A Homegoods find! 

My favorite place to shop ; )

Santa's sleigh has held our Christmas card for years

I hope you enjoyed the short tour around the tree. There is a bit more decor on the other side of the room but maybe I'll save that for another day. 

Thank you for taking the time to stop by! I do hope the season is not to stressful and you've been able to accomplish some shopping. Me, not so much on the shopping.

On this day . . .

. . . I awoke to the sound of snow plows going up and down our street. Since I had to bring my daughter to work at 7 am, and there was a fresh inch of snow on the ground, it seemed like the perfect time to get out and take a few photos.

Lily, and a wonderful tractor I've been eying for a while

Hydrangea in my garden, with the lights on the arbor shining in the background

A wonderful old door in downtown Exeter along String Bridge/another hydrangea leaning into the arbor

Although I had planned on posting a bit more this past week, life had other plans. Since the 1st day of the year there have been issues to attend to which has taken all my emotion to deal with. Tonight's post makes me happy, and that's the only reason to ever share any of my photos, because they bring me joy, and I hope in turn they will bring you joy too : )

Linking up with Mary's Little Red House for Mosaic Monday!

Hearts and lights, with just a little Christmas

Recently, while visiting one of my favorite blogs, Georgianna Lane, she brought to mind using a heart shaped filter. Although I'd seen the results before I'd never tried photographing with one. I won't lie, it's a challenge! At least it was for me.

Right after I started practicing I became distracted with dinner so my younger daughter took over and started shooting every Christmas light she could. Below are the results.

Elise had quite a few cool looking shots but these were a few of my favorites. The top photo was taken of a reflection of lights in the window on a rainy night. Such a cool result.

Interested in trying it yourself? Do a Google search for Heart Shaped Bokeh. I liked this tutorial!

We don't have a big house so I don't have many decorations. This is one of the spots that stands out so I try to make it look pretty for the holidays. I've had the feather trees for several years and still love them!

5 days until Christmas. Can you believe it? Me either. I'm not ready yet but I will be. Tomorrow morning I'll make my final list and head out for all the little things I still need. Here's hoping I can actually accomplish what I've set my mind too!

I'm hooking up with Mary's Little Red House for Mosaic Monday

Poinsettia Open House

On Saturday morning I went to a Poinsettia Open House at UNH. There were 102 different varieties of plants! One section of the greenhouse had plants for sale but the majority of the Poinsettia's were strictly for observing and judging. I didn't judge, I observed. And photographed.

There were actually 2 different greenhouses and a long entryway filled with hundreds of Poinsettia's. It was a nice way to spend an hour or so, just browsing amongst the gorgeous colors of salmon, red, burgundy, pinks, roses, whites, and everything in between.




I spoke with the professor and he said the new varieties are genetically made in Mexico. From there the cuttings are sent up to the United States to big rooting companies. The rooting companies choose only the best and most hardy varieties to keep producing. Overall it is a very long process and can take years for one single variety.




Many of the varieties on display will never be seen at your own local greenhouse because they are too difficult and time consuming to grow. The greenhouse's could never make a profit. New varieties ARE making their way onto the market though. We just bought a red and white speckled Poinsettia at the local grocery store. I liked that it was a bit different looking.

I liked the deep red of the Cortez Burgundy. There were some orange Poinsettia's too but I didn't think they were very appealing.

Sonora White Glitter looks just like the plant I bought.

I took a LOT of pictures so trying to choose which ones I liked best was a challenge.

Thank you for visiting. Lately I'm trying to post photo's that are a little different than what I normally post. Other blogs have been inspiring me to look at my images a bit differently. I also am enjoying photos with color! This is such a blah time of year now that all the leaves have fallen but I'm determined to look outside the box. Of course I won't always hit the mark but for right now I'm liking the end results. I hope you do too!

I also wanted to thank all of you who left such heartwarming words on my post titled: At Rest. Sometimes I feel pressured (by myself) to blog more often but then I tell myself, you can only do what you can do. Anymore than that and it won't be true to who I am.

Festival of Trees

Last night my daughter asked me to take her to the annual Festival of Trees in Exeter. I really didn't want to go but knew it would be a nice opportunity for some evening photography. Luckily it wasn't to cold outside, though I did have to step into a store to warm my camera up for a moment. After that I kept it inside the front of my jacket.

The town seemed to have a pretty good turnout. As usual most people were ...

a) waiting to visit Santa
b) waiting for a horse drawn hayride
or
c) waiting in line to get a look at the 50 decorated trees in the Town Hall that were up for auction

The lines were long. Real long. I'm not a big fan of lines. Just as I decided to leave I bumped into my next door neighbor and her sister. We chatted for a few minutes, then along comes my daughter and her boyfriend. He's an Exeter native and told us how to sneak into the Festival of Trees through a side door. He says his family does it every year. Actually it's the entrance to the art show they were having upstairs but it also goes right into where the tree's are.

Yeah, we're bad. We did it. I only stayed about 5 minutes though while my neighbor and her sister lingered a bit longer.

So many gorgeous trees decorated by local businesses and organizations were up for bid! Each tree had a # and a corresponding sheet where you could write down a bid, just so long as it was higher than the previous bid. Most starting bids were around $25-$40 depending on how elaborate the tree was decorated. The highest bid I saw on any of the tree's was $250! All the money goes to help local children in need so it is a very good cause.

The holiday season can be such a beautiful thing

Christmas Gazebo

I know the last few days before Christmas can be rather stressful. Hopefully you are able to find some time to reflect on the beauty of the season as well as spend quality time with those you love.

Here at our house things seem to be fairly low key. No rush really to speak of. It's the first Holiday season in a long time where I've felt so relaxed. I figure if all else fails, give money or gift certificates.

The snow outside our door helps to put a little magic in the air.

Merry Christmas to all

*The top photo is just the way the gazebo looked as the sun was setting this evening. The one below has a translucent tone applied which I downloaded from ShadowHouse Creations. Click here for a great tutorial on applying textures to an image.

Poinsettia Topiary ~ The finished results

You may remember when I said I was going to make this:

I did. This is my version of a Poinsettia Topiary ...

I already had the container, which I love, as well as the spanish moss. The faux cranberries were purchased at Joann's for a song and dance ($3-$4), and the plant was ordered through my daughters chorus class as a fund raiser. I chopped off the side flowers and leaves then tied it up with red velvet I bought at Walmart. All in all it was pretty cheap plus I can reuse it all next year, except the plant of course.


Lovely Miss Luna jumped into place as I was about to take photos. You might be thinking Poinsettia's are poisonous to animals but neither of my cats have ever touched them, and believe me Luna will eat or chew anything! Including shoes, laptop cases, furniture, faux garland ... almost anything. I tried to get her to chew on rawhide bones but she ignored them. Go figure.

And a photo looking into the mirror towards the tree . . .

Happy Winter Solstice! From hear on out the days will finally start getting a tiny bit longer. To bad they won't be getting warmer too!

Southern Lady

Once Christmas has passed I'll get back to posting some regular New England photography, but for now I'm having fun doing something a little different for a change.

I used a soft sparkle texture with Soft Overlay

The snow has gently falling here along the coast of New Hampshire and we currently have about 3" in our yard. Not much. It's cold so the snow it dry and fluffy. I always have such a soft spot for the birds on a day like today. The peanut, sunflower seed, thistle, and suet feeders are all full yet there are some birds who won't eat from them, so I put seed on the ground. Hopefully enough to satisfy all who come looking for a meal to stay warm.

Shopping at the mall last night I happened to notice B. Dalton was going out of business so everything is 40% off. Browsing around the store there was still a fairly decent selection but the closer it gets to Christmas the cheaper I get so all I bought was this magazine.

I know Christmas is almost here but if you love beautiful things, and happen to see the magazine, buy it.

The magazine is filled with beautiful images and ideas

Page after page of wonderful holiday decor and cooking!

**********

Below are a couple photos of my Christmas tree. Not the whole thing mind you as there really isn't much towards the bottom. Phineas finds ornaments very enticing and a great source of joy, so it is what it is.

Usually the girls complain every year about the tree. This year they both seem happy with the Victorian feel. Me too.

Next up ... The results of my Poinsettia Topiary and Luna! Yes, I know it's very exciting, but surely you can hang in there. Ha haa!