Christmas at the Whitlock Manor

While a little late, please enjoy this post with pictures of our delightful Christmas celebrations. In the above picture Ravenna is ecstatic to have received two "Baby Signing Time" DVD's and is signing "heck yeah!" Actually, she is signing "baby" but that isn't as cool.

This is my make-shift Advent wreath. For weeks Andrew kept saying the kitchen smelled funny, like "feces" (by the way, anything that "smells weird" to Andrew gets equated with feces). It turns out that the smell was the coming from the candles. I did not think that they smelled anything like feces, more like petrochemical, but next year I think we will find some beeswax candles and keep these ones for emergencies.

The Lean Tree again! Rachel asked about how my cloth gift bag adventure turned out and you can see for yourself if you click on the picture. Notice all the gifts under the tree are wrapped using reusable/reused wrapping. Even the gift tags were made from last years Christmas cards. Hurray for frugal and Eco-friendly, plus, they look crafty fabulous.

Here Jeff-Dad is modeling the latest in reusable gift bag fashion. Doesn't he look stunning?

Delete

Sorry, I had to delete the last post b/c I was getting a lot of weird stuff. Sigh. Public blogs.

New House Photos: Main Floor

We have now lived in our house for a month and my dear sister-in-law (Hi, Lauren!) reminded me that I still had not posted pictures. While my home still hasn't reached the degree of perfection that I aspire to, and maybe never will, here are some photos to satisfy your curiosity. Unfortunately, my camera battery died before I could finish, so this is what you get.

This view is from the living room into the kitchen. You can see the back slider that is our main entrance and through that our tiny backyard and garage entrance. We haven't gotten around to that chandelier yet, but soon the brassy brassiness will be gone a la a can of Krylon.

I decided to include this picture of the main floor front window to show that we are on the ground floor from the back but on the 2nd floor from the front. This is due to the house being built into a hill. Our front entry actually goes right into the basement. It is hard to describe, but I will post pictures as soon as my battery is charged.

This is my kitchen from the back sliding entry. I love my gas stove and actually love that my sink is in the island. The dishwasher is right next to the sink.

The view from the pantry. You can see our neighbors garage through the window. Isn't my buffet awesome? I got it at IKEA and it took me four hours to assemble. I still have some decorating to do. For more views of the kitchen, see this post.

This is the view of the living room from the kitchen, and of course, Ravenna. The first door on the right is our powder room and the second door beyond it is the entrance to the stairs going down to the basement/front entry. Notice our artificial Christmas tree is leaning to the left? Yeah, I call this the "lean" tree for obvious reasons but also that we will only use it in the lean years that we cannot afford a live tree. Rock on, Lean Tree; the weeks outside of your box are few.

You can kind of see our piano just below the banister. This view is from the bottom of our stairs leading up to the 3rd floor. We are using what is supposed to be the formal dining area as our entertaining area and eventually the area in front of the windows, behind the couch, will be our library/play area/office/music room.

F-E-A-R

If you haven't noticed yet, on the right side of my blog I have a list of my favorite links. Ahhh...the linky drugs. When I am feeling down in the dumps, I go read Soule Mama's blog and it makes me wish I knew how to knit, but then I feel glad because I would probably waste a lot of money on yarn that wouldn't amount to much, but I digress. When I feel the need for crafty distraction I head on over to Amy Carol's blog Angry Chicken. This woman has the best blog links! Seriously! Today I discovered this gem from the Angry Chicken which is the inspiration of this post.

Elaine, the lovely Selfish Seamstress has the ability to make beautiful, fashionable clothes BY HERSELF! With a SEWING MACHINE no less! How does she do this? From reading her blog I am getting the drift that aside from possessing magic abilities, she can sew beautiful things because she does it primarily for herself. What a concept!

I am afraid of my sewing machine. Every time I feel inspired to tackle a project I hear the voice of my sewing machine in my head saying: "you will fail you silly girl, so just leave me in my nice box and nobody gets hurt." Sometimes I fight that voice, usually to sew for someone else, and pull out the little "darling" and have an ugly contest of wills. Eventually, with dreams of sewing perfection shattered, I give up and settle for mediocrity. But, today I had an epiphany! The reason I can't sew is BECAUSE I only sew for other people! I can't say that I have ever made anything for myself.

And now, the resolution. Early though it is, my resolution for 2010 is to learn to sew with some degree of confidence and sew something lovely for myself! I expect my dear friends to hold me to this, particularly those of you who can sew.

My Life 5 Minutes Ago: Kitchen

This is my kitchen almost exactly 5 minutes ago: the pot on the stove is heating chicken stock for to make chicken soup; spoon bread is in the oven. There is gluten free cake mix on the counter for date night later ;).

My kitchen table is cluttered with Christmas card madness, a makeshift advent wreath, a snap press that arrived in the mail today, Andrew's scriptures and Ravenna's high chair tray complete with left-overs from lunch. You even get a glimpse inside the pantry!

Happy Saint Nicholas Day!

December 6th is Saint Nicholas Day, when much of Europe celebrates the man whose myths created the Santa whose arrival Americans await on December 24th. Saint Nicholas was the patron saint of many things but was especially known for his generosity and good deeds. On the night of December 5th, German children put out their shoes and often leave oats and carrots for Saint Nicholas' horse. If the children were good, their shoes would be filled with small toys and treats, but if not...well, lets not talk about that since all children are good.

So, last night Ravenna put out her shoes and this morning, look what she found:

A fresh dusting of snow and some awesome finger puppets!

She just loves them! I think that we will continue this tradition in the future because it was lots of fun and fits in well with our Advent celebration. Tonight we lit our second Advent candle, read scriptures prophesying of Christ's coming and sang, "The First Noel."

At long last, INTERNET!

Sheesh! It took two whole weeks to get our Internet set up, but I am back now and I will try to get pictures ASAP. There is just so much to do with the new house AND with Christmas fast approaching, the craziness is magnified. I just hope that I can prioritize so that I can really enjoy this wonderful season.

By the way, in case you were wondering after my last post, we absolutely love our home! It is the perfect size and everything has worked out so well! I can't wait to share pictures!