A taste of Florida Sunshine!

The oranges and citrus fruit are ripening on the trees at this time of year.

And one of our neighbors has a pretty little lime tree on their patio with a nice crop of limes.

I picked a few (thanks neighbor) and will leave them on the counter to ripen for a few days before I cut them. Don’t they look pretty?

I’m joining Beautiful Sunday

Amaze me Monday and

Lavender Cottage for Mosaic Monday.

We’re having fabulous weather this week!

Time to drive out to the groves and get oranges, grapefruit and lemons, too!

The Wild Wild West!

I’ve received evidence that the Wild Wild West has gotten even wilder this week!

Look at the photos I received in an email!

My second son, his wife and son and my youngest son are in New Mexico this week!

And here was the message,

“From New Mexico, wish you were here!”

You sure are a good looking bunch of kids!

Wish we were there, too! Safe travels! Have FUN!!!

And now, scanned photos from the ‘archives’!

These same 2 boys a ‘few years’ ago!

Taken in New Mexico, October 1984

They’re all grown up! And now our grandson (in the middle) is the age of his Dad in the ‘old’ photo! How time flies! And what great memories!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Enjoy this special day with family and friends!

And if you have time, play with these precious paper dolls from the Graphics Fairy HERE

or watch a little Cowboy football!

I’ll be doing BOTH!

(I’m posting a day early so we can all enjoy our holiday on Thursday!)

Love to all of my precious family in Texas and Arkansas! And blessings to you ALL!

Holiday Candles

This is a tutorial I did a few years ago HERE. I still love my candles and have made a few more since then.

So let’s get started. I rarely shop at the Dollar Stores but that’s a great place to buy these pillar candles. ($1 at Dollar Tree)

I used this Ivory Linen Finish paper but you can use whatever you have. The linen paper has some beige color to it and a nice texture so it added to the look I was trying to achieve.

I found so many pretty images to print. My graphics are from The Graphics Fairy and Two Crazy Crafters! Thanks to these special ladies!

This particular print I copied as a 5 by 7 but I made others full page and cut them down.

I trimmed the top and bottom to get the perfect size.

You need some overlap but not too much...so I marked and trimmed....

then I used double stick tape. You could glue but I LOVE double stick tape!

SO EASY!

Stick on one side…

Lay it down and wrap around....

And this is how it will look...

and then the FUN begins!

 

I loved deciding what ribbon or embellishment to use! Vintage lace and trims are the best!

I already had some bigger versions of this pillar candle in other colors so I covered them, too!

And the nice thing about this project, if you get carried away and cover ALL of your candles in Christmas paper....

it will be easy to take off after Christmas! heehee!

 

And visit Babs for a beautiful post HERE using flameless candles. I want to make some of these, too!

I’m joining the Vintage Inspiration Link party HERE,

Ivy and Elephants HERE

Vintage Bliss Tuesdays HERE

and Tweak it Tuesday!

They make wonderful gifts?

Which one do you like best?

 

LOVE…or hate!

You’ll either ‘love’ these photos or HATE them!

I know many of you are in the throws of winter weather and I have lived places that got lots of cold and snow, too.

But I live in Florida now and this is what I did this week! (these are VERY empty SHELLS!)

Hubby even found money at the beach! An old Lincoln head penny along with a few pieces of sea glass.

 

He picked up a toy for me so I put it in my little stack of sea glass.

I’m joining Beautiful Sunday

Amaze me Monday and

Lavender Cottage for Mosaic Monday.

I’m thankful for my good health and good life.

I’m counting my blessings this week!

Fences ahead!

We have such beautiful fences here in Florida but I’m not always quick enough to get the photos!

I took these to PhotoScape to create some prettier photos. Can you spot the Sandhill Cranes? There’s one in the lower left of the next photo.

To tell you the truth, these were taken on the fly again.

This is the first one in this series. I was trying to get the palm tree in the photo but I wasn’t quick enough.

I love seeing the reflections in the water, too.

These were taken on the way to the mall.

I’m joining Tex for the

Good Fences party and

Wild Bird Wednesday!

Why don’t you join us?

Doll Making and Displays

Not all of my dolls look like ducks! lol

(if you missed my duck doll post, go HERE)

Meet ‘Teeny Tiny Tess’!

I was hoping she would be simple to make so that I could make lots. But I haven’t quite perfected the pattern so she doesn’t have any ‘sisters’ yet!

But doesn’t she look sweet displayed with old Nancy Drew and Hardy boy books?

Once upon a time, I showed this book written by Carolyn Keene HERE but I never came back to explain what it was. “By the Light of the Study Lamp” is a 1934 Dana Girls Mystery.

I’m joining the Vintage Inspiration Link party HERE,

Ivy and Elephants HERE

Vintage Bliss Tuesdays HERE

and Tweak it Tuesday!

I love old children’s books, don’t you?

(and dolls AND BEARS!!!)

Come to our afternoon tea Miss Prudence.

Am I ‘off’ the naughty list now?

A Year of Hikes!

We celebrated ‘one year of Florida hiking’ by going to Halpata Tastanaki Preserve this weekend.

In one year we made 48 hikes averaging around an hour and a half for each hike. It’s been an adventure…times 48!!!

We were so pleased that they had gotten in there with bush hogs and mowers to take down the tall grass on the trails.

There were so many animal tracks to try to identify.

(these are wild turkey tracks)

And with the dryer Fall season, the plants, grasses and trees had some pretty colors. There were even several flowers blooming.

I had all kinds of comments on my post yesterday about our nice weather. The cold temps and bad weather did not reach this far South YET and it was 82 degrees on Sunday afternoon when we hiked.

We’re expecting freezing temps Wednesday morning though. I’ll let you know! lol

I’m joining Amaze me Monday

Ivy and Elephants HERE

and Tweak it Tuesday!

I hope you find new things to love about where you live, too. And as I’ve said before,

find the beauty that surrounds you

and enjoy it!