TIME TO MAKE CHRISTMAS COOKIES

Christmas 2010....I find myself surrounded with Grandchildren each with an electronic toy in hand. It is time to move back to the old way of having a fun time getting ready for Christmas.

It would have been cheaper to just buy the cookies already made. I couldn't believe the cost of supplies for a couple of dozen cookies.

I do believe we have created a memory that will last a lot longer than the pastry. They are pretty and tasty and we had so much fun making them.Memories....Priceless!

PICKIN' UP STICKS

this is what it looked like after they pulled the limbs around the tree. Twig boarder is completely gone.

This is the last picture I took of this flower be. as you can see I went around the edge with recycled rubber edging. I have planted moss in with the daisies and bulbs.  this picture is in Sept 2012. 

In early spring  2008 I began picking up sticks from the back yard. I would have a hand full pretty quick and I was always looking for ways to improve on the looks around the trees in the back yard so I came up with an idea to use the sticks. I started tying the sticks together with twine. Then I began laying them around two trees on the low side of the terrain. A flower bed came into vision fairly quick.

Even tho the picture don't look like it, the stick wall is about 8 inches tall on the low side. I added soil knowing that the sticks would deteriorate and someday the soil would be held by whatever was planted on it. I choose monkey grass and what I call Mother's Moss....I all so have heard it called Hocatown Moss.....which is the name of the settlement she grew up in.
There were already bulbs around those trees, jonquils and Shasta daises. The white color gives light to the different shades of green.

I had a tree cut that was too close to the house. When the men were removing the limbs they drug one close enough to remove the stick wall from around the back of the flower bed. As I stood in the kitchen and watched out the window my heart sank a bit. In the blink of a eye it was gone. The plants are all still there. the terrain is smooth. Changes every year in this yard. I'll just have to wait till next spring to see how pretty I can make it next year..

The Big Get Together

Finally.....we meet. The Nutz.

A group of people who met on line in a Stop smoking group. From around the world we came together to fight the addiction of tobacco. We posted several times a day and became very close. We broke out into another group. Kept in touch for another year or so and broke off into a group who decided to try to meet up. Myrtle Beach S.C. The Shanty! May 2010.


We flew in from all parts of the world. Manchester, England, Canada, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Oklahoma and met with two couples who live in North Carolina. The Shanty is on the beach in North Myrtle Beach South Carolina. We car pooled from Charlotte and Raleigh. It was so much fun.
The first day was rainy and overcast so we made the best of it by getting manicures and pedicures.

The second day was beautiful, we made sandwiches and gathered the umbrellas and set out for the beach. It was very private until you walk around the cove to the actual ocean.
That is me ...under the pier. In my new Myrtle Beach Hat. We went shopping, we cooked, we ate out and we laughed. We played games. We took pictures. We stayed a week.