rainy day reading

The other day was what Pooh calls a blustery day. It rained and the wind was A BLOWING!! Great day for reading in a cozy room. This is a room we enjoy reading in! I love my Kindle---and it is nice to be able to get 99 cent mysteries! --especially when you want some light reading! It has nice big views out of the window. There is a large fountain and when it is nice weather you can open the windows and listen. The picture above shows a picture that sits over my piano. I love it because we get egrets in our ponds here at the condo. So it was a relaxing day Minkey , my monkey had to join in of course!

Christmas Day (midnight on Christmas eve)

We had a wonderful Christmas time. The church pictured above is where we went to the Christmas eve service. This is in Charleston, SC. The music was ethereal at points. It was very uplifting when the entire church, organ, trumpets, and choir sung the old Christmas hymns that are so deep with meaning. After the hour of singing( including a 'song' that traced the gospel message through the Old Testament into the New Testament ) the midnight service began. It was a wonderful way to celebrate the beginning of Christmas morning. We went to bed around 2 am with our souls well content.

Otter fun today

These guys were so fast I had to take a few short videos of them!! They blessed our day with laughter! We had fun at Brookgreen gardens today watching the otters---both indoors and outdoors as you can see by these videos They were so fast it was difficult to get just plain old photos of them! These guys bring a smile to everyone's face! We had such a fun time watching them and had them to ourselves! I may link this to Out door wednesday which can usually be found here: http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/    http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/ relaxing afterwards!

Fun veggie plates!

This is a fun veggie plate. You simply get a tree shaped plate. Line it with celery--add cauliflower and decorate with red pepper. You can set the tree on a large round plate and place carrots around the tree too. Below are more ideas-- another idea--this I found on line it it not my photo, but I did one like it for Thanksgiving. I posted this on my recipe blog, but thought I would spread the fun ideas here.



Found the ones below online




Note quite a veggie plate!

More on Christmas decor

I love this little bird--found him on Ebay. This is another little joy in my day.




Ok, the above didn't come out quite right because I was supposed to have smaller bulbs for the top so that it would be more in the shape of a tree! But I used what I had and it adds a bit of sparkly fun. I found this idea from someone's blog. You use a knitting needle and just put the flat head of the needle on the bottom and thread the bulbs onto it. For the top bulb you remove the little hanger thing and just slip it over. The bulbs enable the whole thing to stand on its own. Cool and only takes minutes!

Blackboard happiness

Since moving from the condo, I have suffered from blackboard withdrawal. The one I had at the cottage just didn't fit here. I gave that one to my son and he uses it for Bible memory verses. I found this one on Ebay and quite frankly it adds a spark of happiness to my day.


I thought this was a funny picture because the window on the door was reflecting on the coat closet. I have snowflakes in the door's window.

It is strange how small things can make one smile and add little joys to the day.

Treat yourself to beautiful Christmas music

I just got this album and here is a taste of it above--it is quite beautiful! With it came a little silver ornament which I have pictured below



this was a surprising treat!

memories......

The above pictures are some memories of our old cottage which we have moved out of.......sometimes it is fun to remember.

Thoughts today

“I am not sure exactly what heaven will be like, but I know that when we die and it comes time for God to judge us, he will not ask, 'How many good things have you done in your life?' rather he will ask, 'How much love did you put into what you did?”
― Mother Teresa

Love red checks and Pottery Barn bird

Well, I got my red checked tablecloth out--it just makes me happy---something about red gingham makes me feel homey and smiley






The above ornament is a new one from Pottery Barn--I want to start collecting birds for the tree. I love birds and watch them from one of my windows here, as I always have lol



above is a bad shot of the tree--got the strands lopsided! ah well. Oh yes, and we did get rid of the big old low hanging light in the dining area so now I can move that table and resize it without the leafs any ole time.

And of course a fire is going since the weather has now turned cool (lol---this is a fake tv version---still gives a nice feeling. Some days you have to just take time to play a bit!


My mini monkeys are quite happy under the tree too!

New hat for newest sockmonkey

The monkey on the left is the newest one and he has his new hat as of today. This is for Corwin or as we call him at times, Cor-baby. I need to come up with a name for the monkey, but actually Corwin's siblings are great at this! Right now I am calling him Monk-Monk

A view from my Monkey blog

What are these dolls doing on the monkey blog??? The are awaiting the birth of the newest Monkey!



Zephir (the monkey on the left. is awaiting the birth too. The newest addition is starting his formation on the right.



Here is the machine---which always inspires happiness just because of its color and simplicity and happy kitty features!

Yes and here is the newest Monkey. This one is going to Corwin on his birthday in January. He has a slightly worried look--but he is not as worried as Alden's monkey.....perhaps it is because Corwin seems a tiny bit more sedate.
Here he is with 2 of his buddies. He will remain with them for a month until he comes into Corwin's world.


He is enjoying hanging out with this gang for a while until he goes forth and travels to the new Corwin world which has plenty of monkey playmates too!


Until then he will hang out with this gang.....and et hem the dolls!