My Grandma Sandera

This past weekend we traveled to Georgia to see my dad and my grandma Sandera.  The last time I saw her was about 4 years ago and her health has changed a lot.  She had a heart valve replaced a few years ago and her heart is weakening and she does not want to have another surgery.  The doctors have told her that her heart will give out soon.  We really needed to make the trip to spend some time with her.  My grandparents love in northern Michigan but have a home in Georgia that she wanted to visit again so my dad drove her down.  My grandpa is in a nursery home in Michigan with Alzheimer's and is unable to travel.  My grandma will be 85 next March and she is such a cool lady.  I have some of the best childhood memories that involve my grandparents.  A few years back I wrote them both a letter recalling memories that are dear to my heart, thanking them for all their love and the special times.

It was painful to see my gram so different- quiet, small, weak and fragile.  My grandma raised 5 boys and she has lived a long full life.  Her words "a full life, not all of it good but life owes me nothing".  Her and my grandfather have been married 60 some years and it is so hard for her to be away from him.  She told me this is not the way they planned it, they wanted to take care of one another and now he has dementia and she is too weak to care for him at home.  It is sad, I want to go back to the way things were before.  I dislike change and it breaks my heart to know they are both aging.

We did the best to soak up out short time with my dad and my grandma.

Here are a few pictures that I will treasure forever

I will share more pictures from the rest of our trip in the next day or so

Doodles at Breakfast

I have had a student with me on Thursday mornings since May and she is so sweet.  Her and her husband and daughter came to our Christmas open house and she bought this book for the kids.  It is made up of 36 tear off placemats that show step by step directions for drawing.  Syd loves it! 

Ho Ho Ho- videos

Wreath

I saw this beautiful wreath in Woman's Day magazine and since I did not have a Christmas wreath for my front door I decided to make one.

I already had two colors of felt so I went and bought another shade of green.  I made my circle patterns out of cardboard and started tracing felt circles and cutting them out.

the Styrafoam wreath is wrapped in yarn- which I believe makes them glue stick better

Each circle gets cut like a spiral leaving a small circle in the middle that you glue to the bottom of the rosette

the finished product!  It seriously took me 10 hours, maybe more- but it will be reused year after year so it was worth it!

Do you make a wreath for your front door?

Materials:

1 skein green yarn

12" styrofoam wreath (I bought a 14")

fabric scissors

ballpoint pen

scrap cardboard

3/4 yard each of felt- red, light green, dark green

hot glue gun and glue sticks

TIME AND PATIENCE

Cover wreath with yarn, wrapping around and tying to secure.  Draw and cut 3 circles from scrap cardboard- 3.25" (small), 4.25" (medium), 5.5" (large) in diameter-I used a compass.  Using cardboard circles trace on felt and then cut out.  The directions say 18 small, 16 medium and 5 large of each color- I gave up on counting and just made lots and then had to make more!  To make a rosette cut a spiral into each circle leaving 1'" to 1.5" circle in the center.  Starting from the outside end of the

spiral coil the felt inward until you get to the circle in the center and dab glue on the circle and then press the coiled felt onto it and hold until dry.  Once you have all the rosettes made glue them to the foam wreath alternating colors and sizes!

Mantle

This year I wanted to change my mantle a bit from the usual decorations- I was inspired by Lisa Leonard.

So I headed out to Hobby Lobby as usual and bought several Styrofoam cones in various sizes

I already had Christmas fabric and a hot glue gun

so all you do is tear the fabric in strips and wrap it around the cone, gluing as you go

easy craft and I think they are so cute

I did not make the candle holders because I already had a few
my Christmas sign was a gift from Laura years ago and I love it

instead of my green garland I used a lighter beaded garland and a few pine cones I glittered

what do you do with your mantle?  same thing each year or do you change it up?

Party

Saturday we had a party- Christmas Open House/Birthday for me

It was great fun, yummy food and we had wonderful guests.

I made a new appetizer spinach, feta and roasted red purses and

mushroom and Havarti cheese purses

I will admit the phyllo pastry is a bit of a chore-it is so thin you have to be gentle

aren't they cute though

I made up the mushroom recipe and it was a hit

we made them a week in advance and froze them, 15 minutes before the guests arrived I put them in the oven

of course I had to make labels so everyone new what was inside

Sydney helped me make all the skewers

we had two varieties

green olive, grape tomato, prosciutto and mozzarella balls

and

cucumber, feta, kalamata olive and grape tomato

then we had cookies and fudge

cranberry, orange walnut and

cherry and almond

our little man- excuse the boo boo on his cheek-boy meets train

silly with daddy

the whole spread-yummy

Me with Ashleigh- my right hand gal at work

a snapshot of the crowd before it even got crowded

dance party!

cheers- we had a great night

we feel so blessed to have such great friends and neighbors- who really are our family away from home

Preparations

    We have been so busy- preparing for the season and for a greatly anticipated Christmas open house on Saturday (which also happens to be my 32nd Birthday).  I have been crafting, baking, cooking and decorating.  I have some great recipes and craft ideas to share, I just need the time to type it out. 
    My kids have been loving our advent scratch off- so far these have been our activities: drink hot cocoa, do something nice for someone today, make a donation to charity, share your favorite Christmas snack, make Christmas card, write Santa a letter, and set up the Nativity.  It is starting to feel more like Christmas with the weather cooling and some fun festivities.