A White Christmas!

 We were awakened this morning to the sound of hard rain and lightening, but look at it now! Wonderful snow!  Just a beautiful and wonderful blanket of snow on Christmas day!

A bird's footprints in the snow found on our doorstep.  

A view of the winter wonderland from our dining room window.  

The beginning stages of the family igloo (not sure if anyone will stay in it) and snow covered foliage. We received a lot of snow today and now the family and I are all bundled up keeping warm.  I hope your Christmas was a blessed one as well.  Merry Christmas and God Bless You!

Little Angels!

What a blessing you can be in someone's life by simply taking the time to care!

For the past year I've been having this feeling of wanting to do more with my life regarding caring for others.  I would have talks with my husband regarding wanting to give back to our community in some way, but didn't quite know where to begin. I thank God for guiding me in this direction as I find that by my actively acting on this desire to help and to be of service to others, I find a since of peace and joy in knowing that I have, in some sort of way, helped make a difference in someone else's life in a positive and encouraging way.

Wash Day!

Here in Texas I live in an area that has hard water and since I do not have a water softening system within my home, I wash my strands using heated distilled water.  I'll either wash my hair while bent over my kitchen sink, or I'll take several jugs of heated distilled water and place them on the bench within my shower and wash my strands while taking a shower.   Either method takes a while longer than just washing my strands while in the shower (using hard water), but my end results are well worth it!  I'm able to detangle my strands easier and thus loose a lot less hair. I also experience less shedding in between washings.  Simply put, hard water and my strands don't mix.  My hair always suffers after using hard water to wash and condition my strands and as women (some) get older, they tend to experience thinning hair and I don't plan to help this process along in any way AT ALL!

Half and half!

Half straight and half curly.  This day was my wash day and normally I wash my strands in about four sections, but wanted to capture this image for my post. I'm elated that my curls are back, but I will tell you that in the back of my mind, whenever I wear my hair straight, I worry that my curls won't bounce back on wash day (gotta stop reading horror stories on heat damage).  I put my hair in fat wet twists which will become my staple style during the winter months.

Personalize it!

Personalized Ornaments done at home

Wanted to try something new this year and create my own Christmas tree ornaments.   I used wired ribbons, metallic paint pens and stickers to create my lil' treasures!  Since I can't draw, I also used stencils to paint bells, wreaths, etc... Although I made these for myself, these would make wonderful gifts to give to family and friends and they're quick to make.

I also made ornaments with the names of all of my immediate family members, and after my son's marry and have kids of their own, I will use this same idea to create new ornaments naming the new loved ones that have joined our family to celebrate and show them how much they are loved!

Peace, Love and Joy!

I purchased my items from Hobby Lobby, Joann Fabrics and Michael's.

Blue Ornaments - Purchased from Walmart and used the smooth textured bulbs only
Red, Gold and Off White Ornaments - Purchased from the Dollar Tree

*Hint* - You can also purchased frosted ornaments from Hobby Lobby to decorate

Paint Pen - Tree House Paint Marker - Hobby Lobby - Love! ($3.47)
Paint Pen - Krylon Pale Gold Leafing Pen - Joann's Fabric - Love! ($4.00 after using save 50% store coupon)
Paint Pen - Krylon Silver Leafing Pen - Joann's Fabric- Love! ($4.00 after using save 50% store coupon)
Wired Ribbon - Gold and Silver spools - Michael's - Love! ($1.99)
Martha Stewart Stencil - Michael's - Not bad, but would probably work better with paint instead of pens - ($4.99).  Also, the ornaments I used were a bit small for the size of these stencils, so it made it difficult to fit the stencil on the ball for a smooth/uniform image.

So give this DIY a try!  I'm sure many of you are great artists and can probably create some new and wonderful designs that you, your family and loved ones will enjoy!

Peace and Blessings!