Happy New Year!

Wishing you all a very safe, happy

and healthy new year to you all!

And of course:

GO GO GO

Ohio State Buckeyes

 at the Fiesta Bowl tonight!

See you all next year!

 Hugs!

♥

~Michele

Merry Christmas!

This wonderful nativity was painted by my friend

(and daughter's mother-in-law)

 Patricia Reeve.

The Gift of Christmas Baking!

I have been baking my head off this week -

and thought I'd share what I am giving friends,

 neighbors and family.

I *always* make decorated sugar cookies and Russian Snow Balls.

Those are my two standard staple cookies for sure.

I love love love the smell of ginger cookies baking.

One of these days I intend on mastering the art of decorating with royal icing.

Practice, practice, practice, right?

♥

I made a bajillion each of : decorated cut-out cookies, 

snow balls, chocolate peanut crunch balls,

amd Oreo snowmen truffles.

(My daughter made the chocolate one with candy cane on top.)

Some of these were quite labor intensive to make,

but I had lots of fun doing so.

But it sure helps me get into the spirit of the season.

All of our pretty snow is gone now.

We won't be having a white Christmas after all. :-(

I think our last snow storm just came in too early!

Here is my post on the last snowfall if you missed here. 

Here is where I found the recipe for those cute snowmen truffles.

And they're perfect alone as a tiny token to give someone.

It is especially well-received when in its own wee gift box

tied up with string.

Merry Christmas!

As always, thank you so much for your visit!

♥

~Michele

If you missed my last post: I shared the cute pics

 of my first grand daughter sitting on Santa's lap here.

She is just too sweet!

Linking:

Foodie Friday   *  Mosaic Monday 

First Visit With St. Nick!

Wow - Christmas is nearly here!

I just wanted to pop in and show off

 how cute the baby looked when she went to visit Santa!

Gotta start with the ruffles on her bottom -

 'cuz that wee skirt is so cute I am hardly able to contain my squeals.

 Yes, my friends, I have lost my little grandma mind, I tell ya!

And this is the look she's giving ME 'cuz I took this shot!

I am not entirely sure which one of us is the happier.

And nooooo, this isn't the best pic in the world....

But I simply had to share,

 because it was a very special occasion!

Here is baby meeting Santa for the first time

while he made an appearance at our church.

I cannot even believe she's five months old already!

Isn't she getting big?

As always, thank you for your visit!

♥

~Michele

xxoo   MERRY CHRISTMAS  ooxx

HURRY! A CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY!

IN CELEBRATING THE MAGIC OF THE SEASON-

and knowing my 5th blogger anniversary is Jan. 1st

(and PROBABLY won't much feel like blogging that day)

I am giving away a cute 

Christmas Snowmen Sugar and Creamer!

This is so whimsical and fun - hope you like!

Just be sure to leave a comment stating

 whether you want in on the giveaway!

Giveaway ends Sunday at EST 10pm

so I can get it shipped first thing Monday morning

for you all to receive in time for Christmas!

Also, be sure to check my last post here if you missed it -

I was fortunate enough to capture some true winter's beauty.

I just posted it late last night so I didn't give readers much time

to see it, and it's worth seeing - the snow and the full moon

is worth the few seconds it takes to see that short post, I promise!

It means a lot to me when you visit,

 thanks so much for being such wonderful friends

 and truly thought & loyal readers all year long.

Hugs. ♥



**CONGRATS TO DIANE @
 LAVENDER DREAMER BLOG
WHO WON THIS GIVEAWAY!**

She posted about it here. 

PS:

Please forgive me for teasing, but this giveaway is limited to US only, to help keep rising shipping costs even doable for me.


Linking:

Feathered Nest   *   Everything Else 

Winter's Day: Into Night Then Back Again

The perfect winter's day in Ohio?

Waking to this:

Then the snowfall seizing...

the day turning into the blue hour...

And then witnessing its grand finale:

The morning after - moon still out but waning:

Winter. 

I absolutely love it.

Do you, as well?

As always, thank you for stopping by.

♥

~Michele

Linking:

Simple and Sweet   *  Home and Garden

Baby, it's COLD Outside!

We have had such sunny warm and mild temps,

 but it just recently turned blustery!

I just had to share our most adorable

 Abomidable SnowBaby

in the history of ever.

Just sayin'.

♥

HAPPY DECEMBER 1ST AND ADVENT BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL!

Happy Thanksgiving from Bug!

From our home to yours - 

Sure hope you all had a most wonderful

 Thanksgiving!

Here's our cute little turkey grand daughter!

By the way she's in the Gerber Baby Contest!

There's only a few more days to vote

and we'd really love your votes!

VOTE FOR VIVIAN

Just sign up to Gerber and once you're in go to their

 Photo Gallery

and in the search name = Vivian 

location: Columbus

You will find her sweet face and can vote then!

Thank you so much. It means so much to us! ♥

xxooxxooxxooxxoo

Miss you all - big hugs!

~Michele

Tea Cup Exchange Autumn 2016

It's time for the big reveal of 

Stephanie's Tea Cup Exchange!

I am so excited to share with you the treasures

 that I so generously received!

My exchange was just absolutely PERFECT for me.

Margaret from San Antonio had me - 

she isn't a blogger yet but wishes to be soon.

If she ever does I will announce it on my blog

so you can find her....

because we all need friends to follow us here, right?

Look at these two beauties I received!

As most of you know I collect super delicate antique china tea cups.

 What a wonderful surprise to receive a modern heavier

 (safer/more usable)

 stoneware teacup in my favorite neutral ivory with a BIRD on it!

I ADORE this teacup and have used it every single day

 since my package arrived! Thank you SO much, Margaret!!

Just look at this gorgeous goldfinch glass painted plate!!!!!!!

Is that just the most lovely plate ever?!!???

It's the perfect size for serving teatime snacks with a friend.

Even the saucer is bird shaped.  : - )

She also sent me a few tea bags of kinds I had never before tried-

and in my eagerness to sip them (and only after enjoying)

 did I remember that I hadn't taken a pic of them. Oops. 

~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~

In the box was this gorgeous hardmade card, too. 

I keep it on my computer right here next to me

kept up by my pretty birdie magnets.

It brings me such joy when I see it, and tells me to 

HAVE A BEAUTIFUL DAY

♥

As you can clearly see, my teacup fits right in perfectly

with my home decor.

I couldn't be more pleased.

Again, thank you, dear Margaret.

The swap partner Stephanie chose for me to send treasures to

was Janice from Missouri,  who writes the blog

Curtains in My Tree

Click on her blog name above to see what I sent her, if you'd like.

THANK YOU, TOO  STEPHANIE - YOU ARE AMAZING!

I highly encourage all of you to go check out all the swapping fun.

Just click on the box above to get there.

As always, thank you for your visit!

HUGS!

♥

~Michele

Linking:

Martha's Favorites   *   Share Your Cup   *  Tuesday Cuppa Tea

Thoughts of Home   *   Friends Sharing Tea   *   FFaEE   *   

Great Pumpkin Carving Party

HAPPY HAUNTING, EVERYONE!

My younger daughter hosted her annual Pumpkin Carving party

 last night and I thought I'd pop in a share it before it gets too late!

It was such fun!

 My daughter has always loved Halloween best,

 and decorated every square inch of their festive home!

 It was dark and busy and crowded and fun and soooo cute!

Happily for me I was holding my grand daughter most of the time

so it's a miracle I snapped pics at ALL!

Here are all of our awesome Jack O'Lanterns!

(The one with writing says Go Celts -

it's difficult to tell because it is behind a tall stem.

My niece is a high school varsity cheerleader

 for a team called Celtics. That family has great team spirit!

In case you are wondering, mine is the lower right one.

I nearly always do happy sweet ones.

The one next to mine is difficult to tell-

but it is a Marvel Comic character called Two Face

so it has two faces.

I think my favorite is my daughter's mother-in-law's:

She painted it black and it's face is all BATS!

That one is 2nd from right, second row from top.

Another really awesome one is my eldest daughter

(private art college degree paid off) who carved the

cat on upper left. 

We thought it was neat we ended up with two cat ones this year!

Here's my festive goofy little sister being all witchy and scary -

 she's a beautiful platinum blonde normally. : -)

She's not evil - she's prolly just saying 

"GIMME ALL YOUR CANDY, MY PRETTIES!"

OK, my pics of the party just don't do it justice -

everything looked so neat in candlelight...

but makes for poor picture quality. Sorry.

This is a pic of the table early before all the food was out-

I knew if I didn't snap a pic right then 

I'd probably not get one of the table at all.

My youngest daughter collects Dia de Muertos sugar scull art-

so when I find fun things like this little pail I have to buy for her.

Read a little about the history of this ancient celebration here.

Sugar scull art is usually quite ornate and colorful.

Sometimes just in black and white it looks cool too.

This table held just a few yummy snacks and was cute!

The Oreo surprise bottom cupcakes with oreo buttercreme frosting.

But BY FAR the cutest thing last night was our wee pumpkin!

Here's our Baby Bug grand-daughter all dressed up for the occassion. 

Her cute pumpkin hat was knitted by a friend of her moomy's.

So, already tomorrow is November 1st!

Where has this year gone!?

As always, thank you for your visit!

You are all such ghoul friends, oops, I mean GOOD,

 yes that is you are all such GOOD FRIENDS!

Hope you had a hauntingly good Halloween.

See you soon. Big hugs! 

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥