Happy New Year! (And a Wee Bit of Christmas!)

source:  Vintage Holiday Crafts

Wishing you all a year of adventure and fun and family time and good food and get togethers with friends and anything else your heart might desire! (Whew, I think I covered it with that last bit so I don't leave anyone out!)

We are having a mini-slumber party here at Sweet Bee Cottage tonight.  Most of Baby Bee's friends were out of town, but Baby Bee's BFF will be here and so will be Sewing Bee.  Just a quiet evening with pizza, movies, popcorn, crafts, and games.  Lots of games!

But, before we take down all of the Christmas decorations I wanted to share a few treasures with you.

Not only did we host my school staff party, but we also ended up hosting the church choir party too.  Well, our choir director's wife just enjoyed looking at all my vintage items and we shared our love of Depression glass.  She was so kind to loan me some books on all kinds of vintage glass.  

And...........

she gave me a little Christmas present!  

(I certainly didn't expect that!)

It's a copy of Good Housekeeping from December 1948!

 This is one of my favorite pages in the magazine.  

 And, my oh my, you wouldn't believe some of the advice in it.  I'll have to share that with you soon!  My MIL, the Quilting Bee, was out for Christmas and she was amazed (or maybe I should say flabbergasted) at the suggestion that you update your living room decor to make your teenage daughter love you more.  I was shocked by that too!  Would you do that today?

Not only did she give me the magazine, but also these oh so adorable embroidered rounds!  Don't you just want to pinch that doggie's cute little cheek?  I am envisioning making some cute things with these!

Now wasn't that sweet?  My Sweet Bee heart was very touched by her thoughtfulness!

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I also wanted to share one of my favorite little vignettes (under glass) this year.

I filled my apothecary jars with vintage ornaments and vintage Christmas light bulbs and a bunch of bottle brush trees I picked up at Hobby Lobby.   The ornaments are especially sweet to me because I have two of my grandparents Christmas ornaments in with the other vintage ones I've found.

And I'm looking forward to seeing what all of you are up to in 2013!

Thank you for all your visits during 2012!  Your visits are always such a delight!

P.S.  Be sure to come back in 2013 for some fun giveaways!

Happy New Year!

Here's to a glorious 2011!

Happy New Year to you and yours!

Projects of 2010!

Well, there are lots of things I could look back on for 2010 but I'm sticking to the few projects I finished and the one....well.....you'll see!

These are in chronological order - not the order of importance or #7 would be moved to #1!

1.  Cleaned and organized my pantry

From unable to find anything to organized nirvana!

And it still looks this good today!  For almost a year!  Wow!

2.  Made Julia's Boeuf Borguignon..... 

It was so delicious but I have yet to tackle another recipe in this book.  Do any of you have any suggestions for what to tackle next?

3.  Celebrated the Sewing Bee's 70th birthday with a weekend at the beach - in this charming cottage - with the beach right outside our door.  Yes, that's the ocean horizon you see in the background.

4.  Celebrated Baby Bee's 9th Birthday with a Cupcake Party.

Okay, I have to admit, I am really, really taken with my Pin the Cherry on the Cupcake game!  Is it wrong to really like one of your own projects?  

5.  Made this crazy quilt mosaic tree stump side table!

6.  Created a kitchen garden where these trees used to be.

I'm really looking forward to taking the lessons I learned with my first kitchen garden and using them with my garden this spring.

7.  Celebrated 20 years of marriage with Worker Bee

Trust me, that's an ongoing project!

8.  Painted my aged and shabby (not so chic) looking outdoor seating.

Love how great it looks!  Like it's brand new!

9.  Did a little redecorating project in our bedroom inspired by the monogram I won from Cathe at Just Something I Made.

Yuck!  This did not function well and definitely didn't look good!

It all feels more spacious now!

10.  Painted my china cabinet and glazed it!

 Whether you like green or not, you have to admit it looks a whole lot better!

And the project that got away!  

I blogged about this back in January 2010 and not a thing has been done! Well, I have picked up paint chips.......

 I loved this wallpaper when I got it, but it's been almost 12 years and I am so ready for a change.  We want to paint and I think that's part of why we haven't gotten this project done.  Do we strip the wallpaper?  Do we paint over it?  Any suggestions?

I'm not changing my original tile (from 1951) and I found this gorgeous fabric at a steep discount ($3 a yard) and bought tons of it.  I see it on my bench cushions and other linens.  I bought a charming gingham check to make some curtains out of too.  Now I've had the fabric for a long time and this year - yes THIS YEAR - I will get this project done!!!

(Or you can read about me not getting it done next year.)

Thank you so much for all your visits over the past year.  Your visits and comments have meant so much to me and I've so enjoyed getting to know some of the best folks in the whole world.

Don't you wish we all lived in the same little town and we could just all get together for a cuppa'?

(Latte for me, for you......?)

I'm getting close to 300 followers and I promised myself I would have a giveaway when I reached that milestone, but, really, 300 is just an arbitrary number so I hope you come back to enter my ALMOST 300 FOLLOWERS GIVEAWAY, starting in January.

Here's a little sneak peek of the giveaway......

Happy New Year to you all!  

May 2011 be the best and the brightest year yet!  

I am so looking forward to buzzing by your place and visiting with you in 2011!

Hugs to you all,

I'm linking up with
Cindy at My Romantic Home
and
Rhoda at Southern Hospitality

Thank you ladies for hosting!

Happy Glorious New Year!

Our celebration will be quiet this year.  It usually is.  We are having the Sewing Bee over and we'll watch movies and have - my favorite thing about New Year's from my childhood - appetizers for dinner.

As I tell my students at the end of the day, especially if they've had a bad one, "Tomorrow's another day. We'll start all over then."  Every day is a new chance, a new opportunity and the same goes for a brand new year.  Do I make crazy resolutions?  Sometimes, but what I like is the chance to dream and hope and plan for the new year as I reflect on the old.  Will I be able to accomplish everything I dream of?  Probably not, but it's the potential that keeps me going.

So what do I have up my sleeve for the new year????  Well, I'm just going to have to be coy and say you'll see, you'll see, but I can say I'm pretty sure it's sayonara to the cherry wallpaper in the kitchen.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you'll come by to visit often in the New Year!

Thank you Graphics Fairy for the lovely picture!