What the Bejeebers

Living by the mighty St. Clair River,

 Bob and I have got use to the freighters blowing their horns.

For those of you who are not so familiar, they have what I call signals.

One short blast means changing course to starboard (right)

Two short blasts means changing course to port (left)

One long blast and two short is a salute

Five or six blasts in a row means danger or what I like to call it...

Hey you idiot get out of my way because I am bigger than you and cannot stop.

It never fails during the Summer, every weekend we hear freighters blasting their horns

many times because people like to fish in the shipping lane.

Now another signal is a blast at every buoy. Freighters do this when the river is foggy.

Sometimes I get woken up from sleep because one of the buoys is close to our house.

Then I count how many times I can hear the freighter...

it's my version of counting sheep.

Well this morning the river was foggy and it was raining.

Did I say that I hate driving in the dark in rain...well I do.

Anyway, I'm driving along going to work.

Minding my own business.

And what happens to me.

This freighter blows its horn...

and scares the bejeebers out of me.

I just happened to be driving by a buoy and I could not see the freighter in the fog.

Ah, the life of one who lives along the river...

When I got to work, my heart was still a few miles back.

Now my next short little tid bit for tonight

is that we have a new an animal in our neck of the woods.

One I might add that should find another home and leave.

Not only do we live by the river,

but our house is close to a 1400 acre state park.

The state DNR was warning deer hunters about this animal in November.

Now tonight I find out that one of our friends has actually seen it.

They live about 10 minutes from us.

 

I have come across many coyotes, but this guy can leave right now!!.

If I saw this cougar in person,

 it would scare the bejeebers more out of me than that freighter for sure.

Christmas Blessings everyone

Sure don't feel like Christmas with rain and 53 degree weather.

Does anyone want a cougar...I will be glad to send him your way.

Janice

Monday Montage with a Twist

For today's montage I decided to add one of our family traditions into the mix.

My gramma H started this one.

In the 1950's they came out with these little elves.

Some were green, others red.

There were even ones that were striped in red/ white or green/ white.

Others were dolled up in burlap.

They all had one thing in common though.

Those cute chubby cheeks, bright eyes and an adorable smile.

I know most of you remember these little guys.

This red elf on the left is from the 60's

while his older cousin on the right is from the 50's.

The Santa box in the middle are cookie cutters.

Now this tradition that my gramma decided to start was that once the farmhouse was decorated for Christmas, the last thing she added was her green little elf.

She would place him in a spot where us grandchildren would have to find him.

There was only one rule to finding the elf. He would never be in a bedroom or bathroom.

Now you are probably thinking that would be easy,

but you see my gramma had a HUGE farmhouse,

with a large galley kitchen, large dining room,

living room and parlor..not to mention the 2 covered porches and the mud room.

So we were glad the 4 bedrooms and baths were not included.

Then there was her stone basement..eek..glad she did not put the elf down there!

Once we found the elf we were treated to a Christmas cookie...

well more like two or three or four.

It was fun because every time we went to grammas house during the holidays,

the elf would be moved to a different location, and we would have to look for him again.

It was a fun tradition that my own parents handed down to their grandchildren.

Now I am doing the same thing with my own grandchildren.

Even now, I still have fun looking for the elf at my mom's house!

With this montage I have more pictures of my home.

For the twist,

see if you can find my elf in each of the pics.

I hope you enjoy!

( I did make it easy for you) LOL

My dad made this snowman out of wood for me 30 years ago.

The scarf came from an old wool skirt that my mom wore before she cut it up.

I like to collect vintage Christmas boxes.
They have so much character to them!

One of our vendors in our store is selling these adorable little mice.

I just had to take him home and put him in my shoes.

His tag reads "Be Thankful"

If any of you are in the vicinity of Port Sanilac,

Sara has a wonderful prim shop up there called Gull Cottage.

She also has a space in our store too!

 This is one of my little trees in the kitchen.

All of the cookies were hand made by me from one of my patterns.

The sprinkles on the stars are all hand sewn glass beads in shades of green and red.

This tree consists of cinnamon ornaments that Michael and Mikayla made last year.

They had so much fun making these and they still smell yummy!

View from our living room looking into the kitchen.

The piece of wood behind the hanging drieds is an old store floor mat.

It was on the floor just inside of the door where folks would scrap their boots off.

I just thought it was such a cool piece that looked different on the wall.

I get asked all of the time what it is...

Another one of my original handmade Santa's

Last but not least.

Christmas wishes to everyone!

Take care,

Janice



What I woke up to

Yes another snowfall.

Not the first and won't be the last.

Just enough to cover the grass.

I left work early and this is what is left.

Nothing like what Robin had from the Crank Crow

but just enough to make things look purty.

A little ice on the barberries

Just a dusting on the ground.

But my favorite sights are still these.

Freighters in the night lit up.

This time of year many of them truly deck their halls.

They add Christmas lights to each outside deck and some

even will have a decorated tree all lit up!

This is why we love living along the river

in our house full of prims!

Christmas Blessings everyone

Janice

Lookie What I Got

When I saw this little cutie...

I just knew he had to come find a home with me!

How could you not love him.

He is so stinkin' CUTE!!!

I purchased from the one and only

 Olde Lady Morgan herself.

My pics do not show off this little snowman very well.

Love him a lot!!!

Thank you Marie!

Now to show you a few pics of what I have been doing these past 4 days.

Christmas tree spritz cookies with sprinkles.

Cherry snowflake cookies.

Peanut butter blossom cookies.

Am I making any of you hungry yet. ~smile~

Oh and wait...

also in between cookies...

Starting to put up the trees too!

Look out Wonder Woman...

cause I may just may have you beat. LOL

I do know that I am beat..so time for bed everyone.

Take care and Christmas Blessings to all.

And to all a GOOD NIGHT!

Janice

Monday Montage

Its time for another Monday Montage.

This week, more of my home decorated for Christmas.

Hope you enjoy.

1800's wagon filled with poinsettias.

Handmade gingerbread men hanging out in a wood box on my bucket bench.

Took this wreath, added some rice lights to it and created

this little vignette in our back room.

I recently just purchased this Santa.

Oops, forgot to take his price tag off. LOL

This red flannel Santa was made from a free pattern from

 Create & Decorate magazine many years ago.

I always keep a pair of long johns hanging.

You never know when Santa just might need another pair.

This little ginger was hooked with love, including his red heart.

Another one of my handmade Santa's.

My entire back room is devoted to the jolly ole elf.

This was my birthday present from Bob.

We do not buy presents for each other as we buy stuff all year round.

Therefore this was really a sweet surprise indeed!

Thank you sweetie.

It's a tree topper for my antique feather tree.

Now I have 3 ornaments and a topper.

This tree may be complete in 10 years or so. LOL

I also had to move it from our desk to the top of this cabinet.

A certain little kitten (Ace) kept knocking it down every night.

That's it for now.

Christmas Blessings everyone!

Janice

The Christmas Apron

This time of year was always my favorite!

It was a time of decorating the tree..

which in my case I was able to decorate 3 trees.

My parents, gramma B's and gramma H's.

I also enjoyed singing to my favorite Christmas carols

 being played on the record player.

But most of all being in gramma B's kitchen

 making all of her wonderful Christmas cookies.

My dad always had 2 weeks vacation during this time.

The week before and after Christmas,

which gave us the opportunity to help gramma make cookies.

Gramma B was never without her aprons.

Being a very talented seamstress, she always made her own.

I am very fortunate to have many of my grammas aprons.
This one is kept in our antique store.

We have a general store themed counter, so I thought it would be nice to hang one of my grammas aprons on a hook. However, too many folks actually wanted to buy it, and I ended up having to put a tag on it ~Not For Sale~ you can see the tag on the bottom right.

This particular one is made from feed sack material,

which is why I believe everyone wants to purchase it.

Feed sack material was the material in which animal feed was bagged.

It was a great marketing idea at the time, as I remember my gramma would buy

only the material that she liked.

 

Each year my mom, sister and I would help gramma make her delicious

Christmas cookies. Not only did the kitchen smell so wonderful at that time,

but being able to help out, gave us fringe benefits on tasting!

 

Even though I only had the easy tasks of adding sprinkles or placing

a maraschino cherry or marshmallow on top, it was fun being able to help out.

Little did I know it was the making of a holiday tradition in our house.

 

 I never had aprons like my mom and gramma,

until one year Santa brought us me this.

 

 

It was a simple little apron with red rick rack and embroidered holly on each of the pockets.

From then on it was known as my Christmas apron.

It hangs in my kitchen each time this year and now my granddaughter Mikayla is old enough to join in on our Christmas cookie tradition.

Plus as my daughter Michele wore the Christmas apron, so too will Mikayla.

Today we will be making ~

Chocolate Krinkles

Pecan Pie Tarts

Church Windows

Cherry Snowflakes

Christmas Tree Spritz

Russian Tea Cakes

Just to name a few...we make many many different kinds and share with family and friends.

 

I would love to hear about your family Christmas traditions.

Christmas Blessings to all

Janice

 

 

Prelude to a coming year

Well I hope not.

Yesterday my day did not start off very well.

Let me set the scenario.

We have a 2  1/2 car garage that is full of antiques.

That means we park our vehicles outside.

Now that is alright for most of the year except the Winter months.

With that being said,

I walked out of the house to go to work and it was snowing.

So I went back inside the house to put my boots on.

Walked out the door and forgot my shoes,

so I had to go back in to get them.

Now I realize it is not only snowing, but there is also ice all over the car windows.

After I start the car to warm it up, I start looking for the scraper

to clean off the ice from the windows.

So here I am in the dark looking for my scraper in the trunk and back seat.

I finally find the scraper and do the windows and get back in the car to drive to work.

I put my lights on and put the car in reverse and notice that I forgot

to scrape the driver's side window.

Had to stop the car, get back outside,

grab the scraper once again and scrape that window so I could see to drive.

10 minutes into my drive I realize my lunch is in the refrigerator.

Well, I did not want to go back, so I decided I would just

grab breakfast at a fast food joint and skip lunch...

Then I remember I had given Bob the last of my money the night before,

but knew there was a bank up ahead where I could grab some money from the ATM.

Wouldn't you know, I got into singing a Christmas song on the radio

and passed up the bank....and driving along the river there are not many places where you can just turn around...this is just not my day. 

So about a half mile down the road, I was able to turn around, 

grab some money, and get me some breakfast to eat at my desk.

Finally got to work and the elevator was down.

Had to walk up to the 4th floor...

and of course once I went to eat my food, it was the wrong order.

Hopefully this is not a prelude to a coming year since today is

MY BIRTHDAY!

Yes today is the day of all days.

The day I am going to announce the winner of my secret

birthday giveaway.

But first, let me tell you another short story.

You see I have an aunt who was born on Dec 1st. I was born on the 2nd.

Gramma H was born on Dec 4th and another aunt on the 4th.

When I was 10 years old, another aunt of mine was due to have a baby.

Her due date was the first week of...you know...December.

Of course my two other aunts and gramma were taking bets on whose birthday the new baby would be born on, and I did not care when it was born..as long as it was NOT on my birthday. As luck would have it, Christopher (Chris) was born on my birthday...

and at the time, I was not a happy camper having to share my birthday with a cousin.

I have outgrown that jealousy, and it seems there are others who also enjoy this day too..from the comments I received.

Therefore since I also have a cousin who shares my birthday,

I have decided to draw 2 names for the secret birthday giveaway.

Here goes ~~~~

I put all the names in a hat, 

 giving those who posted the giveaway on their blog more chances

The first winner is:

Oh no...This really pains me,

cause this lady is the most luckiest person in blogland that I know of. LOL

My first winner is

Robin from "The Cranky Crow"

Next name please....

OK, let's see...who can it be?

Winner number two is:

Jen from "Jennifer768"

Congratulations Robin and Jen.

Send me an email with your address and I will ship out your surprises.

backporchprimitives@yahoo.com

Michele is spending the weekend with us.

For my birthday, had a great dinner of ribs, garlic mashed potatoes,

corn and mac ~n~ cheese with jalapenos... oh and of course the strawberry margarita was good too! Also got embarrassed when the entire waitstaff sang

Happy Birthday to me ~~~thank you Michele for telling them.

Good night everyone.

Christmas Blessings to all.

Janice