Monarch Post

merry christmas from our house!

 

 

 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 

 
Merry Christmas from our house! I'm ready to plant it right here on the couch tonight and work on another Christmas present I need to finish(/start!)

We're almost ready around here, we just need some snow now... fingers are crossed. I'm planning on baking Thursday and on Christmas Eve day the Henderson gang of six will be going skiing in our great Utah mountains and snow (well only four are really going to ski, the two oldest Hendersons' are planning on sitting in the lodge with a good book, good coffee, and some yarn-- me with the yarn :)

I'm stopping here for a bit, maybe until the New Year. I'm ready to relax, hang out and play with kids and new toys for a week.

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season!

Take care and lots of love,

Kelly

from my perspective...

 
So things seem to be really busy around here this week. My mom is running around without a leash on. She comes home drops off sacks of stuff, picks up kids, takes the kids to the vet because they have warm noses and they are barking. She's been bringing dinner home and that means nothing good fell off the stove this week. Mostly because my Dad is out of town and that means my Mom isn't cooking the food. Except for last night when the Girl Scout girls came over for a party and she made chili, but my Mom says I can't eat chili because I sleep in her room at night.

 
But the good part of my week is the kids have been home all week. And that makes my tail wag. They are the best, and me and Greta get to hang out and watch them play and make stuff. And lay on the couch and keep their feet warm, because that is our job when they get sick and sad because they have to go to the vet. (I hate the vet so I understand.)

I think these guys are so cool and smart and Jesse just got his papers last week. (I've had my papers since I was born, but I know not everyone gets pedigreed right from the start, so I'm glad for Jesse to finally get pedigreed.)

 
Now Jesse has a first place geography pedigree paper for his whole school, how cool is that.

 
Jesse just got these new eye face things too. He looks good in them. He wanted to share and let me wear them too. He was laughing so hard when he put them on me and then he called my Mom and she was laughing really hard too. I like it when she laughs at me. It's lots better than when she gets mad at me...

For some reason Dad and Mom put trees in the house awhile ago. I thought it was so awesome of them to bring in a facility for me to use (Mom even decorated the tree for me), because it is so cold in the winter and I hate going outside to find a tree. Well, my Mom was not laughing when I used the indoor tree last week. I don't get it. What else would you use an indoor tree for? I thought she was acting like a psycho nutcase chiwawa or something when she started clapping her hands and chasing me and yelling, "potttyoutside pottyoutside yougopottyoutside yougopottyoutsideWiston!!!!!"  I booked it out the dog door until looked sane again. ....I mean, then leave the trees outside already then. Sheesh.

xoWinston

 

snowfolks

 
Last night we made snowpeople for our grandparent gifts. I spotted this adorable idea at my friend, Traci's beautiful blog. She found the bottle snowmen in a gift shop in Illinois where she lives, but Illinois is a little too far away for my Christmas shopping, so we decided to make our own versions of bottle snowmen.

 
I found the ornament snowman heads in a craft store. Everything else we used was from the old craft stash, button tin, and scrap basket.

 
I know I won't be able to talk this guy into making things with his mom and little sister for much longer... sooo enjoying it while it lasts.

We filled the bottles half full of fake snow and then got busy with the decorating.

 
Aren't they the cutest things ever?! It was dark by the time we finished, so I took another  photo in the morning.

 

 

That's a snowflake hat and earwarmers with earrings on the lady-- very stylish, I'd say :)

 
The kids were having so much fun and the snowfolks were turning out so cute, I decided to join in. No extra tall bottles, but I rummaged around in the kitchen cupboard and found some old thrifted parfait glasses. I turned them upside down and started making a snow lady, and then I couldn't stop.... the kids went to bed and I stayed up too late, playing away in the craft supply pile on the kitchen table. We had three leftover snowman heads, so a threesome it was!

  

 
It was so fun to make them, sitting and playing with all the old craft supplies and kids. I forgot I was a grownup for awhile. 

Thanks for the great inspiration, Trac!

Are you making anything fun for Christmas?

XOKelly

 

 

 

 

a yarn yarn

 
 
It's Friday again already isn't it? I seem to be a Monday/Friday blogger here lately. I want to be more like a Monday/Wednesday/Friday blogger, but somehow those three days in the middle usually turn into a blur of ordinary days with lots to do but nothing that memorable to blog about.

Anyway, after we came home from my birthday dinner on Sunday evening while we waited for everyone to come over to the house, I picked up my unfinished scarf sitting on the kitchen table and started working on the fringe. (I don't know what it is with the last 10% of a project, but so often that last 10% of the project seems to take me as long as the first 90% of the project did. Anyone else have that problem?) I cut up the last of the yarn skein for all the fringe pieces and then realized after cutting up the last piece of yarn that I hadn't crocheted the edging on the other scarf edge to attach the fringe to.

 
 

I also realized that just having slurped down two pomegranate margaritas while celebrating my birthday dinner might justa had something to do with my dumb mistake....

 
This then facilitated one more trip to the craft store fifteen miles away for one more skein of yarn for two small rows of stitches... Which also means I now have one more whole skein of my favorite yarn just needing to be the start of another scarf/hat/something.... it's never ending with me.

Lesson learned here: Don't drink and crochet. It's just dangerous.

XOKelly 

rambling birthday and holiday post

 
 
It was my birthday yesterday and I had such a sweet day. General goofing off all morning, a stop at the coffee shop in the afternoon where Corbyn works, followed by dinner out with my family and my Dad.

And then we came home and squished into the living room and opened gifts. I got spoiled this year, reeeally spoiled: Mike bought me a new camera. A heavy-duty serious grown-up Canon with all the bells and whistles-- and Photoshop! Feels kinda like bringing the new baby home... scary wonderfulness :) I don't know how much I'll manage to use it until after Christmas is over, but during the Christmas break I'm planning on getting started with it and hoping to have better blog photos for you! I'm sooo excited to start playing around with it all.

My kids gave me great gifts too. A hair cut and color from Ainsley and Corbyn for tomorrow at the coolest new salon in town, Sophey bought me a lotion and body spray set in "Midnight Pomegranate" from Bath and Bodyworks. (How cute is that?) And Jesse bought me a pair of red fleece jammies with the feet in them (like Carter's kids jammies.) And here's the real kicker-- the feet are sock monkeys... I died laughing. All I could think of when I saw those jammies was the movie, "A Christmas Story" and Ralphie with his pink bunny jammies. 

My sock monkey jammies deserve a post of their own, but I'll spare you the photos of me in them ;)

 
It's busy, busy here and I'm whittling away at Christmas. The trees are up (one kids tree in the family room and this one in the living room) and all the decorating is done, except for a new garland I want to make. Mike put outside lights up on Saturday. The internet shopping is finished and I just need to store shop for a couple of days. 

I love the way the house  looks and feels this time of year, so magical.

 
Remember those vintage doves from the estate sale I was trying to figure out what to do with? Well, they went in the tree. The lady at the estate sale said her Mom always decorated their Christmas tree every year with those doves and it seemed like the place they needed to be now was on someone else's tree. (I hope she's able to peek down from heaven and see her doves are in a happy new home.)

 
As soon as the tree was finished and the lights were turned on last week, Winston was here, sitting and staring. I made sure to put the doves up high enough so he couldn't swipe one...

 
because last year Joseph and baby Jesus (the kids made them about five years ago) were kidnapped by Winston from an end table.

Joseph was discovered last spring in the backyard in a melting pile of dirty snow, but we still don't know what ever became of baby Jesus. How bad is that?  We really need to make a new baby Jesus this week. I'm hoping they'll all be safe on a tall bookcase this year :)

Happy Monday to you! XOXOKelly

( P.S. The beautiful Christmas bouquet is from my in-laws John and Jo.)

 

 

Dec 1- World AIDS day