Hi everyone,
I saw in my email that Linda has sent me some pictures… We’ll see them tomorrow, but today…
We’ll have a summary of what everyone is doing…
Charlotte is sewing on her purse for EXPO and busy wrapping Birthday presents…
Sissy, I feel sorry for you with that long needle shot in your shoulder! OUCH!
Linda, sorry your college group meeting fell apart with all the ailments everyone had. I also didn’t know Silver Dollar City was working on a Hallmark Movie taking place there. I’ve been there several times and it’s SO fun to visit!
Karen, I’m sorry Dominic isn’t feeling well either! Prayers for him!
Rosemary, I may have to get some of that Robitussin DM for this cough. I think it’s wonderful that you are working on deciphering your father’s diary from Dutch and even though it was a horrible time as he was a POW, I hope you have found some sentimental things written in there. Also, stay safe from the storm coming this weekend. I think you are right in its path.
Joy, I know the Hallmark and Lifetime movies are sappy; some even a little too sappy for me, and they are always very predictable, but they usually warm my heart! We can’t wait to see the scene you are creating for your Ruby Red Fashion Friends.
Anne, I somehow missed your Christmas Day pictures. I actually do remember seeing them myself, and found a draft of an email I was going to send you but apparently I was interrupted and it never got sent. So, HERE are your December 25th, Christmas Day pictures of your family… I’m so sorry I missed them…What a nice day it looks like you had! I love your baskets of flowers!!!!
Breakfast on Christmas Day: This is me with my daughter, Sam and nephew Jack
These are the afternoon photos, my youngest son Russell, granddaughter Asher, daughter Sam with Echo and me of course. You can’t see much of the grapevine but it is loaded again. I love Christmas in NZ.
Barbara, I might try and find the Vicks tonight and see if that helps the coughing any. This is getting old! Also, HAPPY 46th ANNIVERY to you and David! I hope you celebrated big time at Taste of Texas and please tell us what you ended up getting for dessert! You guys are one year ahead of us… we celebrate 45 this September.
Dorothy in PA, Glad you like the Hallmark movies too… if you see a particularly good one, let me know. My hubby found a TV up in the attic that turned out to be a smart TV, so now I can watch whatever I want, whenever I want… If I can just get the remote figured out.
Well that is it for today… come back tomorrow for dolly pictures!
See you then,
Blessings, Jeanne
Jeanne, I hope you are feeling some better now. I am a Vicks person, too–I remember mom warming the flannel on the tea kettle which she heated on the stove, then tucking the flannel inside her dress so it would still be warm when she got upstairs to us! She’d spread the Vicks on my chest, and then, ohhh, that nice warm flannel on top, safety-pinned to my PJs, to hold it in place!
Anne, thank you for sending pictures. It’s always nice to put faces to names, and I enjoyed seeing all your lovely flowers, too.
I do not care much for the recent Hallmark movies; 20+ years ago, Hallmark used to make really wonderful movies based on books–the “Sarah, Plain and Tall”, trilogy, “O! Pioneers”, the “Love Comes Softly” [Janette Oke] series, etc. Those were all just wonderful. My favorite, though, is “The Lost Valentine” starring Betty White, about a woman whose husband is shot down during WWII, and how she visits the train station every Valentine’s Day (their anniversary, and the day he shipped out, after their son was born). The story is told in flashbacks to WWII days. A reporter takes an interest in her visits, and one thing leads to another, she tracks down someone who knows what happened to the husband all those years ago, and they bring him home. I cry Every. Single. Time. I watch that movie!! (I even cry when I try to talk about it!!) That was on my list of Christmas gift ideas for my brother and sister-in-law to get for me, and they did! So I will be watching it again one of these days very soon.
Barbara, congratulations on your wedding anniversary! Hope you have a wonderful celebration!
Today (21st) would have been Ron’s 93rd birthday. I think Daniel is coming down and we will take flowers to the cemetery. Hard to believe he’s been gone 17 months already.
Charlotte, I love that movie too, “The Lost Valentine”, you can’t miss with Betty White.
Blessings on Ron’s birthday, memories are good but also sad. I hope you and Daniel can get over with the flowers.
Dear Charlotte, I am holding you in prayer this day.
Thank you Anne and Jeanne for the wonderful pictures of a New Zealand Christmas! It sure looks more like the Fourth of July there to me!🙂. I can’t get over the beautiful flowers and everything so green! It is nice to put names with people and now I feel that I know you better, Anne! What lovely surroundings you have! The plants in the second to last picture look so healthy! Are they tomatoes and other veggies?
Before I forget, Happy Anniversary to Barbara! Forty six years is a wonderful accomplishment!
Charlotte, I too, remember those older Hallmark movies, and really enjoyed those! It would be nice if they showed those again. Thinking of you as you visit Ron’s grave.🥰
Jeanne, the Christmas movie “Ozark Mountain Christmas” isn’t a Hallmark movie, but something similar by a company called Great American something, can’t remember the name now and can’t check without losing my comments. I will check it out and get back with the correct name, but it won’t be airing until Christmas anyway, so no rush.
Let’s hope my proofreading is better today than yesterday! I wish we could redo things after the fact!
Happy Wednesday already!!! dear ones!
Jeanne, superb update for midweek!
Anne, your outdoor situation there in NZ is so lovely! Wow, I just love the garden flowers and that comfy furniture. Your family peeps look very content with this lovely Christmas gathering! How perfect! Thank you for sharing these pictures with Your beautiful face ❤️
Jeanne, get the robitussin DM. It is was saved me. You do not want that crud to go to your lungs. Drink tea, warm water, warm lemonade, just drink while taking the “guaifenesin and dextromethorphan” combo. Start out with half the dose to see how you respond. It is pretty tame but will loosen up that garbage. Here I am three weeks later and still have some congestion, but it is much better to manage. If these viruses desire to settle in, let it be … not the lungs! Saline nose spray is also helpful.
Sissy, I hope you are feeling comfortable after the injection. Joint pain is so frustrating!
Charlotte, you are in my heart today. I hope the visit to Ron’s resting place is somewhat comforting. I will be thinking of you all day.
Yesss they are threatening a big snow storm for our area, but if you look at the map of Northern Virginia, we are situated West- in that L shaped county (Loudoun County) and we do have a lot of wind here, and also the Blue Ridge Mountains like to tangle with weather. These storms can be overwhelming but the past decade we have not had any huge ones. Some one mentioned on “Jays Wintery Mix” on FB that it seems every year that ends in a 6 gets the big event. We will see. I do keep a careful eye on the weather.
I miss the days of olden when I would be out there tromping in the snow… I still have my snow pants! Weather on the east coast can change in a matter of hours and then suddenly what was to be 30 inches, turns into a two inches with devastating sleet! Either case, suburb life can be challenging. Fortunately, we have a very experienced flexible road crew in this area. We certainly are not “the boonies” like we were in the late 90’s.
All of you please take good care, keep hydrated, and warm.
Love to all of you.
Dear Jeanne, I hope you are feeling better. I hope you are able to get some rest.
I will definitely give you a list of my favorite Hallmark movies.
I sent you a list of things for posting on “rainy” days, as needed (smile). I don’t think you got it. I will email it again.
I love seeing the photos of Anne. Dear Anne, I am waving to you from way over here!
It looks lovely where you are. It looks so peaceful and calm.
As it is cold and snowy here, I think we all want to come and sit on your sofa for a while.
Be on the lookout for uninvited guests, oh, and their dolls (laugh).
Such a wonderful morning seeing NZ at Christmas. What an absolutely lovely yard and outdoor areas at Anne’s place. The plants are amazing and so well tended. Great to see some of Anne’s family as well. Thanks for sharing Anne and Jeanne.
I hope that Jeanne’s illness is a little better today. This has gone on way too long. I know that whatever it may be can take awhile to go away, but please be careful that it doesn’t turn into pneumonia or something else like bronchitis. Has Jeanne had fever with it? I would give the doctor a call and get some prescription cough syrup to stop the cough at night. Sleep is so important.
Here, the sun is peeping over the hills. Looks like we will have some sun today and hopefully be warmer than yesterday. I didn’t get much done as the cold weather is not my friend. Still looking for some missing dolly food. Wish that I was more creative and could make some things like I see on Etsy that look so realistic. Kind of expensive for clay, but everything looks just like real food. Much smaller of course. 🙂 And, we had a skunk last night around here. Must have been very close as the house reeked inside for awhile. Not pleasant.
Happy Anniversary to Barbara. And many more.
aaak stinky skunks oh my.
My girls used to make tiny food for their dolls with sculpey. It takes a lot of patience. …. like the pies, and well, every thing
Wow — what a lot of you have colds that sound like mine. I got rid of the sore throat very quickly, but for two weeks my mission in life seems to be using up kleenex. And now coughing. I was supposed to have an infusion (that’s sitting at the doctor’s office with a needle in my arm for 3-5 hours) 2 weeks ago, but I can hardly go and cough all over them while filling a wastebasket with kleenex. Maybe next week.
Linda says Anne’s Christmas looks more like her summer. Colorado is pretty dry — we never have flowers blooming like that. Of course, humidity helps — and we have no oceans or major rivers here. I couldn’t believe the Mississippi when I saw it. How the pioneers managed, I can’t imagine. I can’t imagine how they felt looking at the Rockies either.
OK, everybody, get well fast!
I hope you improve this week, Marilyn. Yes the amount of kleenex is incredible.
I had the same, the sore throat was short lived but then you are fooled into believing you are improving … and discover no, that was just the appetizer!!
Hoping you will feel better soon, Marilyn. Colds are so awful especially when you are trying to breath at night.
Lovely photos, Anne, and so nice to see green and flowers while we have snow or the remnants of right now, bitter cold, and wind.
Happy Anniversary to you Barbara and David. I hope everyone who is ill feels better soon.
Actually, I love a large number of Hallmark movies. Not the recent ones, but those from the 1990s and very early 2000s. There are some very good ones. The Sarah trilogy is one of my favorites.
Thank you everyone, the weather was perfect that day, not too hot but January has been the worst I can remember, especially in the North Island. Today, Hawkes Bay on the Northern East Coast, where I used to live, has a rain and flooding watch but 30C. Like I said yesterday, these are tropical storms so very warm with it. Northland is getting the worst and The Coromandel. They are on red alert which is the highest setting. My flowers and veg are taking a battering today. They all need de-heading and other attending but it is way too wet.
Linda the plants you can see that are not flowers are tomatoes and herbs. They are all huge now and we have lots of tomatoes but unless we get some sun they aren’t going to ripen very quickly. I have 6 pots of tomatoes at varying stages of growth, Italian and regular parsley, chocolate mint and thyme. Elsewhere I have two pots of raspberries, six strawberry plants, a lemon tree, a feijoa tree and two grape vines.
Marilyn, I am guessing you haven’t received your parcel yet, since you didn’t mention it? It has been in customs for over a week it got to the US very quickly so not sure what the delay is.
I hope everyone gets over all their coughs and colds soon. I had two bouts in UK but the second one was the worst, John and I both had it and it lasted for about 6 weeks, most of the time I was at my brothers in fact. I have been fine since I got back to NZ. I have probably had all the bugs here lol.
I had to unpick the six rows of my QAYG (Quilt As You Go) quilt, I pulled the joining strips too tight and it made the quilt wavy. I have put three rows back and will do the rest today then I have to do the borders. QAYG is great but you still have to manhandle a large quilt when you put it together but at least not when you are quilting so it can be a bit more intricate than it would be otherwise. I have offered it to my brother and sister-in-law in UK but she is very particular about style and if it doesn’t fit in with her ideas she won’t use it. I am not going to spend a couple of hundred dollars postage for it to sit in a cupboard so I sent him a photo of the finished part (before I unpicked it, the waves didn’t show up on the photo). I haven’t heard back yet.
Well I had better get ready to brave the wind and rain and go out to the workroom (it is behind the garage which isn’t attached to the house). Have a good day everyone and keep warm.
Anne, Seeing you and your sweet family and plants in the sunshine was so uplifting while I look out and the cold grey day here. Thank you for sharing.
Mae is waiting for her sweater. I will look forward to make her something to go with it, thank you again!!
Dear Anne, I left a message for you with my comment for Jeanne. You may have to get a larger sofa because I think we are all coming to see you and enjoy the warm weather (smile).
Hope you feel better soon. Naps, movies, and food that appeals to you, all help.
Thank you for sharing your favorite Hallmark movies. I am a fan and have the Hallmark channel with my favorites bookmarked for watching at anytime, with no commercials. Sometimes I have one playing when I am working on doll outfits, since I know the storylines and don’t need to watch every minute, but can listen to the script…keeps me company!
One of my favorites is Crown for Christmas and I have often thought about making the little ballgown that 10 year old Princess Theodora wears to the royal Christmas ball, where she dances the waltz with her father the King. Her princess style white dress has a red sash across her shoulders with the long red sash down the back of the dress. Very cute and elegant for a young girl!
Have you seen The Magic of Ordinary Days? An older movie but so good. Royal Hearts with James Brolin is entertaining and funny too, Christmas in Rome is totally enjoyable with Lacey Chabert and lots of scenes from Rome, A Timeless Christmas is a time-travel story with a handsome main character and the fashions of yesteryear are wonderful. I think I have too many favorites to mention!
Take care….and hope you can return to sewing again soon!