A Christmas Hello

 

 

 I've been thinking of my blog friends and hoping everyone had a wonderful Christmas!  I painted the little cardinal ornament for my brother-in-law's birthday.  His wife (aka my sister) has several pendants I've painted, so it was his turn! 

We had a nice quiet Christmas Eve...

cozying up to the the "fire".  (Yes, these are Christmas lights...)

 Lucy especially liked her gift box.

 

 It's amazing how we can't see her when she hides under the bushes.

 

The snow melted before Christmas but we spotted a snow girl in the yard, just passing through until the next snowfall comes.

 Merry Christmas everyone, and have a 

Happy New Year!!

Holiday Sale!

This sweet snowman ornament can also be worn as a necklace.

As the fall season drifts into winter and the exciting holiday shopping begins, I didn't want my sales to fly by without letting my friends know!  My PaintedCottageStudio.etsy.com website has free shipping through Monday, December 2nd.

 My PremierPendants.etsy.com website now offers all pendants at $12.95, on sale from $14.00 through the holiday season!

 

 Soon, we'll be baking Christmas cookies (and I know some of you have already begun!)  Mmmmm.  And I'm sure we'll be building snowmen as well.  These are two that my kids built when they were younger.  I just love their smiles! 

  

 

Apple Orchard Time

It's always a simple, no-frills kind of afternoon, but there's something about an apple orchard that keeps me coming back every year.     

 

 Mmmm, maybe it's the apple pies, or the apple cider.  It could be the big giant cookies!  (No photos of the cookies, they were gone before I could get my camera out!) But maybe it's the simplicity of it all.

The timeless, uninterrupted way nature has to quietly continue on, year after beautiful year. 

 

And then the sun begins to set,

and the animals are fed,

 

and you find your way back home,

back to your doorstep, full of colorful fall leaves ready to welcome you and remind you it's a beautiful day and a beautiful season.  Happy Fall!

The County Fair

 

It just wouldn't be summer without the county fair.  Complete with that wonderful ferris wheel, 

 and colorful games (early in the day, before the crowds of course).

But when everyone else is watching the demolition derby and competing in the longest pigtail contest (not actually pig's tails, but girl's pig tails!), I like to sneak downstairs and see what all of the wonderful women (and men!) have been working on this past year. The quilts, paintings and crafts are always so awesome.

Especially this hand made, blue ribbon wearing, end table set made by a 12 year old.  Yep, a twelve year old.  Applause, please.

I don't know why, but I get such a kick out of visiting the chickens.  Maybe because we can get a good close look at them.  I mean, when else do we get a chance to get so close to these amazing, colorful creatures?  Especially this little guy (girl?).  Pink!  Who knew?

This one was awesome but I think he looked a little angry...probably doesn't like getting his picture taken.

 I couldn't resist him, I loved his colors...so Fall-like.

By this time people were beginning to look at me a little strange, wondering why I'm taking so many photos of chickens, I'm sure.  I would have too if I were them.  Because believe me, I took more than what you see here!

 Aww, don't you just want to take him home??

Cows...love it! 

Back From Florida

Ahhh, summer.  It's finally here!  We just returned from Florida a couple of weeks ago and I think I'm still in vacation mode.  It can be hard to get back to it, especially when we just saw scenes like this!

This was actually a Disney/Universal Studios vacation but we stopped on the way back home for a day at St. Augustine.  (Driving 16 hours each way with two kids!)  When we're driving that far to Florida, we wanted to  had to see the ocean, even if only for an afternoon. 

We were lucky it was a beautiful day. That's a little more surprising than you might think.  Tony and I have a history of bringing rain right along with us whenever we're on vacation! :) 

Little bit of an odd photo, I know, but I loved the patterns the water made in the sand that was left behind during low tide.  Diamonds in the sand.

 

We had a loooong walkway to get to the beach.  It was supposed to be 500 steps from the hotel.  But, well, it was a nice, new walkway anyway!

 

We passed by this scene on the way.  Kind of swampy looking, I searched for alligators.

If you go to St. Augustine you have to see the Castillo de San Marcos Spanish Fort.  It's always an impressive sight.

The old downtown.  We even found gourmet popsicles there.  Mine was banana/vanilla and it was, ahem, gone before I thought to take a picture.

Driving by (literally, not even getting out of the car) the Fountain of Youth.  I've driven by this entryway several times in my life.  Maybe one day I'll actually go in!

 

Ahh, the beautiful street in front of the Fountain of Youth.  The leaves on the trees meet up above and the moss always hangs.  Always.  Ever since I was 5 years old and saw this for the first time.

It's even hanging from the wires!

If you saw the movie 'Vacation', this goes without saying...