It's Christmas time in the city . . .

Remember that time machine from a couple of weeks ago, well...

the great thing about a time machine is that there is no jet lag, and no expense.

One of my favorite festivals on Galveston Island is their "Dickens on the Strand,"

where when you walk through the white gates you are immediately transported back

to a 19th-century Victorian London.

And just maybe, you might hear the song "Silver Bells". . .

But mostly because that's the song this week for song-ography. (Cue the music)

City sidewalks busy sidewalks

Dressed in holiday style

In the air there's a feeling of Christmas

Children laughing

People passing

Meeting smile after smile

And on every street corner you'll hear...

Silver bells, silver bells

It's Christmas time in the city

Ring a ling, hear them sing

Soon it will be Christmas day.

String of street lights

Even stop lights, blink a bright red a green

(or maybe a 10 foot tall Christmas tree lady)

As the shoppers rush home with their treasures

. . . or watch the costume contest.

This was our third "Dickens" and by far the coldest. In Texas you just never know what it will be like this time of year. This year unlike years past, in shorts and a t-shirt, I couldn't bundle up enough and wished I had had ear muffs. I had to wear my hubby's barn jacket as I don't even have a winter coat anymore...normally there is no great need, but this year I could use one.

Unfortunately only three days later I came down very sick, and after a week was on the verge of pneumonia.

So, I'm on my second round of antibiotics, and finally after nearly 13 days I'm coming out on the other side.

Our tree only got put up a day a half ago, and I went shopping for the first time yesterday! Eeeek!

But, it's all good, or I keep telling myself that, lol!

Today, we are going to "deck" the tree, bake some cookies, and play some games.

It's a quiet Christmas just the four of us.

Wishing you a very joyful, merry and bright, Christmas!

Love, Kim

Oh Yes, P.S. - I have a little "jingle" over at Focusing on Life today for you...follow me there, {here}.

AND, if you would like to join me on my Facebook page you can "like it" here.  :) 

Sharing with Song-ography, Texture Tuesday, Sweet Shot Tuesday

  

Tidings of joy . . .

Sharing with you the Glory,

the wonder,

the miracle of this Holy Season.

Luke 2:11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David

a savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Wishing you all, from my home to yours, the Merriest Christmas of all!!

Love, Kim

XO

Yes, I have been missing....

....but it's because I've been in action!

Lot's of action, but I have missed you all and I wanted to pop in and say a quick hello to all of you.

Hello!!

It seems that I'm just not as uber talented as I once was, juggling all the festivites of the season

and keeping up with my weekly posts. 

This is what I've been up to...via my instagram photos....

I finally got our tree up, but that's all and trying not to stress that that is all! ;)

It's been fairly warm here, near 80 in fact, but a couple of days in between it got chilly enough to see steam come from my favorite Christmas mug. In fact yesterday it was 79, today I woke up to the 30's...it's Texas, what can I say! haha 

One morning, taking a break, I went to the front porch and lifted the back cushion to sit down and found this very, very cold lizard. She was more than happy to let me warm her up! And it made my day!!!

I did manage to go to the sunrise, once, then to the Starbucks where I had my best EVER Salted Caramel Mocha to date. I even had to go back up to tell her, and she said, "Seriously", with a huge smile!

BUT... Starbucks only sent them a short supply of the salty goodness that gets sprinkled on top and only a few have some left. My Starbucks happiness is I'm afraid,  now going to be short lived! :(

While there at Starbucks, I sat down with my spiral notebooks and pink pencil and tried to finish something I started writing almost a year ago...I hope to share it with you in the new year! God has perfect timing, just saying!!

We drove in our pj's and looked at some Christmas lights, always my favorite!

Made some of my famous chocolate fudge.....

And then I added a layer of peanut butter fudge...yes it's awesome!!

Oh, I got a wild hair and decided to trim my standard poodle myself. I apparently didn't learn from the last time! And this, well this was only phase one, phase two happened outside. What can I say, but that my wild hair happened while I was inside, and thankfully I DO own a vacuum. Although when my daughter got home she said it looked like something bad happened on our street....it was a windy day.

I had another lizard siting (while in the middle of a project), this one between the window screen and the window. The winds that day were in the 20's to 30's and very gusty and I suppose she was protecting herself while sunning and I loved how the sun made her legs transparent. An instagram friend deemed me the "lizard lady" to which I happily accepted! 

And this is the project I was distracted from....it's taken over my entire kitchen table and there my dog waits for me to play with him.  Unfortunately for me creativity and mess go hand in hand....but I am having fun!

If you saw my small studio space, you would know why I am now at the kitchen table....hmmm, a project for the new year!

So there ya have it, that's what I've been up to, what about you?

I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season.

Merry Christmas, from my home (and blog) to yours!!

AND, I have one more thing....a facebook friend posted this video of a flashmob that

will bring a smile to your face, and a warmth to your heart...I hope you enjoy it!!

Love to you,

Kim XO

Foto Friday - Just Two Days 'Til Christmas . . .

 . . . and all through the house

every creature was stirring, yes even the spouse!

Since we were out yesterday doing last minute shopping

 We found that the malls are still really hopping.

There were cars strung on streets hoping to get there

and some that forgot to use their manners with care.

We had filled our pockets with some of our cash

and knew it wouldn't take long before it was gone in a flash!

I was hoping to get a glimpse of that elusive St. Nick,

and as it turns out I'm just not that quick.

So I whistled and shouted and I called him by name

but all I heard back was, "Thanks just the same."

So off to the register like coursers we flew

with a cart full of stuff and a couple of coffees too.

This shopping thing is just so much work

 as the cashier looked over, he turned with a jerk

and on laying his fingers on the register keys

we knew he had done this before, he did it with ease!

He sprang into action and worked while he whistled

but we needed to dash away, as it was starting to drizzle.

And we heard him exclaim as we walked out of sight,

"Merry Christmas to you, have a good night!" 

Remember

This December,

That love weighs more than gold!

- Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon

Okay so maybe I'm not quite finished yet, because I got caught up with my camera?

last night I was playing and I asked my son for a paper plate and some aluminum foil, for what else,

a reflector of course! ; )

He walked into the dining room and said, "Ummm, WOW!"

Yes I had made an entire mess in my dining room all over the table, but I did have fun!

And Oh, Oh Christmas Tree, with each tiny light . . . yes, Monday I finally got the tree done!

I decided that the pre-lit 15 year old tree that was no longer lighting was going to have to wait til next year, so we brought out the smaller Charlie Brown tree. There is a reason why I love a pre-lit tree, wrapping lights is way too time consuming, but whew, it's done! The thought of turning around and taking it down in a week is haunting me!

Just about everything in my house at Christmas is adorned with some kind of bird or bird related objects - birds, nests, birdhouses - one of my fav's being the glass ornaments with clips! It makes it easy for them to travel around . . .

I don't know about you, but I do love going for a ride in the car in P.J's drinking my salted carmel mocha and taking pics of all the Christmas lights! Well, as a passenger that is - I'm always so sad when it's time for them to be put away!

As we were driving around we came across this pond with the refections of the trees and being as we were in the car and I couldn't use the tripod, I had to do my best to handhold this one at 1/6s   - yeah, that's tricky! I just had to go with the settings I had and I only got three shots before another car came along and the first two were a bit blurry. The street lights were an orange color and gave off this incredible light in the grass and in the sky. I'm kinda liking this picture!

{Shoot edit submit}

{linked with La-La's Home Daycare}

And what would Christmas be without some really big bokeh!

Now living on the Texas coast, snow is somewhat of a novelty and therefore there will be no Winter Wonderland, so that's when you just have to create your own!

One of my very favorite Christmas boxes to get out each year is that of my fairies - my Mark Roberts fairies!! He now has fairies for all occasions through the year. I think I've been collecting them for about 12 years now, although it's been about 5 years since I have bought one! Far too long...and now he even has elves and pixies, sigh!  I could just string them through my house if my budget allowed. This was my very first one, called the Anniversary fairy and one of his very early ones!! My fairies and birds get along quite nicely!

This one is part of the 12 Days of Christmas collection and because he is the smaller version (9" ornament) he doesn't come with all the accessories of the larger ones . . . He is the Four Calling Birds fairy, and it appears that his calling birds have gone calling somewhere else?

This is one of the larger fairies and I can't remember which one this is, but he loves flying from the chandelier! I met Mark Roberts a few years ago and he actually posed this one for me and signed him along with some of my other ones.  

And this is the Christmas Dreams fairy . . . 

He looks a bit too small to be carrying my Christmas dream of a new lens and from his expression I think I'll have to wait 'til next year!

And this, this is my Sugar Plum Fairy, and he takes his job very seriously!  I PROMISE I'm making cookies tomorrow, REALLY, and just in time for Santa! Of course at our house Santa does love his CHEESE . . .

Of course with all the Christmas shopping, there is one thing we need to remember:

The best Christmas present we can give and the one I think we all want in return- to love and accept one another as we are! It's free, doesn't need wrapping, it's something that multiplies when we give it away, but yet it seems to be one of the most difficult to do? Perhaps if we didn't attach so many strings we wouldn't get so tangled up in it!

So to be on the safe side, I'm not attaching any ribbons or bows on the presents this year!

From my house to yours, I wish you a very Merry Christmas!!

Love to you all,

Kim

XO


  "

Foto Friday - It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas;

  Soon the bells will start,

And the thing that will make them ring is the carol that you sing

Right within your heart."

Don't ya just love that song from Johnny Mathis?

It's surely one to get you into the spirit of Christmas decorating.

I have to say I just didn't get out for that walk this week, although I

did snap a few pictures on my way home one day.

So I thought I would try to get a few around the house,

which for me is a little boring and challenging. I am truly

an outside natural light kinda girl.

Stalking the candlesticks just isn't the same as a lizard! ; )

But before I move on to the photos, I wanted to share something

exciting. Remember a few months back when I told you that I was asked

last spring to start a boys athletic booster club and that with our first

t-shirt fundraiser we raised $2,500, well, drum roll please . . . .

We have raised nearly $10,000 and I had the privilege of writing a

$6,000 check this week, as the booster club gifted the boys athletics

with a new weight room. Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas!!

Okay on to some Yuletide photos . . .

{linked to Shoot Edit Submit and La-la's home daycare}

One thing you should know about me, I love coffee cups/mugs! I love having a different choice everyday

depending on my mood. So now that it's officially December, out come the festive ones . . . and what you

can't see on this one is the inside of the cup is lined with beautiful silver snowflakes. It was a little chilly the other morning and when I poured my coffee you could just see this beautiful steam coming from the cup.

I took this with my 40mm macro lens and what is interesting to me is that you can actually see the tiny

water droplets evaporating.

We have a leaded glass front door and this is a view from one of the only smooth pieces of glass

looking into the foyer.

This is the mirror above the chest of drawers in the above photo. And since I love birds, you see

them on many of my Christmas decorations.

More experimenting inside, again with the 40mm. Actually now that I think about it all of the photos

I have today were taken with it.

Oh, and look who I found, Matt, trying to hide behind the mask!  Yes, he is back and will be staying with us until Christmas Eve, when he returns to the North Pole to be with Santa for their rockin' Elfcapades party!

{linked to Photo Art Friday}

My roses are blooming like crazy and it's hard not to want to get yet one, more, picture!

This week Bonnie asked us to try something new, but this photo art is all new to me!

But this week I did try "smudge" which gave me on both photos, (above and below)

some cool effects. I erased some off the rose so it is more subtle and the negative space on

the rose photo isn't noise, it's a very slight mosaic effect or was it dots?

This last photo is actually art on art, as in a watercolor photographed and then doing a little

more 'art' to it. Before we moved where we are now, I had gotten a bee in my bonnet one day

and decided to take a watercolor class. What was I thinking? It's probably a good thing I just dove in, because having never painted I had no idea what I was getting myself into and had I really thought about it I would have talked myself out of it. I had the best instructor and this is after a few small practice things like a leaf and a shamrock, my first (and last) piece I painted. Something I've learned is to never

underestimate yourself, and try new things even if you've never done them. How do you know

you can or can't if you don't try? I haven't painted since we've moved, but with out instruction I guess I thought too much about it and now I'm afraid I won't be able to do it by myself.

I used that same smudge effect on this too and I just love how it framed the entire piece! I didn't purposely

put that around the edges, it just did it by itself! ha   I think I started in sepia exposing the color, used orton-ish or lomo-ish which popped the color and then the smudge, faded.

Have a fabulous weekend, and happy decorating! Fa la la la la

Love Kim

XO

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