Winter's Day: Into Night Then Back Again

The perfect winter's day in Ohio?

Waking to this:

Then the snowfall seizing...

the day turning into the blue hour...

And then witnessing its grand finale:

The morning after - moon still out but waning:

Winter. 

I absolutely love it.

Do you, as well?

As always, thank you for stopping by.

♥

~Michele

Linking:

Simple and Sweet   *  Home and Garden

Baby, it's COLD Outside!

We have had such sunny warm and mild temps,

 but it just recently turned blustery!

I just had to share our most adorable

 Abomidable SnowBaby

in the history of ever.

Just sayin'.

♥

HAPPY DECEMBER 1ST AND ADVENT BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL!

Happy Thanksgiving from Bug!

From our home to yours - 

Sure hope you all had a most wonderful

 Thanksgiving!

Here's our cute little turkey grand daughter!

By the way she's in the Gerber Baby Contest!

There's only a few more days to vote

and we'd really love your votes!

VOTE FOR VIVIAN

Just sign up to Gerber and once you're in go to their

 Photo Gallery

and in the search name = Vivian 

location: Columbus

You will find her sweet face and can vote then!

Thank you so much. It means so much to us! ♥

xxooxxooxxooxxoo

Miss you all - big hugs!

~Michele

Tea Cup Exchange Autumn 2016

It's time for the big reveal of 

Stephanie's Tea Cup Exchange!

I am so excited to share with you the treasures

 that I so generously received!

My exchange was just absolutely PERFECT for me.

Margaret from San Antonio had me - 

she isn't a blogger yet but wishes to be soon.

If she ever does I will announce it on my blog

so you can find her....

because we all need friends to follow us here, right?

Look at these two beauties I received!

As most of you know I collect super delicate antique china tea cups.

 What a wonderful surprise to receive a modern heavier

 (safer/more usable)

 stoneware teacup in my favorite neutral ivory with a BIRD on it!

I ADORE this teacup and have used it every single day

 since my package arrived! Thank you SO much, Margaret!!

Just look at this gorgeous goldfinch glass painted plate!!!!!!!

Is that just the most lovely plate ever?!!???

It's the perfect size for serving teatime snacks with a friend.

Even the saucer is bird shaped.  : - )

She also sent me a few tea bags of kinds I had never before tried-

and in my eagerness to sip them (and only after enjoying)

 did I remember that I hadn't taken a pic of them. Oops. 

~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~

In the box was this gorgeous hardmade card, too. 

I keep it on my computer right here next to me

kept up by my pretty birdie magnets.

It brings me such joy when I see it, and tells me to 

HAVE A BEAUTIFUL DAY

♥

As you can clearly see, my teacup fits right in perfectly

with my home decor.

I couldn't be more pleased.

Again, thank you, dear Margaret.

The swap partner Stephanie chose for me to send treasures to

was Janice from Missouri,  who writes the blog

Curtains in My Tree

Click on her blog name above to see what I sent her, if you'd like.

THANK YOU, TOO  STEPHANIE - YOU ARE AMAZING!

I highly encourage all of you to go check out all the swapping fun.

Just click on the box above to get there.

As always, thank you for your visit!

HUGS!

♥

~Michele

Linking:

Martha's Favorites   *   Share Your Cup   *  Tuesday Cuppa Tea

Thoughts of Home   *   Friends Sharing Tea   *   FFaEE   *   

Great Pumpkin Carving Party

HAPPY HAUNTING, EVERYONE!

My younger daughter hosted her annual Pumpkin Carving party

 last night and I thought I'd pop in a share it before it gets too late!

It was such fun!

 My daughter has always loved Halloween best,

 and decorated every square inch of their festive home!

 It was dark and busy and crowded and fun and soooo cute!

Happily for me I was holding my grand daughter most of the time

so it's a miracle I snapped pics at ALL!

Here are all of our awesome Jack O'Lanterns!

(The one with writing says Go Celts -

it's difficult to tell because it is behind a tall stem.

My niece is a high school varsity cheerleader

 for a team called Celtics. That family has great team spirit!

In case you are wondering, mine is the lower right one.

I nearly always do happy sweet ones.

The one next to mine is difficult to tell-

but it is a Marvel Comic character called Two Face

so it has two faces.

I think my favorite is my daughter's mother-in-law's:

She painted it black and it's face is all BATS!

That one is 2nd from right, second row from top.

Another really awesome one is my eldest daughter

(private art college degree paid off) who carved the

cat on upper left. 

We thought it was neat we ended up with two cat ones this year!

Here's my festive goofy little sister being all witchy and scary -

 she's a beautiful platinum blonde normally. : -)

She's not evil - she's prolly just saying 

"GIMME ALL YOUR CANDY, MY PRETTIES!"

OK, my pics of the party just don't do it justice -

everything looked so neat in candlelight...

but makes for poor picture quality. Sorry.

This is a pic of the table early before all the food was out-

I knew if I didn't snap a pic right then 

I'd probably not get one of the table at all.

My youngest daughter collects Dia de Muertos sugar scull art-

so when I find fun things like this little pail I have to buy for her.

Read a little about the history of this ancient celebration here.

Sugar scull art is usually quite ornate and colorful.

Sometimes just in black and white it looks cool too.

This table held just a few yummy snacks and was cute!

The Oreo surprise bottom cupcakes with oreo buttercreme frosting.

But BY FAR the cutest thing last night was our wee pumpkin!

Here's our Baby Bug grand-daughter all dressed up for the occassion. 

Her cute pumpkin hat was knitted by a friend of her moomy's.

So, already tomorrow is November 1st!

Where has this year gone!?

As always, thank you for your visit!

You are all such ghoul friends, oops, I mean GOOD,

 yes that is you are all such GOOD FRIENDS!

Hope you had a hauntingly good Halloween.

See you soon. Big hugs! 

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

GIFT GIVING SEASON = COMING SOON!

With gift-giving season right around the corner

- and if you are anything at all like me and have too much stuff-

why not try to sell through BLOG SHOP?

Beverly at How Sweet The Sound blog hosts a weekly link party

to make it easy to bring some extra cash your way,

and for others to find something they'd love through this party!

Even if you aren't selling, be sure to at least pop over there

and do a little window shopping! You'd be helping a friend while helping yourself at the same time.

It's nice to avoid that busy, often over-priced

Big Box Store trap!

You need not have a store; etsy, dotcom online or ebay shop to sell -

all you simply do is write a post on things you want to let go

and then link your post - or your wares in a shop - and 

link up at the party! Easy Peasey!

Go check out the party to see what I mean!

As for me, here's a handful of things for sale in my ebay store:

(Click my shop button below or on my side bar any time to find it.)

Thank you for indulging me 

(and potentially helping others)

by letting me share with you about this link party!

As always, thank you for your visit!

♥

~Michele

Bits of Happiness and Family

My sweet granddaughter Vivian visited her
FIRST PUMPKIN FARM
 with her Momma, Daddy, Aunt Eve (pronounced Evie) and Uncle Dan. 

It was a beautiful day and they had lots of fun.

This is a bit of an action shot (above)
 but I wanted to show everyone the way she holds her thumbs
 - she always does this - 
her wee thumbs are almost always tucked inside her fingers.

 We think it is way cute.

(Also the baby sticks her tongue out a LOT.
 It is her way of saying she's hungry.)

And she is ALWAYS hungry, haha!

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~


Here is the cute and fun outdoor-sy family.

(They could so easily live on a farm.)

Here are my three awesome & wonderful girls!

I just adore this pic of them together!

Today is Katie's birthday - she's the momma of wee Vivian.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KATIE!

Today is also Baby Bug's 3 month birthday, too!

This was taken last Wednesday
but today she is 3 months exactly.

There's that little tongue sticking out, kinda.

Happy Grandpa Mike in a very rare smiling pic:

As always, thank you for your visit!

Have a wonderful and blessed week -
our weather is just so perfect
 that I am out in it as much as possible!

I am so sorry that I have been MIA lately!

I haven't forgotten you, I promise!

HUGS TO YOU ALL!

♥

~Michele