For Unto Us a Child is Born

My mom made the Nativity Scene in the following pictures for me in 1983 when she was taking ceramic classes at our local high school. My set is pearlized. It's a little hard to tell in the photos but it looks like Mother of Pearl with little hints of pink, purple, blue, lavender and other colors.

My mom has made one for each of the females in our family, mine goes to my daughter . . . someday! And that is the key word April...someday, lol.

I believe mine is the only pearlized one, the others are all hand painted in detail by my mom's own two hands. I hope you enjoy these photos. It was really hard to take the pictures because my living room is pretty dark.

I've placed the Nativity Scene on my Fireplace Mantle. The mirror behind has some stick-on decals, an angel and some snowflakes. My mom decorated the mirror and I think it looks perfect as a backdrop for the Nativity Scene.

For to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign to you; You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even to Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told to them.

Joining in on Mosaic Monday at Mary's Little Red House. Please head over and take a look at all the other beautiful mosaics and I hope you enjoyed my little Nativity Scene.

Iwanna Wednesday - Nesting Dolls

It's Iwanna Wednesday. The day I get to Iwanna anything in the world. Iwanna is kinda a nick name given to me by my mom and sister who say that I WANT everything. We can walk into any kind of store and I will see something and say, "I want one of those"...that's why they call me Iwanna.

But since I've not won the lottery yet, I can't make all my Iwanna wishes come true, but I can make them come true on Iwanna Wednesday because I can blog about anything Iwanna. That's why it's not call Igotta Wednesday, cause I don't gotta most of the things Iwanna...understand now? Nevermind...it's perfectly clear to me.

So I was randomly looking for unique dolls the other day online for my niece Melissa for Christmas. And now that I remember I haven't posted a picture of Melissa in ages! I took a super cute one at Thanksgiving. She was wearing the most gorgeous flowery purple dress. Purple is her favorite color. Isn't she cute? She really loves whipped cream. She takes after me like that :-D

Anyway....I saw lots of dolls that she would love, but I also saw some really unique ones that Iwanna. The dolls I saw are Nesting Dolls. They are known as Matryoshka Dolls, Babushka Dolls, Stacking Dolls, and Russian Nesting Dolls.

I bought these Nesting Dolls for my daughter for her birthday in April of 2009. She's always wanted Russian Nesting Dolls.

When I saw these next ones the first thing out of my mouth was, "Iwanna these dolls!" I just love the color. Don't get me wrong...I love the bright beautiful colors of the ones that are pictured above, but I just love the colors in these. You can find these ($59.95) and many, many more at tridenttreassures.com. Just check out the teeny-weenie little baby ones. Join me in saying, Awwwwwww...

 

And get ready to say Awwwwwww yet again cause check out these cute little penguin nesting dolls. Oh yeah...I hear ya! These are from bestgiftexpress.com and are $39.95. (I don't usually list prices, but seeing as how some of you may be looking for unique Christmas gift ideas I thought it might be nice to know how reasonably priced they are.)

The next ones are also from bestgiftexpress.com and they just make me smile. How sweet are these? Just $55.95...don't you love the baby chick, freshly hatched? And the Rooster...isn't he just so cocky! ;-D And the mother hen just gazing adoringly at her baby chick...sweet!!!!

I am in Iwanna Nesting Heaven! I keep thinking...ok, this is the last onem  this is the cutest one ever and then BOOM...there's another one! This one is called the Yellow Submarine, like the Beatles song. These are actually the Beatles. The Walrus is Paul...can you guess the other ones? Just check out the details! They all actually can fit inside the yellow submarine. I love the Seahorse with the microphone and the octopus with the pink guitar. Can you blame me if Iwanna these?

The rest of these I found on amazon.com and I wish I had more time so I could post pictures of the one million and one nesting dolls I found there! There just isn't enough time to show you all of them, so head over to find many more such as these. . .

Star Wars!

Lighthouses

Nesting Nurses! They also had Nesting Policy Officers!

And if you're super creative...as I know many of you are. How about a blank set so you can make your very own unique nesting doll?

So is your Christmas shopping done? Aren't some of these great as Christmas Gifts? I think I would love all of them thank you very much! Which is your favorite? Happy Iwanna Wednesday and may all your Iwanna wishes come true!

It's a Chorizo Christmas

By popular demand I give to you our "Christmas Puppy" (my daughter April says she's still a puppy even though she's now 1 year old)!

We had a really great time taking Chorizo to meet Santa. It was Pet Day at the Mall with Santa and there were other people there with their pets. There was this one beautiful Pit Bull right behind us and he so wanted to eat Chorizo!

Chorizo had the time of her life! She was sniffing everything and the kids in front of us kept dropping popcorn, which she loves and there were other dogs and puppies for her to socialize with! She definitely had her Christmas Joy last night!

It's amazing to me that this little ball of fluff has brought so much joy into my life. I've never been a dog person and never understood people who take their dogs everywhere with them and treat them like members of their family. Chorizo has changed all that! I love this little puppy.

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

Wow, looks like it's been almost a week since I last blogged something. But yes folks, it's the Season. So many things to do!

Friday was our company Christmas party and we traveled to Fresno, home of our corporate office for a wonderful Christmas luncheon with Prime Rib and plenty of Cosmo's! Plus there was a little burlesque show for us which made us laugh and got us into the Spirit way more than the Cosmo's did!

After the luncheon our bosses gave us the rest of the day off so myself and another co-worker hit HomeGoods in Fresno since we don't have one in Bakersfield. I swear I could live in that store and never even come out for food! Well at least I wouldn't come out until I had eaten all their Christmas goodies!

When I got home after a two hour trip back I met up with my sister and we had a nice relaxing dinner and did some shopping, then home...much too late to blog about anything.

Saturday was my big PUT THE CHRISTMAS TREE UP DAY! The tree itself took me about three hours and then of course I had to do my mantle and my little blogging station. I took pictures and I'll try to get those posted.

Sunday is usually family day and my daughter came over and I tried a new recipe from The Noble Pig website which I'll blog about later.

Tonight I'm headed to the Mall with my daughter to take that little puppy Chorizo to have her picture taken with Santa, then we're going to dinner after that.

So...for now, the blogging will have to wait, but I'm having a super Holiday Season so far. How about you?

My Wreath is Missing and Iwanna New One!

I'm someone who becomes very attached to inanimate objects. I keep using the same fake Christmas Tree year after year because my friend Stacie gave it to me the first year I lived out on my own and didn't even have a couch, let alone a Christmas Tree. Every year I think to myself that I want a fresh tree this year but I feel like I'm going to hurt the fake trees feelings.

I keep using the same ornaments year after year even though some years I would love to have a Theme tree, maybe one that has all red balls and white lights and gingham bows? Or blue balls with while lights and silver bows...but no...I can't have a Theme tree because I have ornaments I've had for years and years and they bring me joy and I only get to see them once a year; so how can I not display them?

Yes...I'm a traditionalist, an obsessive, compulsive traditionalist that can't change how she decorates for Christmas because I'm attached...to inanimate objects.

But....say one year I can't find a certain Christmas Item? Well then I would have to replace it, I would have no choice right? Right!

So last year I lost my Christmas Wreath. Search as I might I couldn't find it. It's gone, it's lost. So Iwanna new one this year.

The first one I found was this one. This is a Leucadendron Wreath with Pine Cones. The beauty of this one is that it's fresh...it's going to dry, so I don't have to keep it, year after year. I can just enjoy it this year and start fresh again next year!

This next one is one I've always lusted after. My sister has one like this and Eddie Ross showed us how to make one on his Blog. I just love the colors and the shininess of this one.

This next one is just like the one Eddie Ross made, only a more traditional looking one.

Several years ago my mom, who has always been very crafty, created a beautiful wreath out of plastic trash bags. I remember she bought red trash bags (where she found red ones I don't know) and we used that wreath for a couple of Christmas'. This next one is made out of regular old sandwich bags and you can go here to see the How-to's.

But I saved the best for last....this is the one Iwanna. This is a Thomas Kinkade Nativity Village wreath, click on it to enlarge and see it in detail. Isn't this one gorgeous? The only problem is this is another one that I can see myself becoming attached to. I don't think I would ever want another one if I had this one.

How about you? Do you change it up every Christmas? Do you stick with tried and true? What Christmas decoration means the most to you? Happy Iwanna Wednesday and may all your Iwanna wishes come true!

A Great Monday with Apolo Ohno

As Monday's go today was pretty special. This morning on the news I heard that Olympic Speedskater Apolo Ohno was going to be in Bakersfield for a book signing! I love Apolo! I love the Winter Olympics! I loved Apolo in the Winter Olympics! So I knew I had to see him.

Luckily the book signing was from noon to 1pm which is my lunch hour so I dashed over there and almost didn't stop because of the line. But then I thought, "You know what? When are you ever going to get this opportunity again? This is an Olympic Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal winner and he's HERE...in Bakersfield! You park this car Missy and get in that line!" I can be pretty demanding of myself at times!!

So I did it. I got in line and then noticed that everyone already had the book, so I asked the lady in front of me and she said you had to buy the book first. So I walked up to the front of the store just as Apolo got off his bus.

I saw the top of his cute little head and there was thunderous applause and then *poof* he was gone into the store to get set up to sign books. So I went in and I bought my book and went back outside to a line that was even longer now, but before my self could give my self another talk...I got into line!

The girls in front of me started telling me that he had stayed at the hotel that they work for, The Marriott and they had found out this morning that he was eating breakfast in the hotel restaurant and they went there to see him and were sure they had made fools of themselves just standing there gawking at him.

The line moved fast and someone came out and told us not to worry, that Apolo had said he would stay until every last person in line got their book signed and also that unfortunately he would not be personalizing them as there were too many people and he had another book signing in Fresno at 4pm. The line did move fast and before you knew it I was right there...gazing into those beautiful caramel colored eyes!

He just didn't stop smiling at everyone although the two people on either side of him were rushing everyone through. I just got a moment to look at him when he handed me my book back and I said, "Thank you Apolo" and he smiled and said "You're Welcome"...and I swear I swooned!

The girls that were ahead of me in line were still standing there taking pictures and I swear when they saw me and I saw them we squealed and jumped up and down like teenage girls! Ok...well, yeah...they were teenage'ish girls, but hey! it was Apolo...I was allowed to act like a teenage girl. It's called "Joie de Vivre" and I'm glad that even on a Monday...I still have it!

So I have the book and I can't wait to read it. It's filled with great pictures! And I have his signature and that makes it even more special.

Yep...this was a pretty great Monday!

Mosaic Monday - Puppy Love

It was one year ago at Thanksgiving that I fell in love with a little bundle of fur named Chorizo. I first blogged about Chorizo in a Mosaic Monday post so I figured how better to celebrate the One Year Anniversary of having this beautiful puppy be a part of our lives than to do a post of all the Mosaic's I've done through the year with Chorizo as the main character and Star!

First the original mosaics; the first pictures I ever took of that sweet little puppy that stole my heart and turned me into an animal lover. Chorizo belongs to my daughter April and she surprised me by bringing her to Thanksgiving Day Dinner. That night she left Chorizo with me since she was going to Black Friday and the puppy and I bonded.

After those first pictures followed Christmas with Chorizo and her first Christmas Tree. She's always been such a good puppy; she never even tried to play with the Ornaments and various displays in my home.

Chorizo is such a well-behaved, sweet natured little puppy that loved to travel with us, so we took her to the beach and seal as well as whale watching.

Chorizo was also fun to dress up, check out her itsy-bitsy, teeny-weenie little bikini! Through out the year she also had a Santa Claus suit and for Halloween she was a Sundae...a Chorizo Sundae.

She made it so much fun for me to create Mosaics!! She doesn't love the camera, which makes it hard to get good photos of her, but the camera definitely loves her!

She's the most photogenic member of our family! That's why she had her own puppy photo shoot!

I really look forward to another year of sharing my life with this little piece of Heaven on Earth and to doing many more mosaics.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to go visit Mary at Little Red House...the host of Mosaic Monday!

Want to solve a Puzzle?

My sister, brothers and I grew up living out in the country on various ranches my dad worked for. We always lived at least 8 miles away from the closest town. We didn't have cable, computers, Ipods, Twitter, Facebook, Wii, X-Box, cell phones, kindles, nooks or even DVD or VCR players. To keep us from getting bored, my mom had to be very, very good at keeping us entertained.

We played lots of games, went fishing, refinished furniture and did lots of jigsaw puzzles. It seems like there was always a big piece of plywood on our dining table with a puzzle going. We were welcome to sit at any time and work a little bit of it at a time. So I've always loved doing jigsaw puzzles. However it's been a long time since I've done one.

But now I've found this wonderful website, thanks to StumbleUpon.com, that allows me to work jigsaw puzzles online and even create my own puzzles!!! The site is called Jigidi.com. I've solved quite a few puzzles at the site, but today I created my own puzzle using that sweet little puppy, Chorizo. I've embedded the puzzle below. This is the first time I've done one so I think if you click on it you will be taken to Jigidi.com. I made it kind of big, 208 pieces cause I love a challenge. If you solve it, let me know. I'll try to make a smaller one next time. Happy Puzzling!

Note: I deleted the larger version of the puzzle as it was really slowing down my blog for some reason. I'm going to leave the smaller 39 piece version and hope that I don't have a problem with it. You can still go to Jigidi.com to find the larger version.

*******I had to re-make this puzzle as an easier version. The following is only 30 pieces*******

Sisters

"A sister is a gift to the heart, a friend to the spirit, a golden thread to the meaning of life."  ~ Isadora James

Please allow me a moment to put into words my feelings about sisters and their relationships. Anyone who has been reading my blog for a while knows that I have a younger sister named Lisa that is my very dearest and best friend.

But this morning I witnessed the love of two other sisters, my mother Tomasa and her sister Casimira. My mom is Tia Casi's baby sister, just as Lisa is my baby sister.
My mom has been having car troubles and this morning she had to come into Bakersfield to have blood work done. She told me she would drive the 25 miles into Bakersfield with me since I commute every day to work anyway. She said her sister Casi would pick her up from the lab and they would spend the day together and I could pick my mom up after I got off work at 5.

When I got to the lab I was worried about just leaving my mom because it was pretty cold this morning and I didn't want her waiting outside in the cold...alone. Luckily the lab had opened at 7am so she could wait inside. I asked mom what time her sister was coming for her and she said around 9:30 or 10am. I hesitated to leave my mom because that's a long time for her to be alone...but as my mom walked towards the building I saw from the corner of my eye a woman that could have been my mothers twin. The same short, gray, curly hair, the same long lean frame, the same purposeful walk and the same strong, beautiful hands my mom has clutching a purse....it was my Tia Casi (tia is spanish for aunt).

I rolled down my window to call out to my mom so she could turn to see her sister and I saw my mom's eyes light up to see her sister and to know that she wasn't alone. My Tia came up to my car window to say "Good Morning" and I thanked her for coming to sit with my mom and make sure she wasn't alone.

And I went to work with a happy heart knowing my mom wasn't alone. Just as I drove out of the parking lot...my very own sweet sister calls me as she does every morning and I told her about what our Tia had done. There is nothing like a sister's love.

Better Late than Never - Sweet and Salty! Yum!

I am so behind in EVERY THING this holiday season. I'm barely getting around to roasting the pumpkin seeds that we saved the day we carved our Halloween Pumpkins. But I did want to share them because I'd never roasted them before and the are so delicious!

(By the way, I carved the normal looking one on the left. My daughter April carved the pumpkinavore that's eating the baby pumpkin)

I made one batch using a recipe that my daughter found at the Crepes of Wrath site. The recipe calls for EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil), brown sugar, cinnamon and kosher sale. They came out great but I still had a lot of pumpkin seeds left so I took the rest and just did all the same ingredients without the cinnamon. Those are the ones pictured in the mosaic. I love sweet and salty together. These were delicious!

I tried to get pics of the ones with cinnamon but the battery in my camera decided not to cooperate!

They were a bit of work because once you carve your pumpkins you have to rescue the wet, slippery seeds. And then you have to dry them. Mine dried for about a week on a cookie sheet and I kept turning them over and over so they dried evenly, then I placed them in a plastic bag and put them in the veggie crisper of my refrigerator.

It was fun to make them and I'm going to try again next year with different flavors. Sydney from Crepes of Wrath places them in little cellophane bags and gives them as gifts. I think that would be a great idea.

Here's the recipe I used:

Sweet n' Salty Pumpkin Seeds

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds (about the amount I got from 2 sugar pumpkins, adjust as needed)
1 teaspoon olive oil (plus another teaspoon or so, if needed)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt or fleur de sel (I just like the flakiness of fleur de sel)

1. You can buy pumpkin seeds at the store, or you can use the ones you get from your Halloween pumpkins! If you're using fresh ones from pumpkins, rinse them thoroughly in a colander and remove as much of the pumpkin flesh that you can (if you can't get every little piece, it's not a big deal - it's edible). Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper, and spread the seeds out on it. Let it sit out for at least 5-6 hours or, preferably, overnight. They should be bone dry, or nearly bone dry, when you bake them.

2. When the seeds are dry, mix them together with the olive oil (just enough to coat, I used about a teaspoon), 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt or fleur de sel (I highly recommend fleur de sel for its flakiness - you can obviously use more salt, if you like). Bake at 300 degrees F for 8 minutes or so, until the brown sugar is just beginning to set into the seeds. They won't change color that much (see above), so don't worry if they seem the same as when you put them in the oven. You can always pop them back in the oven if you need to, but once they're burned, there's nothing you can do! Just be mindful of how long they are in there.

3. Allow to cool completely (this should only take a few minutes) and enjoy! I wrapped mine up in cute cellophane baggies and tied them for a pretty holiday present! 

Linking up to Mosaic Monday with Mary at Little Red House.