Happy New Year! Farewell to Stinky Old 2021

Happy New Year's Eve! We have a big celebration planned for New Year's Eve. And by New Year's Eve I mean between 6:00 and 9:00 pm, the time before my husband falls asleep in his recliner. 

I put some meatballs and chicken wings in the freezer when I was making Christmas snacks and they are now warming in the slow cooker. We have unopened chips and even chip dip in the refrigerator. And, to celebrate, we are going to split the leftover bud light in a red aluminum bottle that is also in the refrigerator. 

Since none of our children are going out (I am guessing since I haven't heard anything), we are not babysitting! So my big plan, in addition to watching old reruns and crime shows on television is to keep working on my jigsaw puzzle. Something else I can't do when little people are here helping. 

It is titled garage sale and is just full of teeny tiny treasures. This has 1000 itty bitty pieces and I am obsessed. To make it more fun, many have been cut with the same pattern so they will fit together where they do not belong. I had to do the border over a few times and even now I know there is a problem.  I was up until (don't tell) almost 3 a.m. last night and really got a handle on it. I'm not so sure I will last that long tonight. 

Wishing everyone happiness and good health in the New Year. My plan for the new year is to reorganize my pandemic pantry. Especially since my December beef quarter was accidently sold out from under me and the replacement isn't traveling to the butcher until March. Not sure sure Mr Merry is excited about the quantity of casseroles in his future. But I am looking at it as an opportunity to use up what we have and plan better for the next restock. (Last time I was in survival mode and this time I will choose more what we will actually eat, rather than recommendations on what we should be eating, LOL). 

Ending the Year

We made it through our Christmas (Sunday, December 19). Four out of five of my children, 2 children in-law, 1 boyfriend (he's a keeper, the day before he was cleaning out her gutters, unasked), all ten grandchildren and the old people (I mean us). 

As usual I fixed enough food for a small country which allowed us to eat leftovers for the next week. I baked a ham, roasted a roast, casseroled two 9x13 of cheesy potatoes, mixed a huge macaroni salad, sliced and diced raw veggies, baked and decorated precut cookies from Gordon Food Service, crockpoted meatballs and chicken wings and welcomed an Arkansas green bean casserole, a charcuterie board, chicken gnocchi soup and cookie platter from my squad. 

We tell the kids not to get us anything, but as usual they did. I did score a win with the grandchildren. It is difficult to remain fair and even when they are aged 2-almost 14, but I wrapped something and told them it was a combination Christmas-Mimi Camp gift. The teens and tweens were apprehensive, but once everyone opened a season pass to Cedar Point (an amusement park and water park located near our home), there were lots of smiles. Here is Gramma Mimi explaining the gift in ambiguous terms while the teenager pretends to be excited. 

As you can see, it was also football Sunday. Luckily not any "local" favorites so people could pay attention.

The adults are supposed to ONLY bring a gag gift with a gift card for an exchange. My daughter and son-in-law live near an Amazon wholesale or something and brought two unmarked Amazon boxes that you can pick up at the loading docks. They are crammed with unnamed interesting items. The winners had quite the time unpacking them. There were some very hilarious items. Lots of Halloween decorations, lots of knick knacks, lots of small stuff. One box had several trays that either fit on a stroller or wheelchair (we weren't sure), children's vitamins and pop-its. The other box had ten times the items which included a $50 microphone set coveted and awarded to the thirteen year old and a large selection of see through underwear. The boyfriend comic said the "L" ones must be for Ladies and the "M" ones must be for men. The kids were so busy with the pop-its that they missed the uncles hanging them out of my reach on my curtain rods. I am pretty sure they have all been removed - the minute they left. 

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we enjoyed the peace and quiet and each other's company. 

We have been hosting sleepovers for working parents and overworked parents and have an unvaccinated two year old in a crib tonight while big sister went bowling. 

For New Years Eve we plan to stay home and enjoy each other's company while snacking on a shrimp ring and more marinated chicken wings I picked up at our butcher's while I was there for Christmas. 

Our county's covid numbers are through the roof. We have a police scanner and most EMS calls are covid-related. This has been another year to stay home and stay away from people. At this point I am not sure when we will feel safe venturing out. 

Bah Humbug

Yes, we have reached that point in December here at the Merry house.  The bedroom project has not progressed any further. I still haven't found the tabletop trees I purchased last February and have spent way too much time searching for them.  

I have realized that my entire family will be here to celebrate on Sunday (five days away) and I need to clean the entire house, make a menu plan, grocery shop and prepare. I did drag the tree out on Sunday and it is decorated pretty sadly.  

I reached the point where the rest of the decorations are going to be stuffed under a bed. 

But, I did get the dollhouse decorated.  This has led to me spending my spare time making plans for changes next year. I am not happy with the garland on the windows, so I spent one night looking at options which will be delivered Thursday from Amazon. Because I am spending all my time decorating the dollhouse instead of my house. 

The attic is a workshop

The second bedroom is a workshop too. I'm pretty sure this has been rearranged since I took the photo. 

Elf quarters in the hallway. 

Santa is resting up for the big day. Pillows have now been rearranged to see him better. 

A reindeer is in the den planning the route. 

The living room has become gift wrap central. 

Now we have a kitchen and a kitchen. After these photos were taken I found a gingerbread house! And there was no room on the table in the first kitchen. And, well, there needed to be changes. So the furniture got switched, as did the accessories. I finally had to walk away and will re-plan for next year. 

I did find a photo I took of the gingerbread house. Because, that is what I would do instead of trying to organize for the 19 vaccinated family members and 2 babies who will be here in five days. 

My oldest daughter is the Director of Student Services for the nursing department at her university. She is going crazy dealing with students and parents at the end of term, some failing and organizing her part in graduation ceremonies for others. She also has 3 tweens who are in numerous sports, music and other activities this week. I have two teachers who are not only trying to tame classrooms, but have to dress their own children in themes each day while trying to get it together for their own Christmas, dad's who are working overtime and trying to pitch in, I can't even keep up with any of it.  We still rise at 6 am so I can make breakfast for elementary grandkids who catch the bus at my house, keep putting ornaments back on the tree that the day long toddlers remove and, if I get off the computer, I am starting my grocery list. 

Merry Christmas. And I will stop whining and start praying again for those affected by the terrible storms this weekend. My problems are so petty compared to the devastation of those souls. 

Decorating for Christmas in a Teeny Tiny Bathroom

We bought our teeny tiny 1050 square foot house when we were 19 years old. We were desperate to move to a home of our own and this was what we ended up with. Of course it was meant to be our starter home, but high interest rates and a recession coupled with five children in seven years meant we stayed. And when we built a 500 sq. foot room on the end (after the five children left), it became our forever home. 

We still have the one small bathroom, too. The master plan (which was to be completed four years ago when my husband retired) is to move the laundry room into the area created when we remodeled the kitchen, put a half bath into the old laundry room and then gut this puppy down to the studs. We are moving closer, as slowly as we possibly can. We replaced one of those shelving units over the toilet with these narrow shelves and I love them. Right now they are filled with little red trucks with Christmas trees. 

I found the shower curtain and hangers at Big Lots a few years ago. It goes so well with the wall color. The bottom sign also came from Big Lots, last year I think. The framed print is a calendar page, a gift from an old friend. My husband built this indestructible towel bar after tugging children destroyed several normal towel bars and hooks. It works well now as I brace myself climbing into the tub. I cannot wait until we have a walk in shower. 

The wreaths are new this year. This is a bump out into the closet behind it (my closet, as a matter of fact). There was zero storage in the bathroom originally and there is space for a small clothes basket under the shelves. Anyway, the wreaths. After I hung wreaths on every other cupboard door set in my kitchen, I liked them so much I ordered more on Lakeside. By the time they came, I decided I like the kitchen wreaths the way they were.  I cut off the gingham ribbons and made these red ones from the leftover strips from my bedroom garland. 

This is the partial wall by the door. The remodeling includes a wider door with a wider door frame. The door is currently sitting in my craft/junk room. Taking care of my parents was good instruction in everything I need to include in my forever bathroom.  I don't know what I had on this wall last year. I have hung Raggedy here for now. I know she is getting a little worn, but she was one of the last gifts my mother gave me, so I am keeping her forever. I am sure one of the Dollar stores has something truck oriented that will fit on this wall. I will stop by the next time I do a grocery run. 

Add a red throw rug and that's the bathroom! I did see that this year Big Lots has an adorable snowman shower set, but I am trying to resist. Now let's play "Eye Spy". Did you spot the basket of little boys underpants?

Operation: Hallmark Christmas Inn Bedroom Project, Part 3

Things continue to move a lot slower than I had planned but I did complete one item from the list! I finally sat down and made the garland out of the strips I cut two weeks ago. 

Some of you had asked how I make the garland. This is totally different than the way I usually make them. After I went to bed last night, I remembered how I usually do it and briefly thought about taking it apart. Then I regained my sanity because it looks perfectly fine. Basically, I tie cloth clothesline (not plastic) to a chair and tied the strips into a knot. Just like tying your shoes. 

Just remember to keep the knot going the same way. I did the right side over the top. Normally I pull both ends through a loop. Here are the directions to the wonderful Fourth of July garland I made. I made the Christmas strips much shorter which worked with the simple knot, too. 

http://missmerry-s.blogspot.com/2020/06/fourth-of-july-birthday-garland.html

Starting to take shape. I cut the pink and red fabric into 1" strips approximately 6" long. The snowflake fabric is 2" wide so that I could get a whole snowflake in the pattern. You can see the simple knot. 

And as the garland grows, you just move the chair! I guess you need a wide room for this project. I had intended it to be 11 feet long for some reason. I had enough fabric to get to 10 feet which was actually a little longer than I needed. 

I ordered an 18" white fake fur tree skirt for my flocked tree on my nightstand. Then I realized that meant it would only extend 9".  While I was stalking Dollar Generals, I found a 24" candy cane striped tree skirt for $2 so I picked that up, too. It isn't perfect, but it hides my digital clock and power strip. I just looked through my photos and they look pretty sad. We will update the tree skirt in the next post. Changes need to be made. 

I have not gotten any further with doll house decorating despite my grandchildren checking it daily. They want to know what the elves are doing and why the decorating isn't happening. So do I! Here are some of the grandchildren with Santa pictures I display at Christmas. Hint, start with smaller frames with the first grandchild. 

I am so proud I completed the garland! And my husband and I decorated outdoors and remained married so that is another plus. AND I have all my gifts wrapped. I will admit that we are only doing two gifts per person this year (but I do have 21 children, bonus children and grandchildren) and I do shop all year. I did pretty well and only had to order two emergency shipments from Amazon to equal the playing field.  Now I am free to welcome grandchildren while all the little Mrs. Clauses finish shopping and do their own gift wrapping. 

Operation Hallmark Christmas Inn Bedroom: Part Two

I have to be honest. The project is moving slowly. I started November 1, I believe. I am thinking that it might have been better to start the first of October. 

Here is the fabric for the rag garland over the bed.

The snowflake print is almost identical to one of the prints in the quilt. I do have it cut into strips. 

And here is the pile - all cut and ready to tie. That was a week ago. The pile is still there . . . 

The next huge project was clearing the top of my dresser. It was quite the collection of anything that I took away from toddlers who cannot reach the top. I hesitated in showing this photo, but, real life. This started a domino effect when these items landed in the dining room and then I decided to organize my spare room to fit them in and then had to sort the Christmas gifts hidden in the closet and count them and then decided to clear out the grandchildren's craft area and consolidate it . . . 

This is what the dresser looks like with a clean top. I wanted to commemorate the occasion. 

Last year I wrapped my dollhouse in saran wrap. This year I have a two year old and three year old who will not be stopped by saran wrap. I decided to move the dollhouse to the dresser and welcome the elves! But first, I decided to put some felt down to protect the wood. 

I cut one long piece of felt from my fabric closet into two strips that fit on top. Then I measured the doll house. It was too small. Measure once and cut twice is my motto. I found white scraps and tacked them together. Then I covered it with some folded fabric from the craft closet. 

I took this photo and realized that I could not get away without pressing the fabric. Laying the fabric on top of the felt tore out the tacking so I ended up having to sew the six pieces of felt together with a running stitch, went to the other room, cut the fabric, pressed the fabric and attempted to put it back on the dresser. Everything slid like ice. So I ended up sewing the fabric to the felt. Because nobody can turn a one minute project into a three hour project like I can. 

My husband graciously helped me carry and lift the doll house to the dresser and I was able to stage a few rooms. Then the whirlwind of our grandchild daycare intervened with parent/teacher days off, a bout of croup that went through one family, the two year old napping in the Hallmark Christmas Bedroom so that I can't decorate during nap time/ free time. 

Here are a few rooms where I was playing. I will be moving everything because I have made garlands and wreaths for the windows and should have started with those. 

Sorry about the shadows. Hopefully I can take photos in daylight when I finish decorating. 

Real glad I carefully placed the teeny tiny food and dishes since I will need to move it all. I spent one night coloring a tea light with different sharpie colors to make a fire for the fireplace. 

The other night, before I fell asleep, I remembered some decorations I bought online from JC Penney's last year. I was watching them all season and after; until they went on clearance and into my price range. Now I need to remember where I stashed them. That is on my list for this week. Actually, what I need to do is make a list! 

In the meantime, I bought these wreaths last summer on clearance from Lakeside during a weekend they were offering free shipping. The bows are "pink" but I think they look like Christmas! The price was 2/$3.99 and I am so in love with them. And I know they look great because when my husband walked into the kitchen and said "Oh no, not a Hallmark Kitchen, too!" My grandchildren were not impressed and wanted to know why I hung wreaths in a KITCHEN.  And please ignore the messy counter tops. I had four grandchildren here today (on my "day off") and had stayed up way too late last night refreshing my page on Target to snare a gift, as soon as it listed, my daughter in law needed double for both of their boys. 

How did I forget this? I LEFT THE HOUSE.  My daughter in law researched and found that the musical version of "Elf on a Shelf" was coming to a theater only one hour and 45 minutes away and masks were required to enter the building and must be worn at all times! Of course the one family who decided to violate the policy sat right in front of us. But, without me saying a word or waving, security kindly reminded them that masks were required (it was flashing online when you purchased the ticket, printed on the ticket, posted on every available space and reminded on the public speakers). They did put them on, but glared at everyone around them all night.  I packed a picnic supper that we ate in the car and then, after a trial run, made cocoa in coffee carafes and had Christmas cookies for the ride home, so we would not need to enter public restaurants. The good news is that these three and two more cousins aged 5 & 7 will all get their first vaccine this week! 

Here's hoping I will have more Hallmark Christmas Inn Bedroom progress to report next week. 

Operation Hallmark Christmas Inn Bedroom Part One

 What? Posting again already? Well, I decided if I didn't share something - it could be after Christmas and I never would get a chance. 

Before we begin. The stove. Well, the stove was delivered this morning. I am not thrilled with it. It cost a fortune and has so much "stuff" I will never use and didn't want. There were features I would have liked that it doesn't have. As a short person, I immediately noticed the cooktop is almost an inch higher. My husband was a little blown away by what difference this makes. It makes a difference. It has an "app" that I could possibly hook up with my phone. There is no point to that feature. It also has a "steam" setting and a "bread proofing" setting for the oven. I can't imagine why or what I would be steaming in the oven and I have been proofing bread for at least 5 decades and I don't know how you would do it in an oven. I should mention the only directions are for syncing the stove with your phone. None on operation. Oh, and the two front burners have rapid boil features on the large burner only so that I will be able to quickly boil water in a skillet. Also the timer and preheat feature play music instead of a buzzer. With young children and cartoons, I don't think I will hear it. And I find the sounds very strange. Have I done enough whining? No. The stove was delivered, but not the cord we purchased. So we had to reload the 2 year old and drive a city away, explain the whole wacky situation with the service desk and then drive all the way back home for my husband to spend 2 hours hooking up the stove.

So. I am blessed that I can afford to replace a stove. I am blessed that we were able to have a stove delivered so quickly. The fact that I spent $800 on a stove I am not thrilled about still has me steamed. Like the oven. 

So let's move on to happier subjects. 

DAY ONE- the tree. I shopped from my chair for a while, looking for the perfect tree. In my mind the perfect tree was a 7' pencil tree, flocked and pre-lit. After looking at prices, I kept revising the vision and suddenly I saw a 4' flocked and prelit tree on the Dollar General site for $20.00. Available in stores only. Then we began stalking Dollar General stores. I am now personally acquainted with at least six store managers and finally walked into one where they had my tree. I am thrilled with it. It is so overly flocked that the fact that it sheds like crazy doesn't bother me. It will stay flocked for years!! 

Day Two: We will go with bows on the lamps. I found these at Dollar General for $2.00 each. You will notice that the bows moved down from the shade to the base after a few days. I also found the red glittery placemats so we won't scratch the tabletops. 

Day Three: I don't know why, but last January I came across this quilt set on Amazon while searching for a quilt for my granddaughter. It was on clearance and I ordered it. It must have been a premonition. Here is before. 

And after. I love that it is "Christmasy" but is also snowflake enough to use through maybe February? 

Day Four: I am counting the throw pillows. The snowflake was an Amazon purchased pillow cover. The pink pillow was a stand alone pillow I picked up somewhere. 

Day Five:  I picked up this flocked garland at Jo Ann Fabrics as a "door buster". I had hoped to get more but they only hand two garlands left. Luckily I only have two windows. 

Day Six: (do you like how I am dragging this out?) I found these dark blue gingham pillow covers on Amazon. I borrowed two pillows from my sofa for the look. This brings us to eight decorative pillows on the bed (in addition to the two sleeping pillows on my husband's side and four on my side. In my defense, one is for my arm. 

Day Six: We spent two days stalking Dollar General Stores for "non-flocked" 4' tree pre-lit tree for $15.00 as requested by my daughter-in-law. We found this 4' pre-lit tree at Michaels for $19.99.  I probably should explain our shopping style. We pull up in the parking lot. I don my K95 mask (often the only one masked in the store), dash in leaving Mr. Merry in the car. Then I sanitize upon my return to the car. 

Day Seven: Last Spring I ordered two signs from my niece to put over the bed. There was something lost in the translation of my color choice so I ended up sanding this one, repainting it navy blue and my daughter cut the lettering out from white sticky paper on her cricut. Here it is on my old stove (sob) after I did some touch ups. 

And here it is over the bed. 

And here is what the bedroom really looks like with the pack n play for our guest. I don't remember pack n plays in the Hallmark movies . . . 

Now we will insert the stove adventure. 

While I was at Jo Ann's, I found fabrics that coordinate with the quilt that I am going to use to make a rag garland to go over the sign over the bed. I actually found fabric almost identical to the navy with the snowflake which I am very excited about. The dilemma is finding time to cut all the strips with my rotary cutter when we have had two and three year olds here every day since I purchased the fabric. I am hoping for some alone time on Saturday. I can work on it with them here, I just can't use the rotary cutter. 

I also have a big project in mind for the dresser across from the bed. I have supplies ready, but it first involves clearing the dresser top which will be a big project. AND since this room is used for napping, I can't do any part of the project when my buddies are here. 

So now I am only four days behind on Operation Hallmark Christmas Inn Bedroom (as long as I post before midnight!).  Hopefully by Monday I will have more to share! 

Pause in the Project

In my last post I had mentioned my project for Christmas 2021. I have decided to call it "Operation Hallmark Christmas Inn Bedroom.  My neighbors are making plans to visit a Christmas Inn and I decided to create my own Christmas Inn bedroom since we are still sticking to home. 

I plan to start posting the day by day photos. Don't get too excited, the project is moving slowly. And once I found my 4' pre-lit flocked tree after visiting numerous Dollar Generals surrounding my community, my daughter-in-law asked if I could try to find a "not flocked" one for one of my grandsons. We began stalking the Dollar Generals again - we even tried three different ones in a neighboring county where we were surprised to find zero Covid precautions. At least our county does post "suggestions" on business doors, even if barely anyone follows them.  

Luckily she spotted a 4' prelit tree on sale at Michaels. Searching the site, we would need to travel about an hour and a half away to pick one up in the store, but remember, I am a gramma! And more luckily - I re-googled the morning before we left and found that another town only 45 minutes away had gotten some trees in. SO - I think I am finally done searching for 4' Christmas trees. 

The other drama that has paused the project is my stove. I was working at my counter with the stove off, when I heard a warning beeping sounding off in the kitchen. At first I could not even figure out where it was coming from. I ruled out the smoke alarm, but noticed the clock on the stove. It was flashing a secret code - F30S5 (or something). After investigation by my husband which involved manuals and his ipad, it turned out that the "mother board" had died or fried. Who knew a stove had a "mother board"?  And the cost of said "mother board" is quite high - especially for an 11 year old range. 

Today we donned our face masks and had our first shopping expedition since February 2020.  We had to include a two year old who loves wearing his paw patrol mask. He found the process both amazing and the most boring event he has ever attended.  

We visited five stores, we explored limited supplies of stoves, we received delivery dates ranging from April 2022 to tomorrow. After 3 hours (which included a stop at the Verizon store because my husband's original flip phone also took a nose dive - he replaced it with another flip phone), we finally chose an astronomically priced range which will be delivered tomorrow. 

That was when we returned home and received a phone call that the stove has actually been discontinued. My husband was too scared to risk the store model with the, again, astronomical price we paid for it. We negotiated and tomorrow a stove I did not like as well, but is listed at a higher price will be delivered for the amount of the check I had written for the first stove. 

And - just to make the whole experience even more fun - when we moved the burnt stove out tonight, we realized we had not painted behind it when we remodeled the kitchen. My husband then painted the wall with the dark green from the living room instead of the 50's green for the kitchen. Now the kitchen wall has been repainted for the second time today and we are anxiously awaiting the random stove delivery. 

November

It certainly feels like November here! Our temperatures dropped, the flowers froze, the skies are gray. November 2 gave us a morning of sunshine and we had some very special photos taken of our youngest two grandsons. 

To go with this memorable pose of our eight oldest grandchildren a few years ago.

Then we popped back in the car and drove to the county fairgrounds where they were holding a drive thru clinic for the vaccine booster. Fortunately I had the time wrong which put us in the front of what turned out to be a 380 car line for the shot! 

The line went from the entrance and looped around the race track and around the barns.

The cracker jack staff and volunteers were working as quickly as possible to process paperwork and keep the line moving. By the time we entered the livestock lot, we had our sleeves rolled up and our arms out the window. 

We babysat for the two and three year old the rest of the afternoon so we really didn't have time to have much of a reaction. As soon as they left, Mr. Merry fell asleep. So we are counting that as "fatigue".  I was staying up way too late, but suddenly got a horrible head ache about 11:30 pm. I had several friends who experienced this so I took some Tylenol and marched myself to bed. And that was the end of it! 

Don't let the line fool you. The vaccination rates are GREAT in my county for the 65 plus crowd. The rest of the population, not so much. Our case numbers are up again, hospital numbers are staying steady. Grrrrr. Tonight I found out that another acquaintance who refused to get vaccinated is in the hospital with Covid pneumonia. It just makes me so angry when people are so seriously ill and it is preventable! 

My neighbors are talking about planning a vacation at Christmas time to a "Christmas Inn". I am insanely jealous, especially since I have been watching those Hallmark movies already. And because my husband, who has now had three Covid vaccines is still never planning to ever leave the house again.  After much whining a light bulb finally went off.  I have begun Project Hallmark Christmas Bedroom! 

I must have had a premonition because I purchased an adorable Christmas quilt on clearance last year.  I may have run to a nearby city to pick up some "door buster" specials at Joann Fabrics. And today I found my centerpiece. 

I had decided that the bedroom needs it's own tree. My first thought was a 7' flocked and prelit pencil tree.  We won't go into the prices I was seeing. Then I went on a bargain hunt. My husband was very concerned about the search, especially since we really don't have room for a tree in the bedroom. 

For some reason I was looking at the Dollar General ad online. I am sure I was searching prices for my husband's addiction (Sprite).  They have Christmas trees? For really cheap prices? After much study, I decided it had to be a 4' flocked prelit tree that would fit on my nightstand.  Then the hunt began. 

There is a Dollar General in the small village between our house and my daughter's house. We drive by every day and take her kids home. I have been stopping every few days to see if they have them in yet. The manager told me she got a truckload of new fall stuff, but no Christmas yet. She had talked to a manager in another village near us and she got no deliveries at all. The Dollar General in our town had not received any Christmas until this week. On Monday they had some random items and ONE 6' non-flocked prelit tree for $40.  Not what I wanted, but would it be all I could get? 

Today we went to a larger city to buy Sprite on sale at their Krogers. And Krogers is located in a plaza with a Dollar General. I stopped in AND, there was my 4' flocked prelit tree for only $20!!! They only had four of this tree and no other trees, so I grabbed it and ran! So exciting and my husband is so excited that we aren't going to be stalking the Dollar General stores anymore.