The magic of Christmas has arrived ~

I'll never forget the magic I used to feel as a little girl the night we put up our Christmas tree. It was the most wonderful thing to me ~ the lights, the decorations and of course the beautiful music. Our parents always played Bing Crosby, Johnny Mathis and of course Ray Conniff and his singers....each of them singing wonderful Christmas classics. Even ol' Glen Campbell had an album that we loved ~ just hearing him sing "Pretty Paper" melted my heart. I always knew that the Christmas season had officially arrived in our home when the tree was up, decorated and the music was softly playing in the background.

Thanks to my sweet son Brad getting all the decorations down from the attic, we have our tree up and decorated!! He even ran to Michael's for me and bought the spool of ivory tulle that I've been wanting....and it looks just like I thought it would!! A dreamy vanilla Christmas ~

I'm still going to play with the mantle a bit more, I can see by the photo that my candles aren't even and Mary and Joseph look a little like they may jump down to the hearth ~

Have you ever made these easy icicle ornaments? They are graduated sizes of clear beads and clear star shaped beads strung on a silver pipe cleaner. Just make a little ball at the bottom of your pipe cleaner, string on the beads smallest to largest so it tapers up and clip the pipe cleaner with wire cutters and fold over to make a loop for your ornament hook! Easy peasy ~

I still need to play with these arrangements a little more. The middle snowman looks like he might fall off!

Sorry about the scary shadow on the ceiling but I wanted you to see how Brad decorated the tobacco rack ~

We are also working hard to get rooms switched to prepare for Brent and Emily's arrival next week.....I've not been in my art room much and I sure do miss it!!! A wonderful recipe my mom always makes at the holidays:

Pineapple Marshmallow Salad

• 1 bag of mini marshmallows
• 1 large can of crushed pineapple (not drained)
• 1 cup of flaked coconut
• 1 8 ounce carton of sour cream

Mix together and refrigerate for at least eight hours.

Stir before serving.

Charlene of My Heart's Ease has given me a wonderful award ~ and as I usually don't tend to pass them along as I have SO many favorite blogs now this one seems a little different to me.

It's a Marie Antoinette Award of Inspiration....thank you so very much sweet Charlene for this ~ what an honor!

And who do I think is deserving of this award?? I must pass it on to YOU. You, who stop by my blog, who take the time to comment, who care what I'm up to, You inspire me....you are the one so deserving of this award of inspiration ~ Thank you so very much!

Wishing you a great Thursday sweet friends!

xxoo, Dawn

Wonderful FREE Christmas Tutorial ~

Miss Sandy of Quill Cottage has the BEST tutorial on her blog ~ I just had to share it with you!! Visit her blog HERE and look at all of the variations she has shown, just BEAUTIFUL!!!

xxoo, Dawn

Tons of goodies in this post!

Tuesday I received a wonderful email from Lorraine, a customer of Lessons from The Nest. She's purchased three of the tutorials so far and she wanted to send a photo of her creations. Just look at how beautiful all of her artwork is!!! I love to see her creating these things and hearing about the instructions and that they are clear and easy to understand. You always hope that you can convey what you want to when giving instructions like these. Thank you so much Lorraine, for buying the tutorials and for letting me see how gorgeous they all are!!

Just a random cat shot ~ they seem to really know how to take a nap! This is Paxton ~

Way, way back in my blog....about August of 2007. I went to a friend of mine's house from the antique store. Her home is so wonderful, collected and full of treasures that I took photos to send to Fifi to see what she thought of Jean's house. Almost half a year later we heard that "YES" they did want to shoot her house for a publication. So in July of 2008 they showed up and took some gorgeous photos of Jean's home. I was able to be there and what a thrill it was!!

The magazine has finally hit the newsstands! It's in the January issue of Country Sampler magazine. I've taken a few photos to give you an idea.....how amazing that because of an email, here's Jean's home in a magazine!!! This blog world is wonderful ~

A few goodies I wanted to share ~ these were a couple of beautiful pieces from Noah's baby nursery that I've saved. Don't you just love the classic Pooh items??

And I can't forget an image for you!!! Here's a sweet little snowman for your artwork or to make your own Christmas cards!

Wishing you a wonderful Wednesday ~ xxoo, Dawn