I lost a post...

I just spent three hours on my Nutcracker trip post and it disappeared.. This makes me very sad. I don't know when I'll have the heart to re-do it.  

I hope you're all having a lovely week. Stay warm and be safe!

Tamara

XO

Just Coming to Say Hello and Explain..

Hello Everyone..

This is strange post and even stranger ( is that a word??) picture!

I am in San Diego having a wonderful time!

I had planned on posting while here..

But guess what! 

No internet :)

They finally were able to get it to work..

sporadically.. So I'm not going to try to work on a long post!

Because I may not be able to save it.

I have enjoyed my time here very much.

I lugged my guitar along so I brought the music with me!

I'm not sure how much time I have so this will be very short..

But I miss you all. I had big plans to blog hop and visit while here.

Oh well..technology isn't perfect!

We're leaving tomorrow morning. 

So I'll catch up when I return home.

Soooo to explain the picture.

Guess what is still up at our house?

Our daughter did not want to take it down and so she is home

enjoying the tree.

I caught Brutus admiring the tree before we left.

What a cutie. He is the most photogenic cat... curious..cuddly

and has the most ATTITUDE of any cat we've EVER had.

And that's saying a lot!

When we lived in Ohio many years ago,

we used to swear that there must be an invisible sign hanging

above our long, country driveway saying...

~STRAY CATS WELCOME~

Anyway.. I'm getting warnings that my computer is not saving this..

oh NO!

I hope I can make it work!

I do hope that you're all doing well and enjoying the second half of your January.

Be happy and well and I will see you next week!

Thank you for coming by.

Love and blessings,

Tamara

Another Year Has Begun...And Some Random Art

 Hello everyone!

How I've missed you.

What an amazing holiday it was..

It seems that we're still partying with family every chance we get.

Celebrating life every day is what I often talk about

and I think I'm finally getting the hang of it.

Last evening, two of my daughters and myself stayed up late watching

Persuasion. It's a Jane Austen classic, period drama and one of our favorites!

If you're interested, you can watch the trailer here. 

(I have yet to get my pictures together for our December trip. The cord to the camera

was lost and though one has been ordered, it's coming from overseas and must be on a slow boat!

I still have a few more holiday pictures to share besides our Nutcracker holiday.)

***************

I hope your new year is off to a wonderful start with many promises

of good things! I find the HOPE that a new beginning offers is

 such a treasure. And the possibilities of 

achieving the dreams that sometimes lie obscured by cares and responsibilities,

seem to make themselves known as I reflect and search for deeper meaning.

Do new beginnings bring you to that place too?

Here is one of my favorite quotes by Mary Oliver.

 I wrote this out for our New Year's party.

  POM POMS!

 They are fun, easy to make and so festive for special occasions.

The white ones edges weren't trimmed. I forgot but I loved that it

 turned out like a beautiful rose! It was made of crepe paper while the others

  of tissue paper.

If you'd like to try them, there's a tutorial here on the 

beautiful blog White and Vintage. Christine is very sweet and

and very talented! 

The shy one... Burliose~

or.. SIR or Mr. Dainty Paws.

Have you been doing any baking in the New Year?

My granddaughters, AKA, the GIGGLES..

helped me make pizza dough last week.

There was a little leftover and so I made some

little cinnamon sugar monkey breads...

We all enjoyed those with some hot cocoa!

They are the hot cocoa princesses! Oh my..

Here we are working on phonics. It's 

one of the things that I do when my grand daughters come.

I help them with their school. 

We homeschooled our kiddoes and now our kids are 

doing the same. 

 I have mentioned my winter canvas that I'm working on.

Here's a small part of it.

It's my first attempt at drawing and painting, so I'm a bit timid.

Like my little mouse.

It's coming along though and I should be done in a couple of weeks.

It would be sooner but I'm going with my husband on his business trip 

to San Diego and I will leave my friends and all the glitter behind.

Do you ever have a word for the New Year?

I don't every year but sometimes a word just keeps coming to me. 

Right now it's CONTENTMENT. 

This is a page from my journal..

I had done this a few weeks back. Then after the new year, Fox shared the word flourish 

 for a good word. I liked it. A lot! I was envious and thought, Oh! I'll change my word.

But I told myself no.. That's cheating. Haha!

And then I read my journal and I had actually attached the

word FLOURISH to contentment.

I had forgotten. So I'm excited to see how the year will go and what

loveliness God will allow to flourish in my 

"one wild and precious life" 

as I seek to learn more about being content.

I do wish you Happiest of New Years, my friends.

(I'm sorry I am tardy.)

Filled with love peace happiness and fulfillment.

Thank you so very much for supporting me and being my friends.

You are all such jewels and I feel so blessed!

Hugs and blessings to you

Tamara~