'Tis the Day after Christmas

I was going to do a re-post of my day after Christmas blog of 2009.
But things sure have changed around here since then.

My husband was still working in 2009. He is now retired. My dad was still alive and we had family over for Christmas. How I miss those times. I love being with family during the holidays. This year it was just my husband and I and two of my boys. And we enjoyed temperatures in the 50s.  In 2009 there were patches of snow on the ground.

Times do change. Here is a portion of my post of seven years ago, which includes a poem I wrote --

Charley worked day shift this week and had to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so we opened our presents on Christmas Eve night. He works 12 hour shifts and went to bed around midnight and got up at 3am to go out to work on Christmas Day. So we are tired and not doing much of anything today.

My son and his wife, my sister and brother in law and my dad came out on Christmas Eve. We had a nice dinner and a good visit with each other.

'Tis the day after Christmas
And all through the house
Not a creature is stirring
Not even my spouse.

The papers are strewn
All around the floor
The boxes are stacked
Up against the door.

The house is a mess
Don't know where to start.
To haul off this stuff,
We'll need a big cart.

I think I'll sit down
And rest my tired feet.
It'll be a while
'til my home is neat.

I hope everyone had a very nice Christmas!

Do any of you have your house straightened up yet?

Small Town - Colorful Fall Decorations

Our small town of Ripley, WV gets into the fall and Halloween spirit this time of year when local organizations decorate the lamp posts.

Yesterday I took a few pictures along the streets of Ripley. I didn't get pics of all of them, but I took enough to get you into the spirit of the season, too.

This little fella sits on one of the side streets.

This scared ghost is near the steps of our courthouse.

I like this one. Looks like a witch had a bad day. In the background you can see one of the little libraries which are located throughout Jackson County.

Are you in the fall spirit now after walking around town with me?

I hope so.

Displaying Vintage Ads

I love vintage ads. I think some of them look like works of art.

I have an old book that I bought at a thrift store a few years ago. It is filled with original Life Magazines from 1938. It isn't in very good shape. A lot of the pages are torn, but it only cost twenty-five cents, so I grabbed it.

It was just sitting on a shelf and not being appreciated. So I cut out some of the ads and framed them.

I love Coke  memorabilia.

I think this is an ad for Coke and International Trucks - two ads in one! I love the yellow - it just pops right out at you.

I hung these two Coke ones up in my dining room.

Here are a few of the other ads I cut from the book. 

I thought this might be cute hung in a baby's room :o)

 

 

Another Coke ad

 

 Apparently, RC Cola held a weekly contest back in the 1930s.

Nice Prize!

Car Ads

 Some ads were funny - the Colgate ad about bad breath and

the Fels-Naptha Soap ad. 

This isn't the first time I've framed ads or pictures from books. 

 

I  write stories for kids. These are pages from old children's books. The books were in very bad condition. I would never cut pages out of a good book! I think these would look nice hung up in a young child's room.

Have you ever framed magazine or book art?

If not, keep an eye out for old books or magazines.

Try it - I think you will like it.

 

 

 

Nature's Weather Predictors

We’ve had a very hot September where I live. I think it hit 90 degrees almost every day. Yesterday I saw an all-black woolly worm. 

That got me to thinking. Who do you put your belief in – the weatherman or nature’s weather predictors?

There are weather predictors and weather folklore. Here are a few I have come across from the internet and from friends and relatives.

Of course, there is the wooly worm. The larger the light brown band, the milder the winter.

“Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in morning, sailor take warning.”

Frogs – They say frogs croak louder and longer when bad weather is on the horizon.

Cattle – They say when cows begin to swat flies and lie down in the fields, a storm is coming.

“Wind from the south brings rain in its mouth”

Crickets – If you count the number of times a cricket chirps in 14 seconds, add 40 and you will get an estimate of the air temperature. 

Pine Cones – When air is dry, pine cones open up and their scales stand out to allow their seeds to be picked up and blown by the wind.  (When I craft with pine cones, I always heat them in a low temp oven – in addition to killing bugs, it opens up the pine cone)

Bees – if you don’t see many bees around, a rain is coming. They sense the humidity in the air and stay home.

Fish – Fish tend to be more active before a storm.

“When ladybugs swarm, expect a day that’s warm.” 

A hazy ring around the sun or moon in summer is a sign that the weather pattern is in for a change – usually bringing rain.

“Clear moon, frost soon.” (Yep, I agree with this one. A clear, windless spring night, usually means we will have a frost.)

Moon – When the moon’s perigee and the full moon occur on the same day, watch for terrible storms. 

Fogs – For every fog in August there will be a snowfall in winter. (We had a lot of fogs in August)

A green Christmas, a white Easter.

Squirrels - A tough winter is ahead if a squirrel’s tail is bushy.

Have you heard of these?

Do you have some of your own to add to the list?

 

Mountain State Arts and Craft Fair

I can hear autumn in the air.
I hope to soon feel it also.
It has been such a long and hot summer. I welcome the change of the season.

The Arts and  Crafts Fair at Cedar Lakes started in 1963 - the year of West Virginia's Centennial.  It has always taken place during the 4th of July.

This year it has changed.
The location is the same - Cedar Lakes, near Ripley, WV.
The date has changed to September 16, 17 and 18.

There will still be the artisans selling and demonstrating their crafts and the great food.

But this year the fair will also explore West Virginia's rich heritage with areas highlighting Celtic,German, Italian, Swiss and early American influences.

My cousin and I will be in the German section on Friday from 9am until 1pm, which is student day, crafting German Straw Stars with the kids. After a little research about German folklore, I found out the story behind the stars. It is a sweet story about a little shepherd boy presenting a fragile straw star he had made to the baby Jesus.

We will also be there on Saturday.  We will be talking about German heritage in West Virginia -  the folklore and the facts. I found out that many of the things my family and I experienced growing up, may have had its roots from early German settlers.

My mother is Scotch-Irish descent, my husband has German in his background and my cousin Carmen, who will be with me on these days, has German in her background on her mother's side of the family.

Like America, West Virginia is a melting pot of many different people. It makes our people, customs and life more rich and colorful.

I hope to see my friends and family out there on Friday and Saturday. I also hope to meet many new faces and become friends with many more.

Click here to visit the festival's site. 
They are also on Facebook.

Crafting With Clothespins

On my last blog post I mentioned that I had been making clothespin wreaths.

Here is how I made them.

Supplies needed: 

Clothespins (approximately 100)

18 inch Metal wreath form

Spray paint

Ribbon

This is an easy craft with stunning results.

My wreath form was green. I spray-painted it the color of my choice (yellow). You can also leave it green. Then I attached my clothespins to my clothesline and spray painted them.

Let dry thoroughly.

For my project, I painted 52 blue and 48 yellow.

Attach the clothespins to the wreath form by simply clipping them on the inner three rings.

When put on properly, it will be a snug fit. No gluing is needed.

Make a bow and attach. I cut out and painted a WV for mine. I attached the bow with floral wire and glued on the WV embellishment.

Use your imagination and craft a wreath for all occasions.

I love making these and they are fairly easy to make. 

You could make them for every season - Fall, Christmas, Winter, Easter, Spring, and Summer.
 

Happy Crafting.

Summer's Beauty and Bounty

The last time I posted, our garden was growing and weed free.

Well, our garden is still growing, but it is not weed free. The rainy season has the weeds growing and growing.

We were lucky where we live and the terrible storms that went through West Virginia a few weeks ago, didn't effect us. Although, it did hit in neighboring counties. I want to thank a few of my blogger friends for their emails showing their concern.

Our three blueberry bushes are producing very good this summer. I have picked 26 quarts thus far and they need picked again. I put then in the freezer and we enjoy them all year. They taste so much better than store bought.

Our Rose of Sharon are showing off . . . the bees and hummingbirds love them and so do I.

and so are our butterfly bushes.

I got a hydrangea from my neighbor last year. He was cutting his down. That little bush has went crazy this year.

I have also been crafting. My cousin and I are over the craft class at our local senior citizen center. Crafting with them has put me in the mood to craft at home.

I have been making clothespin wreaths. I just love them. I made one for the Fourth of July and I have made a WVU one. I am putting the WVU one on our auction table at our family reunion this Saturday. West Virginia doesn't have a pro team, so we go all out for our university teams.

I will show you in my next post how to make them. They are so pretty . . . and easy!

Hope your summer is a nice one.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

We have had a weird spring and, therefore, got a late start to our garden.

But it is coming along nicely now.

 We planted our beans and the rain fell. A few days later the plants popped out of the ground.

These are our tomato plants. We planted three dozen plants. We already have tomatoes the size of large marbles.

 

We got a late start on our sweet potatoes. 

But they are coming along.

 

 Our peas are taking off!

 This is one of our five rows of red potatoes.

 

This is not my garden. 

These are my two rows of blackberries.

I am keeping my fingers crossed. They have not did well at all the last 2-3 years. I pruned them big time this spring and they have took off! But, this doesn't mean the vines will not die on me, like they have the past few years.

What do you have growing in your garden?