2009!

Seems like if I make a resolution, it's doomed from the beginning! LoL! There are a kazillion things I should work on! That sortof stuff just goes 'round in my head ALL year! Y'all know what I mean. I will say that last year I was in a painting slump for about 2-3 months after the Holidays. I do not want that to happen again, so I will paint some things right away!

Looking forward to more blogging and painting and especially enjoying the simple things. I want to say thank-you to the wonderful folks that have visited my blog over the past months, and the nice comments that you've made! I am truly grateful for all my online pals! Hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed 09!!

Would love to know what New Year's Resolutions that you've made, if any. Just post in the comments!

Check out the webcam from Times Square!!

Vintage Ornies

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas.

We had our annual get together at my childhood home. I have 5 siblings, so with spouses, their kids and spouses, grandkids and some spouses, and great-grandkids....well, that's a buncha family!! We try to keep it to a dull roar so as not to disturb the neighbors! LoL!

The food is the best! Everybody brings their favorite items. My mom passed almost 8 years ago, so I've taken over making the family favorites that she used to make. I must fix her potato salad, can't vary in the recipe! Fudge is a big deal, too. She made the Karo syrup fudge, but I fix the Kraft Microwave kind. Just never could get the hang of the Karo recipe. My kids would end up eating it with a spoon! My brothers said that we used to use a spoon when Mom made fudge, too! LoL!

Here's some photos of the tree and ornies at my Dad's on Thursday. I remember these from when I was little.

This glass ornament is from around the 50's.

My Dad thinks that this Santa was on my Mom's Parent's tree ! That would make this Jolly Santa at least 70+ years old!

This tree is pretty old too! Growing up we had one of those Silver Aluminum Trees. I was allergic to the real stuff! LoL! The silver tree is still in the attic, almost mint condition, box and all! My dad still has the old Color Wheel that went under it! Remember those?

I found this link that tells about those "Space Age" trees!

50's Aluminum Christmas Trees

This link has Vintage Ornaments up to the 1950's

Christmas Lights and Ornaments Museum

This teardrop shaped glass ornament is so pretty in person! It's very old, too!

I plan to go back and take more photos before the tree is down. My camera battery went out, before I could get any more.

Hope that y'all enjoyed the pics! Thanks for looking!

Noel

May all the blessings of Christmas be yours.......

Track Santa's Journey!

I found this great link on another blog, and just had to pass it along! Track Santa's trip around the world via Norad Satellite!

Click on the Santa Tag to go to the Norad site!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Holiday Lights

Gotta have a great big beautiful light display for the Pretty Little Christmas Blog Party! These are the lights displayed on the square in Fayetteville, AR They used all led lights this year to save on energy. It's a spectacular sight to behold! The full moon was the most georgeous of ALL!! Also note the Arkansas Razorback in the photo before last! Go Hogs! :)

The full moon was wonderful!

We're in Arkansas! Gotta have a Razorback! :)

1940 Sniffles Christmas Toon

Vintage Santas

Happy "Pretty Little Christmas "Blog Party!

Here's a couple of my Christmas collectibles!

I will be adding more all day...when the grandbaby is asleep! :)

I love these ceramic pieces...the adorable Santa on the right is my favorite! The label on the bottom has "Parma by AAI" made in Japan.
If anyone has info on these, I'd love to know more!

This is a roly poly Santa. He jingles when he rolls around! :)

Hope you enjoy these!
Remember to look around at the other Christmas Blog Party participants!

Christmas Blog Party Starts Today!

Today's the day for the Christmas Blog Party!

Heather over at Pretty Petals is the hostess of this get-together!
To have a peek at all the participating blogs or join in....just click on the logo.

I'm starting off the celebration here at Oakleaf Hollow by showing you a few photos. These are ornaments that I made 30 years ago when my oldest was a mere toddler! She will be 32 her next birthday!

The idea of course was to sew up some safe ornaments that wouldn't break! She was almost 2 and loved to check out the tree. These were sew n stuff ornaments. So easy to do! I still have some unsewn ones from way back then!

Great Cookbook for gift giving!

These wonderful cookbooks are still on sale for your Holiday gift giving, or ANYtime! They are such a bargain at $10 each!! ALL the proceeds go to the Northwest Arkansas Share group. My daughter and son-in-law belong to this support group for parents that have lost a child.

I am very happy to have designed and drawn the cover for this great collection of recipes in honor of loved ones lost.

Click here for more info:

"NWA Share" Cookbook

There's still time to get your copy before Christmas!!

Today's Primitive Home

Good Morning ALL!!!

I am so blessed to have some of my items recently featured on

"Today's Primitive Home."

If you enjoy Early American Folk Art and Crafts it's the place to be! They are devoted to spreading the word about Primitives and Folk Art. I've found some old favorites and discovered some new great artisans as well!

The links go right to the artist's site or Etsy shop.

My items are on the Dec 5th post and on the
"Gift Picks under $50" list. :)

Have a look at their site! You may find something that you just gotta have!
Hope everyone is staying warm and cozy!
Thanks!

Christmas CD Favors

Y'all gotta go check out the latest tutorial from Char at The Pickled Pepper Patch!

A great gift idea for family, friends, etc. I love to make photo and music cd's, so these cd covers will be perfect for Christmas! You can even download the Vintage Christmas images to use for the covers.

The Pickled Pepper Patch

Have Fun!

Bottlecaps!

I am in a recycling mood! Here's a few of the bottlecap magnets and ornies that I just finished. They are SUPER-easy to make and I really enjoyed all the glueing and glittering....kinda like being back in grade school!

Hung a few on a 2 ft. tree in my craft room.

Close up view of the ornie.
The vintage Santa images are from Deena at

Ewe-N-Me Printables.

She is having a sale on some of the bottlecap images now!!
I used a rusty tin snowflake for the back. I left off the trim around the edges as it hid the snowflake.

An assortment of magnets!
I've collected trims of all sorts for quite a while, so I just played around and tried to make them all a little different.
I used crepe paper to make the ruffled backs. I started out by sewing and gathering....BUT.....this proved to be very time consuming! I ended up just gathering the crepe paper accordion style, and then tied it in the middle with string, and fanned it out.
This was lots easier!!

I love the old tinsel look. Bought this trim at Hobby Lobby in the Mini-Tree section.
I used Glamour Dust and Glass Glitter for the sparkle!!
Hard to see, but they look so pretty with the glitter!
Hope that you've enjoyed these.
If anyone has some bottlecap ideas and tips to share, would love it if you'd post a comment ! :)


Next time I hope to show you some cones that I'm doing!

Hope everyone is having a good week!

My New Handpainted Items!

Here's what I've been working on recently. A couple are repeats from another post. All my shows are over for this season, so I'm painting softballs all weekend!! :) FUN and relaxing!

Hope you like these items! I have them listed on Etsy.

Oh, I have yet to finish those bottlecap magnets! Stay tuned!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Christmas Desktop Wallpaper

This site has probably been around for a while, but I *just* discovered it. They have the NICEST desktop wallpapers for your pc! I like the fact that its a trusted source for downloads, msn, and american greetings! Check it out!

Christmas and Holiday PC Wallpaper

I am heading back to my painting desk. The Christmas music and movies will be on in my craft room all day !!

Enjoy!!

Freshly Painted...

I'm getting ready for a show in 5 days. Here's some items that are *almost* finished. Haven't sealed them yet.

I think my old reliable camera is about kaput. The color is off (too yellow)even after I tried to fix it.

The Holiday Angel Tray is my favorite. I plan to put a coat of Briwax on it.

These skinny Santa boards need lots more detail! Suggestions welcome!! :) I want to add a tag tied with cheesecloth at the top, and a rusty snowflake, and some wording! But what wording??

I am pretty happy with this Sugar Mold. These are all Terry French designs!! I think some nice glass votives and candles will look great in it!!

Thanks for looking! Please leave me comments, and suggestions are heartily WELCOME!!

PS...I'm attempting to make some vintage bottlecap magnets! Will show pics when I've completed a few. The glueing part is a mess! Whew!

Brrrr! Cold as an OFG Snowman

Thought I'd share a few of the latest creations from the Old Farmhouse Gathering Team on Etsy. Snowmen are my favorite thing to collect!  I did add a beautiful Christmas Stocking from Marionberry Cottage! It looks so snowy and gorgeous!! I just couldn't resist it!  The Etsy shop names are at the bottom of each photo if you'd like to check out more of these great Holiday items!!  Enjoy!

Afternoon in the Ozarks

It was a bit hazy & overcast, but none the less a gorgeous Fall afternoon in the Ozark National Forest! We went up the "Pig Trail," which has winding curves over the mountains on scenic Highway 23, near Ozark, Arkansas.

This is Mulberry Mountain, where the Ole Applegate Arts and Crafts Festival is held in the Fall.

It's hard to tell in the photos, but this is a very large place!
The photo below is the music stage.

A view from the bridge of the Mulberry River.



Looks like rain.

Love the old barns!

Here's a link to the Lodge there if you ever want to visit!

Lots of great fun in the Ozarks!

Mulberry Mountain Lodge

Hope that you enjoyed the photos!

Simple-Needs 100th Post Giveaway!

Wow! This is a give-a-palooza!! Kim at Simple-Needs has hit her 100th post! She has gathered up a super collection of items for her give-a-way! Be sure and go to her blog and leave a comment! You might be the lucky winner of all the cool stuff!!

Simple-Needs Giveway

Good luck to all the posters! :)

A new Etsy shop!

Hello all! Hope everyone had a great and fun Halloween! It's time to get the grocery list ready with the needed items for cooking and baking over the next few weeks!! I can smell the chocolate chip cookies right now!! Yum!

Ok, enough about food! That will be in another post!

I wanted to introduce y'all to a new Etsy shop.... "sewNsewSisters." This is their first venture into online sales. These are great gals that create beautiful sewn items! Everything from baby items; bibs, hand smocked onesies, quilted jackets, to some *sew* cute Holiday decor; snowmen, dolls, kitchen items, and more!!

Have a peek at their shop and add them to your favorites! There will be lots more cute things coming up for the Holidays!!

sewNsewSisters

Here's some of their items!

A gorgeous quilted baby jacket!

"Letters to Santa" Pillows

An adorable snowlady wearing her fancy boa!!

Happy Halloween!

Hope y'all have a fun and SAFE Halloween!! Watch out for the kiddies that are out and about. It's thundering and rainy here, so I imagine there won't be a lot of Trick or Treaters.

Giveaway from Pickled Pepper Patch!

Char from The Pickled Pepper Patch is having a Super Nice Give-a-way in honor of her daughter's Birthday! WoW! The prize is a wonderful wooden toaster cover! Head over to her blog and leave a comment to be entered. While you're there, be sure and check out all Char's terrific tutorials, free crafty downloads, and crafting tips! It's an amazing blog!!

Pickled Pepper Patch Give-A-Way!

Gorgeous Treat Bags!!

Wanted to show y'all these great Halloween Treat bags from our recent Home Show. Just a couple left , so if you'd like one before Halloween, let me know quick! $15 each with free shipping! They are created by my craft buddy, Wanda. These are SO cute with the boa feathers! The inside is lined (in white) and the bottom has an insert to make it solid.

Here's an all pumpkin design. Super nice fabric!

Here's a cute child's apron! The pumpkin made a great model! :)

Thanks, Stacey!!

Stacey of Primarily Primitives has given me a blog award! Thank you , Stacey!

Be sure and have a peek at Stacey's blog! She has a great giveaway going on now, til October 31st! You can win 2 of her OOAK Vintage Altered Hang Tags. They are very prim and cute!!

Here's the link for the giveaway: http://primprimitives.blogspot.com/2008/10/my-first-blog-giveaway.html

I would say good luck to all who enter the giveaway....but I wanna win!! LoL!

Good luck!! :)