Tams

Thanks, everyone! Heidi - Sonny will be 5 months on Friday. Holly - I sure couldn't agree more!

Hi Everyone It's been what seems like forever! Real life has taken many queer twists and turns for me. I just don't have a lot of online time anymore. We currently have temp custody of our grandson, long story there. Taking care of a baby again is awesome, yet it takes up quite a bit of my time. I've been trying to catch up here on the threads, pm's, photos, everything. You miss a day here, it takes a month to catch up. Imagine how long it's going to take me after more than a month! Mini wise, well, haven't had a lot of time there, but have done a few things. We finally moved and now all my houses have permanent homes. I had to re-do Tamales, which I just finished this afternoon. I'm working on a back yard barbecue since the deck for my Newberg didn't fare to well in the move. I just this evening came up with an awesome idea for the next HBS contest. I'm multi-tasking by doing research in another window! Good to be back. I'll check in as I can.

I was thinking along the same lines as the wedding idea, but with Christmas - wrapping the presents, decorating the tree, Christmas Eve - waiting for Santa, and after all presents are open on Christmas day.

This story reminds me, tremendously and painfully, of Eric, a man in our community who passed away Saturday. He had been born with arthrogryposis and spent his life in a wheelchair, yet most people in our community never saw him down - not once. He was a greeter at a grocery store here and knew everyone by name and cared so much about everyone. He won the governor's hospitality award a few years back. He had so much he could have complained about, but he never did. He often told me he was praying for me for various situations and such. I felt so honored to have known him. Check out this link to see what an impact he had on so many lifes.

Your paintings are beautiful!

These plants are beautiful! Well done! Can't wait to see more pics!

Your kitchen is absolutely darling! I really love the colors you picked out! Great job - I can't wait to see more!

This covered wagon would look great with my log cabin! Thanks for sharing!

I live in eastern South Dakota and we didn't get it as bad here as they did out in Rapid and that area - they had four feet, we only had around 4 inches. Still too much for me, since they last three or four winters we didn't have snow until after Christmas!

We are more traditional with Thanksgiving than we are with Christmas. There are several recipes that have been handed down for generations in my Mom's family that I still make every year. It's also a tradition to watch the Macy's parade, because one of my Gran's uncles way back when did the make up for the clowns. Christmas is never the same. The only childhood Christmas dinner I remember was the year we had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! The power went out when the turkey was still in the oven and didn't come back on until pretty late, so we had to have sandwiches on Christmas day and our real dinner the following day! When the kids were young, we'd open one present on Christmas Eve, and the rest very early on Christmas Day. Once they were all old enough to know the truth about Santa, we'd open all presents on Christmas Eve, stay up late playing with everything and sleep in a bit on Christmas Day. This year we'll change things a bit for Sonny's first Christmas.

Greg - would Russ have a recipe for sourdough starter? I love sourdough breads, but have no clue how to make the starter. Thanks for the English muffin bread recipe - I can't wait to give it a try! I love my bread machine - I don't use it often any more, but I still love it!

Congratulations on finding such a wonderful bargain! So far, there haven't been many dollhouses on my craigslist - this one lady had three listed, but all were terribly expensive so I had to pass.

Beautiful! I join the rest in saying my favorite is the morning glory vine, but they all look wonderful!

You're both doing a beautiful job!

I think I'm about 50/50 right now. I'm trying to improve my skills at making furniture from scratch. I completely gave up on making tubs, sinks and toilets for the bath! lol I really enjoy making my own, though. I, too, have a goal to completely furnish a house with things I make myself. (obviously I don't plan on having a bathroom! rofl) When I do buy something, I prefer to first buy from friends - like Deb's bed - before I buy from onine stores. I live in a completely mini deprived area - rarely do minis pop up at yard sales, thrift stores, etc here.

Thank you, everyone. I hope to get some pictures this afternoon of this wonderful bed in it''s new home.

I have joined the ranks of those proud to own one of Deb's beds! She is so talented! I'm just amazed at how wonderful this little bed is! It was made to go in my Delaney (Irish cottage) and I'm sure you'll agree it's just perfect! These are the pics Deb sent me when she finished it. (I haven't been able to take my own yet due to an injury at work yesterday). Thank you so much, Deb!!!

Great site! She has the fireplace I won on ebay for my hacienda. Now I know where to go if I want another one.

I'm afraid a 12 (or 9) step program isn't going to help me. I'm pretty sure at least one of the steps is admitting I have a problem and I just don't see that I do! I'm not addicted to my dollhouses - I can walk away whenver I want to - I just don't want to and nobody is going to change my mind!

Greg - you could always get a jump drive to back everything up on. That's what I plan to do very soon! I have tons of mini eye candy stored on cds - I keep hoping that "someday" I'll be able to do something like it . . .

Great tip! Thanks from me also!

I haven't done the actual houses, but I did one of the kitchens and a lot of memories from growing up in my "Memory House" - my Orchid. The kitchen is the one from the house we lived in when my Dad passed away, as is the bedroom. I put childhood memories as well as replicas of actual things that Mom, Dad and both of my Grandma's had. It's one of my favorite houses.

My Orchid, aka Memory House, is permanently set up for Thanksgiving. My cornacopia scene will be put out as a decoration as soon as we finish moving. I also have a couple Halloween scenes I did for projects with my yahoo group. I pull these out and display them at Halloween time. I'm not big into Halloween, but Jerry and the kids are. I find that it's easier to have scenes for each holiday rather than trying to decorate all my houses! lol