My Favorite Things....

Don't you just love when Oprah has her favorite things show? I think it is my favorite show of the year. I get so many fun ideas of things I never knew existed! With that in mind, I thought I would list a few of my favorite things too.

First off, I just love this Mott apple pie hot cider. As an alternative to hot cocoa, it is a wonderful hot, spiced autumn drink that actually is healthy and not a lot of calories. You can even smell the little bit of the "pie crust" in the apple cider. You can't beat that!

Next,as I have been mentioning so many times lately, I am in love with everything from Bath and Body Works this season.

Loving the holiday shower gels, especially the winter candy apple. You actually can smell the "candy" note to the fragrance. One thing though, it always make me hungry!

I am a glitter girl. Totally love it anywhere and everywhere I can get it. Martha just came out with a new glitter for the holidays...tinsel cut glitter. It is a little longer than regular glitter and so much fun! She is going to have a bunch of glitter projects (Martha that is) coming up in November on her show. I will be front seat and center for sure!

Yum, yum, yum, while I am not a coffee drinker, or even a tea drinker, I do love my hot cocoa this time of year. I also love to add coffee creamer flavors to it to "jazz" it up a bit. This one is good! Now where is that whipped cream?

Where Women Create...the best magazine (IMHO)ever created. I love the paper. I love the photography. I love.....well, I love it all. If you are a creative, you will love it too.

There you have it....some of my favorite things. I will do another post like this soon. So much fun. Thank you for visiting me today. Oh, that's right, I love my blogger friends and they are one of my favorite things too. :) Amy

Tis the Season...Part One

Ho, ho, ho......it is starting to look a lot like the holidays here at my lodge-style home. As you can just imagine, I am a decorating fanatic, so when the holidays approach, I am in my glory adding little touches everywhere to my home. I always start early because, frankly, I love having all the decorations around as long as possible. Love this time of year!

After buying some color-coordinated ornaments for the new color scheme in my home at Walmart, the tree got a sprinkling of snow-tipped pinecone ornaments for a final touch. I was able to dig out some fun winter things from my stash and made this little wintry sleigh display on my ottoman.

I made this prim snowman a long time ago. Who knew that he would fit into a lodge home many years later and look fab!

I made this cute display using some of my baskets with Christmas balls in them. I also displayed a bunch of my Santa ornaments on a pedestal. Displaying Christmas balls in containers of all kinds is such an easy way to decorate for the holidays, but it gives quite an impact of color.

This is the newest addition to my fun holiday items....my new raspberry red feather tree I got at TJ yesterday. You either love this one or hate it.....I happen to adore it. Here it is sitting on a stand in my entry way (you can see that I still need to hang my "Moose Lodge" plaque on the wall. It is heavenly and will probably be all over my house until it finds its "perfect" home.

This prim snowman twig wreath was just hung on my front door. I bought this years ago at our town's "Dickens of a Christmas" festival. He looks so adorable adorning my front door.

This little display sits on an end table in my family room. We have lots of different birds on our property, so I had to have a display with a bird somewhere. Isn't he cute?

As you can see I am in the decorating mode already. Decorating....it just makes me happy! I hope it makes you happy too. I will have another post (Part 2) next week showing more. Thank you so much for visiting me today. :)

PS

Here is a little cup of hot cocoa and whipped cream for you. Enjoy!

I'm in Love....

Yes, it is true....I am totally and hopelessly in love....with the holiday frosted cranberry Bath and Body Works fragrance!!! Lately I have discovered this store, and there has been no turning back. Sorry hubby! :) I went in to smell all the new holiday candles and scents that just came out for the season. There was fireside (very heavy), winter (crisp and balsam-like), and then, be still my heart, frosted cranberry. First of all it is my favorite color of pink, just the right shade too.

It is the best scented candle I have EVER smelled. EVER....In fact, I love it so much, I don't want to light it until I get a "back up." As with many of their candles and bath products, these holidays scents are only out for the season and then they are gone until next year. Guess I will be stocking up. I see from their website that they also have frosted cranberry hand soap, lotion, and room spray. I'm there! Next time you go into Bath and Body Works, take a whiff. It really is wonderful.

Can you believe that I am already beginning my holiday decorating? Well, I am starting a little bit....I guess that all those years doing craft shows is still in my blood. I used to put up and take down display trees over and over from the end of October to December. When the air gets crisp outside, I start to decorate. This is the first decorating season in my new home, so I decided to change up the colors a bit to reflect the lodge style decor.

My other house was very formal, so I always had a gold tree as my main tree. This year I am focusing on doing a lot of winter-type decorating, so I can leave much of it up all winter long. I am busy making little displays of old skates with greenery, wintery trees with no ornaments, lodge winter dishes in my hutch, and lots of snowmen.

Here some pics from my old house.

I am really looking forward to making new memories in my new home. I was lucky that with my change in decor, Walmart came to the rescue this year. I was able to get 50 color-coordinated ornaments for $15, so I got two. They also have lots of other color combos like blue and silver, browns and tans, and reds and golds. Also, if you love glitter, they have so many GORGEOUS fully glittered ornaments in the shapes of keys, doves, bows, etc. in lots of different colorways....even my fuchsia pink! They are each only $1. Yes, you heard me right.....$1!!! I hope you are enjoying your first week in November. Thank you all for visiting me today. Hugs, Amy

Happy Halloween......

Wishing everyone a fabulous Halloween weekend. I hope you all have fun, get lots of chocolate candy, and enjoy! Talk to you all next week. :)

PS

Enjoy a little Michael Jackson "Thriller." Saw "This is It" last night. All I can say is, WoW! It is only playing for 2 weeks....I would highly recommend it! Just wonderful....Scroll down a little to hear the song....

Apple Picking A Little Too Late..

I hope you all have a wonderful, fall weekend. The weather here yesterday was warm, sunny, and generally heavenly, so we decided to go apple picking with my daughter and son-in-law. The weather was so incredibly beautiful, and the leaves were just about peak. What a joy to be outside on such a nice day! It was my idea to go to an orchard and pick some apples, all the while knowing that it was a little late (ok...maybe a lot late in the season). We went from tree to tree trying to find our favorites....McIntosh and Honey Crisps.....very few to be found.

We ended up with about 12 apples in our bags, which is more than enough for a yummy pie this week, so I was happy, not to mention the fun I had with my family in the autumn orchard.

Oh, I also wanted to let you all know about a wonderful recipe swap that is going on in the Etsy group called Old Farmhouse Gathering. I don't belong to the group, but my very talented sister, Deb, does.Deb is a prim doll artist who makes the most wonderful prim dolls you have ever seen. Her etsy shop is full of great things for the season, so make sure you go into her store too. Lots of fun! Please check out her lovely blog and dolls and pick up some GREAT recipes this week. She outdid herself....so yummy at

Willowtree Treasures

Love the recipes she posted! There is also a link on her page (to the left) with more recipes from her group. I don't know about you, but I am in dire need of some new recipes for my everyday meals! Thanks Deb!

Farmhouse is filling up...

Well, my kitchen looks like....let me just say, it is craft season. As any artist knows, this is the time every year that we are making things like crazy and most of these things can be found on kitchen tables, dining room tables, studio tables, you name it....it is filled with crafts of some kind. Yesterday I "suggested' to my husband that he clean up his mess in the garage. When I left the garage after my very stern tone, I only came into a house filled with "creations' everywhere. I really don't have room to complain right now! LOL! The farmhouse Etsy site is filling up every day. I have listed a few of my original dolls so far, and it has been really fun. Shown above is one of my angels that can be hung or put on the top of a prim tree.

I also made a fun stocking filled with goodies. This one is from one of my patterns from years ago. It was like saying hello to an old friend. It is great making all different styles of dolls.

My kitchen is filled with the aroma of tea and cinnamon these days as I "prim" the dolls up and bake them. I know......who knew? Please keep checking the farmhouse as I fill the shelves. Have a wonderful day, and thank you so much for visiting me.

New Dollies....

Wheww.....I couldn't wait to get rid of the previous photos of the last post! Snow is not exactly my favorite thing. I am happy to report that it is slowly melting away. Oh happy day! Anyway, I thought I would just pop in a minute to tell you all about a new etsy shop I will be opening in addition to my other shop and website.

I was (and actually am) a doll artist first and foremost. Having made hundreds of dolls since 1990 and selling them everywhere you can imagine, I sort of got the "itch" a couple weeks ago to feature some of my dolls again. Maybe it is the season. Craft season I mean. Many years ago I would be up to my ears in sewing dolls of all kinds and taking them to shows every weekend for the Christmas craft and art shows.

I make all different kinds of dolls, but my new etsy store will mostly feature a more primitive kind for customers out there who enjoy the country or primitive look of decorating. The new shop's name is "Winterberry Farmhouse" and, hopefully, will be open at the end of this week. I'll have a link up on this website soon. I will still keep my other shops open and continue to add to them also. Well...I guess I better get started now. I think the first doll I will make will be an elf to help me with all the work I have ahead! LOL! Have a wonderful day.