Holidays 2009

Greetings from the land of snow and ice! I hope everyone had a safe and happy Christmas. I haven't been taking many pictures lately but I did manage to take a few over the last month to share.

This is my Grandma's dog Tee-tee. She also goes by Ticky, Bummy, Poo-poo... you get the picture.


She's approx. 13 years old but still kickin'. She took to me right away and now I guess she's my little shadow, following me everywhere I go. Animals are great - loyal and loving without conditions or strings ya know? (And they don't drive me nuts like most people do sooner or later.)







She helped me put up Christmas lights





Sorta...



I keep myself busy sometimes with baking and crafts. I got the inspiration for these light thingies at a cute little store in Osseo called the Calico Barn. They have pretty glass vases and jars decorated festively and filled with Christmas lights. They were gorgeous but a little out of my price range right now, so I decided to make my own.



(above) I made this one for my Aunt Candy using a vase I found at a thrift store for $0.50 cents. It looked nice when it was plugged in on her counter. When it's lit up the the green glass glows and the ornament is back-lit beautifully. I used a very small strings of lights ($1.25 at Wal Mart) and the effect was simple and understated but very pretty.





(above) I made these for my mom using her own mason jars. I used a lot more lights this time and it's almost blinding, but it looks gorgeous in the dark. I also made one for myself and one for my Grandma but I didn't take pictures of those.

I also dusted off the apron for a little holiday baking this year. I never used to be any good at baking, but in the last 2 months I've been doing a lot of it and I'm getting much better. For gifts I made honey-glazed corn bread, cupcakes, and sugar cookies.









Well that's about it. I'll leave you with a few more photos of Ticky in her best holiday attire :)

Home

After I got home from Washington, I took some pics around the old homestead. Most of these were taken in September, a few in October.


Early morning on the trail bordering my family's property.














Goose Lake

Fall 2009

I took these pics a couple of weeks ago while I spent a couple of hours at my uncle and aunt's place on the Elk River. The little one is their grandkid, my cousin, Raymond. He's a handfull and a half! (Notice I'm still partial to black & white photos, I hope to do more soon.)


Sour puss! In his defense, he had just woken up from a nap.


Uncle Steve


Awwwww!






Yes, that's my phone he's holding. I gave it to him to bribe him to give me my camera back. Later on I got the phone back by giving him my sunglasses, which he then destroyed. Better a $10 pair of sunglasses than my camera or phone! Priorities.






Precious!










He made me wear the cowboy hat.






While Grandpa Steve was sleeping, Beedy (I don't know how it's spelled but that's what they call little Raymond) took his fingers and made him press the buttons on the phone - how cute.






My uncle has a thing for Alice tractors.






Cat, I'm a kitty cat, and I meow meow meow and I meow meow meow. That was for you, Julian.





































I stopped on the way home to get a pic of the sunset - always a nice note to end on.