And the winner is...

...drum roll please....

Lorie! Sam was very excited to draw your name today from all the entries! He said your name had an L and an E and it looked a lot like his brother, Luke's, name. Don't you love the logic of a kindergartener?

Lorie had this to say about her preparations for the holidays:

"Your post really got me thinking about Christmas. I enjoyed reading your thoughts and ideas. You may be on to something! I am going to take some time to think about the holidays and how I can have more enjoyment and less stress. The one thing I know will be different is my daughter is performing in the Christmas musical at church. She's so excited!"

Thanks for posting, Lorie! Sam, too, will be in the new church's nativity production, and I can't wait! It never fails...every time I watch those little kids on stage, I start to cry! It really is the pinnacle of Christmas for me. Lorie, drop me a line and I'll send the blog candy prize off to you! Enjoy!

Still thinking about the holidays

I have a BIG stack of books from the Gooseberry Patch Christmas series ( made by Leisure Arts) on my kitchen table right now. They are filled with wonderful ideas for homemade gifts: ornaments, decorations, various food mixes, and lots of recipes. I'm taking the thoughtful approach this Christmas rather than the "spend a lot of money and blow your budget" approach. For example, one of my nephews is getting married during the holidays. He's learning to cook for his future wife, too. I'm going to use my new Gooseberry Patch stamps, papers, and recipe cards to make him a small cookbook of some of my favorite recipes.

By the way, Gooseberry Patch dropped me a line to let me know that many of the clear stamps, scrapbook kits, and recipe cards are avilable on their website as well. You can find them at this link here:

http://bit.ly/2rnIYz

You can also click on the Gooseberry Patch link on the right for more info on their great products!

More Brown County Photos

I just had to share a few photos from Nashville...Indiana, that is! Here are photos from the Muddy Boots Cafe. Isn't that the cutest store sign you've even seen?





And this little garden area was outside one of the many shops. It was the coolest arbor made of branches...I swear, I wanted to sit at one of the little chairs in the garden and just take up permanent residence there. Hmmm....my mind is racing for some garden plans, but they'll have to wait for next year.



It is a cold and gray day today...a good day to light up the fire and have a warm cup of coffee. Hope your day is warm and toasty, too! Thanks for visiting!