Lighting Up 2021

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Happy Holidays to All,

We are finally getting it together here, still without snow

but, I just had to share the photos of our yard and our have-to tradition.

Our home sits second in the subdivision, so when you turn in ....there we are, 

the Christmas Musical light show.

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Remember last year---we purchased these fun guys---here on this POST HERE

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They stand guard at Santa's Workshop(the garage), and are securely tied down---or they will walk around the corner of the garage with our windy weather.

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Earlier this year, I showed you the re-do of our herd of reindeer. Many had been damaged by a falling tree limb.

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Here's Santa---and all nine of the reindeer, pulling the  sled.

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A view from the house, shows the entire 'mound'. 

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Greeting our family on Cookie Day-Sunday, will be this great Gingerbread man on the front porch.

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We used less lights around the house this year and concentrated on the 'mound'.

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The Walkway to the house with a snowman greeting you at the end in our biggest flower pot.

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The Mailbox, has some snowflakes that are simply gorgeous and they change colors. 

I literally couldn't pull out the green plants because of their root systems, so I left them and added some twigs for the lights to hang from.

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In the background, the arbor and my hubby's imaginary hill for the penguins to slide down.

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Under the Hawthorn Tree, we have some of our oldest blow mold soldiers.

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It's hard to get photos as the lights change with the music, so everything isn't always lit.

Our HUGE  Snow Bear blow-up, passed away last year, so hubby found three new ones to place around the yard,

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The Reindeer Petting Zoo...this is really cute in person. Our house is a neighborhood walking destination...and the little kids love it!

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Another classic Santa...again the bush blinked off!

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The white blob is a snowman---that of course blinks off  and on too. We really need some snow to hide all the wires. 

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At the end of the driveway is the elf mail box, and our lampost with a great green wreath.  

This is a LOT OF WORK  more than 5 days to put up---and we are hoping we can continue the tradition, even though we are deep in our 70's now. But the smiles and waves from the kids and parents in cars are worth it!

What is YOUR

 Have-to-do Tradition for the Holidays?!?

Please share in comments, I'd love to hear from you!

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Thanks  ALWAYS  for visiting,

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

I will post at the following Link Parties, I hope you visit them.

Wonderful Wednesday

Vintage Charm

Turnabout Tuesday

Metamorphisis Monday

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, unless otherwise designated. Please do not use my photos without permission. I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts, or any products shown or anywhere I shop.

Thank you for your cooperation,

Sandi 

Time Travel for the Holidays!

Hi, Dear Readers. I have been doing more than blogging this last few weeks. We had Thanksgiving and then slid into full blown Christmas prep---going through everything--jarring memories--and rearranging, culling, cleaning. I'll be able to post more soon.

An old 'memory' that popped up 

on my FaceBook from 7 years ago. 

We only have one grand girl. And from the beginning we always did things with her when she visited.

Here she is at just two all ready for making 

Christmas cookies.

We pretty much left her alone to do what she wanted on Family Cookie Day...where we make cookies with 4-5 families around our island and huge kitchen table.

She was very quiet, content in the high chair and busy. I'm always a believer it is the process that is to be enjoyed, and not the final result with children. 

No one paid her any attention as tray after tray of cookies went into the oven. Meanwhile, Grampa was giving her more flour and more 'child safe-no-fresh-eggs cookie dough'.

These were her mom's photos

Probably two hours later....

"OH, Dear....I have flour in my hair, and I'm all sticky..., I'm not sure I like this."

Like I said, it's the process....lol.

Everyone else was very busy, too! 

Do you have a favorite 

Family Holiday Group Do-Together?

Please share in comments, I'd love to hear from you!

If You enjoyed this post please FOLLOW IT in the upper right hand corner, to get just one email of each new post.

Thanks  ALWAYS  for visiting,

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

I will post at the following Link Parties, I hope you visit them.

Tuesday Turnabout

Wonderful Wednesday

Vintage Charm

Thinking Outloud Thursday

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, unless otherwise designated. Please do not use my photos without permission. I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts, or any products shown or anywhere I shop.

Thank you for your cooperation,

Sandi 

Our Tradition updated and a Veterans' Program from the 1980's!

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Hi, Everyone. 

Normally, I don't do posts or decorating for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. But, we had a big project that needed to be done.

For 35 years we have had these wooden deer prancing across our front yard and hooked up to a large red sled, made with plywood and plumbing pipe runners. 

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The deer were originally designed (by me) for a therapy program at the Great Lakes Naval Base hospital for patients called 'PRIDE'. The deer along with other projects were designed to be made in the wood shop, craft rooms, and ceramic shop--start to finish by the patients as therapy and a way to earn spending money. The Vet patients were paid for finished pieces (through the hospital) and then these deer and other items were marketed at local art shows and at the Chicago Gift show wholesale to small shops, as the Veterans made these wooden deer.

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They were originally all stained or sealed wood, from 3/4" plywood, and designed to be pulled apart and shipped flat in a standard sized box. The heads were separate from the body and pegged to allow them to fit in the box. 

I kept 8 after two years of marketing them, and 1 Rudy which was designed from 2 x12 stock allowing us to drill and install an electric red blinking light for a nose.

Our original 9---over the years--- after a huge tree limb fell on them, windstorms, snow, and sleet had pared the herd down to 5. Last year we bandaged up two and bravely had five limping deer and a Rudy, who was in bad shape and splitting.

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Hubby said it was time, and he made new one-piece bodies from the original pattern. These were then painted in the garage and due to cold temps, finished on the kitchen table. We used exterior paints and the tails and racks were coated in exterior white. 

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Here are the deer set up in the kitchen with their original legs, and new darker bodies. 

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Rudy kept his original body, but it was faced on each side with new layer of  plywood. Now, he is thicker, but then he thinks he is the leader and special anyway--!

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I was concerned that the Very Dark brown stain---would never show up at night, so we went on a hunt for some lighter coloring to add! 

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I always do a lot of research before I do anything. I wasn't looking for a totally realistic reindeer, but not a cartoon either. 

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I decided on sponging lighter areas on the rears and front chest area like real reindeer fur. I used a mixture of the original dark brown and lots of white (+a little yellow and red) to warm up the dark brown. 

A fluffing layer of white was sponged on with a large feathery sea sponge.

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I made a stencil for the eye fur. Reindeers have puffy fur areas around their eyes they use to protect them in bad weather. More light coloring on the nose area, neck, chest and bellies. I still had plastic eyes left over from the original supplies. (We had paid for and delivered all the supplies to the hospital, even saw blades and sandpaper).

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A little sponged shading goes a long way.....hopefully the spotlights will pick up the white. 

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Rudy was so happy his nose began signaling it was time to go outside!

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Good Reindeer that they are... they lined up at the door behind Rudolph. Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and Vixen, 

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on Comet, Cupid, Donner ------

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and Blitzen!!! So darn cute!!

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A mini thundering herd....to be installed in the yard after Thanksgiving.

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Last year....The sled with the plastic pipe runners. Neighborhood kids, come and have their photos taken by Santa's Sled! 

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Such a fun tradition, and I can't help but think of all the smiling Vets, who were so proud to make these reindeer in the Great Lakes Naval Hospital Workshops for the Pride Program in the mid 1980's. 

I hope you enjoyed a little bit about our decorations! Can't wait to put them up again this year! 

If You enjoyed this post please FOLLOW IT in the upper right hand corner, to get just one email of each new post.

Thanks  ALWAYS  for visiting,

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

I will post at the following Link Parties, I hope you visit them.

Thinking Outloud Thursday

All About Home

Metamorphisis Monday

Grammy's Grid Christmas Decor

Tuesday Turnabout

Vintage Charm

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, unless otherwise designated. Please do not use my photos without permission. I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts, or any products shown or anywhere I shop.

Thank you for your cooperation,

Sandi 

 

Midwest Gardeing 2021: Wrapping Up the Gardening Year!

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LAST GARDENING POST for THIS YEAR!

We've had a few gorgeous days, perfect to get the gardens put to bed, 

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empty the pots, fill up the compost pile, chop up leaves, gather seeds, disconnect the hoses, 

empty the ponds, 

and put the greenhouse to sleep!

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PHEW! That was a lot to get done!

I had many stilted perennials started in pots, that were hiding in the shade on the backside of the house. I planted everything in this flower bed and covered it with leaves. (17 perennials) Hopefully in spring they can get a good start in new homes. 

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We have burn restrictions here...better for the environment, but hopefully we will have one quick log fire to roast some brats on for supper. We still collect all the branches that continue to fall from the neighbors trees.

Truly, gardening really is never done

 until snow comes.

I had so many plans to redo flower beds this year...but with the HOT temps---I didn't want to risk stressing perennials under the extreme conditions. We will tackle those very early in Spring next year!!!

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Fall is always my favorite time of year, and it seems so short this year. With the hot temps and drought here---everything was so totally delayed. Oddly--our ginkgo and sumacs are now turning red (mid-November) normally they are the first things to do red.

The Maples are late, the oaks are rich and golden, pretty much everything with small leaves has already dropped. It's just been a weird year. 

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I Hope you have some great weather 

to clean up your yard.

Right now, blow-up Turkeys grace our front flower bed. Soon a sled and some newly repaired reindeer will scatter across the front, repair and refresh post coming up!

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We got all the potato vine, 4 Mandevilla, Ivy tree and Hibiscus plants in as and the large squash we had in the garage.

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The new windows won't give as much light as the full length windows. But, with higher heating costs, I'm sure we will save a bunch without that extra exposure from those leaky old windows. 

We will now have snow and seasonal weather forecasted at the end of this week, and so it goes. 

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We usually like to try and put some holiday lights up, (not on) in November, but all the bushes are still green, making that hard. We will see what we can get done. Two nice days are forecasted this coming week, maybe then.

How have you wrapped up YOUR GARDEN???

If You enjoyed this post please FOLLOW IT in the upper right hand corner, to get just one email of each new post.

Thanks  ALWAYS  for visiting,

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

I will post at the following Link Parties, I hope you visit them.

Happiness is Homemade 

All About Home

Vintage Charm

Thinking Outloud Thursday

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, unless otherwise designated. Please do not use my photos without permission. I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown or anywhere I shop.

Thank you for your cooperation,

Sandi