Sending You Wishes Of ...

... Joy and Hope.

I've had a pretty nice weekend, most assuredly because of my friend's dedicated time everyday last week to help me work on reorganizing the kitchen and pantry and shining up the dining room. We worked for four sessions of the five days, and this so lifted my spirits and readied me to begin holiday decorations.


In honor of Gayle's hard work, I will show you a little mosaic. All the pantry cabinets are lined up like grocery store shelves, and the "appliance garage" is nice and neat with the crockpot and rice cooker and mixers. See:





It's lovely to see all that space in between items as well as being able to spot at a glance what is in the cabinets.






Here's a view of our Christmas tree settling in. It's a real beauty. We picked it up the other night before rain came by. I'll work on the lights through next week - it takes me a while to wrap all the branches, and then we can decorate it as a family this weekend.

You'll have to stop over at Nanette's blog - Freda's Hive. She is celebrating her first blog anniversary with a weeklong celebration. You have a chance to enter everyday by commenting on the actual date of the post for numerous chances to win her great prizes. I've learned a lot from Nanette since I found her. It started with the fabric baskets, I think, and we've been e-mailing getting to know each other over time. She has a project in the new Fons and Porter Baby Quilt magazine, which I can't wait to pick up and see her name in the byline and say to anyone around, "I know this designer!"



Finally, I am a winner of one of the giveaways from the sew mama sew giveaway day. Kristie of girlville wrote me and told me I won her pretty holiday banner. I can't wait to receive it this week. Kristie checked out my blog, too, and let me know exactly where she thinks the banner will look best - on the banister between the dining and family rooms. I appreciate that! However, I might have to order a second from her, because I have two banisters on either side of that entry, and it's all about symmetry for me.