This Year's Favorite Things!

These are a few of my traveling baskets! Wait until you see my collection of traveling totes!! When we travel there are different baskets for different parts of the trip. Picnic basket for the room by the highway. I take my own coffee maker and Grand Marnier.  A picnic basket for roadside dinning. The rest areas, off the interstate, are actually very nice stops along the way. Of course there is a basket for snacks inside the truck. Apples, waters, ice teas and cookies help keep the driver fortified while speeding along!

How bout that hand carved and hand painted lady bug brooch? We try to stop at Money's Folk Art, off I 75, on our road trips. Always find something that cannot be found anywhere else. It is a stop where imagination rules in the hills of Kentucky.
    

This years tree was magic. We rolled into town, early in the afternoon, and Steve makes a beeline to buy a Christmas tree. The tree farm was running out and Steve snagged one of the last to be had! Of course it is a perfect fit. All the ornaments and lights came out and wrapped themselves around the branches! Now if they would just put themselves away!!

The last day to reflect on what it means to travel and visit all the favorite spaces, in time, for this year. 

Happy New Year to all.
 God Bless you and yours in the year to come. 

 

Middle Of The Week

Between the holidays!
Cement statuary on my table. Found a winter arrangement and some sunflower seeds. 

A lack of cold air and precipitation makes for a brown Christmas! 

Bells of Christmas wreath and a pair of black figure skates from South Carolina hanging on the front door for some holiday cheer!

Lynlee made the charcuterie plates! Perfect for a cracker and blue cheese ball with a deviled egg and some black olives and pickles for a snack. 

Hand written recipe for fruit salad. This dish is so refreshing beside the prime rib and twice bakes!

To keep the memories of holidays past, alive, I use my grandmothers glassware and my mothers sterling. Seashells and candlesticks from Florida Thanksgiving. 

Today I start to put everything back in it's place. A bit of to and fro and it's all washed, polished and put back into the corner cabinet.

Humming along thinking what the New Year! is going to bring.

 Is it too late for snow?

Another "Florida" Painting

Another "saltwater watercolor". 

 What I like about painting is the color! I used Case For Making, handmade watercolors, from San Francisco. I like the pigments used in creating these paints. The pigments are mixed with distilled water, glycerine, honey and gum arabic as the binding medium. Interesting mix! I never even thought about what watercolors were made with. 

 

Novotny Rd Sunset

Shortest day of the year! 5:01 on a Thursday afternoon. 

Rolling home from Traverse City errands. Look Steve! Quick, drive up Eagle Hwy and turn left on Novotny Rd. 

Now turn left onto the two track to cherry orchard! 

On top of the world! The sunset is magnificent. Can you see the moraines crisscrossing the land? I see Lake Leelanau, Whaleback, Pyramid Point, Clay Cliffs and the sun setting on Alligator Hill. It is a shame that I did not have my big girl camera with me. This was a long shot for my phone! 

I feel blessed to have watched the sun set on this Winter Solstice afternoon.