Girl Chat ~ Favorite Christmas Ornaments

Today I am linking up with Girl Chat highlighting favorite Christmas ornaments. Here is a peek to some of our ornaments.  I have many favorites and ones that are special to me.

This is my favorite ornament I bought in Colombia.  There  are 32 departments in the country of Colombia, which are similar to states.  At a local artisan market, there is a person who makes ornaments representing each department.  This ornament represents the department that Bogota is located.  Our family lived in Bogota, Colombia for 3 years. The green wreath came from Colombia as well and the yellow ornament in the bottom left of the picture is one a friend made for me of the outline of Colombia with the button representing Bogota.

This red ornament is one I bought on a visit to Peru.  The shopping bag is one of several I have from New York City, my favorite city.  Below is another ornament from NYC.

This is an ornament of the Eiffel Tower when our family visited Paris. 

Featured above are classic Mickey Mouse ears, a small nativity ornament (also from Colombia), and a wood ornament made by Isabella.

We had a great family vacation to Orlando a few years ago and a highlight was our trip to Sea World seeing the dolphins.  

Our dear friends who live in Bangkok, Thailand gave us this ornament last year.

I love a cruise and this is one of my cruise ornaments on the tree.

On one of our cruises, we visited Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada.  This Canadian mountie also reminds me of one of my favorite shows, When Calls the Heart.

The last time I visited San Francisco was almost 21 years ago and I purchased this ornament.  As you can see, most ornaments seem to come from our travels!

Speaking of travels, I have always loved travel.  I studied aviation in college and am a corporate travel agent. 

When the girls were younger, we owned an RV and traveled with our travel trailer quite a bit so we have a few of these on our tree.

This is special because it is from my first married Christmas, 21 years ago.  Notice another RV ornament!

This is our newest ornament for the tree that we purchased on our 20 year anniversary trip to Montana this past summer.  It says "Glacier National Park", which is where we got married.

This photo includes one of several Elvis ornaments and nail polish.  You can also see one that says "Home for the Holidays" written in the outline of the USA.  I bought this one the year we moved back from Colombia. 

42nd Street has always been my favorite Broadway comedy musical.

Charlie Brown to me is a classic figure of Christmas season with their Christmas show that tells the real reason for the season..."that's what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown".

I grew up in Mississippi, so this is my Mississippi ornament.

To wrap up this post, this is a childhood ornament my parents hung on the tree every year.  We had 3 of these...one for my older sister, brother and myself.

Thanks for taking time to see our tree which tells a story!

Girl Chat ~ November 2018: Juggling the Holidays

 It's time for the Girl Chat link up talking this month about tips for juggling the holiday season.

Tips for Juggling the Holiday Season

1. Purchase gifts early 

I buy a lot of things in the summer, primarily during the Nordstrom anniversary sale.  I always buy during Black Friday weekend, and then it is easy to pick up last minute gifts.  So thankful for Amazon and other online shopping these days!

2. Decorate early

I like to decorate the week of Thanksgiving, which I realize everyone has a different opinion about and that's okay.  Sometimes, my decorations go up the day before and sometimes it is the day after.  

3. Wrap gifts as you purchase them

It is hard sometimes to keep track of where gifts are so I like to wrap gifts early and if necessary, label them with a number on the back to keep up with what is what in each box.

4. Keep your calendar open

A lot of little things come up in December so be flexible so you can say yes to some things, however, no to others.  

5. Lists and meal planning

For me, making lists are really the key to my day to day life of what  I need to do.  It is even more necessary at a busier season.  Meal planning helps with the grocery shopping, as those stores are more crowded during the holiday season.  It is helpful to have some meal options for quick meals on cold nights, good comfort foods, and last minute options for desserts or appetizers that are needed for a family, friends, church or work event.

6.  Enjoy those around you

It is never to early to remind us all not to lose sight of why we celebrate Christmas.  Enjoy the people God has placed in your life in the season without getting too caught up in stress.  Life always brings some types of stress that are out of our control, but I do think there are some things I can do to ease the stress of other things I add to my life.  So, take a deep breath, enjoy all the fun things, take in the beautiful sights, sounds and scents of the season and keep being thankful in December :).

Girl Chat ~ Fall Bucket List

I have missed some the summer Girl Chats, but am joining back up for today's fall bucket list topic.

My girls are both teenagers and I work full time now, so my fall bucket list has changed during the years.  

I can sum up my current bucket list to basically, enjoy the cooler temperatures!  How do I plan to do that?  Well, here a few ways.....

1.  Work in the yard....It gets so hot in the summer and my good intentions to work in the yard just don't happen from June-September too much.  I want to pull up weeds, mow the grass one last time for the season, and plant some mums.

2.  Buy pumpkins for the front porch.....We really don't use our front door too much since we have our garage, but I do want to clean it, buy some pumpkins, and make it look more inviting.  I usually wait until October to purchase pumpkins.

3.  Wear fall clothes.....It is no secret how much I love my leggings, shirts and boots in the fall and winter.

4.  Watch fall Hallmark movies!....I am looking forward to watching these on the weekends.

5. Bake pumpkin breads.........I need to stock up on some more pumpkin and hope to start baking next week. 

6.  Evening walks to the lake.........We enjoy seeing the fall colors and not sweating so much just to walk to the lake in the evenings when the temperatures are cooler.

7.  Fall break trip..........We have a long weekend road trip planned for fall break and look forward to getting away again.

8.  Halloween costumes.........We still manage to come up with some type of costume  for Halloween and haven't outgrown this yet.  I just don't have cute little princesses anymore.  Where did the time go??

9.  Hot drinks.........I look forward to drinking hot tea and hot chocolate in the fall.

10.  Candy corn...........Last but not least, indulge in some candy corn.  And, I have actually already had my one bag for the season, so I can cross this one off my list :).

Girl Chat: Painting Furniture ~ Best Paint to Use

 Today, I am linking up with Girl Chat this month and talking about my recent experience painting furniture.

I read many blogs about painting furniture, but haven't done too much myself.  I did paint bathroom cabinets and a mirror frame, but those are the biggest projects I have done so far....until last week. 

Bathroom cabinets 

Brook's mirror

 A year and a half ago, we bought a dresser from a re-sale store for Brook.  She has been asking me since then to paint her dresser.  While she was out of town last week, I painted every morning before work to get it finished.

I read and made lists of what I needed to do this and wrote out all the steps.  I did my research, went into Lowe's, and bought a completely different product!

These are before pictures.   

There were definitely some scratches on the dresser, but they were all on one side.

I was prepared to prime and sand between each coat, expecting to paint 2-3 coats, and then finish with a topcoat for protection. I saw this Valspar furniture paint and was quickly convinced to forego my original list of supplies.

The can says it requires no priming, sanding or top coat and it was right! I did use some wood filler on the rough spots in the photos above and sanded it with a fine sandpaper.  Then I began painting. 

This is such a heavy piece of furniture, so I decided it would be too hard to move downstairs.  I put plastic underneath the dresser and painted it in the bedroom. I did move the drawers to another room and painted them there.  It took 3 coats and I let it dry 24 hours between coats. It saved so much time not having to sand between each coat.

This is the finished product!  Once it was finished, my husband installed the new hardware on the drawers.  I let it sit for 2 1/2 days before anything was put on top of it. 

We were all pleased and Brook is so glad to finally have her dresser painted.  Now I am going to use the rest of the paint on a desk in our guest room.  I will keep you posted on how that goes!

Reintroductions

Today I am linking up with other bloggers and today we are starting with re-introductions.  So, here is my re-introduction to you.

My name is Marilyn.  I grew up in the South and have lived in 3 states and 2 continents.

I am the third child of my siblings and grew up in a loving home. I am so thankful for them.  As you know from this blog, I also love being a great aunt!

Me with my parents and daughters

Me with my older brother and sister

 As a teenager, I always loved music, concerts, and broadway.  I wanted to be on broadway, but didn't have much talent, ha! My first concert was Elvis and I have seen my favorite, Huey Lewis, more than any other artist. I do still enjoy concerts and broadway plays.  

I have met Huey Lewis twice!  I still love eighties music, being a teenager in that decade.

I studied aviation in college and worked for Delta Air Lines then began working as corporate travel agent.  I have always loved to research trips, even as a young teen.  I love to travel and New York City is one of my favorites and my most visited city. I also love cruises, although it has been a few years since I have been on one.

NYC with Brook

This year marks my 20 year wedding anniversary.  I met my husband after college and we knew each other for 3 1\2 years but were only engaged for 3 weeks.  We got married at Glacier National Park in Montana, but then did renew our vows on our ten year anniversary at the Graceland chapel!

Ten year vow renewal

Wedding Day 

We have 2 daughters, ages 16, almost 17 & a 13 year old.  I have homeschooled the girls since kindergarten, except for a year and a half they went to traditional school in another country.  We spent 3 years living in Bogota, Colombia as missionaries.  It was a great experience, but hard many times too.  We do miss it and have fondness towards that time in our lives.  We have been back in the USA a little over a year now, so it has been a year of transitions for us. I have lots of posts from Bogota on this blog if you would to read some of those. 

Me with my girls

View of Bogota from our apartment window

I enjoy cooking, watching Hallmark movies, spending times with family and friends, listening to music, organizing things, and making a yearly scrapbook, which now is digital. 

That is a glimpse into my life and hobbies....so nice to meet you!