Bonne Année!! Happy New Year!!! I won something fabulous...

Guess what? I won a blog giveaway...yahoo!!!! Sweet Alice at Faded Rose Cottage had a fabulous giveaway and I was lucky enough to be the winner. I was able to set up a fabulous little Bonne Année display using most of the goodies that Alice sent me. Well....what do you think? Ooh-la-la (If I do say so myself:-)

Be sure to check out Alice's romantic blog and website, they're gorgeous! Alice is considering a new name so hop on over to her blog to participate in her poll. Thank you, Alice...I love everything that I won!

Wishing you and yours a very Fabulous New Year!

~Julie~


~~~~~~~~The Goodies have arrived~~~~~~



~~~~~~The finished product~~~~~~~

Angie & Julie..."out on the town"!/More decorations of Christmas Past/Happy Holidays!

Whew! I'm finally ready for Christmas. All of the presents are wrapped and tucked under the tree and all of the groceries have been purchased for the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day festivities! We will have our traditional Swedish smorgasbord (including yummy Swedish meatballs) on Christmas Eve and we will have a fun Mexican dinner Christmas Day(the dessert menu is longer than the main course menu!!). And I've even managed to watch a few Christmas programs on TV: Christmas Vacation, Shrek Christmas and several of my favorite Christmas programs from years ago: Santa Claus is Coming to town, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Year Without a Santa Claus, Frosty the Snowman and more!).

I had a bit of a setback last weekend....I woke up Saturday morning and my computer was "dead". The computer was 4 years old so we decided it was time for a new one. By Saturday evening I had a new computer (Merry Christmas to me???). Luckily my BIL fixed the old computer a few days later (power supply) and I am currently transferring files to my new computer (looks like my son is getting the old computer). Thursday, my daughter and I ventured out to the mall for some last minute Christmas shopping. It was crowded and the lines were so loooooong! We waited in line for about 30 minutes at the Victoria's Secret "Pink" store to purchase overpriced "sweat" pants, jackets, shirts and pajamas that my daughter just had to have (popular with teen girls right now). I see those items are on sale at the website, bah humbug! :-) I planned to take my camera with me (for blogging purposes) and I forgot it at home, grrrrr! Oh well, I was able to purchase everything on my list so that was a "good thing". Today I finished up my shopping at a local grocery store and Wal-Mart. I made a few impulse buys from a $5 DVD rack (Can you believe Pretty in Pink was on the $5 rack?...a fav of mine).

On a fun note...I recently met my good friend Angie at a favorite restaurant/gift shop called The Dove's Nest. We always have a lot of fun when we get together: laughing, eating, sharing ideas, gossiping, talking, talking, and more talking!
After a lovely lunch and dessert (Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie is a must) we looked around the fabulous gift shop and I snapped a few pics of the fabulous store decor. I even managed to find a few goodies that I couldn't live without (Angie had more will power than I did..she left with nothing! Good girl!). Oops, almost forgot...we decided to exchange Christmas gifts, too (handmade, of course)! Can't wait for our next little outing, Angie :-) Hmmm...where shall we meet next time?

The Dove's Nest Pics:




Goodies from the Dove's Nest: Mini tinsel garland, Cavallini eraser and a Bird covered with mica.

Angie's gift is wrapped and ready to go. I gave her my last coveted toile gift sack!
My gifts to Angie:
Fabulous Goodies from Angie!

A few more decorations of Christmas past:
Master Bedroom and Bathroom:


Engagement photo from 1989...typical 80's hair!


"God Jul" means "Good Chistmas" in Swedish.

Where's the snow in the village? We don't get very much snow in Texas (mostly ice/sleet).

I love these animated dolls:

Hutch and Buffet from the Breakfast Nook. I bought that furniture at an auction. The hutch contains some of my teacup collection and some Swedish dishes (my heritage). On the 2nd shelf of the hutch (far left) you will see a small wooden house with a little girl. I was a library aide when I was in 2nd grade and my library teacher gave that little house to me for Christmas that year. It is one of the oldest keepsakes from my childhood.

Some vintage Christmas postcards from my collection. And a little vintage style bunny I bought at Hallmark a few years ago.
The "Children's Christmas Tree". Don't want all of your "childrens" ornaments on the main tree? Give them their own. This tree was in the Media Room.

Guess what? My husband and I are sneaking away Sunday morning to spend the night at a fabulous hotel and do some more holiday shopping (perhaps for moi?), can't wait! Hopefully I won't forget my camera and I can share some fabulous photos later.

I hope you have a fabulous and safe Holiday Season. See you next week! "God Jul"!
~Julie~

Blogger Award...7 random things about me!

My apologies, I have been too busy to blog lately but I just recieved this award, so I just had to blog about it. I have several new things to blog about so I will hopefully have some time in a few days. I received this fabulous award from my good friend, Jen at Artful Paper Dreams . THank you, Jen! By accepting this award, I must list 7 random things about myself. I hope you find this interesting :-)

1. I was a Girl Scout. I was a Girl Scout from 3-8th grade and I enjoyed it. I don't like to camp now (unless it's in an RV) but I did then. I treasure all of the memories I have from "scouting": crafts, earning awards, cooking, camping and friendships.

2. I love Sci-Fi! I have loved science fiction since I was a child when I first saw Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica (1st one) and Buck Rogers. My favorite sci-fi show of all time is Stargate SG-1! I have a huge crush on Richard Dean Anderson (MacGyver) from that show. Every Christmas my husband buys me a season of the show on DVD. I also love the Terminator movies, Aliens, Battlestar Galactica (new show) and Stargate Atlantis. As a child I thought about becoming a scientist or an astronaut because of my love for sci-fi.


A yummy Richard Dean Anderson

3. I have a slight lisp. I attended speech class in 2nd grade because I couldn't pronounce my s's correctly. You may still hear a slight lisp today when I say a word with the letter s in it (whistling sound). I remember sitting in speech class and revealing that there wasn't a Santa Claus! Oh boy, did I get in trouble for that :-( Only a nosy little girl like me would know there wasn't a real Santa Claus when she was only in the 2nd grade!


Cindy Brady

4. I inherited musical talent. I play the piano and the clarinet and I sing at my church. I took piano lessons for several years and played my Dad's clarinet in the band during Jr. High (I quite band when I became a cheerleader my Freshman year of high school and I still own that clarinet). I started singing in church when I was around 11 years of age and I am asked to sing Breath Of Heaven (Amy Grant song) every year at Christmas Time at my church. Most of my family members can sing or play a musical instrument (my son is an awesome guitarist and pianist!).


Amy Grant

5. I am a perfectionist! My doctor said I internalize all of my stress and that is why I have had 2 stomach ulcers over the years (common for Type A personalities, she says). After a year on medication I am proud to say that I am ulcer-free and I hope to stay that way! Learning to scrapbook was one of the best things I have ever done for myself. It has taught me that my artwork doesn't have to be perfect and that things can be a little random.

6. I love all kinds of music! I listen to classical, Christian, country, Dance/Club, pop, and heavy metal music. Some of my favorite musical artists are: Amy Grant, Shania Twain, Rick Springfield!, Dokken, Queensryche and Whitesnake. George Lynch (former guitarist from Dokken) is my favorite guitarist and I have had the pleasure of meeting him!


Rick Springfield


A favorite "hair band": Dokken

7. I am an artisian for Shabbyfufu. I have been designing tags and cards for Shabbyfufu for several months now. I absolutely adore Shabby Chic style so designing for this site has been a lot of fun for me. Shabbyfufu has been in business for many years so I definitely feel honored to be a part of such a talented group of women.



Some of my Shabbyfufu designs

I will now pass this fabulous award on to the following bloggers:

QuillySillysVintagePaperBoutique
RazzPizazzBoutique
Kate, Vee & Me
TiedUpInRibbons
SouthernHospitality

Have a fabulous day everyone!
~Julie~

More Decorations of Christmas Past/Fabulous Find of the day/Amy Butler "Friends" Album

Here a few more Christmas Decoration pics from my former home. This is my head vase collection. All of my head vases are in storage right now and I miss them(I think I have around 20,mostly Madonna's).I warned you that some of these pics are not too good:-0!! My Mom has an enormous head vase collection (probably 100 or so). She was lucky enough to buy some of her head vases before the prices went through the roof! I will definitely have to take some pics of her collection and blog about that later! Click on the pics to enlarge them.




This is the Powder Bathroom and it was one of my favorite rooms in the house because I absolutely adore toile! The vintage-look bathroom fixtures are from Kholer and I bought that black mirror at Hobby Lobby. The wire basket is from Target and the black leather gloves are from an estate sale.


I bought red hand towels and sewed black drapery fringe onto them (not shown)...really makes the towels look like they cost a lot of $. I bought the Paris candle at the gift shop at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas (a favorite vacation spot). Some of the other knick knacks came from Kirklands and various gift shops. The birds nest and pot of red roses were Christmas ornaments (I cut the hanging string off of them).


"Friends" album:








I just listed this "Friends" pre-made scrapbook album on Etsy. It's made with Amy Butler paper...so fab! It would be great for friends of any age :-) I can only use 5 photos in my Etsy listing so I am posting additional close-up pics here. I will be listing another one of these albums on ebay soon. Click on the pics to enlarge them.


Etsy: Fabulous Finds
Ebay: Fabulous Finds


Fabulous Find of the Day:


I received this craft idea in an email from Martha Stewart.com. These teacup candles would make fabulous gifts...especially for Christmas! This idea would be great for vintage or new cups that have lost their saucers or sets, too (and looking for them in antique stores, estate sales, etc. will be so much fun!). I made some candles years ago and it they turned out pretty well I think most of you should be able to master this craft :-)

Here is the link for directions:

Teacup Lights
Have a fabulous day!
~Julie~