The Night Before....

The night before Christmas, 

who can believe it is already here! 

Wishing all of you a joyful holiday, we'll see you in the New Year!

Love Barbie Jo and Daisy

Be Merry!

Another week closer! This past week in my house was baking time. The flour was flying, bowls of colored icing, sprinkles and glitter littered every inch of counter space.

The old nut grinder was put in to use as I tackled some of our favorite Christmas cookies.

Peanut brittle and those Rollo/pretzel/pecan candies were made.

Dishes and counters were piled sky high with no helpful elves in sight. Everything was packaged and mailed or put in containers... and then the kitchen cleanup began. Phew.. thats a lot of work!

And so yesterday I was very ready to get out amongst humans, and do what people do this time of year, eat and be merry! And so Hubby and I enjoyed a wonderful lunch on the Missouri side, at Cafe Europa in the Brookside area of Kansas City, we had the best Reuben sandwiches.. yum yum!

One of the fun things about living here is we are only 10 minutes from the Kansas/Missouri state line.

We enjoy the best of both worlds!  

Lunch was followed by a little shopping. Here we are in the New Dime Store, similar to an old fashioned variety store, aisles and aisles of nostalgic fun!

To complete my fun day the postman brought me a package... a Christmas Elf soft doll designed by Valerie Weberpal. He's so cute, everyone needs a helper this time of year! 

Be Merry!

Let the fun begin....

Wow, phew, Christmas is in full swing here! Started my decorating the day after Thanksgiving and have made pretty good progress with that. Don't you just love saying hello to all your favorite Christmas goodies after they have been tucked away for a year! We were a little leery about setting our tree up with Daisy experiencing her 1st Christmas. She however has been pretty good so far and has not tried to climb it. She does however love the tree skirt with its jingle bells, and kind of likes to bat those ornaments and get them all swaying a bit. Needless to say the bottom branches have been left fairly sparse.

 I thought I would beat the rush and finish my shopping this week. With most of our family out of town I like to get after it right away. Much to my surprise it seems like everyone had the same idea, every store was packed and lines were long, not everyone had a fa la la attitude lol! Bone weary, eyes glazing over and running out of steam I stopped and treated myself to my fave sandwich at Dean & Delucca before trudging home. Turkey, brie, apricot glaze on sourdough, and who could resist a  few cute petit fours to go!

When I got home Daisy had hung her stocking on the mantle.

She has been a very good girl. I decked her corner out with a garland strung with toys and bells, hoping it would distract her from the tree and other such goodies. Knock on wood so far I think it has helped!

This weekend... let the cookie baking begin! Hoping your holidays are more joyful than stressful,
Barbie and Daisy

Two angels

November.. a happy month.. a sad month. 

The happy part, my Father in law came for a visit from Florida. Our daughter and her little family drove up from Oklahoma City to visit and celebrate Grandpa's 93rd birthday along with our sons 29th! It was a lot of fun having them all here together.

The sad part, my sweet Daddy passed away last Sunday:( 

Hubby and I drove back to Pennsylvania as our family gathered in from various other states. 

At 97 years old my Daddy was an amazing man. He was proud to be WW2 veteran serving in the O.S.S. division behind enemy lines in Burma. He was a Father to 5 children, a fine artist, writer, and played on a softball league well in to his 90's! He lead a full active life and had a funny sense of humor. I will miss talking to him. I am sad for me, but happy that he is with our Mom once again. 

Now I have two sweet angels looking down on me.

God bless and Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.

Road Trip

Hubby and I made a quick run to Oklahoma City this week. We wanted to see our Grandson William play a game of football before the season is over. How fun to see him play, they sure start them young don't they! It was chilly out on that field, the temps dropped quickly along with the sun, I wished I had brought my fleece blankie!

After the game and a quick bite to eat with the kids, Hubby and I were ready to settle into our 

temporary digs after a long day of driving and anticipation. Our hotel was decked out for Halloween!

Pumpkins and goblins galore!

Next morning Hubby was up and at it early with our daughter having coffee at a hip spot in town.

They then visited the Museum of Modern Art while I progressed at a more leisurely pace.

He and Erin then picked me up for lunch.

And what a beautiful lunch it was! Kitchen 324 in downtown OKC, the prettiest restaurant I have seen in awhile. The food presentations were beautiful and very tasty!

Next stop at Oklahoma Contemporary Art Center where our daughter works. We had a tour of the building and viewed the current exhibit by K. Yoland. (Hubby and Erin deep in thought in the distance).

Then it was back into town to view the installation piece Terra, by artist Orly Genger on loan to Oklahoma Contempoary. This sculpture was made from long pieces of rope knotted and crocheted, inspired by the Oklahoma soil it was painted terra cotta. 

Back to our hotel for a little rest, next up... a trip to Eichens in Okarche Oklahoma for dinner. Eichens is an Oklahoma legend being the oldest bar in Oklahoma, but famous for their fabulous fried chicken and okra! Nothing fancy here, just the best chicken ever!!

Grandsons William and Alexander love it!

And from here we said our good nights and goodbyes. It was a busy full visit, time to get a good night sleep before heading home to Kansas City and our Daisy in the morning!

Lots to get ready for here, Grandpa is visiting from Florida next week.. to celebrate his 93rd birthday! 

Indian Summer in Kansas

Another absolutely gorgeous weekend here in Kansas! Friday I talked Hubby into a Quilt show/craft show afternoon, with a promise of lunch thrown in if he was good! And so 1st we headed to the Lees Summit Missouri Quilters Guild annual show. So many lovely quilts displayed,  the following pictures depict just a small sampling of the many wonderful quilts made by their members. 

After the quilt show we went to check out a craft show back on our Kansas side. Then before heading home, we stopped for a late lunch/dinner.. and it sure was yummy!

Below are some of the goodies that followed me home, some pretty fabric from the quilt show. Locally made jams, candles and who can resist a church bake sale from the craft show. 

We had to scurry home to watch the World Series. I just love baseball, and I'll tell you this city is beside itself having our Royals make it this far, so exciting! I have been up late nearly every night watching the games. Go Royals!

Daisy is not so excited. Don't you just wish you could be so comfy sleeping upside down?

Saturday I spent in the kitchen mixing up some Grandkid treats.

Zombie eyeballs.

And Monster popcorn mix!

I'm glad you came to visit, enjoy your week!

Start your leaf blowers..

Fall is here again, the leaves are showing off for us. We turn our heads every which way when leaving the neighborhood, one tree prettier than another, Mother nature sure does produce one glorious show!

Doing a little Fall decorating, my new pumpkin head dollie arrived from Valerie Weberpal at Harvest Moon designs. I just love her work, isn't she fun!

I have a new pattern design for you! "Oh Holy Night"...the stars are softly shining.

My wool wall hanging features a shepherd tending his flock on this most special night. You can find it now on my web site at www.cleoandme.com.

A lambie close up... they are just the sweetest!

And speaking of sweet.. my Daisy is growing up, she doesn't fit in her favorite cozy dish anymore, but she still tries LOL! She has her winter coat right now, she's super fluffy!

Glad you stopped by to check in on us, we hope your week is super great!

Indian summer and a Fall festival

The birthday girl is now a year older. It happened so fast, just as summer flew by and here it is Fall already! I had a wonderful birthday weekend. I enjoyed talking to my friends and family who called me on my special day. That evening hubby took me out to dinner at Lidia's in Kansas City. Dinner was made even more special when we were joined by our son and his friend Emily. The food there is always delicious, such a nice ending to my day. 

Our weather here in Kansas has been near perfect all week. Sunday Hubby and I decided to take a little road trip to the charming town of Lexington Missouri. They were having a Fall Festival and we thought that would be a perfect time to visit.

Horses made out of cornstalks!

Lots of scarecrows!

Behind the horses a cute storefront named The Purple Turnip caught my attention and lured me inside.

Right away I noticed all the beautiful wool models and books displayed by designer/author Maggie Bonanomi, what luck I thought, I had just walked in to heaven! 

And then who walked in but Maggie herself, I had no idea she had a store here and this was such a pleasant find! Maggie was so gracious, she allowed me to take pictures for you and she was so fun and interesting to talk to. 

I just loved her store, to be surrounded by such goodness and creativity I could have spent the entire afternoon there basking in piles of wool and such. Oh and this candle, boy oh boy is it yummy smelling! Now Hubby is a patient man, but poor guy he was melting away outside on a bench, and so I made my purchases so we could continue the journey. 

After walking the block of vendors we drove down a side street to visit the state historical sight where the Anderson house could be toured and the acreage where The 1861 Civil War battle of Lexington was fought.

Before leaving town we drove around a bit to see some of the beautiful Victorian homes. 

I love purple and was really drawn to this one.

A close up of the angels, how perfect to have a home with angels looking over you!

And one more, wouldn't you love to sit on this porch to stitch and sew!

                         Wishing you a happy week and maybe a little more of this pretty weather!

A little girl time

A week has passed by since my friend Patty went home and I am adjusting to a less exciting pace. Much less....I mean the highlight for me this week was getting a flu and shingles shot LOL! Kind of a let down after a week of girl time. I think Patty and I managed to do a little bit of everything. We ate out more than we cooked, sometimes that just involved ice-cream for dinner, sewed in our pi's, a little shopping, sightseeing, and a movie too. The movie we saw was "Chef", cute but to tell you the truth the theatre was so dark and that reclining seat so relaxing, I fell asleep twice LOL! Pictured below is a chalk art painting that captured my eye while we were at the chalk art festival in Kansas City, I love the bright colors and mashed chalk bits incorporated into this piece. 

We celebrated my birthday early, Patty made my favorite cake.. banana nut and it was delicious!

Daisys' eyes were all aglow when the candles were lit and she was very afraid of the singing kitty on my card! Next week is my real birthday, just in case anybody forgets LOL!

We worked on a little crazy wool mat I designed as we sewed, lots of chocolate and laughter were involved as well! I love working with wools, sewing by hand is a satisfying change that I was ready for. As a matter of fact I am felting a batch of wool felt today. Cant wait to play with it...enjoy your weekend!