A blurry walk through town, and sweetest gifts!

"Gall-lee"!  friends, is it busy where you are this last week before Christmas! Where do the hours go?

A Christmas wish of mine has been to walk down main street in our little town of Louisburg...

one night near Christmas and look at all the decorated old homes (just a few here) and such awful pictures...

and the college...

Picture borrowed from the internet

Picture borrowed from the internet

the courthouse...

Picture borrowed from the internet

then cross the Tar river bridge where you can see way down the river, and in the night sky, see Santa, his sleigh and all the reindeer all lit up and bright and beautiful...

it was a little scary looking down at that black water. I thought this would be such a good post, but all my pictures came out fuzzy. My little camera does not take good pictures at night. What a disappointment.

Anyhow, our walk through downtown happened because of Andee and Todd. Andee called and said, "Mom, let's do it"! They both are so sweet about things like this.

But you know what? With or without good pictures, it was very special to me. It was cold outside, it was a beautiful night and every place looked like Christmas.

Something else to show you...

The sweetest little bun bun has traveled to us all the way from Fox Grove in Canada to Henny Penny Lane...

he is adorable, and we are tickled to death to have him.

Why, he fits in just perfect, everywhere! 

But says he likes standing tall here with these three tall skinny snowmen, and all these other tall skinny folks.

 and like me too, mama? 

Thank you Deb, so much! Hard to imagine any little critter leaving you and Fox Grove and all the special attention they get there. 

Here's another sweet gift from a friend I met through blogging...

A crocheted dish cloth...something I am always searching for. An apron pattern, of all things! This apron is cute enough to wear to town. I intend to make one too! and Sandy embroidered the cute cup and saucer on the dish towel...and a Christmas pot holder...A pot holder I won't be ashamed to pull out of the drawer on Christmas day. :) Thank you Sandy in New York!

and how special is this!

See those gorgeous large pillowcases with red cabbage roses. Sharon's mom, you probably know Sharon from here, sent those to her years ago and Sharon is now giving them to me. Sharon has sent me gardening books, decorating books, and even a subscription to The Cottage Journal. Remember the Autumn issue of that same magazine...the one that arrived in the mail and I went crazy over, wanting my kitchen to look exactly like the kitchen in that magazine? I dropped everything that morning and took off to Goodwill! :) Thank you Sharon!

Oh my goodness! I've got to get up from this computer and get busy!! I've finished the bonnets, the aprons, and the doll clothes for the lady and she is coming this morning to get them. Guess I'll worry myself to death before she gets here, that she won't like them. 

Okay, I'll hush now! Except, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Aren't blogging friends simply the best!!!

Love,
Henny

A Gift

Another special gift, from a special blogger friend. I am simply amazed!

These two adorable old doll dresses! Thank you so much Rhonda!

An email from Rhonda said they had downsized and she hated to give these doll dresses to Goodwill, then she thought about me.  

The baby dress has a matching bonnet and booties, and both outfits came with old wooden doll clothes hangers. 

I love the style and fabric of this little dress. Looks like pillow ticking. Both are made to fit a large doll. Now I have a good excuse for looking for a bigger baby doll. The dresses are pretty though just hanging in the sewing room.

Oh my goodness friends, you have no idea how much I would love to send every one of you a big special gift, just from me. You have been so good to me! Can you imagine the look on Poppy's face? 

Thank you Rhonda! 

Well, there's been a hustle and bustle in the teeny tiny sewing room lately, with so much to work with now...But thankfully, I have added some new items to the much neglected "Henny's Bonnet Shop".  

Last week a lady called and asked if I could possibly make two calico aprons, two matching bonnets, and two doll dresses for her daughters for Christmas...

The bonnets and aprons are finished, but still working on the doll dresses. Thanks to Diane, there was a piece of calico fabric big enough to do all this.  :)

Well, I'm fixing to bundle up and go feed the animals. That little Heidi bellows loud enough to wake up everybody in this neck of the woods. 

She has become a fat little fuzzball, but sweet as can be.

Thank you for visiting.

Love,
Henny

An amazing gift

This post should have been done weeks ago...weeks!!

An email came to me from a blogging friend in Kentucky saying that she had some fabric pieces that I might use, and would I like to have them. The very thought of getting some fabric in the mail tickled me to death.

I was expecting a package of a few small fabric pieces, in fact, my reply to her was something about making dolls and how I used lots of small fabric pieces.  Well, you can probably imagine my shock when the mail man brought a package too big and too heavy for the mail box and left it on the front steps.

All these beautiful fabrics! For days, in shock, I stood and stared, sorted and folded, and thought of things to make.

Most of these pieces were anywhere from four to six yards each and some of them I have already cut. Do you know that it actually hurt my heart to cut the first piece? Well, it did. 

There was also a stack of fat quarters, think that's what these are called...

Fabric is expensive, so for me it has been finding pieces on sale, sometimes buying colors and prints that I didn't really like, but could afford; even searching for fabric at yard sales and thrift stores. Now, I've got my own little fabric shop right inside the teeny tiny sewing room. Diane, you have a heart of gold!

So, it has been like Christmas morning here ever since this package arrived. Diane is  probably tired of hearing me say "thank you", but again, thank you Diane. 

Oh gosh, back to reality. It's the back again. Yesterday I got another steroid injection in my spine for the painful herniated disks. Kinda funny, but Poppy drove me to my appointment in Wake Forest on Tuesday. Five minutes before the injection, the X-ray machine quit working. My appointment was rescheduled and cancelled three times this week. 

You are not allowed to drive yourself after getting this injection. So yesterday, Shelby was kind enough to drive me. We did get to have lunch together and go in a couple of thrift stores. Always fun to have a little time with Shelby. Glad that steroid injection is over though.

Guess I need to get up from this computer and get busy!

What a difference you've made in my life! Thank you for your friendship!

Love,
Henny

Snow pictures

About that special picture of Eli...

Does he look rotten or what?

I sent a few snow pictures to Andee and Todd to show them the amount of snow we got here. Seems they got more rain than snow. They have moved back to NC but are in a county further east.

Anyhow, from one of the pictures, Andee zoomed in on Eli and came up with this sweet picture. Andee thinks the caption should be,

"I want to be rotten, but I'm just way too sweet"

Eli loved the snow!

and here's a few more snow pictures...

We rarely get snow in December, and certainly never this much!

The old bird house looks like a face.

Little Weetie struggled to run through the deep snow.

Snow made the raggedy old chicken wire fence prettier, 

 and the little duck pen down near the pond.

Cedar limbs heavy with snow hang low over the dam.

Just a few more, I promise...

Whew! Way too many pictures, I know. It was just so pretty!

The beauty of today was that big warm sun in the sky and the snow beginning to melt away! As beautiful as this snow was that first day, you just can't beat a warm sunny summer day. 

Thank you for looking.

Love,

Henny

What a snow storm this turned out to be!

But first, I had never given a thought to kitty cats eating those silver icicles off a Christmas tree. Thankfully, neither of our cats have ever bothered the tree, but I will be watching them closely. Thank you Deb, and others too, who mentioned this in their comment.

A few days ago, Granny Marigold asked about the bunny rabbits, so I was working on a Bunny post.  Wanted to show you how I had added tarps to the bunny lot...



Yep, I did good! Now the bunnies would be protected from the cold winter wind.

The bunnies would get the early morning sun through the open front and a little late afternoon sun from the one open side. It would be cozy.

Then we hear the local weather report...Snow storm! Beginning Saturday night! Up to six inches predicted for us (we got eight inches!) with snow all day Sunday and wind gusts up to 35 mph. Good grief!

So, I bundled up again and headed back down to the bunny lot with another tarp to cover the other side. Only the door end of the lot was left uncovered. Now the bun buns surely would be cozy through the storm

Early Sunday morning Bunny Village looked fine, even with a covering of snow. All four bunnies were safe inside.

But the next time I checked...

Oh no! One side of the canvas top, filled with heavy wet snow had fallen in. The bunnies were fine, but what a wet soggy mess their sweet little village has become. Poppy has already ordered a new canvas top. Hopefully it will get here quick!!

Thankfully each of the bunnies has their own box filled with hay and protection from the weather.

"Penny" and her son, "Chief, Son of Bun".

Sweetest "Fiona"

Messy Mr. "Bun Bun"

One of these days I hope to have a pretty little house for each bunny. I keep check on Craigslist. For now though, the old cages will do. Poppy says these rabbits eat better than we do. :( 

Thank you to two new followers, "Changes in the Wind" and "Phoebe's World. I appreciate your friendship.

Thank you Granny Marigold for asking about the bunnies.

Well I wanted to finish up this bunny post, but tomorrow, hopefully, I will be back with "snow pictures"!! Bet you can't wait!! :) There is a really special picture of Eli.  

Love,
Henny

More on Christmas!

Hey friends,

Think I've found what the little Christmas tree needed...

Do you all still use those old fashioned icicles?

all knotted and tangled. Every year as I stand and carefully hang one icicle from the tip of each branch on the tree, I remember the years Shelby, Jackie, and I decorated the trees at home. 

Shelby, being the oldest, was in charge and of course there was always an argument, especially when it came time to hang the icicles on the tree. Jackie, the youngest at the time, wanted to throw the icicles and let them grab onto the tree.

"Icicles are supposed to 'HANG' on the tree like icicles"! Shelby would say.

"Mama, tell him to STOP throwing icicles on the tree"! 

"Huh uh mama", Jackie would say, "look, you're supposed to throw-um on and let-um fall down like snow".

"Oh, for goodness sake, hush, all of you"! Mama would say in that pleading tone of voice.

"Surely, mama didn't mean me too. I wasn't doing anything".  I would think to myself. 

I was the middle child and afraid of Shelby. Why, she had warned me many times, "DON'T TOUCH ME"!  So, being the odd ball and of all things born a Virgo, I was probably sitting in the background sorting out Christmas balls by color and size.  Plus, purposely trying to be the sweet one in the bunch, which sickened Shelby. 

We were simply being children, siblings. We loved each other and did get along...most of the time.

The icicles show up more in this little side view of the tree.

anyhow, I've put this old chair here thinking Santa might want to sit and rest a little between stops. Hope it's sturdy enough. It's very old. A gift from my Cousin Patty back when she gave us the old Civil War cupboard. Thank you Patty.

and here's Eli...

Eli has once again asked Santa for a new bear. He's says my stitching just doesn't hold up any longer, and see, the bear's head is falling off again.

and Smokey...

says he will be happy with whatever Santa brings, but can he sleep on the footstool near the tree on Christmas Eve?

Dumperoo and Weetie are too busy running through the house to stop and speak...we'll check with them later.

Oh friends, I promise you...I will get over this soon and stop posting so much about Christmas!

Love,
Henny