Hello blog friends.  I hope you all had a nice Christmas.  I know I did, as I enjoyed visiting with our families and friends.  I still have more family to visit with this week.  The holiday season seemed to have flown by so fast this year.  It did not feel like Christmas here as the weather was so unusually warm and in the 60's.  I liked it though as it made shopping for presents easier for me.    

I will miss the holidays but I'm also looking forward to the new year and the quiet time of January.  I will be taking down and packing away all of the Christmas decorations next week and organizing everything.  We all plan on eating healthier now that the holidays will be over soon.  The new year is the perfect time to do all of these things.

I had a fun year blogging and I enjoyed getting to know some of you better.  I was also able to have the wonderful opportunity to meet some of you bloggers in person.  In case you missed those posts you can read about them HERE and HERE.  I think that that was my highlight of the year!

I also started in the beginning of June working with Jess from Plucky's Second Thought running with her our Monday link up party called Cooking and Crafting with J & J Link Up!  I have had so much fun with that and I enjoy looking at and reading about the projects, recipes, and crafts everyone links up each week.  You are all so talented and creative.  Thanks for joining us each week as we appreciate it so much.  I want to thank you all for making blogging fun and enjoyable for me.

I look forward to a new year blogging with you all!  THANKS EVERYONE!!

Jess and I will see you all again back here on Monday for our Cooking and Crafting with J & J Link Up!

WISHING YOU ALL A HAPPY AND HEALTY NEW YEAR!

Thanks everyone and enjoy!

Julie

This is such an easy last minute gift to make and give to anyone on your Christmas list.


Mason Jar
Tag
Ribbon
Wrapping Paper
Candy or Chocolates

Thanks everyone and enjoy!

Julie

I was inspired to make Eggnog Pancakes recently, when Gina who blogs at Kleinworth & Co. linked up this recipe to make them at our Monday Cooking and Crafting with J & J Link Up.

This is what the pancakes looked like when I finished making them.  This is the perfect pancake recipe to make for the holidays.



For the recipe to make these Eggnog Pancakes you can visit Gina's blog  Kleinworth & Co. HERE.

The pancakes tasted so amazing and if you like eggnog than you will want to try making these pancakes.

What made it fun was that we had them for dinner.  Have you ever made breakfast food for dinner?  Well you should try it some time.

Note:  All I have to do is take the eggnog pancakes out of the freezer on Christmas morning.  Pop them in the microwave oven, and they are ready to go!

Thanks, I hope I have inspired you to make Eggnog Pancakes.  Enjoy!!

I opened up the box and here is what the gorgeous glass angel ornament looks like.


Here is the beautiful glass angel ornament hanging on my Christmas tree.

Hello friends.  I've made crocheted Christmas Tree ornaments I'd love to share with you.  Last month I was so busy crocheting these for family and friends.

I really enjoyed making these crocheted Christmas tree ornaments.  It's fun using different color combinations with the yarn.

Below I have all the details to make these ornaments.




To crochet your own ornament you can use this PATTERN I found on Pinterest.

Hi friends.  I was so busy last month crocheting star ornaments for friends and family for the holidays.

Crochet Star made with red and white yarn

I made the stars in all different colors and I had so much fun making them.  They are quick and easy to make and will look perfect on your Christmas Tree.

***  These can also be crocheted to use for any patriotic holiday.

Crochet Star made with white yarn

Hello blog friends.  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving spent with your family and friends.  I'm sure you all had a lot to eat and your all stuffed! Lol!!

Today I would love to share with you an easy salad to make.  Have you ever had broccoli slaw salad before?  Well this is such an easy way to make salad and it can be ready in minutes.  I love making all kinds of salads and I'd love to share this with you.

I bought the Organic Broccoli Slaw from Trader Joe's and I just used their recipe on the back of the package to make this salad.

For the salad dressing I used 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar, and seasoned it with salt and pepper.  You can use Italian Dressing or you can add whatever salad dressing you like and this salad will still taste great.

This is an easy salad idea to make for dinner, a party, or for the holidays.

Hello blog friends.  Guess what?  Well, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet up with another awesome blogger!

I met up with my newest blog friend, Janet who blogs at Rosemary & Thyme!  Janet has the most beautiful blog where she shares about entertaining, tablescapes, and recipes.

We both arranged to meet this past Saturday in New York City, at the French restaurant called Maison Kayser.  Here we are together enjoying our lunches.  Janet is on the left and I'm seated on the right.  We both had salads and quiche, and then lattes.


We both enjoyed spending time getting to know each other and sharing about our blogging experiences.

We had so much fun together that we decided to do a little bit of window shopping.  We visited Fishs Eddy and then ABC Carpet and Home.

I took a few photos while we were walking around ABC Carpet and Home.  I really enjoyed looking at their holiday and Christmas displays.  Their theme was pastels and pink colors.  I love the colors of the plates and how elegant and it looks with the black accent plate.


The little house ornaments and display were so beautiful but very expensive.  Look at the pretty white tree and ornaments.  I love the old fashioned ornaments.


I love the pink deer and trees and the pink tea pot.  There was just so much to look at!



I just love the houses and bottle brush trees and they still seem to be all the rage right now.  Maybe I have given you some ideas for decorating your house or trees this holiday season.

We then went on to the bedding department and had fun looking around there too.


Janet was also so kind and made me mini pumpkin muffins and I just love the packaging it came in.  Janet is a talented baker and the muffins tasted so good!  I love the pretty pearl napkin rings she made me too.

Thank you Janet for our fun day together and for the goodies you made me.  I enjoyed our meet up so much and I'm looking forward to it again!

Hi friends.  In my house I love Christmas cards!  I hate throwing them away when Christmas is over.  I like saving them and making my own Christmas tags with them.  I would love to share with you these easy steps to make your own.




1)  Save old Christmas cards
2)  Pick out a card you like
3)  You will need a hole puncher and ribbon
4)  Take card and pick a scene and cut card into small square or rectangle
5)  Punch a hole into top of card
6)  Insert and add cut ribbon to the punched hole

I hope you all had a nice weekend and a nice start to the week.  I had another super busy week last week.  It all started with last Tuesday at my weekly crochet group at my church.  I'm in the process of teaching a new member of our group how to crochet and they are doing a great job learning.  I taught her how to crochet two new stitches and she has made a few scarves already.  I will be teaching her today how to crochet a circle so that she can make coasters.

I met last Wednesday with my other crochet/knit group at Barnes & Noble in New York City.  Our group meets each month in their cafe and we all knit, crochet, look at magazines, drink coffee and have fun!

Thursday was another day I spent in the city shopping at Macy's Herald Square at 34th Street in NYC.  I had such a fun time with my friend shopping and having lunch.  The windows were not displayed yet but they will be Thanksgiving week.  If you are ever in NYC it is a must see.

Friday we had teachers conferences again in the city at D's (daughters) school.

Saturday my Mr. Bond and I went to see the new James Bond movie called Spectre 007 starring Daniel Craig.  I really enjoyed this action packed movie and the scenes from London were just amazing and made me MISS it so much.  If you like James Bond movies I suggest you see this one since it might be Daniel Craig's last 007 movie.

That is last week in a nut shell and a busy one for me.  I like being busy but it will start to get even busier for me with the holidays coming.  (As for all of you!!!)

I will be hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year for some of Mr. Bonds family and their four kids.  It will be fun, but a lot of preparation for me.

Thanks for listening to me ramble.  I hope you all have a lovely week and I will announce the winner of my Giveaway at the end of this week.

I appreciate how sweet and supportive you all have been through the years.  I enjoy your sweet visits and comments you leave to my blog.

The highlight for my blogging experience this year, was when I had the opportunity to meeting bloggers in real life!

I met a some bloggers in the summer and fall and you can read about them HERE.  It's such a wonderful experience to meet the blogger behind the screen.

I also started co-hosting a blog party called Cooking and Crafting with J & J each Monday with Jess from Plucky's Second Thought.  I'm having so much fun with that, and enjoy looking at what you share with us.  Thanks for joining in on the fun with us each week.

A special THANKS to my regular and new followers!

I would like to say THANK YOU to my daughter, who convinced me to start this blog and taught me how to set it up.

My daughter runs a blog called THIS FASHION GIRL.  Please take a minute to visit her lovely blog HERE.

I am taking five minutes of my day to share five things.





1)  I like picking out the candy that I give out to the trick or treaters who come to our house.  One year I bought candy that we did not like (so that I would not cheat and eat it before Halloween) but not this year!

2)  I love eating (sneaking) some candy and chocolates while I give it out to the trick or treaters.  I've also cheated a little bit already on the candy.  Hehe.  I bought 2 large bags of candy this year.  Last year we had a lot of trick or treaters and I used up 1 large bag.  So we'll see what happens this year.

3)  I enjoy giving out the candy to the kids and looking at their cute costumes.  (I do not enjoy looking a big kids with no costumes on)!

4)  My dog Bosco has a new Halloween costume this year and will be dressed up as super dog.  He will help me give out candy to the trick or treaters.

5)  I love looking at the houses decorated for Halloween.  In our neighborhood we have some houses that are decorated with orange lights and a lot of cute and scary decorations.

Do you like Halloween?  I'd love to know!

(And Not so Wordless)