Christmas House Swap

I participated in my very first art swap - Christmas houses. Here are the pages that I made and submitted.

Each person made ten pages and sent them to the hostess who took one from each set and bound them into a book for each of us. It was so exciting to receive the book in the mail. I will post pictures of the final book later.

I WON A BOOK!

Wow! I am so excited. I won a book give-away over at Craftside.typepad.com! Take a few minutes to go over and peruse their wonderful blog. This is the book that I won:

Over at Craftside, they were using old recycled Christmas cards to make new greeting cards. There are some great ideas. I have pulled out many of my old greeting cards and I am using them in my altered art. More pictures to come.

Lovely Give-away at Jones Design Co

There is a lovely freebie of printable gift tags and a fabulous December give-away over at  http://jonesdesigncompany.com/. You should really take a few minutes to browse her blog. She has wonderful ideas and a beautiful blog and some great tutorials.  Plus, you might win something really pretty. All you have to do is comment on her blog.  Here is a peek at one of her photos showing some of her darling gift tags.

I'm definitely going to print them out and use them this year. Have fun and good luck!

Putting Up the Tree

Our annual tradition is to put the Christmas tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving, and this year was no different. I was blessed to have all three children here and Ron and Jess graciously put together the artificial tree. My camera seems to have gone on the blink so most of my pictures are blurry. But it is what it is. Each child has their own box of special ornaments along with the standard ornaments that we have collected over the years. Christmas carols were playing, and Jess insisted on retrieving the remainder of our ornaments and trim from the attic - so everyone was happy.

The final product - well, almost. Kate still has to add her ornaments. She was too busy with school to help decorate. But she was sitting nearby doing her homework.

Thanksgiving in Michigan

Well, it just wouldn't be Thanksgiving if we didn't stop and reflect on the things we are thankful for today. I personally am always so thankful for my husband and my children. They make my life so full and complete. I can't imagine life without them. I'm thankful for a warm, comfortable home and health and jobs to pay for those things we need and the little specialties we enjoy - like mochas from Barnes and Noble! LOL! I'm thankful for good friends, both near and far - and thankful for reasonably good health. I'm thankful for sweet potatoes - my favorite! And I'm thankful that they now ship them up North from south. In addition, I'm thankful for Jesus Christ, my Lord and savior.

This year, Ron's sister, mom, dad, nephews and his sister's fiance are joining us for dinner. This has been an annual tradition for many years. It is a great time to share our lives and just be together. Ron's mom's health is still good enough for her to be with us and for that, we are especially thankful.

So this year, remember your blessings and enjoy this journey that we call life.

 After dinner dessert: Jess, Kate and Ron

Grandpa and Aunt Janet (Ron's sister)

Boys watching football.

Jane Austen Center - Pink Saturday

Here are a few pictures from our visit to Bath and the Jane Austen Center this past summer.

"It would be mortifying to the feelings of many ladies, could they be made to understand how little the heart of a man is affected by what is costly or new in their attire... Woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone. No man will admire her the more, no woman will like her the better for it. Neatness and fashion are enough for the former, and a something of shabbiness or impropriety will be most endearing to the latter."
— Jane Austen (Northanger Abbey)

Thanks to Beverly over at How Sweet the Sound for sponsoring Pink Saturday. Head over to find more Pink Saturday links and visit some awesome bloggers.

Trick or Treat - Smell my Feet

This year there was quite a gang over here that went out trick or treating. The weather was unseasonably nice. The girls gathered here and painted faces, while the guys got into their costumes. We adults sat around and drank wonderful French press coffee and caught up on our lives. There seems to be so little time for that any more. But here are the pictures just before the crew went out.

Here are the girls - mine is on the right.

And here is the girl in the newspaper dress. Quite creative, don't you think?

And here is the entire crew.

We had lots of goodies, homemade chili, fresh salsa, hot apple cider, chai, cookies and more.  It has been an annual Leng tradition for many years. Nowadays, we have - let's see - 11 chaperones and one bonafide trick or treater.

Real Men Wear Pink

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month, I thought I would post one of my favorite pictures of my hubby and two of our friends. They always don pink hats to hide the Easter eggs for the little ones. But I thought I would also be a good tribute to Breast Cancer Awareness.

And I am here to tell you, these three are the real deal - great men and great husbands!

And here are three Pink Ladies that I borrowed from Vintage Catnip to help us celebrate Pink Saturday and the day before Halloween. : ) She has the loveliest free clipart.


If you would like to see more Pink posts, head on over to Beverly's place at How Sweet the Sound to find other links.

My Home Town - Pink Saturday

Here are some recent photos from where I live. Happy Pink Saturday!

If you would like to see more Pink Saturday posts, take time to visit Beverly over at How Sweet the Sound for links to lots of fabulous Pink Sat. posts.

HOW SWEET THE SOUND

Give-away at Jones Design Company Blog!

There is a lovely give-away happening over at Jones Design Company. There are several fabulous things that she is giving away. Check it out over at Jones Design Company.
All you have to do is subscribe to her blog to enter.

And while you are over there, take time to view some of her tutorials. They are fabulous!

Late Summer at the Nature Center

Last Saturday we took some time to go out and visit our local nature center. It was an absolutely fabulous day for being outside. Septembers in Michigan are usually very pleasant. The old homestead log cabin and grounds are so well done. It makes you really want to go back in time and experience life on your own when people were more self-sufficient.

We enjoyed watching the farm animals.

I tried out a newly-discovered function on my point-and-shoot camera - a macro setting - on some of the flora and fauna.

Here are a few shots of my family having fun.