Warm Fuzzies

Back when I was teaching or doing Brownies and Sunday School, we did a lot of lessons on and talking about "warm fuzzies". I always ended the story by giving each child a pom-pom ball to use as their "warm fuzziy" with the encouragement to go out and share it with others who made them feel special and all warm & fuzzy inside. That is what the autumn season does for me. As much as I love Halloween, once I have gotten over my initial depression of it coming down, I quickly begin to rejoice once again at the beauty of autumn and the warm and fuzzy feelings that come with Thanksgiving.

The house is no where near as cluttered as it usually is with holiday decor but it feels right. Not too many tchotchkes-just beautiful nature. Of course, if you live in Florida as I do, you have to rely on the man-made kind if nature...silk leaves and branches-but that is O.K. This year, Mother Nature is helping us along as well as we are having absolutely beautiful, cool weather and crisp, blue skies. Everything feels right.

All of the above may sound like a cop out as to why I haven't used more Pilgrims, Indians and turkeys in my decorating, but I really do like the the feel of nature with a hint of the holiday. I guess Thanksgiving really is more about the warm fuzzy feelings than the cutesy things I usually have scattered about. That being said, let's get on with the tour.


The ever present holiday frames and pictures.

I strongly dislike this corner. Can you believe that back when my husband enclosed this garage to make our new family room, our TV fit in this spot under this cabinet? The cabinet disguises the circuit box but leaves more than enough room to access it. If we were doing this room now, I think I could come up with a much better solution now that our TVs have grown to be 42 inchers and would no longer come near fitting in this space.

I actually took this picture to remind me how much I truly dislike this space and how no matter how I choose to decorate it, I am never happy with the way it turns out. Think re-doing this area may have to be the first project of the new year. I have toyed with some ideas for re-creating the mantle and the wall and shelves around it, so I will have to give this some more thought and we'll see where it leads. Believe me, if I come up with some grandiose plan, there won't be many "warm fuzzies" flying around here for awhile!

The banner that I made last year downloaded from "At Second Street".



Don't you just love "free" decorations? I have always loved pine cones used for autumn or Christmas decorating but the pine trees on my property (and there are many and they're not my favorite tree...but I digress) don't produce a pretty cone. They are much longer and tighter-they never seem to open. So, you can imagine my delight when I was waiting at my grand daughter's school one day to pick her up and noticed these amazing full, rich brown, open cones just laying at my feet. I immediately began snatching them up and trying to get them all before 2 "juvenile delinquents" smashed them all with their feet. What was wrong with these 12 year old boys that they couldn't see the same beauty in these cones as I did? In any case, I may be old, but I am fast. And, in their defense, they asked me what I was doing and when I explained that I wanted to use them in my decorating, they actually stopped crushing them under their size 12 Nikes. If they had been true gentlemen, they would have asked me how they could help but since my own grand daughter couldn't get to the car fast enough when she saw what I was doing and only contributed her help when I threatened to make even a bigger scene than I currently was, I guess I was lucky to get out of there with what I did!!!

In any case, aren't they gorgeous? They truly stand on their own. For Christmas, I can see a few fresh branches of pine nestled in and maybe a touch of red somewhere.


All I can say is thank goodness for all of the subway art downloads now available all over the internet. I have tried to see where I originally found this, but I am coming up blank. I'm sure you can find many more out there if you are interested. As a matter of fact, as we continue around my house I have a few others and hopefully I can tell you where I found them.

The little turkey is something the kids and I made a few years back. The feet were fashioned out of Fimo clay and the body is fun foam. We simply wired a small clothespin to a piece of copper wire and then just glued it all together. When we gave them as gifts, we put an old postcard greeting like this into the turkey's beak but then I have replaced others that I have with photos and it is a nice break from so many frames. If you are eagle eyed, I'm sure you will see lots of these as you travel my house.


Have you noticed that I never put away those magnet frames that I made from a tutorial from "How Does She"? I made them as gifts for everyone one Valentine's Day and I just keep changing out the sentiment or photo. Love them!

That's pretty much it for the family room. A bit more to see in the next post. Hope you are catching many warm fuzzies yourself this beautiful season and finding just as many family members and friends with whom to share them. You have to love a holiday that makes you feel so good and doesn't require the first present!