Love reading all your stories! Great thread. My sis & I were 15 months apart and we usually got the same thing every year. One year we "graduated" to 20 inch J.C. Higgins bicycles from Sears cira 1958 or 59. They were identical but we realized after a couple of days that the reason we could tell them apart is because my Dad, excuse me Santa had put the handle bars on Sis's bike upside down lol. Believe it or not, she wouldn't let him change them to the correct position. She liked being backwards LOL. Mother always put a lot of thought into our stockings, the best fruit and candies. Daddy always read from the same Night Before Christmas book when he tucked us in on Christmas Eve. It had this red velvet stuff on Santa's suit on the cover. My birthday is a week before Christmas and I believe that book had been a birthday gift. When you have a birthday that time of year, you get used to birthday gifts wrapped in Christmas wrap LOL. We always were involved with the Mary & Joseph manger scenes at the church, and with the Christmas program as my Dad was the church pianist. I was always Mary, apparently because I was chubby lol. My cousins were the other actors in the play each year. Nice to look back on that period, because I don't see any of them very often now. Mostly when a relative dies, or maybe a reunion once a year. And I remember the year we got Thumbelina dolls (they moved slowly when you cranked them up), my Barbie (it had 3 wigs!), and the year I got a Polaroid Swinger camera and GoGo boots, white of course, LOL. Still have that camera, and it always made terrible pics (black & white only), but my parents went to a lot of trouble to find that one, they were sold out because it was the trend that year. The way they found my camera was because my Dad worked part time that year at the Camera and Craft store, and he was the photographer for the Santa photos. I remember waiting on him at the mall while he worked. He had a full time job, and used that camera store job to buy equipment for his home darkroom. That was a fun experience too, developing film. Now it's mostly digital, but I enjoyed doing that at home when I was a kid. Ended up in printing profession myself and got more than plenty of darkroom work later in life. I enjoyed my kids each Christmas, now I'm making new memories with the 2 small grandsons. They're such a joy! Holidays hugs to you all ~tenderlee

Hi MJ! I am going stir crazy too. I love snow but we received another 14 inches last night with more on the way. Made the national news. I've been going stir crazy too and working on garden projects in the garage. Here's the cup and saucer I made my wife Carol and a link to the FAQ page on how to make them. If you're bored, you have to check out the FAQ pages. GREAT IDEAS! Have fun with your tea cups and saucers! Bear Hugs! Kirk Here is a link that might be useful: FAQ Page: Tea Cup and Saucer Feeder

I saved that pictured from a Country Living magazine. I would use 1/2 in plywood, but you would have to lay out your cups & saucers to know what size you would need. Hopefully it wouldn't be over 4 ft. wide. To hang it I would do like they do large picture frames with eye screws an wire. I would paint it using one of those crackle designs. Light gray on bottom an cream on top. Got some samples from Lowe's an they look great. I would like to make one but it would not go with the rest of my house. (Old Farm House Style)

kudzukween, So happy that i found this post. I like your idea. May i steal it and create something from nice old chandelier that i rescued from garbage. Lol. What paint did you use for this? Note: I am completely new to garden junk and all "chemistry" around painting, appliing something to make weatherproof, glueing.