New Year 2022

Happy New Year 

Wishing you and all your family a better and healthier 

New Year. 

Gina

Merry Christmas

 Wishing you the merriest of Christmases 

May 2022 be the year where everything goes your way. 

Gina 

Downhill Racers, and Polar Bear Express

Ready, Go. 

Polar Bear Express.

 Plaques which have been added to my ever growing collection of Christmas tree ornaments.  

Painted by my talented friend Sophie Soprano,

Also known as Lynn Farrar of Spring City, Utah.

The Honeymooners.

These charming Christmas plaques are details from Lynn's large oil painting.

Downhill Racers. 

Lynn paints in 2 different styles.  When her paintings are signed by

Sophie Soprano  you know that you will enter a fairy tale world. 

There is another side to Lynn, the serious painter who signs her work.  "Lynn Farrar". 

Come visit her at "Sophie's Black Sheep Gallery" on Main Street in Spring City, Central Utah, 

Did you go sledding when you were young?

Are you ready for Christmas?  

Gina

For the Holidays

Shiny copper pots for the holidays.

Maybe you use your copper pots every day, as I do, or you like to have them sparkle for the holidays. 

There is a painless and quick way to make them shine. 

All you need is CLR (available in every hardware store) 
coarse salt, a lemon, a sponge and gloves. 

No need to scrub,

just glide a corner of your CLR soaked sponge over pot.

Dip a lemon, cut in half, into coarse salt

 and rub a little over tough spots. 

Let rest a minute. 

Wash with soap and water.  

Dry immediately or it leaves streaks. 

I use my copper pots every day. 

They hang from bicycle hooks. 

More friendly than metal hooks. 

Unlike copper polish,  
CLR rinses clean and does not leave a residue. 

(CLR meets U.S. EPA Safer Product Standards).

Have a great week and stay safe.

Gina  

The First Advent

The First Advent is always the fourth Sunday BEFORE Christmas Day. 

How excited we were.

Running up four flights of stairs to wake up the first Räuchermann (incense smoker).

Impatiently waiting for grown ups to catch up.

German ebay

 Gently taking him out of his box, gently carrying him down to the Gute Stube (the best room of the house).  Only good little girls and good little boys are allowed to carry him. 

  

Placing  him on the fireplace mantle where he fills the air with exotic incense. And where soon he will be joined by three more Räuchermänchen, the next three Sundays.

Christmas Season had officially begun.

German ebay

Cone incense is placed inside and lit.

German ebay

We were spellbound, waiting for the smoke to come out of their mouths.

The tradition is observed in many parts of Germany and other central European countries. But nowhere more celebrated than in the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains) central Europe near the Saxony/Bohemia border. 

Ore Mountain Folk Art, in the form of Smoking Figures (Räuchermänchen), Christmas Pyramids, Nutcrackers and many other colorful and hand carved ornaments are known the world over.

Wishing you a very happy week,

Gina