This Stop Willoughby

You've probably been asked this a million times in the last few days, but, what are you doing for New Years Eve?  Do you have plans with friends and/or family?  Will you be going out?  Are you hosting a party?  In keeping with a tradition we started a few years ago, we'll be staying home.  I've been looking forward to it for months. Our festivities begins at 8:00 a.m. when our friend Rod gets here.  You know Rod, don't you? Okay, Rod Serling doesn't really come over.  That would be impossible, as well as creepy, since he died in 1975, but the SyFy channel runs an annual Twilight Zone marathon beginning at 8:00 a.m. on New Years Eve and ending at 5:00 a.m. on January 2.   We'll be watching quite a bit of it. It will be a pretty unstructured day/weekend around here.  In addition to watching our favorite Twilight Zone episodes there will be plenty of talking and laughing.  We may play cards or Scrabble....

I hope you had a wonderful time enjoying the holidays with family and friends.  All of the festive activity kept me pretty busy and away from my blog, but now I'm back and I have a belated Christmas gift for you.  I'm having a giveaway and I think you're going to be as excited about it as I am. Recently, Novica gave me the opportunity to choose a product for myself to keep, review and post on my blog, as well as a $50 gift card to award to one of my followers.  If you're not familiar with Novica , they work in association with National Geographic to bring the work of talented artists and artisans around the globe to the rest of the world via the internet.  Shopping their website is a unique experience as you can view information about each artist along with the works they create.  It gives each item a very personal feeling. Mr. Willoughby and I spent an afternoon pouring over the website before deciding what item to choose.  I wante...

I'm not a huge fan of winter weather, but I have to admit, yesterday started out to be a very pretty day.  At noon, the temperature was 32º with very little wind.  A few inches of snow had fallen overnight and coated everything in fluffy white. The snow was falling gently in large flakes.  It felt like being in a giant snow globe.  It was the perfect day to make our annual trip to the tree farm to pick out our Christmas tree. We go to the same farm every year. The people are friendly, the selection is great and the price can't be beat (and it includes shaking and wrapping your tree). After you pick out your saw, they give you a map of the farm with the phone number on top. Once you've picked out your tree, you can call them from the field and they will come with a wagon to pick you and your tree up. No matter where you looked, the view was like a Christmas card.  The trees were perfectly frosted with snow.  It didn't take long to find our per...

How do I know?  Because the Willoughby house has become the midwest regional outpost of Santa's workshop.  We've been decorating. And filling gift basket orders. We've been stocking our Etsy store, The Cabbage Rose , with Body Scrubs Bubble Bath Vintage Silver Keychains Olive Oil Storage Bottles and a few other goodies. There are still custom orders to fill, shopping to do, and baking to start. So if I haven't stopped by to say hello in a while, it's because Santa has been keeping me busy! What have you been up to? Willoughby