Category / Holiday

by Talmadge House

Mike & Dave’s Birthday

Having our birthday dinner again.

Birthday dinner was at Fratelli’s in Derby this year.

Birthday Guys.  Listen the iPhone is good for many things but surely not for taking a good quality picture.

Dave and Gina (Love you my dear friends . . . thank you so much for continuing our annual tradition!)

Me and my guy . . .

Dinner was acceptable, atmosphere was comfortable and the company was the best part of all!  Gina & Dave, I LOVE the personalized embroidered hand towels!  I’ll have to bank that gift idea to use for someone down the line.  I missed the note you wrote on the gift and noticed it when I got home and was unwrapping the ornament.  Gracious note and we too value our friendship with you.

by Talmadge House

New Year’s Day Activities

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  In case you were wondering what we did on New Year’s Day . . . here’s a run down accompanied by some pictures too.  Y’all know I LOVE pictures right?????  (insert big smile)

1.  Mike cooked breakfast . . . bacon and egg on english muffin with green tomato relish and cholula hot sauce (both of these toppings rock!).

2.  Stayed in jammies until 1PM.   Yup those are my slippered feet hehehe.

3.  Had lunch at Panera Bread.

4.  To Starbuck’s for our favorite latte’s.  Mike hearts the Cafe Latte.  Brandi hearts the Peppermint Mocha Latte.

5.  To the marina to check in on our summer home location and to see how frozen the Housatonic River was.

Still @ Marina:  Ned in the “Grumpy Old Man Boat” breaking up the ice so it doesn’t destroy the docks.  Look, I caught the train going by in the background (wonder if the riders are on their way to NY City?  We need to take a day trip soon, LOVE it there!)

Still @ Marina:  Mike and Leon talking “man stuff” . . . probably fishing or boats.

Still @ Marina:  Me taking pictures of interesting things around the marina while waiting for “man talk” to cease.  I really like this pic!

6.  Back @ home fending off our overly excited dog.  He is far to cute!

7.  Photo session to obtain a nice new profile shot of maw and my favorite technological toy.  Not too bad especially considering I was holding the good camera in my hands.  Thanks Mike!  We had A LOT of bad shots to obtain a few good ones.

8.  A bit of crafty time for me and techy time for Mike.

9.  Thinking of my girlfriend, Latonya who flew to Georgia yesterday afternoon to spend a few days with her sister.  Hoping she made it in time (considering our winter storm) to have rung in the new year last night.

10.  We are now deciding what we should do for dinner.  I’ve had little interest in cooking this week.  Better get myself back in gear for next week when life returns to normal.  UGGHHH!  update to dinner:  mike had beans and dogs, I had a grilled cheese sandwich and we both had a little bowl of Kraft Spiral Mac & Cheese.  Not a dinner to write home about nor should I have written it here but wanted to remind myself that I can’t always be Martha Stewart but a girl sure can try . . . right?  Can you believe something like this came out of MY kitchen!?!

Hope you had a nice relaxing day!

by Talmadge House

New Year’s Eve Snow Fall

It couldn’t get much better than this (for me anyways) . . . a snowie New Year’s Eve Day!  Thought I’d take a picture of where Mike and I spent quite a bit of time this fall and planned on doing the same this winter.  HEHEHE . . . Well we haven’t been out there yet this winter and can you blame us?  Lets see . . . a nice warm wood stove inside or the wood chimenea outside on the cold snow covered earth.  Emmm . . . yeah, well we’ve been content by the inside fire thank you very much.

I sure did go to work today but left at 1:30 not so much cuz of the road conditions but more so cuz the entire office left at 1PM and well it is New Year’s Eve so out the door I ran!  I’ve got the chicken wings getting ready to be baked and a bunch of other finger foods lined up.  And of course we’ll have champagne but before midnight.  We like to eat and be merry all night long which starts right about hmmm . . . now.

2008 was a prosperous and healthy year and am praying 2009 promises the same.  Hope your New Year’s promises much prosperity, love and health.  Happy New Year’s Eve!

by Talmadge House

Merry Christmas!

Oh what a jolly time we had at the Talmadge House last night (Christmas Eve).  We exchanged gifts, ate a bunch of appetizers, some fell asleep in the recliner (Jeremy who wasn’t feeling well) . . . we also had great company.  Thank you everyone for sharing your evening with us!  So here are some pictures . . . I wish I had more that turned out nice but I’m still working on nailing my shutter speed.  Layman’s Term = many of the pics were blurry.

Mike and his dad.  Sorry Mike I know your eyes are closed but it’s the only unblurred shot.

Uncle Mike and Isabella

Isabella watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer in my studio.  Look at that beautiful smile, she’s such a happy little girl!  Oh boy was she so excited about Santa Claus arriving at their home.  Soooo innocent . . . hey I believe in Santa too and the sparkle in his eye.

Bridget and Isabella

Isabella even had us playing games (Cookin Cookies) . . . so cute!

Toys that Santa brought for Scottie Buddy Boy . . . all of his toys are called monkeys.

Our traditional Christmas Breakfast that is always prepared by Mike, french toast and ham.  Mike makes the best french toast on the planet.

And a Christmas kittie kat (Miss Wilbur).  She loves to lay under the Christmas Tree

I so wish I had more pics of the rest of the clan that celebrated with us . . . Jeremy, Carol, Kane, Scottie and yeah even myself.  I must’ve been a good girl this year as Santa was very good to me bringing many wonderfully thoughtful gifts.  Thank you Santa and Happy Birthday Jesus!  Hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas Eve and a Merry Merry Christmas Day!

by Talmadge House

Happy 38th Birthday Mikey!

We celebrated Mike’s 38th birthday yesterday.  He received a couple of nice gifts if I might say so myself and we dined at the Outback which was alright.  The company and atmosphere was superb however the choice in food not so much.  We’ll get something different next time.

My birthday guy and our buddy wrapped up on the couch for their evening cuddling

A few other pics from the weekend blizzard . . . look how much snow fell on us!

And for good measure another picture of Scottie in his snow trail that his daddy so nicely snow blows for him.  He’d really have  hard time getting around otherwise.  Look how deep it is compared to his little body.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I’m so excited!  Here’s what our tree looks like . . . before we swiped her up at the tree farm.  She’s a little thing isn’t she . . . PERFECT!

by Talmadge House

We Say Merry Christmas, What Say You…

We Say Merry Christmas Thanks to the Factor we are sporting this bumper sticker, We Say Merry Christmas. When we saw this bumper sticker was given out with the purchase of “Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity” Bill O’Rielly’s new book we had to have it, and the book is great too.

It really amazes me how many groups, organizations, governments and PEOPLE are so intimidated to wish someone their good beliefs, especially Christmas.  This country is built on around this belief, do some people not know this?

If someone wishes upon me their good beliefs I am okay with that and thank you for your good wishes, but I will say MERRY CHRISTMAS.

What Say You?

by Talmadge House

Drum Roll Please . . . We Have a Winner

And the winner of the Talmadge House “spirit of the season giveaway” is . . . . . . . .

MY SISTER BRIDGET

And the crowd roars . . . I can hear the shrilling screams of joy coming from her already.  Congrats Bridget!!!  I’ll put it in the mail tomorrow morning  (12/18) with Priority shipping so you can enjoy through the rest of the season.  Thank you to everyone who played along.  It was so nice to read about everyone’s traditions.  Simply divine!  Don’t you just love this time of year!  This was a lot of fun so I’m thinking we’ll have another giveaway in January.  Hmmm . . . what will I make for the next giveaway.  Keep your eyes peeled.

Alrighty then here are a few miscellaneous pictures from the last week of our lives.

Me and my mother-in-law Carol.  We all went to The Nutcracker of which Carla played a part in.  Loved this show!  Gorgeous costumes and divine music performed by The Danbury Symphony Orchestra.  Carla, the only picture of you and your girlfriends that turned out was the one you were talking in and I think you’d kill me if I posted it.  So you’re stuck with me and Carol’s pic instead.

And the man of all men . . . ooo la la.  Check out that smile/smurk on his face . . . I’ll just say it again ooo la la!  Picture taken the other day when we took Scottie for a walk at the marina.  Nice green trailer behind him huh?  Love this marina, so homey and down to earth!

Listen guys I know I take too many pictures of this dog of ours but really though how many of you can say you have a picture of your dog doing this?  You name it, I’ve probably got it.  Hysterical! This too was taken while at the marina.  SMILE SCOTTIE YOU’RE ON CAMERA!  Watch out when I’m around with the camera . . .  I’ll catch you doing something funky and am bound to post it here.  HA!

by Talmadge House

In the spirit of giving “A Free Giveaway”

Attention all friends and family . . . In the spirit of Christmas Talmadge House presents a giveaway of an advent calander handmade by me.  You can tuck the calendar into one of your Christmas displays or lean up against something on your desk.  I borrowed the idea from Jenni Bowlin who designs and sells all things pretty.  Isn’t that picture of the children and santa vintagy?  It’s circa 1940’s of my Uncle David, Uncle Gary and Aunt Ruth.  My Aunt Alicia and my mom call Mr Santa “The Sexy Santa”.  I think they’re right . . . our santa’s today don’t look like this one.  Although if you look at his eyes and the grip he has on my aunt he looks a bit scared.  I’m thinking my uncles bribed him for whatever it was they wanted for Christmas and told him they’d give him up if he didn’t make it happen (little devils).

So there’s only one so only person can win and here’s what you need to do to qualify.  You must subscribe to our blog (Talmadge House) which is very easy and I’ll describe in a minute.  The second thing you must do is leave a comment telling us one of your families Christmas Traditions.  Don’t have a tradition then tell us your favorite Christmas movie.  Comment section is at the end of this post.  If you’ve already subscribed then all you have to do is leave a comment as noted above.

Alrighty then . . . so onto those needing help subscribing to our blog.  Look to the top right of this post and you’ll see a red square with a gold door knob (this is actually our front door of which you’ll see on all of our pages . . . you can click on it and it will take you back to the home page otherwise known as the front door, clever huh?)  OK so right below our red door is a field where you enter your email address and then select the “subscribe” button.  You will receive an email (from confirmations @ emailenfuego .com) asking if you really want to subscribe to Talmadge House’s Blog. You will need to click on the link listed in this message to activate your subscription. By subscribing you will automatically receive an email from us when we post a new blog entry.  Isn’t that awesome!  You only have to visit us when we send you an “invitation” via your email.  Of course you can visit any other time as you’re always welcome.

OK you guys listen up . . . we will know who does and does not subscribe and you can only qualify for this advent calander by subscribing and leaving a comment as noted above.  By the way, our blog is for fun and so that you can keep up with our daily lives (that’s if you want to see us and read about us) and we do not give away your email address.  We will draw a random name on Wednesday 12/17/08 9PM eastern time and will post the winners name the same night.  We will mail the advent calendar to you . . . of course we’ll pay for the shipping . . . it IS a giveaway right?  It would warm our hearts and we’ll even do the sugar plum fairy dance if we have all of you sign up.

And a picture of the baby who we took for a walk at the marina this weekend.  Had to check on the boat to make sure all was well.  Look how little Scottie is compared to the boat . . . or maybe our boat is a big girl?  Scottie was right at home though, he LOVES the marina!  His spirit was lighter after this visit, it has been awhile.  He’s so used to going there pretty much every day from April – October.

Oh wow . . . this is a lengthy post hope you don’t mind.  I promised my girlfriend Latonya that I’d post pictures of my vintage finds from last week so here they are.

My most favorite is this vintage fan that has the original cord and yes it really works.  FABULOUS find!

And an apothecary jar for my peroxide (2nd jar from the left).  Love these containers, they dress up your bathroom.

And these door knobs made into knobs that can be added to a shelf to hang all things pretty from.  These are from Belgium.  I asked Santa (Mike) to make me a custom shelf for my studio of which we’ll add these knobs to.  Yippee!

by Talmadge House

Free Vintage Gift Tags

Ooo-la-la these are sooo pretty.  Sweet Jessie has given her readers a free PDF for these vintage gift tags which was worth sharing with my female readers.  Sorry guys Mike has to get to work with his manly postings.  Until then you’re stuck with me and HEY I don’t think that’s so bad and I’m sure you’d all agree wouldn’t you?  And listen think of the points you’ll earn if you printed these Vintage gift tags on nice cardstock and brought them home for your wives to use?  Mike would earn alot of extra credit points for that gesture.  So hop to it guys, get printing!

And a picture worth sharing of our baby sleeping while I was working for Thought Out assembling iPhone hands.  Such a good boy!  You can’t really see in the picture but his little head is actually laying on one of the metal hands.  He was comphie & content next to his mama and the warm wood stove . . . spoiled for sure!

by Talmadge House

Sparkly Christmas Wreath Tutorial & a Birthday Party

A sparkly ornamental wreath tutorial just in time for Christmas.  If I don’t make it this year, I’ll surely make it in the future so to the tutorial archives this link goes for me.  Can you imagine the sparkly pretty things that can be added . . . oh my

And a great big Happy Birthday #5 to Miss Isabella who celebrated with nine of her little friends at Great Escape today.  Wow, what an experience . . . I’m thinking my sister does not want me to have a child by allowing me into places such as this.  LOL!!!

This was at time of arrival when all the children were sweet smelling and extremely excited!

See how busy it started to become.  All the children were tagged like heards of animals and had to leave their shoes with the hearding staff.  Picture is a bit blurry but you get the idea.

Look at her looking at Leium (I know I’ve misspelled this little guys name).  He was quite the little entertainer as you can see by the sweet smile on Bella’s face.  It appears he’s covered his eye with a purple cup and she apparently thought this was funny.

Like monkeys in cages . . .

And yes Isabella I felt the same exact way at the end of this party . . . HA!

While I joke I’m truly blessed and entirely greatful to be a part of Isabella growing up.  Happy 5th birthday cutie pie!

Great Big Hugs & Kisses From

Aunt Brandi & Uncle Mike