Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

Living California! Especially life in Crescent City, California...

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday. I along with all my family here in the "CCC" (Crescent City, California) had a wonderful Christmas but so glad it is over too.

Snowman Christmas Tree
Snowman Christmas Tree
On Christmas morning, we had a beautiful sunrise. I took some great pics. I also did a panoramic shot but I turned the camera before it finished and got this weird panoramic picture. We have a lot of beautiful sunsets and sunrises here in the CCC.

Sunrise
Christmas sunrise 2016
Sunrise
Christmas sunrise 2016
Weird Panoramic Sunrise Pic
Christmas sunrise 2016 weird panoramic picture 
Crescent City is a fishing tourist town. One of the things we most known for is the Pelican Bay Maximum Security Prison. Otherwise, when you are traveling 101, you pass through CCC. We have lots of motels, hotels, real estate agencies, and driftwood for days. Oh, and elk, you have to be careful for the elk.

driftwood crocodile
Driftwood Crocodile
fish driftwood
Fish driftwood in front of the Restuarant, The Chartroom
beach driftwood
Driftwood everywhere on the beach
beach driftwood
Driftwood everywhere on the beach
beach driftwood
Driftwood everywhere on the beach
elk
Elk everywhere. Definitely have to be careful on foggy mornings.
During the summer, people flock to this area to see the redwood trees, the National Parks, for camping, hiking, fishing and most of all to catch a glimpse of BIGFOOT! There is also Paul Bunyan and Babe in Klamath. Population is small. The biggest stores we have going for us is Wal-Mart and Home Depot. We do not even have a KFC or Wendy’s, not that I really care for fried chicken anymore but miss eating at Wendy’s.

klamath paul bunyan
Paul Bunyan and Babe in the Klamath
babe
Babe
klamath paul bunyan
Paul Bunyan
bigfoot
Definitely Bigfoot country
 We live close to Oregon and most weekends we go to Brookings to the Goodwill Store and that is where they have a KFC but no Wendy’s. It is a small town too but traveling in Oregon has a different atmosphere. It just feels different. It is like traveling from North Carolina to Virginia. It is just different. I do not know how to explain it. It is cleaner and cheaper. In addition, Oregon has no sales tax. Gotta love that!

shelf cloud
Captured a shelf cloud on the ridge on our way to Oregon
The weather is great here, not too hot and not too cold. We do get a lot of rain. It can get you down if you let it. Have to keep busy. I guess those majestic redwood trees need a lot of water. I believe one of the reasons it rains a lot in the Northwest is because of all the forest we have. We have many mushrooms growing everywhere. In addition, moss grows alongside the roads and on the trees because of all the moisture. The downside to all the rain is mold. Have to do monthly maintenance on the windows to keep the mold from building up on the windowsills.

california redwood trees
Driving through the redwoods
california redwood trees
Redwoods are right on the road. Have to be really careful.
 It is hard to grow a garden here without a greenhouse. I tried my hand at gardening this summer and it took a long time for my crops to start growing and producing. Some things did not even sprout. Yellow squash grows good. Pepper plants finally took off and started producing. The cherry tomato plants did well only during the hot spell we had; otherwise, it takes days for them to change colors. Cucumbers did not do so well. I had something underground eating the whole plant little by little until they were all gone. Such a bummer, I only got one off the whole plant. The Black-eyed Susan pant and sunflowers did fantastic.

homemade garden fence
Made the garden fence all by myself with lots of ingenuity.
tomato plant
Tomato plant
pepper plant
Pepper plant
tray flamingos
Tray posing with grandma's flamingos
tray gardening
Tray loves helping grandma in the garden
black-eyed susans
Black-eyed Susan
scarecrow
My homemade scarecrow. Don't work though. Crows send out a scout and
before you know it, crows everywhere.
garden
Garden planted. I know it doesn't look like much but eventually
some of it grows and maybe next year it will be better.
lettuce bed
Lettuce didn't grow right. Slow start and tasted bitter.
lettuce bed
Lettuce bed
sunflowers
Lovin' the sunflowers
 Overall, I do enjoy living here but would love to move to a warmer and less rainy part of California, but not the Bay Area, been there, done that, and tired of the rat race. Also, the wind, forgot to mention how the wind blows hard when a storm comes. Let me tell you, it's an attention getter for sure. Here's some random pics of Crescent City and the surrounding areas, along with papa and Tray walking on the beach.

northern california

crescent city california

crescent city california lighthouse

crescent city california boat dock

crescent city california beach

crescent city california beach

crescent city california beach

rainbow

beach pier

grandpa and tray walking on beach

crescent city california beach

sunset

beach picture

sky picture after rain

beach pic

rainbow

sunset

beach pic

Thanks for dropping by and hope you have a prosperous, healthy, 2017.


Happy New Year! XOXOXO Dawn

Snowman Christmas Tree

So this year I decided to do a snowman Christmas tree instead of an elegant or sophisticated Christmas tree. I already made whimsical Christmas present ornaments as you'll see in my earlier blog post here, http://impossiblecreations.blogspot.com/2016/11/homemade-handmade-whimsical-christmas.html for the tree.

I've been seeing the snowman Christmas trees all over Pinterest and my local Wal-mart has a snowman Christmas tree in the front of their store next to customer service. So, I was so inspired to make one myself.

I didn't do the snowman with the mesh for the body, instead I did a more whimsical approach. I used red garland, Christmas tree ornaments from my stash which include salt dough ornaments and my Christmas pigs, the whimsical Christmas present ornaments I made, a snowman head for the topper, a scarf, boots and sprigs for the arms. Also, on the tree is a handmade stocking Tray made at school.

Snowman Christmas Tree

Snowman Christmas Tree

Snowman Christmas Tree

Snowman Christmas Tree

Snowman Christmas Tree

As the days go by, I will continue hanging any other handmade ornaments that Tray may make at school. I am also going to make some whimsical Christmas presents to go underneath the tree too which will definely make the tree pop.

The grandkids love the tree and that's all that matters to me. This Christmas 2016 will be one that Tray will definitely remember as he helped participate in decorating the house. Avah is too young but she had fun helping also.

Hope this will inspire you to think outside the box and just decorate anyway you want. There's no right or wrong. Anything goes. My husband's friend, she didn't have the monies to buy a tree this time so she decorated her house plant tree with lights and ornaments. Sorry it's blurry but you get the gist of the idea.

House Plant Christmas Tree

Super cute and crafty!!!Definitely thinking outside the box and for inspiration, Pinterest has lots of ideas. Here's my board https://www.pinterest.com/craftychicdawn/christmas-tree-ideas/ for Christmas tree ideas and I also have other boards related to Christmas trees and Christmas ideas.

Thanks for reading. Happy holidays and happy crafting ⛄⛄🎄🎄

XOXOXO Dawn





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