Happy New Year!

Hello, Dear Friends.....



Let's all look back on 2009 and
be appreciative of what we have
and who we have in our lives.

Here's to 2010 being a better
year, especially for those that
haven't had a good year.

Be careful out on the road,
if you are traveling tonight.....

Wishing you all a happy, healthy,
prosperous, bright New Year!

Bear Hugs~Karen

Meet a Bear Monday

Hello Blogging Buddies & Bear Lovers,
I am posting this "Meet a Bear Monday"
earlier than usual, since most people
don't stay up half the night!























I bought this bear at the fleamarket
in Canton, TX, called "First Monday
Trade Days," a few years ago. If
you haven't heard of this fleamarket,
you are missing out on a HUGE one. We
used to go to it a lot and now we go a few
times a year. It is so big that you can't
see it in one day, more like 3 or 4 days!
Anyway, back to the bear....I think he
is handmade and he is jointed, even his
head turns. He is holding an old school
book.....Any suggestions on what I should
name him? Poor guy has been sitting
around with out a name a few years now,
so, I think he should have a name, don't
you? Also, the chair he is sitting on, I
got a couple weeks ago in an antique mall
in Texas for $15....I couldn't believe the
price on it! I had seen one earlier in
another mall with orange paint on it and
they wanted $45 for it. I didn't like the
color and I wasn't going to strip it. This
one is made of oak and I thought it was
a steal at that price. Well, that is it for
tonight, I need to fix my hubby some
supper! Take care ya'll.....

Bear Hugs~Karen

More Trees & Bears

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hello, Prim Friends....I just wanted to show you all
a couple more trees that I have decorated, but first
I will show you a couple pictures of some more bears
on the tree....This is how I feel about my new
blogging friends!

The star is named "Winkie" and a little Santa

Little tree on the crock bench in the kitchen












































This tree is what you see coming in the
front door....I don't know if the birds
are too big for this tree, or not....























Well, I better get my DH presents
wrapped, I have been so busy making
candy that they got pushed to the bottom
of the list....I made 6 batches of fudge,
banana bread, cream cheese truffles and
potato candy to give away! Last night I
finished making candy, rolled the truffles
in nuts, put it all in tins, etc and ready
for hubby to take to work. I made 3 of
the batches of fudge, last week and shipped
it out....I must say, the more I made the
better it got! I think I ate one piece for
every 5 or 6 that I put in a tin!

I want to.....

Wish You All a Beary Merry Christmas!!!
May you all be blessed with a healthy,
happy, prosperous New Year!

Bear Hugs~Karen

Meet a Bear Monday & What I Won

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hello Friends, I am posting this "Meet A Bear Monday"
late.....Blogger didn't show the toolbar at the top for a
new post, after checking and checking, I decided to
restart the computer to see if that would do any good
and it did, so here goes! This patriotic Santa is named
"Benjamin Santabeary" ......I haven't really been buying
bears since the middle of 2006, except for the two ornies
I bought in Oregon in October. I probably have about
200 in my collection, I don't know how many I have, plus
I have a couple tubs of them in Texas, that were my Mom's.
I asked DH if he would help me do inventory one of these
days...I am sure it will take a long time! I think I will do
the Christmas ones before I pack them up....On to the
next bears.....


















These are Edmond & Bailey.....


















They are named after the Head Bean's (owner)
daughter, and her beau.....Boyd's comes out with
a new line every 6 months...Winter/Summer, and
they always have an Edmund & Bailey, dressed in
a new outfit.....Bailey's little brother only comes
in the Winter line, I think....Here they are standing
by the tree with that little elf in the carriage that I
accidentally broke a wheel on.... So, now I have a
broken baby coach wheel.. :( I put the elf back on
the tree and I think he was in the post with the
big picture of the tree....I forgot to post that I
won this bowl of gingers from Sandy at
http://theoldecountrycupboard.blogspot.com/...
She even put in another set of gingers and 3 bags
of tarts, that I forgot to put in the picture....She
sure does good work, I bought a doll from her
for my MIL and she loved it. Thanks again,
Sandy and I'm sorry I posted this so late, I
got caught up in my give away! I love them!
They are sitting on my old crock bench in the
kitchen, next to my little tree that I have child's
utensils and prim ornies on....I will post a couple
pictures of that later....

I made more peanut butter fudge today, potato

candy and banana bread. Tomorrow I am going

to make more chocolate fudge with walnuts, some

plain, some with pecans and cream cheese truffles....

mmmmm......I can just feel the pounds coming on!

I will be giving most of it away, like the other batches

I already made. I think I have had my share of fudge

for the year :)

I will be posting some more pictures of the ornies

and my trees in a couple days......Gee, what am I

going to post about next year??? I better get my

thinking cap on....oh, yeah.....Things I keep buying,

more bears, things to make over, shelves I want

to put up, the kitchen cabinets I want to paint.....I

think I will have something to talk about, so come

on back!

Until next time~

Bear Hugs~Karen

My Chandelier Make Over & Gingers

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, I finally got the chandelier done today! For
those of you that didn't see the picture of it before,
it was just brass...I waited a few days for the paint
to dry good before I put the "Rub & Buff" on it...I
was going to paint it pewter and put some black
"Rub & Buff " on it, but I guess it doesn't come in
that color....So, I decided to paint it black and put
silver on it...I like how it turned out, I need to find
some new candle sleeves, but for now, the old ones
will have to do....I wanted to take down that light
fixture, that I didn't like, as soon as I could! Anyway,
I put the silver on where I thought it would look
good and made the pip berry rings. I have a couple
longs strands of pip berries that I have been taking
some off of, for here and there, so I put 3 pieces
together to make a ring....I see they could use a little
playing with, but they are ok, for now. It only takes
a little silver on a rag to highlight what you want...
It looks so much better than that cheap brushed
nickel thing that was hanging there before! I would
say that I have about $30 or less, in it! Whoo hoo!


I still haven't posted the goodies I have been finding,
but that will have to wait until another day...

I started collecting gingerbreads, here and there and

I don't have many, but I sure think they are cute....I have

a few hanging on the cabinet door knobs and some others,

but these are my favorites....

Well, this is all for tonight,

come back again, I will post

another bear, or two, for

"Meet a Bear Monday"....

..I have been posting them

late on Monday nights....

So, until next time...

Bear Hugs~Karen

My Bear Christmas Tree

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi all, I thought I would post the tree again,
I had some say they couldn't wait to see the
tree, so this is for all of you that have signed
on recently and missed it....

Ya just gotta have some elves to help!
The top elf is "Trevor T. Elfbeary" and the
smaller one is "Gregory B. Elfbeary" They
are Boyd's Bears and they came dressed
this way. Trevor has metal in his legs so
you can pose him....























Below is a patriotic angel bear is "Dandy Doodle"
& the little elf bear is "Eldon Elfberg"....You
can see the top of a star below, that has a
bear peeking out of it....The little red bear
is a Boyd's Baby Bear...And the resin ornie
is also a Boyd's...



















The little bear peeking out of the round peppermint
candy is "Pepper Mintly"....



















This little bear in the candy cane is "C.C. Peekers"


















I will take some more pictures of the ornaments
when I can and post them.....I know I have put
others on the tree, years before, so I will raid the
"Bear Room" for more small ones to put on....I guess
you can't be very "Prim" with bears all over the
tree, but I love them on it....As you can see in the
first picture, the topper is an angel bear....
Well, that is all for tonight, I hope you enjoyed the
bear tree.....Come back for more.....I have more
peekers on the tree, that you can't see and I might
be putting more bears on it, too.


Until next time...


Bear Hugs~Karen

Winner of Christmas Give Away!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Extra, Extra read all about it!!!
Marilyn of Harvest Moon Primitives
is the winner of this give away!!!
Congrats, Marilyn! I hope you enjoy
this for many years to come.

~~~~~ Merry Christmas!~~~~~






















Again, I would like to thank everyone for
entering and for all the great compliments
about me, my blog, my home and everything
else! I have made many new friends since I
started this journey, a few months ago.
I am looking forward to getting to know
the new ones that have signed on to join me.
I hope you all keep coming back and leaving
me comments to let me know you stopped by.

Thank you all very much, may your Christmas
be Merry and your New Year wonderful!!!

Bear Hugs~Karen

Meet a Bear Monday

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
First of all, I would like to thank everyone
that has been visiting my blog and leaving
me such nice compliments.....I appreciate
each and every one of them! I really am
enjoying meeting new friends on my
blog and I hope you keep coming back
again and again.

I almost forgot Meet a Bear Monday....Can't
have that! I have a BIG bear collection, for
those of you that haven't seen this blog, until
recently. I will post one every Monday for you
all to see....This month they will be dressed
for Christmas......So, meet these Boyd's bears,
"Samuel T. Kringlebear with George"......
I had him standing on the hearth of the
fireplace with my patriotic Santa....I hope
all you bear lovers out there, like this one
as much as I do! Hubby and I figured I
could introduce you to a different bear
every Monday, for about 4 years!

I have bears all over the living room

and on the tree, for those who would

like to check out some older posts......

If you would like to see my guest

bedroom with a lot of bears, I think

they are on the September posts.

I will be showing some close up pictures

of the bears on the Christmas tree, soon

and I would like to share with you all the

good stuff I have been finding, on the

weekends, in Texas....So come on back

for some eye candy, as they call it!

Well, that is it for tonight....Until next

time.....That will be for the winner of

the sifter & Santa!

Bear Hugs~Karen

Goodies From My Christmas Swap

Hello, Blogging Buddies! I see that I am getting
quite a few new friends signing on to win the sifter!
Thank you.....Everyone needs to read the rules,
some aren't going by # 3....So follow that one,
or you won't be included....I don't want anyone
to miss out!

On to the rest of the post for today.....I joined
Char's Christmas Swap and I got all this stuff
from Kim of Simple-Needs....
http://simple-needs.blogspot.com/
She sure sent me a lot of stuff, I didn't realize
how much, until I laid it out on the table!
Thanks, Kim I love it all! Pop on over to her
blog if you want to see what I sent her, you'll
have to go down a post or two, since she posted
earlier....I got caught up in this give away and it
put me behind. She even sent me some hot
chocolate mix that I haven't seen before...I
should have had some of that this morning, well
I will look forward to some of it tomorrow...
Thanks again, Kim!

Well, it might be warm enough to paint my

chandelier today, so I need to get with it, I have

a bunch of other things to get done today.

Hope you all have a great week and make sure

you followed all the rules for the give away,

drawing is tomorrow night at midnight! You

can tell, I am a night person :)

Until next time~

Bear Hugs~Karen

My Christmas Give Away

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Good Evening! I hope this thing works right for me
tonight! I don't know what the problem was before,
but it kept posting before I had anything written! Then
all the icons on the toolbar were missing so I couldn't
post a picture.....Soooo, now that it looks like it will work,
here is what I am giving away to a lucky blogger! I am
so glad to be able to blog and make new friends, you all
are so friendly and encouraging......I thought I would show
you that I am grateful for your kind words and compliments
on my home on my posts......So, somebody is going to
receive this old flour sifter arrangement that lights up
and a wooden egg I painted to look like a bald Santa.
I hope you like it!!!!

At first I thought I would give extra chances for this
or that, but then decided I was getting it too complicated
to keep track of so.....I decided to make it simple!

So the rules are:

1. You must be a follower of my blog~~~New ones are
welcome to sign on~

2. You must have a blog~

3. You must post this give away on your blog with
this picture and a link back to my blog~I will
check to see~

4. You must live in the USA, I hear shipping costs
outside the US are very expensive~

5. You must sign up on this post, I will remind every
one of that~

Drawing to be held Dec. 15th, at

midnight~~So sign up soon, so you don't

forget~~~Everyone gets one chance to win.

I will mail this out to the winner on the

16th so you may enjoy it some before

Christmas!

Good Luck to all of you....

Bear Hugs~Karen

What You Have Been Waiting For!

Good Evening, well, I was going to post my
give away, but this thing is acting up and it
posted before I was ready! I can't get rid of
it and so I am editing one of the posts....
I tried a new post, but I can't post a picture
of what it is I am giving away, so I will try
again later, tonight....

Sorry :( I was excited to show you all, too!

Bear Hugs~Karen

Be Watching for a Give Away!

?????????????????????????????????????????????????
Hello, everyone.....I decided to give something away that
I think everyone will like, so check back tomorrow
to see what it is.....You will only have a few days to sign
up, so come back!

Until tomorrow~

Bear Hugs~Karen

Meet a Bear Monday

**************************************
Hello everyone, I thought I would show you
a bear on Mondays....This is "Uncle Fred" all
dressed as an elf! I don't know why Boyd's
named him that, since it is so different from
all the other bear's names. I bought the hat
and the pants, they didn't come on him....He
was a little camera shy, hubby had to hold
him up....He couldn't stand up, hmmm, I bet
he has been in the egg nog! I better check
his breath...gggg....Oh yea, he didn't even
help with the tree, either! I think he must
have been passed out, or something! I
better keep my eye on him! Do you think
I should let Santa know??? I'll have to
think about that.....I don't want to be a
snitch, Santa might leave me a lump of
coal in my stocking for Christmas. Oh,
geeze, I don't want that!

I'm going to make this short for tonight,

I want to get some more things done...

Hope you all have had a great day!

Bear Hugs~Karen

Decorating for Christmas!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, I am barely making this post this evening!
Won't be long and it will be midnight.....I said I
would try to post some more pictures of my house
and so here are some I thought I would share with
you all....I am having a lot of bears on the tree this
year and you can't have a bear tree without a bear
tree topper! This one is a Boyd's Bear, of course....

You can't decorate the tree without calling for some little

helpers, who else, but elves!

A picture of the tree all decorated...

























Here is one of the tree posts I told you all about
some time back...Not my type of decor, but we
haven't gotten around to covering it up or changing
it out....The lone Christmas card on the corner
looks funny all by itself, but it is my first one and
that is where I put them, in a row on the corner....
Looks much better when you have a lot of them!




















View from the other way....



















I have a lot more pictures to show, but that will have
to wait until another post.....I am enjoying the decorating,
but I am tired of it, so the rest of the house won't have
much done to it! Mostly cleaning, I think...Tuesday is
supposed to be a little warmer, so I want to paint that
chandelier that I bought! I can hardly wait!

Thanks for taking the time to come by to see what I
have been up to.....I look forward to seeing what everyone
else is doing!


I hope everyone has a great week!


Bear Hugs~Karen

First Picture of Christmas Decor

Good Evening, I thought I would post at least this
picture of my angel bears.....I still have to clean
up some more....I did take pictures of the tree but
I think I will take more tomorrow when the light is
better....You can see big ole Bubba in the background
wearing a santa hat....I liked this picture so much, as
you can see, I decided to use it as my header for
December!

I will try to post more pictures tomorrow night, so

check back to see what I have gotten done....

Hope you are all having a great time decorating!

Bear Hugs~Karen

Old Basket

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello, everyone, I hope you are all getting your
decorating done....My house, at the moment looks
like a small bomb went off in it! There are boxes
and tubs all over the place and the tables are piled
up.....I couldn't even find the lights for the big Christmas
tree, so I had to go buy more...I guess we took some
Christmas decor and lights when we took the tree back
to Texas...That's been two years, so I have a good excuse
for not remembering to look for something other than the
tree....Sounds good to me, anyway! I thought I would post
this basket I forgot I bought when I got the chandelier......
I thought I would use some Endust on it to clean it and give
it a little shine, after I get the tree done. It took me half
afternoon to get the tree up on Tuesday, then I couldn't find
the lights, so I went to buy more, yesterday afternoon, got
them on last night and now I am decorating it......Never took
me 3 days to do it before! I am getting slow...or is it old and
slow??? Anyway, back to the basket, I don't know how
old it is, but I thought it was a good one and the pinecones
were in it....I paid $3 for the basket and 25 cents for the
flour sack....That was a good weekend, I got these and the
chandelier.....The tiny tree that you get just a glimpse of,
has tiny little gingerbread ornaments on it...I have a small
collection of gingerbreads and so I bought it....I need to
finish it with small pieces of cinnamon stick and maybe
tiny bows, don't know, it is pretty little! Hey Beth, this
bear is Theodore, he was made for the 100th Anniversary
of the Teddy Bear and he is a Boyds Bear.....

Well, I need to get back to hunting bears for the tree

and get it finished today, I don't want to make it 4 days

on the tree! I have fudge, potato candy and cream

cheese truffles to make! Oh, and I want to make some

cinnamon and gingerbread ornaments and dry some

orange slices......Wow, I better get off here and get

with it!!!

Until next time...

Bear Hugs~Karen