{Post 1,450} Newly Displayed Christmas Decorations

I love the Christmas season.  This weekend is one of my favorites in a frantic, hectic, loss-of-sleep kind of way.  We usually start the process of getting all the fall decorations down and the Christmas ones up the day after Thanksgiving.  My newly-married daughter (March of this year) asked for our lighted house display.  We had 5 ceramic lighted houses.  I had always put them in our foyer, but I was kinda tired of them, to be honest.  

Wes's grandmother gave us a piece of a crystal nativity every year after we were married.  I decided to put it up in my foyer.  Just found the perfect lights for it.  Need to find another set for the bottom level, where the wise men are making their way towards the baby Jesus with their bedecked camel.  I always set them up far away from the manger (after all, it took them two years to get there!

{Post 1,286} Christmas Decorations...Something New

Some new outdoor decorations.  Our front door is recessed.  I have had these lighted snowflakes for years and never had a good place to put them.  Here is Rachel (who I've had even longer than the snowflakes) modeling our new front door look.  I like how the colored lights are reflected in the side lights of the front door as well.

{Post 1,096} JOY to the world!

Here's the finished product on my new mantle idea for this year.  We have a big, long, mantle.  I am no decorator.  I combined a couple ideas I saw here and there.  Wes cut out and nailed everything all together for me.  That's my pine cone tree on the left side (by the J) spray painted gold.  

Here 'tis...

And, what would my blog be without a close-up?

{Post 1,095} Pine Cone Tree

This is what I started working on tonight.  I got a pine cone piece splinter, and let me tell ya----it hurt!!  I had to stop.  Since my adventure, I have found a better way to remove the pine cone pieces.  Here you can see what I tried tonight...pruning shears, scissors, CHISELS!!  None worked too well.

Here I am gluing them onto my poster board shaped trees.  I could wait no longer.  Even though I'm not finished covering the base (due to the aforementioned splinter), I spray painted the bottom of this tree metallic gold.  It.  is.  amazing.

Pic of that to come tomorrow.  This was tedious, but will look so cool when it's finished.  And it was nearly FREE!!

{Post #872} Ornament #2...Liking More!

I have a problem.  OK--I have LOTS of problems.  One recurring one is that I can barely endure just sitting.  I must be doing something all the time.  That leads to trouble sleeping because my brain will not shut off.  I keep scrolling through all the things I want to do the next day.  {Sigh}...it's tough.

Here is my second 2012 ornament.  I like it better than the first.  For those of you who have asked how they're made and are truly interested, I am including details on how this differs from the first.  For those who don't care for the details, look at the pictures and move on!

Here was my first:

The second:

Now for the changes.  After watching the video, I was shocked that the pieces were not pressed ahead of time.  So I decided to give that a try since I hate pressing.  I like the non-pressing method better.  I also used a pin on every point and one in each side of the center folded piece.  Much flatter and round-shaped.  I am going to undo my first one and repin.  I will have to discard a few of the outer pieces because they are mushed with hot glue. 

The layers on #1 are 1/2" apart each.  The second one has the red 1/2" from the center, then the next creams 1/4" out from there.  Since I used a 2-1/2" ball instead of a 3" ball, that worked fine for me.  The edges of the last cream later actually are perfectly flat next to each other, making it easier to wrap a strip of fabric around them (that will NOT be glued).

That brings me to the final change.  For #1, I put wrong sides together of a strip of cream and pressed it flat with the seam on the back side so it would not show after gluing.  The glue oozed out from under the strip, looking bad.  Once cool, it was impossible to remove w/o significant damage to the pieces it touched.  I am going to dissemble that one and use the outermost pieces for the innermost on other ornaments so the damage will be covered by subsequent layers.  For the strip for the new one, I'm just going to iron a strip in thirds, making sure the outermost raw edge is in far enough not to be seen.

I made the executive decision this AM to make red balls for the girls and green balls for the boys.  I will have 4 leftover balls since I started with 12, so I'll make a few others to give as gifts.  These will be a great project for our Sit & Knit group that meets on Tuesday nights.  All I'll have to do to prepare is cut 2-1/2" squares and tote a bazillion pins.

Big projects for today are learning how to make a 6-strand braided bread (and the bread machine just beeped, meaning it's show time), baking granola (it's in the oven), and a little project for under my kitchen sink.  That involves emptying, purging, cleaning, painting, tiling (with adhesive 12" floor tiles that I won't remove the paper from the backs of), then replacing the things we actually use under there.

Here I go.  I'm tired already...

~Joan 

{Post #870} 2012 Ornament

As many of you know, I have eight children.  I have purchased or made them an ornament every year.  They all have at least one "baby's first Christmas" ornament. 

Every year I have added one ornament to their personal collections.  The 2011 ones were sleds with greenery and working parts on the sleds. 

I am revealing the 2012 ones here.  Made the first one tonight.  The red fabric will not be the same on every one.  This was a sample to see how easy they were to make.

As with every new craft, I learned a little along the way.  The balls are 2-1/2" across (in diameter).  I am going to attach a button with a thin ribbon through it for hanging later.  The cream fabric looks like it's sponge painted with taupe and glittery gold.  Very pretty in person!

Here is my pattern source.  http://crafterwithoutacat.blogspot.com/2009/08/ornament-tutorial.html.  I made a few changes since the styrofoam balls I used were 2-1/2" in diameter instead of the 3" they recommend.  To make it a tiny bit smaller, I put my red fabrics 3/8" from the center and the next cream ones 1/2" from the reds.  It all matched up nicely on the sides.  I could not find 1/2" long sequin pins, so I used the smallest pins I could find, which were 1-1/16" long.  There was no problem using the longer ones.

~Joan

{Post #861} New Ornaments and Angels

Above are some applesauce/cinnamon star ornaments I made this year.  This was easy and quick to do.  Makes me wonder why I never made them when my children were small.  I plan on painting a white outline and some dots on them before we put them away for the year.  They smell fabulous.  I cut them with an antique cookie cutter from my Grandma Varshine.  Good memories.  Google cinnamon applesauce ornaments for the recipe.  I baked them for an hour at 250 then turned them on a cooling rack for the rest of the day.



The above picture is four clothespin angels I am mailing my sister tomorrow.  I have made them for all of my children and my husband and I.  Finally, this year, I have caught up with my sister's ten children!!  At last.  These are so cute on a Christmas tree.  You just slide the clothespin "legs" on a branch.  Mine are all red with white trim.  Her children all have different colors...there might be a repeat or two. 

Hope you are enjoying a great holiday.

~Joan

{Post #860} R-E-L-A-X

We had our "Christmas celebrations" this past week...ALL week.  My two college-aged sons are home for winter break, and my daughter and favorite son-in-law were also with us.  My father-in-law and his wife came up two days ago.  My eldest daughter and I were ill yesterday, but the rest of the family was gone all day to visit with my grandfather-, mother-, and brother-in-laws.  I disliked missing the visit, but would not have been much of a companion. 

I hardly had any energy all day yesterday, but when I woke up feeling some better today, I made a list of long-put-off things to do.  I do mean long-delayed.  I cleaned my bathroom cabinets and drawers, deep cleaned the bathroom, folded 4 baskets of laundry (and put them away!) and decluttered and reorganized a hall closet.  Those are big things in my cleaning life.  I heard cleaning can kill you.  I'm not sure that's true, but I'm taking as few chances as possible!  My house is clean today...sorry you missed it!

Last month when Susie, Rachel, and I went to Florida, Susie and I planned to visit the newborn son of some friends at the hospital.  I have so many good memories with Susie!!  Anywho...we got to the hospital and called the parents.  They asked us to come back in an hour.  We were like, "Um...we're in the parking garage."  On the way to the hospital, about a block before it actually, I spotted a Steinmart store.  I got a gift card for their store about 4 years ago.  I mentioned to Susie that I had the ancient gift card and had never seen a Steinmart before.  I didn't know the balance on the card.  Would it--could it--be in my purse right that very second?  YES!!  I called the gift card balance number and found out we had $50 to spend.  One thing many of you might not know about me is that I.  hate.  to.  shop.  Especially for little-needed items.  I detest window shopping.  But we had an hour to kill, right?  We headed back and found ourselves trying to find $50 worth of stuff to buy.  I would have been happy to spend it all on Susie if she found something she liked.  You would think this would be an easy task, but no.

We started wandering around.  She tried on some absolutely goofy looking dress hats.  Then we split up because we weren't finding anything worth blowing the wad on.  My mechanic has one of these "Relax" signs at their service counter.  I have always admired it.  When I saw one of these at the Steinmart store, I knew that would be my first purchase.  One of my kids saw it in my room later, on my treadle sewing machine table and asked sarcastically if that was my new motto.  "No", I said, "Just a necessary reminder."  It is so hard for me to relax and enjoy...well, ANYthing!!  Seriously!

When I was cleaning out our hall closet (you might have been wondering why that came up earlier?), I found the nativity night light.  Isn't that where you store yours...behind the bathroom cleaning caddy?  I appreciate the reminder that I can "relax" because Jesus came to pay for my sins.  I have a home in heaven when I die...do you?  Everything does not depend on me.

Last night three of my children were shopping at a mall.  Within just a few feet of them there was a shooting.  A woman pulled a gun out of her purse and shot a man who was evidently abusing or trying to kidnap a small child.  The man was shot three times.  My daughter ended up being locked in a store adjacent to the hallway with the shooter, victim, etc.  A few moments later, several shoplifting attempts were thwarted nearby.  They are guessing that the thieves were taking advantage of the confusion because of the shooting.  We live in unsettling times.  A security guard knocked a thief attempting to flee into the storefront window a few feet away from my locked-in daughter.  When I heard about it over the phone but didn't have the details yet (remember, I was lying about at home), I was so glad God's grace was sufficient for me.  He was protecting my children, I was not.  Thank God they were unharmed.  

Here's hoping you can relax and enjoy the moments that make this very special holiday special indeed.  

God bless us, every one.

~Joan   

{Post #857} Catch Up Post

Here are some pictures from the past week.  I left out any from the accident in which I totalled someone else's car. 

I machine quilted two tops for a customer.  No pictures of those either.

Had our Christmas cantata at church.  Two of my kids were in it.  No pictures.

Made 5 crocheted angels...pic from year ago...

My sixth child got his braces off.  Before (being angelic)

After:

A couple decorating pics.  New front door look with little forest trees with lights and small balls.

My new (antique) foyer table, where we put our lit-up village houses.  Our sideboard now is our fruit station.  I found that altering the height of some of the items in a collection like this gives it more pizzazz...probably the oldest trick in the book, but I'm a slow learner!  I just tucked some paperback books under some of the houses. 

Praying for a special friend, Julie, today.  My thoughts and prayers are with you, my friend.

~Joan

Most Thoughtful Daughter Ever!!

Look what my thoughtful, sweet, forward-thinking, lovely daughter, Elisabeth, got me for Christmas. The picture is terrible, and it needs cleaning (very dusty), but this wonderful gift is the base of an antique treadle Singer sewing machine. The table top made for it is way too modern. My DH suggested cutting off the legs of the antique table that had been sitting there and putting it on instead. Great idea (I think it was my idea, but he agreed to do it...you know, my inspiration and his perspiration).

Hope you all have a great holiday. I've had an industrious-sized headache for 5 days now. Make it go away! I am off to bed early.

~Joan

PS: an update...someone read this then wrote me to ask "what was the gift?", so I edited it some to clarify (I hope). Later that same day, my DH did indeed cut the legs off my former foyer table and attach it to the top of the sewing machine base. It looks marvelous. I'll try to post a picture soon.

More good news...my BIL found our camera at his house and is sending it to me. It has been MIA for over a month!! Yippee!