Saturday, December 30, 2006

Post-Christmas crafting and buying

I finally finished my felt garland, it was so fun and relaxing just to blanket stitch and watch Holiday movies on the Hallmark Channel. The garland instructions can be found on Anna Maria Horner's blog - thank you. Here is a close-up:



I also hit a the mall on the 26th of December. Mainly for returns with the family but
found some sales I couldn't pass. First a couple of Christopher Radko ornaments, definite splurge even at 50% off






I have been wanting this for several years and never get to Dillard's early enough. Imagine my delight to find two left at 3 p.m. on the 26th. Yes, it was 50% off, too. I used some money from a return and some Christmas money. We have had such fun playing with it, in fact, it is the only Christmas item still out.



Just check out the wording Santa's Fe, isn't that cute.
We just came home from a Christmas party with friends, such fun was had. My daughters enjoyed the evening, Christmas cheer and presents, yes, quite fun. Now to think about my 2007 sewing needs and wants. I do need some new clothing items.




Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Christmas Baking




Finally, I had time to do some holiday baking. A couple of weeks ago I made a few basic sweets but I was really wanting to try some new recipes from this book, Holiday Cookies. My husband and girls went out Christmas shopping, so my perfect opportunity had arrived. I made Crispy S'mores Bars (front of the plate) and Pecan Pie Bites (back of plate and by itself). I think I baked the crust on the S'more bars a bit too long but the Pecan Pie Bites look perfect. They do take quite a long time to make but I think it was worth it. The best part about the Pecan Pie Bites, I don't like this type of sweet, so no calories for me. I will be pigging out on my oldest daughter's fudge, that hopefully will be made on Friday.

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Felt Ornament


This evening I made this ornament, thought it was appropriate for my college daughter. She pledged Chi Omega this fall and they have the owl as their symbol. I am going to write on the back the Greek letters and the year. I hope she thinks it is neat.

The instructions came from Anna Maria Horner's blog and they are great. Just take a look at all the inspiration. My current project is the felt garland. I am enjoying the hand stitching process while watching the Holiday movie marathon on ABC Family Channel tonight. My 12 year old twins are working on hook rug in the Christmas theme. Just a family crafting night, pretty perfect!

Friday, December 15, 2006

Another Stocking and My Tree

I finished the second stocking tonight. I am very pleased with the poinsetta design and my embroidery work was better on this one! Ready to try some of the felt garland and felt ornaments.


Here is my tree in the living room




I made the tree skirt years ago.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

My New Space

Finally, after 4 months of working on this project, I have a new living room. I started in August gathering up items to sell or put away for future use. Then couch hunting, new window treatments, accessories (more to come), paint and then paint again. Here is the before, more of a country look with many, many knick-knacks:




That was the view from the front door. Here was the view from the hallway. Oh, I took pictures after I started going through my accessories, I didn't have them just sitting in piles like this!




Now, here is the new room, I love this room, it is beautiful, peaceful and just puts a smile on my face:

Here is from the front door:


I hired two sisters to do a faux finish on my walls, my first paint choice was just not right, looked pink during the daylight. Here is the treatment, hope you can see it, their work is so wonderful.
Finally, a softer picture, my flash didn't go off, but it is a pretty picture.
Plans for tomorrow night, put up the artificial tree in this room, it will go where the rocker is. One of my daughter's commented last night how much she loves this tree. The ornaments are all either glass or gold. The tree will go with this room much better now. Oh, we do have a real tree up in our family room, it is filled with all the handmade ornaments from friends, kids and myself. Such fun putting up that tree and reliving "Baby's 1st Christmas" and many other milestones.








Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Stockings


My girls decided their grandparents needed stockings. I was going to make some but found this at Joann's on Saturday for less than $2.00. I cut out a tree and added some blanket stitches and outline stitches (crude embroidery, btw, I am out-of -practice) to make it look like this:
I have a green one to start on sometime this week. I might do a poinsetta or a present or... any other ideas?

Monday, December 11, 2006

Cookie Time




I took a look at the calendar and noticed tonight and tomorrow night are the only free nights for cookie baking. The girls and I went to work. Peanut clusters, cinnamon roll-ups and Christmas cookies are made and in the freezer. My younger two were in charge of adding the food coloring to the icing. Well, they had a great time mixing the different colors on the back of the package. We have teal, blueberry, lavendar and a very light blue color. We do have the more traditional red, white and yellow. All of our Christmas trees are teal!!! The icing in the bowl is blueberry! We joked the cookies are Christmas shapes but the icing is Easter colors. We have the holidays covered.

Saturday, December 02, 2006

On the Second Day of December I made a .....


purse for a good friend. I used some wool check I had leftover from a coat for me. Made the handles from corduroy and then embroidered the flowers on felted wool. I hot glued the flowers onto pin backs and my daughter arranged them on the purse. The wool doesn't have much body, even with a pretty stiff interfacing (2 layers). I think it will be fine.

Friday, December 01, 2006

Snow Day





A record, three posts in one day. I probably should have combined them but the posts have such varied themes. We received 10+ inches of snow, school canceled, no work. Now the sun is out and the snow was calling our names. Here are some pictures, I took advantage of the snow to snap some Christmas outdoor decorations, too.





Snow pile from clearing the driveway:

New Couch Finally - the end to the Couch Soap Opera


Remember this first Couch Soap Opera on October 23rd? Well, finally on November 29th, my replacement couch was delivered. And guess what, it is spot free. I had to call Ashley's to check on it and it had been delivered to the warehouse on November 14th, no one had called me for delivery. I think they were probably avoiding me after I expressed my feeling over the first one. Will I go back, no way.

My Santas



My aunt started this collection for me and tries to find a new white Santa every year for my present. I do love them.