More Christmas Decorations

I've been busy decorating in the dining room and living room and have taken a few pictures to share with you. I've cut back a bit on the decorating this year as some of the boxes didn't make it down from the attic when my helpers were here and I'm unable to get them down on my own. That would require me to climb a ladder and this old broad doesn't do ladders. I'm too clumsy for that. Anyway I've decided that less is best right about now. I've been driving myself and everyone around me nuts trying to do too many things and now I'm all for trying to enjoy the rest of the time between now and Christmas morning. I've gifts to finish making and buying. Then there's baking for here and for gifts to be given to friends and neighbors. I also have my special fudge to make. Plenty of things left to do so I'll go ahead and show you some photos of some of my decorating.

Starting in the dining room here is the buffet with my very first Belsnickle.

There is an everyday Christmas print table cloth on the table which will be replace with a dressier one on Christmas day.

This is the tree with the handmade ornaments and the tree skirt is a patchwork one that I made about 25 years ago. I made matching Christmas stockings for each family member including the grandchildren. There are only two of the stockings still here at the house and will be hung on the mantel on Christmas eve.

As you can see, I didn't need to be worried about the tree being skimpy on ornaments. The only ornaments that aren't handmade are some little red apples that I added to give it some more red. Usually I use a lot of red in my Christmas decorating.

On the mantel there are some handmade NQR hearts from Oma Linda and a snowman and Santa from my sister Maggie. There is also an angel shelf sitter and a couple of snowman stocking holders nestled in there among the holly leaves and berries.


On the hearth there are some of my little snow kiddies and the stuffed snow couple were made by Maggie and given to me a few years ago. I have a much larger snowman collection but they're still in the attic.

This is one of my two treadle sewing machines that are in the living room. I've covered the top with a small Christmas quilt and have the patchwork Santa standing guard.

The only other Santa that I have sitting out is the one on the coffee table. I chose the two that are my Avatar. This one and the one on the buffet. They are the second and third Santa figures that I sculpted when I first started working with paper mache clay and are part of my personal collection. You can see a bit of my other antique sewing machine off to the side of the sofa.

Okay, that's about all of the decorations I took photos of before my camera battery died. I'm not sure when I'll be doing another post as I need to finish up on my things to do list but I'll try to get around to as many of your blogs as I can.

I sure hope all of you are enjoying you week and have just about all of those things that needed doing done.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

Our First Tree Decorated

I finally got one tree decorated this morning and as soon as I finish here I'm starting on the second one.  This tree has been decorated with ornaments that I've had at least 20 years or more. On this tree are Baby's first ornaments for each of my grandchildren and several snowmen with our names on them. Many of the ornaments are Hallmark Keepsake and others are ones that just caught my fancy and I had to have them. I know my bear gang is thrilled as they were starting to think we weren't going to have a tree this year. Bellamine hasn't stopped clapping her paws and jumping around since she woke up this morning. So, without further comments from yours truly here are some photos.

I took some closeups of some of my favorite ornaments. I've noticed that lately clicking on a photo doesn't necessarily make it larger. Don't you just love the kitten in the basket? Then there's the little bunny with the key to your heart. This tree has at least a dozen snowmen and several Santa Claus ornies. There's even a unicorn.

I will be posting again when I get another tree decorated. The next one is going to be decorated with the ornaments that I've been making.

I hope all of you have gotten many of your preparations and decorating completed so that you're able to relax with that cup of tea or cocoa and a cookie or two. If not you're in the same boat as I find myself but now I'm beginning to feel more confident that I might actually get all of my preparations completed on time. Wish me luck.

As always, thanks for stopping by and Happy Holidays to all of you.

TOO MUCH TO DO, NOT ENOUGH TIME

Since my last post a week ago I've been busy trying to get caught up on my Christmas preparations. I've been up hours before the crack of dawn and have been working nonstop trying to get to a point where I feel like I've got everything under control and can take a break and relax. It isn't happening. I'm just as far behind as I was a week ago, maybe even further behind if that's even possible. I don't even have a Christmas tree up and I've never been this late in doing that. I have however made more ornaments just in case I do get one up so I have something to decorate it with.

Here is a sample of some of the ornaments that I've been making in my "spare time". Spare time is found in those hours when the rest of the world is asleep.

I showed you some of the little paper mache Santa heads, here are some of the elves that work making toys for those good girls and boys.

These little heads are fun to make and I love painting their faces but I'm afraid that I'm going to have to stop making them if I ever plan on getting them out there on a tree. I've managed to make two dozen for myself. I've been sharing them with my sisters or I'd have more.

I've also spent some of that spare time on making two dozen stuffed fabric heart shaped cushions. I got the idea from one of the blogs that I follow, sorry I can't remember which one so I can't give credit where credit is due. These little hearts have allowed me to use up some of the fabric that I have secreted away in boxes. If I make two dozen of these a year, it would take me until I'm 110 years old to use up the fabric stash, that is if I don't go out and buy more. As a bonus, making these hearts lets me use up some of that fiber fill too.

I've used four fabrics that go well together and if you look closely you can also see some of the clothes pin Santa ornaments I made a few weeks ago. I remember where I got the idea for these. Thank you Denise. That would be Denise from Country Creations by Denise. I didn't make them exactly like she did but close enough. I made thirty of these little guys. Next year I'll get around to making the clothes pin reindeer.

I just noticed that I have 100 followers now. Wow!! I never thought when I started blogging last March that I'd ever have this many people interested in seeing what I've been up to. I just want to let you know how much I appreciate your interest and thank you for spending some of your time here with me. 

I should get back to work. I need to get some of my mess cleared away so I have a space to set up a tree or two. I still haven't gotten them down from the attic as my usual helpers never got around to doing that yet. I guess I've been too busy to do a proper job of nagging.

I'll be getting my baking under way this week and I need to get the Christmas cards in the mail. I still have gifts to shop for and so many other things to get done so I may not be around much in the next few weeks. I'll try to visit as many blogs as I can and may not always have time to comment but we'll catch up later I'm sure.

As always, thanks for stopping by.