Christmas Part II

A little more cheer for you!

Below is the strange little pass-through room in our house decorated for the holiday. I added the big red shiny bow over the doorway after opening up the surprise gift from Santa on Christmas - a laptop! woot!

I also finished framing the print I had done last year. Great frame that I just painted. The laurel is real, but did not smell strong enough to make a difference from it being artificial. The mini baby blue disco ball hanging down from the light really was a perfect location for it & it sparkles and sparkles:

We also hung the Santa light along the bottom of the side table (how CUTE is that!?) and I used the wreath from the centerpiece (see below) and placed the flowers in the middle. The Christmas napkin holder was also gifted to us & looks great:

I did not take any pictures of the table all set (after all that work!). It was SO busy and it just got away from me. BUT, I did recreate a place setting while doing the dishes this morning:

The BEST part about this place setting:

China is from my grandmother Lucy,

Stemware is from my great grandmother Frances,

Silver is from my great Aunt Marion,

Napkin rings are made from gifted bows from S's parents!

It is a great way to keep those not with you in the holiday.

Here is the centerpiece I made for the table:

The table ended up too narrow for a center piece; I was able to use the components in other places.

As for the napkin rings...here is how that came about...I wanted to use things I had around the studio. I have a jar of red pipe-cleaners that turned out to be perfect, and I went through my buttons to pick out a few that were my favorites:

More of the red bows that adorn the banister were used to make the napkin rings. I used the center bubble and the tails:

I also used the wire that held it together for the buttons.

I had some golden ribbon from taking apart the wreath:

They looked a little large while I was working on them. I knew they would look different on the table. The end result was very festive and lovely!:

Christmas!

The past few weeks have gone by in a blur! This week past in particular. I had off since Monday, but I've been keeping busy!

We now have an artificial tree (gift of J & M, thank you :)
I LOVE ornaments (surprised!?).
This is an ornament from the first year my parents were married (the Currier & Ives):

It just happened to be in the Santa Section!

A great idea is to save gift tags if they are pretty - especially if they are sparkley - and hang them on the tree too!:

And I have a hodge-podge of garland. I made some bottlecap garland, I have a few short strands of red beads, and my favorite is below! A's handmade garland as a gift last year:
I know, enough of the tour of the Christmas tree (I could go on...)!
Let's talk about other decorations, shall we?

I dripped the fans to look like ornament chandeliers! They came out very prettily:

I had made some tissue paper puff balls and also had some strands of beading that I have for another project that added the final touch. The beading is like the garland on a tree - finishes it!

What's that? Want to see the big picture? Surley:

Hang tight! More rooms/holiday decorations will follow shortly!
xoxo

Christmas Decorating Part I

It must be December - the Christmas Cactus is all in bloom!

Beautiful, no?


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We have been gifted a lot of wonderful Christmas decorations! How exciting. I, of course, LOVE to decorate! Yay for Christmas.

So, here are the beginning projects:
Mantle with reindeer. We do have additional lights for the wreath & around the mirror and real greenery for around the mantle which will smell like Christmas! ...coming soon...

Santa is just to the widow-side of the toy soldier. He's hard to get into a picture b/c he lights up so the exposure does not match up with everything else. BUT, here he is so you are not missing out (he's about 4' high!):

And for a bit of the 306 charm, Her Royal Badness has put herself among the decorations (SO bad, but SO cute!):

We were also gifted lots of garland and red bows.

There's no better place for garland than around a banister:

Love it!

December!

Here's my holiday card for my work peeps:
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah everyone!

Eva!

Kitty!

I'm SO happy to welcome EVA to our family :)

She is a Flame-Point Siamese (or a Fire-Point Siamese) and about a year old. We adopted her from a Shelter on Saturday - Morris Animal Shelter at 13th & Lombard (I recommend it).

SO SUPER CUTE! and funny! Cats crack me up.

Here she is getting some cat-scratches:

Here is what happened on the first night:

(so I peak over the bed...)

FLIES in super fast & LEAPS!

Right into my head!

She was SO freaked out and I cracked up for about 5 minutes straight. I couldn't even get out the story to tell S what happened. OMG for real. Poor thing!

But seriously, she is amazing.

November!

Well October went by in a flash!

My trips to South Carolina, Southeast Asia, and New England filled the month. There are some pictures on my flickr page, be sure to take a look if you'd like.

HALLOWEEN was fun :) I was CHEETARA from Thundercats:

and Sean mutated to have QUATO grow out of his stomach (I know, gross!).

I'll share the process with you.

From Bob-the-Builder to Quato:

Step 1: take Bob all apart, cut off clothing:

Yes...ALL APART. Step 2: Take off his legs!

Step 3: Put Bob's torso back on. Now he is the perfect Quato size!

Step 4: Shave down the brim and top of Bob's Hat.

Step 5: Paper Mache' Bob until his face looks like you want.

*Be sure to cover him all up and sculpt him a little! He needs to look creepy.

Step 6: Paint Bob's face. I chose to mix a color that was very similar to the nude colored fabric I had which would be for his body & holster.

Step 7: Now add googley-eyes and hair. cover eyes witha little papermache so he has lids & I used hair from a wig.

Step 8: Make him a holster (stuffed his arms and covered them, and you are all set! *For a project where you have more than an afternoon, you can add a bit more to the body, but it worked out okay for a day's project and fun Halloween Costume!

Now Quato is ready to hit the town! Here he is driving:

Fall

I am just off of one week in New England and I am now on my way to SC for 2 days...I'll be home Friday night to fly to Asia on Saturday for 2 weeks - whew!

I also do not currently have a working camera. Never trust online chat support to be right about what is wrong & the part you need...and expect them to take it back even if you have kept the entire IM conversation & careful notes...so I think S is going to lend me his camera for Asia :) YAY, but still, not my usual which I know so well.

Of course, there are pictures of stuff from the garden. Just as I am NOT HERE (booo!) there are gobs of tomatos! This pic was taken AFTER we had made a tomato pie on Sunday (2 big containers of cherries plus a v.large orange used and 5 giant sandwiches. S says I put too many tomatoes on sometimes...but I think it is perfect. I use about 1 big per sandwich-ish. SO you can imagine how many we had! We also made a pizza last night & used a bunch of peppers, so we had more of those (and beans too) before...but I was too lazy to take the picture then.

AND...since I will be away until the 19th...I used an hour of free time today to decorate just a wee bit for Halloween. We don't have tons of decorations (unlike Christmas -watch out!), but they look good on the mantle. I'll maybe get some spider webby stuff for the mirror when I get home & it will complete the look, I think.

I did start off w/o the baby doll, but she adds just the perfect eerie touch, don't you think?


Well, that's all for tonight...probably won't check back in for 3 weeks or so! Enjoy the Fall!!

Fun Times!

This past weekend, J & R got married & their wedding was great. I had a chance to reconnect with friends & see folks I haven't seen in a while!

J & friends (me too!) made all of the decorations which were lovely & plentiful. You can see them on my flickr page...

Also, we have LOTS of cherry tomatoes! Yay! And have been making Cherry Tomato Sandwiches! YUMMY ^^ Last night we made Rye Bread & had sandwiches with that. That was even more delicious. Yay for something in the garden that is still growing. We have a bunch of larger tomatoes but they WON'T TURN RED. Grrrrr....
We still have about 2 pints after 2 sandwiches last night & I use a lot! S puts pickles on his.

AND...finally took pictures of the door I...um...*fixed*. Ha. The door had holes in it.
So, I cut the holes to what I wanted & made stuffed pieces for them...still might paint on it too. I was thinking about Calder's mobiles.

These are the curtains for the room - harlequin patterned. I will hopefully get around to sewing on top of them as well...but 1st step done! Thank goodness for curtains - esp. at night! It's kinda funny too b/c when you pull them it is as if we are putting the plants on the windowsill to bed. Goodnight plants! Sleep tight...