Six Word Saturday

Christmas Over, Life Back to normal?

What ever that is. Christmas Day was quiet for us with out family and kids around. Probably our most relaxing ever. I made our favorite breakfast of french toast and sausage. It is what we usually eat only when we camp. Then unwrapped out gifts. And finally went out to eat.

Now it is the day after Christmas and things will settle back down to normal.... whatever that is. The wind is howling outside and we got a lot of rain the night. That big blizzard that was heading east met up with some warmer weather I guess and turned into the rainy deluge. What little snow we had is pretty much gone.

Today I will take the day off, no work, just play.

Today will be a day off for me. No work, only play. I am excited about that.

Christmas Greetings

We hope you are all having a lovely Christmas Day.

Artful Thursday and Kitty Cats

Happy Day Before Christmas

As this is my normal time for Artful Thursday I have a couple of things to show.

As mentioned in previous blogs I am working slowly on a class projects for a class called Remains of the Day by Mary Ann Moss.

This first picture shows all the pages I have cut out. They will have LOTS more added as I go along. But this is the way it begins. I have more pages than I really need "just in case."

And the second picture shows the paper scraps I will use in the second phase.
And now for the fun of our life.... out three kitties. The first picture is of our "bookend" cats. Spooky on the left and Tuffy on the right. They love to sit "up" where they can see and keep an eye on things.

And next Spooky is keeping a sharp eye on Bentley. He is a boy cat, a flame point siamese, who thinks he is royalty however Spooky doesn't agree.

The Wednesday Before Christmas

Twas the Wednesday before Christmas when all through house the cats were all sleeping in their favorite places. The cards and gifts were all mailed. And all that were expected were received. For once we are not a part of the last minute race.
The cookies are baked, and food is all bought. So what do we do until Friday morning.... no rushing about, no dashing to and fro. Instead we will listen to carols and enjoy the time. It has taken us quite a few years to get to this point.

Seriously though, I always aimed to have time to relax before Christmas. But never expected it to happen. This year it did. Now we will no doubt go crazy.... or not.... we will enjoy the time to work on our hobbies that were supposed to be put on the back burner....

Bill is in his modeling studio making a model of something or other and I am getting ready to continue to work on my newest project. I love it!!

I start the next phase of the journal from the Remains of the Day class this afternoon. I spent the morning collecting up things I might need.

Maybe tomorrow I will have something to show....

Mini Monday-- Christmas

On this "Mini Monday" I thought I would show a couple of the Christmas room scenes I have made. This first one is in quarter scale. Notice the penny to get idea of size. Many of the items came from quarter scale swaps I did.

This second scene is a bit more complicated. It is full scale. I bought a "gift box scene at a flea market a while back. I changed it by adding all the Christmas fabric, ribbons etc. And then filled it with items I received in a swap from Joyce Mori. It was a Christmas Countdown kind of swap so we opened one item each day. The idea was to build the scene around the fireplace.

Here is the scene out side of the covering box.

And if you want to see the Christmas scene I did this year go back to a few Mondays ago.

Click here

Merry Christmas to you all if you don't check back again before the day.

We are going to have a White Christmas and I finished my book cover.

Yesterday the east coast of the US got plummeted by snow. Luckily we were just on the backwards edge so only got about 3 inches, not the foot or two many of the coastal areas received. The sun is out today and it is quite pretty. I took a couple of pictures to document it for us and thought I would include them here.


Here is a picture of the poor lawn chairs out on the patio just off of our deck. They look sad and lonely.

But on to better things. I am pretty sure my cover is done.... unless I think of something else to add to it. I made a tie for it which is connected at the flap. This picture shows it open.

And here it is closed.

Next week we will start adding things to the inside. Mostly from recycled items. It should be interesting.

Continuing with "Remains of the Day" project

Last night my sewing machine was really humming along. I got out my pattern for the journal I am making, all my fabric scraps, my ironing board and iron and started the process.

This first picture is what it looked like after I picked out the fabrics I would be using. I laid them out to see how I would like them. In end however I left two of them out

In this next picture you can see how I stitched down the main pieces using a zig zag stitch in red.

I used red because it is one of the main colors in the piece AND because I LIKE IT.

And the final picture shows where I added a few other things. The leaf piece is part of a lace collar I had in my stash, the litte circle on the bottom was added cause I like that fabric and the flower was one I had. It may not stay. We shall see tomorrow.

Tomorrow I hope to be able to show you the mostly finished cover. I still have to make the tie for it. AND who knows what changes I will end up making.
I would love to read your comments.

Altered Art and Christmas

Getting packages wrapped and in the mail and working on Christmas Cards has slowed me down in my hobbies and my blogging.

But an altered Art lady named Mary Ann Moss has saved the day. I am so excited about a new project class I am doing with her. My good friend Anne is taking the class too so we have each other to encourage and push on.

I have finished the Artist Class I was taking and the 12 Days of Christmas projects I signed up for.
So now, once the cards get out in the mail I will have time again to Play. Unless my antique shop gets too busy, which I doubt, since Christmas time is NOT my busiest time out there.

This is an early Christmas present from my husband. He is getting his hobby stuff for his gift from me. The class is called Mary Ann Moss' Remains of the Day: A Shabby Journal of Scraps. This class is going to stretch me quite a bit, not in the usual realm of things I do ... But hey, that is good for me. The first lesson is to make the cover. I have finished the inside and today will work on the outside of it. My sewing machine will get some use beyond doing mending.

A few months ago I bought a huge amount of scrap material from a home decorating fabric shop near me. I am pulling that out of my stash today to start selecting the pieces I will use for the outside of the cover. I have already used a few pieces for pillow but that is all.

I will report in tomorrow on the results of today's play.

6 Word Saturday

6 WORD SATURDAY

Reason for the Season, the Nativity

When my brother and sister and I were kids we would put up a nativity scene using Lincoln Logs as the manger and figures that had been collected over the years. Now, I do the it a bit differently. I have been collecting up creche scenes from various sources and they are set up in the Living Room at Christmas.

Here are a few of them that I have already put up in the house.

The first one shows two completely different kinds. The one on the left I got from a German "scrap" store called D.Blumchen. The small white porcelain one was from the Red Rose Tea website. It was made by the Wade Porcelain Company. You may be familiar with the tiny figurines that come in boxes of Red Rose Tea. They are made by the same company.

There are two more nativity scenes in the picture below. The one on the left is from 10 Thousand Villages. It is made from very thin wood. The one on the right is from D.Blumchen.

The next is a Nativity Pop up book. There are six different scenes in the book. I really like pop up books and have a collection of them as well. I am pretty sure I got this from Amazon but have had it for quite a while.
In the final picture the creche on the left is from D. Blumchen and the one on the right is from 10 Thousand Villages. It is a fold up book and doesn't seem to want to open too widely but if you were here you could pick it up and see it better.

Giving the tree the trim

I finally got the Christmas tree up. Actually to tell the truth it is a new artificial one. When I went to put up the old one I realized the stand was missing. I tried to buy a new stand but it was too big. SO.... I broke down and got a new tree. It is actually nicer looking than the old one because it has the tiny lights on it and there is more space to show off all my ornaments.

The ornaments are only ones that I have made or have been given to me as an exchange or a gift. AND a couple I bought cause they were so appropriate. I just found more ornaments I had made this year and must get them up on the tree but the pictures are already taken last night. So those are the ones that I will show.

A few of my prize ornaments are ones that I have received from my wonderful needlework friends. We have an exchange every year. This group is one I got involved with many years ago on prodigy. (in the early 90s I think.) This great group has grown a bit over the years and unfortunately we have three members over the years but they are still remembered. The group and this exchange is going strong. The great thing is that each of us have met several of the members of the group. And since the group has been going so long we really do know each other.

The above 4 ornaments are ones I have received in the exchange from Vicky, Heidi, Fran and Joanie.

The line in the title of this blog is from one of my favorite Christmas Songs. Mistletoe and Holly sung by Frank Sinatra. Here is a link so you can hear the song.

Artful Thursday

I signed on for another group of art projects. This one called the 12 days of Christmas. Here is the first project. The photo does not do it justice but you get the idea.

I have a feeeling I will be doing a lot of the projects for NEXT Christmas as things keep getting in the way. But I got one done.

Check back tomorrow to see my Christmas tree. I finally got it up last night. It is small but pretty.

Winter Wonderland

We got quite a snowstorm a couple of days ago. It is pretty much all gone now. But if you click on the video below you can see some of the pictures I took that day. One thing though, I haven't figured out to make the program END the picture show. So after you have seen all the pictures once, or twice if you are a real glutton for punishment, then click it off. I will figure it out the next time.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Mini Monday

I may not have decorated my real life house for Christmas yet but my doll house is decorated. At least the living room is ready. I had been working hard to get the room finished and decided I might as well go all the way.......

The tree needs some ornaments and a few more packages under it. But that will be my fun for the week.

The mirror was a wonderful new addition to the room. My good friend Sally from GSOLFOT sent it to me for the perfect finishing touch on the room.
For those who must know..... the poinsettia plant next to the couch was created by using a wooden vase with a poinsettia earring part. They were clipons so I would never wear them, SO I might as well use them for something wonderful in my doll house. There is another one somewhere up in my studio but I haven't found it yet. Click on the picture to see it better.

SIX WORD SATURDAY

Click on the logo to see more entries in Six Word Saturday.

Clementines are a favorite Holiday Treat!

Happy Day After

Hope you all had a great day yesterday..... we certainly did. I took lots of pictures but my daughter combined her pics and mine and did a very nice blog entry about the day so I won't do it too. But be sure to check hers out



The Hayden House

Happy Thanksgiving

Marie in a box

I decided to combine my enjoyment of Marie Antoinette style and my latest Artist Class Project.

This series of artist classes has come to an end though I am still working on my projects and will probably finish them all at about the time the next set begins. I believe they will start up again in Jan. or Feb.

In my artist class, one of the projects was a lined box. I did not do mine exactly the same because I found a box I liked and lined it, instead of making the box first. The insides of the box are crinkled silk I found on eBay. And the picture of the lady with the teapot is from Sandra Evertson, offered in a Romantic Homes issue back in 2008. I don't have the exact date as I had ripped the picture out of the magazine and to save for a future project. There was a copyright date of 2008 on the picture.

Next I decided to put a picture of Marie on the front. The picture was from a magazine called MARIE.. inspired mixed media art, published by Stampington and Company. The picture was one that Lonnie Bullington has created using paper tole....( that is a whole different subject.) I next invaded the box where I store all my interesting trims, ribbons and lace. I found this tassel trim and knew it was perfect. The trim seems to get caught under the lid a bit so didn't photograph as well as I would have liked but here it is.

I now plan to fill the box with other Marie type art that I created like jewelry, ATCs and who knows what else. Fun is often every bit of much in the planning as in the doing.

Mini Monday

Not a whole not of news on the mini front this week but did a couple of things.

I found a tapestry to add to one of the walls in my 1/12 doll house. Found it at my local mini shop... The Wee Home Shoppe. The lady that runs the shop, Ann Carol Malcolm, is a great help when you are looking for something special. I got the rugs that are on the floor of this living room from her shop as well.

Our local mini club had a meeting last Sunday and we made tiny little gingerbread houses using fimo. It is tricky to work with it this small. vHere are three pictures of it as I finished it. It would fit nicely on the coffee table in my 1/12 house. Maybe I will put it there for Christmas. The house is barely an inch tall.

Six Word Saturday

Most Creative People are Rarely Tidy!

As a fairly creative person I hold true to the above statement. I try to keep my messes cleaned up but it is so hard. I start working in a big space and before I know it, I am down to about a 12inch square work space. Now why is that?

Someday I shall be the kind of person that cleans up immediately after making a mess..... Well probably not.

By the way I added the "most" word above to make it six words. The latter 5 words are one of my favorite sayings since it is true of most folks I know.

To get more info on Six Word Saturday and to see what other folks are saying click here.

Artful Thursday

I have been working on a number of artlike projects of late but this is the only one that is finished today. Maybe next week I can show more than one item, you never know.
The following project was one of the many we have been given instructions for in the ARTIST CLASSES I am involved with right now. This is the second I have finished.
These snowmen ornaments are made from paperclay as well as book pages, glass glitter and silver tinsel

They were fun to make. I hope the folks I give them to will like them as well.

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