Happy New Year!

Finally got out and took a night time pic of the front of the house. Hubby had to do it without his right hand man this year - thank goodness for Facetime! It's really hard to get a photo of the snowflake over the arch - it just looks like a big blob in pictures.

Hope you are having a safe evening!

Happy New Year!

 

A Little More Christmas

I still haven't walked out to the street to take a night time photo but I did take this on the side porch the other day.

This is the first time I've decorated the mantle outside. We haven't had a fire outside yet.

Finished this little Lizzie Kate Christmas piece this year. I mounted it on a door sign I found at Walmart back when they first started putting out Christmas stuff.

The little gnome is new this year - I found him at TJ Maxx and he just had to come home with me. Everything else was already in my stash.

This is a mix of new and old. Some of the Rae Dunn is new this year, a little of it is from last year. Everything else is previously owned. The stockings were made by my great-grandmother.

My tiny Target tiered tray. I've had fun decorating this little thing - debating if I want to go for a big one this year?

My favorite little white cabinet. 

Our Christmas was really quiet this year with just the two of us here.

Have you put away your Christmas decorations? I feel like I just got them out and I kind of dread packing them up. Wish I could twitch my nose and have everything back to normal. 

 

Just Trees

I'm really running behind this year! I've got all the trees in this post - hopefully I'll get some other pictures up soon - at least before I start taking decorations down!

I'm just going down the list in the order they showed up - I'll be here all day if I start moving them around. I'll get flustered (like when I can't make the text center at the top of the page. I'm so technically challenged and every time I figure something out, they up and change it before I come back!)

Anywho - I replaced a couple of my trees this year. Different tree, same ornaments. This is the tree with the kids ornaments on it.

Here is the big tree. I'm still really happy with this purchase from last year. 

This is another new tree, same ornaments. This is the fireman tree. I knew I had some more bead garland but by the time I found it I was done with the tree decorating so I might put another string or two on next year.

This was taken from the front door. I have three trees in the living room. The are all on one side - I'm thinking I might need one on the other side of the room for balance next year! 

This is the other new tree this year. Same ornaments. It's a little bigger than the last tree. That poor tree was tired! Found the bucket at Hobby Lobby and it fit perfect!

Same little tree in the master bedroom but I did give it a fresh bow. I need to take a nighttime picture when the little church is lit up.

This poor little feather tree is about worn out too! It's in my sewing room. I was planning on making some new ornaments for it but well, that didn't happen this year! Maybe next year!

Again this tree is the same one I've been using in the guest room for the last several years. I'm thinking it might be time for an upgrade in there too.

And last but not least, my vintage ceramic tree. I haven't had this thing out in over 20 years but I needed something in my little garden house on the front porch and this fit the bill. I did replace all the little red birds with multicolored bulbs. These things are everywhere this year and mine has just been hanging out in a plastic tote.

More pictures of the inside and outside to come. I should have taken outside pictures earlier - one of the outside decorations bit the dust this week. Too late to replace it this year so it's just out there unlit. I'm telling ya, if you wanted new decor this year you had to get it early! 

Hope you are all surviving this crazy year! It's definitely been a challenge!

Rudolf's New Nose

and ears and bow!

I made this sometime in the mid - late eighties. FIL cut it out and I think he stained it then I finished him out. He sat beside the Christmas tree for may years then ended up in storage, over looked year after year. This year I decided to give him a make-over. (I had already pulled one ear off before I took the above photo) The ears are made of felt and it was literally powder but I managed to trace it for a pattern. 

I gave him a new nose and a fresh bow. The eyes and eyelashes were still stuck on pretty good (surprising since it was stored in a hot attic for so many years) so I didn't replace those and I re-used the red bell. He's hanging out on the back fireplace this year.

I finished this little Lizzie Kate a few weeks ago. I found this door at Walmart and thought it would be perfect. The stitched piece was a little small so I added the top border and the background fabric. I also added the bow and 'lights' to the wreath.

Pattern name is Ho Ho Ho in a row (from 2011). I used the DMC threads with the exception of the white - I used WDW Whitewash.

Shout out to Priscilla for encouraging us to think outside of the box (frame!) for finishing these cute little pieces.

Tree tour coming soon. If you really want to see some decked out trees, check out that link above. Amazing!

 

Happy Fall!

Are you still in fall mode or have you moved on to Christmas? I'm sticking with fall for now - I usually start my Christmas decorating on Thanksgiving day.

This was our maple tree last Thursday

and this was Sunday.

Beautiful but doesn't last long! 

Then there is this crazy thing - almost completely dead two weeks ago, now it's perked back up and looking better than it did in the summer.

Ditto for this one!

Oh - and the mystery lights finally faded out last week - but they are back on again!

Keeps things interesting I guess!

 

It's a Mystery

 

This picture was taken when we were looking at this house in July of 2016. When the previous owner moved out in August 2016, she left this chandelier on the back porch. I never checked the lights to see if they were turned on or off, or even if they had batteries but we never saw the lights on. I left it there because I thought it was cool and would figure out something to do with it sooner or later.

Fast forward to 2020. Sometime either late fall (2019) or early spring, we took the chandelier down to put up windchimes. We just put it over on the concrete bench because, well, it's kinda cool and eventually I will do something with it, right?

In March, hubby went to let the dog out and saw this.

The lights were on! I promise we have not touched the lights. They stayed on for 4 days. They got a little dimmer each day until they went out completely.

In April (Easter Day) they repeated.

On Mother's Day, in the middle of a storm, they came back on again.

Last week when I walked by the window early in the morning, the lights were on again. The only thing we have done since May is to move it from the concrete bench to the deck box. Still have not touched the lights.

I took these pictures last Friday morning.

Most days they are pretty bright before daylight then get dimmer during the daytime though a couple of times they have stayed bright all day.

This entire time, the switch has been in the off position.

Right now they are pretty dim but we will see if they get bright again after dark.

I'm not sure if I want to open the battery pack or not. 

What if there aren't any batteries inside?

Halloween Decorating

I finally got all my Halloween stuff out.

 I re-finished three pieces that I stitched years ago. (All from Lizzie Kate) I forgot to take before pictures - I know I have some but I guess they are on the other computer. 

All I did to this one was replace the ribbon. It had a purple satin ribbon/bow. I swapped it out and added the black and white button. Much better.

 

This one had a wide purple ribbon/bow and the bottom was about the same as the top. I never really liked it but it was finished so I left it - until this year. I took the ribbon off, took all the stuffing out and cut 2 1/2 inches off the bottom. Thanks to Vonna's 'fluff and stuff' method I re-stuffed and used all the stuffing I pulled out. Still not perfect but it is firmer and less bumpy. I changed out the ribbons and I like it much better now!

My last re-finish was originally finished on a foam block (again, never really liked it) I found this frame at Michael's - it has a Halloween picture under there - I covered a piece of sticky board with fabric and mounted the stitching on foam core with two layers of batting. A new bow and a felt ghost to finish it off. Thanks to Priscilla for teaching us to think out of the box.

I had to take this from off to one side to keep the lights from glaring on the glass of Too Cute for Pie (still one of my all time favorite stitches!)

My white cabinet - still one of my favorite places to decorate.

The gnome is new - isn't he cute? He's hanging out in the laundry room.

Last, but not least, a couple of cute pups.

Have you decorated for Halloween?

I have no idea if we will have trick-or-treaters or not this year. I'll have some treats but I will probably just leave a bowl outside and keep it filled until I run out.

A Heartfelt Thanks and Outside the Closet

 I'm a little slow these days, but I want to say thank you to Patricia over at Bird Nest On the Ground

Patricia likes to rescue things and she has been making 'Heart prints' from an old quilt and sharing them with her readers. I was lucky enough to receive one of her creations.

 I haven't decided exactly how I will display it yet - I might just put it on an easel like it is or I might frame it. However I decide to display it, it makes me smile every time I see it.

Take a look at her blog and see what lovelies she has there.

And here is a look around the rest of the sewing room. This room has not been painted since we moved in so I did not choose this color. These shelves have a combination of both cross stitch and quilting books and patterns.

It's a small room and packed full. The cabinet to the right of the sewing table has my 'fancy floss' in it. My stash has outgrown the boxes it is organized in so I'm in search of a new storage solution. 

The white cabinet on the far right has fabric in it.

 It's full and most of it is fat quarters. 

Most of this shelf unit is cross stitch. The plastic tote on top is paper crafting supplies and there is one basket of quilt patterns but the rest of it is cross stitch. The white cabinet with the glass door has some of my scissors displayed inside.

And there is the closet. That's it. I told you it was small. The shelves in the first picture are just to the right of the open door.

It looks nothing like this today - I'm working on a few projects. Some of them are gifts so I'll have to wait to show those but I'm also updating a few Halloween stitches that I wasn't really happy with the finish on. I'll show those in the next couple of days.

Our weather has been so nice. Cool mornings, nice afternoons. Unfortunately the skeeters are still here so if I spend too much time outside I become a skeeter snack.

That's it for now. 

Hope you have a great week!