The Holidays are in Full Swing

I have a few more things to post about before Christmas.

First of all, we finally got our Christmas tree last week. My daughter came home from college on Friday and tonight she hung up her ornaments. Our tree is quite a mixture of ornaments and colors.

Some of my daughters were saying how they would like a ‘designer tree’ with a theme and color palette. This makes me smile, because I used to feel the same way, but those same little  girls would have felt very sad a few short years ago if I wouldn’t have allowed them to help decorate the tree with their treasures. I would love a fancy organized tree, but I’m sentimental, so it will never happen until my husband caves in and lets me have two trees.

If you missed my earlier post of other Christmas decorations around my house, here is the link.

Growing up my parents would let us each have a new ornament every Christmas. Some were store bought and some years they were handmade. I have a stuffed bird that came from patterns printed on fabric in the 70’s. One year we drew pictures on round lids from liver containers and shrunk them ‘Shrinky-Dink’ style in the oven. That one has been lost, but growing up in a large family that had to share a lot, that little shoe box full of ornaments was precious and I still put most of them on my tree.

  I hope someday my girls will treasure their old ornaments too.

 

I tried a new fudge recipe this year that I really like. This batch was ‘mixed nut fudge’ – all the fun of mixed nuts, now in fudge, which is something my body needs anyway.

I also got my fat book back from the swap I participated in at Thrifty Miss Priss. Here is a glimpse.

 

 

This was my page. I didn’t want to post it before everyone got their books. Participating in this was a lot of fun. There was so much talent and effort put into the pages, and my picture collage doesn’t do it justice. Once I’m not so busy I’ll finish the cover. 

Lastly, I won a fabulous prize from the Where Women Create Christmas giveaway! I am so thankful and overjoyed. If you want to see the wonderful necklace I won click here and look at ‘the ninth day of Christmas’

Extra arts, crafts and decorating really kept me going when I was discouraged recently about my foot not healing well. But I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot and  I have so much to be thankful for! My family, the birth of Christ,  and all of you - friends, family, and those I’ve never met.

Merry Christmas!

-Lynnae

Grandma’s Memory Book

  I wanted to put up some pictures of my finished Memory Book that I made for my Grandma (I’ve blurred out her full name for privacy reasons). I’m really happy about how it turned out and I think its one of the best gifts I’ve ever given. I gave it to her when I was in Utah in September (I couldn’t wait till December), and I hear that she loves to show it to her visitors. That is exactly what I wanted, an easy way she could show pictures to friends and little great grandchildren without having do dig out boxes or precious originals.

Last summer we visited Grandma and scanned over 100 pictures. Not only do we now have a digital copy to preserve, but I was able to print some off on photo paper and make an album. I wanted it to be an old style paper album so I used a black sketchbook with a metal ring binding. I didn’t want any plastic over the pictures, and they were copies, so I thought that would be OK. I am so glad I did it that way too, because as soon as she opened it up she touched the pictures with her hands and just said “Oh!”

I used a few Graphic pieces from The Graphics Fairy’s excellent collection, to balance out the pages. I also left a few empty spots for new pictures we may want to add. There’s a lot of photographs we didn’t get to at her house.

I try to call my Grandma once a week, to ask her about the past and record the conversation onto the computer. If you’d like to read more of what I’ve written about this project, choose ‘Linnea’ from the labels on my sidebar.

-Lynnae

Incredible Paper Garlands

I just saw the most exquisite paper garlands over at SecondSister Suaviloquy. I just had to share them with you. Visit her site for more of her charming paper decorations.

-Lynnae

Silky Christmas Stocking

This isn’t a tutorial per se, its more of an idea based on a loose theme of a vague concept….

I had the idea to use a vintage slip to make decorative stockings.

I traced a leg shape onto the folded slip. I cut four to make two stockings.

I wanted to fold the lace over, so I sewed them wrong sides together, except for the top near the lace, which is right sides together. This should start at least an inch below the lace, since it will be covered when the lace is folded over.

Then I used the bodice of the slip to decorate the toe area. I liked the way the ribbon was hooked inside so on this one I used the wrong side of the slip, and left the ribbon. I liked it so much that when I used extra ribbon for a hook I left the adjustable part of the strap intact. This all depends on how much you want it to look like a slip. I thought it was very dainty, though in this house it won’t be out in the living room, I assure you.

I still feel like they need some more embellishment, either with extra lace from the slip, or other things I have around. Some millinery flowers or pearl buttons would be lovely. About now my family thinks I’m a little crazy, but it was such a fun idea I just had to give it a try!

What do you think?

-Lynnae

 

Christmas Home Tour

Here are a few photos of Christmas around my house. After you visit mine, tour more homes by clicking the link at the right.

Welcome ! 

This is my living room. I have a collection of Santas on my piano.

 

 More of the living room and entry.

  This is our family room.

I had to clear out some of the Rockband instruments and other game things for this picture, but I still see a few I missed. Grandma made the candles on the top shelf, along with the stockings and nativity. In the 50’s she began making stockings for all her children, their spouses, grandchildren, spouses, and so on. She has made dozens, if not a hundred.

 This is a nativity that my grandmother made.

 Breakfast Nook

I can never stick with the same color scheme from room to room.  My breakfast nook is light and bright and cheerful.
Many more Christmas decorations were made by my Grandma. She would work all year on ceramics for her grandchildren. And she has a LOT of grandchildren!

I hope you enjoyed your tour of my home! Merry Christmas!

-Lynnae

I’m Dreaming of a White Table……

…Or, How to turn my frown upside-down.

Today started off pretty crummy. Regular readers know that I had Dry Needling and a Cortizone shot a while back in an attempt to help my plantar fasciitis and was told I would not be able to jog or do aerobics for eight weeks. Now I am in week TEN and my foot still hurts. So either it’s healing very slowly or it didn’t work.

  You may not know that over the past few years I’ve lost 100 lbs. It’s not something I’ve shared with the blog, though it’s one of my greatest accomplishments. That’s a story for another day. But I just have to emphasize how important exercise is to me. I have returned to Jazzercise, and do a ‘hardly moving’ low impact workout, but today in class it was all I could do to not start bawling. Seriously, loud music pumping and everyone’s happy and I’m blinking away because I’m so frustrated with this darn foot.

I wish I’d never had the stupid shot!

So, my foot is pretty good if I sit around all day, but what mom can do that? Plus, thanks to an old car accident, sitting too long makes my neck and back hurt. So these days I feel like it’s a choice between my neck or my foot.

I will stop whining now. I know many people are worse off than me, so I’m trying to get a grip and just be thankful for what I have. In an effort to ‘flip this day’ (you know, like flipping a yucky house into a nice one?) I decided to paint a table I got at Goodwill a while back. The table cost me $19.99.

Original table

I added little wooden embellishments on either side at the base, primed it and painted it white with old paint we had around.

I LOVE IT!

It still needs another coat but I was anxious to show it off.

Close up of the embellishment.

So now I feel a little better. Plus crawling around to paint it I was neither on my foot or sitting all day.

My kids went to see holiday lights and Jon isn’t home from work yet. Thanks for allowing me to be vent some frustration, and yeah, maybe whine a little.

It’s cocoa time.