Have a Lovely Christmas

I hope you are having a lovely Christmas today. I have to work a few hours, but fortunately not the whole day. My family will do all the cooking and save me some food.

I've been wanting to share this for awhile, but kept forgetting to post it. I have collected Muffy Vanderbears for over 20 years. My mom bought them for me at first, then after she died, my sister started getting them for me. I now have plenty and since they aren't making new Christmas bears any more, we've decided to stop. I have plenty anyway. 

Every year I've intended to make a little vignette with the bears and finally this year I did it. I have 2 kind of funny spaces in the stairway to my basement - one is a door to the laundry and then this shelf in the middle of the wall. 

Alison and her daughter filled the shelves with the Muffy Ice Princesses skating and the Muffy Tiffany shoppers. I wrapped a bunch of empty boxes and stacked them around the scene. 

This is my vignette in the doorway to the basement laundry. That's Muffy Reinbear and the Muffy from White Christmas. I made the little flags from washi tape, add a little quilt batting and you have a snow scene. I was very tickled that I FINALLY decorated with the bears.

Again, I hope you are having a lovely day. Merry Christmas, everybody. Thank you for stopping by.

Christmas Decorations for the Party

We had a very successful party again this year. Everyone made beautiful wreaths and no one got burned from my high-powered Dewalt glue guns except me.

Everyone helps with the party, even Lynn from Montana and my sister, Jo Ann, from Utah. Here are their contributions this year. Both Jo Ann and Lynn knew that the theme this year was a red and white Scandinavian Christmas theme. It was a delightful surprise to get these in the mail the week before the party.

Lynn sent me this beautiful set of felt birds which I strung on fishing line to go over the FOOD table - the most important table of the party. I never manage to take a picture of the food on display because I am usually pretty stressed right before the party.

Jo Ann cross stitched these ornaments for me. The reindeer and the snowflake ornaments were hanging on my mirror in the living room. The tree ornament was on the tree.

I will post some photos from the party and then I think I will write a post about hosting a wreath making party. That will follow in a the next week or two.

Wreath Making Party Information

Ok, finally I'm getting around telling people a little bit about the party as it's not your typical party. I think I've hosted the wreath making party 3 times in the past.

Basically, the supplies for the wreaths are all here. I've got greenery, wreath forms, various ornaments, many colors of ribbon and 5000 felt balls from Nepal for the wreaths. You don't have to bring anything for the wreath UNLESS you have a very specific theme or idea in mind, then you would need to bring the decorations for your specific theme you want to add to the wreath.

I also will have a pretty complete spread of food - sandwiches, dips and chips, chocolate chip cookies and one other dessert (haven't decided what yet), pasta salad, fruit salad, soft drinks including some beer and wine. If you have a special dish you would like to share, please bring that, but you don't have to bring any food. I think there will be plenty as I tend to overdo things.

The real challenge for the party is parking. My neighbor is the Duncan Chapel fire chief and he has to go out on every call his station gets. We have to leave his driveway readily accessible to allow him to get in and out easily. We may have you park at my brother's new house around the corner and have him drive you here or perhaps park and Publix at the intersection of Poinsett Highway and Old Buncombe Rd and pick you up. I'll post more details later.

It's a fun, creative party. I think you will have fun. I hope to see you here.

Wreath Making Invitations

I finally decided on what to do for the invitations for the wreath making party.

Here are the major components - a little package of candy, the written invitation and little stockings to hold the candy. Finally - one week before the party, I am mailing them out. I have been telling everyone about the party though. I don't think it will come as a surprise to anyone.

Wreath-Making Party Time

I've been working pretty hard around the house trying to spruce things up before the wreath-making party on November 30th and December 1st.

I got Carlton to install a new bathtub for me with new subway tiles all around.  That is very exciting. I haven't wanted to admit it, but I had layers and layers of plastic and duct tape around my shower and bathtub for about 2 years that I just tolerated until now. I felt like I had to finish John's house before I could do more stuff on my house. Pictures in another post.

I haven't made my invitations for the wreath-making party yet because I keep debating on what to do. I've got to get those done this weekend.

I thought I would show you a pom pom wreath I finished last year. Jo Ann gave me a great red ornament last week that really goes well with the wreath. If you should decide to make a pom pom wreath, just be aware that you are going to need LOTS and LOTS of pom poms. I'm pretty sure that's over 60 pom poms.

I hope you are having a lovely fall. It remains stunningly beautiful here.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

I have been quite delinquent in blogging since early November which often means that a lot is going on.

We've got John's house close to the first real inspection. We need HVAC and installation of ducts, then the inspection. Then we can drywall.

Lots of developments at home as well. My sister and her husband have moved to Greenville from Salt Lake City. My brother, Ben and I flew out to Salt Lake to help them drive back. That was a pretty grueling 5 days because we followed one of the major storms across the country. Then we had to get them settled in my house and get my sister set-up to work from home.

Anyway, I just wanted to write a quick note saying "Happy Holidays". I hope you had a "Merry Christmas" as well.

After Christmas Creativity - Pom Pom Snowman

A lot of times right after Christmas when things have slowed down a bit, I just get all these ideas about things I want to make for the next year. It often prompts me to go ahead and start making things.

I got a Clover Pom Pom maker because I want to make a bunch of garlands with pom poms. Man, is that tool seriously fun. I left it at work one night so in case everyone had a little time they could make some pom poms. One of my co-workers was especially talented at making multi-colored pom poms so they started calling her a "pom pom overachiever".

I made a pom pom snowman that I think looks pretty cool. (Aside - I had my walls painted about a year ago and they used the wrong color paint. It was supposed to be a much milder version of this yellow. When I take photos inside it gives everything a strong YELLOW cast. I will fix that one of these days and learn to take better photos as well.)

But you can still see that the pom pom snowman is cute. I made the hat out of black felt. I rolled a strip of felt to form the body of the hat and sewed 2 circles, one large and one the diameter of the rolled felt to the top and bottom. I got a large needle, threaded it with the white yarn, sewed it through the head, then through the hat to form the hanger. I glued on the felt eyes, orange nose, mouth and buttons. The stick arms are just wedged in there. I cut the scarf from felt, but I think it would look better knitted.

Other post-Christmas projects - cleaning, planning for next year's party, planning for John's house, trying to exercise some so when we ski in early February, I will be able to button my ski pants and actually ski.

Decorations for the Party - Medallions, Lots of Medallions

More photos of some decorations we made this year.

My sister helped me make them and Lynn hung them from the curtain rod and the greenery. They spiral around and really intrigue the cats. Sonny loves to climb the curtains and try to attack the medallions. All were made with the help of the scoring board and the edge punches from Martha Stewart. Very fun.

Jo Ann and Rich made me a rustic gingerbread cabin for my party. I had to spray the crackers with bitter apple so the cats wouldn't lick the salt off the crackers. The problem with that? When I was finishing up some  details on the house, adding more snow and such, I kept licking my fingers and tasting the bitter apple, yuck.

One of these days I will learn to use my camera better so you can see things better.

More from the Wreath party

Here are some more photos from the wreath-making party.

Beth did a spectacular wreath matching the bow and the holly along with the metal star in the center.

Lauren always comes to the party and works very hard on her wreaths. It is beautiful as always. She is very talented and creative.

Kelli and her mother show their wreaths. They both made large square wreaths which I love. They made it home safely after having a flat in my driveway. 

Alison and Pressley at the photo booth. Pressley always makes a wreath for one of her teachers.  I think she gets brownie points that way. I did not how seriously funny she is until this year. The Target dog is just hitching a ride on the wreath, not a part of the wreath. 

Those are most of my photos. Alison has a lot of photos from the second night of the party. I will try to get more photos soon. Take care everybody.

Continuing the Woodland Theme - Fox Gift Card, Christmas Banners

I am sending someone a gift card that I decorated with a cool fox puppet designed by Randi of Swoon! She has a ton of cool downloads, some directly on her website and some on an educational website called Playful Learning.

The fox puppet is available at this page on Playful Learning.

I attached the fox to the paper with the brads and I really like how the fox holds the gift. I used Martha Stewart scrapbook paper as the background. I am hoping it will fit in the 11.5" x 14" photo mailer with just a tiny trim.

I made a Merry Christmas banner in shades of greens and browns. It looked very pretty with the greenery above.

This is the center of the "MERRY CHRISTMAS" banner. We didn't exactly center the deer on the medallion, but it still looks good. My sister and I found the deer online, printed it on cardstock and glittered the antlers.

Here's some of the letters of the "MERRY CHRISTMAS" part. The letters were downloaded from Martha Stewart's website clip art - Festive Garland. We colored the letters with a magic marker and glittered the edges with gold then glued it to a scalloped circle then glued to the medallion. The medallions were made using the scoring board which is seriously fun to use.

I hope you are enjoying your holidays.

More photos from the party

When I conceived of the idea for the party, I figured it would be a bunch of women from work, talking and decorating the wreaths. That is a part of the party, but really the kids enjoy it a lot too. I am amazed at their creativity.

This is Sentell (not sure I am spelling it right). BJ really wants him to wear the bear ear headband.

Bradley and Tiffany with their creations. 

Elisia is the star of this photo. 

Erica with her wreath

Cassandra with her wreath

Asa and Eli posing with their creations.

More photos tomorrow or Friday.

Wreath Making Party FAQ 2012

Here are the most common questions about the party.

1. What is a wreath-making party?

Obviously we are going to make wreaths for Christmas. I decided to do this because I noticed one year that the holly trees around my house were heavily laden with berries. I thought it would be fun to make wreaths with them. The party was successful. For some reason I wasn't able to host a party the next year, but we did have one last year. That's why it's the "almost" annual wreath-making party.

I've gotten better at figuring out the materials needed for making wreaths. The most helpful item is a "Soft Touch" wreath form where you lay down the greenery for the wreath and close the clamps that are attached to the form. Very easy. You don't have to wrap wire round and round anymore. I buy them wholesale from a wreath company in Maine, Kelco industries. Yes, the forms are probably made in China.

I have all the materials needed. If you want to make a special wreath like "Baby's First Christmas Wreath" then you would need to bring the decorations to do that. I've got ribbon, bows, pine cones of all sizes, glass balls that I buy on sale (and Wendy donated some as well. Thank you, Wendy.), etc. etc.

John cuts some Frazier fir trees for me that really helps with the greenery. Thank you, John .

Mendy taught me the basics of making fancy bows. Hers are still the best, but mine are at least adequate now. Thank you, Mendy.

2. What if I am working the day of the party? What day do I come to the party?

Sometimes people don't notice it, but I host the party on 2 different days - Sunday December 2nd AND Monday December 3rd. I do that because we work in the ER and it is impossible to pick a day where everyone can attend.

Come on whichever day works out the best for you. I just hope are are able to come on one of the days because  we do have fun.

3. What do I need to bring?

You can bring an unwrapped toy that we will donate to either our Head Start class that we are adopting or to Toys for Tots or Country Santa.

You don't have to bring any supplies or food. I will have everything you need to make a wreath and lots of good food. I am not good at picking out wines so if you would like some wine to fuel your creativity, you could bring a bottle, but you don't have to. I'm kind of beer kind of girl. I drink one every other month or so. I'll have some Coronas with limes.

My brother-in-law, Rich, and my sister will be here next week. Rich is a genius with food. He will help make up some of the food we will serve. Also, Lynn, my friend from Montana will be here the week of the party. She will help with food as well. She's also a great cook. For Kristin I always make my pasta salad.

4. Where are the directions to the party?

I will put up some copies of the maps at work. You can always call me for directions if needed.

5. What about parking?

Yes, parking may be a problem. My neighbor is the Duncan Chapel fire chief. He has to go out on every call that his fire station makes. We cannot block his driveway. I will put up some traffic cones to make sure no one parks in such a way to make it difficult for him to exit.

My younger brother lives just around the corner. We may do parking overflow there and shuttle people to my house.

Try to carpool if you can.

6. May I bring my children to the party?

In the 2 years I have had the party, kids have done really well. Some of the most beautiful wreaths have been made by kids.

The scary age group to me are the 2 year olds. I worry about them ingesting some Christmas bauble, fossilized cat food, or worse, fossilized cat poo. If you as a parent can handle it, you know I love kids. I just think it might be hard to watch the child and exercise your creative craftiness. Childproofing is not my skill really. I am pretty good at catproofing though.

7. What if I have cat allergies? 

I vacuum like an OCD clean freak before the party, but it doesn't really matter. Cat dander is everywhere. Use your flonase, benadryl, zyrtec, or whatever allergy medicine you prefer, religiously before the party.

8. What if I have other questions?

Call me, I can post more information if someone has a question that others might wonder about.

Why my Bernina has a dull needle

Note: This topic is not green-related. It is GREENERY-related though.

I'm working on invitations to my wreath-making party which will be held on December 2nd and 3rd. Two nights so the people the people at work can attend either night.

Last year the invitations pretty much took a month to make. I just could not do that this year as I am way behind in my Net Zero Energy Class, working on my home, fixing some stuff at Kathy's house, and planning for John's new house. I tried several ideas for invitations and just didn't like any of them until I came up with this. I did the same thing last year when we gave gift cards to the teachers at the Head Start school that the ER has adopted.

Invitation wallets. I've sewed about 65 of them in my favorite Christmas scrapbook papers.

So the Bernina is being used again to sew PAPER, not beautiful fabrics as she deserves, but PAPER. i have had fun doing it though, partly because I'm so happy I have a relatively easy design for the party invitations. You may recall that the idea for these cards came from a craft blog called Just Something I Made. Cathe, the author of this blog has great ideas and she loves paper just like I do.

Sunny went to the vet to get spayed. She did not do well afterwards; she developed a fever up to 105.4 and felt awful. She had to be on antibiotics and no one knew why she got sick so fast. I was seriously worried about her. I thought it might take awhile for her to get back to her normal self.

Nope.

She's back to her wild child self, running up and doing blitz attacks on the cats that outweigh her by a factor of 3, dumping out the food bowls and scattering the food all over the kitchen, sneaking through any open door to get into anything possible. She's back alright. I just adore this kitty.

Merry Christmas

I forgot. Merry Christmas everybody. 


Here is a gratuitous kitty photo. This is Big Head after he had his Christmas feast - canned kitty food. He is very content as you can tell from the relaxed pose. He is a feral cat that just showed up at my house. I am unable to pet him at this time. He was very skinny when he first arrived, but his head was big even then. Now he is a big fat cat all over. I have to get him to the vet before he causes a kitten population explosion. 

He wishes you Merry Christmas too.

Wreath Parties #3 and 4.

Well, the final wreath party is done. I had planned having 2 parties on consecutive nights to make it "easier" on me and so everyone where I work would be able to attend. We work 24/7 so whoever works Mondays is almost always off on Tuesdays. It wasn't really easier on me because I worked a 12 hour day shift the day before the parties and the day after. That's was a scheduling faux pax that I will not repeat. 


Anyway, several people weren't able to come so I had "make-up" wreath parties - one with my friend Mendy and one with Ada and Dawn and their kids. Here are some photos from the last 2 parties.  You've already seen Mendy's wreaths. 

Mendy's front door wreath

Mendy's back door wreath

Mendy's mom wreath

For my friend, Karen who could not make it to the party. 

Ada's grandkids - Skye, Asaiah and BJ on the floor in the porch

Ja'Kobe with his wreath, I never spell his name right. He has a lot of personality as do all the grandkids. 

Asaiah with her wreath and her cousin, BJ. I also make an appearance in the mirror. Somehow I am very good at taking shots of myself in the mirror. 

Tiffany looking beautifully color-coordinated with her wreath. 

Dawn's kids are very quiet and were diligently working on their wreaths so I did not get a photo of their creations. They also made a little basket with a "Charlie Brown" tree in it. Very cute.

Finally, The Wreaths! Part 1

Ok, this is not the big reveal because I don't have photos of many of the wreaths, but this gives you an idea of what is made at a wreath-making party.


It's not really designed to be a party for kids, but the kids who did attend were great at the party and came up with great designs. And if they didn't make a wreath, they were very entertaining anyway.

This is Elysia posing with her wreath. She was a very enthusiastic participant.

Group photo of the first night party.

Luke did not want to leave the party. 

Casey and Cooper evaluating her wreath. Luke, Audrey Ann and Emma Kate posing for the camera.

Sara's turn to show off her artistry.

Sara's wreath at home. You can tell she is proud of it as she should be.

Zachary's wreath.  

Ryne's wreath. I hope I spelled his name right.

Cindy is a big Clemson fan and always has this tiger on her door. She designed her wreath to go around the tiger. I think it is beautiful.

Mendy makes most of the bows for me. She wasn't able to attend the official party so we got together on a Saturday to make some wreaths. Mendy made 3 of them that day.

I made a wreath which I mailed to my sister for her birthday.

I also spray-painted some magnolia leaves gold and bronze hoping that they will last more than one Christmas. We'll see. 

My brother was the official wreath photographer. I have not yet received his photos yet. That will be part 2. 

Thank you everybody for making the party a success.