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.

Recover Chair Seat - Should be easy, right?

I try very hard to re-use things and to make things that can be re-used or recovered easily. I bought a pair of folding chairs from Target that are pretty comfortable and cute, but the seat was covered with a black vinyl that started to tear.

This is Piper on the better chair which I have yet not recovered.

This is the vinyl that I took off of the worst chair. You can see why I needed to recover it. Fuzz Parker is in the background nesting on my batting. You know you can't keep a cat off quilt batting.

Here's the photo of the recovered chair. Looks pretty good, doesn't it?

Except that when I removed the bottom (forcefully by hammering on the underside) I broke the rabbet which held the seat in place. I didn't realize that the seat was rabbeted in. I think I can get John to help me glue it and tack it back on. I will have to cut the rabbet off on the other seat to get that one out.

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.