A Little Dollar Deer Decor

I thought Dollar Deer would
be more prominent in my
Christmas decorating, this year.

Instead, he sat quietly on the
corner of the piano.

I like that, too! :)

Happy Christmas!

and a blessed New Year! :)

Baking Begun

I think I was in too much of
a hurry to get the oven closed,
thus the blur.

I asked Uncle Si and Cousin Cliff
what they missed most about
our non-simplified Christmas.
Both missed my buffet of
quick breads.  Well, they are
all from boxes, so far.
I did look for overripe bananas,
but came up empty.
I have some squash to cook.
I even have canned pumpkin.
So far, besides Auntie's fruitcake,
I have made banana bread from
a box, lemon poppyseed bread from
boxes and here are

cranberry bread (made with orange juice
instead of water, which is why it was
yellow) and date bread, which Uncle Si likes.
Cousin Cliff and I could cheerfully
skip that one. :)

I tried spraying with olive oil
this time, instead of greasing
the pans with shortening.
I'm going back to greasing.
Then, when I loosen the bread
from the sides of the pans
with my handy dandy plastic
knife left from some stop
at Wendy's, and turn
out the loaves,
it will be less likely that I
will find chunks of my
bread in the bottom of my pans. :/

Oh, well, it still tasted good! :)

Any baking going on in your kitchen?

Oh, Boy! JOY!

OK, so it didn't end up the way I
thought it would.

OK, so it would have been
a lot less work to do it "right."

It cost me nothing but what
I already had.

It says what I wanted it to say.

I had a roll of contact paper.

I bought it at Goodwill for $1.

I had some permanent markers.

I bought them at Wal-Mart for
around $13.

They were both well used,
before I started this.

What I really thought of
was a lush, three letter
motto that reminded
us of the Reason
for the season.

This will do...
...for now...

and it peels off easily. :)

God bless you with Joy
beyond the merriment.

Birthdays and Sisters

My father and my sister had the
same first and last initials until
she got married.

She was born three days
before his 34th birthday.

Their birthdays fall between
Thanksgiving and Christmas.

This makes a perfect family holiday.
No-one has in-laws clamoring
for their attention this weekend.

Uncle Si and I are expected
at his workplace's annual
Christmas party.

That means we have to leave
Dad's before I'd like.

Still, it's not bad.

So, yesterday, Dad & I
picked up my sister
after her long trip from
the West coast.
Today, her daughter arrived.
Tomorrow, more will come.
We will get together on
Saturday.

Not all.

Mom is in Heaven.

Oldest grandson
and second granddaughter
are not able to make it.

Birthday girl's husband
can't travel without pain.

Still, over half of us will
celebrate Dad/Grandpa's
88th birthday.

I'm so happy!

Gluing What I Have, Plus a Little

With the lights on:

I got out the good old Elmer's School
Glue, again.  I stopped at Dollar Tree
for a pack of tissue paper.  I may have
some tissue paper, but this was cute...
oh, dear.

I did have the footed bowl, though.
That was a thrift store find.
I don't remember how long ago
or what I paid for it...

By candlelight:

The candy striped votive holders
are empty Ball jars from my cellar.
The tissue was cut almost to size
for the jars.
For the bowl it was torn into small
pieces.

I spread glue over the glass with a
wet paintbrush.

The patchy paper was put on,
a piece at a time, overlapping.
To save cutting, I lined straight
edges up with the rim of the bowl.

For the jars I "painted" the
whole thing with glue and water.
Lining up the straight edge
with the rim of the jar, I
pressed the top into place.
The taper of the jar made for
wrinkles in the tissue.
I didn't mind, I just kind of
glued them over.

I also brushed gluey water
over the top of the paper.
This can tear the wet tissue,
so, it was an adventure.

Eat Violets!
(et voila)

I popped some tealights from my
supply and a over-half-burned
pillar candle from Christmas past
into my little vessels and lit them.

Total out of pocket cost: $1
AND I still have most of the tissue. :)

More Recycled Cone Trees

We only buy a newspaper
once in a while.
This is one of those free
papers from the supermarket.
Does everybody have those?

I got very technical about drawing
circles on my paper.

They got cut out

then cut in half

and in half, again.
I was very technical about
bisecting my circles, too!
I folded them in half.

A little (or a lot) of glue.

and a little fiddling to get the sides
glued together just right (not)

and I soon had a small forest!
If I hadn't been so lazy,
I could have made different sizes. :)

Recycled Cone Tree

OK, so I have way too much
stuff. If I had less stuff, there
would still be decorations and
ornaments that would be
missed if I didn't pull them out.

Still, I was thinking of low cost
or even no cost, crafty stuff.

So, removing a box from
the recycling bin, I cut
a quarter circle from it.

Forming a cone from it
was a bit tricky for a person
like me with perfectionist
tendencies. 

I used a piece of tape to hold it together.
(The tip of the cone was a little more
satisfactory after I pinched the
stiffness out of it.)

You could leave the cone plain
cardboardy brown.
I decided to wrap leftover
yarn around mine.
Good old Elmer's school
glue holds pretty well and
is a snap to clean up.

I spread mine out with a dampened
paintbrush, but a piece of left over
cardboard works very well and
requires no clean up.
The brush will never be the
same, again, I have heard,
so I would never use a good
brush for this.

Eat Violets!
(Et voila)
I could add a top.
I could decorate around
the bottom.
I could add beads or glitter
or both.

Well, it was fun,
anyway. :)

God Rest Ye!

By some miracle,
I am able to post
a photo!
God bless thee.

Another Shot, or Four -- In the Dark

one

two

three

four

These ornaments
or
gift holders
or
package tie ons
are my latest
venture on eBay.
We shall see.

Our Own Version

No mantel, so it would have
been a little difficult to
hang the stockings by the chimney
with care.  :)

Happy Christmas!

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Somehow it seems appropriate to light
candles in honor of the Light of the World.

Remembering

My mother liked these ornaments.

Even though this will be our
fourth Christmas without her
physical presence

my sister and father made
it feel like Mom's tree. 

Third Sunday of Advent

He is coming, again,
this very same Jesus!

Second Sunday of Advent

Getting in the Mood

front door

and the table

First Sunday of Advent

Whew!

This stuff (tissue lame) ain't
that easy to work with. 
I'm glad I got this done
and
I'm glad I don't have to do any more!

More Stars and Toe in the Water

Somebody suggested I make my
stars from tissue lame.
First attempt - lame (no accent)
Second attempt - better, but it still
came apart where I tried to stitch it together.
This stuff is not easy to
sew!
Then, I got out some light weight
fusible interfacing.
I made a template, traced
it onto the interfacing
10 times and cut out the shapes.
I then ironed the interfacing
onto the lame (fabric)
using two press cloths.
Then I cut carefully around
each shape again,
sewed them all together,
gingerly turned the star,
stuffed it and sewed it closed.
I'm not entirely satisfied, but
I am a lot happier with it.
It is the gold star in the middle
top of my picture.

This afternoon I took a deep
mental breath and put one
lonely little star on eBay.
I hope to have some sets to
sell, soon.
We shall see.