We just returned from our grandnephew’s Wild Thing first birthday. My niece said she wanted to make me proud with the decorations and she did! She made all the signs herself.
We got chocolate chip cookies to take home.
The invitation read no presents but I couldn’t resist making a Max ornament like the one I made a few years ago for my storybook tree.
Cake time!
Wild Thing, you make my heart sing!
My oldest granddaughter had her sixth birthday party recently. It was her first drop off party but I was invited because it was unicorn themed and I had a great unicorn project. I first saw the unicorn ornaments on a Christmas blog post from Rambling Renovators http://www.ramblingrenovators.ca
Then I did some Pinterest surfing and came up with the elements we’d use – acrylic paint (glitter and plain), felt for ears, Sculpey horns that I’d make in advance, fabric flowers from the Dollar Store, and assorted ribbons and yarns. The children chose their paints and squeezed and swirled them into the ornaments, cut out their ears, and chose their flowers and other additions and their placement while I glued those on with a low temp glue gun. Then they drew the faces on with Sharpies. While my example, a picture I had on display, and the birthday girl’s dress, had closed eyes only, most of the children drew complete faces.
Some were quite elaborate!
Since we had the ring toss rings from last year’s flamingo party we also had a unicorn ring toss.
I made the horn from three empty thread cones covered with gold paper.
The birthday girl’s Mama, my youngest daughter, made her a beautiful unicorn dress. The mask is from another friend’s unicorn themed party a few weeks earlier.
Next up a mermaid party in June for my youngest granddaughter!
Finding a budding branch to use as our Spring tree still seems daunting so I’ve been looking for something in stores. We hadn’t found any before the Spring brunch we had when my niece was visiting on St. Patrick’s Day. I had made some bunnies I wanted to hang as decorations and give as favors so I started looking for pussy willows and in the third supermarket we checked we finally found some!
This weekend on our third trip to Target to search for trees we found two different small ones so we bought them both. The wooden one seemed perfect for eggs.
That cute gingham bunny comes from http://www.ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com
The other tree has some green felt leaves and small eggs already and I hung some bunnies, chicks, a sheep, and two carrots on it.
That still left a lot of Spring ornaments. Since I had moved the new wooden bunnies I had left from the pussy willows to the leaf tree, the pussy willows were empty and I realized that they could be our Spring tree!
And we moved some more ornaments to join the ones that were already on the kitchen hooks.
The maple leaf with the drawing of the sugar house hangs near the maple syrup bucket now.
The nest with eggs hangs next to a watering can on the left. We bought that tiny white rabbit on the right at the Evanston sidewalk sales
We were excited to hang the hand carved bird house with a little red bird we bought last summer at the Glenwood Avenue Arts Festival from Vulcan, Michigan crafters LBs Wood Shoppe.
The shelf decorations are still sitting in the bin waiting till we get a bit closer to Easter.
We finally went to The Mexican Shop in Evanston. I had seen ads for it and imagined it full of Mexican imports like the Mexican stores in Austin but it wasn’t like that at all. It mainly carries jewelry and clothing and doesn’t seem particularly Mexican. We did find this guy who seemed perfect for the hook above the hall gallery wall.
His price tag said vintage 1970’s and he’s marked “Made in Burma”. While he has a tendency to twist around on the hook, I think he was a great find.
I am disappointed though that the Mexican Shop was not a Mexican store since I was hoping to find Mexican tile like cabinet knobs that might work in the kitchen. Changing the knobs to make the kitchen look more like ours was one of my first thoughts when we moved here. I have found some online but we would have to buy a lot of knobs – 38! and I’d like to see them in person before spending so much. Luckily, we did find a way to bring some Mexican tiles into the kitchen. The space above the sink looked pretty empty with nothing but a discolored paper towel holder.
I had been trying to think of ways to fill it and had thought of hanging a dishtowel on either side. But that didn’t “spark joy” and one day I saw a picture of a kitchen with an old window hanging in a similar space. I looked at our things to see if anything would work for the space like the window in the picture and realized the tile tray that was sitting on the bottom shelf of the china cabinet would be perfect.
We’re going to replace the faucet and we’ll keep an eye out for knobs and other ways to make the kitchen look like ours.
As part of the riser project we have been enduring since we moved here most of one of the walls in the workroom/guestroom was removed to access the pipes of the adjoining unit’s bathroom. While the wall was being replaced there were problems with the old utility box so we got it replaced. While the old one was kind of funky and fun, the new one is ugly and utilitarian and looks like it belongs in a basement. So we covered it with my iris cross stitch picture and hung the wrapping paper picture next to it. It needed something above it too so I was glad to find a small square gold frame that was perfect for the cross stitch I rescued from the frame my mother had it in. Unfortunately both the cross stitch pieces and the mats had some foxing or mildew on them. Luckily I was able to get enough of it off of the cattail piece to reframe it.
One of the items on the bookshelf is a peacock paperweight. In the last post I wrote about this area I said my sister gave it to me. The other day my older daughter asked if she gave it to me and I started to say no my sister did but then I realized I was wrong, my daughter had given it to me.
Peacock Paperweight from my older daughter – A little blurry but accurately credited now.
The Georgia O’Keefe poster hangs alone over the couch now and the crayon batik peacock feather and iris hang above the other bedside table.
The quilt was made by my youngest daughter for our “blue” bedroom. When we moved to the “green” bedroom she was vacating to go to college, she made us a new quilt. Unfortunately, it is falling apart and while I mended it a few times I had to accept that it is beyond that now. We are now using the green comforter we bought her when we moved into the old condo!
I folded up the old quilt and put it on the bench (formerly my mother’s workroom coffee table) so we can still appreciate it. I think we figured out how to stop the rugs from curling up at the corners and moving all over the rugs. I glued the loopy sides of velcro to the bottom corners!
The rugs we bought to cover up a cleaning spot on the rug should stay in place now.
When we put away all the Christmas decorations at the end of January we left the kitchen cooking ornaments and the large window snowflakes up. They will probably stay through February.
Valentine decorating began with a heart garland I began crafting when I took out the valentine making materials on one of the days my youngest granddaughter came over in January. I had been wanting to try sewing paper for awhile and I think it turned out pretty well. I love the cherry stamp I bought this year.
Even though I had figured out a way to hang the fir garland in the kitchen this year I was glad to take it down so I decorated the tree again this year.
This year’s heart features a blue bird delivering a valentine. I combined and traced two images I found and then colored in the heart with a marker and the bird with a colored pencil. I scanned it as a photo then printed it on our printer. I had to buy thinner/lighter cardstock so that the printer wouldn’t jam but it’s thick enough to work as a tag/ornament. I wrote S.W.A.K. (sealed with a kiss) on the back and paired it with Hershey kisses.
When I’m crafting my hearts I imagine that the people I give them to will appreciate the hearts as much as the candy but when I gave them to my family on Pizza Friday it was clear that they don’t. I guess until Valentine trees become the rule rather than the exception I can’t really expect people to get excited about Valentine ornaments!
The frogs, turtles, and alligators have always appeared throughout the house. The plastic ones that used to perch on the CD shelves have been decommissioned, as it were, since the CD shelves have become art shelves. Others have found places to bask in.
1. Alligators and a frog on the windowsills in our bedroom. 2. The woven alligator sits atop a sensor above the bedroom door (a nod to all the “guys” that used to perch above door frames. 3. This guy (a painted and altered seed pod) who used to be on one of the black boxes in our bedroom is in the living room now atop the first CD cabinet. 4. The guitar playing guy also moved from a black box to join the wooden alligator with a broken jaw on top of the living room bookcase. 5. Two carved alligators lying on top of the “new” living room bookshelves (they used to be in the workroom) 6. Transplants from the old CD shelves sit on the “new” CD shelf (it used to be the paperback bookshelf). 7. The alligators with fishes in their mouths from the old CD shelves on the “new” living room bookshelves. 8. Two frogs and a turtle from the CD shelves and the glass turtle that used to be in our bathroom on the second CD cabinet. 9. Two Valentine frogs and a turtle lamp from friend Susan still live on a bedroom dresser.
One of my favorite things about having collections is receiving items for the collections from friends and family.
The red partridge and a pear tree trivet our youngest daughter gave us found an immediate temporary home on the Christmas decorated sideboard.
My oldest daughter found a merman to join all the mermaids.
And one of our nieces found a piece to identify the collection.
I think that hanging it above the door like this gives it the effect of a label in a cabinet of curiosities.
When my husband’s brother and his wife visited in the Spring he asked how many suns he had contributed to the sun collection. The answer was most of them. And when they came at Christmas they brought us another one – this carved yellow one – as a house warming present.
We’re still contemplating adding the more colorful ones that hung in the bathroom at our old condo. While we’re not quite ready to hang them, I think with this new addition the wall is beginning to look like it needs them.
Another present that was fun to incorporate was this potholder that the aforementioned niece made.
She made them for everyone out of different but similar fabric and after we opened them it was funny to hear the “Oh I get it, POTholders!” exclamations travel around the room.
I love Christmas decorating since I get to reconnect with our Christmas collections and traditions. One of my recent traditions is to go on internet blog hops and see all the homes decorated and photographed by professional bloggers. But one of my favorite blog hops is Jennifer Rizzo’s Linky Party which follows her wonderful Holiday Housewalk and often features blogs more like mine with its eclectic decorating and photos taken with a phone. With just a desire to share my home with others, and no hope of being selected for next year’s blog hop (one of the reasons people join the linky party), I am linking to Jennifer Rizzo’s Linky Party.
We started our Christmas decorating this year by finding a new place for the Advent Calendar. The space between the china cabinet and the bench is usually empty so we were able to use command hooks to hang the Advent Calendar, the cross stitch hanging, and the stockings. So much easier than in our old condo where we replaced the regular pictures.
We moved the small bookcase that is usually on the other side of the room where the Christmas tree will go and filled it with small villages.
The one on the top is from Germany and belonged to my mother. The animals from that village are on the middle of the next shelf (they wouldn’t stand up in the “snow”) flanked by some alpine cottages from The Christmas Tree Shop.
Cats are not kind to trains that move around under a tree so what is left of the train I bought to go under the tree when we lived in Denver sits on the third shelf along with its village, from my husband’s mother’s ceramic store, that I painted many years ago. The bottom shelf, available for grandchild play, holds a wooden village and a wooden nativity set.
The Advent Calendar used to hold presents for our daughters wrapped in green and red tissue paper. They get those packages delivered to their homes now and we tie red bows on the calendar. We take turns removing a ribbon and tying the bow around one of the small pieces that adorn our shelves year round. Then the other one has to find it – easy at first but it gets harder as the month goes on to remember what did and didn’t have ribbons. One of the first ribbons appeared on the neck of the gourd crane below. The wooden bird facing him and one of the alligators on the shelf above also have bows now.
The door of the 24th on the paper German Advent Calendars we had when I was a child always opened to reveal a Nativity. We continue that tradition so we have a lot of Nativities. Some hang on the tree and this year the shelf ones are displayed on the top of the China cabinet along with a few larger ones.
We are always excited to add to our collections. This year we found a copper pan ornament at World Market for our kitchen Christmas collection that hangs under our cabinets and numbers over thirty pieces now.
Some of other collections also end up in the same places each year including the small Santa and Snowpeople collections that are always displayed on the speakers.
And some collections get displayed differently each year. This year most of the gnomes congregated together on one of the CD cases (the one with all the Christmas music!) I love the gnome printable from the Clean and Scentsible blog which I also printed out for some gnome collecting friends.
https://www.cleanandscentsible.com/gnome-free-christmas-printable/
Our new sideboard is a great place to display many of our reindeer and the Saint Lucia I created from an angel tree topper many years ago.
In 1990 my sister in law began making “one block quilts” as Christmas ornaments for gifts for family and a few friends. She makes around 25 each year! We hang the smaller ones from the first few years on our tree and we hang the rest together. As this collection keeps growing we keep finding new places to display them.
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is making something new for our windows. Our large windows called out for large snowflakes this year.
Each snowflake is made up of six pieces made with the Martha Stewart “Party Crafting Template”. I purchased it several years ago and used it that year to make make many ornaments with double sided foil paper. Hung separately each one twists beautifully. Attached together they make these large snowflakes.
We put our German Christmas Market mugs on the ledge of the dining room section of windows.
The last one on the right is from this year’s Chicago Christmas Market. The ones on the left (below) are from the year I went on a Christmas Market Tour in Germany.
Our old condo had a kitchen window above the sink and we hung a garland above it. I usually hung crafted ornaments on the garland that I gave to people who visited throughout the season. I thought we couldn’t continue this tradition until I was reading a blog that mentioned someone who just pretended at Christmas that they had a window above their sink. Aha!
I was inspired by a blog or pin I can’t find again to make the patchwork wood slice ornaments and the skis also come from the Clean and Scentsible blog.
https://www.cleanandscentsible.com/popsicle-stick-skis-christmas-ornaments/
We haven’t put up our Christmas tree yet as we usually do that around the 15th but we did put up our Children’s Book and Movie Characters tree in our workroom. I can’t get a good photo of the whole tree. The quote attributed to Albert Einstein on the top of the fairy whose head didn’t make it into the photo says, “If you want your children to be bright, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be brilliant, read them even more fairy tales.”
In addition to Pippi, Madeline, and Anna and Elsa pictured here, the tree contains many more ornaments including the Wizard of Oz characters from both the movie and book versions. This year since I took my grandchildren to see Shrek the Musical, I wanted to find a Shrek ornament. I was happy to find a Shrek figure to stand underneath with Peter Pan and Captain Hook, Wonder Woman, three princesses and Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf.
When we moved here there wasn’t room for all the mermaids we had hanging in our upstairs bathroom so I thought the left over ones deserved a tree this year.
Now I can’t wait to decorate our live tree with all its collections!
In our workroom window in Northampton we had a small collection of fairies. Since no place seemed right for them here, I decided to divide them up by seasons. Here are the two that landed on the Fall tree.
The first one, with her sunflower dress and missing wing fabric that basically dissolved, was a parting gift from my co-workers at Child Care Focus. The second one was a pleasant surprise when I started unwrapping the fairies. I didn’t remember him at all so I don’t remember where I got him. Other fairies will show up on the Christmas tree and the Spring tree .
Collections and Other Stuff I Like 