Christmas at My House

I love Christmas decorations.  My house is just filled with little bits of shiny every where you look.  I tend to simply add my decorations in amongst my usual decor and it gives it such a full look. 

Starting in "my room".  My room is my sanctuary where I do my needle felting and simply go to relax.  It is filled from wall to wall with my favourite things.  I keep the Christmas decorating to a minimum in this room but I do have a little tree with some favourite blown glass ornaments.

I usually change these from year to year on a theme basis but this year is was simply a mix of favourites.

Then out of my room and into the main part of the house.  These little guys sit on my antique sewing machine (which was a gift from my parents when I was about 10).  It's one of my favourite treasures and will always be in a prominent spot in my house.  Two of these little dogs remind me of a long passed beagle named Biscuit.

I found this little chair in sofa in Winners years ago and they are one of my all time favs.  Aren't they cute?  I want a house someday where life size versions of these would fit in.

This collection sits quite comfortably on our dining room/kitchen table.  Above it is a simple black chandelier that is draped and dripping in crystals and snowflakes.  You can see our wood stove burning in the background.  Sigh... cozy!

Into the kitchen with a window sill covered in two of my favourite things.... animals and blown glass.

I could have added a dozen pictures!

The other window in the kitchen can't be left without blown glass!

Still in the kitchen.  Our house is open concept so the kitchen is a big part of our house.  This was a purchase at a charming little shop that used to be an old pharmacy.  Full of little shelves and interesting architecture.  In it is my Mom's holly.

Sitting on the island is a childhood favourite.  We used to have hot cocoa in these mugs after a day of skating on our pond.  These bring back soooo many happy childhood memories.  In the background you can just see a bit of the chandelier I mentioned previously.

Full circle heading back into my room (the door to my room is beside the pink china and behind the tree are the stairs to the studio and bedroom).  My Christmas tree!  Christmas is not Christmas without a tree... a real tree.  Cut and drug home by DH and put up that same night.

And that is just a small sampling of Christmas at my house!  Merry Christmas to all of my internet friends and customers!  I wish you all the very best over the holidays and the coming New Year!

A Day of Crochet, Knitting and Chatting Part Two

What a fantastic day we had talking, crocheting, eating, laughing and knitting!

We had so much fun I actually forgot to take any pictures of us working on our projects!  I did, however, get Mom to take a picture of her shawl and send to me.  She did the main piece in knitting and I added a crocheted trim.  We call it her "Spiderweb" because the yarn for so delicate!

We also had a friend join us for lunch!  We had pizza and she had apples!

She is a young doe from last year that came to visit all winter.  If you look closely you can see her front right leg is held up?  She had something wrong with her leg and can't walk on it, but she made it through last winter and she even has a baby with her this year!

Here she is eating the apples we threw out for her.  Mom has this window completely decorated in glass snowflakes and icicles.  The make the loveliest tinkeling noise when you brush them!

Mom's famous popcorn balls!   One of the first times she made them she didn't add the cellophane.  She hung them from the tree on Christmas Eve and in the morning, the floor was littered with popcorn balls and the tree still had the candy canes!  After that she wrapped them up in cellophane and ties them with a pretty red ribbon!

Tea anyone?

Pretty little jewel boxes collected over the years.

A favourite elf from our childhood.   Merry Christmas everyone!

Holiday Weekend

This was a big Christmas weekend!  We had DH's staff party, we were invited to pick out our Christmas tree and my in-laws Christmas dinner.  Whew!  What a whirl wind of activity with a bit of Christmas shopping, and Christmas decorating thrown in!

Every year at the staff party they have a Yankee Swap where basically somebody takes your gift away if they like it better than their potential gift.  The later your name is drawn the better because you have more gifts to pick from.  However, the person who's name is drawn first then gets to pick from everybody's.  Every year my gift is taken from me and last year it was taken three times plus, once again, I ended up with the "mature" gift!  I nervously sat there waiting for my name to be called so I can just get my gift and sit down again.  This year my name was drawn second to the last!  I went up and for once in my life actually went and exchanged my gift for a little Teddy Bear that was making the rounds.  I sat down, all pleased with myself for not being the usual wall flower and thrilled to get a beautiful gift!  I drew the last name... oh good, it's a boy's name... he won't take my Teddy Bear!  Wait... why is he coming over here?  What's going on?  He took my Teddy Bear!  With a brave smile pasted on my face, I open my gift... it's a sort of jack-knife thing... very nice... but it's not a Teddy Bear.  HOWEVER... guess who's name was drawn first?  That's right... my darling husband!  He promptly takes his "mature gift" and walks over to the Teddy Bear taker and hands him his gift, he tenderly takes the stolen Teddy Bear and brings her back to me!  Am I not the luckiest woman in the world?

On Saturday we went to pick out our Christmas tree.  How on earth did we ever choose?  We had hundreds of trees to choose from, but it was sooo cold and windy we stuck to a small area.  I'm afraid I won't be decorating it very much this year since Piggy has now become an indoor cat and he is WILD!  He's into everything!  It's like having a cross between a cat, a dog, a baby, and a Tasmanian Devil!

I know... hard to believe that adorable little face could be such a terror, but trust me, he is!  He's also the greatest purrer and snuggler!

A few more decorations.  These beauties are on my mantle in the bedroom.

 

A new ornament for my house, but it's really an older ornament that has made it's way from Mom's house to mine this year.  Isn't he adorable?

Christmas Decorating

For some reason I just can't get in the Christmas spirit this year!  I have the house decorated, presents wrapped, DH's staff party tonight, we get our Christmas tree tomorrow, turkey dinner at the in-law's on Sunday... something has to kick me into gear!  Meanwhile, here are some of my Christmas treasures.  Some are new, some are ages old, all are favourties!

A new owl for my woodland animal display.

Little treasures from my University days.

DH bought me this one year when he went Christmas shopping with some co-workers for their wives.  Everybody made fun of him because he spent so much time looking at the same Teddy Bears trying to pick out just the right one for me.  We are a match made in heaven!

My new amaryllis.  I just about always go for pink ones, but this year I decided to mix it up and get this red and white one.  You can't tell but the blossom is actually only about 3 inches wide!

Last years treat.  A blown glass snowflake to hang in my window.  Please don't look at the dirty window!

Blown glass turtles that come out to play with the permanent turtles at Christmas time.

And of course, who doesn't have green gum boots, a crown and a knight?  Happy Holidays everybody!