Christmas Decorations 2009

This year my little feather tree has more vintage ornaments. Creed's grandchildren did not want his vintage ornaments and knew that I would love them so they gave them to me. I was thrilled. Now the tree is full of my grandparent's ornaments, Creed's ornaments, and 1 ornament that Candice found for me when she lived in Kentucky. I even have a few ornaments that we had on our tree when I was growing up. The rest of the display are reproductions and trees that I found in the last three years.
Yes, it is behind my couch. I don't have a lot of surface area in my house. This couch is large so the "sofa" table is actually a drop leaf table with the coffee table on top of that. I used stacking boxes under the white sheet to create height. All my paper towels, paper plates, punch bowls, etc. are stored under that table. Where do you put your Costco size paper products? My kitchen is just not that big.
A close up of the garland on top of the entertainment center. I love all the vintage reproductions. Silver and glitter...what could be better?
This is the inside of the front door taken from the living room. I love the bubble lights. They remind me of the ones my grandparents had on their tree. I have many happy Christmas memories and love things that bring back those memories.

I have another arch from the living room to the dining room that has even more ornamentation. I just didn't get a photo. They are full of glittered snowflakes, icicles, and silver glass ornaments of different shapes and sizes.
I decided to change things up on my family room mantel this year. I found those silver glittered trees at Tai Pan for around $3-4 each. I really wanted things to sparkle. The base is a green pine garland with mini lights, then I added two weeping cedar garlands end-to-end. I added LED icicle lights so the lights could be wrapped in the cedar trailing down. I added light cozies to the mini lights, glittered metal snow flakes, big glass silver ornaments, silver beading, crystal candle holders with silver glass finials on top. I love sitting in the family room at night with it all lighted at night. It makes the family room feel so festive.
I also added new Christmas stockings this year. I wish I could say I made them but these were too inexpensive to pass up at 30% off. I bought the last three from the Busy Biddy in Orem. (They have tons of great Christmas decorations.)

I don't think the pictures show you how sparkly everything is. I was a little afraid it was too over the top when I first did it but now I really like it.


I love these stockings. So European looking to me.
The glass jars on my kitchen counter.
The top of the Armoire in the living room.
A few of my nativity collection that I put out this year.
A little corner display with leftover things.
A small Santa display. I didn't put out at least a fourth of my decorations. Just trying to keep things a little less cluttered this year.
I hope you enjoyed this year's decorations. Feel free to check out last year's decor here and here.
If you would like to see other fabulous decor check out the Hooked on Houses Holiday Tours
or Rhoda at Southern Hospitality

Christmas Decoration for 2009

My dining room.
As you can tell. I love to decorate. I decorate almost every space I can find. I try to make it a welcoming and wonderous place for family and friends. I even decorate the windows. (I don't buy new every year but try to reinvent what I have. The last couple of years I've found things on clearance after Christmas. It's fun to discover those bargains when I get out the decorations the next year.)

I've had requests for posts and pictures on my Christmas decorations this year. So, here are pictures of my table scape this year just before our dinner party on Wednesday night. And, a big thank you to my husband for taking all my posted pictures. (I don't have the patients or the expertise.)




This year's tree and some of our presents. I have three different coordinating papers I am using this year. Stephanie designed my tags for me last week but I haven't been able to print them yet. They are miniatures of her photo frames. I think they will look great.
Last night we had a progressive dinner. We shared some of our Christmas traditions and had a white elephant exchange. It was lots of fun. I was in charge of the appetizers at my house and decided to share out newer tradition of using a Raclette grill. (You boil new potatoes, and then grill mushrooms, bacon, salami, onions, and melt the cheeses in little pans underneath the grill. You add any of these on top of your new potatoes. It's yummy. No one else had had it before and they all seemed to enjoy the experience.) More pictures tomorrow.

Check in with Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for more tablescapes. They are very inspirational.

The Winner Is...

I asked my husband to pick a number between number 1 and 17. He picked 14 so Marissa Garner is the winner. Marissa let me know which cupcake you would like.

I was kind of hoping Thimbleanna's number would come up because she loves to sew and she is the cupcake queen. She loves all things cupcake. So, Anna, want to trade for one of your great little zipper bags? You can have pick number 2.

Ali just had surgery and she really wants to start sewing. She also told me how much she really, really wanted one. Ali you can have pick number 3.

Thanks for your nice comments and for playing along.

Tomorrow night I am hosting a New Moon premiere as a part of my job. Who knew there were so many enthusiastic fans. Wish me luck that all goes well. Eclipse is scheduled to come out June 30 just in case you wanted to know. The next Harry Potter comes out November 20, 2010. The theatres around here are already booked. Amazing!

Aspen Grove Retreat

I downloaded these pictures from our retreat but forgot to post them. The cherry quilt is being quilted on a regular machine. Helen is a great quilter and was demonstrating for us how she quilts her own quilts. She is a master quilter all the way around. The next quilt is a top she is just finishing. Yes, it's all hand appliqued including the borders.
A cute Christmas quilt with this year's Christmas fabrics.
This was a quilt top made out of quilt squares she won last year.

This last one made with Mary Engelbreit fabric. I've got the pieces cut out but have yet to sew one block.
This is just a small sampling of some of the quilts that were shared at this year's retreat. I can't tell you how much I look forward to spending 4 days a year quilting in a beautiful setting. It's heavenly!

A Giveaway For You

Here are the projects I made last week at Aspen Grove. I thought I would let you pick one of these cupcake pin cushions as give away prize. Just leave a comment to enter and a way to contact you if you don't have a blog. Easy isn't it? The giveaway is open to all and the contest will be open until Tuesday night at midnight.

Between Naps on the Porch is having a giveaway too. Check it out.
These cupcakes are made from felted wool sweaters. (Sorry the pictures aren't better.)
I also made this pear pincushion and the apple core quilt top underneath the pear. I almost completed the whole top. It will probably be on the back burner until after Christmas.
I learned how to machine quilt. This is a sample of some of the patterns I was practicing. I can't wait to try this out on my next quilt top. It was really fun to do.
I worked on burb clothes (left) and made a baby car seat cover (right with the rick rack.) (You know the kind that you hook to the car seat handle and cover the baby up with. I see lots of them around but we might be raising a whole generation that will be claustrophobic as a result.)
I finished these Christmas stockings for Marissa's little Campbell and made an extra one for the next baby. They already have three so I just needed to add a few more.
Here are a few close ups. They are machine appliqued and hand embroidered with glass seed bead embellishments.
It was so great to be around such incredibly talented women who were so willing to share their knowledge. I loved being able to sew for four whole days.
And, last but not least, I love this sewing machine. When Grandpa Creed passed away, I asked the grandkids if I could buy this if none of them wanted it. They actually gave this to me as a thank you gift. It feels so good to sew on. It is so sturdy and runs well.
It even came in the cabinet and it weighs a TON. It was very hard to get it upstairs into my studio/sewing room. It is handy to have because I often have someone sewing with me...girlfriend, daughter, or one of my young women. It is nice to not have to change thread when I'm sewing with multiple colored threads. I just move back and forth from my Bernina to this singer.
I did recover the top of this little bench right after moving it in. I also discovered that my friend (who designed the Christmas stocking patterns I made) has the exact singer machine and sewing cabinet. When she told me how much she paid for it, I felt very lucky to have been given mine. She had her cabinet refinished. Mine will probably stay as is or else I will paint it.

Look What I Won and The Party is Over

I couldn't resist posting one last picture of our little "Max." I hopeCreed is thrilled to see himself as a character in the book. My amazing husband was at work again. Now the giveaway.
It is rare that I win anything. But, look what arrived in the mail just before I left for my quilt retreat. Isn't it beautiful? It is all handmade by Loretta. It's part of a pay it forward giveaway. My next post will be number 200 and I will Pay-it-forward. Stay tuned for my giveaway.
Here is the party is over part of the blog. Here is a picture of the only things I bought at Round Top in Texas. I love these bottles that contain textile dyes from a Textile plant in the South. Candice bought a few as well. I used them as part of my Halloween decor but will probably keep them up somewhere in my house year round.
I collect all the decorations in my dining room and then pack them up. Most of the decor is pictured. It is such a relief to get it all put away. However, it does look a little emptier around here...to empty in fact. I didn't get a chance to put up any Fall decor and I really don't like much of what I have. I put most of it in the DI (like Goodwill) pile. (Steph would be proud of me...she thinks I have too much stuff so I'm working on it. Less is better anyway.)


Did I say less is better? Well, maybe not when it comes to Halloween decorations. :)