Merry Christmas 2014!

One of my favorite gift shops had this delightful Santa Claus rug displayed at their entrance . 

I hated to walk on it it was so beautiful. 

I didn't even know you could buy Christmas themed rugs!

I gushed about it to my Hubby who commented, "I thought you said you had too much Christmas decorations and wanted to cut back?"

I replied I must have had a moment of insanity when I said that.  

And continued, "Wouldn't it be adorable to have a Christmas theme rug in our foyer?"

I think he was shaking his head…probably thinking I'm crazy?  

But I would love to have a rug like this.  

Maybe I can find one for next Christmas?  

You know for our new home!

Merry Christmas to All!

My Santa Claus Mugs

Only five days remaining until Christmas!

My favorite time of the year.

I found these adorable vintage-looking Santa Claus Mugs at Pottery Barn.

They look cute next to my "true" vintage Santa Claus candles!

There were three designs; a Santa with open eyes, a winking Santa and a Santa with closed eyes.

My Santas are sitting on a beautiful red and white small gingham tablecloth I bought while we were in Italy.

My brother-in-law and his wife bought me the lovely lighted black deer lantern for my birthday.

The Mr. & Mrs. Santa Claus Salt and Pepper set are from Avon - I think I bought this set back in the 1980s. 

And, of course, the "Ho, Ho, Ho" wall hanging is one I machine embroidered this year.   

I bought four Santas... one of each design plus a second winking Santa.

Once I had my set of four home I decided I wanted a set of six; two of each design.

But when I returned to buy two more they were all sold out.  

I'm still happy I have four!

How about you?

Do you have any Santa Claus Mugs?

Xxx

Hello Fall and More

I love my little chalkboard sign!  

Today I updated it for Autumn.  

Lately, rather than using the chalkboard ink pencils, I've been using regular chalk. 

Click (here) to read about making my cheap and easy chalkboard sign. 

After we move to our new home in Ohio I'm going to make some more of them.  

I just read someone's blog where they said chalkboards are "out" now.  

Although the blogger didn't agree (and I don't agree either) because she (and I) loved her (my) chalkboards too.

I'm not able to post as much lately because I've been so busy de-cluttering, cleaning, organizing and packing for our move (still several months away).  

We have rented two storage units... one in PA and another in OH.

And they are filling up.

  

I'm packing my collections and knickknacks for our next trip to our OH storage.

Yesterday I tackled our bathrooms.  

My goodness I couldn't believe all the stuff I had "stuffed" into those rooms.  

I was going to take some before photos of all of it laid out on my beds to sort through but I was too embrassed.  

Today I'm going to go through all my jewelry.  

That is…I'm going to start to sort through it all.

I got as far as gathering it all together and laying it out on our guest bed. 

Not that I wear a lot of jewelry but I have inherited my Mom's and some of my Mother-in-law's jewelry.  

Last week I embroidered the cutest Santa Claus postcard at our monthly Embroidery Club.  

It's embroidered/appliqued out of fabric and felt.  

I purchased this design as part of a set, In-The-Hoop Christmas Postcards (here), on-line at Embroidery Library.

 I'm definitely going to make some more. 

I finished crocheting my Christmas Star Coasters.

 (click for link to Sara's free pattern at her My Merry Messy Life blog) 

 I made enough for our neighborhood Bunco Christmas Party in December.

Next I have to block and starch all of them. 

While packing I found these cute Halloween mugs to set out on our fireplace mantel. 

And last week I bought some Halloween/Fall fat quarters in the neatest fabrics.  

My brother's Maple Tree changing colors in Ohio.

October is such a beautiful month! 

Thanks for visiting. 

Stitching Up A Storm

We're between winter storms.  

Heavy wet snow fell yesterday and starting tonight we're getting more snow turning into a snow/sleet mixture over night.  

I machine embroidered a cute Santa Claus and by accident discovered how to add monogram lettering to the design so it all stitches out together.  

I was going to make it into another mug rug but I forgot to add the batting under the design.  

I can always make an appliqué out of it I guess.  

I have an apron that I'm thinking of adding this cute embroidered design too.

This view is from my digital embroidery software program, TruEmbroidery, that runs on my Mac laptop.  

I like this program but I'm still trying to figure out how to use it.  

It has three program modules and is quite powerful.  

There is a neat feature that let's you load a design and then see how the design stitches out.  

Lots to learn here.  

First try…one row for each color.  Flogged it.

On the crochet front I'm working on a baby throw, "Leaping Stripes and Blocks Blanket".   

I loved the first colors I chose but after working up a couple rows I wasn't happy with the feel of the throw. 

The cream and lime colors in Loops & Threads Impeccable Impecable yarn were too thick and made the throw feel too stiff.  

Followed the pattern to start with two rows for each color repeated twice…
Then I'm crocheting four rows of each color.

So I substituted a different cream in Loops & Threads Simply Soft  and, black instead of the lime, in Caron Simply Soft yarn.

Unfortunately, I didn't have any lime in Simply Soft yarn.  

Now the throw isn't as stiff and is softer too.  

This stitch is solid so there are no holes for little fingers to get caught in. 

Leaping Stripes and Blocks Blanket

I had some spasms in my back this morning so I'm taking it easy today.   

I haven't had any spasms for quite awhile...do you think cleaning yesterday had something to do with it!  

LOL!  

Probably.  

Where's the Snow?

We're in Ohio over Christmas visiting with our brothers and their families.  

You would never know yesterday was the first day of winter.  

Because it poured RAIN all day and night.  

And it's raining this morning but is suppose to finally stop around noon.  

Santa faces and beards done.

The temperature has also been unseasonably warm too.  

Apparently that will end soon with colder temps on the way. 

Getting better at making the Chinese Ball Buttons for Santa's eyes and mouth.

I finished crocheting the Santa Badges and started giving them away to family.  

One Santa, in the middle, has a pink beard (due to crocheting at night in low light!). 

We stay at a hotel centerized to our brothers' homes.  

We get a suite with a separate bedroom, two bathrooms, living room and kitchette.  

It's comfortable and sure came in handy two Christmases ago when I came down sick Christmas Eve and Day.  

I bought the crocheted Christmas doily.

And sewed the pillow cover several years ago.

We love seeing our families but we are always ready to be home to celebrate our Christmas. 

Our living room Christmas tree.

I love blogging at Christmas and joining in on all the Christmas Home Tours!  

Our Christmas trees are up and decorated in our living room and family room.  

Family room Christmas tree with ribbon topper.

Our two Christmas trees are skinny ones... not too tall either.  

Only $50 each at Target.

We gave away our large Christmas trees and downsized.

I can put as many ornaments on the skinny ones as I did on the large ones and the trees don't take up as much room.

Since we don't spend Christmas at home we have to had the fake trees as a safety measure.  

The trees are so pretty with our white and red berry lights and all our decorations.   

I added two more ribbons to our ribbon tree topper in our family room to fill it out this year. 

Sorry low light again.

I used fake garland on our fireplace mantel this year.  

I may add some fresh holly and pine branches from our yard when we return home.  

I added Santas to the mantel along with a vintage red lantern and a wooded Santa painted many years ago by a dear co-worker. 

The forest scene is a fabric panel I machine quilted, painted and added embellishments to back in the early 1990s.  

It's stapled to a wooden frame. 

Red mesh ribbon is weaved in and out of the green garland.

May the joy and love of the Christmas Season be with you!

My Santas

I have to crochet one more Pincushion - pattern click (here) - to take home for Christmas.  

Then I will have enough for all the gals in my family.

I'm enjoying crocheting the Santa Badges - pattern click (here).  

I have five made so far.   

I even went back to the first one and added another row of white fringe to Santa's beard.

  

Today I'll start packing clothes for our trip to Ohio for Christmas.   

Get my hair done.   

Decorating is finished...well as much as I want to do. 

Yesterday we booked another tour across the pond with our college friends.  

This one is for northern Italy 2014.  

We loved our tour to England/Wales/Scotland this year and are thrilled to be going to Italy next spring.

Happy Wednesday!

Chalkboard Christmas Art & Crocheted Ornaments

Remember my cheap and easy chalkboard that I posted about (here)?

It's my second highest viewed blog post.

I decorated it for Christmas!

See my three vintage Santas on the teacup shelf?

That was fun!

I should make a larger chalkboard.

I love Santas!

Click (here) for my Santa Badge project.

I found this cute, free tutorial (here) by Sharlene McKay to crochet this adorable Santa Badge. 

And the Christmas wreath is made with pipe cleaners, believe it or not.   

I crouched the wreaths in two sizes and put them together and added a ribbon.

For your Bendy Scalloped Ornaments patterns, like the Christmas Wreath, by Jennifer Dickerson click (here).

Jennifer's Christmas Wreath tutorial is great and the wreath is so easy to crochet. 

Did you see my mistake yet?

The one on the left is correct.  

I added the third fringe row in white above the face on my first one on the right and it should be below.  

The tricky part is making the Chinese Ball Buttons for the eyes and nose.  

Here's a video (here) that helped me.  

Still practicing them though.  

LOL!