Happy Thanksgiving

Hope each of you enjoys a wonderful day filled with family and friends.

I'm thankful for you!

Christmas Yet To Come

Christmas decorating continues. This is the hutch in my kitchen that I have shown you before, but it is nowhere near finished. What you are seeing here is a work in progress. I like to start piling things up on the shelves to get a feel for it all. I like to eyeball the colors and heights of different objects and how they work together. All of this may stay, or we may go back to the old drawing board.

You may have figured out that I have an affection for gingham checked fabric. That will probably stay for sure. However, my husband's cell phone, watch, glasses, and wallet in the lower right hand corner are going to have to go. When I mentioned this he said, "Just put one of your glass dome things over it all. It'll look great." Right, nothing says Christmas like a cloche over some electronic gadgets. The snowmen seem to like his idea though. Typical.

Christmas Present

Did I mention that we are skipping Thanksgiving over here at blog sweet blog? That's right, we're fast forwarding to Christmas. And since I LOVE Christmas music, I had to create a little holiday Playlist for your listening enjoyment. I might add some more songs as the season progresses, we'll see.

Now you can't have Christmas without decorations right? That being said, I wanted to show you some recent additions to my collection. I found this beautiful wreath over at Bayberry Cove. I think it's going to be great with my Cody Foster houses and Christmas in July trees. Ooh, and it's larger than it looks too. Twelve inches across!

This little shadow box came from the ever talented Suzy at Georgia Peachez. She is such a clever girl! I love the way she repurposed this vintage ornament box.

And finally, I scored this adorable corsage from Beth. I stalk her shop on a daily basis to admire the amazing goodies she creates. Check out her blog. She gives the tutorial for making a similar corsage. How sweet is that?

Eventually, I hope to show you how I incorporate these new lovelies into my holiday decorating scheme. It might be helpful if I take down the Halloween decorations first though.

Christmas Past

I've been rummaging through my Christmas goodies trying to figure out which things I want to have out this year. I know, I know, it's still early but I like to start dreaming and planning, because to me that's half the fun.

Over ten years ago I had a brief foray on the craft show circuit. At that time I was really into making country Christmas decor. Santas, snowmen, and angels were the headliners at all of my gigs.

These are some of the pieces that I had leftover after my last show. I really haven't displayed any of them since then, because at the time I was completely burned out from making them, peddling them, and looking at them in general.

Here we are ten years later, when I can finally bear to look at it all again, and wouldn't you know it, not a bit of it fits in with my current decor. I guess Santa and the girls will need a shabby chic overhaul, because they're not up for being country when country just isn't cool. Then again maybe I can slap some lipstick on those angels and call it folk art. That will put them on the "A-List" for sure.

Lining and Zipper and Gathers, Oh My!

So two lines into the directions for the Dorothy costume, I signed a blank check and put it in the swear jar.

I knew the thing had a zipper, but I figured I could rig up the closure with Velcro if I got in over my head. For some reason though, the fact that the pattern did not call for interfacing didn't send up any red flags for me.

Turns out the bodice had to be lined rather than interfaced. In my book, having to deal with lining is the equivalent of making a second garment. ARGH!

It's fitting that one of the main parts of the machine has the word "pressure" in it's title.

However, it was worth the time, effort, and the full round of golf that the check ended up covering.