In, Out and About in December!

Yes, there's a whole lot of decorating going on at my house -- but there's life happening too! They're not-fa-la-la moments but pretty good nonetheless, as we count down these days of Advent.

I've been having my ear-igation treatments and they are so exhausting, I have taken to stopping on the way home just to sit or walk and chill, seeing a bit of nature's work. This bucolic scene called me after the last one. 

I adore sheep and they were out in force on this crisp, blue-sky day. And they were quite curious about who this interloper watching them eat might be!

I've tried painting sheep many times. It never works. I'll take these photos any day.

Another morning, I attended a video shoot for our university's summer theatre's year-end giving effort. It almost felt normal, seeing my friend Matt and our new department chair, Stephen, even though we were outside and masked!

I had to do a curbside pick-up close to downtown on the rainiest day imaginable, so I thought I'd check out the capitol Christmas tree. 

Considering the weather, it looked pretty good -- the only bit of bright at 8:30 on a Saturday morning downtown!

The big balls that someone drove into last year are back, too.

 

And I made a quick drive down the main street. Not much to share but one spot had a fabulous window.

On the home front, Lizzie and I have been doing our own bit of bird watching between naps (for her) and decorating (for me!) I especially love it when I see the blue jay come. He's very quick and doesn't pose well, but I think I got him, though through the glass. 

And of course, the cardinals are always a welcome addition.

I leave you with a sneak preview.

Christmas is coming!

Rudolph Has Arrived!

In my last post, I shared our virtual Southern Exposure workshop, where friends Kate, Jan and I decorated a tealight candle holder. But Kate and I had ordered another project, too, and although we didn't Zoom this one, I wanted to share it. (Cue the Music!)

It was making our own Rudolph. Southern Exposure delivered this well made reindeer, with limbs screwed in. Along with it was a bag of "stuff."

This was the simplest project ever. One plastic ball, with its hanging mechanism removed, was screwed into a hole on the reindeer's nose. Then I just added the three balls and spray of bells to the antlers and tied the bright red and white scarf around his neck. Voila!

(The project also came with lights but I opted out of that. That might change but right now, I like it without.)

This took all of five minutes. And then he went to his new home, outside!

 It's looking a lot like Christmas inside, too -- but that's coming soon!

(A collection of all Christmas 2020 posts is here, in case you missed something during this busy season!)

Sharing with:   Love Your Creativity      /     Let's Keep in Touch    /     Tuesday Turn About    

Virtual Southern Exposure!

Marmelade Gypsy friends know how much my friends and I love going to Southern Exposure for their workshops, especially during the holidays.

While they do have distanced workshops on site, it wasn't the time for us to go -- but gratefully, they came up with several virtual workshops. They delivered our project bags (along with pieces of Jennifer's wonderful chocolate cake!) to our doors and sent us a link to the project video.

 All three of us got one one of the same projects, a candle holder. So Kate, Jan and I decided to zoom our creative time! First we watched the video with Micah, our teacher and the terrific designer who leads most of our Southern Exposure workshops. Micah explained that the concept behind adding the botanicals to the candle holder was based on the tussie mussie of Victorian periods, where women carried small, fragrant bouquets of blooms and herbs, in part to ease the body odor that might emerge in days with fewer bathing and laundry opportunities. As the tussie mussie would brush against fabric, it would release fragrance.

There are the supplies that came in our kit -- a very nice rustic candle holder with three tealights to add in; two faux evergreen branches; several lengths of glittery gold leaves; six sprays of red florals; three pre-cut wires and three floral picks; a long length of raffia.

Using the wire and floral picks, we made three sprays, connecting two of the red blooms together into one larger one. Then we tightly held the greens in one hand (cris-crossed) and added the gold pieces. Then we TIGHTLY wrapped the stems with the raffia to hold it together. Once done, we tucked in the red floral picks and lit the tealights. Voila!

We were proud to share our finished pieces!

Of course, then you have to decide where to put it. For me it was an easy decision.

I decided to place mine in the entrance hall, next to my Greeting Angel.  I had been a little worried about the gold glitter leaf picks, wondering if they might be too much with the rustic look of the candle holder, but it works well in the hall, with the golden angel and lower light.

We were all very satisfied with these pieces. The concept could easily be duplicated for other projects in the spring or summer (using a different holder, of course!)

It's always wonderful to do a creative project. But the best part of this one was doing it with friends. Kate said "it feels normal!" (and then we realized something has changed when Zoom feels normal!)

Wishing you creative times with people you love -- even if it's virtual! (And we didn't even have to mask up!)

A Slow Start but Looking Up!

It's been a slow start to decorating this year, which certainly wasn't my plan. Fortunately I had some things stashed in the guest room and Rick moved in some I couldn't lift as well then, including my favorite pre-lit tree. It's small and has brightly colored lights that cheered me to no end. It only has a few ornaments because most are downstairs, but it makes me feel very happy. Just turning off the lights and looking at the tree is calming.

I pulled together a couple of holiday vignettes. Right before Thanksgiving I picked up my poinsettia from the symphony's fundraising sale. Add a pretty tray, few fairy lights, some batting for snow and one of the snow people I made a few years ago and it was instant vignette, all with things on hand.

The tray was an old one I had; I added battery lights I already had and fiberfill for snow. I overpaid for the poinsettia because it was a fundraiser but all the other materials were on hand. Later, I went back in and added a red glittery candle (which looks a tad orange here!) I'll probably swap it out for the silver one when it surfaces!

I put in one of my Vintage by Crystal figures into a lantern with lights and "snow" and it was good to go.

These little figures are so darned cute. I have a few for most holidays and if I had the budget I would buy more!

Last year I made this wee bird-in-a-cage -- another budget project. The cage was from Michael's dollar department, I had the bottlebrush tree from earlier tree-dying efforts and the bird and moss from my "naturals" bin.

 I didn't get our family cards addressed -- that's for this weekend. But I did get a few painted. More to come!

There was so much I was planning to do over the holiday weekend, none of which got done. But it will be fine in the end. I just have to remember not to push too much! I go from alternating hot and cold to walking about to a rest and then starting some of the PT exercises they gave me to do for my back when I was ready (and I am). I have an appointment with the cardiologist to deal with my a-fib diagnosis. 

Watch out, world. I'm on the way back.

Ghosts of Christmas Past

I've been thinking a lot about Christmases past this year, as it will be a very one-on-one Christmas for us. Just Rick and me. I could be sad about this (OK, let's be honest -- I AM sad about it) but it's also a good time to look at the richness of Christmases past and be grateful for so many wonderful years.

The people who make Christmas great -- like Mom and Dad. 

Mom knew how to make Christmas so special. I still have most of our old family ornaments and so many holiday things she passed along to me -- not the least of which was an unabashed joy in celebrating this bright, happy holiday.  Even on her last Christmas, she was filled with smiles!

Dad, meanwhile, always knew how to have fun. Those Christmases after she died weren't always easy ones, but they were fun.

We spent many family Christmases with the Cleveland cousins. We would wrap anything so the tree was filled with what appeared to be an abundance of gifts by the time they arrived in Lansing. (Of course, if it was a pair of socks, it was in two boxes. We had energy then.)

We had an annual gift decorating contest, too, which I've written about here. It was always fun to see who would have the most creative wrapping!  Some of the gifts were pretty creative, too. When cousin David was still in his dating mode, his sister gave him a kit to be prepared for anyone! (Fortunately, Bonnie won out!)

There were times we tried too hard. Not long ago I found an audio cassette of one of the first Christmases without the moms. It's more than a little off the wall, as we went for the merry. But inside I think all of us were more than a little broken.

Christmas with friends was a tradition, from the college days...

....to Cork Poppers. I'll miss our holiday wine swaps!

I've already missed one holiday tradition this year, the annual greens market with my friend Jan.

Mark and Jan -- and Rick and I -- do an annual holiday exchange based on a Christmas song. We target our gifts to lyrics in the song and we always end up with something fun! I don't know if we'll be able to do this in 2020. It might depend on the weather!

Another group of friends usually gathers together for holiday cheer. This year, we're scheduled to connect on Zoom.

Sometimes Christmas Eve isn't what you'd expect -- and that's a good thing. One of my favorites was a last minute invitation to enjoy Christmas Eve with friends of Rick's (and mine, too, through him.) In addition to a fabulous Chinese dinner, we spent the evening making clay ornaments. Mine holds a proud place on my tree. Greg's took ages, and was gorgeous.

A lot changed when Rick came into my life, bringing Greg and Kevin for the ride. My first Christmas with them I was awakened at 5 a.m. by Kevin hurling in bathroom. You know you must really like a guy when you clean up his child's throw-up in the bathroom at 5 a.m.

When they were kids we started our Christmas Eve cookie making tradition. Holidays became brighter still when Molly entered the scene!

We continued the tradition last year, a little differently. First of all, it wasn't "official" Christmas Eve; second, the parents were shopping and Rick and I were hanging with the boys. They were pretty good helpers! (One helped, one taste tested!)

This year will be different. We won't be having friends for dinner or Rick's trio playing after.

We'll miss scenes like this on "Christmas Morning."

But we'll still find time for quiet moments.

And relish in our togetherness, appreciating how we have been there for each other every minute of this wild and crazy year.

But even if the lights are not attached to the headband of a toddler, even if everything is a little topsy turvy and uncertain, I know we will find the joy in this season and perhaps appreciate it even more this year than all the years before, because we've all seen what time and illness can do to our lives, how it makes every new day uncertain and therefore one to be cherished.

I believe that.

I really do.