Primitive Snowman Tree

Most of the Christmas decorations are down, so now it's time for my little prim tree to wear it's snowman collection. I've collected these snowmen thru swaps with my online friends over the past 6 or so years and I look forward to enjoying them every January. I hope you'll enjoy my tree.......

Show & Tell Friday--Friends Warm the Heart

It's the last Show & Tell Friday for the year and what a snowy and cold one it is. A perfect winter day!

Doesn't everyone have a best friend and favorite doll and a teddy bear too. I thought I'd share this cute little pair all huddled up on this cold winters day. I made the Annie a few years ago and she is one of my very favorites. If I had a look a like doll it would be her. LOL! Ted E Bear was made by my very dear friend Donna Balfanz a couple of years ago and he and Annie are the best of friends. They are snuggled up in a remnant of an old quilt that someone many years ago, spent many hours stitching by hand and it is still being enjoyed today. The heart and lamp are also gifts received from friends and the tea kettle once brought warmth to someoone's, but now it's old and dinged and a rememberance of days gone by.


Grab a cup of cocoa and head on over to Kelli's and visit all of the other Show & Tell Fridays and enjoy this winter day.

Oh NO! I Can't Post Photos!!

I am currently having difficulty posting photos to my blog--drat it all! How do you keep a blog without pictures! I sure hope it gets fixed soon! So until then I'll sit here and twiddle my thumbs and I'll get bored of that real quick! Please blog fairy--fix me!

Vintage Stocking Swap & 2 Cool Gadgets

Here it is late Christmas night and I just have to share a few things. First is the stocking I received from Joyce for the Flickr Vintage Stocking Swap ......

I love the floral fabric she used and all the wonderful ornies she stuffed it with, but my very favorite are the darling little vintage angel bells.....


Here's a closeup of the little angels sitting with my Christmas village. Aren't they just adorable! And there's a whole little choir of them. I love it! Thank you Joyce!



Next are two cool gadgets I received from my husband today for Christmas and yes both of these were on my list.

This is a neat tool called a Cutterfly by EK Success It's sort of like a swiss army knife for crafters--paper crafters in particular, but I think it'll have a lot of fun uses. When it folds up it looks like a little pink butterfly. I plan to carry it in my purse and I think the scissors and tape measure will be the most used part.

Next is this little mini travel iron by Smartek Isn't it cute! It's only 3 1/2 inches tall and it has no steam, so it's perfect for ironing quilt block seams as you go. I can't wait to use it!

I love getting new little gadgets like these! I guess now I should sit down and work on a project or two just so I can use my new toys! Who says we get too big for toys--they just change a little the older we get.

Joy to the World!

Joy to the World , the Lord is come!

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:11)

Let earth receive her King

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16

Let every heart prepare Him room

And Saints and nature sing,
And Saints and nature sing,
And Saints, and Saints, and nature sing.


Wise men still seek him……Wise men still give him gifts….

What gifts you ask? The gift of our heart, of our will, of ourselves.

Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life. 2 Nephi 31:20

Merry Christmas Everyone!

A Most Wonderful Surprise & A Favorite Christmas Story

Look at what came in the mail today! Aren't they gorgeous! I absolutely love, love, love these little trees and they are my very favorite colors! I was told by my friend Judy Rawnsley that Santa was sending me something--but I really think they are from her! We were just discussing these little trees the other day and now I have a beautiful pair to enjoy! I love the little bases she makes for her trees and the beautiful colors--I know I said that part already. I do believe they will be staying out with my winter decor as they fit in perfectly! (hmmm...maybe all year!) Thank you Judy! How sweet of you!


Now for one of my favorite Christmas stories that I've been wanting to share with you all and this fits in perfectly. The story is about why Christmas trees aren't perfect. I hope you'll enjoy the story as much as I do and the next time you see a Christmas tree that you'll understand a bit more about why it may look the way it does. Merry Christmas.!

Click HERE to read the story...................

Show & Tell Friday--Christmas Ornaments

Today I thought I'd share a few of the Christmas ornaments I've made over the past 20 some years and I put it into a slide show just for fun, so we'll see how it works.
Also don't forget to visit Kelli's Place

Christmas Printables

I thought I'd share a few sites with you that have some beautiful Christmas printables...............

First is Seneca Pond Crafts This is my all time favorite place for printables of all kinds, so be sure to look around. She has some absolutely gorgeous vintage Christmas Tags, Bottle Cap Rounds, Mulitple Project Sheets, various wraps for small items and Eileen's customer service is excellent and her pricing is fabulous! In fact I think I'm off to buy some Valentine printables from her very soon!

At Ewe n Me Printables you'll also find some beautiful vintage Christmas Tags, Popcorn Wrappers, Tea Bag holders and so much more. Deena also has fabulous prices and excellent customer service.

Then there is Instant Printables You will also find Seneca Pond Crafts &
Ewe n Me Printables here as well as many other wonderful printables and some FREE printables........................

Free Christmas Gift Tags & Labels

Free Snowman Tag Set

Free Santa Letters & Lists for the kids--and maybe the grown up too.

And don't forget to check out all the designers who sell on Instant Printables--they have tons of great things!

Visit The Toymaker for lots of really fun things that are free to download. They have some Christmas gift/candy boxes, cards, tags, place cards, an advent calendar and lots of fun paper toys for the kids to make. It's a fun site!

Hope you have lots of ink and enjoy!

It's A Holly Hobbie Christmas!

Who doesn't love Holly Hobbie! Today I thought I'd share some favorite Holly Hobbie Christmas images. Wouldn't these be darling gift tags on a gift wrapped in brown butcher's paper with red ribbon or maybe even tied up with homespun.
If you would like to save the images please save them to your own hard drive, by right clicking and choosing save to pictures or other appropriate option.
Merry Christmas and Enjoy!

Show & Tell Friday--Christmas Story Collection

This week was a bit harder to decide on what to share or rather how to share I guess since it has no pretty picture, so I had to dress it up a bit with at least a couple of cute pictures like this little girl in her rocker reading---which is what my Show & Tell is about--Stories--Christmas stories.


See, not a pretty picture at all, but if you open these two books up they are filled with lots of pretty pictures and wonderful Christmas stories that I have collected for about 28 years now. There are over 300 stories in my collection and not all of them have been added to the books yet.


It all started many, many years ago when I would buy all of the holiday issues of the women's magazines (before they cost an arm & a leg--and had much better content in them). I always enjoyed reading the Christmas stories the best. Most of them are fictional short stories that writers had submitted to the magazines. Each year I would save them in a folder and then it grew so big that I started organizing the stories and put them into these two notebooks. Every year it has gotten harder and harder to find the stories and this year I haven't found any! So now I will start looking on the internet to continue my story collection. It's one of my own personal holiday traditions that I enjoy each year.
Don't forget to stop by Kellis' and see what everyone has to share for Show & Tell Friday.

What Do You Love About Your Holiday Home Party

Welcome to my What Do You Love About Your Holiday Home Party hosted by Karla of Karla's Cottage.

Karla's having a party--a virtual tour party with tons of wonderful Holiday Homes just waiting for us to come take a peek and see how each other decorates and celebrates. So get comfy and make sure to visit Karla's site and click on all the links and enjoy the party!

What I like about my holiday home......well lots of things. As far as decor I like my dining room the best! I just wish I could get the rest of the house to look like it. This is a shot of my favorite part of the dining room--the big windows with window seat.....

A few close ups of the window area......filled with many items made by myself or friends and my santa mug collection that is only about 2 yrs old........





A shelf full of snowmen. When you live in Idaho you have to love snow! We currently have about 3-4 inches of beautiful, white, sparkley snow and I do love it! There's just something about snow and the cold that help put that Christmas feel in the air.


Santa and the sugar plum candy tree. Santa sings and dances as sugarplums dance in our heads. Christmas baking is soon to start--definitely a favorite!


The perfect place for our little village, that is still growing every year..........


The new pre-lit, remote control Christmas tree and it is short a bunch of ornaments. I discovered that I am missing a good part of my Christmas ornaments that I have accumulated over the past 26 years--that is not a good thing. I have a feeling they did not make it on our cross country move earlier this year. I guess it does give me reason to keep accumulating though.


Santa and part of the nutcracker collection. I am currently reading the entire long (original) version of The Nutcracker to my 8 yro daughter every evening at bed time. I had no idea there was such a version, but there certainly is and we are really enjoying the story.





There's more about my prim tree in the next post down, but I had to put it here , because it's my very favorite tree of the 3 that I have up. All of the ornaments on it have been made by friends over the past 7 years.


I hope you've enjoyed these few photos of my home decorated for Christmas and I hope you'll remember to stop by Karla's as well and enjoy everyone elses. Don't forget to be good--Santa is watching!

Darth Vader Costume

Of all the Star Wars costumes, Darth Vader Costumes are probably the most popular, and because of his tag as one of the ultimate villain's of all time Darth Vader also makes a perfect Halloween costume. In fact earlier this year The market share of Internet searches in the UK for "Halloween costumes" was up 19% compared to the previous year. Topping the list for fancy dress ideas during Halloween was “pirate costume” and second was “Darth Vader Costume”

Deluxe Darth Vader Costumes can set you back over £650 but thankfully for those who don't actually want to become Darth Vader there are cheaper versions of the costume that still look pretty cool although unlike the deluxe version, do not come with a Lightsaber or the Darth Vader Breathing device that gives you his distinctive sound as well as look. Check out the Star Wars costumes on Jokers' Masquerade for more details of the deluxe and standard versions of Darth Vader Costumes as well as Jango Fett Costumes, Stormtrooper Costumes, Jedi Costumes, Princess Leia Costumes and Yoda Costumes.

My Prim Christmas Tree & Vote For Your Favorite Tree

How many Christmas trees do you have decorated in your home? I have 3 full size trees and today I'm sharing my very favorite tree, my primitive Christmas tree. It's my favorite, because it has the best ornies on it. All of the ornies are ones that I have swapped with my online friends for the past 7 years and it is loaded. By next year I'll need another tree!

This beautiful angel is made by one of my online friends--Deb of Corpus Christie, TX and she tops the tree every year. She's made of crepe paper and cotton batting and one of my very favorites. She hangs out with me in my sewing room year round.

These next several pictures are close ups of the ornies.....







This is what's at the bottom of the tree..... the red sled with dolls and teddy are sitting on top of an antique picnic basket.


Another unique thing about the tree, all of it ornies and the red filled sled is that everything you see is handmade by either myself or a friend--except for the tree and the one dark haired doll in the sled. How neat is that!

Now for the voting part..... Go to A Gathering of Crows and you can see 33 beautiful primitive Christmas trees and make sure to cast your vote for you favorite and yes it is a hard decision, because they're all fabulous!