It's Beginning to Smell a Lot Like Christmas

It's not over till the tree is down!  This year, for the first time in several years, we had a real tree.  And by sheer luck, it ended up being a balsam!  I don't know if anybody else even cares what kind of tree they have, but my mini-vacation here has been four days of balsam-scented heaven.  I don't plan to throw this tree out until nothing remains but a stick.

It's been a great Christmas for me, spent with my two favorite men.  Other than spending Christmas Eve with Sparky, we didn't do anything special, in fact we didn't do anything at all, but getting to see our son is a rare and precious thing.  We never know when we'll get to see him again, and tomorrow he flies back to that wild and foreign land known as California.  This time we got a bonus, and actually got to spend a little time with Kaela as well so that was pretty awesome.

So now the Christmassing is over, except for the tree of course, and I'm looking forward to 2013.  The reason I never get post-holiday depression is that I have already started planning my projects for the spring.  I have lots of plans for this year for the shop and the Etsy shop, and I have already started on some of them. 

By the way, I am disabling the Anonymous comments feature from this blog; if you want to leave a comment you will have to leave your name.  I am hoping that this will result in fewer porn posts in my mailbox.

End Of The World Suite In G Major

   Well, we're still here.  Can't say I'm surprised really, after all every couple of years the end of the world comes and goes pretty much without notice by most people except those who read the tabloids.  Wicked weather this morning DID almost spell the end of the world for Preston's truck; the top half of a huge pine tree snapped off and fell, missing the side of the truck by literally three inches. It could have been totaled. So I'd say this was a pretty lucky day at our house.

     Anyway, here I sit watching The Santa Clause once again, if only because everytime I watch it I have the same thought, which is that I would really like to move in to Santa's place.  The sets for Santa's workshop are so beautiful and detailed and cheerful!
     So in between watching TV I was finishing up some Christmas presents and hemming some pants that I'd promised for tomorrow.   Also I was commissioned to put some wording on a big Jolly Roger flag that some lucky pirate is getting for Christmas.  Never a dull moment in my world, seriously.

Straight Outta Who-ville

Cause that's how I roll...with beads and glitter.

Like many other things, I didn't really have a plan when I started these; I was making Santa ornaments, and the shape I had in my hand looked kind of tree-like.  And since I've had nontraditional colors in my brain this Christmas, I went with the cotton batting.  To make them stand up, I used those wooden circles (which are actually pieces I scavenged from some game I can't remember that got thrown away years ago) and little shaker pegs with the tenons cut off.  The tallest tree is about 6 or so inches high.  But that's as far as the idea went, the rest was just getting out the beads and glitter and waiting to see what happened.  I do like the one in the front with the bead garland, and the one at the back on the right which has little green plastic leaf beads hanging off of it.  I generally am a bead snob and avoid the plastic ones, but these were really cute and I thought SOMEday I would come up with a use for them!  The other trees I''m not too excited about.  So unless I get slapped with some sort of glittery epiphany, I probably won't make any more.  I asked Preston, "so are these cute and funky, or just weird and wrong?" and he said they look like something out of Dr. Seuss.  Which is kind of what I was going for, so I win!!!