Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

 We are ready for Christmas morning breakfast-

 Wake me when Santa comes.........

Cold weather makes for some strange bedfellows......(the heating vent is right next to the
dog crate!)   Poor Max is too big to squeeze in!

 

Merry Christmas from the Swamp!

At Least 26 Angels

My heart hurts for the families that have lost their children in  the last week.  I have

been that parent who got that unexpected call that no parent can understand.  Then 30 years later I was that grandparent who got that call.  I pray that God holds them tightly and gives them comfort.

I have never really noticed how many angels are sitting around my house at Christmas until this week.  I kept looking at the decorations with such an empty feeling.  Then suddenly only the angels seemed to warm me up.  And I started to count them - hoping that I had 26- or more. And I did. 

Hymnal Angels

 Last year I saw a Hymnal Angel in a gift shop.  Being too thrifty to pay the price I decided that I could figure it out.   I set out to find some old hymnals but was soon disappointed.  I had seen them often in thrift stores...until I needed some... I did find one.  I made an angel for the music teacher that I work with in the violin program.  I was so excited that I forgot to take her picture!   I spent the year with my eye out for some hymals and only found 4 this year!

 Her face is a paper mache covered styrofoam ball.  Her hair is moss and her halo is a sparkly gold pipe cleaner.  The face is very simple -pink cheeks and dots for eyes and a mouth.   Bits of old lace for a collar and sleeves.  Her arms are pipe cleaners.

She holds a gold ribbon with a tag made of scraps, buttons and an old glass ball.

Her body and wings are folded pages of the hymnal.  I did take out any torn pages and page 142 had "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" so I used that to make the tag.

Back view

To make the wings fold the bottom corner up and crease on the first 25 pages and the last 25 pages.
To make the body fold the top corner down on all of the middle pages- which takes some time!!!!

Two of them sold as soon as I put them in my booth.  I just finished the other 2 last night so they are ready to go to the booth today!

I am linking up to this party!

Chalkboard Banners

My big seller this month looks like  it  will be chalkboard banners!  I am not sure where I got this idea...Pinterest, another blog, Etsy...???  I have seen several variations but finally settled on this one.  My Hubby cuts out the triangles then I sand them and paint them with chalkboard paint.  I put up a sample in my booth and sold 21 triangles the first day.  I sell them individually so you can buy as many as you need.  I think this is a great idea because you can have one set that adapts for every holiday.   You can add different ribbon or even some fabric panels, buttons, bells...anything.

 

This is the sample I put in my booth -"JOY" only for home I added a bottle brush wreath on top of the "O".  I have been trying to think of some words that only take 3 letters so you could get more use out of it-  "USA"   "BOO"   I plan on keeping them in the booth year round so people can buy more triangles if they need them.

The Santa mugs with the mini trees are also headed to the booth tomorrow.   I have a few more boxes of Christmas to take out there before the holiday open house.  Then I will have a week before I start decorating at home.

In the mirror you can see a reflection of our $4 palm trees!!!  They are from the backyard and they grew so much this year that they will not fit in my low ceiling basement for the winter......  I just may decorate them for Christmas and forget the big tree....

Sweater Pumpkins

 My best seller of October has been the Sweater Pumpkin!  Made from old sweaters that I had in the donate or dispose of bag and some odds and ends.  I have made a lot and spent only $1.50 for supplies.  All of the remaining pumpkins in my booth sold this weekend so I whipped up this basket full during tv time last night.

One of my customers complained that I did not have any orange pumpkins so I spent $.50 for a thrift store sweater.  For small pumpkins cut off sections of the sleeves.   Gather one end.  Stuff. Gather the other end. Decorate.

I used twine, a felt leaf, a branch and 2 buttons.

One button is glued on the bottom,

They are each unique.

For the  bigger pumpkin just cut a circle out of the body of the sweater and gather the edge like I did with this one-

 

I hope all of these little ones find new homes this weekend !

 

Editted- Seven of the ten pumpkins sold before I left Angels on Friday!  I will have 14 more in the booth by Sunday :) 

Extreme Measures

I had to make some changes at the Swamp.  Lulu, the Boy's cat, declared war on my parlor furniture.  There is no way to keep her off the furniture - there is no door-   I tried sprays, aluminum foil, water gun, even a motion sensor- she could not be stopped.

So as much as I did not want to do it - I switched the parlor and dining room furniture.  The dining room has pocket doors that the cat can not get open.   Since I was beginning to decorate for fall and cleaning up this seemed like the time to take these extreme measures!

So now when you walk through the front door you see the dining room first.

Now I really have to keep this table looking good so I played with my dishes to have a fall look.  We have not had dinner in here yet.  It will be a few extra steps to bring the food in here,

I will try to live with it a while or until I outlive the cat!

If you turn right and go thru the doors you are in the parlor.

The thing that I like about this arrangement is that I can sit in here in the morning with my paper and coffee.  The room is very light.  I also can have a rug in here since there will be no animals to destroy it!

I am going to have to make curtains for this room now.  I have them cut out but I liked the light so much that I never finished them.  There will be times when I will  want more privacy now.  It never bothered me that the neighbors could see us having dinner but I want to read the paper in my pajamas without company!