Christmas time is here...

We wish you and yours all a Merry Christmas and hope you'll tune in for all of our amazing post-Christmas crafty present reveals. As a contribution to the spirit of lights and whimsy of the season here is a brief look at my tree...

Strange Porpoise compliments of Christine a couple years ago.

Hand knit ornament compliments of me a couple years ago.

Strange sloth-bear ornament, it's a pair with the porpoise... they're friends. Friends to the end.

Christmas Pickle, whoever finds it on the tree gets good luck for the coming year.
Christine found it this year... and the governor's goose too!

My homage to spring in winter.

They like to stay close on the tree. I respect their wishes.

This is a sprig of the first Christmas Tree Ben and I had together, I made it in to an ornament (how sweet of me).
Notice the vintage moon ornament in the background...it noticed you.

Merry Christmas!

top it off

Monika was big into tiny this year. 

She found a pack of these teensy trees

and mini bows at Michael's for a dollar. 

And she combined them for an infinitely sweet package topper.

Or knitted urchin topper. Whatevs. 

Merry Christmas!

tiny winter scene

One of the gifts Monika gave us contained the supplies to create a mini winter scene. A couple tiny trees, several handmade mini packages (loaded with pennies for weight, of course!), crinkled paper for snow, and a little plastic deer. I put mine in one of my domed displays. Super sweet, right?

suzie homemaker

I just finished a marathon baking session--over four hours of stirring and dough rolling and powdered sugaring. Dang, son! I am thoroughly dusted with every baking ingredient known to man, but I have treats to take tomorrow, so mission accomplished! Full details (recipes and pictures) will have to be left for tomorrow because I am tired, tired, tired, and there's a sink full of dishes. How do housewives manage? Riddle me that.

Here's a melange of treats. Hey, don't look askance at them.
I'm too done with tonight to make them look pretty.

These were baked by my dear friend Betty. I was beyond
excited when I found them on my desk this morning.  Beyond.

Here's poor, patient Matilds. All ignored while I'm baking.

And here's a dark, dark, darkling thrush picture of my tree.

A few things I've realized during tonight's baking escapades: 

1. I need more parchment paper. 

2. I would love a gel mat for the kitchen floor. 

3. And baking while listening to Gaga is the way to go. 

new ornaments!

I decorated my Christmas tree last night, an exceedingly noble Noble Fir, and I was quite excited to break out a few of the ornaments I'd found at estate sales this year. I've been keeping them in this World's Greatest Dad Garfield mug box. I have proof!

Yep. 

Here are a few of the treasures I was so tickled to place on my tree. 

old nuts. yeah, I said it. 

nativity scene made in Spain.

cowboy from Italy

sweet birdhouse from West Germany

And the cutest: bunnies in walnut shells from Italy!!! 

These might actually be for an Easter tree (see the colored eggs?), but they're down for Christmas this year. Aren't they super-cute? It looks like they're best friends sharing a secret!

simple silhouettes

Last year, I sent a Christmas ornament care package to the sisters. It contained, in part, a set of Nature-themed paper silhouette ornaments. I decided to make some for myself this year, and it only seemed natural to document the process. It's really simple and the result, in white paper, is quite elegant.

Let's get started!

gather supplies

trace or draw silhouettes

cut

admire

gently roll

gently feed

gently arrange

hang and enjoy!

Here are last year's paper silhouette ornaments, 

and here's Matilda approving of the finished product, as she must.
We'd love to know how yours turn out--leave us a comment with a link to your own ornaments!

A bird in the hand

One of the best things about Christmas is the post-Christmas decoration deal bonanza. Here are a few of my post-Christmas ornament finds:

The resin birds are from Popinjay in Olympia (just wait until you see the additions Catherine has purchased for The Aviary). The fox is Pottery Barn in Spokane. I also found sweet Christmas cards (which won't be revealed until they appear in your mailbox next year), electric blue tinsel, a wreath hanger, tissue paper for Matilda's cat house (she loves diving into tissue paper. Seriously, if you have cats, this is probably the best play investment you could ever make), and bows, bows, bows!


P.S. I was finally able to add more photos to my Christmas Day post. Mom's computer is not exactly up to blogging snuff.

kaleidoscope

Looking at Mom's Christmas tree through her vintage kaleidoscope.

Taking a picture while doing so: not as easy as you might imagine.

Tagged and bagged

This year's Christmas package tags come from an old calendar with shell and coral illustrations. There was a bit of cutting involved, but since I was just hanging out with bedtime Matilda, watching some West Wing, it was totally fun. I mean, you know how much I like scissors. Here's a sampling of the evening and its results.

Christmas is nigh!