Taking Some 'Me' Time

I've finally had a few days to myself where I could spend the day in pajamas and vegetate.  Well not really vegetate...I was really productive doing fun things alongside the chores and errands.  I really needed this time too.  

This is another Mill Hill beaded cross stitch kit.  This one was hard because of all the light coloured floss against white paper.  And then stitching all the white beads on it too.  

I have OCD (shocking), so when I finished the polar bears, I realized I had 23 finishes for the year.  23 is not as aesthetically pleasing as 24, so I did this ornament over the course of two days.

There was an amusing conversation on Facebook that revolved around a stocking for Russell.  I offered to get one for him him and write his name in glitter if he wanted, and our daughter in law chimed in with, 'make it pink glitter'.  Challenge extended?  CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.  

I promised myself that I wouldn't go nuts with the Christmas themed altered art like I did last year, mostly cause we just don't have the room.  I'd seen something similar to this on Pinterest and I really wanted to do one for myself.  I'm a real sucker for the 'vintage look', even though decorations in the 40s and 50s didn't really look like this.  You can find all the vintage-looking items online...I got that ballerina (which is supposed to be a skater for this project) from the Tiny Things Are Cute website last year.

I unearthed a set of 30 mini coloured LED lights and thought they might look good on a winter tree scene.  My first attempt, I did a silhouette tree with the lights.

But you can't see the tree at all and when you look at it, all you could see were the lights.

So I spent a few hours, fixing the tree by adding green and snow.  I made the ground white and added trees in the background, then used blue, green, silver and crystal glitter paint all over it.

It's still dark but at least the tree and ground stand out better.

Whipped up a quick Christmas gift.

The grocery store was out of my fave Lofthouse sugar cookies so I made a dish of cheesecake bars. I'd never made this before and it was so good I was eating it right out of the dish!  I gave my stepdaughter a huge hunk of it just to get it out of my house!!

And then I made a batch of my own sugar cookies.  More baking to be done later this week.

I do love the dark winter nights and Christmas lights.  It's so cozy in our livingroom.  (I was watching 'Big Bang Theory').  Sagan's in Pepper's bed, which I washed.  He seems to be using her bed more than he's using the couch, which is a surprise.  Sometimes I see him coming out of my craft room, where Pepper's ashes are, and I would like to think that he's gone in there to visit her.  

I have the most thoughtful friends ever.  My friend Sarah sent me this Sasquatch ornament.  She's a believer, like me.  

Again on Facebook, I'd happened to comment on my friend Ami's decorations post (really just in passing), that the little blue misfit plane was my fave and how cute he is.  Imagine my utter shock when this showed up at my house from Ami!  I so appreciate my friends.  I am truly humbled by their gestures.

I expect to be somewhat busy this week.  I have a lot of baking I'd like to do, and of course cleaning the house and trying to eradicate some of the glitter that's ground into the carpet.  We'll be hosting the kids on Christmas Day and doing deli platters which we (read: I) assemble ourselves.  It costs a little more and takes a little work, but they are so much better than the ready-made platters from Stop & Shop.  Their large size which allegedly feeds 16-18 people is a joke.  Yeah, 16-18 if every person took just ONE slice of cheese or ONE slice of meat.  

I hope everyone has a good week!