Dragging Towards the New Year

I was a busy baking bee in the days leading up to Christmas.  I wanted to make goodie plates for my friends as well as try a couple new recipes.  The result was:

Peanut butter fudge and Italian knot cookies.....

Banana breads and cranberry breads...

Gingerbread cookies...

Rice krispie treats....

And for Christmas Day, snickerdoodle blondies.

Took a few closeup pics of the ornaments too.  They look so pretty with the lights.

These next 2 ornaments were made by me when I was about 9 or 10.  I have 6 of them.

Part of the Putz village.  A few years ago I dyed those trees pink and added the glittery snow.

I am so glad I got this multicoloured tinsel tree.  I'm not sure where I picked it up but I'm gonna guess Fred Meyer, out in WA.  It's sooo pretty and sparkly.  I want to keep it out year round.

I lined up the reflection of the deck rail lights on the driftwood thing.

Christmas Eve was rainy which was awesome.  I got all my errands done early and had time to do some food prep for the next day and update the family photo album.  We got Chinese takeout for lunch/dinner but unfortunately it didn't set well with either of us.  Needless to say it'll be awhile before we will get Chinese again!!  

Christmas Day was cold and clear.  We visited my mom in the morning then headed home to finish all the food prep for the kids' visit that afternoon.  Russell got us all scratch tickets but only 2 of those were $10 winners unfortunately.

Some of the food stuffs.  I forgot to take a pic of the deli platter I made with the meats and cheeses. A few years ago we ordered them from Stop & Shop and were shocked at how little stuff was provided for the prices.  It's cheaper to do these myself.  It's more time consuming, but it's fun. 

Happy with his shrimp and the horseradish/ketchup sauce he makes.

My amazing and awesome stepkids and girlfriend.  

Sagieboo

The day went by really fast.  The kids left around 3 or so and we just hung out and grazed on the leftovers.  Now it's time to take everything down and put it away till next year.  Everything looks so pretty, colourful and glittery but it's time to get the house back to normal.  Hoping to have everything cleaned up by the end of the week.

Looking forward to seeing 2016 end. It was mentally and emotionally exhausting.  George Michael dying on Christmas Day was a terrible surprise.  This year took a lot of great people.  Some expected due to age, but the others weren't.  We are hoping for a quiet New Years Eve.  We're just gonna hunker down at home and order a pizza, and go to bed early.  Our days of staying up to midnight are long over!  

I'm hoping 2017 will be a better year.  Happy New Year everyone.  See ya on the flipside. 

More Holiday Crafting

Well I was going at a healthy clip, making projects that I'd seen on Pinterest and wanted to tackle, but then everything in my life went sideways through no fault of my own, and I ended the month of November really sick which was not surprising considering the way I was run ragged and right into the ground.

But I did manage to get this one completed and I'm really pleased with it.  I got the shadow box at AC Moore.  It had some text on the back that I don't even remember and I covered it with silver glitter paper.  Next, I had to drill the hole for the battery operated LED lights, then pulled them through but left them outside till I finished with the tree scenes.  I used some styrafoam chunks to elevate the trees and then glued the other trees in place.  That took a day or so to dry.  After that I ran the lights around it.  The project that I was using as a guide had the wires showing like this and actually I kind of like the effect.  Once the lights were in place, I stuffed some cotton snow in the bottom, then used gold glitter paint around the edges (hard to see in this pic).  The sad thing is, I have no room for it but I'm going to try and find a place. 

And then I finished experimenting with a bunch of ornament ideas seen on Pinterest, just to check them off my craft bucket list.  I ended up giving all of them to my stepdaughter.  No idea what she's doing with them....but I don't have the room for them so better her than me!  lol

Stuffed with colourful pom poms.

This one was a disaster.  Supposed to be easy....pour in nail polish then swipe around the sides with a Qtip.  Well I used more polish than I should have so it got everywhere.  I had to let it drain in the trash for about 15 minutes before attempt the Qtip part.  I had polish all over my fingers for days.

The project I saw for this just had pearl beads in it but that looked really bad so I used a long strand of pearls I found buried in my ribbons container.

Same thing with this strand of red.

This is kind of pretty....just some fibers and stuff.

This one is stuffed with iridescent fibers.

Another pain in the butt.  I was going to just stuff the whole thing with that snow stuff but thanks to static electricity, it was hard to fill and hard to keep from sticking to my hands, shirt and basically everything in site.  So I threw a bunch of little holiday bits and bobs into it and made a 'spot the item' ball instead.

This is an interesting effect.  It's supposed to be like mercury glass.  You spray some mirror paint inside and swirl it around, hit it with a hair dryer to partially dry it, then put a drop or two of water inside and shake the ball to spatter it on the sides.  

Finally, glow in the dark paint.  I never fully charged it to shoot a pic after it was glowing.  I assume it worked.

Right now my craft table is a hot mess but I'm hoping to get a few more altered art projects done.

Closeups of some Faves

I made this a couple of years ago and while the results are pretty nice, this was surprisingly difficult to find the right pieces to fit.

This is another one that I regretted starting almost right away, but soldiered on.  

Our 2012 ornament by Sayuri Glass on the Cape.

A spun glass bell that I've had since 1974.  The reason I know the exact year is that my mom labeled all my ornaments.  It was a tradition that when I was decorating the tree, my parents would present me with a new ornament for that year.  They started my first Christmas of 1964 and my last one was Christmas of 1988, my last one on the east coast for 22 years.  These ornaments are fragile antiques now yet somehow they've survived being shipped to the west coast and multiple moves after that.

I love how this blue glass leaf looks with all the colours.  My former boss, Robyn, gave this to me Christmas of approximately 2005.  She bought it in Cannon Beach, OR, one of my fave places.

My ornament from 1972.  I love this horse.

Made this 2 years ago too.  Fun, but messy.

Put this together last year.  I misjudged the paper size, so this is really huge.

This was bought in the late 90s, in San Anselmo, CA, I believe.

Finally, I call this "Pepper's star".  This was one of the ornaments I made for the craft shows.  It, along with the others, sat undisturbed on the top of the tote, which was on the floor in the back room, and easily reachable by both dogs.  A week before the Cape Tech show, I went into the livingroom and found this one on the floor in front of Pepper and she was looking at me as if to say, 'Ai can haz dis one? Ai want dis.' It was so cute and endearing that I decided to keep it.  At 14, or nearly 14, I am facing the reality that this might actually be my last Christmas with her, which sucks.  And while I have other ornaments with her name engraved on them, she kind of picked this herself.  How could I not keep it for my sweet baby girl?

Oh and here's the kitchen window in the sunlight since you can see it much better.  I really like how it came out.

My bff Michelle made the stained glass candle on the left.

Those 3 'stained glass' things are Makit Bakit crafts that I made way back in the mid-70s.  I'm going to guess 1973 or 74.  I had to put one of the snow globes on a tupperware to raise it above that ADT sticker!

My former boss, Robyn, gave me the fused glass & beaded snowman, over 10 years ago.  I wish I could remember where she said she got it.

Those crocheted snowflakes are one of the best purchases from the Lillian Vernon catalog!  Or maybe it was Miles Kimball.  Got them well over 20 years ago.  

Making More Stuff!

Continuing on with crafts, I finished this up after a marathon session one afternoon when the nipper showed up 6 weeks early and took everyone by surprise, especially the mother!!!  

I'd done a bunch of paint-pour ornaments, one of which was pink, so I decided to add the puffy paint with her name.  The back says '2014', and there are 2 heart shaped rhinestones on either side.

And of course I couldn't just take the easy way out and buy a card.

This is the inside of the card.

I saw a tutorial for a Pet Ghost in a Jar HERE, and decided to put one together.  It took way less time than I expected it would and I had to fudge a few things but it came out so CUTE!  I did use the battery operated tealight under the lid like in the instructions but it isn't very bright at all.

More steampunk keys.  My craft shows are coming up soon so I thought I'd make some more.  I forgot how time consuming it is to make them.

More paint-pour ornaments. They are still hard to get total coverage, despite multiple coats and drying them in the oven.  Then of course I broke out the rhinestones, mostly to hide the flaws in the paint.

I saw a thumbprint reindeer ornament on Pinterest so decided to give it a try.  

I'd also been wanting to try these chocolate kiss pumpkin cookies.  I was underwhelmed by the results.  For one, I had to cut the recipe in half because I didn't want 5 dozen cookies, so I think I may have screwed up on the measurements.  They came out kind of bland and dry.  I only had dark chocolate kisses instead of regular.  I hate throwing them in the trash but I really don't think I'm going to eat them.   

We're still having such nice weather that I'm back out there, eeking out as many walks as possible before winter sets in for good.