I made my Christmas cards for 2012.   Strange?   Absolutely.  Wonderful?  YES!  I know I could just upload a picture to a template, type in a quantity and be done but for some reason I’m not ready to do that yet.  I still want to make my cards, but the past couple of years have taught me that my fall and winter season is always overcrowded and my cards end up being a source of stress (not until I’m half done with them, that is, when it’s too late to back out and upload a picture).  If I carried one thing forward from the holiday season we just enjoyed, it was  a determination to make sure that this year is better.  So I spent some time in January doing just that.

I’ll have a bit of work to do in the fall when I get them back out but it’s only to add the finishing touch.  All supplies for this, including envelopes and an updated Christmas card list sit in the box.   I made a list of notes to myself about what still needs finishing (add a greeting and a photo) and now I’m done.

There was something really nice about investing now in my emotional well-being down the road.  Something nice about preparing a gift for myself to appreciate in another ten months.  Something about doing it makes me feel more like I’m worth it, and it feels good.

Hopeful Homemaker

What a great idea, to punch holes in your cards and put them on rings, then add a cover.  If you view the original post you’ll find downloadable covers that are super cute.  Since one of my goals this year is to do something creative every day, making my own was a great idea.

I used leftover paper from my Christmas cards last year, which adds a reminder of the card I sent out in 2011.   I tried my hand at some paper rosettes, which were REALLY fun.  I’ll be making more of those.

I am thrilled to know what to do with Christmas cards every January from now on.  We can get these books out from year to year and see how people have grown.  I’m glad that I can take these little pieces of my friends’ lives and preserve them in a way that encourages us to look at them in the future.

So, even though today marks one month since Christmas, I hope you’ll find it helpful enough to file away in your mind for 11 more months.   {This was a project on my January to-do list.  I’ve had the cards on rings for weeks, but hadn’t sat down to just make the cover.  Hooray for a finished project!}

I was thinking that this would also be a fun way to corral all those valentines that come home from school and then float around the house for weeks.  You could use just one ring and let each of your kids have a little Valentine flip book of their own!  Wouldn’t that be cute?

I hope your day is great.

Hopeful Homemaker

Done and in the mail.  For as much stress as I felt over them, and for as long ago as I purchased the paper and planned them, I’m a little amazed by how simple they look.  But I do like them.

Here is my 2011 Christmas card:

I cut each card by hand, which was a small project, but not an unpleasant one given how much I liked the paper.  I was excited to find the greeting as well.

I’m grateful I got them done, because receiving Christmas cards is one of my favorite parts of the holiday season.  Right now my kitchen counter card holder looks like this, front and back:

With too many of these people, once frequent communication has become rare, something I hope to improve next year.  But even only with annual cards I feel grateful for the reminders they are of remarkable people with whom I’ve crossed paths, people who have influenced me for good.  It’s a wonderful part of Christmas.

And as for you, from our family to ours, “Have yourself a Merry little Christmas!”

Thanks for reading along.  Merry Christmas!

Jennifer

I feel more confident because I’ve accomplished just enough to think I might pull it all off, and far enough behind to feel terrified that I won’t.

I’m trying very hard to focus on what’s in front of me, to breathe, and not to worry about what’s three or four items down the list.

My desk is currently covered with three different projects.  Not the best strategy, but somehow I have to get them all done simultaneously, so there they are.

There are, however, a few highlights:

This week I learned how to do hair in bows, meaning to put a girl’s hair up in the shape of a bow.  Every one of my daughters has had something like this in their hair this week:

The above picture was at the end of the day when the left side had started to come out just a bit.  Below is a mini version in piggy tails.  So cute!  And I’ll even admit to doing my own hair like this in a half ponytail.  It’s so much fun to learn something new.

Today I had an hour’s notice that my daughter needed to be at an activity this afternoon with a dozen cookies to take caroling.  I decided to make a batch of E-Doodles to test the recipe and because I’ve been craving them.  They turned out great, and made enough for me to bundle up a few to give to a friend whose birthday is today.

I figure it’s better to be remembered with something small and simple than not at all.  It’s the best I can do today.  It also reminds me that I’d better get to work on the birthday we’re celebrating at our house on Tuesday!

My Christmas cards are almost done.  Relief.   BUT they still need me to put letters inside them (which I have yet to write and copy) and the envelopes all need addresses on them.  Stress.  I have a package I still need to put together and mail.  And a long drive to pick some things up.  And I’m supposed to be at the school to help with a Christmas party tomorrow.   More stress.

Look what I made last night!

They’re so cute I can hardly stand it.  I’m using them as part of some Christmas gifts that have to be put together by tonight.  I’m also doing something with chalkboard paint:

More on all that tomorrow.  I might be up all night long tonight but I have to get it done.

Tonight my husband and I are going to a holiday dinner for a company he does contract work for.  I don’t have time to go but am really excited to enjoy an evening with him.  I hope we can both calm down and relax for a couple of hours.  And I hope my children are kind to each other while we’re gone.

And that’s where my day stands.  I’m off to the craft store to buy a new glue gun because my daughter borrowed mine for a project at school…. and didn’t bring it home.  It’s now nowhere to be found.  I’m sure she’ll be disappointed when her allowance reflects the purchase price of a new one but we have to learn these things somehow, right?

I hope your day is going well!

Jennifer

Restful, calming, inviting.

Adding beautiful greens to my bedroom mantel gives the entire room a new feeling.  I love this view from the top of the stairs.  It makes me look forward to unwinding, finishing the day peacefully.  During the day I love how bright the sunlight is in this room; it makes our gray winters a little more bearable.

Silver bells, layered garlands, white lights with silver covers.  Simple and classic.  Every year I wonder if I’ll be ready to do this mantel differently.  Then I unpack this garland, hang it up and fall in love all over again.

A few pieces of silver on the mantel with my white antler wreath.  I love this wreath.

Creating an atmosphere like this in my bedroom reminds me to slow down, enjoy the season, take care of myself.

Merry Christmas!

Hopeful Homemaker

shared here

I smile as I watch our younger children standing beneath them, trying to spot theirs.  It’s a really short mantel, especially for ten stockings.

I  placed my all-time favorite nativity scene above the stockings.

I get a lump in my throat every time I stop and look at it.  The simplicity of it speaks to me.  I love that the entire scene consists of the manger, baby Jesus, sheep and three angels.  It reminds me of the heavenly host – so much bigger than the small circle of witnesses present in person – that celebrated and rejoiced in the birth of the long-awaited Savior of the World.  There is a production called Savior of the World that we try to attend every year which has forever enhanced my feelings about the unseen witnesses to the birth of our Lord.  This nativity scene rekindles all those feelings for me.

The world – all of us – waited so long for Him to come.  Now we wait for Him to return.

Enough said.  I just really, really love it.

It’s hard to believe that in just over two weeks those stockings will be filled instead of hanging expectantly.  Where do the days go?  I still have much to do…

Sigh.  It’s a wonderful time of year, isn’t it?  I hope you’re enjoying it!

Jennifer

shared here

One room, at least, is ready for Christmas.  I enjoy decorating the dining room for holidays because it’s the room that stays most like I left it.  My children cheerfully redecorate everything else they see but for some reason they generally leave the dining room alone.

I placed a vintage Christmas tablecloth across the table and replaced the large mirrored tray I’ve been using in there.   While unpacking boxes in the basement I remembered the ceramic lamb I always use at Easter and decided to bring it up.  We are, after all, celebrating the birth of the Lamb of God.

So using the lamb as a starting point, I then pulled a nativity scene from another room and used it as well.

I placed Mary, Joseph and the baby on a cake platter with more lambs to continue the theme.  I love the simplicity of it.

For height I borrowed a large trophy vase from my family room mantel and filled it with picks I had on hand; some inexpensive berries, beaded leaves purchased last year from Ballard Designs, and green flocked pinecones around the edge.

The wise men are placed around the other side of the tray to add visual interest from all three of the openings to the room.

A few ornaments were added to the dining room cabinet.  I still love the blue in that cabinet.  I’m so glad I painted it earlier in the year!

My favorite vintage bust just makes me happy perched up there.

I love walking through this room.  In fact, I realized that many members of our family walk through this room countless times a day.  Perhaps displaying a nativity scene in here was a good move because it will be so often seen by all of us.

I’ve been a total stress case this week, calm on the outside but nerves humming on the inside.  The little ones are still so needy and emotional.  In the past two days we’ve had only a couple of waking hours when one or both of them weren’t crying.  Seriously, my almost four year old cried for over 2.5 hours on Monday night, just to make sure we all knew she wasn’t happy with us.  It’s been wearing on me, I think.  I wonder if they’re just not feeling better yet or what?  Either way, I’ve got to calm down.  Maybe I should pull up a chair at the dining room table and make myself sit there until I’m quiet inside.

I hope your Christmas preparations are in full swing and on schedule!  More importantly, I hope you make time to be still and ponder the reason why we’re doing all this in the first place.

Please excuse me while I attempt to go follow my own advice.

Jennifer

While many people were out shopping early Friday morning, I skipped the Black Friday action and treated myself to a few hours of sewing.  I managed to put together this Christmas rag quilt for my family to snuggle under for the next several weeks.

This quilt is made entirely with flannel prints from a Christmas collection that was available two or three years ago, of which my favorite print was the one pictured above.  I’m sorry to say I can’t remember the name of the collection or the designer.  I cut the pieces last year but never quilted them or pieced them together.  This year I quilted each square with a star in the center and then pieced the quilt.  You can faintly see the star quilting above.

At the last minute I decided to turn the squares on their point.  I’m glad I did because it gave me an opportunity to practice working with triangles, something I want to get better at.  I think it adds a bit more character to the quilt.  The seams were then snipped and the quilt was thrown into the wash.

The edges frayed nicely and I’m happy with it.  I haven’t made a rag quilt for two years, and while I usually prefer a traditional quilt, it was the perfect project for this fabric.  I’ve also learned that sometimes people are afraid to pick up a nice quilt and snuggle under it, but I’ve never seen anyone hesitate to grab a rag quilt (especially a flannel one) and use it.  I have a few quilts I’m careful with, but I really believe that there’s no point in making a quilt unless you love it and, therefore, use it.  Rag quilts just seem to beg people to use them, and I’ve yet to meet someone who won’t oblige.

This one went directly from being photographed to being loved, which made for a happy quilt, happy Mom and happy kids.  It’s been constantly in use since then.

Do you have a favorite quilt you snuggle under?

Jennifer

While going through my felt for this project, I discovered some red felt in my stash and couldn’t help making a bunch of flowers with it.  I got out a styrofoam ball I had on hand and decided to see how long it would take me to cover it with red felt rosettes.   This was a fun and easy project.

Here’s what you need to make one:

Mine was a four inch diameter ball.  I used about a quarter yard of felt, or approximately 45 rosettes to cover my ball.  The circles I started with (using this tutorial) were about 2.5 to 3 inches across.  In addition to the ball, felt, and a glue gun, I also used a length of ribbon to hang it, four little faux suede leaves cut from May Arts ribbon (you can find some here if you’re interested), a straight pin and some little pearl beads.

To begin, I arranged the four leaves and the ribbon to attach to the top of the ball:

Then I stuck a straight pin through all of it.

A drop of hot glue on the foam ball and then I stuck the pin down into it to hold the ribbon and leaves in place.  My reason for adding the leaves was to have more than just a white ribbon sticking out of the top of the ball.

Then simply start rolling up the flowers (again, you can find a tutorial for that here) and gluing them to the ball.  I started by attaching the first rosettes right next to the ribbon.

The first four flowers surrounded the ribbon, creating the top I wanted.  I love how the green leaves stick up like the top of a strawberry.

Just keep rolling and gluing until the ball is covered with flowers.

Then, if you wish, glue a small pearl in the center of each flower.

This ball ended up being about 6 inches in diameter when I finished it, so it’s a good-sized ornament or decoration.  It’s also my first Christmas project of 2011, and I’m excited to decorate!

Tell me, do you decorate for Christmas over Thanksgiving weekend, before Thanksgiving, or do you wait till December to deck the halls?

Have a great day!
Jennifer

I was about to make a whole bunch of them when another idea struck.  I have a bunch of felt laying around from other projects… why not put it to use?  And so I went to work, and soon this was what I had:

Lots of brown felt flowers!  And on the backs:

To make the flowers you can find a felt rosette tutorial here.

After I’d made the flowers I whipped up some simple napkin rings using more brown felt.  I cut strips about 5 1/2 inches long and used pinking shears to cut the sides.  They’re about 1 1/2 inches wide.

Simply fold them in half lengthwise and sew the ends together (right sides together, of course):

After sewing, trip threads and turn right side out.  It should look something like this:

Insert a napkin in the ring…

Then you just clip the flower onto the napkin ring and you’re done!

It’s also easy to add a tag to the clip.  You can assign seats this way or simply express a sentiment.

Why did I put the felt flowers on a clip instead of gluing them to the napkin ring?  I’m not sure, exactly, except that I thought it would be fun.  I guess it sounded like a fun surprise to be able to re-use the flowers, or send them home with our Thanksgiving guests as a little favor.  Doing it this way certainly got the attention of my girls, and one little helper in particular!

I love the way the various shades of brown work together and am excited to see them on our Thanksgiving table.  I also wouldn’t mind it if I see some of this after our meal:

And so, using materials I had on hand I was able to make two dozen new napkin rings for Thanksgiving dinner.  I’m enjoying the less-traditional shape (a flower) with more traditional fall colors.  I hope our guests enjoy them, and I particularly hope my nieces are happy with them.

Can you believe Thanksgiving is tomorrow?  Where did November go?  I’ve still got SO MUCH work to do… I’m crossing my fingers I’ll get it all done.

Jennifer