Category: Holidays

Christmas in the Dining Room

Christmas, Decorating



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

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Christmas Flannel Rag Quilt

Christmas, Quilting and Sewing



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

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Felt Rosette Pomander

Christmas, crafts & activities, DIY, Felt



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

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