Two of the {many} things I brought home from my mother’s house after she passed away last Christmas were her button and spool collections. I love them both and have been using them in my crafting. With the spools and some small bottle brush trees, I made these ornaments. Supplies needed: 2″ – 2 1/2″ […]
We had a wonderful Christmas Open House yesterday! It went by in a blur of friends, laughter and happy faces. We had about 170 guests. Many tell us the open house begins their Christmas season each year. Several weeks ago, I asked a young friend who is a great photographer to take a LOT of […]
I made a wreath for my older daughter’s door today. She is using a book theme for decorating her room for Christmas. No big surprise if you know her at all. For help with leaves for the wreath I used the tutorial on the blog The Red Thread, though I changed a few other things. […]
DH has the week off to help with the last of the Christmas decorating. We still have a ways to go, but I think we’re on track. The girls were a big help yesterday with the living room tree. It takes several days to complete it. A big job! Buttercup, our youngest daughter’s cat, wanders […]
Genny was here this weekend, helping with Christmas decorating. She worked on the chalkboard Sunday and made an amazing Christmas tree. I found the idea at the blog “A Legg Up” which is no longer available. Our chalkboard starts about a foot above the floor and is just over eight feet tall. Genny began by […]
This evening we started making strings of popcorn and cranberries for the living room tree. Snow White was entranced. She stuck with it until I told her it was bedtime. She told her great-aunt Genny, “I helped you because you needed lots of help!” By the way, she did her own hair-do, in case you […]
The tree in our upstairs guest room is decorated with ornaments made of spun and molded glass. Today, our son and daughter-in-law came by to help decorate the tree. It took all afternoon, but they stuck with it. The twins are fascinated by the whole decorating process. Today was no different. It’s fun to watch […]
I love shortbread and these cookies are no exception. I found the original recipe, Hazelnut Shortbread Cookies, on dianasdesserts.com in 2006 and have been making them ever since, though I use macadamia nuts. Also, I like to add white chocolate, which the original recipe did not call for. Macadamia Nut Shortbread Cookies Ingredients: 1 c. […]
My sister came down this weekend and we worked on putting up a few trees. The Three Kings tree sits in the corner of the library. It displays a small collection of gold star ornaments and three wisemen figurines. The other tree in the library is the Nativity tree. While I was contemplating trading it […]
The almond flavored sour cream sugar cookies are a favorite at our Christmas Open House each year. I made the cookie dough Saturday (I think…), popped it in the fridge, and baked the cookies today. If you can’t tell, those are wreath cookie cutters. The day before the Christmas Open House, the cookies will be […]