Christmas Notebook

making progress with Christmas prep

October 25, 2018 – 12:42 am

Christmas preparations are well underway. I am cranking out the cookies and truffles! During the past week, I’ve made the following…

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

I love to use this recipe for the peanut butter cookie dough. It tastes so good! Honey Peanut Butter Cookies

Unwrapping the mini peanut butter cups takes more time than making the cookies, it seems!

In the back are Butterscotch Gingerbread Cookies (delicious!), with the Peanut Butter Cup Cookies in the front. I set the Peanut Butter Cup Cookies in the fridge for five or ten minutes so the chocolate would set. Then I packed them and put them in the freezer.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles

These truffles are dipped in chocolate and then, when the chocolate has set, they are dipped in white candy coating. I froze these as is. They will get the white candy coating and a sprinkle of colorful jimmies just before the open house.

Almond Cookies

I forgot to get a picture of these after baking. They are a delicious almond shortbread. I froze them after baking. Before serving, I will top them with toasted sliced almonds and then drizzle almond-flavored powdered sugar glaze over them.

Chocolate Brickle Truffles

For this recipe, I made chocolate truffles and added a bag of toffee bits to the dough. I haven’t made them before, so I am interested to see how they do after several weeks in the freezer.

I scooped them onto the cookie sheet. After the chocolate had set a bit, I rolled them into balls. I froze them at this point and will dip them in white candy coating and garnish them with a sprinkle of finely chopped almonds a day or two before the open house.

Ready for the freezer.

Minty Cream Cheese Truffles

I dipped them in white candy coating, then drizzled white candy coating that I had tinted pale green over the tops. Before the drizzle dried, I sprinkled them with pink sanding sugar.

Mocha Truffles

Dipped in chocolate, then drizzled with chocolate mixed with white candy coating. Then drizzled with white candy coating. Sort of like coffee and cream.

Our son and his wife and the twins were here on Saturday to help with pre-holiday cleaning. They cleaned the places where Christmas trees will be put up. The only tree that made it up, though, was the small “Snow Tree.” It goes on top the cupboard in the dining room. The snow is cotton batting placed over each branch. I had to tweak that a bit after the tree had been stored for a year. Didn’t take much to make it work, though. It is stored with the lights, snowflake garlands, and the cotton batting on it. This tree is about four feet tall.

Genny did more work on the chalkboard tree. It’s coming along! The amount of work she puts into this tree is amazing. The tree tells the story of coming home for Christmas, starting at the bottom, where you find the front gate and a lamp post. The sign on the lamp post says, “Where the love light gleams.”

There will be a string of chalked lights all around the edge of the chalkboard.

In this picture, you can see one of the branches she has started to chalk in, under the “putting up the Christmas lights” panel. The branches will be made of several kinds of greenery…pine, mistletoe, holly, etc. We are hoping there will be room to add popcorn and cranberry strings.

DH and Older Son carried down several trees. I’ll be working on those soon. We are expecting Older Son and family, as well as my sister Genny, back this Saturday to lend a hand again. More to come!

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in Christmas | Comments (2)

Christmas prep over the weekend

October 14, 2018 – 11:59 pm

Genny arrived Saturday morning and we started on our Christmas preparations. I began by mixing together ingredients for two kinds of truffles. Almond Truffles and Raspberry Truffles. Both are easy to make.

Later in the day, after the chocolate had hardened a bit, I used a small cookie scoop to portion out the centers. Then I rolled them and left them on cookie sheets to harden again before placing them in the freezer. The day before the open house, I will dip them in white almond bark. The raspberry-flavored ones will get coarse red sugar sprinkled on top and the almond-flavored ones with be garnished with finely chopped toasted almonds.

I helped Genny with the chalkboard Christmas tree for a little while. There will be a large lamp post on the side of the chalkboard tree, and I needed to make a pattern for Genny to trace for the lamp. I also had a coloring page that I had printed from online, that had to be simplified for Genny to transfer to the chalkboard. While I was doing all the above, Genny was working on the chalkboard tree.

She likes to start at the top of the eight-foot tree to minimize smearing the chalk as she works. This is the beginning. Thirteen more panels to go!

We took a break from the chalkboard tree to work on the “Blue and Silver Tree” in the downstairs bedroom. The room is done in blue and yellow. The tree is decorated with vintage-style ornments in blue and silver. And finished with a sprinkle of silver tinsel.

My handy Christmas elf (DH) brought the tree down from the attic Friday evening and set it up for us. He made sure all the lights were working. The silver bead garlands are attached to the tree so they stay on while the tree is stored. That saves us a lot of time each year. To attach them, I bend the end of a stem under and over the bead string where I want it to hang. I squeeze it together and they stay on, even while the tree is hauled from the attic, down two flights of stairs, and down the hall into the bedroom. The beads usually need a little tweaking as they may be tangled around another branch here or there, but, for the most part, they are ready to go when the tree is placed in the tree stand. The lights stay on the tree, as well, of course. I used cool-white LED lights on this tree and they are perfect for the blue room.

The other interesting thing about this tree is that I spray-painted it silver. Yes. I spray-painted a brand-new tree when we got it in 2012. Here’s a blog post about the first tree I spray-painted in 2008 with some updates through the years. As the post points out, I didn’t use glitter on the second incarnation of the spray-painted tree. You can read about it here: thanks, hgtv

I should have taken more photos as we went along, but I forgot. Here’s a video of the completed tree.

Then back to the chalkboard tree. Genny wasn’t satisfied with the picture she had chalked in the left panel below. You can see it in the chalkboard tree picture at the beginning of this post. It was too finely detailed to be at the top of the tree where it is harder to see than the lower panels. We decided to use the same picture, but we enlarged the picture using the printer/copier and will use the main part of that picture for the left panel. Maybe you’ll see that next week!

She moved on to the next panel, the children’s Christmas program. We’re going to have a little angel dangling to the right of the manger, among the stars.

This panel celebrates the annual Christmas Eve church service.

And below the church panel is Grandma baking Christmas cookies. Genny gave Grandma blue curtains with snowflakes to mimic my own kitchen’s Christmas curtains.

As you can see, we have a ways to go! Of the twenty-plus trees we put up, this one takes the longest to “decorate.”

While Genny worked on the chalkboard tree, I made a double batch of Butterscotch Gingerbread Cookies. I am storing the dough in the fridge until Wednesday, when I will bake them. I also made Double Chocolate Biscotti, which has mini chocolate chips and chipped white chocolate in the dough. I baked those, stored them in a gladware container and put them in the freezer. Before the open house, I will thaw them and dip one end in white chocolate.

The other project I finished today was to make ribbon tree toppers for the glass tree. I looped ribbon and tied it to the end of wooden skewers I had painted black. I enjoyed the fireplace and Christmas music on my computer while I worked.

I added some hot glue to hold the ribbons in place. On Wednesday, DH plans to climb the ladder to place these at the top of the glass tree.

Also on Wednesday, I plan to make more cookies for the freezer. Genny will be here on the weekend, as well as our older son and his family to help with more Christmas prep. It should be fun! Stay tuned and join us as we watch Christmas come together!

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in Christmas | Comments (5)

this week’s Christmas cookies

October 10, 2018 – 9:53 pm

Today I made three batches of cookies for the freezer in preparation for our annual open house in December. I made Holiday Oatmeal Icebox Cookies. I usually roll these into logs and roll them in green and red sugar. Today I just added coarse green and red sugar to the batter.

I used a cookie scoop to form the cookies.

Then I dipped them in the same red and green sugar.

They baked up beautifully.

I stored them between sheets of waxed paper in a Rubbermaid container.

I also made Macadamia Nut Shortbread cookies. Besides the nuts, they have chopped white chocolate in them. They didn’t bake as nicely as usual. Flatter. But still taste great. I stored them on top of the first batch of cookies in the same box.

The last batch of cookies were the Elfin Bites, which are also a shortbread cookie.

These are tiny cookies about an inch square. So good! I put them in three ziplock bags and stored them on top the other cookies in the same container. Those are now in the freezer, waiting for Christmas!

Next week, I plan to make Butterscotch Gingerbread Cookies, Sour Cream Sugar Cookies, and Peanut Butter Cup Cookies.

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in Christmas | Comments (0)

two Christmas trees started over the weekend

October 8, 2018 – 3:29 pm

Yes, we’re putting up Christmas trees already. That’s just the way we roll around here. We do a lot of decorating, so we need to start early if it’s to be a pleasant experience!

This past weekend, my sister came to help. We put up the “glass tree” which is an artificial tree decorated completely in glass ornaments. Mostly clear glass but there is some colored glass and some frosted glass, as well. I still need to add more ribbon to fill out the tree topper.

A grand piano with a piano bench is surrounded by some of the 250-plus prisms that decorate this tree. The prisms came off two chandeliers that were in our present home when we bought it more than twenty years ago.

We also use the glass chains from the chandeliers to decorate this tree as garlands.

One of my favorite ornaments is this bucking bronco, complete with cowboy.

The tree is a seven-foot tree. It stands on a two-foot high box that my husband made for use as a tree stand. The ceilings are twelve feet high, so it helps to fill the space if the tree sits on top of a box.

If you had asked me thirty years ago if I’d ever have a tree completely decorated in spun glass, fused glass and crystal, I might have said, “When pigs fly!” But the collection, which started with a glass hummingbird in 1984, has grown and grown. Now it is my favorite tree of all the ones we put up each year.

We also worked on another favorite tree, the chalkboard Christmas tree. As often happens, my original plan for the tree changes, and is edited and nipped and tucked until I think it’s just right. This year, the theme “I’ll be home for Christmas” stayed the same, but the pictures changed. I began with pictures of houses, but decided to go with pictures of the kinds of things that draw us home at Christmas.

I print pictures from online (many of them are coloring pages) and we arrange them on the floor, in a way that tells the story of our theme.

The next step is to tape them to the wall, step back and check the balance, then start the job of copying them to the chalkboard, using graphite paper.

We have a lot of work ahead of us. It will be amazing to watch how it comes together.

You can find links to our previous chalkboard Christmas trees here: Chalkboard Christmas Trees.

Stay tuned! I’ll bring you more updates to our progress as we move along.

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in Christmas | Comments (1)

checking in…

October 5, 2018 – 5:08 pm

Update from my house. I haven’t done any crafting this week at all. I’ve been sorting boxes. Yes, mostly dull work. But a few surprises.

During July I had help from my sisters, Genny and Margaret, to go through the attic, sorting boxes, pitching, donating, packing the kids’ stuff into taped-shut boxes for deportation to their own homes. We made great progress. There were about eight boxes that contained papers, magazines, pictures, memorabilia, etc. I decided they should be left in the craft room so I could go through them later and not take up the precious time I had my helpers while they were here to assist. Those boxes have sat in the craft room since July. I truly didn’t realize it had been that long until I checked today for pictures of our attic work. Which I couldn’t find…I know Genny sent me some, but I don’t know where they got to. I may have deleted them from my phone… Anyway, I have spent this week going through all those boxes. I have one left and will finish it today. I have to say, I pitched a lot of trash. ::SIGH::

But, on the other hand, I posted some great vintage photos to Facebook for my extended family to enjoy. Like this one of my grandmother and her highschool boyfriend. Grandma was born in 1904 so this is 1920-ish. My Dad told me someone dared the boy to walk the top of the bridge, but he wouldn’t do it. But Grandma did. WTG, Grandma!

This is a very busy time of year for me. We do a lot of Christmas prep in October and November, as we have our annual Christmas Open House on the first Sunday in December. I have at least thirty kinds of cookies and candies to make. Most can be done ahead and frozen. I’ve been doing some of that this week. I made three kinds of cookies for the freezer in preparation for the open house.

Toffee Bar Crunch Biscotti I plan to dip the bottoms of these into some good quality chocolate the day before our open house.

Daniel’s Cookie Bar Bites These 1″ squares will be dipped in chocolate the day before the party.

Nutmeg Logs These are done and only require thawing before the party in December.

I have finally reached the point (read “age!”) where paring down really does sound like a good idea. Last week, Genny, my BFF Marsha, and I sorted 34 boxes of Christmas decorations. Emptied fifteen. Have about ten that are pending until Christmas decorating is done. If the contents aren’t used to decorate this year, they will be donated, too. That leaves about 100 boxes of decorations still to sort, but a lot of that will be done as we decorate this year.

My sister will be here again this weekend to help with our Christmas prep schedule, so I won’t be crafting again until Monday. I have a custom order to finish which I can’t reveal until after Christmas, as it is a gift for the daughter of one of my friends. We don’t want to ruin the surprise!

Genny and I may begin the work on this year’s Chalkboard Christmas Tree. The theme is ready, the picture patterns are printed and edited, and I’m excited to get started! The theme is “I’ll be Home for Christmas.” I’ve printed fifteen little houses, but won’t need that many. As we design the layout of the tree, we’ll decide which ones will make the cut.

This will be chalked over the top of the tree.

I’m thinking of making the Christmas tree branches from one of these designs…holly branches or garlands. The holly branches would be easier…we shall see!

Of course, there will be

“snow
And mistletoe
And presents ‘neath the tree”

Also cats ‘neath the tree, as well, as we try to include a couple of our fur-buddies on the chalkboard tree. You will find links to the past six years of trees here: Chalkboard Christmas Trees.

Back to the last box…wish us well as we tackle some Christmas preparations this weekend!

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in Christmas | Comments (1)

two story putz house

September 28, 2018 – 8:46 pm

I drew the pattern for this Putz house in 2012. It remains one of my favorite patterns.

The tree is decorated with red, glass pearl beads, faux snow and white glitter.

The Christmas card I used to make the base features snowmen and peppermint letters.

I used red and white striped chenille stems to embellish the eaves of the house and I also placed them along the fence.

The back of the house includes a hole for the use of an LED light string for lighting the house.

The front yard includes a friendly snowman.

The door is open. Stop by any time!

You can see my Putz houses and other Christmas ornaments in my Etsy shop.

ChristmasNotebook.etsy.com

If you are interested in crafting some Putz houses and bottle brush trees of your own, check out my Putz tutorials for more information. Putz House Tutorials

I am always happy to answer questions about the process. Please ask, if you are wondering about the details of putzing!

All proceeds from my Etsy shop benefit Kenya Mercy Ministries. They work with the urban poor of Nairobi, Kenya, particularly the children and their families who live in Kibera, the largest slum in Africa. Thank you for your part in helping these children when you purchase items from my shop!

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in Putz / glitter houses | Comments (0)

back to a simple putz design

September 25, 2018 – 1:10 pm

I went for a very traditional feel with this mini Putz house.

I had made a base from a long Christmas card and wanted something traditional to go with the very traditional feel of the card.

I also wanted to make a mini Putz, so this card was perfect as there is little wiggle room for Putz placement on the finished base.

The hole in the back allows the use of a mini LED light string for lighting the Putz house.

An added puff of smoke makes it look even more like it is welcoming you home for the holidays.

The bottle brush trees are decorated with metallic green and red beads and strings of tiny gold beads. With the beads on, I dabbed the tree with faux snow and, while the snow was still wet, I dusted the trees with clear glitter. I used fine clear glitter on the building and coarser clear glitter on the faux snow.

All in all, I am pleased with the finished Putz house.

You can see my Putz houses and other Christmas ornaments in my Etsy shop.

ChristmasNotebook.etsy.com

If you are interested in crafting some Putz houses and bottle brush trees of your own, check out my Putz tutorials for more information. Putz House Tutorials

I am always happy to answer questions about the process. Please ask, if you are wondering about the details of putzing!

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in Putz / glitter houses | Comments (2)

is my putz house style evolving?

September 23, 2018 – 9:29 pm

Recently, I have made a few Putz houses that are more complicated than I usually make. Most often, I stick to a style of house that is approximately three inches wide and about an inch deep. More or less. But I’ve made a few houses based on the houses pictured on Christmas cards and some of those have more detail than my vintage-style Putz houses usually have. I finished another one of these more detailed little glitter houses today.

Three chimneys and a bay window! The house is also deeper than my usual Putz. This house is 4″ wide and 3 5/8″ deep. It’s 3 1/8″ tall. The entire Putz is 6 1/2″ wide, 4 3/4″ deep and 3 3/4″ tall, as measured from the bottom of the base to the top of the chimneys.

This is the card I ended up using for the house, as the finished house was too large to fit the card I initially intended to use. The house was already painted to match the colors of the original card, but this card worked well enough.

This is the Christmas card I used as inspiration for the Putz pattern I drew. But when I finished the house, it was too large for this card, so I used the birds. I have made another copy of the pattern, reducing it to 80% of the original pattern. I’ll make that one later this week and it should fit this base I made from the Christmas card I wanted to use originally.

I left off the porch and the roof dormer, though I made them and had them ready to add to the construction. I felt the Putz would be too busy if I included them. I was also looking forward to having it done! The snow is dusted with clear glitter, except for the trees. I added faux snow to them and sprinkled them with iridescent glitter.

I used three bottle brush trees in the front. For the very back, I cut some artificial Christmas tree branches to about 3″ long and then cut the needles so they tapered to the top. These “flat trees” were perfect for the very back of the Putz.

The bay window required some very skinny window frames, which I was concerned about cutting correctly, but they turned out OK. I always cut everything by hand and don’t use any die cuts in my Putz houses.

You can get a sense of how small the bay-window frames are in this picture I took during construction.

The large picture window looks like a garage door to me. I am going to change the pattern so the panes are vertical instead of horizontal the next time I make this house. The tiny deer in the front yard came from Smile Mercantile. The sidewalk is cut from a cheap nail file and painted to match the roof.

You can see this cute farmhouse, other Putz houses and Christmas ornaments in my Etsy shop.

ChristmasNotebook.etsy.com

If you are interested in crafting some Putz houses and bottle brush trees of your own, check out my Putz tutorials for more information. Putz House Tutorials

I am always happy to answer questions about the process. Please ask, if you are wondering about the details of putzing!

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in Putz / glitter houses | Comments (0)

a simple putz house for a long card

September 21, 2018 – 4:49 pm

This is another card that I have held onto for a while, waiting for the right inspiration to use it as a base for a Putz house. It has a simple design and needed a simple house.

This is what I came up with a few days ago. The blue is Apple Barrell Blue Cotton (21886E) and the yellow is Kilz Tribute (interior house paint) Golden Feather.

The hole on the back allows for the use of an LED light string to add the magic.

This Putz house is now listed in my Etsy shop. You can see more of my Putz houses and other Christmas ornaments in my shop.

ChristmasNotebook.etsy.com

If you are interested in crafting some Putz houses and bottle brush trees of your own, check out my Putz tutorials for more information. Putz House Tutorials

I am always happy to answer questions about the process. Please ask, if you are wondering about the details of putzing!

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in Putz / glitter houses | Comments (0)

light teal and lilac putz farmhouse

September 20, 2018 – 4:08 pm

I like to use upcycled Christmas cards to make the bases for my Putz houses. I often use a house or barn pictured on the card as inspiration for a Putz pattern. I had this card set aside for quite a while because I wanted to draw a pattern for the farmhouse. I finally took the card out this week and drew the pattern.

It has a complicated roof. I always make new patterns in paper before making them from poster board and had to do that several times before I got all the proportions right.

When the Putz is tilted up, the Christmas card is a nice surprise on the bottom of the base.

The snow is sprinkled with iridescent glitter.

The three bottle brush trees are decorated with blue, glass, pearl beads, faux snow and iridescent glitter.

The back has the traditional hole that allows for the use of a small LED light string for lighting the house.

It’s magical to light them.

This little Putz is now listed in my Etsy shop.

If you are interested in crafting some Putz houses and bottle brush trees of your own, check out my Putz tutorials for more information. Putz House Tutorials

I am always happy to answer questions about the process. Please ask, if you are wondering about the details of putzing!

You can see my Putz houses and other Christmas ornaments in my Etsy shop.

ChristmasNotebook.etsy.com

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in Putz / glitter houses | Comments (0)

Christmas Notebook

making progress with Christmas prep

Christmas prep over the weekend

this week’s Christmas cookies

two Christmas trees started over the weekend

checking in…

two story putz house

back to a simple putz design

is my putz house style evolving?

a simple putz house for a long card

light teal and lilac putz farmhouse

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